advances from time to time, and Thomas Towne was reduced to pawning a pair of stockings on 13 March 1602.[1] But it is noticeable that about the previous June Henslowe opened an account under the heading, 'Begininge to receue of thes meane ther privet deates which they owe vnto me', and was able to enter in it a series of repayments by Jones, Downton, Bird, and Shaw.[2] Bird, however, still owed £10 10s. on 12 March 1602, and Henslowe noted, 'He is cleere of all debtes & demaundes except theis debtes and such stocke & covenentes as I maie clayme & challendge of him by reason of his coniunction with the companie'.[3] Whether the playwrights reaped any benefit may be doubted. The tendency to a rise of prices which showed itself in 1599 was hardly maintained. Some of them were still impecunious enough. The company had, on more than one occasion to redeem a play which the unfortunate Chettle had pawned with one Bromfield, a mercer; and in March 1602 he seems to have followed Porter's example and put his hand, for a consideration of £3, to an instrument binding him to write for them alone.[4] There were some legal troubles in the course of 1601. A sum of £21 10s. had to be paid on a bond to a Mr. Treheren during March, and in August there were fees to a jury and a clerk of assizes. The company had also to find 10s. in May 'to geatte the boye into the ospetalle which was hurt at the Fortewne'.[5] Information as to the composition of the company at some time between Alleyn's return and February 1602 is given by the 'plot' of The Battle of Alcazar, although, as this is mutilated, it must not be treated as negative evidence, and in particular the names of W. Borne and John Singer are missing.[6] All the other sharers, however, are found in it—'Mr. Ed. Allen, Mr. Doughton, Mr. Juby, Mr. Shaa, Mr. Jones, Mr. Towne, Antony Jeffes, H. Jeffes, Mr. Charles [Massey], and Mr. Sam [Rowley]'. There are also Mr. Rich. Allen and Mr. Hunt, who were not sharers, but whose long service had apparently earned them the
- ↑ Henslowe, i. 56.
- ↑ Ibid. 162.
- ↑ Ibid. 141.
- ↑ Ibid. 144, 165, 174.
- ↑ Ibid. 134, 136, 140, 147.
- ↑ Dr. Greg puts it in 1598, on the assumption that Alleyn returned to the stage in that year. It might conceivably belong to 1597, between 18 Dec., when Bristow was bought, and 29 Dec., by which day Alleyn had left. It cannot be later than Feb. 1602, by which month Jones and Shaw had left. The prefix 'M^r' allotted to Charles and Sam is in favour of a date after their agreements on 16 Nov. 1598. Dr. Greg's argument (Henslowe Papers, 138) that Kendall's agreement expired 7 Dec. 1599 is not convincing, as there was nothing in it to prevent him from staying on, and the satire of the play in Jonson's Poetaster of 1601, to which he refers, obviously tells in favour of a date nearer to 1601 than 1598.
