Admiral's in 1594 is quite gratuitous, as there is no evidence of the existence of Pembroke's men before 1592.[1] Whether there was a Worcester's company or not from 1585 to 1589, there was certainly one after the accession of the fourth earl. It is traceable at Coventry in 1589-90, at Newcastle in October 1590, at Leicester during the last three months of the same year, at Coventry and Faversham in 1590-1, at Leicester on 26 June 1591 and again in the last three months of the year, at Coventry and Shrewsbury in 1591-2, at Ipswich in 1592-3, twice at Leicester in 1593, both before and after Michaelmas, twice at Bath in 1593-4, at Leicester before Michaelmas in 1595, at Ludlow on 3 December 1595, at Bath in 1595-6, at Leicester on 1 August 1596, at Bristol in August 1598, at York in April 1599, and at Coventry on 3 January 1600 and in 1600-1 and 1601-2.[2]
By the end of 1601 the Earl of Worcester was holding the Mastership of the Horse and other important offices at Court, and may have thought it consonant with his dignity to have London players under his patronage. On 3 January 1602 his company was at Court. On 31 March the Privy Council, after attempting for some years to limit the number of London companies to two, made an order that Oxford's and Worcester's men, 'beinge ioyned by agrement togeather in on companie', should be allowed to play at the Boar's Head and nowhere else.[3] In the course of 1602 How a Man may Choose a Good Wife from a Bad was published as played by Worcester's men. By 17 August the company were in relations, under the style of 'my lorde of Worsters players', with Henslowe, who opened an account of advances made for their play-books and apparel, on the same lines as that which he kept during 1597-1603 with the Admiral's men.[4] An early entry is of 9s. for a supper 'at the Mermayd when we weare at owre a grement'. The account was continued until the spring of 1603, when Henslowe's famous diary was disused. No theatre is named, but it is probable that, with or without leave from the Privy Council, the company moved to the Rose, which had been vacated by the Admiral's men on the opening of the Fortune
- ↑ Fleay, 87.
- ↑ Murray, i. 58, adds 1589-94 records.
- ↑ App. D, No. cxxx.
- ↑ Henslowe, i. 179. As Henslowe paid 7s. 'for my Lo^r Worsters mens warant for playinge at the cort vnto the clarke of the cownselles for geatynge the cownselles handes to yt' (Henslowe Papers, 108), and the only warrant to these men was dated 28 Feb. 1602, the connexion with Henslowe probably began while they were still at the Boar's Head.
