12 Charles William Wallace 
} 
41, the Recorder of London reported that “the owner of the 
Theatre ’—by which he could have meant no one else than Bur- 
bage—declared he was Lord Hunsdon’s man. 
The support accorded to Burbage at Court is significant to the 
next two steps with reference to companies and theatres. It is 
further stated by Recorder Fleetwood that “ Upon Sonndaye my 
Lo [2 e., Lord Mayor] fent ij Aldermen to the Court for the 
fuppreffing and pulling doune of the Theatre and Curten All the 
LL agreed therevnto faving my Lord Chamberlen [Lord Charles 
Howard, 1583-85] and m? vizch [Sir Christopher Hatton, 1577- 
1602] but we obteyned a Ire to fuppreffe theym all/’”’ Yet no 
such order was executed. Then on July 4, 1858, Lord Howard 
was made Lord Admiral, and Lord Hunsden succeeded him in 
the office of Lord Chamberlain. Within the next three months, 
it was thought advantageous for Burbage and Brayne to make 
an alliance with Henry Lanman, proprietor of the Curtain, which 
stood adjoining to the Theatre property. The notion was, that 
the Curtain should serve as an “easer”’ to the Theatre, as it was 
put. Accordingly, as Laneman and others deposed in 1592, an 
agreement and bonds were signed for a term of seven years, 
dated Michaelmas, 1585, whereby Burbage and Brayne were to 
have one-half the profits of the Curtain and Theatre, and Lane- 
man the other half. Three months later, during the Christmas 
season of 1585-86, the Lord Chamberlain’s men and the Lord 
Admiral’s played at Court together. Also, in 1590, as John Allen 
deposed, the Admiral’s men were under Burbage at the Theatre. 
It would seem that, from 1583, Lord Hunsdon’s men (called 
the Lord Chamberlain’s after 1585) acted at the Theatre, and the 
Admiral’s at the Curtain for about two years, and that in 1585 
the two companies and their theatres were united under one 
management. It is well known that the company with which the 
Burbages and Shakespeare were associated in and after 1594 was 
the Lord Chamberlain’s, and it appears now that the beginnings 
of that illustrious company go back to 1582-83, when Leicester’s 
company split on the Peckham rock. A further word will be said 
when we come to the next reorganization of companies as the 
result of another split at the Theatre in 1590-91. 
I2 
