Who were Shakespeare's playwright rivals?

Answer 1

Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and John Webster are probably the three most highly regarded playwrights of Shakespeare's day apart from Shakespeare himself. However there were many more playwrights who were very popular at the time, but whose work has not stood the test of time as well. Foremost among these was Thomas Kyd, whose play The Spanish Tragedy was far and away the most popular play in English theatre during Shakespeare's entire career.

Answer 2

Other playwrights writing at the same time as Shakespeare included Marlowe, Jonson, Webster, Peele, Greene, Dekker, Middleton, Beaumont, Fletcher, Kyd, and Heywood. This list is far from exhaustive.

Answer 3

That is a difficult question, seeing how most of the popular writers today get a lot of fame but are horrible writers. Nobody in these times could hold a candle to Shakespeare. During Shakespeare's time most people would say Christopher Marlowe but there were some other decent writers at the time such as Ben Jonson and Thomas Kyd. Kyd's play The Spanish Tragedy was the single most popular play of the time.

Answer 4

At the time Shakespeare was active in the London theatre scene there were three main theatre companies which performed in or near London. These were The Lord Chamberlain's Men, the Lord Admiral's Men and Worcester's Men. Names of patrons changed from time to time and other groups surfaced but these were the three main ones.

The Chamberlain's Men, who played in the Theatre, then the Curtain, then the Globe, and then in both Globe and Blackfriars were headed by Richard Burbage, and included actors Shakespeare, Kempe, and Armin. They had an exclusive on Shakespeare's plays but also performed plays by Jonson, Middleton, and Fletcher.

The Admiral's Men, who played at the Rose, then the Fortune, were headed by Edward Alleyn and performed plays by Marlowe and Dekker among others.

Worcester's Men played at the Red Bull and their leading actor and main playwright was Heywood.

There were a very large number of playwrights active in the London theatre scene at that time, but they were not rivals. They frequently collaborated and were often working for the same company. The most famous playwrights of the period nowadays apart from Shakespeare are probably Marlowe and Jonson, but Marlowe died when Shakespeare's career had only just started, and Jonson and Shakespeare were great friends, and Shakespeare acted in at least two of Jonson's plays.

Answer 5

Shakespeare had a large number of rival playwrights throughout his career. There were three major theatre companies running full tilt each premiering two new plays on average every month. There was a huge market for new plays. Apart from Shakespeare, playwrights like Greene, Nashe, Peele, Kyd, Marlowe, Marston, Middleton, Beaumont, Fletcher, Heywood, Webster, Lyly, Chapman, Middleton, Dekker, Tourneur, Chettle, Massinger, Munday and Jonson (and those are only the best-known ones) were all vying for a piece of the market for plays. But the word "rival" should not be taken to mean that there was personal animosity among these writers or that they tried to defeat the others. The playwrights co-operated when it suited them and frequently wrote plays together. This includes Shakespeare, who certainly wrote with Fletcher and very probably with Peele and others.

Answer 6

There were a number of popular playwrights at the time Shakespeare was starting out: Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, Greene and Peele were some of them.

Answer 7

Christopher Marlowe, John Marston, and Beaumont and Fletcher