Chapter VI: Introduction: The Boy Companies (4)

In 1586 Mulcaster quarrelled with the Merchant Taylors and resigned. In 1596 he became High Master of St. Paul’s grammar school, but it is only conjecture that his influence counted for anything in the revival of plays by the choir master, Edward Pearce. Regular plays at Merchant Taylors probably ceased on his withdrawal. When Sir Robert Lee, one of the Company, became Lord Mayor in 1602, a payment was made to Mr. Haines, the Schoolmaster, for a wagon and the apparel of ten scholars, who represented Apollo and the Muses in Cheapside. But when James came to dine at the hall on 16 July 1607, it was thought best to apply for help to Heminges of the King’s men and Nathaniel Giles of the Chapel, on the ground that the Schoolmaster and children were not familiar with such entertainments.[221]

ix. THE EARL OF LEICESTER’S BOYS

Vide ch. xiii (Earl of Leicester’s men).

x. THE EARL OF OXFORD’S BOYS

Vide ch. xiii (Earl of Oxford’s men).

xi. MR. STANLEY’S BOYS

Vide ch. xiii (Earl of Derby’s men).

XIII

THE ADULT COMPANIES

i. The Court Interluders.
ii. The Earl of Leicester’s men.
iii. Lord Rich’s men.
iv. Lord Abergavenny’s men.
v. The Earl of Sussex’s men.
vi. Sir Robert Lane’s men.
vii. The Earl of Lincoln’s (Lord Clinton’s) men.
viii. The Earl of Warwick’s men.
ix. The Earl of Oxford’s men.
x. The Earl of Essex’s men.
xi. Lord Vaux’s men.
xii. Lord Berkeley’s men.
xiii. Queen Elizabeth’s men.
xiv. The Earl of Arundel’s men.
xv. The Earl of Hertford’s men.
xvi. Mr. Evelyn’s men.
xvii. The Earl of Derby’s (Lord Strange’s) men.
xviii. The Earl of Pembroke’s men.
xix. The Lord Admiral’s (Lord Howard’s, Earl of Nottingham’s),
Prince Henry’s, and Elector Palatine’s men.
xx. The Lord Chamberlain’s (Lord Hunsdon’s) and King’s men.
xxi. The Earl of Worcester’s and Queen Anne’s men.
xxii. The Duke of Lennox’s men.
xxiii. The Duke of York’s (Prince Charles’s) men.
xxiv. The Lady Elizabeth’s men.

i. THE COURT INTERLUDERS

Henry VII (22 Aug. 1485--21 Apr. 1509); Henry VIII (22 Apr.
1509--28 Jan. 1547); Edward VI (28 Jan. 1547--6 July 1553); Mary
(19 July 1553--24 July 1554); Philip and Mary (25 July 1554--17
Nov. 1558); Elizabeth (17 Nov. 1558--24 Mar. 1603).

The _doyen_ of the Court companies, when Elizabeth came to the throne, was the royal company of Players of Interludes. This had already half a century of history behind it. Its beginnings are probably traceable in the reign of Henry VII. Richard III had entertained a company, as Duke of Gloucester, in 1482; but nothing is known of it during his short reign from 1583 to 1585.[222] Nor is a royal company discoverable amongst the earlier records of Henry VII himself.[223] But from 1493 onwards Exchequer documents testify to the continuous existence of a body of men under the style of _Lusores Regis_, or in the vulgar tongue, Players of the King’s Interludes. In 1494 there were four of them, John English, Edward May, Richard Gibson, and John Hammond, and each had an annual fee, payable out of the Exchequer, of £3 6_s._ 8_d._ In 1503 there were five, William Rutter and John Scott taking the place of Hammond, but the total Exchequer payment to the company of £13 6_s._ 8_d._ a year, seems to have remained unaltered to the end of the reign.[224] They received, however, additional sums from time to time, as ‘rewards’ for performances, which were charged to the separate account of the Chamber.[225] In 1503, under the leadership of John English, they attended the Princess Margaret to Edinburgh, for her wedding with James IV of Scotland. Here they ‘did their devoir’, both on the day of the wedding, 8 August, and on the following days. On 11 August they played after supper, and on 13 August they played ‘a Moralite’ after dinner.[226]

The royal company continued under Henry VIII, who appears to have increased its numbers, and doubled the charge upon the Exchequer.[227] The financial records are, however, a little complicated. The Exchequer officials presumably continued to regard the establishment as consisting of four members drawing fees of ten instead of five marks each.[228] But the individual members were in fact paid on different scales. John English, the leader, got £6 13_s._ 4_d._ Others got £3 6_s._ 8_d._ as before, and others again only two-thirds of this amount, £2 4_s._ 5_d._ By this arrangement, it was possible to maintain an actual establishment of from eight to ten within the limits of the Exchequer allowance. It seems also to have been found convenient to transfer the responsibility for some at least of the payments from the Exchequer to the Treasurer of the Chamber.[229] The same distinction between players of different grades is also reflected in the annual rewards paid by the Treasurer of the Chamber for Christmas performances. These were increased in amount, and for a time the general reward to the players as a whole was supplemented by an additional sum to the ‘old’ players. Ultimately an amalgamated sum of £6 13_s._ 4_d._ became the customary reward for the company.[230] Details of a performance of Henry Medwall’s _Finding of Truth_ on 6 January 1514 are related by Collier from a document which cannot be regarded as free from suspicion.[231] The name of Richard Gibson now disappears from the notices of the company. He may, likely enough, have given up playing on his appointment to be Porter and Yeoman Tailor of the Great Wardrobe.[232] But in his capacity of officer in charge of the Revels he must have maintained close relations with his former fellows, and his Account for 1510 records the delivery to John English of a ‘red satin ladies garment, powdered, with tassels of silver of Kolen’.[233] English remained at the head of the company, and is traceable in the _Chamber Accounts_ up to 1531. John Scott died in 1528–9, in singular circumstances which are detailed by a contemporary chronicler.[234] Other names which come in succession before us are those of Richard Hole, George Maylor, George Birch, John Roll or Roo (_d._ 1539), Thomas Sudbury or Sudborough (_d._ 1546), Robert Hinstock, Richard Parrowe, John Slye, and John Young.[235] Some interesting information is disclosed by two lawsuits, in both of which George Maylor figured. The first of these was a dispute between John Rastell and Henry Walton as to the dilapidations of certain playing garments, during which George Mayler, merchant tailor, aged 40, and George Birch, coriar, aged 32, were called to give evidence as to the value of the garments and their use for a royal banquet at Greenwich in 1527.[236] In the second Mayler was himself a party. He is here described as a glazier, and an agreement of November 1528 is recited between him and one Thomas Arthur, tailor, whom he took as an apprentice for a year, promising to teach him to play and to obtain him admission into the King’s company and the right to the privileges (_libertatem_) thereof and ‘the Kinges bage’. According to Mayler, he found Arthur meat and drink and 4_d._ a day, but after seven weeks Arthur left him, beguiling away three of his covenant servants upon a playing tour in the provinces, out of which they made a profit of £30. He was, adds Mayler, ‘right harde and dull too taike any lernynge, whereby he was nothinge meate or apte too bee in service with the Kinges grace too maike any plaiez or interludes before his highnes’. Arthur, on the other hand, alleged that it was Mayler who had broken the indentures, and sued him before the sheriffs of London for £26 damages. Owing to the accident of Mayler’s being in Ludgate prison and unable to defend himself, the jury found against him for £4, and he appealed to Chancery to remove the action to that court.[237] The King’s men, even apart from their other occupations as Household servants or tradesmen, were not wholly dependent on the royal bounty. The reward at Christmas was supplemented by minor gifts from the Princess Mary, or from lords and ladies of the Court, such as the Duke of Rutland and the Countess of Devon;[238] and the glamour of the King’s badge doubtless added to the liberality of the company’s reception in many a monastery, country mansion, and town hall. They are found during the reign at the priories of Thetford, Dunmow (1531–2), and Durham (1532–3), at the house of the Lestranges at Hunstanton (23 October 1530), at New Romney (1526–7), Shrewsbury (1527, 1533, 1540), Leicester (1531), Norwich (1533), Bristol (1535, 1536, 1537, 1541), Cambridge (1537–8), Beverley (1540–1), and Maldon (1546–7).[239] A private performance by the King’s men forms an episode in the Elizabethan play of _Sir Thomas More_, although the Mason there named cannot be traced amongst their number.

