The list of this provincial company, as it stood in January 1583, is interesting, because at least four of its members, Robert Browne, Richard Jones, James Tunstall, and above all Edward Alleyn, then only a lad of sixteen, were destined to take a considerable share in the stage history of the future. Edward Browne, too, was afterwards one of the Admiral’s men. Of the rest, William Harrison, Thomas Cooke, Richard Andrewes, as well as of George Haysell (cf. ch. xv) and of the two players who were not named in the warrant, Thomas Powlton and William Pateson, Lord Herbert’s man, nothing or practically nothing further is known.[635] It is possible that the escapades of the company at Norwich and Leicester came, after all, to Worcester’s ears and aroused his displeasure. Visits are recorded to Coventry and Stratford in 1583–4, to Maidstone in 1584–5, to York in March 1585, and thereafter no more. It is also possible that the company passed from Worcester’s service into that of Lord Howard, when the latter became Lord Admiral in 1585. If so, a conveyance by Richard Jones to Edward Alleyn on 3 January 1589 of his share in a stock of apparel, play-books, and so forth, held jointly with Edward and John Alleyn and Robert Browne, must relate, not to a break up of Worcester’s men shortly before the death of the third earl, but to some internal change in the organization of the Admiral’s men.[636] In any case Mr. Fleay’s theory that Worcester’s men, other than Alleyn, became Pembroke’s in 1589 and only joined the Admiral’s in 1594 is quite gratuitous, as there is no evidence of the existence of Pembroke’s men before 1592.[637] Whether there was a Worcester’s company or not from 1585 to 1589, there was certainly one after the accession of the fourth earl. It is traceable at Coventry in 1589–90, at Newcastle in October 1590, at Leicester during the last three months of the same year, at Coventry and Faversham in 1590–1, at Leicester on 26 June 1591 and again in the last three months of the year, at Coventry and Shrewsbury in 1591–2, at Ipswich in 1592–3, twice at Leicester in 1593, both before and after Michaelmas, twice at Bath in 1593–4, at Leicester before Michaelmas in 1595, at Ludlow on 3 December 1595, at Bath in 1595–6, at Leicester on 1 August 1596, at Bristol in August 1598, at York in April 1599, and at Coventry on 3 January 1600 and in 1600–1 and 1601–2.[638]

By the end of 1601 the Earl of Worcester was holding the Mastership of the Horse and other important offices at Court, and may have thought it consonant with his dignity to have London players under his patronage. On 3 January 1602 his company was at Court. On 31 March the Privy Council, after attempting for some years to limit the number of London companies to two, made an order that Oxford’s and Worcester’s men, ‘beinge ioyned by agrement togeather in on companie’, should be allowed to play at the Boar’s Head and nowhere else.[639] In the course of 1602 How a Man may Choose a Good Wife from a Bad was published as played by Worcester’s men. By 17 August the company were in relations, under the style of ‘my lorde of Worsters players’, with Henslowe, who opened an account of advances made for their play-books and apparel, on the same lines as that which he kept during 1597–1603 with the Admiral’s men.[640] An early entry is of 9s. for a supper ‘at the Mermayd when we weare at owre a grement’. The account was continued until the spring of 1603, when Henslowe’s famous diary was disused. No theatre is named, but it is probable that, with or without leave from the Privy Council, the company moved to the Rose, which had been vacated by the Admiral’s men on the opening of the Fortune in 1600. Certainly this was so by May 1603, when an acquittance for an advance entered in the account refers to a play to be written for ‘the Earle of Worcesters players at the Rose’.[641] There is no complete list of the company in the diary. The names of those members incidentally mentioned, as authorizing payments or otherwise, are John Duke, Thomas Blackwood, William Kempe, John Thare, John Lowin, Thomas Heywood, Christopher Beeston, Robert Pallant, and a Cattanes whose first name is not preserved. The payees for the performance of 1601–2 were Kempe and Heywood. One Underell was in receipt of wages from the company, together with a tireman, who made purchases of stuffs for them. It is impossible to say which of these men had been with Worcester’s and which with Oxford’s before the amalgamation. Heywood, who was playwright as well as actor, had written for the Admiral’s from 1596 to 1599, and had bound himself to play in Henslowe’s house for two years from 25 March 1598. Pallant had been with Strange’s or the Admiral’s in 1590–1, and Duke, Kempe, and Beeston with the Chamberlain’s in 1598. Since then Kempe had travelled abroad, returning in September 1601. It is little more than a guess that some of these men may have played with Henslowe as Pembroke’s.[642] Several members of the company borrowed money from Henslowe, in some cases before their connexion with the Rose began. Duke had a loan as early as 21 September 1600, and Kempe on 10 March 1602.[643] Blackwood and Lowin borrowed on 12 March 1603 to go into the country with the company.[644] This was, no doubt, when playing in London was suspended owing to the illness of Elizabeth. A loan for a similar purpose was made on the same day to Richard Perkins, and suggests that he too was already one of Worcester’s men. There is, indeed, an earlier note of 4 September 1602 connecting him with one Dick Syferweste, whose fellows were then in the country, while Worcester’s were, of course, at the Rose. But this itself makes it clear that he was interested in a play of Heywood’s, which can hardly be other than that then in preparation at the Rose, and perhaps Syferwest was an unfortunate comrade in Oxford’s or Worcester’s, who had been left out at the reconstruction.[645]

