50:, then called the Palsgrave's Men, from 1613 to 1622. When the Palsgrave's Men received their renewed charter and their new name on 4 January 1613, Gunnell was already a sharer in the company. Despite the scantiness of the documentary record for the Palsgrave's troupe, Gunnell can be seen moving up into a managerial responsibility over his years with the company. In the 1613 charter he is listed twelfth of the fourteen sharers. On the company's 1618 lease of the
158:; the parish records note the christenings and burials of several Gunnell children between 1613 and 1631. He "died late in 1634 or 1635." Gunnell died intestate, leaving a widow, Elizabeth, and two daughters, Margaret and Anne. Elizabeth later married a John Robinson, who may have been the actor of that name; Margaret married actor
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that catered to a broad audience. Since the private theatres were prestigious and lucrative – their minimum ticket price was five or six times higher than the public theatres' penny – the move from public to private made business sense, and
Gunnell was not the first theatre manager to pursue this
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The fire that destroyed the
Fortune on 9 December 1621 also wiped out the costumes and play manuscripts of the Palsgrave's Men. In the difficult period that followed, Gunnell appears to have left acting to concentrate of management. He also made a venture at writing plays. His comedy
141:
Business difficulties apparently tempted
Gunnell to try to sell his theatrical enterprise; but he and the buyer, Christopher Babham, could not agree on terms and soon went to court over their disagreement. Gunnell remained in the theatre, and brought the re-organized
110:
Along with their new theatre, Gunnell and
Blagrave intended to start their own new acting company, called the Children of the Revels. Their plan was to organize a troupe of
86:, to establish the Salisbury Court Theatre in 1629. The Salisbury Court was one of the so-called "private" theatres of the era, comparable to the
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58:, Gunnell is fourth of ten. And when the company leased the rebuilt Fortune in 1622, Gunnell is listed first.
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A Dictionary of Actors and of Others
Associated with the Representation of Plays in England before 1642
146:(a troupe that included some of his old Palsgrave's compatriots) into the Salisbury Court in 1631.
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Nothing is known of
Gunnell's early life or the first phase of his stage career. He acted with the
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in 1637.) The
Blagrave/Gunnell troupe was not a success, since an outbreak of
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G. E. Bentley, "Records of
Players in the Parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate,"
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Gunnell was a longtime resident of the London parish of St. Giles without
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third edition, Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press, 1992; pp. 63–4.
114:, comparable to the boys' companies of the previous generation, the
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London. He is best remembered for his role in the founding of the
23:
94:, as opposed to the "public" theatres like the Fortune or the
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The Way to
Content All Women, or How a Man May Please His Wife
26:
1613 – 1634) was an actor, playwright, and theatre manager in
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17th-century English actor, playwright, and theatre manager
226:, "The Salisbury Court Theatre and Its Boy Players,"
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forced the London theatres to close in 1630 – though
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followed in 1624. Neither of his plays has survived.
134:, the popular young actor who found fame with the
269:, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1929; p. 399.
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78:Gunnell partnered with William Blagrave, Sir
243:Vol. 44 No. 3 (September 1929), pp. 789–826.
198:, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1917; pp. 368–9.
230:Vol. 40, No. 2 (February 1977), pp. 129–49.
182:Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1910; pp. 212–15.
241:Papers of the Modern Language Association
107:, built the private Cockpit in 1616–17.)
256:, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1996; p. 430.
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254:The Shakespearian Playing Companies
212:The Shakespearean Stage, 1574–1642,
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66:appeared in 1623, and his
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196:Shakespearean Playhouses
103:, manager of the public
36:Salisbury Court Theatre
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116:Children of the Chapel
178:John Tucker Murray,
144:Prince Charles's Men
84:Master of the Revels
42:Actor and playwright
192:Joseph Quincy Adams
160:William Wintershall
138:, emerged from it.
101:Christopher Beeston
120:Children of Paul's
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118:and the
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