Nicholas Bishop, who was asked to stand 'at the door that goeth vppe to the gallaries of the said Theater to take and receyve for the vse of the said Margarett half the money that shuld be gyven to come vppe into the said gallaries at that door'. They were, however, refused access, and on 16 November 1590 there was a row royal, of which independent witness was borne by John Alleyn, of the Admiral's men, who were then playing at the Theatre. James Burbadge, 'looking out at a wyndoe vpon them', joined his wife in reviling them as a murdering knave and whore, and expressed his contempt for the order of Chancery; Cuthbert, who came home in the middle of the fray, backed him up; while Richard Burbadge, the youngest son, snatched up a broom-staff, and as he afterwards boasted, paid Robert Miles his moiety with a beating. He also threatened Nicholas Bishop, 'scornfully and disdainfullye playing with this deponentes nose'. James said that at their next coming his sons should provide pistols charged with powder and hempseed to shoot them in the legs.[1] Both Cuthbert and James were summoned on 28 November for contempt before the court, which instead of dealing with this charge proceeded to take the whole case into further consideration.[2] This was something of a triumph for Burbadge, who continued to resist the order, and repeated with oaths that twenty contempts and as many injunctions would not force him to give up his property. This was heard by John Alleyn in the Theatre yard about May 1591, and about eight days later 'in the Attyring housse or place where the players make them ready', on the occasion of a dispute with the Admiral's men about some of 'the dyvydent money between him and them' which he had detained, Burbadge was equally irreverent before Alleyn and James Tunstall about the Lord Admiral himself, saying 'by a great othe, that he cared not for iij of the best lordes of them all'.[3] Margaret Brayne died in 1593, leaving her estate to Miles, who thus became a principal in the suit.[4] And on 28 May 1595 the court
- ↑ Wallace, 59 (C. Burbadge), 62 (J. Burbadge), 97, 114 (Bishop), 100, 126 (Alleyn), 105, 121 (Ralph Miles).
- ↑ Ibid. 49, 66.
- ↑ Ibid. 101, 127 (Alleyn). The two depositions are not quite consistent as to dates. From that of 6 Feb. 1592, one would infer that the dispute between Burbadge and the Admiral's was at the time of the contempt of 16 Nov. 1590. The second, of 6 May 1592, apparently corrects the first, by giving the date of the insult to the Lord Admiral as 'about a yere past'. The point is of importance, as bearing upon the length of the stay of the Admiral's and Strange's (cf. ch. xiii) at the Theatre. No doubt Mrs. Brayne, who came 'dyvers tymes' to the Theatre, continued her applications after laying her affidavit of contempt.
- ↑ Wallace, 153.
