ABSTRACT

The Admiral's men soon began to suffer from their competitors at the Globe where the Chamberlain's had the advantage of the new house and a fine range of successful plays, including Jonson's two comedies of humours. The rivalry between the two companies was keen even when they had been separated by the river and the city, now the Admiral's men watched the people passing them by on their way to the Globe, and listened to the applause given to those detestable Falstaff plays. The excitement caused by Hayward's History of Henry the Fourth and the ban thereafter laid upon English histories greatly stimulated the general appetite for the events of the past. The story, as given in Plutarch's Lives, of Caesar, Brutus and Antony was not easy material for a play; there were too many incidents, and the history was exceedingly complex. In the Life of Caesar he found that Antony offered the crown to Caesar.