Susan Shore Browne Greene Baskervile (died 1648), or Baskerville, was one of the most influential and significant women involved in
English Renaissance theatre, as theatre investor, litigant, and wife, widow, and mother of actors.
Her first husband was
Robert Browne (died 1603), actor and manager of the
Boar's Head Theatre. She was his second wife. Her five children by Browne included William Browne, who would act with
Queen Anne's Men
Queen Anne's Men was a playing company, or troupe of actors, in Jacobean era London. In their own era they were known colloquially as the Queen's Men — as were Queen Elizabeth's Men and Queen Henrietta's Men, in theirs.
Formation
The group w ...
and
Prince Charles's Men
Prince Charles's Men (known as the Duke of York's Men from 1608 to 1612) was a playing company or troupe of actors in Jacobean and Caroline England.
The Jacobean era troupe
The company was formed in 1608 as the Duke of York's Men, under the titu ...
in the years between 1616 and his death in 1634. Her second husband was the famous clown
Thomas Greene, who performed with Queen Anne's Men and who died young in August 1612. (They had a daughter, Honor.) Susan married her third husband, James Baskervile, in June 1613; he was a bigamist who abandoned her and fled to Ireland in 1617.
Thomas Greene's last will and testament, dated 25 July 1612, left his share in Queen Anne's Men, worth 80 pounds, to his wife. (More precisely, he willed her the value of his share; only actors could be sharers.) At the time of his death, the company owed Greene an additional £37 10 ''s.'', which also passed to Susan. In 1615, after negotiations, the Baskerviles agreed to invest another £57 10 ''s.'' in the company; in return they would be paid one shilling and eight pence every day the company played a play, for the remainder of their (the Baskerviles') lifetimes. The company quickly fell behind in its payments; in 1616 the troupe raised the Baskervile pension to 3 ''s.'' 8 ''d.'', in return for another investment of £38. The Queen's Men still could not meet their payments to Susan Baskervile, and also failed to pay her son William who was acting with them. Susan Baskervile sued
Ellis Worth
Ellis Worth (c. 1587 – 1659), or Woorth, was a noted English actor in the Jacobean and Caroline eras. He was a leading member of two important companies, Queen Anne's Men and Prince Charles's Men.
Biography
Nothing is known of Worth's or ...
and other members of the Queen's Men. Susan Baskervile won her suit in 1623 — which forced the acting company to break up.
The long and complex lawsuit, generally called the Baskervile or Worth/Baskervile suit, solicited depositions from most members of the company, generating a documentary record that is valuable for scholars of English Renaissance drama. "Her legal actions have provided much of our knowledge of Queen Anne's C