Nathan Field

Nathan Field
Portrait of Nathan Field, unknown artist, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, c. 1615.
Born	(1587-10-17)17 October 1587
Died	1620 (aged 32–33)
Occupation	English dramatist, actor

Nathan Field (also spelled Feild occasionally) (17 October 1587 – 1620) was an English dramatist. He was also an actor.

His father was the Puritan preacher John Field, and his brother Theophilus Field became the Bishop of Llandaff. Another brother named Nathaniel, often confused with the actor, became a printer.

Nathan's father passionately opposed London's public entertainments: he delivered a sermon which attributed Divine judgment to the collapse of the public seating area, during a bear baiting on a Sunday, at Beargarden in 1583, which resulted in several deaths. Nathan presumably did not intend a career in the theater; he was a student of Richard Mulcaster at St. Paul's School in the late 1590s. At some point before 1600, he was impressed by Nathaniel Giles, the master of Elizabeth's choir and one of the managers of the new troupe of boy players at Blackfriars Theatre, called alternately the Children of the Chapel Royal and the Blackfriars Children. He remained in this profession for the remainder of his life, later adding to it the profession of playwright. John Field was buried on 26 March 1588.

When John Field died, he left seven children, of whom the eldest was only seventeen. He left all his property to his wife, Joan. The first child was a daughter, Dorcas, baptized on 7 May 1570. The first son was baptized on 4 January 1572 and was named for his father, John. Theophilus was baptized on 22 January 1574, Jonathan on 13 May 1577, Nathaniel on 13 June 1581, Elizabeth on 2 February 1583 and Nathan on 17 October 1587. Little is known of the two daughters: Dorcas was married to Edward Rice on 9 November 1590; Elizabeth was buried at St. Anne, Blackfriars, on 14 June 1603, when she had just reached twenty, the age at which Dorcas married. We know nothing of the life of John Field, junior. Jonathan Field, who died in 1640. Theophilus followed his father's profession. He married and in his will left all his possessions to his wife, Alice. He died on 2 June 1636 and was buried in Hereford Cathedral.