'Nicke and Jeames be well', and that 'Browne of the Boares head' had not gone into the country at all, and was now dead, '& dyed very pore'. This might be either Edward Browne, or the 'old Browne' who appeared with him in 1 Tamar Cham in the previous autumn. In any case, it is clear from the reference to him that he was not a regular member of Alleyn's company. 'Jeames' is no doubt James Bristow, who, as Henslowe's apprentice, would be likely to form part of his household; and 'Nicke', who seems to have been in the same position, may be supposed to be the Nick who tumbled before the Queen at Christmas 1601.
The Jacobean records of the company seem meagre in the absence of Henslowe's detailed register of proceedings. About Christmas 1603 they were taken into the service of Prince Henry, and are hereafter known as the Prince's players.[1] They are entered amongst other 'Officers to the Prince' as receiving four and a half yards of red cloth apiece as liveries for the coronation procession on 15 March 1604, and their names are given as 'Edward Allen, William Bird, Thomas Towne, Thomas Dowton, Samuell Rowley, Edward Jubie, Humfry Jeffes, Charles Massey, and Anthony Jeffes'.[2] Alleyn, even if not a 'sharer', was therefore a member of the company in its official capacity. He is also named as the Prince's servant, both in the printed account of the entertainment at which, dressed as a Genius, he delivered a speech, and in Stowe's description of a bear-baiting which formed part of the festivities.[3] It may, however, be inferred that he took an early opportunity of leaving a profession to which he had only been recalled by the personal whim of the late Queen.[4] He was joint payee with Juby in the warrant of 19 February, but Juby's name stands alone in another of 17 April and in those of all subsequent years up to 1615. And when the company received a formal licence by patent on 30 April 1606, Alleyn's name was omitted, and does not appear in any further list of its members. It is true that as late as 11 May 1611 he is still described in a formal document as the Prince's servant, but he may have held some other appointment, actual or honorific, in the household.[5] A note of his resources about 1605, however,
- ↑ The exact date is uncertain, as they do not appear to have had a patent until 1606; but it must lie between their visit to Leicester as the Admiral's on 18 Aug. 1603 and the making out of a warrant to them as the Prince's men on 19 Feb. 1604 for their Christmas plays.
- ↑ N. Sh. Soc. Trans. (1877-9), 17*, from Lord Chamberlain's Books, 58^a.
- ↑ Cf. ch. xvi (Hope).
- ↑ On the legend that he had developed moral scruples about the stage, cf. s.v. Marlowe, Dr. Faustus.
- ↑ Henslowe Papers, 18.
