{"id":915,"date":"2015-01-20T14:37:02","date_gmt":"2015-01-20T14:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reed-ne.webspace.durham.ac.uk\/?p=915"},"modified":"2015-01-20T15:00:38","modified_gmt":"2015-01-20T15:00:38","slug":"flower-of-the-month-just-whos-playing-the-dumb-knight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reed-ne.webspace.durham.ac.uk\/?p=915","title":{"rendered":"Flower of the Month: just who’s playing The Dumb Knight?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Here’s an interesting little puzzle. \u00a0On 21 January 1617\/18, Richard Cholmeley paid the players of Philip Lord Wharton (of Healaugh, WR) six shillings for a performance of ‘The Dumb Knight’ at his estate in Brandsby\/Stearsby. \u00a0This play, by Lewis Machin and Gervase Markham, has twenty-three speaking parts and at least nine non-speaking roles as printed in 1608. \u00a0The most efficient doubling scheme only reduces that number by two or three. \u00a0It seems unlikely that Wharton’s Men was a company of this size \u2013 were the numbers filled out with locals? \u00a0Or was the play as toured significantly reduced from its published form? \u00a0Just how did travelling companies deal with large-cast plays?<\/div>\n
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— This month’s Flower is provided by David Klausner, Professor emeritus of English and Medieval Studies, University of Toronto.<\/em><\/div>\n
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