28 October 1608 to 15 January 1612, but on 5 November 1612 'widow Towne' is mentioned,[1] and further evidence of his death is supplied by a letter from Charles Massey to Alleyn, not dated, but from internal evidence written not very long after the prince's death, to which reference is made. Massey is in debt and wants £50. He offers two things as security. One is 'that lyttell moete I have in the play hovsses'; from which it may be inferred that, like Downton, he had obtained an interest in the Fortune, although what the second house may have been can hardly be conjectured. The other is his interest under 'the composisions betwene ovre compenye that if any one give over with consent of his fellowes, he is to receve three score and ten poundes (Antony Jefes hath had so much) if any on dye his widow or frendes whome he appoyntes it tow reseve fyfte poundes (M^res Pavie and M^res Tovne hath had the lyke)'. In order to be in a position to repay the loan at the end of the year he undertakes to get Mr. Jube to reserve 'my gallery mony and my quarter of the hovse mony' for the purpose, and should it prove at the end of six months that this will be insufficient, he will be prepared to surrender his whole share, with the exception of 13s. 4d. a week for household expenses.[2] From this letter it may also be gathered that Antony Jeffes had retired, and apparently that Pavy, whose name is found in the plot of 2 Fortune's Tennis, which I assign to 1602-3, had at some time become a sharer in the company. One other player, originally in 1597 a hired man, had evidently reached some prominence between that date and 1614. William Fennor, in the course of a rhyming controversy with John Taylor, makes the following boast of his histrionic talent:
And let me tell thee this to calme thy rage,
I chaleng'd Kendall on the Fortune stage;
And he did promise 'fore an audience,
For to oppose me. Note the accidence:
I set up bills, the people throngd apace,
With full intention to disgrace, or grace;
The house was full, the trumpets twice had sounded,
And though he came not, I was not confounded,
But stept upon the stage, and told them this,
My aduerse would not come: not one did hisse,
But flung me theames: I then extempore
Did blot his name from out their memorie,
And pleasd them all, in spight of one to braue me,
Witnesse the ringing plaudits that they gaue me.[3]
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