No important change in the status of the company is to be observed under Edward VI. Some of the existing members seem to have retired, and four new ones, Richard Coke, John Birch, Henry Heryot, and John Smyth, were appointed.[240] The first three of these, together with two others, Richard Skinner and Thomas Southey, received a warrant to the Master of the Great Wardrobe on 15 February 1548, for the usual livery assigned to yeomen officers of the household, which consisted of three yards of red cloth, with an allowance of 3_s._ 4_d._ for the embroidering thereon of the royal initials.[241] The fees of these five, and of George Birch and Robert Hinstock, who were survivors from Henry VIII’s time, are traceable, as well as the annual reward of £6 13_s._ 4_d._, in the Chamber Accounts.[242] Each now got £3 6_s._ 8_d._ a year, under a warrant of 24 December 1548. The same names appear in a list of 30 September 1552, with the exception of Robert Hinstock, whose place had probably been taken by John Browne, appointed as from the previous Christmas by a warrant of 9 June 1552, which introduced the innovation of granting him a livery allowance of £1 3_s._ 4_d._ a year instead of the actual livery.[243] If we suppose that John Smith and John Young continued to be borne on the Exchequer pay-roll, the total number of eight interlude-players provided for in fee-lists of Edward’s reign is made up.[244] John Smith is probably to be identified with the ‘disard’ or jester of that name who took part in George Ferrers’s Christmas gambols of 1552–3.[245] John Young may be the ‘right worshipful esquire John Yung’ to whom William Baldwin dedicated his _Beware the Cat_ in 1553. He certainly survived into Elizabeth’s reign and was still drawing an annuity of £3 6_s._ 8_d._ as ‘agitator comediarum’ in 1569–70.[246] I have not noticed any provincial performances by the company during 1547–53, except at Maldon in 1549–50, but they are referred to more than once in the archives of the Revels. The Revels Office made them an oven and weapons of wood at Shrovetide 1548 and a seven-headed dragon at Shrovetide 1549. At Christmas 1551–2 the Privy Council gave them a warrant to borrow ‘apparell and other fornyture’ from the Master, and Lord Darcy gave John Birch and John Browne another for garments to serve in an interlude before the King on 6 January 1552.[247] William Baldwin, in his _Beware the Cat_, relates that during the Christmas of 1552–3, they were learning ‘a play of Esop’s Crowe, wherin the moste part of the actors were birds’.[248] Their only other play of which the name is known is that of _Self Love_, for which Sir Thomas Chaloner gave them 20s. on a Shrove Monday in 1551–3.[249]

The company no doubt took their share in Court revels during the earlier part of Mary’s reign. But when the eclipse of gaiety came upon her later years they travelled. They are noted as the King and Queen’s men in 1555–6 at Ipswich and Gloucester, in 1557 at Bristol, and in 1558 at Barnstaple, and as the Queen’s men in 1555 at Leicester, in 1555–6 at Beverley, in 1556–7 at Beverley, Oxford, Norwich and Exeter, and in 1557–8 at Beverley, Leicester, Maldon, Dover, Lyme Regis, and Barnstaple. The nominal establishment continued to be eight.[250] But Heriot disappears after 1552 and John Birch, Coke, and Southey after 1556, and their vacancies do not seem to have been filled.[251]

