8 Charles William Wallace 
should be paid the amount spent in excess of Burbage’s expendi- 
ture. Thereafter, they were to share equally. 
The failure of one party or the other to perform the arbitra- 
ment was the cause of bitter contention and long litigation for 
the next twenty years both within the family and without. More- 
over, the part of the agreement relating to Sunday plays could 
not be carried out in full. The City had long insisted on allow- 
ing no plays or other recreations on Sunday, and the city records 
contain many orders prohibiting them. Finally, to stop the 
practice, Burbage and Brayne were indicted at the Peace Sessions 
of Middlesex (the record is well known) for acting plays on the 
Sabbath, the specific performance of Sunday, February 21, 1580, 
being cited, since a specific charge was necessary, and those before 
and after being referred to only in general terms. On April 12, 
1580, the Lord Mayor complained to the Lord Chancellor of dis- 
orders at a play at the Theatre on the preceding Sunday, men- 
tioning that he had begun action against the players, but that, 
finding the Privy Council had it in hand, he left it to them. These 
actions and repeated City orders at least interrupted if they did 
not wholly prohibit their playing on Sundays, thus preventing 
that part of the arbitrament from being fulfilled,—a point that 
Burbage’s second question to Ralph Myles, April 26, 1592, aimed 
to establish, but without getting an answer. 
Debts were not immediately wiped out. Brayne in fact had 
gone into debt heavily on his own account, and either before or 
during the building of the Theatre he had made a deed of gift 
of his property to save it from creditors. This was a favorite 
method of Brayne (and others) when heavily indebted. Some- 
times he made the deed of gift to William Thompson, his brother- 
in-law, who had married his wife’s sister, sometimes to John 
Gardner, sometimes to one Ashburnham, or to some one else. 
For example, in 1579, he made such a deed to Thompson, to save 
himself from a judgment of 25/. 10s. 1d. in favor of John. 
Hynde, haberdasher, which had been placed in the hands of the 
bailiff to execute. Also in other cases, not directly connected 
with the theatre, he took similar action, and left Burbage and his 
other securities to settle the debt. He got most deeply into debt, 
8 
