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their] handes, remove and putt out of the saide Company any of the saide Company of playeres, if the saide Phillipp Henslowe and Jacob Meade shall fynde [the s]aide request to be iust and that ther be noe hope of conformety in the partie complayned of; And further that they the saide Phillipp Henslowe and Jacob Mea[de shall] and [will] at all tymes, vppon request made by the saide Company or the maior parte therof, pay vnto them all suche somes of monny as shall comme vnto their handes v[ppon of] any forfectures for rehearsalles or suche like paymentes; And also shall and will, vppon the request of the said Company or the maior parte of the[m], sue [] ar[] persons by whom any forfecture shalbe made as aforesaid, and after or vppon the recovery and receipte th[ero]f (their charges disbursed about the recovery [ b]einge first deducted and allowed) shall and will make satisfaccion of the remaynder therof vnto the said Company without fraude or guile.


Mr. Fleay and Dr. Greg think that at the time of this reconstruction the company was further strengthened by the incorporation of the Duke of York's, now the Prince's, men.[1] This I doubt, as the Prince's men continued to play at Court, as a company quite distinct from the Lady Elizabeth's, during the winter of 1614-15. It is true that Robert Dawes, who had been one of the Duke of York's in 1610, joined the Lady Elizabeth's, but it was precisely one of the grievances that this man and Robert Pallant were introduced by Henslowe, by means of a financial adjustment unfavourable to the sharers, in June 1614. Pallant had passed through several companies, and is traceable with Queen Anne's men in 1609. He was still technically a servant of the Queen at her death in 1619.[2] A letter from Daborne on 28 March 1614 shows that he was then expecting an answer to some proposal made to Henslowe, which the latter had neglected.[3] Articles between Robert Dawes and Henslowe and Meade are on record, and bear the date 7 April 1614.[4] The following is the text:


Articles of Agreement,] made, concluded, and agreed uppon, and which are to be kept & performed by Robert Dawes of London, Gent. unto and with Phillipp Henslowe Esq^{re} and Jacob [Meade Waterman] in manner and forme followinge, that is to say

Imprimis. The said Robert Dawes for him, his executors, and administrators doth covenante, promise, and graunt to and with the said Phillipp Henslowe and Jacob Meade, their executors, administrators, and assynes, in manner and formme followinge, that is to

  1. Fleay, 187; Greg, Henslowe Papers, 87, Henslowe's Diary, ii. 138.
  2. Cf. p. 240.
  3. Henslowe Papers, 82.
  4. Ibid. 123, from Variorum, xxi. 413; also in Collier, Alleyn Papers, 75. The original, formerly at Dulwich, is now missing.