Robert Browne (Elizabethan actor) facts for kids
Robert Browne was an English actor and theatre manager who lived during the time of Queen Elizabeth I. He owned and managed a theatre called the Boar's Head Theatre. Robert Browne is also famous because historians used to get him mixed up with another actor who had the same name!
Why are there two Robert Brownes?
Imagine if two famous people today had the exact same name – it could get confusing! That's what happened with Robert Browne. For a long time, people studying old theatre records thought there was only one Robert Browne. But later, smart historians like Charles Jasper Sisson and Herbert Berry figured out there were actually at least two different men named Robert Browne who were involved in theatre back then.
The key to telling them apart is to look at what they were doing in the early 1600s.
- One Robert Browne was busy running the Boar's Head Theatre between 1601 and 1603. This is the Robert Browne we are talking about in this article. He died in 1603.
- The other Robert Browne was performing with English actors in Germany from 1601 to 1607. His career lasted much longer.
So, the Robert Browne who managed the Boar's Head Theatre is known as the "Elizabethan actor" because he died during Queen Elizabeth's reign. The other one is often called the "Jacobean actor" because his career continued into the time of King James I.
Who was the Elizabethan Robert Browne?
The Robert Browne this article is about was the one who managed the Boar's Head Theatre. He was married to a woman named Susan, and they had five children. One of their children, William Browne, also became an actor.
This Robert Browne was likely a leader in an acting group called Derby's Men. This group performed for the Queen's Court in 1600 and 1601, and Robert Browne received payments for these shows.
He also knew another very famous actor and theatre owner named Edward Alleyn. We know this because Robert Browne wrote to Edward Alleyn in 1589. When Robert Browne died in October 1603, Edward Alleyn's wife, Joan, even wrote to her husband to tell him the sad news. This shows they were connected.
It's possible that the two Robert Brownes were even related! In those days, it was common for family members to work together in theatre companies. For example, there were brothers and fathers and sons who were all actors. This might explain why two men with the same name were both involved in the theatre world. To make it even more confusing, both Robert Brownes had sons who were also named Robert Browne!
