William Sly

Who was William Sly?

William Sly was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a colleague of William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage in the Lord Chamberlain's Men and the King's Men.

Nothing is known of Sly's early life. He enters the historical record by playing Porrex in the c. 1591 production of the play The Seven Deadly Sins, along with Augustine Phillips, Thomas Pope, Richard Cowley, and George Bryan, all future colleagues in the Lord Chamberlain's Men. He is generally thought to have been with the Lord Chamberlain's Men at their re-formed start in 1594, probably at first as a hired man; he may have become a sharer in the company when George Bryan retired, c. 1597, though this is uncertain.

Sly is included in the troupe's surviving cast lists for the next few years, for Every Man in His Humour, Every Man Out of His Humour, and Sejanus — all three by Ben Jonson. He may also have played Osric in Hamlet, in 1602 and after. When the Lord Chamberlain's Men became the King's Men in May 1603, Sly was one of the sharers. He is mentioned by name in the Induction to Marston's The Malcontent, with Burbage and other King's Men.