giants of the past,[1] and whose reputation Edward Alleyn's friends were ready to back him to excel.[2] From 1588 the future of the stage lay with Alleyn and the Admiral's men and Marlowe, and it may reasonably be supposed that the Queen's men were hard put to it to hold their own against their younger rivals. Adams probably survived Tarlton, and his name appears to be traceable as that of the clowns in A Looking Glass for London and England (c. 1590) and James IV (c. 1591). In 1587-8 the Queen's visited Coventry and Exeter, and in 1588 Dover, and on two occasions Faversham. On 19 July and 14 August they were at Bath. The Bath accounts for this year also show a payment 'to the quenes men that were tumblers'. Owing to Tarlton's death or to some other reason, the Queen's men prolonged their travels far into the winter. On 31 October they were at the Earl of Derby's house at New Park, Lancashire; on 6 November 'certen of' them were at Leicester; on 10 December they were at Norwich and on 17 December at Ipswich. But they reached the Court in time for the performance on 26 December, with which they seem to have had the prerogative of opening the Christmas season, and appeared again on 9 February. They must have had some share in the Martin Marprelate controversy, which raged during 1589. In the previous year, indeed, Martin was able to claim Tarlton as an ally who had 'taken' Simony 'in Don John of London's cellar', and was himself accused of borrowing his 'foolery' from Laneham. But when the bishops determined to meet the Puritans with literary weapons like their own, they naturally turned to the Queen's men amongst others. About April 1589 A Whip for an Ape bids Martin's grave opponents to 'let old Lanam lash him with his rimes', and although it cannot be assumed that, if the May-game of Martinism was in fact played at the Theatre, it was the Queen's men who played it, Martin's Month's Minde records in August the chafing of the Puritans at players 'whom, saving their liveries (for indeed they are hir Majesty's men . . .) they call rogues'. Influence was brought to bear to suppress the anti-Martinist plays. A pamphlet of October notes that Vetus Comoedia has been 'long in the country'; and this accords with the fact that the provincial performances of the Queen's men began at an unusually early date in 1589. They are found at Gloucester on 19 April, at Leicester on 20 May, at Ipswich on 27 May, at Aldeburgh on 30 May, and at Norwich on
