{{short description|16th/17th-century English theatrical entrepreneur and impresario}} {{Redirect|Henslowe|the composer|Francis Hartwell Henslowe}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}} {{more citations needed|date=December 2010}}
'''Philip Henslowe'''<ref>In his lifetime, "Henslowe was spelled 'Henslowe' or 'Hinshley' (and variations thereof) with no apparent rhyme or reason. In a single document (the 1587 deed of partnership with John Cholmley) the name is spelled 'Hinshley,' 'Henslow,' and 'Hinshleye'; Henslowe himself sometimes signed his name 'Henslow,' sometimes 'Hensley'..." David Kathman. [http://shakespeareauthorship.com/name1.html#3 "The Spelling and Pronunciation of Shakespeare's Name: Pronunciation."]</ref> ({{Circa|1550}} – 6 January 1616) was an [[Elizabethan era|Elizabethan]] theatrical entrepreneur and [[impresario]]. Henslowe's modern reputation rests on the survival of his diary, a primary source for information about the theatrical world of Renaissance London.
== Life == Henslowe was born in [[Lindfield, West Sussex|Lindfield]], [[Sussex]], into a family with roots in [[Devon]]. His father, Edmund Henslowe, was appointed Master of the Game for [[Ashdown Forest]], Sussex, from 1539 until his death in 1562. Before Edmund Henslowe's death, his daughter Margaret had married [[Ralf Hogge]], an ironmaster.
By the 1570s, Henslowe had moved to London, becoming a member of the [[Worshipful Company of Dyers|Dyers' Company]]. Henslowe is recorded working as assistant to Henry Woodward, reputed to be the [[bailiff]] for [[Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu]], owner of [[Cowdray House]] and [[Battle Abbey]] in Sussex. Henslowe married Woodward's widow, Agnes, and from 1577 lived in [[Southwark]], opposite [[the Clink]] prison. His elder brother Edmund, a merchant, also owned property in Southwark. It was at one time assumed that his wife's inheritance gave Henslowe his start in business, but there is no evidence.
His success in business appears to have brought him some social prominence. By the early-17th century, he was a [[vestryman]], [[churchwarden]] and [[overseer of the poor]] in St Saviour's ward in [[Southwark]]. During the reign of [[Elizabeth I]], he was a [[Groom of the Chamber]]. Under [[James VI and I|James I]], he served as a Gentleman Sewer of the Chamber. Henslowe also served as a collector of the [[History of the English fiscal system|Lay Subsidy]].
Henslowe died in 1616 in London, still actively involved in the theatre.
== Business interests == Henslowe developed extensive business interests, including dyeing, starch-making, [[pawnbroker|pawn-broking]], money lending and trading in goat skins. He owned property in [[East Grinstead]] and [[Buxted]], Sussex, where his brother-in-law, [[Ralf Hogge]], lived. Between 1576 and 1586, Henslowe was involved in the trade in timber from Ashdown Forest. However, his main activity was as a [[landlord]] in Southwark. One of his authors, [[Henry Chettle]], described him as being unscrupulously harsh with his poor tenants, even though Henslowe made many loans to Chettle and they seem to have been on friendly terms.
=== Theatrical interests === In 1584, Henslowe purchased a property known as The Little Rose, in Southwark, which contained rose gardens and, almost certainly, a [[brothel]]. In 1587, Henslowe and John Cholmley built [[The Rose (theatre)|The Rose]], the third of the large, permanent playhouses in London, and the first in [[Bankside]]. From 1591, Henslowe partnered with the [[Admiral's Men]] after that company split with [[The Theatre]]'s [[James Burbage]] over the division of receipts. [[Edward Alleyn]], the Admiral's' lead actor, married Henslowe's stepdaughter Joan in 1592, and they worked in partnership.
In 1598 Burbage's company (by then, the [[Lord Chamberlain's Men]]) erected the new [[Globe Theatre]] in Bankside; Henslowe moved the Admiral's Men to the north-western corner of the city, into a venue he had financed, the [[Fortune Playhouse|Fortune Theatre]]. [[John Taylor (poet)|John Taylor]], the "Water Poet", petitioned the King on behalf of the [[Company of Watermen and Lightermen|Watermen's Company]], because of the expected loss of business transporting theatre patrons across the Thames.
