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Lady Elizabeth's Men


The Lady Elizabeth's Men, or Princess Elizabeth's Men, was a company of actors in Jacobean London, formed under the patronage of King James I's daughter Princess Elizabeth. From 1618 on, the company was called The Queen of Bohemia's Men, after Elizabeth and her husband the Elector Palatine had their brief and disastrous flirtation with the crown of Bohemia. (In the winter of 1618–19, the two had their brief reign as the King and Queen of Bohemia, to start the Thirty Years' War.)

The company received its royal patent on 27 April 1611; it is thought to have been composed largely of former child actors from the children's troupes — the Children of the Chapel and the Children of Paul's — who were now grown to manhood. They may have started out playing at the Swan Theatre. On 29 August 1611, the company signed a bond with Philip Henslowe; they would rely on Henslowe for financing and would in the future act at Henslowe's new theatre, the Hope.

Soon after their inception, the company was performing in the provinces; but by 1612 they were back in London, and in that year played four times at Court. The Honest Man's Fortune was one of their early offerings; the cast list added to that play in the second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1679 names the actors Nathan Field, Joseph Taylor, Robert Benfield, William Ecclestone, Emanuel Read, and Thomas Basse.


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