During the seven months of the account Worcester’s men bought twelve new plays. These were:

As a rule the price was £6 a play; occasionally £1 or £2 more. Dekker had 10s. ‘over & above his price of’ A Medicine for a Curst Wife. This had originally been begun for the Admiral’s and was evidently transferred to Worcester’s by arrangement. After buying 2 Black Dog of Newgate for £7, the company apparently did not like it, and paid £2 more for ‘adycyones’. It is possible to verify from the purchase of properties the performance of nine of the twelve plays. These are Albere Galles (September), The Three Brothers (October), Marshal Osric (November), 1 Lady Jane (November), Christmas Comes but Once a Year (December), 1 Black Dog of Newgate (January), The Unfortunate General (January), 2 Black Dog of Newgate (February), and A Woman Killed with Kindness (March). The production of this last may, however, have been interfered with by Elizabeth’s death. Two plays of the series are extant, A Woman Killed with Kindness, printed in 1607 and described in 1617 as a Queen’s play, and 1 Lady Jane, which may be reasonably identified with Sir Thomas Wyatt, also printed in 1607 as a Queen’s play, and by Dekker and Webster. Dr. Greg regards Mr. Fleay’s identification of Albere Galles with Nobody and Somebody as ‘reasonable’; but it appears to rest on little, except the fact that the latter was also printed as a Queen’s play (S. R. 12 March 1606) and the conjecture that the title of the former might be a corruption of Archigallo. Payments were made in respect of a few contemplated plays, which apparently remained incomplete at the end of the season. These were 2 Lady Jane (Dekker), an unnamed tragedy by Chettle, an unnamed play by Middleton, and another unnamed play by Chettle and Heywood. The company also produced some plays of earlier date. Sir John Oldcastle was presumably transferred to them from the Admiral’s men, for Dekker had £2 10s. in respect of new additions to it in August and September. Heywood also had £1 in September for additions to a play called Cutting Dick, as to the origin of which nothing is known; and properties were bought in October for Byron[648] and for Absalom. Possibly the latter is identical with The Three Brothers. Worcester’s men did not perform at Court in 1602–3, but they must have expected a summons, as on 1 January they bought head-tires of one Mrs. Calle ‘for the corte’. Amongst their tradesmen were also Goodman Freshwater, who supplied ‘a canvas sewt and skenes’, apparently for a stage dog, and John Willett, mercer, on whose arrest John Duke found himself in the Clink at the end of the season. Their expenditure was at a fairly high rate, amounting to a total of £234 11s. 6d. for the seven months. Unlike the Admiral’s men, they spent more on apparel and properties than on play-books. Some of their purchases were costly enough, ‘a grogren clocke, ij veluet gerkens, ij dubletes and ij hed tyres’ from Edward Alleyn for £20, ‘a manes gowne of branshed velluet & a dublett’ from Christopher Beeston for £6, and ‘iiij clothe clockes layd with coper lace’ from Robert Shaw, formerly of the Admiral’s, for £16. On this last transaction they had to allow Henslowe £1 as interest on his money. A ‘flage of sylke’, no doubt for the theatre roof, cost them £1 6s. 8d.[649] In summing his account, Henslowe made various errors, whereby he robbed himself of £1 1s. 3d., and presented a claim to the company for £140 1s. It may be inferred that they had already repaid him £93 12s. 3d., but of this there is no record in the diary. He prepared an acknowledgement to be signed by all the members of the company, but the only signature actually attached is Blackwode’s.

