?S Charles William Wallace 



Robert Keysar has long been known to me among unpublished 

 theatrical records, although only one printed document mentions 

 him, quite incidentally, as " one Keysar." He is, in fact, a promi- 

 nent owner in the Children of the Queen's Revels at Blackfriars 

 in and probably before 1608, and thereafter, in connection with 

 Woodford, Rosseter, and others, of the new company at White- 

 friars under the old name of Children of the Queen's Revels. He 

 secured his first interest through purchase of a share in the Black- 

 friars company from John Marston, the dramatist, and was to 

 the poets and players there, from some of the unpublished records 

 just referred to, the Philip Henslowe of the organization, who 

 lent some of them money on different occasions. 



Up to 1601, the date of Poetaster, Ben Jonson and George 

 Chapman were the sole poets of the Blackfriars Children. 

 Thereafter Jonson wrote for other players, and Chapman and 

 Marston became the exclusive Blackfriars poets from that date 

 to the suppression in 1608. Marston now turns out to have had 

 a financial interest in the Children's company at Blackfriars, which 

 may explain a few allusions not before clear. He was thus their 

 Shakespeare, being poet and sharer in one. The date of his 

 acquisition of a share is not known. Just when he ceased his 

 connection as dramatist and shareowner with the Blackfriars these 

 documents do not openly declare. But it is made evident from 

 Keysar's reported conversations with the Burbage-Shakespeare 

 company relative to their contemplated lease of the theatre and 

 his own contemplated purchase of Marston's share for 100/. at 

 that time, that the transfer occurred and Marston's connection 

 ceased about the date of the suppression, perhaps in the spring of 

 1608. Since we know from a published document that " one 

 Keysar " was interested in the Blackfriars before its suppression, 

 even to the extent of paying rent, and from yet others that the 

 negotiations for transferring the Blackfriars lease had been con- 

 sidered by Evans, the lessee, and Burbage, the owner, for a long 

 time before the transaction was completed, it is possible that the 

 deal between Marston and Keysar was made in 1607. 



At the date of Cuthbert Burbage's affidavit, June, 1610, John 



338 



