Nathaniel Field

Born in 1587 and baptized on October 17 of that year, Nathaniel Field was an English actor and dramatist active during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. He was the son of John Field, a Puritan clergyman who wrote against the stage, which makes Nathaniel Field's theatrical career an especially striking turn.

Field first became known as a performer with the Children of the Queen's Revels, one of the famous boy companies of the time, and later worked with major adult playing companies. Alongside acting, he built a reputation as a playwright and is remembered as part of the lively London theater world that also included some of the best-known dramatists of the age.

He died in 1633. Though he is not as widely read today as some of his contemporaries, he remains an interesting figure for readers and theater lovers because he stood at the crossroads of acting, writing, and the fast-changing culture of early modern English drama.