Yeoman, in 1617.[1] On the other hand there was a rather rapid succession of Clerk Comptrollers: Edmund Pakenham to 1605-6, Edmund Fowler from 1606-7 to 1608-9, William Page in 1609-10, and Alexander Stafford from 24 April 1611 to 1617 or later.[2] The Groom or Purveyor, like the Porter of St. John's, appears to have been a servitor and not an officer by patent. During 1603-15 he was Stephen Baile, who had succeeded Thomas Clatterbocke. The Porter of St. John's, during the same period, was Richard Prescot.[3]
The change of reign brought with it another change in the financial arrangements for the office. The 'composition' introduced by Burghley in 1597 was abandoned, and henceforth the Master regularly received an imprest of £100 at the beginning of each financial year, together with the balance due on an account rendered by him for all charges since the time of the last imprest. The total amount passing through his hands was not large. During the earlier years of the reign it varied from £150 to £300, and during 1611-15 from £300 to £500.[4] In 1617 the 'ordinary' issues for the Revels were still estimated at £300.[5] Nor was there any special need for 'extraordinary' issues, since the organization of the masks, in which Jacobean Court extravagance centred, was not entrusted to the Revels at all, but to some nominated officer, under the direct supervision of the Lord Chamberlain and the Master of the Horse, who received funds direct from the Treasury for any expenditure which did not fall within the provinces of the Wardrobe or the Office of Works.[6] The Revels Officers continued indeed to give their personal attendance on mask nights, and to charge for their diet accordingly. But their actual responsibility for the entertainments appears to have been limited to the supervision of the fittings, such as the 'music house' in the hall or banqueting-house, and in particular of the elaborate arrangements for lighting. The wire-drawer's bill is the chief outgoing represented in the annual accounts. There is very little else except the personal allowances for the officers and the Master's four servants, their office expenses and boat-hire, the audit and exchequer costs, and occasional repairs to the 'tiring-house' used for
- ↑ Abstract, 60.
- ↑ Dramatic Records, 63; Accounts, passim.
- ↑ Accounts, passim. Feuillerat, 475, names Thomas Cornwallis as Groom Porter in 1603. But there was no such post at the Revels. Cornwallis was Groom Porter of the Chamber.
- ↑ Cunningham, 209, 217; Declared Accounts, passim; S. P. D. Jac. I, x. p. 178; xxxi. p. 410; lviii. p. 652; lxii. p. 17; lxviii. p. 110; Collier, i. 347, 363; Devon, 118,
- ↑ Abstract, 8.
- ↑ Cf. ch. vi.
