Burbage, Richard
NAME: Burbage, Richard.
ACHIEVEMENTS: Worked with Shakespeare
NICKNAME/ALIAS:
DATE/PLACE OF BIRTH: c1567, in London, England.
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: 9th/13th March 1619, in London, England. Aged 52.
DISCIPLINE: Actor.
FIELD: Theatre.
LANGUAGE: English.
PARENTS: James Burbage and Helen (?Ellen) Brayne (?Brain).
SIBLINGS: Cuthbert and Alice.
SPOUSE: Winifred.
CHILDREN: William, Anne and Julia.
EDUCATION: Unknown
MAJOR WORK: None.
LIFE AND TIMES: Because his father was an actor-manager in Shoreditch, London, Burbage was immersed in theatre from an early age. In his teens, he was a member of the Earl of Leicester's Players, one of the leading theatre companies. This name changed later to the Lord Chamberlain's Company before being changed again to The King’s Men when James became king in 1603.
During the 1590s, Burbage was one of the most popular actors on the London stage, at one time being summoned, along with William Kempe and Shakespeare*, to perform for Queen Elizabeth* at her palace in Greenwich.
When their father died in 1597, Burbage, along with his brother and sister, inherited the Blackfriars Theatre, which they first leased to a boy's company, the Children of the Royal Chapel, later using it as the theatre for the Lord Chamberlain's Company.
The original Shoreditch theatre was demolished in 1599, after Burbage had a dispute with the man who owned the ground it stood on. He reused the materials to built the open-air Globe Theatre in Southwark, beside the River Thames in London. The Globe was used in the summer and the Blackfriars during the winter but, pretty soon, Burbage found himself in financial trouble so he sold stock to his friend, William Shakespeare.
Around 1601, Burbage married and reached the height of his fame, with dramatists fighting for him to play their lead roles. After the death of Elizabeth, King James and Queen Anne increased the monarchy’s patronage of the arts and the Earl of Southampton*, Queen Anne's Master of Ceremonies, appointed Shakespeare and Burbage to act "Love's Labours Lost" for the Queen, at his home.
Burbage played many roles, including the parts of Hamlet, Romeo, Lear, Macbeth, Othello and Richard III (which was always a sell-out). He also acted for Webster* and played the leads in Thomas Kyd's “Jeronimo” and Jonson's* "Every Man in His Humour", "Every Man out of His Humour", Sejanus", "Fox", "Alchemist" and "Catiline".
He took the lead roles in the most popular plays produced between 1611 and 1618 by the dramatists Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. In 1616, he played the part of Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria in Webster's gruesome Jacobean drama, "The Duchess of Malfi". In the same year, Shakespeare died, leaving him a token in his will.
Burbage died in London, in either March 1618 or 1619.
ASSESSMENT: One of the greatest actors of his time and the first actor to play the lead in many of Shakespeare's plays.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None.
ONELINER: Richard Burbage, who acted for Shakespeare
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
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