and his company'. A record of them at Ipswich in 1575-6 as 'my Lorde Robertes' men is probably misdated. On 30 December 1576 they acted The Collier at Court. In 1576-7 they were at Stratford-on-Avon, in September 1577 at Newcastle, and between 13 and 19 October at Bristol, where they gave Myngo.[1] In 1577-8 they were also at Bath. They were at Court on 26 December 1577 and were to have performed again on 11 February 1578, but were displaced for Lady Essex's men. They may have been at Wanstead in May 1578 when Leicester entertained Elizabeth with Sidney's The May Lady. On 1 September they were at Maldon, on 9 September at Ipswich, and on 3 November at Lord North's at Kirtling. They played A Greek Maid at Court on 4 January 1579.[2] Their play on 28 December 1579 fell through because Elizabeth could not be present, but they played on 6 January 1580. In 1579-80 they were at Ipswich and Durham, and from 15 to 17 May 1580 at Kirtling. Vice-Chancellor Hatcher's letter of 21 January 1580 to Burghley about Oxford's men (vide infra) shows that Leicester's had then recently been refused leave to play at Cambridge. They played Delight at Court on 26 December and appeared again on 7 February 1581. That Wilson was still a member of the company in 1581 is shown by the reference to him in the curious Latin letter written by one of Lord Shrewsbury's players on 25 April of that year.[3] In the following winter they did not come to Court, but on 10 February 1583 they returned with Telomo.[4]
The best of Leicester's men, including Laneham, Wilson, and Johnson, appear to have joined the Queen's company on its formation in March 1583. Probably the Queen's also took over the Theatre. James Burbadge himself may have given up acting. Nothing more is heard of Leicester's men until 1584-5, when players under his name visited Coventry, Leicester, Gloucester, and Norwich. They were at Dover in June 1585, and at Bath as late as August. These may have been either the relics of the old company, or a new one formed to attend the Earl in his expedition to aid the States-General in the Low Countries. He was appointed to the command of the English forces on 28 August, and reached Flushing on
- ↑ I should think the 'Myngs' of Murray, ii. 214, and Collier, Northbrooke, viii, more likely to be palaeographically accurate than the 'Myngo' of J. Latimer in 9 N. Q. xi. 444 and his Sixteenth Century Bristol. But a song of 'Monsieur Mingo' exists in a setting by Orlando de Lassus (cf E. H. R. xxxiii. 83), and is quoted in 2 Hen. IV, v. iii. 78, and Summer's Last Will and Testament, 968.
- ↑ Cf. App. D, No. xl.
- ↑ Cf. ch. xv, s.v. Baylye.
- ↑ Murray, i. 41, gives additional provincial records for 1576-82.
