specify the considerations, other than the formal 2d. or 3d., which the actors were to receive. Wages are, in fact, provided for only in the agreements with Hearne and Kendall, and it is quite possible that, if we had the full terms before us, we should find that, while some of the others were also to receive wages, some were to find their recompense in a share of such profits as the company might make. It is probable that, even where Henslowe undertook to pay wages, the general agreement between him and the company provided for the shifting of that liability to them. They certainly had to pay him, at the rate of 3s. a week, for the services of his boy Bristow.[1] To a slightly later date belongs an agreement with an unnamed actor, in which the hirer is not Henslowe but Thomas Downton, and this I add in order to complete the series.[2]
xii.
Thomas Downton the 25 of Janewary 1599 ded hire as his couenante
servante for ij yers to begyne at Shrofe Tewesday next & he to
geue hime viij^s a wecke as longe as they playe & after they lye stylle
one fortnyght then to geue hime hallfe wages wittnes P H & Edward
Browne & Charlles Masey.
The appearance of Jones as guarantee for Shaw is due to
the fact that, as a result of The Isle of Dogs, the latter was
languishing with Gabriel Spencer and Ben Jonson in the
Marshalsea. Meanwhile some at least of the company
travelled. Henslowe lent Alleyn 40s. for John Singer and
Thomas Towne 'when they went into the contrey' and
noted that this was 'at ther last cominge'. There is another
entry of a small loan to Singer on 9 August, so they cannot
have started before that; and they must have been back
by 6 October, when Singer witnessed the agreement with
Thomas Downton. Possibly Edward Dutton and Richard
Alleyn, who also borrowed money from Henslowe, went with
them.[3] The Privy Council warrants for the release of the
prisoners in the Marshalsea were signed on 3 October,[4] and
a few days later Henslowe, more successful than Langley
of the Swan in getting the licence for his house renewed,
even before the formal expiration of the restraint on 1 November,
was in a position to resume his play list with the heading,
'The xj of Octobe begane my lord Admerals & my lorde of
Penbrockes men to play at my howsse 1597'.[5] The entries
of plays are few and irregular up to 5 November, and then stop.
