boys of the Earl's domestic chapel, travelling either with the Duttons or as a separate company.
The Duttons joined the Queen's company, John on its first establishment in 1583. It is in the following winter, however, that an Oxford's company first appears at Court. Here the Earl's 'servauntes' performed on 1 January and 3 March 1584. Their payee was John Lyly, who had probably been for some years in the Earl's service. Provincial performances continue during 1583-5, and in the records the company are always described as 'players' or 'men'.[1] On 27 December 1584 Agamemnon and Ulysses was played at Court by the Earl of Oxford's 'boyes'. For this the payee was Henry Evans, probably the same who in 1600 set up the Chapel plays. I do not feel much doubt that the companies under Lyly and Evans were the same, or that in 1583-4 they in fact consisted of a combination of Oxford's boys, Paul's and the Chapel, working under Lyly and Evans at the Blackfriars theatre.[2] This arrangement had, no doubt, to be modified when Sir William More recovered possession of the premises in the spring of 1584, and after the performance of December 1584 Oxford perhaps ceased to maintain boy players and contented himself with another company of his servants, who made an appearance at Court on 1 January 1585, under John Symons, in feats of activity and vaulting. These tumblers had apparently been Lord Strange's men in 1583, and by 1586 had returned into the service of the Stanley family.
An Oxford's company did not again perform at Court, but his 'plaiers' were at Norwich in 1585-6, and Ipswich in 1586-7,[3] and players under his name were notified to Walsingham amongst others setting up their bills in London on 25 January 1587 (App. D, No. lxxviii). They were at York in June 1587 and Maidstone in 1589-90. Finally, at the end of the reign, comes a letter from the Privy Council to the Lord Mayor on 31 March 1602, which informs him that at the Earl's suit the Queen has tolerated a new company formed by a combination of his servants and those of the Earl of Worcester, and that they are to play at the Boar's Head (App. D, No. cxxx). Oxford's men had probably then
- ↑ Murray, i. 348. I add Stratford (1583-4). Dr. Boas kindly informs me that the Oxford City Accounts for 1584-5 have a payment to Oxford's 'musytions'.
- ↑ Cf. ch. xii (Chapel).
- ↑ The payment was made to Richard Woderam, but he is more likely to have been an agent of the Corporation than a member of the company.
