Three London Theatres of Shakespeare's Time 29 



[31 May, 17 James I.] 



Aron Holland p^rsonaliter comparet coram Consilio per manda- 

 ium nuncij Camerae ad sectani Thomae Woodford &c postea viz 

 Septimo die Ju mens/5 instanfw AdmissMJ est per Co: con- 

 silio Wormlaighton 



III 



THE RED BULL COMPANY. 



The Wood ford-Holland suit grows out of relations of share- 

 holders in regard to ownership and profits. The Smith-Beeston 

 suit grows out of equally unhappy relations of the company in 

 its expenditures for playing apparel, furniture, and other 

 necessaries. 



The history of the Red Bull company is only in part known. 

 Early in the reign of James I, very possibly in 1603 as has been 

 surmised, the Earl of Worcester's players became Queen Anne's 

 servants. Collier published an undated draft for a patent to 

 them as acting at the Curtain and Boar's Head, which must date 

 1603. I have not seen the original. The earliest declared date 

 of their new patronage is March 15, 1604, when they were granted 

 red cloth for the King's coronation, as already mentioned. The 

 patent of 15 April, 7 James I (1609), also previously mentioned, 

 furnishes the earliest date hitherto known of their acting at the 

 Red Bull. The Woodford-Holland documents show that the Red 

 Bull was built in or before 1605, and that Thomas Swynnerton, 

 one of the Queen's company, in that year owned a share in it. 

 When all these evidences are examined, it becomes as certain as 

 circumstances unsupported by contemporary declaration can make 

 it, that Queen Anne's company occupied the Red Bull continu- 

 ously from the time of its erection, which must have been, on the 

 same evidences, sometime between 1603 and 1605, till their dis- 

 solution, 1619. 



There were originally ten actors in the company. In the 1604 

 grant of red cloth, as also in the undated draft for patent, and 

 finally in the 1609 patent, they were, as there put down, Thomas 

 Greene, Christopher Beeston, Thomas Heywood, Richard Perkins, 



315 



