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Bristol in August, and at Bath and Barnstaple, where they were unlucky enough to break down the ceiling in the Guildhall, during 1593-4, and thereafter they are traceable right up to the end of the reign, at Coventry, Oxford, and Bath in 1594-5, at Leicester both before and after Michaelmas 1595, twice at Coventry and at Ludlow in 1595-6, at Stratford-on-Avon on 16 and 17 July 1596, at Bristol in August, at Leicester between October and December 1596, and at Faversham and Bridgnorth in the same year, at Coventry, at Dunwich, and twice at Bath in 1596-7, at Bristol again about Christmas 1597, at Nottingham on 8 July 1597, at Bristol about 25 July, at Bath in 1597-8, at Leicester on 9 January 1598, at Maldon in 1598, at Ipswich and Reading in 1598-9, at Maldon in 1599, at Dunwich in 1599-1600, at Ipswich on 2 June 1600, and at Leicester before 29 September in the same year, at Coventry and Bath in 1600-1, at York in July 1602, at Leicester on 30 September 1602, at Belvoir in August or September of the same year, and at Coventry in 1602-3. But little, naturally enough, is known of the personnel of the company during this period of its decay. On 1 June 1595 Francis Henslowe borrowed another £9 from his uncle 'to laye downe for his hallfe share w^{th} the company w^{ch} he dothe playe w^{th} all',[1] and I see no particular reason to suppose that this was another company than the Queen's. The loan is witnessed by William Smyght, George Attewell, and Robert Nycowlles, each of whom is described as 'player'. It is likely enough that these were now fellows of Francis Henslowe. Attewell had been payee for Lord Strange's men in 1591. The earlier loan was witnessed by John Towne, Hugh Davis, and Richard Alleyn. Davis and Alleyn appear elsewhere in connexion with Henslowe, but Towne was certainly a Queen's man. He is in the 1588 list and is described as 'one of her Majesties plears' when on 8 July 1597 he obtained a release of debts due to Roger Clarke of Nottingham.[2] The other men of 1588 had nearly all vanished. John Singer had joined the Admiral's by the autumn of 1594. I should not be surprised, however, to find that John Garland was still with the Queen's. He was an associate of Francis Henslowe in the Duke of Lennox's men in 1604, and was then 'owld' Garland. Indeed, it seems probable that, when the Queen's men lost their last shred of claim to a livery on Elizabeth's death, they made an attempt still to hold together under the patronage of Lennox. John Shank was once a Queen's man.

  1. Henslowe, i. 6.
  2. W. H. Stevenson, Nottingham Records, iv. 244.