ABSTRACT

In 1587, after four years travelling the length and breadth of the kingdom, the royal troupe of players, the Queen’s Men, presented themselves to the high bailiff and aldermen of the Corporation of Stratford-upon-Avon at their headquarters in the town’s medieval Guildhall. Formed in 1583, this elite company contained the most talented and most celebrated actors of the age. Hand-picked by Elizabeth’s Master of Revels, Edmund Tilney, they presented plays both at court for the monarch’s ‘solace’ and across the realm, maintaining a royal presence-by-proxy throughout a politically and socially turbulent kingdom. 1