Robert Armin
Encyclopedia
Robert Armin was an English
actor
, a member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men
. He became the leading comedy
actor with the troupe associated with William Shakespeare
following the departure of Will Kempe
around 1600. Also a popular comic author, he wrote a comedy, The History of the Two Maids of More-clacke, as well as Foole upon Foole, A Nest of Ninnies (1608) and The Italian Taylor and his Boy.
Armin changed the part of the clown or fool from the rustic servingman turned comedian
to that of a high-comedy domestic wit.
Armin was one of three children born to John Armyn II of King's Lynn
, a successful tailor
and friend to John Lonyson, a goldsmith
of the same place. His brother, John Armyn III, was a merchant tailor in London
. Armin did not take up his father’s craft; instead, his father apprenticed him to Lonyson in the Goldsmiths' Company
in 1581. Lonyson was the Master of Works at the Royal Mint
in the Tower of London
, a position of great responsibility. The arrangement moved Armin to a life and a social circle quite different from what he might have expected as a Norfolk tailor. Lonyson died in 1582, and the apprenticeship was transferred to another master. According to a tale preserved in Tarlton's Jests, Armin came to the attention of the Queen's famous jester Richard Tarlton
. In the course of his duties, the story contends, Armin was sent to collect money from a lodger at Tarlton's inn. Frustrated by the man's refusal to pay, Armin wrote verses in chalk on the wall; Tarlton noticed and, approving their wit, wrote an answer in which he expressed a desire to take Armin as his apprentice. Though not corroborated, this anecdote is far from the least plausible in Tarlton's Jests. Influenced by Tarlton or not, Armin already had a literary reputation before he finished his apprenticeship in 1592. In 1590, his name is affixed to the preface of a religious tract, A Brief Resolution of the Right Religion. Two years later, both Thomas Nashe
(in Strange News) and Gabriel Harvey
(in Pierce's Supererogation) mention him as a writer of ballad
s; none of his work in this vein, however, is known to have survived.
. With this company, about which little is known, he is presumed to have traveled from the western Midlands
to East Anglia
. The nature of his work for the company may be estimated from his parts in The History of the Two Maids of More-clacke. The preface to the 1609
quarto
indicates that he played Blue John, a clown in the vein of Tarlton and Kempe; he also seems to have doubled in the role of Tutch, a witty fool of the type he later played in London. The late quarto is associated with a revival by the Children of the King's Revels, a short-lived troupe of boy player
s led by Nathan Field, but it was almost certainly written around 1597.
Little else is known precisely of Armin's time with Chandos's Men. A dedication to his patron's widow in 1604 suggests some personal acquaintance with the Brydges family; on the other hand, a reference in another work suggests he may have spent some time, like Kempe, as a solo performer. The pair of books Armin published around the turn of the century demonstrate a performer with an interest in his craft. Fool Upon Fool (1600, 1605; reissued in 1608 as A Nest of Ninnies), offers the wit of assorted natural fools, some of whom Armin knew personally. The same year he published Quips upon Questions, a collection of seemingly extemporaneous dialogues with his marotte
, named by him Signor Truncheon. In this he demonstrates his style; instead of having a conversation with the audience, as Tarlton did, and entering into a battle of wits, he jests using multiple persona
s, improvised song, or by commenting on a person or event. Rather than exchange words, he gave words freely. Armin reported in that work that on either Tuesday 25 December 1599, or Tuesday 1 January 1600, he would be traveling to Hackney to wait on his "right honourable good lord". This was probably Baron Chandos
, who may have been visiting Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche
, or Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
over the holidays.
The first editions of these two books were credited to "Clonnico de Curtanio Snuffe"--that is, to the Clown of the Curtain
". The 1605 edition changes "Curtain" to "Mundo" (that is, Globe
); only in 1608 was he credited by name, though the earlier title pages would have sufficed to identify him for Londoners.
Another work of uncertain date (it was published in 1609) is The Italian Tailor and his Boy. A translation of a tale from Gianfrancesco Straparola, the subject matter may reflect his family background of tailors. He was a tailor’s son, who paralleled in the Italian
tailor’s apprentice, and the ruby
ring of the play’s lore parallels the goldsmith apprentice.
Sutcliffe argues that Armin wrote a pamphlet published in 1599, A Pil to Purge Melancholie, on the grounds that it was published by the same press, mentions a clown with Armin’s nickname, and contains verbal echoes of Two Maids of More-clacke.
