John Rice and the Boys of the Jacobean King's Men

“If I were a woman”: the performativity of gender in Shakespeare

“…Kathman notes that Rice appeared as a "fayre and bautifull" Queen of Cornwall opposite Burbage's Amphion (Wales) in a 1610 entertainment to celebrate Henry's Investiture as Prince of Wales. 55 Rice would have been about twenty years old. 56 Janet Adelman and later Dympna Callaghan have perceptively argued that this scene demonstrates an acknowledgement of gender difference and of the absence of woman on stage.…”

“…55 Rice would have been about twenty years old. 56 Janet Adelman and later Dympna Callaghan have perceptively argued that this scene demonstrates an acknowledgement of gender difference and of the absence of woman on stage. 58 In terms of what is present (the mature boy actor), it can be read very differently, as a metatheatrical advertisement of the paradox that although this mature boy actor has reached a high tide of performance intellectually and emotionally, his ability to impersonate a woman physically has now reached its lowest ebb.…”

“…John Rice did this on 29 August 1611 by signing as a sharer in Lady Elizabeth's Men, when he must have been nearly twenty-one and legally acknowledged as an adult. 59 From the perspective of a twenty-year old youth who has perfected the art of playing great female roles and commands "show me, my women, like a queen" (5.2.227), the prospect of a younger colleague taking on the Cleopatra he has shaped must have been as frightening as her being displayed in triumph through the streets of Rome. Actor and character express a common disgust at being parodied, played badly "I'th posture of a whore" (5.2.219-21).…”

Thereby Hangs a Tail: Jonson’s The Devil Is an Ass and Stage Representations of Devil-Servants

“…For instance, John Rice, John Underwood, William Ostler, Nathan Field, and William Eccleston (or Eglestone), were all in their twenties by 1616 and as boy players had established themselves as regular lead female characters, which is itself an endorsement of their actorly skill. 45 46 Ecclestone must have been around twenty years old when he performed in The Alchemist, so the diminutives attached to Kastril may indicate that, even as an adult, he was shorter than the other players; if this is the case, he would have been a good option a few years later to play a role that required a similar stature but good comic sensibilities. Additionally, Wiggins, drawing on 'evidence and inference' in part from Thomas Middleton's A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, in which Ecclestone may have played Sir Walter Whorehound, suggests that the actor may have had red hair, a physical feature that was striking enough to be noted at the time, 47 and (as long as Jonson's devils did not wear wigs) could have served as a marker between the 1.1 and 1.3 transitions.…”

“…The paucity of documentary evidence means too much speculation about the identity of the Pug-actor is unwise, 48 but we cannot escape the historical reality that a King's Man did play Pug in 1616, and that the youth, appearance, and comic abilities of the actors listed above make them reasonable options as performers of Jonson's devil. If these actors were especially striking physically, if Jonson knew them personally, or if they were beginning to establish themselves as familiar faces in the company -thus making George Birch, Richard Sharpe, and William Ecclestone especially attractive candidates -we may have an answer to the mystery as to how Jonson could have potentially changed his character's appearance so profoundly without causing his audience undue confusion.…”