bestowed upon the 'actors' of the pastimes before she departed. I think it must have also been their success on this occasion which earned them their only appearance at Court, on the following 6 January 1592. I have elsewhere tried to show that there is a special connexion between this Elvetham entertainment and A Midsummer-Night's Dream,[1] and if any special company is satirized in Bottom and his fellows, I feel sure that it must have been the Earl of Hertford's and not, as Mr. Fleay thinks, the Earl of Sussex's.[2] Probably the company went under in the plague of 1592-4, and in 1595 Hertford was again in disgrace for presuming so far upon his favour as to claim a declaration of the validity of his first marriage. But there were players under his name at Coventry in 1596-7, at Ipswich in 1600-1, and on 8 May 1602, at Norwich in 1601, and at Bath in 1601-2, and this company appeared at Court on 6 January 1603. Their payee was Martin Slater, formerly of the Admiral's, and since then, possibly, an associate of Laurence Fletcher in his Scottish tours. In 1604-5 they were at Norwich. In 1606 they visited Leicester, on 9 July Oxford, and on 2 December the Earl of Derby wrote to the Mayor of Chester to bespeak for them the use of the town-hall. In 1606-7 they were at Coventry. xvi. MR. EVELYN'S MEN (1588) George Evelyn, of Wotton, Surrey; nat. 1530; ob. 1603. Collier gives no authority for the following rather puzzling statement:[3] 'In Feb. 1587, the Earl of Warwick obtained a warrant for the payment of the claim of George Evelyn of Wotton, for provisions supplied to the Tower, and for the reward of actors on Shrove Tuesday for a Play, the title of which is not given nor the name of the company by which it was performed: the whole sum amounted to only 12s.'
The date intended must be 1588, as in 1587 Shrovetide
fell in March. But there is probably some misunderstanding,
as no such payment occurs in the Treasurer of the Chamber's
accounts, and the sum named is too small for a reward.
Moreover, private gentlemen do not seem to have entertained
Court companies at so late a date. The Revels Account for
1587-8 only records seven plays. Of these the Treasurer
of the Chamber paid for six, and the seventh was presented
by Gray's Inn.