On 9 May 1603 Henslowe notes ‘Begininge to playe agayne by the Kynges licence & layd out sense for my lord of Worsters men as folowethe’; but the only entry is one of £2 paid in earnest to Chettle and Day for a play of Shore’s Wife. If playing was actually resumed, it was not long before the plague drove the companies out of London again, and there is nothing more of Worcester’s men in the diary. Two visits from them are recorded at Leicester in the course of 1603, and two at Coventry and one at Barnstaple, whence they departed without playing, during 1602–3. Early in the new reign the company was taken into the patronage of Queen Anne.[650] This change was probably effected by Christmas, and certainly by 19 February 1604, when John Duke obtained a warrant on account of plays performed before Prince Henry by ‘the Queenes Majesties players’ on the previous 2 and 13 January. The Queen’s men are named in the Privy Council letter permitting the resumption of playing on 9 April 1604, which indicates their house as the Curtain. A list of players is found amongst other ‘officers to the Queene’ receiving four and a half yards of red cloth apiece for the coronation procession of 15 March 1604.[651] The names given are ‘Christopher Beeston, Robert Lee, John Duke, Robert Palante, Richard Purkins, Thomas Haward, James Houlte, Thomas Swetherton, Thomas Grene, and Robert Beeston’. Evidently several leading members had left the company. Kempe was probably dead.[652] Thare and Blackwood were on tour in Germany; Lowin seems to have joined the King’s men. Of Cattanes and Underell no more is known. The same ten names are found in a draft patent for a royal licence to the Queen’s men, of which the text follows:[653]

Iames, by the grace of God kynge of England, Scotland, Fraunce and Irelande, defender of the faith &c: To all Iustices of peace, Maiors, Sherryfes, vicechancellours of any our vniversities, Bailiffes [Constables], headboroughes, [and other our officers] Constables, and to all other our Officers, mynisters and lov[e]inge subiectes to whome it may appertaine Greeting. Knowe yee that wee of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge, and mere motion haue lycensed and awthorised, and by these presentes doe lycence and awthorise Thomas Greene, Christopher Beeston, Thomas Hawood, Richard Pyrkins, Robert Pallant, Iohn Duke, Thomas Swynerton, I[e]ames Holt, Robert Beeston, & Robert Lee, servauntes vnto our dearest [and welbeloved] wyfe the Queene Anna, with the rest of there Associates, freely to vse and exercise the art and faculty of playinge Comedies, Tragedies, Histories, Enterludes, Morralls, Pastoralls, Stage plaies, and such other lyke as they haue already studied, or hereafter shall vse or stud[d]y, as well for the recreacion of our lovinge subiectes as for our solace and pleasure, when wee shall thinke good to see them, during our pleasure; And the said Comedies, Tragedies, Histories, Enterludes, Morralls, Pastoralls, Stage plaies, and such like, to shew and exercise publikly, when the infeccion of the plague shall decrease to the nomber of thirty weekly within our Citie of London and the liberties therof, aswell within there now vsuall Howsen, called the Curtayne, and the Bores head, within our County of Middlesex, [or] as in any other play howse not vsed by others, by the said Thomas Greene elected, or by him hereafter to be builte, and also within any Towne Halls, or Mouthalls, or other convenyent places, within the liberties and freedomes of any Cittie, vniversitie, Towne, or Boroughe whatsoeuer, within our said Realmes and domynyons: Willing and Commaundinge yowe and euerie of yowe, as you tender our pleasure, not only to permytt and suffer them [herein] to vse and exercise the said art of playinge without any your Lettes hinderaunces or molestacions, duringe our said pleasure, but also to be aydinge and assistinge vnto them, yf any wronge be to them offered, and to allow them such [former] curtesies, as hath heretofore bene given vnto any men of theire qualitie: [And also what further favour, any of our subiectes shall shew to theise our deare and loveinge wyfes servauntes, for our sake, wee shall take kyndly at your handes. Yeouen at   the   daye of In the   yere of our Raygne of England: &c:]

Gyuen &c.

[Endorsed] The Quenes Plaiers.

This draft is undated. But it was prepared during a plague, and located the Queen’s men at the Boar’s Head; and as they may reasonably be supposed to have exchanged the Boar’s Head for the Red Bull (q.v.) before the plague of 1606 began, it may be conjecturally assigned to that of 1603–4. Probably it never passed the Great Seal, for if it had there would have been no necessity, so far as one can judge, for a later patent of 15 April 1609, which is on the rolls, and which closely follows the earlier draft in its terms, except that it omits the reference to the plague, names the Red Bull instead of the Boar’s Head as one of the company’s regular houses, and adds a saving clause for the rights of the Master of the Revels. Here is the text:[654]