He also had interests in the [[Newington Butts Theatre]] and [[The Swan (theatre)|The Swan Theatre]] in Southwark.
=== Animal shows === Henslowe and Alleyn also operated the [[Beargarden|Paris Garden]], a venue for [[Baiting (blood sport)|baitings]]; early in James's reign, they purchased the office of Keeper of the Royal Game, namely bulls, bears and mastiffs.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cerasano |first1=S. P. |title=A Draft of the Royal Patent for the Mastership of the Game of Bears, Bulls, and Mastiff Dogs (November 24, 1604) |url=https://henslowe-alleyn.org.uk/essays/a-draft-of-the-royal-patent-for-the-mastership-of-the-game-of-bears-bulls-and-mastiff-dogs-november-24-1604/ |website=Henslowe-Alleyn Digitisation Project |publisher=Dulwich College / King’s Digital Lab |access-date=25 October 2025}}</ref> In 1614, he and Jacob Meade built the [[Hope Theatre]] in Bankside; designed with a moveable stage for both plays and animal baiting, it was the last of the large open-roof theatres built before 1642. The animal shows ended up ascendant at this venue. The introduction to [[Ben Jonson]]'s ''[[Bartholomew Fair (play)|Bartholomew Fair]]'', performed at the Hope in [[1614 in literature|1614]], complains that the theatre is "as dirty as [[Smithfield, London|Smithfield]], and as stinking every whit." The theatre did not have a regular theatrical tenant after 1617; Henslowe's share in it was willed to Alleyn.
== Henslowe's diary == Henslowe's "diary" is a valuable source of information on the [[English Renaissance theatre|theatrical]] history of the period. It is a collection of memoranda and notes that record payments to writers, [[box office]] takings, and lists of money lent. Also of interest are records of the purchase of expensive costumes and of [[Theatrical properties|stage properties]], such as the dragon in [[Christopher Marlowe]]'s ''[[Doctor Faustus (play)|Doctor Faustus]]'', which provide insight into the staging of plays in [[Elizabethan theatre]].
The diary is written on the reverse of pages of a book of accounts of his brother-in-law Ralf Hogge's ironworks, kept by his brother John Henslowe for the period 1576–1581. Hogge was the Queen's Gunstonemaker, and produced both iron [[cannon]] and shot for the [[Royal Armouries]] at the [[Tower of London]]. John Henslowe seems to have acted as his agent, and Philip prudently reused his old account book. These entries are a valuable source for the early [[History of ferrous metallurgy|iron-making]] industry.
The diary begins covering Henslowe's theatrical activities for 1592. Entries continue, with varying degrees of thoroughness (authors' names were not included before 1597), until 1609; in the years before his death, Henslowe appears to have run his theatrical interests from a greater distance. At some time after his death, his papers, including the diary, were transferred to [[Dulwich College]], which Alleyn had founded.
Henslowe recorded payments to twenty-seven Elizabethan [[playwright]]s. He variously commissioned, bought and produced plays by, or made loans to [[Ben Jonson]], [[Thomas Middleton]], [[Henry Chettle]], [[George Chapman]], [[Thomas Dekker (poet)|Thomas Dekker]], [[John Webster]], [[Anthony Munday]], [[Henry Porter (playwright)|Henry Porter]], [[John Day (dramatist)|John Day]], [[John Marston (poet)|John Marston]] and [[Michael Drayton]]. The diary shows the varying partnerships between writers, in an age when many plays were collaborations. It also shows Henslowe to have been a careful man of business, obtaining security in the form of rights to his authors' works, and holding their manuscripts, while tying them to him with loans and advances. If a play was successful, Henslowe would commission a sequel.
Performances of works with titles similar to Shakespearean plays, such as a ''[[Hamlet]]'', a ''[[Henry VI, Part 1]]'', a ''[[Henry V (play)|Henry V]]'', a ''[[The Taming of the Shrew|Taming of the Shrew]]'' and a ''[[Titus Andronicus]]'' are mentioned in the diary with no author listed. Most of these plays were recorded when the [[Admiral's Men]] and the [[Lord Chamberlain's Men]] briefly joined forces when the playhouses were closed owing to the plague (June 1594).
