(Ferdinando Stanley, Earl of Derby, 1593. Sept. 25–1594, Apr. 16.)

(Alice, Countess of Derby, Ferdinando Stanley's widow.)

1593-4. May 16, '94,

ĺ (Countess of

Winchester.

Derby's players).

(Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, Lord Chamberlain, 1585, c. July 4–

1596, July 22).

1593-4. [c. Sept., '94],

((Lord Chamber

Marlborough.

lain's players).

(George Carey, Lord Hunsdon, 1596, July 22-1597, April 17.)

1596. After July 23,

Faversham.

((Lord Hunsdon's players).

(George Carey, Lord Hunsdon, Lord Chamberlain, 1597, March 17

VI

LORD CHARLES HOWARD, LORD
ADMIRAL'S COMPANY1

A DRAMATIC company under the patronage of Lord Charles Howard first appeared in December, 1574, when they played the History of Phædrastus and Phigon and Lucia together at Court. As Lord Charles Howard was acting Lord Chamberlain from c. April 24, 1574, to c. Feb. 2, 1577, during the illness of the Earl of Sussex, his company frequently acted under the name of the Lord Chamberlain's men' during those years. From 1574 to 1577 this company often acted at Court and in the provinces. It was probably one of the companies

3

1 This company was also known as the 3 and 4 Lord Chamberlain's company, and the Earl of Nottingham's company (cf. below, 260 f.). It was the 3 Admiral's company (cf. below, 540; ii. 95).

2 Fleay, Stage, 35, 45, 50. Mr. Fleay has conjectured the existence of a company under the patronage of Lord Charles Howard as early as 1572-3 (Stage, 33). This conjecture is apparently based on Mr. Fleay's identification of Theagines and Cariclia, acted at Court, 1572-3, with The Queen of Ethiopia, acted by the Lord Charles Howard's men at Bristol in 1578 (Stage, 20 n.). But the identification is based on very slight evidence, and, even if correct, does not prove that Lord Charles Howard had a company of players in his service in 1572-3, for the play might easily have passed from some other company to Howard's men after 1574. Mr. Fleay evidently does not care to force the point, for his statements on page 20 (Stage) imply that the play passed from some other company to Howard's men after 1572-3), and on page 368 (Stage) he gives 1574 as the earliest date for Howard's company, then acting as Lord Chamberlain's men.

3 Cf. below, 301.

which, under the title of Her Maties poor Players,' petitioned the Privy Council to request the Lord Mayor and the Justices of Middlesex to permit them to act in London, for the players stated that only by so doing could they perfect themselves for acting before the Queen,' and the Lord Chamberlain's company acted at Court during Christmas, 1575-6.

From 1577 to 1583 this company acted as the Lord Charles Howard's men. Under this title they appeared both at Court and in the provinces during 1577 and 1578. Though they are not mentioned as acting in the city of London during these years, they doubtless did so, for on Dec. 24, 1578, the Privy Council ordered the Lord Mayor to suffer the children of her Majesty's chapel, the servants of the Lord Chamberlain (i.e. Earl of Sussex), of the Earl of Warwick, of the Earl of Leicester, and the children of Paul's, and no companies else, to exercise plays within the city; whom their Lordships have only allowed thereunto, by reason that the companies aforenamed are appointed to play this Christmas before her Majesty.' The obvious implication of this order is that other companies than those mentioned had been acting in London in 1578. Among these, no doubt, was the Lord Charles Howard's company. As these men did not act at Court from Christmas, 1577-8, till Christmas, 1585-6, and could not plead as an excuse for their acting in the city that they were preparing plays to show before the Queen, they were probably forced to act outside the city walls. In the provinces they appeared at Coventry, Ipswich, Bath, and probably Notting1 Collier, i. 212-213. 2 Chalmers, Apology, 373.

2

ham, during 1578-9, and at Ipswich in 1581. From 1581 to 1585 this company is not mentioned at Court, in London, or in the provinces.

After the death of the Lord Chamberlain, Thomas Ratcliffe, Earl of Sussex, on June 9, 1583, Lord Charles Howard was appointed Lord Chamberlain. This position he held till July 4, 1585, when he was appointed Lord High Admiral.' From 1585 to 1603 his company of players are usually styled the Lord Admiral's men.

In June, 1585, these players acted at Dover, and on Jan. 6, 1586, they appeared at Court. From 1585-6 to 1603 this company played frequently at Court, in London, and in the provinces. On Jan. 25, 1587, the Admiral's men are mentioned as one of the leading London companies, for on that date a spy of Walsingham's wrote that the companies of the Queen, the Earl of Leicester, the Earl of Oxford, and the Lord Admiral, and divers others set up players' bills in the city every day in the week, so that when the bells toll to the Lecturer, the trumpets sound to the stages to the Joy of the wicked faction of Rome.' This apparently refers only to the setting up of the players' bills, and does not mean that the companies acted in the city on Sunday, for this writer, probably thinking of acting in the city on Sunday, says in the

1 Fleay, Stage, 30-31; Stow, 709. Lord Charles Howard's sympathy with players was rather markedly shown in 1584. On Sunday, 14th of June, 1584, 'My Lord (i.e. the Lord Mayor) sent two Aldermen to the Court for the suppressing and pulling downe of the Theatre and Curten; for all the Lords agreed thereunto saving my Lord Chamberlain (i.e. L. Charles Howard) and Mr. Vice Chamberlain, but we obtained a letter to suppress them all' (Fleay, Stage, 55; Halliwell-Phillipps, Illustrations, 41 ; Collier, i. 252-253; Lansdowne MSS., 41). The Theatre and the Curtain were not pulled down at this time.