Oldcastle, Sir John (Chamberlain's)
Historical Records
Letters
8 March 1599/1600: Letter from Rowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney
Whyte provides details of a dinner given by the Lord Chamberlain (George Carey) during the visit by Louis Verreyken, a diplomat in the service of Archduke Albert:
"vpon Thursday my Lord Chamberlain feasted hym, and made hym very great, and a delicate Dinner, and there in the After Noone his Plaiers acted, before Vereiken, Sir John Old Castell, to his great Contentment"
Court Records
Dramatic Records of the Lord Chamberlain's Office, Players Warrant and Schedule, 17 March 1630
- At the [Co]ck-pitt ... The 6 of Ianuarie ... Olde Castle. JSTOR
Henry Herbert, Court Plays acted by the King's Men, 1638-9
- At the Cocpit the 29tg of may the princes berthnight ... ould Castel Internet Archive
Theatrical Provenance
The dinner party described by Rowland Whyte was given by George Carey, who succeeded to the title of Lord Hunsdon when his father, Henry Carey, died on 22 July 1596. He also acquired patronage of his father's company, known as the Chamberlain's Men, even though he did not himself become Lord Chamberlain until 17 March 1597 on the death of Lord Cobham. George Carey lived in Blackfriars in London, and presumably he entertained Louis Verreyken there on 8 March. If the play performed was indeed a play about Sir John Oldcastle (and not the Falstaff character, see below), it belonged to the repertory of the Chamberlain's Men in their first year at the Globe, 1599-1600.
Probable Genre(s)
History
Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues
John Foxe's Book of Martyrs describes the execution of Sir John Oldcastle in Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1419 (Internet Archive).
The Oxford DNB includes the life of Oldcastle.
In October 1599, the Admiral's Men purchased a part one of a play on the life of Sir John Oldcastle from Anthony Munday, Michael Drayton, Robert Wilson, and Richard Hathway; they paid additional moneys in earnest on the second part. In early November Munday and his collaborators were given 10s. on the performance of the play for the first time. The first part of the Admiral's play was printed in 1600, advertising itself as a first part on the title page. Sometime between 19 and 28 December, Michael Drayton was paid 80s. for the rest of the second half. The company laid out 30s. "to macke thinges" for the second part, which presumably was then staged. It is now lost.
In August 1602 Worcester's Men paid Thomas Dekker 40s. plus another 10s. in September for "new a dicyons" to "Oldcastle" (Greg, I.179, 181). In addition the company bought apparel for the production including "a sewt for owld castell" (Greg, I.179).
The relationship of these plays for the Admiral's Men and Worcester's Men to the play given by the Chamberlain's Men in March 1600 at the London residence of their patron is unclear, but the general biographical matter of the title character must have been shared.
References to the Play
Nathan Field's Amends for Ladies (Q1618) alludes to Oldcastle with the line, "The Play where the fat Knight, hight Old-castle/ Did tell you truly what his honour was?" (iv.3) (as quoted by Chambers, 1.382).
Critical Commentary
Chambers typifies the scholars of his time by reading the Rowland Whyte's naming of a play called "John Old Castell" as a reference to Shakespeare's Henry IV, part 1: "Henry IV must have been the Sir John Old Castell with which the Lord Chamberlain entertained an ambassador on 8 March 1600, since the players were his men and not the Admiral's" (1.382). Chambers also reads the 1638 performance at the Cockpit as a performance of Shakespeare's Henry IV, part 1 (i.382).
That opinion continues in Bentley (
In The Shakespearian Playing Companies, Gurr marks Oldcastle "(lost?)" in a list of the Chamberlain's Men's plays (303); in The Shakespeare Company, he appears to have changed his mind and links the Oldcastle performance at the Lord Chamberlain's house with Shakespeare's I Henry IV (283).
Knutson
Corbin and Sedge
For What It's Worth
<Enter any miscellaneous points that may be relevant, but don't fit into the above categories. This is the best place for highly conjectural thoughts.>
Works Cited
Chambers, E. K. William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1930.
Corbin and Sedge.
Foxe, John. Acts and Monuments (a.k.a., Foxe's Book of Martyrs). 1583 Internet Archive
Gurr, Andrew. The Shakespearian Playing Companies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
— — —. The Shakespeare Company, 1594-1642. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Knutson
Site created and maintained by Roslyn L. Knutson, Professor Emerita, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; updated 2 February 2010.