eldest son bore the courtesy title of Lord Herbert, it is probably the same company which appeared at Leicester, after Michaelmas in 1574, as 'Lorde Harbards'. But it is named as Worcester's again in 1574-5 at Stratford-on-Avon, on 28 April 1575 at Nottingham, and after Michaelmas in the same year at Leicester, in 1575-6 at Coventry, in 1576-7 at Stratford-on-Avon and Bath, and on 14 June 1577 at Southampton, where it consisted of ten men. On 19 January 1578 it was at Nottingham, in 1577-8 at Coventry, in 1580-1 and 1581-2 at Stratford-on-Avon, in 1581-2 at Abingdon, on 15 June 1582 at Ipswich, in the same year at Doncaster.
Two incidents in successive years suggest that Worcester's men were not always quite so amenable, as vagrants should have been, to municipal discipline. The first was at Norwich on 7 June 1583. Here there was a fear of plague, and the company were given 26s. 8d., on a promise not to play. In spite of this they played in their host's house. The Corporation ordered 'that their lord shall be certified of their contempt', and that they should never again receive reward in Norwich, and should presently depart the town on pain of imprisonment. It was afterwards agreed, however, on submission and earnest entreaty, not to report the misdemeanour to the Earl of Worcester. The second occasion was in the following March in Leicester, and the entries in the Corporation archives are so interesting as to deserve reproduction in full.[1]
Mr Mayor
Mr J. Tatam
Mr Morton.
Tuesdaie the third daie of Marche, 1583,
certen playors whoe said they were the
seruants of the Quenes Maiesties Master of
the Revells, who required lycence to play &
for there aucthorytye showed forth an Indenture
of Lycense from one M^r Edmonde Tylneye
esquier M^r of her Maiesties Revells of the
one parte, and George Haysell of Wisbiche
in the Ile of Elye in the Countie of Cambridge,
gentleman on the other parte.
The which indenture is dated the vj^{th} daie of Februarye in the xxv^{th} yere of her Maiesties raign &c.
In which Indenture there ys one article that all Justices, Maiores, Sherifs, Bayllyfs, Constables, and all other her officers, ministers & subiects whatsoeuer to be aydinge & assistinge vnto the said Edmund
- ↑ Kelly, 211, from Leicester Hall Papers, i, ff. 38, 42; Hist. MSS. viii. 1, 431. The latter part of the record, from the Earl's licence onwards, was given by Halliwell in Sh. Soc. Papers, iv. 145, but with the date 1586, due to a misprint of '28^o Eliz.' for '25^o Eliz.' in the licence. This has misled Fleay, 86, and other writers. Maas, 49, and M. Bateson, Records of Leicester, iii. 198, introduce fresh errors of their own.