Under Elizabeth the interlude players were certainly a moribund folk. They were reappointed ‘during pleasure’ under a warrant of 25 December 1559, and apparently Edmund Strowdewike and William Reading took the place of George Birch and Skinner.[252] They drew their fees of £3 6_s._ 8_d._ and livery allowances of £1 3_s._ 4_d._ from the Treasurer of the Chamber. The eight posts figure on the fee-lists long after there were no holders left.[253] The last ‘reward’ to the company, not improbably for the anti-papal farce of 6 January 1559, is to be found in the Chamber Account for 1558–60. It may be inferred that they never again played at Court. They were allowed to dwindle away. Browne and Reading died in 1563, Strowdewike on 3 June 1568, and Smith survived in solitary dignity until 1580.[254] Up to about 1573 he kept up some sort of provincial organization, doubtless with the aid of unofficial associates, and the Queen’s players are therefore traceable in many municipal Account-books. In October 1559 they were at Bristol and before Christmas at Leicester, in 1559–60 at Gloucester, in 1560–1 at Barnstaple, in 1561 at Faversham,[255] in October–December 1561 at Leicester, in 1561–2 at Gloucester, Maldon, and Beverley, in July 1562 at Grimsthorpe, and on 4 October at Ipswich, in August 1563 at Bristol, in 1563–4 at Maldon, on 12 and 20 March 1564 at Ipswich again, and on 2 August at Leicester, in 1564–5 at Abingdon, Maldon, and Gloucester, in 1565–6 at Maldon, Oxford, and Shrewsbury, in July 1566 at Bristol, before 29 September at Leicester, and on 9 October at Ipswich, in July 1567 at Bristol, in 1567–8 at Oxford and Gloucester, in 1568–9 at Abingdon, Ipswich, and Stratford-upon-Avon, in August 1569 at Bristol, and on 7 December at Oxford, in 1569–70 at Gloucester and Maldon, before 29 September 1570 at Leicester, in 1570–1 at Winchester, and during October-December 1571 at Leicester, in 1571–2 at Oxford, on 23 May 1572 at Nottingham, and on 20 November at Maldon, in 1572–3 at Ipswich, on 7 January 1573 at Beverley, and in 1573 at Winchester. This list is not exhaustive.[256] A reward to ‘the Queens Majesty’s men’ in the Doncaster accounts for 1575 can hardly be assumed to refer to actors.

ii. THE EARL OF LEICESTER’S MEN

Robert Dudley; 5th s. of John, 1st Duke of Northumberland,
_nat._ 24 June 1532 or 1533; m. (1) Amy, d. of Sir John
Robsart, 4 June 1550, (2) Douglas Lady Sheffield, d. of William,
1st Lord Howard of Effingham, May 1573, (3) Lettice Countess of
Essex, d. of Sir Francis Knollys, 1578; Master of the Horse, 11
Jan. 1559; High Steward of Cambridge, 1562; Earl of Leicester,
29 Sept. 1564; Chancellor of Oxford, 31 Dec. 1564; Lord Steward,
1584–8; Absolute Governor of United Provinces, 25 Jan. 1586–12
Apr. 1588; _ob._ 4 Sept. 1588.

The earliest mention of Lord Robert Dudley’s players is in a letter which he wrote in June 1559 to the Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord President of the North, as Lord Lieutenant of Yorkshire, asking licence for them to perform in that county, in accordance with the proclamation of 16 May 1559.[257] The terms of the letter suggest that the company may already have played in London, but it is probable, as nothing is said of a hearing by the Queen, that they had not been at Court. They were there at each Christmas from 1560–1 to 1562–3, and then not for a decade. They were in 1558–9 at Norwich, in 1559–60 at Oxford, Saffron Walden, and Plymouth, in July 1560 at Bristol, in October 1561 at Grimsthorpe, in 1561–2 at Oxford, Maldon, and Ipswich, in September 1562 at Bristol, where they are called ‘Lord Dudley’s’ players, on 12 November 1563 at Leicester, and on 17 November at Ipswich, in 1563–4 at Maldon, on 2 January 1564 at Ipswich, and on 1 July at Leicester. They are also found, as the Earl of Leicester’s, in 1564–5 at Maldon, on 6 April 1565 at York, on 11 August 1569 at Nottingham, in January 1570 at Bristol, on 4 May 1570 at Oxford, and in October-December at Leicester, in 1570–1 at Abingdon, Barnstaple, and Gloucester, on 9 August 1571 at Saffron Walden,[258] in October–December at Leicester, in the same year at Beverley, on 15 July 1572 at Ipswich, and on 20 August at Nottingham. The gap in my records between 1565 and 1569 is bridged in the fuller list covering other towns given by Mr. Murray.[259] Information as to the company in 1572 is derived from the signatures to a letter asking for appointment by Leicester, not merely as liveried retainers but as household servants, in order to meet the terms of the proclamation of 3 January in that year.[260]

To the right honorable Earle of Lecester, their good lord and
master.

Maye yt please your honour to understande that forasmuche as
there is a certayne Procalmation out for the revivinge of a
Statute as touchinge retayners, as youre Lordshippe knoweth
better than we can enforme you thereof: We therfore, your humble
Servaunts and daylye Oratours your players, for avoydinge all
inconvenients that maye growe by reason of the saide Statute,
are bold to trouble your Lordshippe with this our Suite, humblie
desiringe your honor that (as you have bene alwayes our good
Lord and Master) you will now vouchsaffe to reteyne us at this
present as your houshold Servaunts and daylie wayters, not
that we meane to crave any further stipend or benefite at your
Lordshippes hands but our lyveries as we have had, and also your
honors License to certifye that we are your houshold Servaunts
when we shall have occasion to travayle amongst our frendes as
we do usuallye once a yere, and as other noble-mens Players do
and have done in tyme past, Wherebie we maye enjoye our facultie
in your Lordshippes name as we have done hertofore. Thus beyinge
bound and readie to be alwayes at your Lordshippes commandmente
we committ your honor to the tuition of the Almightie.

Long may your Lordshippe live in peace,
A pere of noblest peres:
In helth welth and prosperitie
Redoubling Nestor’s yeres.

Your Lordshippes Servaunts most bounden
Iames Burbage.
Iohn Perkinne.
Iohn Laneham.
William Iohnson.
Roberte Wilson.
Thomas Clarke.

Several of these men were to achieve distinction in their ‘quality’; of none of them is there any earlier record, unless John Perkin is to be identified with the Parkins who had been in 1552–3 one of the train of the Lord of Misrule.[261] By 6 December 1571 the company were in London.[262] Three years later they obtained a very singular favour in the patent of 10 May 1574, the general bearings of which have already been discussed.[263]

[Sidenote: pro Iacobo Burbage & aliis de licencia speciali]

