Three London Theatres of Shakespeare's Time 31 



Beeston's unsatisfactory manner of handling the money and ren- 

 dering account. 



Beeston apparently in 1616 was unable to give a satisfactory 

 explanation of his expenditures, particularly of 400 /., of the com- 

 pany's money. Some of the members in that year left and joined 

 others. The Queen's men from that time to her death seem to 

 have had their full share of variance and strife. When the death 

 of Queen Anne finally dissolved them, some went to other 

 theatres, some quit the profession, while the rest still held 

 together and formed a new organization at the Red Bull under 

 the name of the company of the Revels, — a name made popular 

 by long association with successful performances of young men 

 at the Blackfriars and Whitefriars. At the breaking up, Beeston 

 went as manager to Prince Charles's company. He took with 

 him, it is claimed, also all the apparel and furniture of the Red 

 Bull stage, in spite of the fact that it had been bought with the 

 company's money. 



Under the above conditions, Smith could not, he claims, get 

 the money due him, and so brought this suit a few months after 

 the Queen's death and the company's disbanding. 



Why Emanuel Read never appears in plays after about 1616 

 is explained, not by his death, as others have supposed, but by 

 the fact that he took up permanent residence in Ireland about 

 1616 or 1617, as Mrs. Richard Perkins testifies. 



The case dragged on for a year, chiefly through delays interposed 

 by Beeston. Smith's affidavit of 4 November, 1620, shows the 

 popular contempt, as exhibited in Beeston's attitude, for the 

 Court of Requests. This was but a natural result of the stub- 

 born conflict of authority between that court and the King's 

 Bench, culminating twenty-five years later in victory for the 

 King's Bench and the abolition of the Court of Requests. 



The series of documents in the Smith-Beeston controversy is 

 almost intact. Only the final decree of the court seems lacking. 

 They are here presented in chronological order. • 



317 



