Edward Alleyn, Richard Perkins and the Rivalry Between the Swan and the Rose Playhouses

Abstract

The completion in 1595 of Francis Langley's Swan theatre not far from Philip Henslowe's Rose on Bankside caused the management of the latter house a number of problems relating to its personnel. R. A. Foakes's analysis of Henslowe's Diary highlights the cases of Richard Jones and Thomas Downton, two of the Lord Admiral's Men then working at the Rose under the leadership of Edward Alleyn, who defected to Pembroke's Men at the Swan. However, the desertions did not end there. Documents newly discovered at The National Archives show that a ‘Richard Parkyns’, who had contracted to serve Alleyn for three years from November 1596, also left. This is undoubtedly the actor Richard Perkins, who was later to have a distinguished career on the London stage. He quit Alleyn's service on 19 April following, and was promptly sued in the court of King's Bench. The legal documents, which show that Perkins had enlisted the financial backing of Langley and Downton, are transcribed and translated in appendices. It is likely that Perkins's flirtation with the Swan was short-lived and that he was back at the Rose in time to participate in the now lost Frederick and Basilea, which the Lord Admiral's premièred in June 1597. It is suggested that Perkins was the actor ‘Black Dick’ mentioned in the ‘plot’ of that play. His early association/training with Alleyn, who was of course famed for the creation and interpretation of Marlovian roles, may account for Perkins's success in seventeenth-century revivals of the playwright's work.

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