Elizabeth by the grace of God quene of England, &c. To all
Iustices, Mayors, Sheriffes, Baylyffes, head Constables, vnder
Constables, and all other our officers and mynisters gretinge.
Knowe ye that we of oure especiall grace, certen knowledge,
and mere mocion haue licenced and auctorised, and by these
presentes do licence and auctorise, oure lovinge Subiectes,
Iames Burbage, Iohn Perkyn, Iohn Lanham, William Iohnson, and
Roberte Wilson, seruauntes to oure trustie and welbeloued Cosen
and Counseyllor the Earle of Leycester, to vse, exercise, and
occupie the arte and facultye of playenge Commedies, Tragedies,
Enterludes, stage playes, and such other like as they haue
alredie vsed and studied, or hereafter shall vse and studie,
aswell for the recreacion of oure loving subiectes, as for oure
solace and pleasure when we shall thincke good to see them,
as also to vse and occupie all such Instrumentes as they haue
alredie practised, or hereafter shall practise, for and during
our pleasure. And the said Commedies, Tragedies, Enterludes,
and stage playes, to gether with their musicke, to shewe,
publishe, exercise, and occupie to their best commoditie during
all the terme aforesaide, aswell within oure Citie of London
and liberties of the same, as also within the liberties and
fredomes of anye oure Cities, townes, Bouroughes &c. whatsoeuer
as without the same, thoroughte oure Realme of England.
Willynge and commaundinge yow and everie of yowe, as ye tender
our pleasure, to permytte and suffer them herein withoute anye
yowre lettes, hynderaunce, or molestacion duringe the terme
aforesaid, anye acte, statute, proclamacion, or commaundement
heretofore made, or hereafter to be made, to the contrarie
notwithstandinge. Prouyded that the said Commedies, Tragedies,
enterludes, and stage playes be by the master of oure Revells
for the tyme beynge before sene & allowed, and that the same be
not published or shewen in the tyme of common prayer, or in the
tyme of greate and common plague in oure said Citye of London.
In wytnes whereof &c. wytnes oure selfe at Westminster the
x^{th} daye of Maye.
per breve de priuato sigillo

The names in this patent only differ from those in the letter of 1572 by the omission of Thomas Clarke. By the time of its issue Leicester’s men were again a Court company. They had made their reappearance at the Christmas of 1572–3 with three plays, all given before the end of December. They continued to appear in every subsequent year until the formation of the Queen’s men in 1583. The building of the Theatre by James Burbadge in 1576 gave them a valuable head-quarters in London[264]; but they are still found from time to time about the provinces. Their detailed adventures are as follows. In 1572–3 they were at Stratford-on-Avon, on 8 August 1573 at Beverley, on 1 September at Nottingham, and in October at Bristol. On 26 December they played _Predor and Lucia_ at Court, on 28 December _Mamillia_, and on 21 February 1574 _Philemon and Philecia_. In 1573–4 they were at Oxford and Leicester, on 13 June 1574 at Maldon, on 3 December at Canterbury. In 1574 they were also at Doncaster, where they played in the church. For the Court they rehearsed _Panecia_, and this was probably either their play of 26 December in which ‘my Lord of Lesters boyes’ appeared, or that of 1 January 1575, in which there were chimney-sweepers. From 9 to 27 July 1575 Elizabeth paid her historic visit to Kenilworth, and there is no proof, but much probability, that the company were called upon to take their part in her entertainment. Its chronicler, Robert Laneham, may well have been a kinsman of the player. I have not come across them elsewhere this year, except at Southampton. They played at Court on 28 December 1575 and 4 March 1576, and are described in the account for their payment as ‘Burbag and his company’. A record of them at Ipswich in 1575–6 as ‘my Lorde Robertes’ men is probably misdated. On 30 December 1576 they acted _The Collier_ at Court. In 1576–7 they were at Stratford-on-Avon, in September 1577 at Newcastle, and between 13 and 19 October at Bristol, where they gave _Myngo_.[265] In 1577–8 they were also at Bath. They were at Court on 26 December 1577 and were to have performed again on 11 February 1578, but were displaced for Lady Essex’s men. They may have been at Wanstead in May 1578 when Leicester entertained Elizabeth with Sidney’s _The May Lady_. On 1 September they were at Maldon, on 9 September at Ipswich, and on 3 November at Lord North’s at Kirtling. They played _A Greek Maid_ at Court on 4 January 1579.[266] Their play on 28 December 1579 fell through because Elizabeth could not be present, but they played on 6 January 1580. In 1579–80 they were at Ipswich and Durham, and from 15 to 17 May 1580 at Kirtling. Vice-Chancellor Hatcher’s letter of 21 January 1580 to Burghley about Oxford’s men (_vide infra_) shows that Leicester’s had then recently been refused leave to play at Cambridge. They played _Delight_ at Court on 26 December and appeared again on 7 February 1581. That Wilson was still a member of the company in 1581 is shown by the reference to him in the curious Latin letter written by one of Lord Shrewsbury’s players on 25 April of that year.[267] In the following winter they did not come to Court, but on 10 February 1583 they returned with _Telomo_.[268]

The best of Leicester’s men, including Laneham, Wilson, and Johnson, appear to have joined the Queen’s company on its formation in March 1583. Probably the Queen’s also took over the Theatre. James Burbadge himself may have given up acting. Nothing more is heard of Leicester’s men until 1584–5, when players under his name visited Coventry, Leicester, Gloucester, and Norwich. They were at Dover in June 1585, and at Bath as late as August. These may have been either the relics of the old company, or a new one formed to attend the Earl in his expedition to aid the States-General in the Low Countries. He was appointed to the command of the English forces on 28 August, and reached Flushing on 10 December. The pageants in his honour at Utrecht, Leyden, and the Hague were remarkable. Stowe records festivities at Utrecht on St. George’s Day, 23 April 1586. These included an after-dinner show of ‘dauncing, vauting, and tumbling, with the forces of Hercules, which gave great delight to the strangers, for they had not seene it before’.[269] It is a reasonable inference that the performers in _The Forces of Hercules_ were English.[270] And on 24 March 1586 Sir Philip Sidney, writing to Walsingham from Utrecht, says:

‘I wrote to yow a letter by Will, my lord of Lester’s jesting
plaier, enclosed in a letter to my wife, and I never had answer
thereof ... I since find that the knave deliverd the letters to
my ladi of Lester.’[271]