Armin is generally credited with all the "licensed fools" in the repertory of the Chamberlain's and King's Men
: Touchstone in As You Like It
, Feste in Twelfth Night, the Fool in King Lear
, Lavatch in All's Well That Ends Well
, and perhaps Thersites in Troilus and Cressida
, the Porter in Macbeth
, the Fool in Timon of Athens
, and Autolycos in The Winter's Tale
. Touchstone is the fool of these three about which there is the most critical debate. Harold Bloom
describes him as “rancidly vicious,” and writes that “this more intense rancidity works as a touchstone
should, to prove the true gold of Rosalind’s spirit”. John Palmer
disagrees and writes that “he must be either a true cynic or one that affects his cynicism to mask a fundamentally genial spirit”. Obviously, as Palmer continues, a true cynic does not belong in Arden
, so the clown “must be a thoroughly good fellow at heart”. Touchstone affects the front of a malcontented cynic, thus serving as proof of Rosalind’s quick wit. When she confronts both Jaques and Touchstone, she exposes their silliness and prevents the fools from making Arden out to be worse than it really is.
Feste was almost certainly written for Armin, as he is a scholar, a singer, and a wit. Feste’s purpose is to reveal the foolishness of those around him. Lear’s fool differs from both Touchstone and Feste as well as from other clowns of his era. Touchstone and Feste are philosopher-fools; Lear’s fool is the natural fool of whom Armin studied and wrote. Armin here had the opportunity to display his studies. The fool speaks the prophecy lines, which he tells—largely ignored—to Lear
before disappearing from the play altogether. Lear’s fool is hardly around for entertainment purposes; rather, he is present to forward the plot, remain loyal to the king, and perhaps to stall his madness.
In non-Shakespearean roles, he probably played Pasarello in John Marston
's The Malcontent
; indeed, Marston may have added the part for him when the play was produced by the King's Men. Armin appears in the cast list for Ben Jonson
's The Alchemist
; he may have played Drugger. He is also presumed to have been the clown in George Wilkins
's The Miseries of Inforst Marriage.
He is not named in the cast list for Jonson's Catiline (1611), and other evidence suggests that he retired in 1609 or 1610. The preface to the Two Maids quarto confides, “I would have again enacted John myself, but tempora mutantur in illis, and I cannot do as I would”. He was buried in late 1615.
In London, he resided in the parish of St. Botolph's Aldgate
; three of his children named in the parish register appear to have died before adulthood. Fellow King's Man Augustine Phillips
bequeathed him twenty shilling
s as a "fellow"; John Davies of Hereford
wrote Armin a complimentary epigram
. His burial is recorded in the Registers of St Botolph's as 30.11.1615.
When Robert Armin replaced Kemp in the Chamberlain's Men, it was considered the "taming of the clown". Armin's new style of comedy brought into play the "world-wisely fool". This urged Shakespeare to create Feste in his Twelfth Night, who was a philosophical social insurgence. He had a place everywhere, but belonged nowhere.
Ken Kesey
told an interviewer of this notion of a fool. "That fool of Shakespeare’s, the actor Robert Armin, became so popular that finally Shakespeare wrote him out of Henry IV. In a book called A Nest of Ninnies, Armin wrote about the difference between a fool artificial and a fool natural. And the way Armin defines the two is important: the character Jack Oates is a true fool natural. He never stops being a fool to save himself; he never tries to do anything but anger his master, Sir William. A fool artificial is always trying to please; he’s a lackey."
's historical fiction
The Shakespeare Stealer
.
, one of the major characters is Robert Armin (better known as Robin), a Classics and Theater student at a small college in the Midwestern U.S. during the early 1970s who has a surprisingly detailed knowledge of William Shakespeare's life and work.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, a member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men
Lord Chamberlain's Men
The Lord Chamberlain's Men was a playing company for whom Shakespeare worked for most of his career. Formed at the end of a period of flux in the theatrical world of London, it had become, by 1603, one of the two leading companies of the city and was subsequently patronised by James I.It was...
. He became the leading comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
actor with the troupe associated with William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
following the departure of Will Kempe
William Kempe
William Kempe , also spelt Kemp, was an English actor and dancer specializing in comic roles and best known for having been one of the original players in early dramas by William Shakespeare...
around 1600. Also a popular comic author, he wrote a comedy, The History of the Two Maids of More-clacke, as well as Foole upon Foole, A Nest of Ninnies (1608) and The Italian Taylor and his Boy.
Armin changed the part of the clown or fool from the rustic servingman turned comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
to that of a high-comedy domestic wit.
