Kempe, went on to Dresden. Some of them ultimately became Lord Strange's men. But it seems to me very doubtful whether, as is usually suggested, they passed direct into his service from that of Leicester.[1] They did not leave Dresden until 17 July 1587. But Leicester's were at Exeter on 23 March 1586. They played at Court on 27 December 1586, and were in London about 25 January 1587. They were at Abingdon, Bath, Lathom, Coventry, Leicester, Oxford, Stratford-on-Avon, Dover, Canterbury, Marlborough, Southampton, Exeter, Gloucester, and Norwich during 1586-7. Kempe may, of course, have been with them on these occasions; but if Stevens and the rest passed as Leicester's in the Low Countries, it is likely that they ceased to do so when they went to Denmark.
Finally, Leicester's men were at Coventry, Reading, Bath, Maidstone, Dover, Plymouth, Gloucester, York, Saffron Walden, and probably Exeter in 1587-8.[2] On 4 September they were at Norwich, and here William Stonage, a cobbler, was committed to prison at their suit, 'for lewd words uttered against the ragged staff'.[3] As late as 14 September they did not yet know that the lord in whose name they wore this badge was dead, for on that day, unless the records are again in error, they were still playing at Ipswich.[4]
iii. LORD RICH'S MEN
Richard Rich; nat. c. 1496; cr. 1st Baron Rich, 26 Feb. 1548;
Lord Chancellor, 23 Oct. 1548-21 Dec. 1551; m. Elizabeth Jenks;
ob. 12 June 1567.
Robert, s. of 1st Baron; nat. c. 1537; succ. as 2nd Baron, 1567; ob. 1581.
The company was at Ipswich on 3 May 1564, Saffron
Walden in 1563-4, Maldon in 1564-5, York on 6 April 1565,
- ↑ Fleay, 82; but cf. Lee, 36, and pp. 124, 272. The thing is complicated by the influence of Malone's suggestion (Variorum, ii. 166) that Shakespeare might have left Stratford with Leicester's men on a visit to the town. This assumes its most fantastic form in the suggestion of Lee^1, 33, that Shakespeare was already in London, but 'Shakespeare's friends may have called the attention of the strolling players to the homeless youth, rumours of whose search for employment about the London theatres had doubtless reached Stratford'.
- ↑ At Exeter they are called the Lord Steward's, certainly not the Marquis of Winchester's, as Murray, ii. 95, suggests, for he was never Steward of Elizabeth's household.
- ↑ Norfolk Archaeology, xiii. 11.
- ↑ J. M. Cowper, in 1 R. Hist. Soc. Trans. i. 218, records a performance by 'my Lord of Leicester's men' at Faversham in 1589-90; but I think this must be an error.