That the ‘jesting plaier’ was William Shakespeare is on the whole less likely than that he was the famous comic actor, William Kempe; and this theory is confirmed by a mention in an earlier letter of 12 November 1585 from Thomas Doyley at Calais to Leicester himself of ‘Mr. Kemp, called Don Gulihelmo’, as amongst those remaining at Dunkirk.[272] Leicester returned to England in November 1586. ‘Wilhelm Kempe, instrumentist’ and his lad ‘Daniell Jonns’ were at the Danish Court at Helsingör in August and September of the same year; and so, from 17 July to 18 September, were five ‘instrumentister och springere’ whose names may evidently be anglicized as Thomas Stevens, George Bryan, Thomas King, Thomas Pope, and Robert Percy (cf. ch. xiv). Some or all of these men are evidently the company of English comedians referred to by Thomas Heywood as commended by the Earl of Leicester to Frederick II of Denmark. Stevens and his fellows, but not apparently Kempe, went on to Dresden. Some of them ultimately became Lord Strange’s men. But it seems to me very doubtful whether, as is usually suggested, they passed direct into his service from that of Leicester.[273] They did not leave Dresden until 17 July 1587. But Leicester’s were at Exeter on 23 March 1586. They played at Court on 27 December 1586, and were in London about 25 January 1587. They were at Abingdon, Bath, Lathom, Coventry, Leicester, Oxford, Stratford-on-Avon, Dover, Canterbury, Marlborough, Southampton, Exeter, Gloucester, and Norwich during 1586–7. Kempe may, of course, have been with them on these occasions; but if Stevens and the rest passed as Leicester’s in the Low Countries, it is likely that they ceased to do so when they went to Denmark.

Finally, Leicester’s men were at Coventry, Reading, Bath, Maidstone, Dover, Plymouth, Gloucester, York, Saffron Walden, and probably Exeter in 1587–8.[274] On 4 September they were at Norwich, and here William Stonage, a cobbler, was committed to prison at their suit, ‘for lewd words uttered against the ragged staff’.[275] As late as 14 September they did not yet know that the lord in whose name they wore this badge was dead, for on that day, unless the records are again in error, they were still playing at Ipswich.[276]

iii. LORD RICH’S MEN

Richard Rich; _nat._ _c._ 1496; cr. 1st Baron Rich, 26 Feb.
1548; Lord Chancellor, 23 Oct. 1548–21 Dec. 1551; m. Elizabeth
Jenks; _ob._ 12 June 1567.

Robert, s. of 1st Baron; _nat._ _c._ 1537; succ. as 2nd Baron,
1567; _ob._ 1581.

The company was at Ipswich on 3 May 1564, Saffron Walden in 1563–4, Maldon in 1564–5, York on 6 April 1565, and Ipswich on 31 July 1567. Then it secured a footing in London, and appeared at Court during the Christmas of 1567–8, on 26 December 1568, and on 5 February 1570. On 2 February 1570 it played at the Lincoln’s Inn Candlemas ‘Post Revels’.[277] It was also at Canterbury in 1569, Saffron Walden in 1569–70, and Maldon in 1570. Presumably it was a later company to which Gabriel Harvey referred in 1579 (cf. p. 4), and the death of Lord Rich in 1581 might naturally have led to its disbandment or change of service.

iv. LORD ABERGAVENNY’S MEN

Henry Neville, s. of George, 3rd Lord Abergavenny; succ. as 4th
Lord, 1535; _ob._ 1586.

The only London record of this company is a civic licence for it of 29 January 1572 (App. D, No. xxi), but it is found in provincial records at Dover, Canterbury, Leicester, Bristol, and Faversham in 1571 and 1572, and at Ludlow in 1575–6.

v. THE EARL OF SUSSEX’S MEN

Thomas Radcliffe, s. of Henry, 2nd Earl; _nat._ _c._ 1526; m.
(1) Elizabeth, d. of Thomas Earl of Southampton, (2) Frances, d.
of Sir William Sidney, 26 Apr. 1555; succ. as 3rd Earl, 17 Feb.
1557; Lord Chamberlain, 13 July 1572; _ob._ 9 June 1583.

Henry Radcliffe, s. of Henry, 2nd Earl; _nat._ _c._ 1530; m.
Honora, d. of Anthony Pound, before 24 Feb. 1561; succ. as 4th
Earl, 1583; _ob._ 14 Dec. 1593.

Robert Radcliffe, s. of 4th Earl; _nat._ _c._ 1569; m. (1)
Bridget, d. of Sir Charles Morison, who _ob._ Dec. 1623, (2)
Frances Shute; succ. as 5th Earl, 1593; acting Earl Marshal,
1597, 1601; _ob._ 22 Sept. 1629.

The third Earl of Sussex had a company, which proved one of the most long-lived of the theatrical organizations of Elizabeth’s time and held together, now in London and now in the provinces, under no less than three earls. It first makes its appearance at Nottingham on 16 March 1569, at Maldon in 1570, on 28 January 1571, and on 20 August 1572, at Ipswich in 1571–2, at Canterbury and Dover in 1569 and 1570, and in 1569–70 at Bristol, Gloucester, and Ludlow, where it was of six men. Sussex became Chamberlain in July 1572 and in the following winter his company came to the Court, whose Christmases it helped to enliven pretty regularly until the death of its first patron in 1583. As I have shown elsewhere (ch. vi), Sussex seems to have had occasional deputies in Lord Howard of Effingham and Lord Hunsdon during his term of office, but it is probably justifiable to assume that, when the Chamberlain’s men are referred to at any time during 1572–83, Sussex’s men are meant, and in 1577 and 1581 there is clear evidence that the names are used synonymously. Oddly enough, Howard’s men are also referred to in one record of 1577 (cf. p. 134) as the Chamberlain’s, but that is probably a slip. The detailed history of the company during this period is as follows. In 1572–3 they were at Bath, in July 1573 at Leicester, on 14 September at Nottingham, in 1573–4 at Coventry, in 1574, on some date before 29 September, at Leicester again, on 13 July at Maldon, and in September at Wollaton (Francis Willoughby’s). They rehearsed two Court plays for Christmas on 14 December, _Phedrastus_ and _Phigon and Lucia_, but in the end did not give a performance. In 1574–5 they were at Gloucester, in 1575 at Maldon, and before 29 September at Leicester. They played at Court on 2 February 1576. Their payee was John Adams, the only actor whose name is recorded in connexion with the company. In 1575–6 they were at Ipswich, on 27 July 1576 at Cambridge, and between 29 July and 5 August at Bristol, where they played _The Red Knight_. On 2 February 1577 they played _The Cynocephali_ at Court. In 1576–7 they were at Coventry and Bath, on 30 May 1577 at Ipswich, and on 31 August at Nottingham. On 2 February 1578 they played at Court. In 1577–8 they were at Bath, on 15 July 1578 at Maldon, in the same year at Bristol, and in 1578–9 at Bath. Thereafter their activities seem to have been mainly confined to London. They were named by the Privy Council to the Lord Mayor among the Court companies for the Christmas of 1578–9 (App. D, No. xl), and played _The Cruelty of a Stepmother_ on 28 December 1578, _The Rape of the Second Helen_ on 6 January, and _Murderous Michael_ on 3 March 1579. In the following winter their pieces were _The Duke of Milan and the Marquess of Mantua_ on 26 December, _Portio and Demorantes_ on 2 February, and _Sarpedon_ on 16 February 1580.[278] The names of their Court plays on 27 December 1580 and 2 February 1581 are unfortunately not recorded. On 14 September they recur in the provinces, at Nottingham.[279] They missed the next winter at Court, and made their last appearance there for a decade in _Ferrar_ on 6 January 1583.

