I now come to a difficult point. There exists amongst the Dulwich papers a 'plott' or prompter's abstract of a play called The Second Part of the Seven Deadly Sins, which an ingenious conjecture of Mr. Fleay has identified on internal evidence with the Four Plays in One included in the Strange's repertory of 1592.[1] In this leading parts were taken, not only by 'Mr. Pope', 'Mr. Phillipps', and 'Mr. Brian', but also by 'Richard Burbadge'; lesser ones by Richard Cowley, John Duke, Robert Pallant, John Sincler, Thomas Goodale, William Sly, J. Holland, and three others described only as Harry, Kitt, and Vincent; and female parts by Saunder, Nick, Robert, Ned, Will, and T. Belt, who may be presumed to have been boys.[2] Alleyn, Kempe, and Heminges are not named, but there are several parts to which no actors are assigned. What, however, is the date of the 'plott'? Not necessarily 1592, for the performance of Four Plays in One in that year was only a revival. The authorship of the Seven Deadly Sins is ascribed to Tarlton, and therefore the original owners were probably the Queen's men. They are not very likely to have parted with it before Tarlton's death in 1588 brought the first shock to their fortunes, but clearly it may have come into the possession of Strange's or the Admiral's or the combined company before ever they reached the Rose. And surely the appearance of Richard Burbadge suggests that the 'plott' was brought from the Theatre, and represents a performance there. He is very unlikely to have joined at the Rose the company which had just been driven there by a quarrel with his father. It is true that in the 'plott' of Dead Man's Fortune, which also probably dates from the sojourn of the Admiral's (q.v.) at the Theatre, he was apparently not playing leading parts but only a messenger. But the wording is obscure, and after all the absence of the prefix 'Mr.' from his name in the 'plott' of the Sins may indicate, in accordance with the ordinary usage of the Dulwich docu-*
- [Footnote: of being both transcriber's errors for Morley. No players of Lord Norris
are on record, and those of Lord Mordaunt (Murray, ii. 90) only recur in 1585-6 and 1602.]
- ↑ Text in Henslowe Papers, 130; on the nature of a 'plott', cf. App. N.
- ↑ The following rather hazardous identifications have been attempted by Greg (loc. cit.) and Fleay, 84: 'Harry' = Henry Condell (Fleay, Greg); 'Kit' = Christopher Beeston (Fleay, Greg); 'Saunder' = Alexander Cooke (Fleay, Greg); 'Nick' = Nicholas Tooley (Fleay, Greg); 'Ro.' or 'R. Go.' = Robert Gough (Fleay, Greg); 'Ned' = Edward Alleyn or Edmund Shakespeare (Fleay); 'Will' = William Tawyer (Fleay), William Tawler (Greg). The object is, of course, to establish the connexion between Strange's and the Chamberlain's men. Both writers assign two of the unallocated parts to Heminges and Shakespeare.
