Robert Wilson (dramatist)
Encyclopedia
Robert Wilson was an Elizabethan dramatist who worked primarily in the 1580s and 1590s. He is also believed to have been an actor who specialized in clown roles.
He was connected with sixteen plays intended for Philip Henslowe
's Rose Theatre
, in partnership with other playwrights who also produced copy for Henslowe. While mentioned as a dramatist by Francis Meres
in 1598, most existing information on his dramatic career is derived from Henslowe's papers.
Since the name is common, it is not certain that the Robert Wilson who worked for Henslowe in 1598-1600 is the same man who was a prominent actor and occasional playwright in the 1580s; yet many scholars consider it more likely than not that the records refer to one Robert Wilson and not two. If this is correct, Wilson was acting with Leicester's Men
in the 1570s, and was praised along with Richard Tarlton
for his "wit." He is generally accepted as the author of The Three Ladies of London
(published 1584), The Three Lords and Three Ladies of London (published 1590), and The Cobbler's Prophecy (published 1594). It has been speculated that he may also have written Fair Em
(c. 1590). In Palladis Tamia (1598), Francis Meres
mentions Wilson along with Tarlton, and specifically connects Wilson with the Swan Theatre
, which was built c. 1595.
In just over two years, from spring 1598 to summer 1600, Wilson worked with other members of Henslowe's stable of house playwrights on sixteen different plays, including three two-part projects. Several of these were never completed.
Of Wilson's collaborations for Henslowe, only the first part of Sir John Oldcastle was published, in 1600 and 1619. None of the other plays has survived. Sir John Oldcastle was commissioned as a counterblast to the negative depiction of title character in the original versions of William Shakespeare
's plays Henry IV, Part 1
and Henry IV, Part 2
. Objections from descendants of the historical John Oldcastle
, a Protestant martyr, appears to have been responsible both for the writing of the corrective Oldcastle play and the alteration of Oldcastle to Sir John Falstaff
in later versions of the Henry IV plays.
Also, Wilson has been proposed as a possible author of several anonymous Elizabethan plays, including Fair Em
, Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes
, and A Knack to Know a Knave.
As to why a writer would work the way the Henslowe collaborators did: the careers of dramatists who worked mostly on solo projects, like Shakespeare and Ben Jonson
, show that a dramatist working alone could produce one or two plays a year on a dependable basis. If one of those plays failed to sell, or flopped with the audience, the writer was severely affected. Collaborative writing spread the risk, and could provide a more certain income for a journeyman author.
A "Robert Wilson, yeoman (player)" was buried at St. Giles
in Cripplegate
on November 20, 1600. This is consistent with the view that the two Robert Wilsons, the player with Leicester's Men and Henslowe's dramatist, were one and the same person; it explains why Henslowe's Wilson stopped writing in 1600.
He was connected with sixteen plays intended for Philip Henslowe
Philip Henslowe
Philip Henslowe was an 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...
's Rose Theatre
The Rose (theatre)
The Rose was an Elizabethan theatre. It was the fourth of the public theatres to be built, after The Theatre , the Curtain , and the theatre at Newington Butts The Rose was an Elizabethan theatre. It was the fourth of the public theatres to be built, after The Theatre (1576), the Curtain (1577),...
, in partnership with other playwrights who also produced copy for Henslowe. While mentioned as a dramatist by Francis Meres
Francis Meres
Francis Meres was an English churchman and author.He was born at Kirton in the Holland division of Lincolnshire in 1565. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he received a B.A. in 1587 and an M.A. in 1591. Two years later he was incorporated an M.A. of Oxford...
in 1598, most existing information on his dramatic career is derived from Henslowe's papers.
Since the name is common, it is not certain that the Robert Wilson who worked for Henslowe in 1598-1600 is the same man who was a prominent actor and occasional playwright in the 1580s; yet many scholars consider it more likely than not that the records refer to one Robert Wilson and not two. If this is correct, Wilson was acting with Leicester's Men
Leicester's Men
The Earl of Leicester's Men was a playing company or troupe of actors in English Renaissance theatre, active mainly in the 1570s and 1580s in the reign of Elizabeth I...
in the 1570s, and was praised along with 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...
for his "wit." He is generally accepted as the author of The Three Ladies of London
The Three Ladies of London
The Three Ladies of London is an Elizabethan era stage play, first published in 1584. It is unusual and noteworthy as a philo-Semitic response to the prevailing anti-Semitism of Elizabethan drama and the larger contemporaneous English society....
(published 1584), The Three Lords and Three Ladies of London (published 1590), and The Cobbler's Prophecy (published 1594). It has been speculated that he may also have written Fair Em
Fair Em
Fair Em, the Miller's Daughter of Manchester, is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy written c. 1590. It was bound together with Mucedorus and The Merry Devil of Edmonton in a volume labelled "Shakespeare. Vol...
(c. 1590). In Palladis Tamia (1598), Francis Meres
Francis Meres
Francis Meres was an English churchman and author.He was born at Kirton in the Holland division of Lincolnshire in 1565. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he received a B.A. in 1587 and an M.A. in 1591. Two years later he was incorporated an M.A. of Oxford...
mentions Wilson along with Tarlton, and specifically connects Wilson with the Swan Theatre
The Swan (theatre)
The Swan was a theatre in Southwark, London, England, built in 1595 on top of a previously standing structure, during the first half of William Shakespeare's career...
, which was built c. 1595.
In just over two years, from spring 1598 to summer 1600, Wilson worked with other members of Henslowe's stable of house playwrights on sixteen different plays, including three two-part projects. Several of these were never completed.
