regarded as free from suspicion.[1] The name of Richard Gibson now disappears from the notices of the company. He may, likely enough, have given up playing on his appointment to be Porter and Yeoman Tailor of the Great Wardrobe.[2] But in his capacity of officer in charge of the Revels he must have maintained close relations with his former fellows, and his Account for 1510 records the delivery to John English of a 'red satin ladies garment, powdered, with tassels of silver of Kolen'.[3] English remained at the head of the company, and is traceable in the Chamber Accounts up to 1531. John Scott died in 1528-9, in singular circumstances which are detailed by a contemporary chronicler.[4] Other names which come in succession before us are those of Richard Hole, George Maylor, George Birch, John Roll or Roo (d. 1539), Thomas Sudbury or Sudborough (d. 1546), Robert Hinstock, Richard Parrowe, John Slye, and John Young.[5] Some interesting information is disclosed by two lawsuits, in both of which George Maylor figured. The first of these was a dispute between John Rastell and Henry Walton as to the dilapidations of certain playing garments, during whichand in a different handwriting', 'Inglyshe, and the oothers of the Kynges pleyers, after pleyed an Interluyt, whiche was wryten by Mayster Midwell, but yt was so long yt was not lykyd: yt was of the fyndyng of Troth, who was caryed away by ygnoraunce and ypocresy. The foolys part was the best, but the kyng departyd before the end to hys chambre.' According to Collier, the paper is signed by William Cornish and also contains a description of a Chapel interlude. But Brewer, who calendars the Revels Account fully, does not notice it, and according to A. W. Reed in T. L. S. (3 April 1919) it cannot be traced at the R. O.]
- ↑ Collier, i. 69, from a 'paper, folded up in the roll [of the Revels Account for 1513-14
- ↑ Cf. ch. iii; Tudor Revels, 6.
- ↑ Brewer, ii. 1493. In 1546-7 they had 5s. for the loan of garments to the Revels (Kempe, 71).
- ↑ Grey Friars Chronicle (C. S.), 34, 'Also this same yere John Scotte, that was one of the kynges playeres, was put in Newgate for rebukynge of the shreffes, and was there a sennet, and at the last was ledde betwene two of the offecers from Newgate thorrow London and soe to Newgat agayne, and then was delyveryd home to hys howse; but he toke such a thowte that he dyde, for he went in hys shurte'.
- ↑ John Slye and John Yonge, mercer, had been players to Queen Jane before her death in 1537, and were concerned about 1538 in a Chancery suit about a horse hired 'to beare there playing garmentes' (Stopes, Shakespeare's Environment, 235). Perhaps this explains the annuity of £1 10s. 5d. (1d. a day) which Young drew from the Chamber during 1540-2. But he obtained a patent as King's player, with an annual fee of £3 6s. 8d., on the death of Roo in 1539 (Brewer, xiv. 1. 423), and an 'annuity' of £3 6s. 8d. on the death of Sudbury in 1546 (Brewer, xxi. 2. 156). Collier, i. 134, cites a description of him in a fee list amongst the Fairfax MSS. as 'Maker of Interludes, Comedies, and Playes'.
