18 Charles William Wallace 
rayled at them.” She and Richard declared in effect to the 
Brayne contingent “that yf they did tarye to heare the playe as 
others did, they fhuld, but to gather any of the money, that was 
gyven to go vpon, they fhuld not.” The Burbages thereupon, not 
receiving assent, with violence thrust them from the door, 
threatening “that yf they departed not from that place, they wold 
beate them away.” “And fo indede,” one of the beaten enemy, 
Nicholas Bishop, afterwards related, “ vpon fome wordes vttered 
by the faid Robert Myles to the faid Burbages wyifhing them to 
obey the faid Order, the faid Ry. Burbage & his mother fell upon 
the faid Robert Myles & beate him wt A broome ftaffe calling 
him murdring knave and other vyle and vnhoneft wordes.” - 
Then Nicholas Bishop put in a word for the widow, where- 
upon, as he naively relates, “the faid Ry Burbage fcornfully & 
difdainfully playing wt this deponen'** Nofe, fayd, that yf he delt 
in the matter, he wold beate him alfo, and did chalendge the feild 
of him.” A life-size portrait of the future great actor. 
About that time, Cuthbert Burbage came home, and with “ great 
& horrible othes” declared he would keep, against any court 
order, what he had paid for, and hotly threatened them and bade 
them get hence. 
Meanwhile, some of the actors had arrived on the scene. John 
Alleyn, brother of Edward Alleyn, relates that upon his arrival 
he “found the forefaid Ry. Burbage the youngeft fone of the 
faid James Burbage there wt a Broome ftaff in his hand, of whom 
when this depot afked what fturre was there, he anfwered in 
laughing phrafe hew they come for A moytie, But quod he (hold- 
ing vppe the faid broome-{taffe) I have, I think delivered him 
A moytie wt this & fent them packing.” Another study for a 
painter with a proper sense of the situation. And the father 
said that if his sons would be ruled by him, they would the next 
time provide pistols loaded with powder and hempseed to shoot 
them in the legs. 
John Alleyn, though only Burbage’s servant, as he says, also 
remonstrated in behalf of the widow, and appealed to conscience. 
Burbage did not exactly bid conscience be condemned nor tell 
Alleyn in precise words that 
18 