Early life
- “…the clown is wise because he plays the fool for money, while others have to pay for the same privilege.” – Leslie Hotson in Shakespeare’s Motley
Armin was one of three children born to John Armyn II of King's Lynn
King's Lynn
King's Lynn is a sea port and market town in the ceremonial county of Norfolk in the East of England. It is situated north of London and west of Norwich. The population of the town is 42,800....
, a successful tailor
Tailor
A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...
and friend to John Lonyson, a goldsmith
Goldsmith
A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Since ancient times the techniques of a goldsmith have evolved very little in order to produce items of jewelry of quality standards. In modern times actual goldsmiths are rare...
of the same place. His brother, John Armyn III, was a merchant tailor in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Armin did not take up his father’s craft; instead, his father apprenticed him to Lonyson in the Goldsmiths' Company
Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths
The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Company, which has origins in the twelfth century, received a Royal Charter in 1327. It ranks fifth in the order of precedence of Livery Companies. Its motto is Justitia Virtutum Regina, Latin for Justice...
in 1581. Lonyson was the Master of Works at the Royal Mint
Royal Mint
The Royal Mint is the body permitted to manufacture, or mint, coins in the United Kingdom. The Mint originated over 1,100 years ago, but since 2009 it operates as Royal Mint Ltd, a company which has an exclusive contract with HM Treasury to supply all coinage for the UK...
in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
, a position of great responsibility. The arrangement moved Armin to a life and a social circle quite different from what he might have expected as a Norfolk tailor. Lonyson died in 1582, and the apprenticeship was transferred to another master. According to a tale preserved in Tarlton's Jests, Armin came to the attention of the Queen's famous jester Richard Tarlton
Richard Tarlton
Richard Tarlton , an English actor, was the most famous clown of his era.His birthplace is unknown, but reports of over a century later give it as Condover in Shropshire, with a later move to Ilford in Essex...
. In the course of his duties, the story contends, Armin was sent to collect money from a lodger at Tarlton's inn. Frustrated by the man's refusal to pay, Armin wrote verses in chalk on the wall; Tarlton noticed and, approving their wit, wrote an answer in which he expressed a desire to take Armin as his apprentice. Though not corroborated, this anecdote is far from the least plausible in Tarlton's Jests. Influenced by Tarlton or not, Armin already had a literary reputation before he finished his apprenticeship in 1592. In 1590, his name is affixed to the preface of a religious tract, A Brief Resolution of the Right Religion. Two years later, both Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe was an English Elizabethan pamphleteer, playwright, poet and satirist. He was the son of the minister William Nashe and his wife Margaret .-Early life:...
(in Strange News) and Gabriel Harvey
Gabriel Harvey
Gabriel Harvey was an English writer. Harvey was a notable scholar, though his reputation suffered from his quarrel with Thomas Nashe...
(in Pierce's Supererogation) mention him as a writer of ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
s; none of his work in this vein, however, is known to have survived.
The Chandos company
At some point in the 1590s, Armin joined a company of players patronized by Baron ChandosWilliam Brydges, 4th Baron Chandos
William Brydges, 4th Baron Chandos was an English peer and politician.He was Baron Chandos, Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire and Member of Parliament for Cricklade....
. With this company, about which little is known, he is presumed to have traveled from the western Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
to East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
. The nature of his work for the company may be estimated from his parts in The History of the Two Maids of More-clacke. The preface to the 1609
1609 in literature
The year 1609 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 1 - the Children of the Blackfriars perform Middleton's A Trick to Catch the Old One at Court....
quarto
Book size
The size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from "folio" , to "quarto" and "octavo"...
indicates that he played Blue John, a clown in the vein of Tarlton and Kempe; he also seems to have doubled in the role of Tutch, a witty fool of the type he later played in London. The late quarto is associated with a revival by the Children of the King's Revels, a short-lived troupe of boy player
Boy player
Boy player is a common term for the adolescent males employed by Medieval and English Renaissance playing companies. Some boy players worked for the mainstream companies and performed the female roles, as women did not perform on the English stage in this period...
s led by Nathan Field, but it was almost certainly written around 1597.
