about 1601-2, when Jonson was revising The Spanish Tragedy for the Admiral's. A reference in T. M.'s Black Book shows that The Merry Devil of Edmonton, which belonged to the company, was already on the stage by 1604.[1]
The coronation procession of James, deferred on account of the plague, went through London on 15 March 1604, and the Great Wardrobe furnished each of the King's players with four and a half yards of red cloth. The same nine men are specified in the warrant as in the patent of 1603, and their names stand next those of various officers of the Chamber. They did not, however, actually walk in the procession.[2] From 9 to 27 August 1604, they were called upon in their official capacity as Grooms of the Chamber to form part of the retinue assigned to attend at Somerset House upon Juan Fernandez de Velasco, Duke of Frias and Constable of Castile, who was in England as Ambassador Extraordinary for the negotiation of a peace with Spain. The descriptions of his visit, which have been preserved, do not show that any plays were given before him.[3]
The company were at Oxford between 7 May and 16 June 1604. About 18 December they had got into trouble through the production of a tragedy on Gowry, always a delicate subject with James.[4] But this did not interfere with a long series of no less than eleven performances which they gave at Court between 1 November 1604 and 12 February 1605, and of which the Revels Accounts fortunately preserve the names.[5] The series included one play, The Spanish Maze, of which nothing is known; two by Ben Jonson, Every Man In his Humour and Every Man Out of his Humour; and seven by Shakespeare, Othello, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Measure for Measure, The Comedy of Errors, Henry V, Love's Labour's Lost, and The Merchant of Venice, which was given twice. Othello and Measure for Measure had probably been produced for the first time during 1604, but
- ↑ Bullen, Middleton, viii. 36, 'Give him leaue to see the Merry Deuil of Edmonton or A Woman Killed with Kindness'.
- ↑ N. S. S. Trans. (1877-9), 15*, from Lord Chamberlain's Records, vol. 58^a, now ix. 4 (5); cf. Law (ut infra), 10. Collier, Memoirs of Alleyn, 68, printed a list headed 'Ks Company' from the margin of the copy of the Privy Council order of 9 April 1604 at Dulwich. This is a forgery. To the nine genuine names Collier added those of Hostler and Day. The former joined the company some years later, the latter never; cf. Ingleby, 269.
- ↑ App. B; cf. E. Law, Shakespeare as a Groom of the Chamber (1910), and the Spanish narrative in Colección de Documentos inéditos para la historia de España, lxxi. 467.
- ↑ Cf. ch. x.
- ↑ For the exact dates and the difficult critical questions raised by the records, cf. App. B.
