10 Charles William Wallace 
But Burbage complained to Hyde that Brayne took to his own 
use the money received at plays, and refused to deliver any of 
it to him or to Hyde. Whereupon Hyde appointed a servant or 
agent with Burbage to dismiss and put out Brayne from the 
Theatre. As he could not get rid of Brayne, however, he 
appointed them to collect and deliver 5/. weekly, thinking thus 
to pay himself with the profits. But by this means Hyde was 
able to collect only 20/7. to 30/. Brayne never at any time paid 
any sum on the mortgage. 
Meanwhile in 1582, during a bitter suit by Edmond Peckham 
against*Gyles Allen over the ownership of the grounds on which 
the Theatre stood, Peckham tried to get possession by force, and 
James Burbage, whose life was on one occasion endangered in 
protecting the property against Peckham and his servants, was 
compelled to hire men and to keep them on the premises day and 
night to guard the Theatre and defend his rights. As Cuthbert 
Burbage related in 1600, it was for his father’s expense in this 
that he withheld 30/7. of the rent from Allen, which remained an 
item of contention and dispute for sixteen years. Two men 
employed during the whole period of the Peckham siege, Ran- 
dolph May and Oliver Tilt, gave in 1600 a graphic notion of the 
situation. As a result of the annoyance, plays were stopped, 
Burbage lost money, and his company, the Earl of Leicester’s 
servants, who had played there from the first, was broken up. 
That was the end of Leicester’s company in London. Their 
last recorded performance was A History of Telomo at Court on 
February 10, 1582[-83].* After the Peckham trouble, deposed 
attorney Bett, Brayne seemed not to care for the Theatre, and 
said if the profits would not redeem the lease, it might go. 
The breaking up of Leicester's company was the beginning of 
a readjustment of all the London companies. The principal men 
who caused this condition by leaving the Theatre were Robert 
Wilson, the dramatist, Richard Tarleton, the famous comedian, 
John Laneham, and William Johnson. In March, 1583, with the 
4For a list of plays at Court, see the present writer’s Evolution of the 
English Drama up to Shakespeare (1912), 199-225. 
IO 
