Venue Type & Location
Overview
The Swan was the second purpose-built playhouse on the S bank of the Thames, conveniently placed near Paris Garden stairs for playgoers arriving from the City. It was located in the manor of Paris Garden on the W side of the parish of St Saviour, Southwark. Built in the amphitheatre style with 3 galleries and an open yard, the playhouse was seen as the grandest of its era and was used as a model for the construction of the Hope theatre in 1614.
Performance History
1595--6 Performances mounted at the Swan by unidentified companies.
1596/7, 20 February Pembroke's men signed an agreement with Langley to perform there for one year.
1597, July The Isle of Dogs (now lost) by Thomas Nashe opened.
1597, 28 July Privy council ordered closure and demolition of playhouses in and around London because of 'disorders'.
1597, August The earl of Pembroke's players were reported to privy council for performing a seditious play (Isle of Dogs), leading to the arrest of 3 players and the retreat to the country of Thomas Nashe.
1597, by 1 November The Swan reopened. It subsequently became used for a variety of entertainments. 1597, November Langley launched a breach of contract suit in the Court of Requests against 5 of Pembroke's men who had left to play at the Rose. The players countersued. 1598, 29 May Langley's case dismissed. 1600, 15 May French acrobat Peter Bromville performed at the Swan. 1602, 6 November Richard Vennar's misbegotten non-performance of 'England's Joy' (Berry, 'Richard Vennar'). 1602/3, 7 February Fencing match between Dun and Turner resulted in Dun's death. 1610--14 and 1620--1 An unknown troupe or troupes of players, presumably in residence. One of the troupes was likely Lady Elizabeth's Men, formed in 1611 but using Henslowe's new Hope theatre by 1614. ca. 1613 Thomas Middleton's A Chaste Maid in Cheapside performed at the Swan by Lady Elizabeth's Men according to its title page (1630).Current Status
History of the Venue
1589, 24 May Francis Langley, citizen and draper of London, purchased the deed to the manor and lordship of Paris Garden in the parish of St Saviour's, Southwark from Thomas Cure the Younger for £850.
ca. 1595 Langley built the Swan Theatre, not far from the River Thames in the liberty of Paris Garden.
1601, December Langley sold the manor to Hugh Browker and his son Thomas. Subsequent management of the theatre unknown although it is on record to have been used sporadically until the early 1620s.
ca. 1606 Alexander Walshe, fruiterer of London, held the sub-lease of the Swan.
1610--15, 1620--1 Overseers of the Poor accounts for Paris Garden record payments from unidentified players at the Swan (Norman, 'Overseers of the Poor').
1632 Described in Holland's Leaguer (sig F2v) as 'now fallen to decay, and like a dying Swanne, hanging downe her head, seemed to sing her owne dierge.'
1655, 30 April Manor sold by Thomas Browker and his wife Mary to Richard Taverner and William Angell the younger, both of London. The theatre had probably been demolished previously.
Record Source
REED Swan Theatre records (forthcoming)
Patrons who owned this venue
[No data found.]
Bibliographic Sources
- Adams, Joseph Quincy. Shakespearean Playhouses : a history of English theatres from the beginnings to the Restoration. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1917
- Bowsher, Julian. Shakespeare's London Theatreland: Archaeology, history and drama. London: Museum of London Archaeology, 2012
- Chambers, E.K. The Elizabethan Stage. 1923. 4 vols. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1974
- Ingram, William. '"Neere the Playe Howse": The Swan Theater and Community Blight'. Renaissance Drama 4 (1971): 53--68.
- Ingram, William. A London Life in the Brazen Age: Francis Langley, 1548-1602. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard UP, 1978
- Keenan, Siobhan. Acting Companies and their Plays in Shakespeare’s London. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014
- Roberts, Howard and Walter H. Godfrey. Bankside (The Parishes of St. Saviour and Christchurch Southwark). London: London County Council, 1950
- Wallace, Charles William. 'The Swan Theatre and the Earl of Pembroke's Servants'. Englische Studien 43, no. 3 (1911): 340--95.
- Wickham, Glynne. 'The Privy Council Order of 1597 for the Destruction of all London's Theatres'. The Elizabethan Theatre 1 (1969): 21--44.
- Wickham, Glynne, Herbert Berry and William Ingram, eds . English Professional Theatre, 1530--1660. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000