Either the death of their patron in June 1583, or possibly the formation of the Queen’s men in the previous March, eclipsed them, but in 1585 they reappear as a provincial company, visiting Dover on 15 May, Bath on 22 July and in May 1586, Coventry twice in 1585–6, Ipswich in 1586–7, York in 1587, Leicester before Michaelmas of the same year, and Coventry in September. Here they were playing under the name of the Countess of Sussex. In 1587–8 they were at Coventry and Bath, on 18 April 1588 at Ipswich, on 17 February 1589 at Leicester, on 1 March at Ipswich, on 19 November at Leicester again, in the course of 1589 at Faversham, and in 1588–9 at Aldeburgh. On 17 February 1590 they were at Ipswich. In the spring of 1591 they appear to have made a temporary amalgamation with a group of the Queen’s men (q.v.) and appeared with them on 14 February at Southampton, on 24 March at Coventry, and during 1590–1 at Gloucester. This arrangement probably terminated in May, and on 11 August Sussex’s were alone at Leicester.[280]

They enter the charmed London circle again with a Court performance on 2 January 1592.[281] It is possible that they had attracted the services of Marlowe, for Kyd in a letter, probably to be dated in 1593, speaks of himself as having been in the service of a lord for whose players Marlowe was writing, and there are some traces of connexion between Kyd and the house of Radcliffe. During the plague of 1593 the company were obliged to travel again, and on 29 April the Privy Council Register records the issue of

‘an open warrant for the plaiers, servantes to the Erle of
Sussex, authorysinge them to exercyse theire qualitie of
playinge comedies and tragedies in any county, cittie, towne or
corporacion not being within vij^{en} miles of London, where the
infection is not, and in places convenient and tymes fitt.’[282]

The company were at Ipswich, Newcastle, and York in 1592–3. They were at Winchester on 7 December 1593; then came to London under the patronage of the fifth Earl, and, although not at Court, had a season of about six weeks, beginning on 26 December and ending on 6 February, with Henslowe, probably at the Rose. The names and dates of their plays and sums received at each, probably by himself as owner of the theatre, are noted by Henslowe in his diary. The company performed on thirty nights, in twelve plays. Henslowe’s receipts averaged £1 13_s._, amounting to £3 1_s._ on the first night and £3 10_s._ on each of the next two, and thereafter fluctuating greatly, from a minimum of 5_s._ to a maximum of £3 8_s._ This last was at the production of the one ‘new’ play of the season, _Titus Andronicus_, on 24 January. The enterprise was brought to an abrupt termination by a renewed alarm of plague, and a consequent inhibition of plays by the Privy Council on 3 February. _Titus Andronicus_ was played for the third and last time on 6 February, and on the same day the book was entered for copyright purposes in the Stationers’ Register. The edition published in the same year professes to give the play as it was played by ‘the Earle of Darbie, Earle of Pembrooke, and Earle of Sussex their Servants’. I suppose it to have passed, probably in a pre-Shakespearian version, from Pembroke’s to Sussex’s, when the former were bankrupt in the summer of 1593 (cf. _infra_), and to have been revised for Sussex’s by the hand of Shakespeare. If so, it is a plausible conjecture that certain other plays, which were once Pembroke’s and ultimately came to the Chamberlain’s men, also passed through the hands of Sussex’s. Such were _The Taming of A Shrew_, _The Contention of York and Lancaster_, and perhaps the _Ur-Hamlet_, _1 Henry VI_, and _Richard III_. There is no basis for determining whether any of Shakespeare’s work on the York tetralogy was done for Sussex’s; but it is worth noting that one of their productions was _Buckingham_, a title which might fit either _Richard III_ or that early version of _Henry VIII_, the existence of which, on internal grounds, I suspect. Of Sussex’s other plays in this season, one, _George a Greene, the Pinner of Wakefield_, was published as theirs in 1599; another, Marlowe’s _Jew of Malta_, probably belonged to Henslowe, as it was acted in turn by nearly every company which he financed; and of the rest, _God Speed the Plough_, _Huon of Bordeaux_, _Richard the Confessor_, _William the Conqueror_, _Friar Francis_, _Abraham and Lot_, _The Fair Maid of Italy_, and _King Lud_, nothing is known, except for the entry of _God Speed the Plough_ in 1601 and an edifying tale related about 1608 by Thomas Heywood in connexion with an undated performance of _Friar Francis_ by the company at King’s Lynn.[283]

At Easter 1594 Henslowe records another very brief season of eight nights between 1 and 9 April, during which the Queen’s and Sussex’s men played ‘together’. This suggests to Dr. Greg that the companies appeared on different nights, but to me rather that they combined their forces, as they seem to have already done at Coventry in 1591. Henslowe’s receipts averaged £1 17_s._ The repertory included, besides _The Fair Maid of Italy_ and _The Jew of Malta_, _King Leare_, doubtless to be identified with _King Leire and his Three Daughters_ (1605), _The Ranger’s Comedy_, and _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_. The latter was published in 1594 as a Queen’s play. Both it and _The Ranger’s Comedy_ were played at a later date by the Admiral’s, and may have belonged to Henslowe. Strange’s had played _Friar Bacon_ in 1592–3.

