Chamberlain's Men

English theatrical company, the most important in Elizabethan and Jacobean England. It was based at the Globe Theatre from 1599 to 1608. In 1603 it was taken under royal patronage as the King's Men. William Shakespeare was connected with the company for most of his career; it also presented works by Ben Jonson, Thomas Dekker, and Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. It ceased to exist when the theatres were closed at the outbreak of the English Civil Wars in 1642.