‘NICK.’ Admiral’s, 1601–3. See also Tooley.
NILL, JOHN. A ‘player’ whose daughter Alice was baptized at St. Saviour’s on 13 August 1601 (Bodl.).
NORWOOD. Paul’s, 1599.
NYCOWLLES, ROBERT. A ‘player’ who witnessed a loan to Francis Henslowe on 1 June 1595 (H. i. 6).
OFFLEY, THOMAS. Paul’s, c. 1522.
OSTLER, WILLIAM, began his career as a boy actor in the Chapel company. He took a part in Jonson’s Poetaster in 1601. From the Sharers Papers we learn that on growing up he was, like Field and Underwood, ‘taken to strengthen the King’s service’.[978] He first appears amongst the King’s men in the cast of Jonson’s The Alchemist in 1610, and played also in Catiline, The Captain, The Duchess of Malfi, in which he took the part of Antonio, Valentinian, and Bonduca. The following epigram in John Davies, Scourge of Folly (c. 1611), attests his fame and his participation in some forgotten brawl:
To the Roscius of these Times, Mr. W. Ostler.
Ostler, thou took’st a knock thou would’st have giv’n,
Neere sent thee to thy latest home: but O!
Where was thine action, when thy crown was riv’n,