Who may have written Shakespeare's plays?

Answer 1

Before 1594, when Shakespeare was not attached to any particular playing company, he sold them to any company who would buy them. Since the title page of the Quarto of Titus Andronicus names three different companies (Pembroke's, Derby's, and Sussex's), the theory is that Shakespeare sold the play originally to one of these three companies, who sold it to a second company, who then sold it to a third one.

In fact, most of the playwriting of this time worked on the following basis. A playwright would tell the manager of a company that he had an idea for a play, and if the manager liked it, he would hire the playwright to write the play, paying him part of his fee in advance. Once the play was written the playwright got the balance of the fee and the company got the play. Playwrights did not own their plays. Philip Henslowe's diary lists loads of plays for which he paid the author in advance (but none by Shakespeare).

After 1594, Shakespeare worked exclusively for the Lord Chamberlain's Men who later became the King's Men. He did not have to negotiate the sale of the plays as he was basically an employee (although also a shareholder).

Answer 2

The theatres in Shakespeare's time were owned by entrepreneurs such as James Burbage, who built the Theatre and the Curtain and renovated the Blackfriars, Philip Henslowe, who built the Rose, Beargarden, Fortune (with Edward Alleyn) and Hope (with Jacob Meade), Francis Langley, who built the Swan, and Christopher Beeston, who built the Cockpit. An interesting development resulted when Burbage died and left his various playhouses to his sons Cuthbert and Richard. The younger Burbages decided to solve their problem with the landlord of the property where The Theatre stood, who had barricaded the property against anyone entering to watch a play, by tearing down The Theatre when the landlord was away and building another playhouse elsewhere using some of the timbers from the old theatre. However, the capital cost of this project was more than the Burbages could afford, so they invited investors from the Lord Chamberlain's Men, the acting company to which they belonged, to buy a share in the new theatre, which was called the Globe. The Globe was the first theatre to be owned by various members of an acting company. The Red Bull was funded in a similar way by Worcester's (later the Queen's) men.

Answer 3

In Shakespeare's day copyright as we understand it had not been invented, so he would have been unfamiliar with the concept of ownership of artworks. However, the theatre companies took steps to make sure that only their companies had a new script to prevent other companies from producing the same play at the same time. Actors were not given the whole script, but only their parts, and the script was not given to publishers.

The names of new plays were reported to the government (This is how we know Shakespeare wrote a play called Cardenio) but this was to be sure that they had passed the censors before they put them on.

However, sometimes an actor would try to memorize an entire play, then sell his script to a publisher who would print it. This is how it's thought the first copies of Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet got published. Then the theatre company for whom the play had been written would take advantage of this market to sell a better copy to the publishers. However, everything, once published, was public domain.

Answer 4

His acting company, the Lord Chamberlain's (later King's) Men.

Answer 5

Shakespeare's works are now in the public domain.

Answer 6

His playing company, The Lord Chamberlain's Men, later The King's Men.

Answer 7

William Shakespeare