It is a curious illustration of the functions of the Privy Council as a household board that, during the whole of Elizabeth's time and the greater part of that of James, the actors could not get their fee or 'reward', except through the medium of a formal warrant addressed by that body to the Treasurer of the Chamber. These warrants are not in existence, but their issue is noted, rather irregularly and inaccurately, in the collection of minutes known as the Council register, and they are recited, with their dates and places of signature, and the names of the actors or managers to whom they appointed payment to be made on behalf of the companies, in the annual accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber as audited and declared before the Exchequer.[1] The amount of the reward was, subject to certain historical developments, a uniform one. It had been fixed, early in the reign of Henry VIII, at ten marks (£6 13s. 4d.) a play, and this rate continued to rule, when Elizabeth came to the throne, and for some years thereafter. But in 1572 a tendency to an increase shows itself, and up to 1575 the amounts are irregular. Sometimes the normal fee is paid, sometimes a double fee of £13 6s. 8d., sometimes an intermediate one of £10. The Treasurer of the Chamber records various explanations of the extra sums. They are 'a more rewarde by her maiesties owne comaundement', or they are paid in respect of special charges incurred by the companies, as for example when Farrant had to bring his boys from Windsor to Whitehall. And after 1575 things had evidently settled down on the basis of a normal £10, which was conventionally regarded as made up of £6 13s. 4d. 'for presentinge' the play, and £3 6s. 8d. 'by way of speciall reward'. The formulas in the accounts are not invariably the same, but they all come to this; and the shadowy distinction between the two amounts
- ↑ Cf. App. B.
century drawing, reproduced in L. T. R. ii. 23, and Adams, 407. This was square externally, and apparently stood farther west than Faithorne's from the line of the tilt-yard, at the extreme north-west angle of the palace buildings where they jutted into St. James's Park. I think Adams is clearly right in identifying this building with the little theatre a plan of which by Inigo Jones was published from a Worcester College MS. by H. Bell in Architectural Record (1913), 262 (cf. p. 234). Adams further identifies it with a 'new theatre at Whitehall' opened about 1632, no doubt to replace the old Cockpit. If so, Faithorne is clearly out of date. This later Cockpit was on the site of the present Treasury buildings, and the locality long continued to bear its name. Treasury letters were dated from the Cockpit, and the King's speech is said to have been rehearsed there as late as 1806. The passage leading from Whitehall to the Treasury is still called the Cockpit passage. A quite distinct cockpit near Birdcage Walk is marked by the extant Cockpit Steps. It existed by 1720 and was destroyed in 1816. Whether the angled building shown in this direction by Wyngaerde can represent it, or a predecessor, I do not know.
