Edward Alleyn - Career On The Boards

Career On The Boards

It is not known at what date he began to act, but in 1583 his name was on the list of the Earl of Worcester's players. He was eventually rated by common consent as the foremost actor of his time; his only close rival was Richard Burbage.

He played the title roles in three of Christopher Marlowe's major plays: Faustus, Tamburlaine, and Barabas in The Jew of Malta. He created the parts, which were probably written especially for him. The evidence for his stage career is otherwise fragmentary. Other parts thought to be associated with Alleyn are Orlando in Robert Greene's Orlando Furioso, and perhaps Hieronymo in The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd. Some further and lost works are thought to have had Alleyn in leading roles, including plays by George Peele such as The Battle of Alcazar. In a private letter, he mocked himself as a 'fustian king'.

In 1593, while the bubonic plague was affecting London, he joined forces with some of Lord Strange's Men in a provincial tour, combining them with players from the Admiral's Men with which he was then associated. It extended as far as Bristol, Shrewsbury, Chester, and York.

He retired at the height of his fame around 1598, and it is said that Queen Elizabeth herself requested his return to the stage, which he did until 1604. Ben Jonson bestowed praise on Alleyn's acting. Thomas Nashe expressed in Pierce Penniless (1593) his admiration for him, in a quartet of English actors including also John Bentley, William Knell and the clown Richard Tarlton; while Thomas Heywood calls him "inimitable", "the best of actors," "Proteus for shapes and Roscius for a tongue." Thomas Fuller in his Worthies later wrote of Alleyn's reputation of "so acting to the life that he made any part to become him".