The royal company continued under Henry VIII, who appears to have increased its numbers, and doubled the charge upon the Exchequer.[1] The financial records are, however, a little complicated. The Exchequer officials presumably continued to regard the establishment as consisting of four members drawing fees of ten instead of five marks each.[2] But the individual members were in fact paid on different scales. John English, the leader, got £6 13s. 4d. Others got £3 6s. 8d. as before, and others again only two-thirds of this amount, £2 4s. 5d. By this arrangement, it was possible to maintain an actual establishment of from eight to ten within the limits of the Exchequer allowance. It seems also to have been found convenient to transfer the responsibility for some at least of the payments from the Exchequer to the Treasurer of the Chamber.[3] The same distinction between players of different grades is also reflected in the annual rewards paid by the Treasurer of the Chamber for Christmas performances. These were increased in amount, and for a time the general reward to the players as a whole was supplemented by an additional sum to the 'old' players. Ultimately an amalgamated sum of £6 13s. 4d. became the customary reward for the company.[4] Details of a performance of Henry Medwall's Finding of Truth on 6 January 1514 are related by Collier from a document which cannot be
- ↑ Lansd. MS. 171, cited by Collier, i. 72, is in fact an Elizabethan document, but a list of fees and annuities (1516) in Brewer, ii. 874 has, amongst those granted by Henry VII, 'John Englisshe and other players £13 6s. 8d.', and amongst those recently granted, 'John Englisshe and other players, in addition to the old annuity, £13 6s. 8d'.
- ↑ Collier, i. 97, 115, gives an Exchequer payment of 1525-6, 'Rico Hole et Georgio Mayler, et aliis lusoribus Dom. Regis, de foedis suis inter se ad x marcos per ann. sibi debit: pro festo Michaelis, anno xvij Regis nunc Henrici VIII recept. denar. per manus proprias, per litt. curr. 66s. 8d.', and was informed by Mr. Devon of a similar payment of £3 6s. 8d. in 1530, in which John Roll, Richard Hole, and Thomas Sudbury are named. A household list of c. 1526 (Brewer, iv. 869) gives as on yearly wages 'Ric. Hole and other players, £6 13s. 4d.'. One later than March 1544 (Collier, i. 133) gives 8 players at £3 6s. 8d. each.
- ↑ Chamber Accounts (Brewer, v. 303; xiii. 2. 524; xiv. 2. 303; xvi. 178, 698; xvii. 474; xx. 2. 515; Nicolas, xxviii; Collier, i. 79, 96, 113, 116, 117; Trevelyan Papers, i. 149, 157, 170, 177, 195, 203) give John English (1521-31) at half-yearly 'fee' or 'wages' of £3 6s. 8d., John Slye or Slee (1539-40) at £1 13s. 4d. half-yearly, and Richard Parrowe or Parlowe (1540-5, appointed Christmas 1538), George Birch (1538-45), Robert Hinstock (1538-45), and George Maylour (1538-40), at 16s. 8d. or 11s. 1d. quarterly.
- ↑ Chamber Accounts (Brewer, ii. 1441; iii. 1533, &c.; Nicolas, xxviii; Collier, i. 76, 116). The reward for 1509-10 was £2 13s. 4d.; during 1510-13, £3 6s. 8d.; during 1513-21, £3 6s. 8d. to the 'players' and '£4' to the 'olde players'; and during 1529-41, £6 13s. 4d.
