‘Somewhat Like A Man’: Apes, Boy Players, Women

This chapter argues that certain players were more likely to become monkeys or find themselves on the stage with them. The connection between children and women, ‘lesser’ beings, and monkeys is particularly powerful in plays written for the boys’ companies between 1600 and 1613. These associations play out in Eastward Ho! (pr. 1605) and Sir Gyles Goosecappe (pr. 1606)—both written for the Children of the Chapel/Queen’s Revels—and in Ram Alley (pr. 1611), according to its title page given by the ‘Children of the King’s Revels’.