Henry Condell

Who was Henry Condell?

Henry Condell was an actor in the King's Men, the playing company for which William Shakespeare wrote. With John Heminges, he was instrumental in preparing the First Folio, the collected plays of Shakespeare, published in 1623.

Condell's early life is obscure. It appears that he may have been from East Anglia, as his will mentions 'my Cosen Gilder late of newe Buckenham’. According to Edmond:

The only Henry Condell so far discovered at a suitable date in that part of England was the son of a Robert Condell of St Peter Mancroft, Norwich, a fishmonger, and his wife, Joan, née Yeomans, of New Buckenham, a market town not far from Norwich. Henry Condell, presumably their son, was baptized at St Peter on 5 September 1576.

Traditionally, he is associated with the "Harry" who appears in the cast list for Richard Tarlton's The Seven Deadly Sins, but this identification is little more than conjecture. If the connection is true, then Condell was an actor as early as 1590, acting in Lord Strange's Men alongside John Heminges and Augustine Phillips.