author
Nathaniel Field
b. 1587
A gifted actor-playwright of the Jacobean stage, he rose from child performer to one of London’s notable theatrical talents. His life is especially striking because he built a stage career despite being the son of a preacher who strongly opposed playhouses.
1 Audiobook
The Fatal Dowry
by Philip Massinger, Nathaniel Field
About the author
Born in 1587, Nathan Field was an English dramatist and actor associated with the busy theater world of late Elizabethan and early Jacobean London. He was baptized on October 17, 1587, and was the son of the Puritan minister John Field. That family background makes his path memorable: although his father condemned popular entertainments, Field became a successful man of the stage.
As a boy, he performed with the Children of the Queen’s Revels and stayed connected to leading companies as his career developed. He later became known not only as an actor but also as a playwright, writing comedies such as A Woman Is a Weathercock and Amends for Ladies, and contributing to other dramatic works of the period.
Field is often remembered as one of the important theatrical figures of his generation, admired for both performance and writing. Even centuries later, he stands out as a vivid example of the talented, many-sided people who shaped early modern English drama beyond Shakespeare alone.