The Crew / of Common Playwrights: Collaboration and Authorial Community in the Early Modern Theater

As a consequence of the development of playwriting into an established profession in early modern London, a central paradox emerged: in order to secure a place within this authorial community, and also a place for the profession itself, playwrights needed to work toward the often contradictory goals of self-promotion and of validation of the profession at large. I confront this paradox by examining details about the backgrounds and careers of the twenty-nine professional playwrights working in the years 1580-1625. I use this information to categorize each author\u27s interest and investment in the development of the profession of dramatist by defining four distinct \u22forms of affiliation,\u22 groupings which highlight the ways in which similar backgrounds and professional activities often resulted in like-minded approaches to the \u22business\u22 of playwriting. I then show how authors from different \u22forms\u22 worked in collaboration with one another, revised, or adapted each others\u27 material, with primary focus on the many contributors to The Book of Sir Thomas More, Thomas Middleton\u27s collaborative endeavors, and the activities of the members of the group I have termed the \u22Gentleman Authors,\u22 Francis Beaumont, John Ford, and John Marston. This project provides a new lens through which to view authorship in Shakespeare\u27s time. Rather than presenting a \u22solitary genius\u22 model wherein the playwright scribbles away in solitude, I provide a more accurate depiction of playwriting as a community-based activity, where collaboration was the most common mode of production. Multi-authored dramatic texts are a fruitful resource for inquiry into the ways playwrights cooperated with, and challenged, one another in their sometimes exuberant efforts to gain control and influence within their professional group. We not only find that Shakespeare worked with others, but that all playwrights did in order to meet the demands of the ever-expanding market for plays