was made, and he sued Taylor as 'the best able to paye and discharge the same'. Taylor was arrested and in February 1612 brought his suit in equity to stay the common law proceedings. The result is unknown.
The company frequently played at Court, but, as it would seem, only before the younger members of the royal family. Their first appearance was before Charles and Elizabeth on 9 February 1610. In 1610-11 they were at Saffron Walden. They came before Charles and Elizabeth on 12 and 20 December 1610 and 15 January 1611, and before Henry, Charles, and Elizabeth on 12 and 28 January and 13 and 24 February 1612. On this last occasion they played William Rowley's Hymen's Holiday, or Cupid's Vagaries. After Henry's death, on 7 November 1612, they became entitled to the designation of the Prince's players. In 1612-13 they were at Barnstaple and Ipswich. On 2 and 10 March 1613 they gave the two parts of The Knaves, perhaps by Rowley, before Charles, Elizabeth, and the Palsgrave. In 1613-14 they were at Barnstaple, Dover, Saffron Walden, and Coventry. They were not at Court for the winter of 1613-14. In November 1614 they were at Oxford, Leicester, and Nottingham. At the Christmas of 1614-15 they gave six plays before Charles, and on 11 February they were at Youghal in Ireland. Ten days later R. A.'s The Valiant Welshman was entered and in the course of the year published as theirs. Their leader seems to have been Rowley. He both wrote plays for them and acted as payee for all their court rewards from 1610 to 1614. In 1611 they lost Taylor and in 1614 Dawes to the Lady Elizabeth's men; and these transferences seem to have led to a temporary amalgamation of the two companies, which Mr. Fleay and Dr. Greg place in 1614, but for which their distinct appearances at Court in the following winter suggest 1615 as the more likely date.[1] On 29 March 1615 William Rowley and John Newton were called with representatives of other companies before the Privy Council to answer for playing in Lent. No separate representation of the Lady Elizabeth's is indicated by the list. In 1614-15 the Prince's were at Norwich, Coventry, Winchester, and Barnstaple. In the winter of 1615-16 they gave four plays before Prince Charles, and the payee was not Rowley, but Alexander Foster, formerly
- ↑ A letter, probably originally from Dulwich, but now Egerton MS. 2623, f. 25 (printed in Sh. Soc. Papers, i. 18, and Henslowe Papers, 126), is signed by William Rowley, as well as by Taylor and Pallant, and must therefore be later than this amalgamation, and not, as Dr. Greg suggests, from the Lady Elizabeth's c. 1613. It confirms a purchase of clothes from Henslowe for £55.