Little else is known precisely of Armin's time with Chandos's Men. A dedication to his patron's widow in 1604 suggests some personal acquaintance with the Brydges family; on the other hand, a reference in another work suggests he may have spent some time, like Kempe, as a solo performer. The pair of books Armin published around the turn of the century demonstrate a performer with an interest in his craft. Fool Upon Fool (1600, 1605; reissued in 1608 as A Nest of Ninnies), offers the wit of assorted natural fools, some of whom Armin knew personally. The same year he published Quips upon Questions, a collection of seemingly extemporaneous dialogues with his marotte
Marotte
A Marotte is a prop stick or scepter with a carved head on it. The word is borrowed from the French, where it signifies either a fool's bauble, or a fad/craze....
, named by him Signor Truncheon. In this he demonstrates his style; instead of having a conversation with the audience, as Tarlton did, and entering into a battle of wits, he jests using multiple persona
Persona
A persona, in the word's everyday usage, is a social role or a character played by an actor. The word is derived from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatrical mask. The Latin word probably derived from the Etruscan word "phersu", with the same meaning, and that from the Greek πρόσωπον...
s, improvised song, or by commenting on a person or event. Rather than exchange words, he gave words freely. Armin reported in that work that on either Tuesday 25 December 1599, or Tuesday 1 January 1600, he would be traveling to Hackney to wait on his "right honourable good lord". This was probably Baron Chandos
William Brydges, 4th Baron Chandos
William Brydges, 4th Baron Chandos was an English peer and politician.He was Baron Chandos, Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire and Member of Parliament for Cricklade....
, who may have been visiting Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche
Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche
Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche, 12th Baron St Maur was an English diplomat.-Early Life:Zouche was the son of George la Zouche, 10th Baron Zouche and his wife Margaret, née Welby....
, or Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford was an Elizabethan courtier, playwright, lyric poet, sportsman and patron of the arts, and is currently the most popular alternative candidate proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works....
over the holidays.
The first editions of these two books were credited to "Clonnico de Curtanio Snuffe"--that is, to the Clown of the Curtain
Curtain Theatre
The Curtain Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Curtain Close, Shoreditch , just outside the City of London. It opened in 1577, and continued staging plays until 1622....
". The 1605 edition changes "Curtain" to "Mundo" (that is, Globe
Globe Theatre
The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613...
); only in 1608 was he credited by name, though the earlier title pages would have sufficed to identify him for Londoners.
Another work of uncertain date (it was published in 1609) is The Italian Tailor and his Boy. A translation of a tale from Gianfrancesco Straparola, the subject matter may reflect his family background of tailors. He was a tailor’s son, who paralleled in the Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
tailor’s apprentice, and the ruby
Ruby
A ruby is a pink to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum . The red color is caused mainly by the presence of the element chromium. Its name comes from ruber, Latin for red. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapphires...
ring of the play’s lore parallels the goldsmith apprentice.
Sutcliffe argues that Armin wrote a pamphlet published in 1599, A Pil to Purge Melancholie, on the grounds that it was published by the same press, mentions a clown with Armin’s nickname, and contains verbal echoes of Two Maids of More-clacke.
Lord Chamberlain's Men
The timing of Armin's joining the Chamberlain's Men is as mysterious as its occasion. That it was connected to Kempe's departure has been generally accepted; however, the reasons for that departure are not clear. One traditional view—that the company in general or Shakespeare specifically had begun to tire of Kempe's old-fashioned clowning—is still current, though the main evidence for this view consists of Kempe's departure and the type of comic roles Shakespeare wrote after 1600. Armin played on the Globe stage by August 1600; Wiles theorizes that he may have joined the Chamberlain’s Men in 1599, but continued to perform solo pieces at the Curtain; however, he may also have played with the company at the Curtain, while Kempe was still a member.Armin is generally credited with all the "licensed fools" in the repertory of the Chamberlain's and King's Men
King's Men (playing company)
The King's Men was the company of actors to which William Shakespeare belonged through most of his career. Formerly known as The Lord Chamberlain's Men during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it became The King's Men in 1603 when King James ascended the throne and became the company's patron.The...
: Touchstone in As You Like It
As You Like It
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...
, Feste in Twelfth Night, the Fool in King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
, Lavatch in All's Well That Ends Well
All's Well That Ends Well
All's Well That Ends Well is a play by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1604 and 1605, and was originally published in the First Folio in 1623....
, and perhaps Thersites in Troilus and Cressida
Troilus and Cressida
Troilus and Cressida is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1602. It was also described by Frederick S. Boas as one of Shakespeare's problem plays. The play ends on a very bleak note with the death of the noble Trojan Hector and destruction of the love between Troilus...
