Robert Earl of Essex had a provincial company from 1581 to 1596. In 1581–2 it was at Exeter, in July 1584 at Ludlow, in 1583–4 at Leicester, Stratford-on-Avon, and Ipswich, and in 1584–5 at Bath. On 26 June 1585 it played at Thorpe in Norwich, in spite of a prohibition by the Corporation, and was sentenced to be excluded from civic reward in future. In 1585–6 it was at Coventry and Ipswich, in 1586 before 29 September at Leicester, and possibly about May at Oxford, on 27 February 1587 at York, on 16 July at Leicester, and in the course of the year at Stratford-on-Avon. In 1587–8 it was at Coventry, Ipswich, Saffron Walden, and Leicester, in 1588–9 at Bath, Saffron Walden, and Reading, on 7 September 1589 at Knowsley, on 31 October at Ipswich, and in the same year at Faversham. It was also at Coventry and Faversham in 1589–90, at Maldon in 1590, and twice at Faversham in 1590–1, and is last recorded at Ludlow in April 1596. Murray adds some intermediate dates. A company of Essex’s men which appeared at Coventry in 1600–1 is probably distinct. The execution of Essex on 25 February 1601 must have brought it to a premature end.
xi. LORD VAUX’S MEN
William Vaux, 3rd Lord Vaux; nat. c. 1542; m. (1) Elizabeth Beaumont, (2) Mary Tresham; ob. 20 Aug. 1595.
Edward Vaux, 4th Lord Vaux; nat. 1588; ob. 1661.
These companies are extremely obscure. Gabriel Harvey mentions the first in 1579 (cf. p. 4); the second was at Leicester in October-December 1601, Coventry in 1603–4 and 1608, and Skipton in 1609.
xii. LORD BERKELEY’S MEN
Henry FitzHardinge Berkeley, Baron Berkeley; succ. 1553; m. Catherine, d. of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey; ob. 1613; father of Thomas Berkeley, nat. 11 July 1575; m. Elizabeth, d. of Sir G. Carey, afterwards 2nd Baron Hunsdon, 19 Feb. 1596; ob. 22 Nov. 1611.
The only London record of this company is in July 1581, when some of them, including Arthur King and Thomas Goodale, were committed to the Counter after a brawl with Inns of Court men. Lord Berkeley apologized to the Lord Mayor on their behalf, and said that they would go to the country (App. D, Nos. xlix, l). Their other appearances are all in the country, at Bristol between 6 and 12 July 1578, where they played What Mischief Worketh in the Mind of Man, at Bath on 11 July 1578 and on another day in 1578–9, at Abingdon in 1579–80, Stratford-on-Avon in 1580–1, Maldon in 1581, Stratford-on-Avon in 1582–3, Barnstaple in 1583–4, and Bath in 1586–7. Long after they, or a later company under the same name, reappear at Coventry in 1597–8, at Leicester in 1598 before Michaelmas, at Saffron Walden in 1598–9, and at Coventry and elsewhere in 1603–10. Lord Berkeley’s name is sometimes misspelt in the account-books as ‘Bartlett’.[297]
xiii. QUEEN ELIZABETH’S MEN
The origin of this company, the most famous of all the London companies during the decade of the ’eighties, can be dated with an extreme minuteness.[298] The Revels Accounts for 1582–3 record an expenditure of 20s. in travelling charges by