Category:Augustine Phillips

Augustine Phillips was a player associated with Strange's men in 1593. He is named in the company's license to travel dated 6 May 1593. Subsequently he joined the Chamberlain's men, continuing with the company when it became the King's men. He acquired a share in the Globe playhouse in 1599. When the company was called to account for having put on Richard II at the Globe in February 1601 in conjunction with the Essex uprising, Phillips was the company representative who testified that the performance had not been the company's idea (Nungezer, 281). He remained with the company when it acquired the patronage of King James I.

Phillips had several residences in the parish of St. Saviour's Southwark: Bullhead Alley (1593), Horse-shoe Court (1593, 1595, 1604), Montague Close (1601), and Bradshaw's Rents (1602). He also lived for a time in St. Bodolph Aldgate (Hammond's Rents), where a daughter of his was buried in 1597; by the time he died in 1605, he had moved to Mortlake, Surrey (Nungezer, p. 281).

Will
Phillipps' will is one of the documentary treasures of early modern theater history. Dated 4 May 1605, it provides numerous details about his family ties and theatrical fellows. In so doing, it conveys the wealth that a successful player might accumulate. Regarding family, the will names his wife, Anne; three daughters ("Maudlyne," Rebecca, and Anne); his mother ("Agnys" Bennett), his brothers (William and James webb); sisters Elizabeth Gough (wife of the player, Robert Gough, who was also in the cast of "The Seven Deadly Sins") and Margery Borne (wife of the player, William Bird(?), and her sons, Myles and Phillipps). Regarding his fellow players, Phillips leaves £5 "to be (equally) distributed amongeste them" (Honigmann and Brock, p. 73). Also, to Shakespeare he gives "a Thirty shillinges peece in gould," to Henry Condell, 30s in gold; to his apprentice, Christopher Beeston, 30s. in gold; and to the following, 20s. in gold: Lawrence Fletcher, Richard Cowley, Alexander Cook, Robert Armin, Alexander Cook, and Nicholas Tooley. To his recent apprentice, Samuel Gilborne, he gives 40s. and his "mouse Colloured veluit hose and a white Taffety dublet A blacke Taffety sute [his] purple Cloke sword and dagger And [his] base viall." To his current apprentice James Sands, he gives 40s. and "a Citterne a Bandore and a Lute" on the completion of his indenture (Honigmann and Brock, p. 73). He appoints John Heminges, Richard Burbage, William Sly, and Timothy Whithorne to be his executors. Finally he sets aside £15 for gifts to his executors of a silver bowl "for theire paines" in fulfilling his wishes (Honigmann and Brock, p. 74).

For a view of Phillips's life from the perspective of documents, see Ingram, "A Representative Life: Augustine Phillips," in Wickham, below, pp. 191-203.

Roles
Sardanapalus" ("Sloth"), "The Second Part of the Seven Deadly Sins"
Actor list, Every Man in his Humor
Actor list, Every Man out of his Humor

Works Cited