The Masters of the Revels and Elizabeth I’s Court Theatre

Abstract

This book reconsiders the relationship between the biographies of the Masters of the Revels and the conduct of their office, rethinks the organization and development of Elizabeth I’s Revels Office, and explores its relationship to the developing commercial theatre. Elizabeth I’s Revels Office was the product of a pre-modern, patronage- and gift-exchange-driven world of centralized power in which hospitality, liberality, and conspicuous display were fundamental aspects of social life. Before 1572 the queen’s revels were principally in-house productions devised by the Masters of the Revels and paid for by the Crown. By the end of her reign the office was transformed by a small group of influential Privy Councillors working with the Masters of the Revels. By the mid-1590s none of the entertainments in the queen’s revels were devised by the Master of the Revels nor were they produced at the Crown’s expense. They consisted entirely of plays brought in from the commercial theatre. The queens’ revels became essentially a commercial enterprise, paid for by the people who came to see these companies perform in public at their permanent London theatres which were protected by the Council.

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