, the Porter in Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
, the Fool in Timon of Athens
Timon of Athens
The Life of Timon of Athens is a play by William Shakespeare about the fortunes of an Athenian named Timon , generally regarded as one of his most obscure and difficult works...
, and Autolycos in The Winter's Tale
The Winter's Tale
The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare, originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, some modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some critics, among them W. W...
. Touchstone is the fool of these three about which there is the most critical debate. Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, and is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. He is known for his defense of 19th-century Romantic poets, his unique and controversial theories of poetic influence, and his prodigious literary output, particularly for a literary...
describes him as “rancidly vicious,” and writes that “this more intense rancidity works as a touchstone
Touchstone
A touchstone is a small tablet of dark stone such as fieldstone, slate, or lydite, used for assaying precious metal alloys. It has a finely grained surface on which soft metals leave a visible trace.-History:The touchstone was used in ancient Greece...
should, to prove the true gold of Rosalind’s spirit”. John Palmer
John Palmer (author)
John Leslie Palmer was a British author. Under his own name, he wrote extensively about early English actors and about British literary figures...
disagrees and writes that “he must be either a true cynic or one that affects his cynicism to mask a fundamentally genial spirit”. Obviously, as Palmer continues, a true cynic does not belong in Arden
Arden
- Europe :*Arden Municipality, Denmark, a former municipality, including the Town of Arden*Arden, Warwickshire, England*Arden, Argyll and Bute, Scotland*Arden, Dunbartonshire, Scotland*Arden, Glasgow, Scotland- United States :* Arden, Arkansas...
, so the clown “must be a thoroughly good fellow at heart”. Touchstone affects the front of a malcontented cynic, thus serving as proof of Rosalind’s quick wit. When she confronts both Jaques and Touchstone, she exposes their silliness and prevents the fools from making Arden out to be worse than it really is.
Feste was almost certainly written for Armin, as he is a scholar, a singer, and a wit. Feste’s purpose is to reveal the foolishness of those around him. Lear’s fool differs from both Touchstone and Feste as well as from other clowns of his era. Touchstone and Feste are philosopher-fools; Lear’s fool is the natural fool of whom Armin studied and wrote. Armin here had the opportunity to display his studies. The fool speaks the prophecy lines, which he tells—largely ignored—to Lear
Lear
Lear or Leir can refer to:* Leir of Britain, a legendary king of the Britons* King Leir, an anonymous play based on the legend of Leir of Britain, published in 1605...
before disappearing from the play altogether. Lear’s fool is hardly around for entertainment purposes; rather, he is present to forward the plot, remain loyal to the king, and perhaps to stall his madness.
In non-Shakespearean roles, he probably played Pasarello in John Marston
John Marston
John Marston was an English poet, playwright and satirist during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods...
's The Malcontent
The Malcontent
The Malcontent is an early Jacobean stage play written by the dramatist and satirist John Marston ca. 1603. The play was one of Marston's most successful works....
; indeed, Marston may have added the part for him when the play was produced by the King's Men. Armin appears in the cast list for Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
's The Alchemist
The Alchemist (play)
The Alchemist is a comedy by English playwright Ben Jonson. First performed in 1610 by the King's Men, it is generally considered Jonson's best and most characteristic comedy; Samuel Taylor Coleridge claimed that it had one of the three most perfect plots in literature...
; he may have played Drugger. He is also presumed to have been the clown in George Wilkins
George Wilkins
George Wilkins was an English dramatist and pamphleteer best known for his probable collaboration with Shakespeare on the play Pericles, Prince of Tyre. By profession he was an inn-keeper, but he was also apparently involved in criminal activities.-Life:Wilkins was an inn-keeper in Cow-Cross,...
's The Miseries of Inforst Marriage.
He is not named in the cast list for Jonson's Catiline (1611), and other evidence suggests that he retired in 1609 or 1610. The preface to the Two Maids quarto confides, “I would have again enacted John myself, but tempora mutantur in illis, and I cannot do as I would”. He was buried in late 1615.
In London, he resided in the parish of St. Botolph's Aldgate
Aldgate
Aldgate was the eastern most gateway through London Wall leading from the City of London to Whitechapel and the east end of London. Aldgate gives its name to a ward of the City...
