Robert Benfield (died July 1649) was a seventeenth-century actor, noted for his longtime membership in the
King's Men in the years and decades after
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
's retirement and death.
Nothing is known of Benfield's early life. He was most likely with the
Lady Elizabeth's Men
The Lady Elizabeth's Men, or Princess Elizabeth's Men, was a company of actors in Jacobean London, formed under the patronage of King James I's daughter Princess Elizabeth. From 1618 on, the company was called The Queen of Bohemia's Men, afte ...
in
1613, and acted in their productions of
Fletcher's ''
The Coxcomb'' and the Fletcher/
Massinger play ''
The Honest Man's Fortune'' in that year. Benfield soon joined the King's Men, possibly to replace
William Ostler
William Ostler (died 16 December 1614) was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a member of the King's Men, the company of William Shakespeare.
Ostler started out as a boy player in the Children of the Chapel troupe; he was cast in the ...
, who died unexpectedly in December 1614. He acted in the company's production of
John Webster
John Webster (c. 1580 – c. 1632) was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies ''The White Devil'' and '' The Duchess of Malfi'', which are often seen as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. His life and ca ...
's ''
The Duchess of Malfi
''The Duchess of Malfi'' (originally published as ''The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy'') is a Jacobean revenge tragedy written by English dramatist John Webster in 1612–1613. It was first performed privately at the Blackfriars Theatr ...
'' c. 1621.
He was a shareholder in the company by 1619, when he is listed in the renewed patent for the King's Men issued in that year. Benfield also eventually became a sharer in both the
Globe
A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model glo ...
and
Blackfriars theatres, but only after a conflict: in 1635 he was one of three King's Men (the others were
Thomas Pollard and
Eliard Swanston) who petitioned the
Lord Chamberlain
The Lord Chamberlain of the Household is the most senior officer of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom, supervising the departments which support and provide advice to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom while also acting as the main c ...
,
Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke
Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and 1st Earl of Montgomery, (10 October 158423 January 1650) was an English courtier, nobleman, and politician active during the reigns of James I and Charles I. Philip and his older brother William w ...
, for the right to buy shares from fellow King's Man
John Shank and from
Cuthbert Burbage
Cuthbert Burbage (c. 15 June 1565 – 15 September 1636) was an English theatrical figure, son of James Burbage, builder of the Theatre in Shoreditch and elder brother of the actor Richard Burbage. From 1589 he was the owner of the ground lease ...
.
Benfield was one of the ten King's Men who signed the dedication of the
first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of
1647. In the 25 cast lists added to the second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of
1679, Benfield is mentioned 18 times:
* ''
The Coxcomb''
* ''
The Custom of the Country''
* ''
The Double Marriage
''The Double Marriage'' is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger, and initially printed in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.
Date and performance
Though firm evidence on the play's da ...
''
* ''
The False One
''The False One'' is a late Jacobean stage play by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger, though formerly placed in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon. It was first published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.
This classical histor ...
''
* ''
The Honest Man's Fortune''
* ''
The Humorous Lieutenant''
* ''
The Island Princess''
* ''
The Knight of Malta
''The Knight of Malta'' is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators. It was initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.
Date and source
No firm information is avai ...
''
* ''
The Little French Lawyer''
* ''
The Lovers' Progress
''The Lovers' Progress,'' also known as ''The Wandering Lovers,'' or ''Cleander,'' or ''Lisander and Calista,'' is an early seventeenth-century stage play, a tragicomedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. As its multiple titles ind ...
''
* ''
The Mad Lover
''The Mad Lover'' is a Jacobean stage play, a tragicomedy by John Fletcher. It was initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. Fletcher's sole authorship was specified during the 17th century by his friend Sir Aston ...
''
* ''
The Maid in the Mill
''The Maid in the Mill'' is a late Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Fletcher and William Rowley. It was initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.
Performance
The play was licensed for performan ...
''
* ''
The Pilgrim
A pilgrim is one who undertakes a religious journey or pilgrimage.
Pilgrim(s) or The Pilgrim(s) may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Film, television, radio and the stage
* The Pilgrim (1923 film), ''The Pilgrim'' (1923 film), a si ...
''
* ''
The Prophetess''
* ''
The Spanish Curate
''The Spanish Curate'' is a late Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. It premiered on the stage in 1622, and was first published in 1647.
Date and source
The play was licensed for production by Sir ...
''
* ''
The Wild Goose Chase''
* ''
A Wife for a Month''
* ''
Women Pleased''
Benfield's total equals those of
Joseph Taylor and
John Underwood, and is second only to
John Lowin
John Lowin (baptized 9 December 1576 – buried – 24 August 1653) was an English actor.
Early life
Born in St Giles-without-Cripplegate, London, Lowin was the son of a tanner. Like Robert Armin, he was apprenticed to a goldsmith. Whil ...
's 21.
Benfield played Junius Rusticus in ''
The Roman Actor'', Doctor Makewell in ''
The Soddered Citizen'', Ladislaus the King of Hungary in ''
The Picture'', Marcellus in ''
Believe as You List'', the King in ''
The Deserving Favourite
''The Deserving Favourite'' is a Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Lodowick Carlell that was first published in 1629. The earliest of Carlell's plays "and also the best," it is notable for its influence on other plays of the Car ...
'', and Antharis in ''
The Swisser''.
The parish records of St. Giles without
Cripplegate
Cripplegate was a gate in the London Wall which once enclosed the City of London.
The gate gave its name to the Cripplegate ward of the City which straddles the line of the former wall and gate, a line which continues to divide the ward into ...
in London, close to the
Fortune Playhouse
Fortune may refer to:
General
* Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck
* Luck
* Wealth
* Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling
* Fortune, in a fortune cookie
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''The Fortune'' (1931 film ...
and the home of many actors in Benfield's era, record a few facts of Benfield's personal life. A son, James, was christened on 1 January 1628 (all dates
new style
Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, this is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 158 ...
). Benfield buried his wife Mary on 21 January 1629 and his son Bartholomew and daughter Elizabeth on 21 July and 1 August 1631 respectively. His own funeral occurred on 28 July 1649.
The twentieth-century scholar T. W. Baldwin developed a hypothesis that the King's Men assigned specific actors to specific stock roles: Taylor played "hero" parts, Lowin played "tyrant" parts, etc. In Baldwin's schema (which has been treated skeptically by many other commentators), Benfield's specialty lay in "dignitary" roles.
[T. W. Baldwin, ''Organisation and Personnel of the Shakespearean Company'', Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1927.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benfield, Robert
17th-century English male actors
1649 deaths
King's Men (playing company)
Year of birth unknown
English male stage actors