- Earl Goodwin and his Three Sons, Parts 1 and 2, with Michael DraytonMichael DraytonMichael Drayton was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era.-Early life:He was born at Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. Almost nothing is known about his early life, beyond the fact that in 1580 he was in the service of Thomas Goodere of Collingham,...
, Henry ChettleHenry ChettleHenry Chettle was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer of the Elizabethan era.The son of Robert Chettle, a London dyer, he was apprenticed in 1577 and became a member of the Stationer's Company in 1584, traveling to Cambridge on their behalf in 1588. His career as a printer and author is...
, and Thomas Dekker; March 1598. - Piers of Exton, with Drayton, Chettle, and Dekker; March 1598.
- Black Bateman of the North, Parts 1 and 2, with Chettle; Part I with Dekker and Drayton also; May-June 1598.
- The Funeral of Richard Cordelion, with Chettle, Drayton, and Anthony MundayAnthony MundayAnthony Munday was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer. The chief interest in Munday for the modern reader lies in his collaboration with Shakespeare and others on the play Sir Thomas More and his writings on Robin Hood.-Biography:He was once thought to have been born in 1553, because...
; June 1598. - The Madman's Morris, with Dekker and Drayton, July 1598.
- Hannibal and Hermes, with Dekker and Drayton, July 1598.
- Pierce of Winchester, with Dekker and Drayton, July-August 1598.
- Catiline's Conspiracy, with Chettle; August 1598. Apparently never completed.
- Chance Medley, with Munday, Drayton, and Dekker or Chettle; August 1598.
- Sir John OldcastleSir John OldcastleSir John Oldcastle is an Elizabethan play about John Oldcastle, a controversial 14th-15th century rebel and Lollard who was seen by some of Shakespeare's contemporaries as a proto-Protestant martyr.-Publication:...
, Parts 1 and 2, with Drayton, Munday, and Richard HathwayeRichard HathwayeRichard Hathwaye , was an English dramatist. Little is known about Hathwaye's life. There is no evidence that he was related to his namesake Richard Hathaway, the father of Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway. Hathwaye is not heard of after 1603....
; Oct.-Dec. 1599. - Henry Richmond, Part 2, with others; never completed.
- Owen Tudor, with Drayton, Hathwaye, and Munday; Jan. 1600. Apparently never completed.
- Fair Constance of Rome, Part 1, with Dekker, Drayton, Hathwaye, and Munday; June 1600.
Of Wilson's collaborations for Henslowe, only the first part of Sir John Oldcastle was published, in 1600 and 1619. None of the other plays has survived. Sir John Oldcastle was commissioned as a counterblast to the negative depiction of title character in the original versions of 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"...
's plays Henry IV, Part 1
Henry IV, Part 1
Henry IV, Part 1 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written no later than 1597. It is the second play in Shakespeare's tetralogy dealing with the successive reigns of Richard II, Henry IV , and Henry V...
and Henry IV, Part 2
Henry IV, Part 2
Henry IV, Part 2 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed written between 1596 and 1599. It is the third part of a tetralogy, preceded by Richard II and Henry IV, Part 1 and succeeded by Henry V.-Sources:...
. Objections from descendants of the historical John Oldcastle
John Oldcastle
Sir John Oldcastle , English Lollard leader, was son of Sir Richard Oldcastle of Almeley in northwest Herefordshire and grandson of another Sir John Oldcastle....
, a Protestant martyr, appears to have been responsible both for the writing of the corrective Oldcastle play and the alteration of Oldcastle to Sir John Falstaff
Falstaff
Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare. In the two Henry IV plays, he is a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V. A fat, vain, boastful, and cowardly knight, Falstaff leads the apparently wayward Prince Hal into trouble, and is...
in later versions of the Henry IV plays.
Also, Wilson has been proposed as a possible author of several anonymous Elizabethan plays, including Fair Em
Fair Em
Fair Em, the Miller's Daughter of Manchester, is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy written c. 1590. It was bound together with Mucedorus and The Merry Devil of Edmonton in a volume labelled "Shakespeare. Vol...
, Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes
Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes
The History of the Two Valiant Knights, Sir Clyomon Knight of the Golden Shield, Son to the King of Denmark, and Clamydes the White Knight, Son to the King of Swabia is an early Elizabethan stage play, first published in 1599 but written perhaps three decades earlier...
, and A Knack to Know a Knave.
As to why a writer would work the way the Henslowe collaborators did: the careers of dramatists who worked mostly on solo projects, like Shakespeare and 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...
, show that a dramatist working alone could produce one or two plays a year on a dependable basis. If one of those plays failed to sell, or flopped with the audience, the writer was severely affected. Collaborative writing spread the risk, and could provide a more certain income for a journeyman author.
A "Robert Wilson, yeoman (player)" was buried at St. Giles
St Giles-without-Cripplegate
St Giles-without-Cripplegate is a Church of England church in the City of London, located within the modern Barbican complex. When built it stood without the city wall, near the Cripplegate. The church is dedicated to St Giles, patron saint of beggars and cripples...
in Cripplegate
Cripplegate
Cripplegate was a city gate in the London Wall and a name for the region of the City of London outside the gate. The area was almost entirely destroyed by bombing in World War II and today is the site of the Barbican Estate and Barbican Centre...
on November 20, 1600. This is consistent with the view that the two Robert Wilsons, the player with Leicester's Men and Henslowe's dramatist, were one and the same person; it explains why Henslowe's Wilson stopped writing in 1600.