Nathan Field
Nathan Field was a notable actor and playwright during the Jacobean period, often compared to the esteemed Richard Burbage. Born to a Puritan clergyman, John Field, Nathan faced the complexities of his family's background, particularly his father's reformist tendencies. He received his education at St. Paul's School, where he was exposed to a unique theatrical environment that featured boys performing female roles, as women were not permitted on stage. Field gained recognition for his exceptional acting skills, which led to his involvement with the Chapel Royal, a prestigious group of boy actors.
Field's theatrical contributions include two original comedies, *A Woman Is a Weather-Cocke* and *Amends for Ladies*, along with several collaborations with prominent playwrights of his time. His first play raises questions about the character of women, while his second serves as a corrective to the earlier portrayal. Although his works are not considered groundbreaking, they reflect the period's theatrical landscape. Additionally, Field authored a letter addressing criticisms of actors, showcasing his engagement with the societal perspectives of his time. Overall, Nathan Field's legacy is marked by his dual role as both a performer and a creator within the theatrical community.
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Nathan Field
Dramatist
- Born: October 17, 1587
- Birthplace: London, England
- Died: c. 1619
Biography
Nathan Field is remembered for his excellent acting. He is said to have been the equal of Richard Burbage, the famed Shakespearean actor of the Jacobean period. Field was the son of Puritan clergyman, John Field, whose calls for reforms within the church landed him in prison. Nathan is sometimes confused with his brother, Nathaniel, a printer.
Field’s total dramatic output consists of two original plays, both comedies, A Woman Is a Weather-Cocke, and Amends for Ladies, as well as at least six collaborations with such contemporary playwrights as John Flectcher and Philip Massinger. Possibly other collaborations involving him have been lost.
Field was educated at St. Paul’s School, where the headmaster, Richard Mulcaster, was a champion of such unpopular causes as the education of women, reformed spelling, and education in English rather than in Latin. St. Paul’s had a reputation for presenting excellent plays in which boys often played female roles because it was thought unseemly for women to appear on stage and because St. Paul’s was an all-male school. The dramas staged by St. Paul’s were sometimes presented at court. Because Field was a wholly outstanding actor, he came to the attention of royalty, who eventually had him impressed into the Chapel Royal, which was both a boy’s choral group and a company of boy actors associated with the Blackfriar’s company. The Chapel Royal competed successfully with adult acting companies of its day. The boy actors could get away with blaspheming royalty, whereas adult actors could be arrested for doing so. It is possible, however, that young Field was arrested for acting in John Day’s Isle of the Guls, which presents King James I as a hell-raising drunkard.
As the boy actors became older, some were absorbed into adult acting companies. This apparently happened to Field, who, in 1609, as a member of the Revels Company, was entrenched as the company’s manager at the Whitefriars Theatre. Here his first play, A Woman Is a Weather-Cocke, was performed in 1609. When the company was reorganized as the Second Queen’s Revels, Field wrote his second play for the company, Amends for Ladies. The first play was an attack upon women that addresses the question of whether there are any good ones and answers it in the negative. His second play presents women in a better light and is viewed as a sort of apology to the sex for the censure he had heaped upon them in the earlier production.
Neither of Field’s original plays is outstanding, although each is a pleasant enough diversion. His collaborations, similarly, are not impressive nor is it known how much of a hand he had in their actual composition. Field’s single surviving piece of nonfiction is “Feild [sic] the Players Letter to Mr. Sutton,” a letter offering his temperate response to a sermon in which Thomas Sutton, a new clergyman at St. Mary’s Overies, in Field’s presence, denounced all actors from the pulpit.