How William Shakespeare Became the First Capitalist Playwright

‘The Dream Factory: London’s First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare’ By Daniel Swift Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 320 pagesDaniel Swift brings a refreshing new approach to the study of Shakespeare’s life, really of his livelihood. Shakespeare is presented as an apprentice much like any other tyro learning his trade, collaborating with more seasoned playwrights, getting his footing on the stage as a player, and eventually as an investor in a new playhouse, the Globe.The Globe, though, is not the centerpiece of Mr. Swift’s book. Its predecessor, simply named the Theatre, is featured as the product of the Burbage family, a rowdy bunch of capitalists who are the first to figure out how to make money from putting on plays in one place rather than touring the country or serving at the favor of a noble lord or the queen herself.Mr Swift’s title is apt. The Theatre was a dream factory very much like early Hollywood undercapitalized but driven to prosper by risk taking entrepreneurs. The Burbages, headed by the ruffian James, knew how to take out loans, refinance, carry their debts forward, and resort to various legal maneuvers that kept the Theatre in their hands in spite of many lawsuits that threatened to close them down in a perilous time of plague and attacks on the stage from the nation’s pulpits, decrying the lax morality of players and producers alike.Shakespeare in his early days teamed with more seasoned playwrights to learn how to craft new plays often made out of earlier plays. Imagine Shakespeare consorting with groups of writers — not that different from Hollywood hacks —whose work gets produced without that much compensation for them. He hangs on, and then latches on to Richard Burbage, the best actor in the family. Mr. Swift perceptively shows that he wrote roles specifically for Burbage.In short, Burbage is not so different from a Hollywood leading man for whom Shakespeare designs his vehicles, most of which are not published until late in his career — not unusual for playwrights then who had not figured out how to make a profit publishing their work. Shakespeare double dips, getting paid as a performer and playwright and after his apprenticeship moves into the sole authorship of the plays associated with his name.What is hard to convey in a review is how shrewdly Mr. Swift interprets the legal documents that resulted in the building of the Theatre in 1576. Relying on testimony of plaintiffs and defendants Mr. Swift creates a fascinating drama in which the Theatre is all about making money, with Shakespeare as the first playwright who figures out the economy of the theater business.At the Theatre, beginning if the 1680s, Shakespeare experiments with comedies and tragedies, with some of them, like “A Midsummer’s Night Dream,” about the idea of the theater, of making players and plays into money makers and professionals. Eventually, after nearly two decades, with the ownership and possession of the Theatre in dispute, the Burbages make their move to a new property upon which they build the Globe.Mr. Swift is apparently aware that it is bootless to say that much about Shakespeare the person. He can be spotted instead in his reworking of old plays and sources, very much like a carpenter dismantling old buildings and using the materials to create something new. In fact, that is exactly what the Burbages did with they decamped to the ground on which the Globe was built.Facing yet another lawsuit challenging the rights of the Burbages to continue their operation of the Theatre, they stalled for time, claiming the carpenters on site were making improvements to the building when in reality they were taking it apart to use the timbers and other materials to construct the Globe, where Shakespeare could become an investor, player, and principal playwright.Mr. Swift transforms the Burbages into a gaggle of Dickensian characters, with the canny Shakespeare playing along, you might say, figuring out for the first time how to make his playwriting pay. Mr. Swift tells his story in a wryly comic tone, making us anticipate the next Burbage move, worthy I would say of a teleseries featuring a family that is adept at resorting to blows or to the courts — whichever alternative seems best at the time.Mr. Rollyson’s writing about the stage is featured in “Lillian Hellman: Her Life and Legacy.”

How William Shakespeare Became the First Capitalist Playwright

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