Edward Alleyn and Philip Henslowe Papers On-line

From November 25 all may view on-line, 2000 manuscript pages from the world-famous Papers of Edward Alleyn - Founder of Dulwich College, Dulwich Picture Gallery, and one of the two first celebrity actors, favoured by Queen Elizabeth – and of Philip Henslowe, his father-in-law, the most successful impresario of his age.

The Papers, which mainly concern the entertainment world, Southwark and Dulwich, are the pride and glory of Dulwich College Archives, where the original manuscripts may be consulted (by appointment).

Henslowe’s Diary records box-office takings at the Rose Theatre for 325 plays, over half of them forgotten, but including Marlowe’s plays written for Alleyn to play the title roles – Doctor Faustus, Tamburlaine and The Jew of Malta – and the only box-office record for a Shakespeare play, Titus Andronicus. Actors and playwrights (such as Ben Jonson) sign contracts; Henslowe notes dotty and nasty medical recipes. Alleyn and Henslowe, ‘Masters’ of the Royal Menagerie, also staged blood sports (with bulls, bears, dogs and monkeys) for the court at Whitehall and Greenwich and for Londoners at the Bear Garden, more lucrative than the theatres; they kept a lion and a polar bear.

This is by far the most important English theatrical archive: some highlights are the building contract for the Fortune Theatre (detailing the construction and materials), the partnership deed for the Rose Theatre, a prompt-book, a costume inventory, and a ‘Platt’ – a backstage document for actors’ entry cues and props, with stage directions that would make excellent mime exercises for young actors today: first Sloth silently ‘passeth over the stage’, and then Lechery.

There is a manuscript ‘learning scroll’ for Alleyn’s part as the mad Orlando, with his annotations, a letter from the young actor, later playwright, Nathan Field (whose portrait is in the Gallery) asking for money to bail him out of jail, and letters from Alleyn to his first wife Joan (her portrait also at the Gallery), his ‘good sweet mouse’ and ‘doddipoll’ [simpleton], written on tour, revealing their affectionate domestic life; he asks for his orange tawny socks to be died black for winter. He quarrels, vividly, with John Donne, father-in-law of his second wife.

We learn the history of Alleyn’s purchase of the Dulwich Estate (with its papers from mediaeval times) and read about the Foundation of the College (a deed signed by Francis Bacon and Inigo Jones).

Alleyn’s Diary records his associates, his purchases (including his clothing), and the management of the College and Estate (with the Woods).

The Henslowe-Alleyn Digitisation Project was devised by Professor Grace Ioppolo of Reading University. The costly ‘state-of-the-art’ enterprise, supported by the Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King’s College London, has been funded by the Leverhulme Trust, the British Academy, the Pilgrim Trust, and a number of American and British foundations.

Project Website: http://www.henslowe-alleyn.org.uk
Dulwich College Archives: contact Mrs. Calista Lucy, tel 82999201.

There are two chapters by Jan Piggott on Edward Alleyn and the early history of the Gallery in Dulwich College, a History, 1616-2008, 160 illustrations, 395 pp., available from Dulwich Picture Gallery shop, price £29.95

Dr Jan Piggott is former keeper of the archives at Dulwich College and author of ‘Dulwich College – a History’.