In 1599, Henslowe paid Dekker and [[Henry Chettle]] for a play called ''Troilus and Cressida'', which is probably the play currently known from [[British Library]] Add MS 10449 (the actors' names that appear in the plot connect it to the Admiral's Men and date it between March 1598 and July 1600).<ref>{{cite web |title=The British Library: Additional MSS, numbers 10000 through 14999 |url=https://celm-ms.org.uk/repositories/british-library-additional-10000.html#british-library-additional-10000_id651430 |website=The Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts 1450–1700 |access-date=17 August 2020}}</ref> There is no mention of [[William Shakespeare]] (or Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, Thomas Kyd or any University Wits writer, or figures like [[Richard Burbage]] for that matter) in Henslowe's diary (which prompted the forgeries of [[John Payne Collier]]); their absence is due to the fact that Shakespeare and Burbage were only connected to Henslowe's companies in the early 1590s before Henslowe records any authors. Shakespeare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, performed at [[The Theatre]] (starting in 1594) and later [[The Globe Theatre]] (starting in 1599).
=== Costumes and props === In 1598 Henslowe made an inventory of his company's [[Prop|stage props]]; 'along with numerous weapons and crowns, there was a boar's head, a wooden leg, a golden fleece and the cauldron in which Marlowe's Jew of Malta is boiled to death.'<ref>{{Cite web|date=2018-01-08|title=You want a flamingo? No problem! A rare glimpse inside the RSC's mind-boggling props HQ|url=http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/jan/08/you-want-a-flamingo-no-problem-a-rare-glimpse-inside-the-rscs-mind-boggling-props-hq|access-date=2021-07-01|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref>
== History == The papers first came to critical attention in 1780, when [[Edmond Malone]] requested them from the Dulwich College library; the papers had been misplaced and were not found until 1790. Malone made a transcript of the parts he viewed as relevant to his [[variorum]] edition of Shakespeare. The original was returned to Dulwich after Malone's death. (Malone's transcript was returned to the library around 1900.) The next scholar to examine the manuscripts was [[John Payne Collier]].
== In popular culture == Henslowe was portrayed by actor [[Geoffrey Rush]] in the Academy Award-winning film ''[[Shakespeare in Love]]''.
== Notes == {{Reflist}}
== References == {{Refbegin}} * Bowsher. Julian M. C. and Pat Miller, ''The Rose and the Globe Playhouses of Shakespeare's Bankside, 1989-1991'' (London: Museum of London Archaeology, 2009) * Bromberg, Murray. "Shylock and Philip Henslowe." ''Notes and Queries'' 194 (1949), 422–3. * Cesarano, S. P. "Philip Henslowe." ''Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. * Cerasano, S. P. "Philip Henslowe, Simon Forman, and the Theatrical Community of the 1590s." Shakespeare Quarterly 44 (1993), 145–58. * [[Edmund Kerchever Chambers|Chambers, E. K.]] ''The Elizabethan Stage''. Four volumes. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923. * [[Reginald A. Foakes|Foakes, R. A.]], editor. ''Henslowe's Diary''. 2nd edition; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. * Gurr, Andrew. ''The Shakespearean Stage. 1574-1642''. 2nd edition; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. * [[Roy, Pinaki]]. "''Dear Diary'': Teaching Shakespeare through Henslowe's Entries". ''Theatre International: East-West Perspectives on Theatre'' (I.S.S.N. 2278–2036), 5, 2012: 166–75. * Teesdale, Edmund, ''The Queen's Gunstonemaker, being an account of Ralph Hogge, Elizabethan Ironmaster & Gunfounder'', Lindel Publishing, Seaford, 1984. {{Refend}}
== External links == * [http://www.rosetheatre.org.uk/ Rose Theatre] * [https://books.google.com/books?id=gne_jHo3StIC&dq=inauthor%3A%22Philip%20Henslowe%22&pg=PR7 Henslowe diary at Google Books]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Henslowe, Philip}} [[Category:1550s births]] [[Category:1616 deaths]] [[Category:16th-century English male writers]] [[Category:17th-century English male writers]] [[Category:16th-century English businesspeople]] [[Category:17th-century English businesspeople]] [[Category:16th-century English diarists]] [[Category:17th-century English diarists]] [[Category:British impresarios]] [[Category:People from Lindfield, West Sussex]] [[Category:Burials at Southwark Cathedral]] [[Category:Writers from Sussex]]