John Bentley (c. 1553–1585) Bentley Author Andrew Griffin Encoder LEMDO Team Queen’s Men EditionsQME

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–)

 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

Released with Queen’s Men Editions 2.0

 University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform

This file is licensed under a CC BY-NC_ND 4.0 license, which means that it is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions: (1) credit must be given to the author, Queen’s Men Editions, and LEMDO in any subsequent use of the files and/or data; (2) the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except in quotations for the purposes of academic review and citation); and (3) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of Queen’s Men Editions, the editor, and LEMDO. This license allows for pedagogical use of the critical paratexts in the classroom. Neither the content nor the code in this file is licensed for training large language models (LLMs), ingestion into an LLM, or any use in any artificial intelligence applications; such uses are considered to be commercial uses and are strictly prohibited.

Production photographs and videos on this site may not be downloaded. They appear freely on this site with the permission of the actors and the ACTRA union. They may be used within the context of university courses, within the classroom, and for reference within research contexts, including conferences, when credit is given to the producing company and to the actors. Commercial use of videos and photographs is forbidden.

Queen’s Men Editions

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.

Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines

This document follows Canadian spelling conventions.

 Published file. Proofread. Created file. Aged 30 when he joined the new Queen’s company in 1583. A letter (undated) to Edward Alleyn from a W.P at Dulwich mentions a wager made among gentlemen as to whether Alleyn could overgo Bentley and Knell in one of their parts, implying that Bentley, like Knell, excelled in tragic or heroic roles. The letter is transcribed in Collier’s Memoirs of Edward Alleyn along with accompanying verse (Collier 12). Collier’s tendency to contaminate (and fabricate) sources may put its authenticity into question. In an incident outside the Red Lion Inn in Norwich during the company’s first summer tour (June 1583), Bentley may have dealt the wound that killed a local man named George. Bentley had been onstage, wearing a players berd in the role of a Duke when a citizen named Wynsdon refused—apparently with beligerence—to pay the admission fee. Tarlton is said to have tried and failed to intercede as Bentley struck at this Wynsdon with his sword hilt. Bentley and his fellow, John Singer, pursued the man, who fled alongside another man, George, who wore a blew cote, evidently in Wynsdon’s service. The actors caught up with George who threw a stone to defend himself against Bentley’s rapier attack. It is said to have broke his head. George was several times pricked with weapons and bled to death in a nearby house. Bentley and Singer were briefly imprisoned after the killing (Galloway 66–76, 378–381, 394–395). Bentley was himself deceased by 1585, the register of St. Peter’s Cornhill giving his age as yers 32 (Nungezar 44). Nashe recalled his ability in Pierce Penniless (1592) and Heywood remembers him in Apology for Actors (1612) as an important early English actor. His will records his landlord in Shoreditch as Robert Scott, perhaps indicating that he shared a residence with, or was neighbor to, Simon Jewell, whose will refers to the same landlord in the same parish (Honigmann and Brock 56, 59).