from time to time by various members of the company, and the reasons given for these indicate that in the course of 1598, besides the dispute of the ex-Pembroke's men with Langley, Bird and perhaps the company as a whole were engaged in litigation with Thomas Pope, presumably the actor in the Chamberlain's company.[1]
There does not seem to have been much further change in the composition of the Admiral's men during 1597-1600. An acknowledgement of the state of their account with Henslowe between 8 and 13 March 1598 bears the signatures of 'J. Singer, Thomas Downton, William Birde, Robt Shaa, Richard Jones, Gabriell Spenser, Thomas Towne, Humfry Jeffes, Charles Massye, and Samuell Rowlye'.[2] The last two had evidently become sharers in the course of the year. Juby and Anthony Jeffes do not sign, but this is probably due to an accident, as they were certainly sharers both in 1597 and in 1600.[3] Gabriel Spencer was killed by Ben Jonson (cf. ch. xxiii) on 22 September 1598. On 26 September Henslowe wrote to Alleyn at the Brill in Sussex, 'Now to leat you vnderstand newes I will teall you some but yt is for me harde & heavey. Sence you weare with me I haue loste one of my company which hurteth me greatley; that is Gabrell, for he is slayen in Hogesden fylldes by the handes of Bengemen Jonson bricklayer'.[4] No doubt Henslowe wrote from the heart. Probably Spencer's share was not yet paid for, and in addition small personal loans to the amount of 66s. stand undischarged against him in the diary, of which the last was on 19 May 'to bye a plume of feathers which his mane Bradshawe feched of me'. Richard Bradshaw was an actor and may have played as a hired man with the company. A fragmentary 'plot' of Troilus and Cressida, probably to be dated in April 1599, yields the names of 'Mr. Jones' and his 'boy', Thomas Hunt, Stephen, Proctor, and Pigge. Mr. Jones's boy is shown by a note of 17 November 1599 in the diary to have been called James.[5] Of Proctor no more is known. Stephen is probably Stephen Magett, the tireman, and Pigge was with Alleyn on the tour of Strange's men in
- ↑ Henslowe, i. 72, 'Lent W^m Borne to folowe the sewt agenste Thomas Poope'; cf. i. 26, 38, 47-8, 56, 63-9, 71-8, 80, 201, 205; and s.v. Pembroke's.
- ↑ Henslowe, i. 84.
- ↑ During 1599-1602 Henslowe sometimes enters advances as made to the company through 'W^m' Juby, and in two cases corrects the entry by substituting 'Edward'. As there is no other evidence for a William Juby as an actor, not to speak of a sharer, either Henslowe must have persistently mistaken the name, or William must have been a relative of Edward, acting as his agent (cf. Henslowe, ii. 290).
- ↑ Henslowe Papers, 48.
- ↑ Henslowe, i. 26.
