Unknown artist: Portrait of Richard Burbage, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

Richard Burbage (January 7, 1568 – March 13, 1619) was an actor and theatre owner. Events 1325 - Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal. 1558 - France takes Calais, the last continental Events 1138 - Cardinal Gregorio Conti is elected Antipope as Victor IV, succeeding Anacletus II. An actor, actress, player or thespian (see terminology) is a person who Acts in a Dramatic production and who works He was the younger brother of Cuthbert Burbage. Cuthbert Burbage (1566 &ndash 1636 was an English theatrical figure son of Impresario James Burbage and elder brother of famous actor Richard Burbage

Burbage came from a poor family and was a popular actor by his early 20s. His early acting career is poorly documented. It has been suggested that it included a stint in the Earl of Leicester's company, but there is no good evidence for this. Robert Dudley 1st Earl of Leicester ( 24 June 1532 /1533 &ndash 4 September 1588) was the long standing Favourite of Elizabeth He probably was acting with the Admiral's Men in 1590, with Lord Strange's Men in 1592, and with the Earl of Pembroke's Men in 1593; but most famously he was the star of William Shakespeare's theatre company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men which mutated into the King's Men on the ascension of James I in 1603. The Admiral's Men (also called the Admiral's company, more strictly the Earl of Nottingham's Men; after 1603, Prince Henry's Men; after William Shakespeare ( baptised The Lord Chamberlain's Men was the Playing company that William Shakespeare worked for as Actor and Playwright for most of his career The King's Men was the company of actors to which William Shakespeare (1564&ndash1616 belonged through most of his career James VI and I (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625 was King of Scotland as James VI, and King of England and King of Ireland as James He played the title role in the first performances of many of Shakespeare's plays, including Hamlet, Othello, Richard III and King Lear. Hamlet is a Tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601 Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591 King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606 and is considered one of his greatest works But he was in great demand and also appeared in the plays of many of the great contemporary writers, such as Ben Jonson (the title role in Volpone, and Subtle in The Alchemist), John Marston (The Malcontent), John Webster (The Duchess of Malfi) and Beaumont & Fletcher (The Maid's Tragedy). Benjamin Jonson ( c 11 June 1572 &ndash 6 August 1637) was an English Renaissance Dramatist

Burbage's power and scope as an actor is revealed in the sheer size of the roles he played. Of the hundreds of plays and thousands of roles for actors that date from the 1580–1610 era, there are only twenty or so roles that are longer than 800 lines. Edward Alleyn was the first English actor to manage such roles, in Marlowe's Tamburlaine and The Jew of Malta; but the majority of these star roles, thirteen of the twenty, were acted by Burbage. Edward Alleyn (ˈælɪn ( 1 September 1566 &ndash 25 November 1626) was an English Actor who was a major figure of the Tamburlaine the Great is the name of a play in two parts by Christopher Marlowe. The Jew of Malta is a play by Christopher Marlowe, probably written in 1589 or 1590. ^[1]

Life

After the death of his father James Burbage in February 1597, Richard and his brother Cuthbert stepped in to rescue the family's interests in two London theatres, and ended up tied up in lawsuits. James Burbage or Burbadge (1531 &ndash 1597 was an English actor theatre Impresario, and theatre builder in the English Renaissance theatre The Blackfriars Theatre they kept, the other, called simply The Theatre, was dismantled when they could not resolve terms for a new lease with Giles Allen, the landowner. Blackfriars Theatre was the name of a Theatre in the Blackfriars district of the City of London during the Renaissance. The Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Shoreditch (in Curtain Road part of the modern London Borough of Hackney) just outside the The beams, posts, and other remnants of The Theatre were moved to a new location on the south side of the Thames River and reassembled into a new playhouse called the Globe. The Globe Theatre was a Theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. The brothers maintained a close working and personal relationship throughout their lives; they were neighbors on Halliwell Street in Shoreditch, near the Globe. Shoreditch is an area of London within the London Borough of Hackney. Burbage fathered at least eight children; after his death his widow Winifred married another King's Man, Richard Robinson. ^[2] [See also: Nicholas Tooley. Nicholas Tooley (c 1583 &ndash June 1623 was a Renaissance actor in the King's Men, the acting company of William Shakespeare. ]

Some believe that the famous Chandos portrait actually depicts Burbage rather than Shakespeare, but he might also be its creator: he had a strong interest in painting. The "Chandos" portrait is one of the most famous of the portraits that may depict William Shakespeare ( 1564 &ndash 1616) Dulwich College holds a painting of a female head in a roughly similar style that was generally regarded as his work until it was found out in 1987 that it was probably misattributed to him and that it is a work by a North Italian painter. Dulwich College is an independent selective fee-paying public school for boys in Dulwich, a suburb of south-east London United Kingdom

Unlike Alleyn or his fellow King's Man Shakespeare, Burbage never retired from the stage; he continued acting until his death in 1619. He was not as acute a businessman as either Alleyn or Shakespeare; at his death he was said to have left his widow "better than £300" in land—a respectable estate but far less than Alleyn's substantial wealth, and less than the net worth of Shakespeare at his death in 1616. ^[3]

Burbage was buried in St Leonard's, Shoreditch, a church close to the Theatre. St Leonard's Shoreditch is the ancient Parish church of Shoreditch, often known simply as Shoreditch Church. His gravestone is now lost, but a memorial to him and his brothers was erected in a later century. An anonymous poet composed for him A Funerall Elegye on the Death of the famous Actor Richard Burbedg who died on Saturday in Lent the 13 of March 1619, an excerpt of which reads:

He's gone and with him what a world are dead.

Which he review'd, to be revived so,

No more young Hamlet, old Hieronimo^[4]

Kind Lear, the Grieved Moor, and more beside,

That lived in him; have now for ever died.

Of the many epitaphs that followed his passing, perhaps the most poignant is the briefest: "Exit Burbage. "

References

1. ^ Scott McMillin, The Elizabethan Stage and "The Book of Sir Thomas More," Ithaca, N. Y. , Cornell University Press, 1987; pp. 61-3.
2. ^ F. E. Halliday, A Shakespeare Companion 1564-1964, Baltimore, Penguin, 1964; p. 77.
3. ^ Andrew Gurr, The Shakespearan Stage 1574–1642, third edition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992; p. Andrew John Gurr (born December 23, 1936) is a contemporary literary scholar who specializes in William Shakespeare and English Renaissance theatre 91.
4. ^ "Hieronimo" or "Hieronymo" is the main character from Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy. Thomas Kyd ( 3 November 1558 – 16 July 1594) was an English Dramatist, the author of The Spanish Tragedy The Spanish Tragedie or Hieronimo is mad againe is an Elizabethan Tragedy written by Thomas Kyd between 1582 &ndash 92

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