The Lewkenor Circle · Court and theatre
George Buc: The Duke of Bracciano and the Stage
Lewkenor’s fellow attendant at Whitehall, Shakespeare’s theatrical informant and Master of the Revels
Courtier, antiquary and theatrical officer
George Buc, also written Buck (c.1560–1622), was a courtier, antiquary and writer who became Master of the Revels in 1610. His responsibilities included licensing plays for performance and supervising the theatrical business of royal entertainment.
Before taking full possession of that office, he appears beside Lewes Lewkenor in the preparations for the visit of Virginio Orsini, Duke of Bracciano. Their names occur within the same instruction for a specific day at Whitehall.
“Mr. Lewkner” and “Mr. Buc”
The directions for Twelfth Day, 6 January 1601, ordered the duke’s escort:
The Lord Darcy be warned to fetch the Duke of Brachiana, accompanied with Mr. Wm. Cecil, Mr. Lewkner, Mr. Edward Gorge, and Mr. Buc, to bring him to the court presently after 11 of the clock. That he be met at the gate by my Lord of Rutland and his two brothers, my Lord Darcy, Mr. Cotton and Mr. Savadge. And all these required to accompany him during his abode in the Court and those that brought him to carry him back that night.
Whitehall ceremonial directions, 6 January 1601, Alnwick papers; spelling lightly modernised.
The assignment required attendance throughout the duke’s visit. Buc and Lewkenor belonged to the party responsible for bringing him to court, accompanying him and returning him afterwards.
Florentine School, circa 1610–15.
Portrait collection.
A play after supper
The same preparations required music and a theatrical performance:
To appoint music severally for the Queen, and some for the play in the Hall. And Hales to have one place expressly to show his own voice, send for the Musicians of the City to be ready to attend. The Children of the Chapel are to come before the Queen at dinner with a Carol.
Instructions for the Twelfth Day entertainment.
An accompanying note records:
In the Hall, which was richly hanged and degrees placed round about it, was the play after supper.
Note accompanying the preparations. “Degrees” refers to raised seating.
Buc and Lewkenor therefore appear within the ceremonial arrangements for a day that included a musical play. Their later offices would divide responsibility between theatrical supervision and the reception of foreign visitors.
Orsini and Shakespeare’s Orsino
Leslie Hotson proposed that the unnamed comedy was Twelfth Night. The visiting Duke Orsini and Shakespeare’s Duke Orsino form the central conjunction, reinforced by the musical requirements:
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
Orsino, Twelfth Night, I, i.
The identification remains a reconstruction of the occasion: the surviving court directions do not give the play’s title. The document’s direct contribution is to name Buc and Lewkenor among Orsini’s attendants.
A later interpretation of the comedy’s musical court.
Painting details.
Buc asks Shakespeare who wrote a play
Buc’s surviving books preserve another kind of theatrical enquiry. In his copy of the anonymous George a Greene, the Pinner of Wakefield, printed in 1599, he recorded information obtained from William Shakespeare:
Written by … a minister, who acted the pinner’s part in it himself. Teste William Shakespeare.
Buc’s annotation, Folger Shakespeare Library, STC 12212; modernised transcription. “Teste” means “by the testimony of”. The author’s name is left blank.
He also recorded a different attribution from the actor Edward Juby:
Edward Juby saith that the play was made by Robert Greene.
Buc’s second annotation; spelling modernised.
The notes preserve Buc consulting two experienced theatre practitioners about authorship. Shakespeare’s answer identified a minister who had performed the leading role; Juby supplied Robert Greene’s name. Buc retained both reports.
The date of the printed quarto does not by itself date the conversations. The annotations were added after Buc acquired the book.
View the annotated title page and transcriptions →
Master of the Revels
Buc obtained the reversion of the Revels office before succeeding Edmund Tilney in 1610. He licensed plays for the press from 1607 and for the stage from 1610.
His position required the examination of plays, negotiation with theatrical companies and attention to material that might cause religious or political offence. The office also formed part of the administration of performances before the monarch.
Lewkenor’s office addressed another part of the same occasion: the reception, movement and treatment of distinguished guests. An ambassador attending a royal play could therefore bring the responsibilities of the two offices together.
The court performances of 1611
Buc’s account for 1611–12 records performances by the King’s Men, including The Tempest at Whitehall on 1 November 1611 and The Winter’s Tale on 5 November.
Such entries provide named plays, dates and royal settings. They complement the earlier Whitehall directions, which describe the preparations in detail but leave the comedy unnamed.
Consult Buc’s account of the court performances →
The Lewkenor connection
Buc’s place beside Lewkenor begins with a documented shared assignment on 6 January 1601. His annotations then provide a separate record of direct consultation with Shakespeare.
Together, these documents connect the reception of an Italian duke, the performance of a musical comedy and the professional knowledge circulating among court officers and players. Buc belongs within that history as an active participant who asked questions, recorded answers and later supervised the stage.
Explore the plays
Twelfth Night ·
The Tempest ·
The Winter’s Tale
People in this circle
Virginio Orsini ·
William Shakespeare ·
John Heminges and Henry Condell
Sources and further reading
Twelfth Day ceremonial directions, 6 January 1601, Alnwick Castle Archives, Letters and Papers, volume 7, folios 19v–22r.
Leslie Hotson, The First Night of Twelfth Night (1954); John H. Astington, “A Drawing of the Great Chamber at Whitehall in 1601” (1991).
George a Greene: George Buc interviews William Shakespeare and Edward Juby, Shakespeare Documented; Folger Shakespeare Library, STC 12212.
Buc’s account of plays performed in 1611–12, Shakespeare Documented; The National Archives.
John Manningham’s diary, 2 February 1602, recording Twelfth Night at the Middle Temple.
The Master of the Ceremonies, 18 October 2026, sections concerning Orsini, Buc, Whitehall and theatrical authorship.