; three of his children named in the parish register appear to have died before adulthood. Fellow King's Man Augustine Phillips
Augustine Phillips
Augustine Phillips was an Elizabethan actor who performed in troupes with Edward Alleyn and William Shakespeare. He was one of the first generation of English actors to achieve wealth and a degree of social status by means of his trade....
bequeathed him twenty shilling
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
s as a "fellow"; John Davies of Hereford
John Davies of Hereford
John Davies of Hereford was a writing-master and an Anglo-Welsh poet. He is usually known as John Davies of Hereford in order to distinguish him from others of the same name....
wrote Armin a complimentary epigram
Epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, usually memorable and sometimes surprising statement. Derived from the epigramma "inscription" from ἐπιγράφειν epigraphein "to write on inscribe", this literary device has been employed for over two millennia....
. His burial is recorded in the Registers of St Botolph's as 30.11.1615.
A new fool
Armin may have played a key role in the development of Shakespearian fools. “If any player breathed,” Hotson tells us, “who could explore with Shakespeare the shadows and fitful flashes of the borderland of insanity, that player was Armin”. Robert Armin explored every aspect of the clown, from the natural idiot to the philosopher-fool; from serving man to retained jester. In study, writing, and performance, Armin moved the fool from rustic zany to trained motley. His characters—those he wrote and those he acted—absurdly point out the absurdity of what is otherwise called normal. Instead of appealing to the identity of the English commoner by imitating them, he created a new fool, a high-comic jester for whom wisdom is wit and wit is wisdom.When Robert Armin replaced Kemp in the Chamberlain's Men, it was considered the "taming of the clown". Armin's new style of comedy brought into play the "world-wisely fool". This urged Shakespeare to create Feste in his Twelfth Night, who was a philosophical social insurgence. He had a place everywhere, but belonged nowhere.
Ken Kesey
Ken Kesey
Kenneth Elton "Ken" Kesey was an American author, best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , and as a counter-cultural figure who considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. "I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a...
told an interviewer of this notion of a fool. "That fool of Shakespeare’s, the actor Robert Armin, became so popular that finally Shakespeare wrote him out of Henry IV. In a book called A Nest of Ninnies, Armin wrote about the difference between a fool artificial and a fool natural. And the way Armin defines the two is important: the character Jack Oates is a true fool natural. He never stops being a fool to save himself; he never tries to do anything but anger his master, Sir William. A fool artificial is always trying to please; he’s a lackey."
The Shakespeare Stealer
Robert Armin is a significant character in Gary BlackwoodGary Blackwood
Gary Blackwood, born on October 23, 1945 in Meadville, Pennsylvania, is an American author of popular books for young readers including The Shakespeare Stealer, Shakespeare's Scribe, and Shakespeare's Spy.-Works:...
's historical fiction
Historical fiction
Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional...
The Shakespeare Stealer
The Shakespeare Stealer
The Shakespeare Stealer is a 1998 young adult novel, written by Gary Blackwood. The novel is a historical fiction novel, and takes place in Elizabethan England. It was an ALA Notable Children's Book in 1999.-Plot summary:...
.
Tam Lin
In the 1991 Pamela Dean novel Tam LinTam Lin (novel)
Tam Lin is a 1991 contemporary fantasy novel by United States author Pamela Dean, who based it on the traditional Scottish border ballad "Tam Lin".-Plot introduction:The protagonist of Tam Lin is Janet Carter...
, one of the major characters is Robert Armin (better known as Robin), a Classics and Theater student at a small college in the Midwestern U.S. during the early 1970s who has a surprisingly detailed knowledge of William Shakespeare's life and work.
Sources
- Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. New York: Riverhead Books, 1998.
- Brown, John Russell. The Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Web.
- Faggen, Robert. Ken Kesey-The Art of Fiction. The Paris Review: Issue 130, Spring 1994.
- Felver, Charles S. "Robert Armin, Shakespeare's Fool: a Biographical Essay." Kent State University Bulletin 49(1) January 1961.
- Gray, Austin. "Robert Armine, the Foole." PMLA 42 (1927), 673-685.
- Hotson, Leslie. Shakespeare’s Motley. New York: Oxford University Press, 1952.
- Lippincott, H. F. "King Lear and the Fools of Armin." Shakespeare Quarterly 26 (1975), 243-253.
- Palmer, John. Comic Characters of Shakespeare. London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1953.
- Suttcliffe, Chris. Robert Armin: Apprentice Goldsmith.Notes & Queries December 1994: 503-504.
- Suttcliffe, Chris. The Canon of Robert Armin's Work: An Addition. Notes & Queries June 1996: 171-175.
- Wiles, David. Shakespeare's Clown. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
- Zall, P. M., ed. A Nest of Ninnies and Other English Jestbooks of the Seventeenth Century. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1970.