The First London Theatre 25 
Almost immediately in 1597 Robert Miles, executor and sole 
legatee of the late Margaret Brayne, unable to make out a suc- 
cessful case at the Common Law, to which the Court of Chancery 
had referred him in 1595, brought suit in the Court of Requests 
against Cuthbert, Richard, and Ellen Burbage, their mother, as 
administratrix—cunningly joining Gyles Allen with them as co- 
defendant—claiming a moiety of the Theatre, and charging 
fraudulent transfer of the estate to the sons to defeat him and 
other creditors of their dues—a charge made in vain by him and 
later by others. Miles estimated the value of the goods on which 
the widow had taken out administration papers to be 1000/., and 
claimed that 600/. was due to him—all of which may be passed 
as unreliable. On May 9, 1597, the Court of Requests ordered 
that his bill should be compared with his bill of revivor of 1593 
that was still hung up in Chancery, with the intention of dis- 
missing it if both dealt with the same matter. But on the 27th 
of May, Miles’s attorney was able to get an order that the case 
should be retained and the defendants should be required to file 
their answers. No further records in the case are extant, but it 
is apparent on the face of it that the suit could not succeed. 
With the death of their father, followed two months later, on 
April 13, 1597, by the expiration of the lease on the Theatre 
grounds, it grew desperately clear to Cuthbert and Richard Bur- 
bage that they must have the question of a permanent playhouse 
settled if they were to maintain the business that had for over 
twenty years been the support and income of the family. Cuth- 
bert now took up the interrupted negotiations with Allen, who, 
with old age and prosperity upon him, was inclined to dictate 
his own terms, and showed himself of an uncompromising and 
contentious nature. Allen found new excuses for delay. Cuth- 
bert wanted to extend the lease for another period of twenty- 
one years, claiming some right under the former arrangement for 
an extension. Allen, however, demanded the 30/. which he 
claimed was still due him for arrearages, required the increased 
rent of 24/. a year, and made other hard conditions. He drew 
up the draft of a lease, but Cuthbert refused it as unreasonable 
in its covenants. Finally Allen yielded, on condition that the 
25 
