The Renaissance playwright’s name now suggests fame and fortune. In their own time, many dramatists faced uncertainty, low pay, and little control over what they created.
Writing for survival
About 3,000 plays were written for the Elizabethan stage, though only around 543 remain. Playwrights were often self-made men from modest backgrounds, and many lacked university education. They were generally paid in stages while writing and might receive the proceeds from one day’s performance if a company accepted the play.
Once sold, however, the company owned the script. The playwright had no control over casting, performance, revision, or publication.
Collaboration as a production method
A writer working alone could usually complete no more than two plays a year. Teams made faster production possible. Writers combined their efforts in groups of two, three, four, or five, dividing both labor and income. Thomas Dekker collaborated on roughly 50 of his known works and worked on 16 collaborations in a single year.
The system was not always reliable. Writers could accept advances and fail to produce a stageworthy play. Yet collaboration remained common because theatre companies needed a steady supply of new material.
The exceptions
Shakespeare benefited not only from writing but also from acting and owning shares in his company and its theatres. Ben Jonson gained success through court masques and patronage. Pure playwrights generally fared worse.
Their world was dangerous as well as unstable. Marlowe died in an apparent tavern brawl, and Jonson killed an actor in a duel. The theatre’s golden age was built by workers whose livelihoods were anything but secure.