The Queen’s Men Editions: John Dutton (d. 1614)

John Dutton (d. 1614)

A member of the new Queen’s company of 1583 and still there in 1591; earlier connected to Warwick’s Men (which he led with brother, Lawrence) and also Oxford’s Men.

Reportedly 60 years of age in 1608, meaning he was 35 at the company’s inception, a performer of older roles and likely a company leader.

Died in 1614 in St. Botolph Bishopsgate (Honigmann and Brock 230).

His brother Lawrence Dutton was also recorded as a member by 1589 in Nottingham; he had formerly been connected to Lane’s, Lincoln’s, Warwick’s and Oxford’s companies. A rare description of Lawrence’s appearance comes from a deponent’s description of him in a lawsuit of 1595/96: a good handsome man in a faire cloake not altogether blacke but somewhat greene and a strawe coloured doublett with a little beard. Another testified that he had somewhat a redd beard (Eccles, Elizabethan Actors I 49).

The Dutton brothers’ traffic between companies before their term with the Queen’s Men, together with a recorded quarrel with Inns of Court students in the late 1570s, led Nungezar to suspect an unstable temperament on the part of both brothers (Nungezar 124). There may be some confirmation of this in resentful contemporary verses that describe the Duttons in the following terms:

The Duttons and theyr fellow-players forsakyng the Erle of Warwycke theyr mayster, became followers of the Erle of Oxford, and wrot themselves his COMOEDIANS, which certayne Gentlemen altered and made CAMOELIANS. The Duttons, angry with that, compared themselves to any gentlemen; therefore these armes were devysed for them:

The fyeld, a fart durty, a gybbet crosse-corded,

A dauncing Dame Flurty of all men abhorred

A lyther lad scampant, a roge in his ragges,

A whore that is rampant, astryde wyth her legges,

A woodcocke displayed, a calfe and a shepe,

A bitch that is splayed, a domouse asleepe;

A vyper in stynch, la part de la drut,

Spell backwarde this Frenche and cracke me that nut.

Parcy per pillery, perced with a rope,

To slythe the more lytherly anoynted with sope;

A coxcombe crospate in token of witte,

Two eares perforate, a nose wythe slytte.

Three nettles resplendent, three owles, three swallowes,

Three mynstrellmen pendent on three payre of gallowes,

Further sufficiently placed in them

A knaves head, for a difference from all honestmen.

The wreate is a chayne of chaungeable red,

To show they ar vayne and fickle of head;

The creste is a lastrylle whose fethers ar blew,

In sign that these fydlers will never be trew;

Whereon is placed the horme of a gote,

Because they ar chast, to this is theyr lotte,

For their bravery, indented and parted,

And for their knavery innebulated.

Mantled lowsy, with doubled drynke,

Their ancient house is called the Clyncke;

Thys Posy they beare over the whole earthe,

Wylt please you to have a fyt of our mirthe?

But reason it is, and heraultes allowe welle,

That fidlers should beare their armes in a towelle.

(qtd Elizabethan Stage 98)

Prosopography

Andrew Griffin

Andrew Griffin is an associate professor in the department of English and an affiliate professor in the department of Theater and Dance at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is general editor (text) of Queen’s Men Editions. He studies early modern drama and early modern historiography while serving as the lead editor at the EMC Imprint. He has co-edited with Helen Ostovich and Holger Schott Syme Locating the Queen’s Men (2009) and has co-edited The Making of a Broadside Ballad (2016) with Patricia Fumerton and Carl Stahmer. His monograph, Untimely Deaths in Renaissance Drama: Biography, History, Catastrophe, was published with the University of Toronto Press in 2019. He is editor of the anonymous The Chronicle History of King Leir (Queen’s Men Editions, 2011). He can be contacted at griffin@english.ucsb.edu.

Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

Peter Cockett

Peter Cockett is an associate professor in the iArts (Integrated Arts) program at McMaster University. He is the co-editor, with Melinda Gough, of Engendering the Stage in the Age of Shakespeare and Beyond (University of Toronto Press, 2025) which publishes the findings of their 2018 Performance as Research (PaR) workshop at the Stratford Festival Lab. He is the general editor (performance), and technical co-ordinating editor of Queen’s Men Editions. His PaR directing credits include King Leir, The Famous Victories of Henry V, and Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (2006), Clyomon and Clamydes (2010), and Three Ladies of London (2015) for the Shakespeare and the Queen’s Men project (SQM). The process behind the 2006 productions is documented in depth on the project website Performing the Queen’s Men. For the PLS, the University of Toronto’s Medieval and Renaissance Players, he has directed the Digby Mary Magdalene (2003) and the double bill of George Peele’s The Old Wives Tale and the Chester Antichrist (2004). He also directed An Experiment in Elizabethan Comedy (2005) for the SQM project and Inside Out: The Persistence of Allegory (2008) in collaboration with Alan Dessen. Peter is a professional actor and director with numerous stage and screen credits. He can be contacted at cockett@mcmaster.ca.

Bibliography

Chambers, E.K. The Elizabethan Stage. Vol. 2. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923.

Eccles, Mark. Elizabethan Actors I: A–D. N&Q 236 (1991): 38–49.

Honigmann, E.A.J., and Susan Brock. Playhouse Wills, 1558–1642. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993.

Nungezar, Edwin. A Dictionary of Actors. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1929.

Orgography

LEMDO Team (LEMD1)

The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors.

Metadata

Authority title	John Dutton (d. 1614)
Type of text	About
Publisher	University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform
Series	Queen’s Men Editions
Source	Content written by Andrew Griffin for Performing the Queen’s Men. Encoded by the LEMDO Team for publication in the QME 2.0 anthology on the LEMDO platform.
Editorial declaration	This document follows Canadian spelling conventions.
Edition	Released with Queen’s Men Editions 2.0
Sponsor(s)	Queen’s Men Editions The Queen’s Men Editions anthology is led by Helen Ostovich, General Editor; Peter Cockett, General Editor (Performance); Andrew Griffin, General Editor (Text; until 2026); and Janelle Jenstad, General Editor (Text; 2026–)
Encoding description	Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines
Document status	published
Funder(s)	Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada McMaster University Poculi Ludique Societas University of Waterloo University of Toronto Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies University of Victoria Friends of the ISE
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