Thereafter Sussex’s men vanish from the annals; they may have been absorbed in the Queen’s men for travelling purposes. Later players under the same name are recorded at Coventry in 1602–3, Dover in 1606–7, Canterbury in 1607–8, Bristol, Norwich, and Dunwich in 1608–9, Leicester on 31 August 1615, and Leominster in 1618, and it may be these to whom Heywood alludes as visiting King’s Lynn. If so, their possession of _Friar Francis_ suggests some affiliation to the earlier company.

vi. SIR ROBERT LANE’S MEN

Robert Lane, of Horton, Northants; _nat._ _c._ 1528; Kt. 2 Oct.
1553; m. (1) Catherine, d. of Sir Roger Copley, (2) Mary, d. of
John Heneage.

I have not come across Sir Robert Lane’s men except at Bristol in August 1570, and at Court during the Christmas of 1571–2. On 27 December 1571 they played _Lady Barbara_ and on 17 February 1572 _Cloridon and Radiamanta_. The first performance was paid for by a warrant of 5 January to Laurence Dutton; the second by a warrant of 26 February, in which, according to the entry in the Privy Council Register, Dutton was again named.[284] But the Treasurer of the Chamber records the payment as made to John Greaves and Thomas Goughe. Probably this company is identical with that found next year in the service of the Earl of Lincoln.

vii. THE EARL OF LINCOLN’S (LORD CLINTON’S) MEN

Edward Fiennes de Clinton; s. of Thomas, 8th Lord Clinton and
Saye, _nat._ 1512; m. (1) Elizabeth Lady Talboys, d. of Sir
John Blount, 1534, (2) Ursula, d. of William Lord Stourton,
_c._ 1540, (3) Elizabeth Lady Browne, ‘the fair Geraldine,’ d.
of Gerald, 9th Earl of Kildare, _c._ 1552; succ. as 9th Baron,
1517; Lord High Admiral, 1550–3, and again 13 Feb. 1558; 1st
Earl of Lincoln, 4 May 1572; ambassador to France, 1572; Lord
Steward, 1581–5; _ob._ 16 Jan. 1585.

Henry Fiennes de Clinton, s. of Edward and Ursula; _nat._ _c._
1541; m. (1) Catharine, d. of Francis, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon,
Feb. 1557, (2) Elizabeth, d. of Sir Richard Morison and wid.
of William Norreys, after 1579; Kt. 29 Sept. 1553; succ. as 2nd
Earl, 16 Jan. 1585; _ob._ 29 Sept. 1616.

Players serving the Lord Admiral were at Winchester in 1566–7. A company under the name of the Earl of Lincoln and led by Laurence Dutton played at Court during the Christmas of 1572–3, and a company under that of Lord Clinton, and also led by Dutton, in _Herpetulus the Blue Knight and Perobia_ on 3 January 1574, and on 27 December 1574 and 2 January 1575. For 1574–5 they rehearsed three plays, one of which was _Pretestus_. Probably these are the same company transferred by the Lord Admiral to his son. Dutton was with Sir Robert Lane’s men in 1571–2 and with the Earl of Warwick’s in 1575–6. The whole company may have taken service with Lincoln instead of Lane as a result of the statute of 1572 (App. D, No. xxiv), but it does not seem to have been altogether absorbed in Warwick’s, as Lord Clinton’s men are found at Southampton on 24 June 1577, when they were six in number, at Bristol in July, and at Coventry in 1576–7. A later company under the name of the Earl of Lincoln has a purely provincial record in 1599–1604. There is an isolated notice at Norwich in 1608–9.

viii. THE EARL OF WARWICK’S MEN

Ambrose Dudley, 3rd s. of John, 1st Duke of Northumberland;
_nat._ _c._ 1528; m. (1) Anne Whorwood, (2) Elizabeth Talboys,
_c._ 1553, (3) Anne, d. of Francis, Earl of Bedford, 11 Nov.
1565; Master of Ordnance, 12 Apr. 1560; Earl of Warwick, 26 Dec.
1561; Chief Butler of England, 4 May 1571; Privy Councillor, 5
Sept. 1573; _ob._ 20 Feb. 1590.

Dudley seems to have had players in London in January 1562, when they were rewarded by the Duchess of Suffolk.[285] They are also found in 1559–64 at Oxford, Gloucester, Bristol, Plymouth, Winchester, Dover, Canterbury, and Norwich. Their only Court performances upon record were two during the Christmas of 1564–5. In 1564–5 they were apparently at Canterbury.[286]

After an interval of ten years there are Warwick’s men at Court on 14 February 1575 and also at Stratford in the course of 1574–5, at Lichfield between 27 July and 3 August during the progress,[287] and at Leicester before 29 September 1575. At the following Christmas they gave three plays at Court, on 26 December 1575 and 1 January and on 5 March 1576. John and Laurence Dutton and Jerome Savage were their payees. Laurence Dutton and possibly others of the company had been, a year before, in Lord Clinton’s service. During the next four winters they appeared regularly at Court, and are recorded at Leicester in 1576 and Nottingham on 1 September 1577. On 26 December 1576 they played _The Painter’s Daughter_, and on 18 February 1577 _The Irish Knight_. The names of their plays on 28 December 1577 and 6 January and 9 February 1578 are not preserved. They were notified by the Privy Council to the Lord Mayor as one of the Court companies for the Christmas of 1578–9 (App. D, No. xl), and played _The Three Sisters of Mantua_ on 26 December and _The Knight in the Burning Rock_ on 1 March. A play intended for 2 February was not performed, but payment was made to Jerome Savage. Gabriel Harvey (cf. p. 4) mentions them as a London company in the summer of 1579. On 1 January 1580 they played _The Four Sons of Fabius_. A Winchester record of ‘Lord Ambrose Dudley’s’ men in 1581–2 must be an error.

The Duttons were evidently a restless folk, and the disappearance of Warwick’s men and the appearance of Oxford’s men in 1580 is to be explained by another transfer of their services. This is referred to in the following verses:[288]

_The Duttons and theyr fellow-players forsakyng the Erle of
Warwycke theyr mayster, became followers of the Erle of Oxford,
and wrot themselves his_ COMOEDIANS, _which certayne Gentlemen
altered and made_ CAMOELIONS. _The Duttons, angry with that,
compared themselves to any gentleman; therefore these armes were
devised for them._

The fyeld, a fart durty, a gybbet crosse-corded,
A dauncing Dame Flurty of alle men abhorred;
A lyther lad scampant, a roge in his ragges,
A whore that is rampant, astryde wyth her legges,
A woodcocke displayed, a calfe and a sheepe,
A bitch that is splayed, a dormouse asleepe;
A vyper in stynche, _la part de la drut_,
Spell backwarde this Frenche and cracke me that nut.

