by Elsie Parker

Created on: May 28, 2008

"Totus mundus agit histrionem" or "The whole world is a playhouse" was the motto of the Globe Theatre built at Southwark in 1599. This was a reflection of Elizabethan society where everyone of importance was conscious of playing a part in a great drama and especially the one being played out at court.

Players and playwrights were assuming a new, professional role in society and needed suitable venues. They were no longer the amateurs or strolling players denigrated as vagabonds and carriers of plague who needed the patronage of a Lord for protection. The Queen herself was a lover of drama and had her own company in 1583, which gave added respectability to the role of actors.

The Globe was not the first theatre to be built in London. In 1576 James Burbage built both the Theatre and the Curtain and in 1587 Philip Henslowe had built the Rose Theatre on the South Bank outside the city jurisdiction where the Admiral's men played. These were purpose built theatres (Burbage had consulted Dr John Dee regarding architecture) and enabled the company, the Lord Chamberlain's men, to use larger and more sophisticated props like cannon, fireworks and flying apparatus now that they no longer needed to travel. These theatres were the blueprints for the Globe.

In 1597, James Burbage died and his two theatres were taken over by his sons, Cuthbert and Richard, who was considered to be the greatest of the Elizabethan actors. The lease ran out on the ground on which the Theatre was built about this time and the Burbages pulled it down, planning to build a new theatre, The Globe, on the South Bank to meet the requirements of their company.

Although today the Globe is seen as an icon of the Elizabethan theatre, it was built as a profit making business venture under shared ownership of the actors including William Shakespeare and the Burbages. They re-used the old timbers from the Theatre, smuggling them across the river to the new site and they leased out the Globe for added revenue. They were businessmen at the forefront of a new venture and in Elizabethan society money could mean advancement up the social scale with associated respectability. The financial security the Globe gave Shakespeare and the quality of the acting company attracted by the theatre enabled him to write some of his most popular plays: As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Othello. Shakespeare could call himself a gentleman by the end of his career thanks to the popularity of this speculative venture.

The Globe

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