Shakespeare and his London Associates yy 



records to appear in the third volume of The Children of the 

 Revels. Thereafter the Blackfriars stood vacant until taken by 

 the Burbage-Shakespeare company, August 8, 1608, as first 

 related by the Osteler-Hemynges records and the following new 

 set of documents. 



Out of the suppression of the Children's company and the later 

 transfer of their theatre to the Burbage-Shakespeare company, 

 differences arose among the former sharers resulting in numerous 

 bitter suits at both law and equity, which furnish us with much of 

 our information concerning the history of Blackfriars theatre. 

 Some of these suits have been published, from James Greenstreet's 

 transcripts, in F. G. Fleay, A Chronicle History of the London 

 Stage ( 1890), while a first account of others appeared in the 

 London Times, September 12, 1906, and extracts and data from 

 these and several others besides, all yet to be published in extenso, 

 as announced, were presented by me in The Children of the 

 Chapel at Blackfriars 1597-1603 in University Studies, April-July, 

 1908. 



The quarrel did not confine itself to the former tenants of the 

 Blackfriars. One suit, six months after the above transfer, was 

 directed by Robert Keysar, goldsmith, a shareholder in the defunct 

 Children of the Queen's Revels company, against the new lessees, 

 the records of which constitute the set of nine new documents 

 from the Court of Requests published in the present section. 



The Bill of Complaint is based upon promises claimed to have 

 been made by Richard Burbage, Cuthbert Burbage, John Hem- 

 inges, Henry Condell, " and others " of the company. Shakes- 

 peare is not specifically named, and may or may not have been 

 one of those to whom Keysar says he repaired and of whom he 

 received certain promises in reference to the Blackfriars. But 

 since he was one of the members of the company, this suit, pray- 

 ing for no less than a one-sixth interest in the theatre and its 

 profits, vitally concerns Shakespeare and all the other sharers of 

 the company alike. 



A study of these records will yield corrective and new results 

 worth the time to any one familiar with previous histories. 



337 