Parcy per pillery, perced with a rope,
To slythe the more lytherly anoynted with sope;
A coxcombe crospate in token of witte,
Two eares perforate, a nose wythe slytte.
Three nettles resplendent, three owles, three swallowes,
Three mynstrellmen pendent on three payre of gallowes,
Further sufficiently placed in them
A knaves head, for a difference from alle honest men.

The wreathe is a chayne of chaungeable red,
To shew they ar vayne and fickle of head;
The creste is a lastrylle whose feathers ar blew,
In signe that these fydlers will never be trew;
Whereon is placed the horne of a gote,
Because they ar chast, to this is theyr lotte,
For their bravery, indented and parted,
And for their knavery innebulated.

Mantled lowsy, wythe doubled drynke,
Their ancient house is called the Clynke;
Thys Posy they beare over the whole earthe,
Wylt please you to have a fyt of our mirthe?
But reason it is, and heraultes allowe welle,
That fidlers should beare their armes in a towelle.

In 1587–8 tumblers were at Bath under Warwick’s name. I do not understand the entry of his men in the Ipswich accounts, as playing on 10 March 1592. Ambrose Dudley died in 1590, and his doubtfully legitimate nephew, Sir Robert Dudley, does not seem even to have claimed the title until 1597. The Ipswich records are unreliable, but possibly Lady Warwick maintained a company for a while. The Corporation of London were considering some ‘cause’ of hers as to plays in May 1594 (App. D, No. xcviii).

ix. THE EARL OF OXFORD’S MEN

John de Vere, s. of John, 15th Earl of Oxford; _nat._ _c._ 1512;
succ. as 16th Earl and Lord Great Chamberlain, 21 Mar. 1540; m.
Margaret Golding, 1547; _ob._ 3 Aug. 1562.

Edward de Vere, s. of John, 16th Earl of Oxford; _nat._ 2 Apr.
1550; succ. as 17th Earl and Lord Great Chamberlain, 3 Aug.
1562; m. (1) Anne, d. of William Lord Burghley, Dec. 1571,
(2) Elizabeth Trentham, _c._ 1591; _ob._ 24 June 1604. Of his
daughters by (1), Elizabeth m. William Stanley, 6th Earl of
Derby, 26 Jan. 1595; Bridget m. Francis, Lord Norris; Susan m.
Sir Philip Herbert, afterwards Earl of Montgomery, 27 Dec. 1604.

The Earls of Oxford had their players as far back as 1492.[289] A company belonging to the 16th Earl caused a scandal by playing in Southwark at the moment when a dirge was being sung for Henry VIII in St. Saviour’s on 6 February 1547.[290] It is probably the same company which is traceable in 1555–6 at Dover, in 1557–8 at Ipswich, in 1559–60 and 1560–1 at Maldon, and in 1561–2 at Barnstaple, Maldon, and Ipswich. Murray (ii. 63) adds a few notices. There is no sign of it at Court, and it is likely that the 17th Earl discontinued it soon after his succession. The last notices of it are at Leicester, Plymouth, and Ipswich in 1562–3.

At a later date, however, this Earl was clearly interested in things dramatic. He took part in a Shrovetide device at Court in 1579, and is recorded in Francis Meres’s _Palladis Tamia_ (1598) to have been himself a playwright and one of ‘the best for comedy amongst us’ (App. C, No. lii). In 1580 the Duttons and the rest of the Earl of Warwick’s men transferred themselves to his service, and thereby laid themselves open to satire upon their fickleness (cf. _supra_). I do not know whether it was their resentment at this that brought them into trouble, but on 12 April 1580 the Lord Mayor wrote to Sir Thomas Bromley, the Lord Chancellor, about a disorder at the Theatre two days before, which he understood to be already before the Privy Council; and on 13 April we find the Council committing Robert Leveson and Laurence Dutton, servants of the Earl of Oxford, to the Marshalsea for a fray with the Inns of Court. On 26 May the matter was referred to three judges for examination, and on 18 July Thomas Chesson, sometime servant to the Earl, was released on bail (App. D, Nos. xliii, xliv). These notices suggest that the company had arranged, possibly during the absence of Leicester’s men from town, to occupy the Theatre. In view of their disgrace, it was no doubt better for them to travel, and on 21 June John Hatcher, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, wrote to Lord Oxford’s father-in-law, Lord Burghley, to acknowledge recommendations received from him, as well as from the Lord Chancellor and Lord Chamberlain Sussex, that Oxford’s men should be allowed to ‘show their cunning in several plays already practised by them before the Queen’s majesty’, and to explain that, in view of pestilence, the need for industry at commencement, a previous refusal to Leicester’s men, and a Privy Council order of 1575 against assemblies in Cambridge, he had thought it better to give them 20_s._, and send them away unheard.[291] They are traceable provincially in 1580–3.[292] At Norwich (1580–1) the payment was made to ‘the Earle of Oxenfordes lads’, and at Bristol (Sept. 1581) there were nine boys and a man. These were probably boys of the Earl’s domestic chapel, travelling either with the Duttons or as a separate company.

The Duttons joined the Queen’s company, John on its first establishment in 1583. It is in the following winter, however, that an Oxford’s company first appears at Court. Here the Earl’s ‘servauntes’ performed on 1 January and 3 March 1584. Their payee was John Lyly, who had probably been for some years in the Earl’s service. Provincial performances continue during 1583–5, and in the records the company are always described as ‘players’ or ‘men’.[293] On 27 December 1584 _Agamemnon and Ulysses_ was played at Court by the Earl of Oxford’s ‘boyes’. For this the payee was Henry Evans, probably the same who in 1600 set up the Chapel plays. I do not feel much doubt that the companies under Lyly and Evans were the same, or that in 1583–4 they in fact consisted of a combination of Oxford’s boys, Paul’s and the Chapel, working under Lyly and Evans at the Blackfriars theatre.[294] This arrangement had, no doubt, to be modified when Sir William More recovered possession of the premises in the spring of 1584, and after the performance of December 1584 Oxford perhaps ceased to maintain boy players and contented himself with another company of his servants, who made an appearance at Court on 1 January 1585, under John Symons, in feats of activity and vaulting. These tumblers had apparently been Lord Strange’s men in 1583, and by 1586 had returned into the service of the Stanley family.