Richard Jones and Thomas Downton went to the Swan as Pembroke's men, and the disturbance thereby caused probably accounts for the three weeks' cessation of playing during Lent. The Swan enterprise was brought to a disastrous conclusion after five months by the production of The Isle of Dogs, which not only brought personal trouble on the chief offenders, but also led to a restraint of plays at all the theatres. This event synchronizes with the first appearance in the diary of Nashe's collaborator in The Isle of Dogs, Ben Jonson. On 28 July Henslowe lent him no less a sum than £4, and took Alleyn and Singer as witnesses. On the same day he opened an account headed 'R of Bengemenes Johnsones share as ffoloweth' with a first instalment of 3s. 9d.[1] On this very day of 28 July the Privy Council's inhibition fell, and Jonson went to prison and paid no more instalments. It is impossible to say whether his 'share' was in the Admiral's company or in Pembroke's. In any event, although he continued to write for the Admiral's men after 1597, there is no further sign that he was either a 'sharer', or indeed an actor in any capacity.
One result of the restraint was that Jones and Downton not merely returned to the Rose, but brought at least three other of Pembroke's men, Robert Shaw, Gabriel Spencer, and William Bird, known also by the alias of Borne, with them. Henslowe was thus enabled, almost immediately after playing stopped, to set about the reconstitution of his company, and the memoranda of agreement which he noted in his diary during the next fourteen months are so interesting for the light which they throw upon his relations with the actors, that I think it well, before discussing them, to transcribe them in full. There are in all eleven of them, as follows:[2]
i. (Thomas Hearne)
Memorandom that the 27 of Jeuley 1597 I heayred Thomas Hearne
with ij pence for to searve me ij yeares in the qualetie of playenge for
fyve shellynges a weacke for one yeare & vj^s viij^d for the other yeare
which he hath covenanted hime seallfe to searue me & not to departe
frome my companey tyll this ij yeares be eanded wittnes to this
John Synger.
Jeames Donston.
Thomas Towne.
- [Footnote: of my lord admeralles men the 18 of July 1597'. I think that 'for'
must be meant for 'from'. Elsewhere (i. 66) Henslowe writes 'for' for 'from'.]
