Shakespeare and his London Associates 79 



Marston as one of the material witnesses to be summoned is 

 " clerk," or preacher, of Barford, Wiltshire, near the residence of 

 his father-in-law, who, Ben Jonson ten years later jokingly said 

 to Drummond of Hawthornden, wrote all of Marston's plays for 

 him, while Marston wrote his father-in-law's sermons. 



The depositions of witnesses mentioned in Cuthbert Burbage's 

 affidavit as material to the defendants would, if they existed, 

 greatly enrich the history of the Blackfriars. For further com- 

 ment on these, see bracketed note at close of the affidavit. 



The largest point of interest in the new documents centres 

 about Keysar's charge that the Burbage-Shakespeare company 

 had formed a theatrical trust by buying up all the private 

 theatres, and suppressing such as they did not want to conduct. 

 The only private theatres then were Blackfriars, Paul's, and 

 Whitefriars. The defendants admit only a part of the charge, 

 namely, that they did purchase the Blackfriars and have also paid 

 their half of a dead rent of 20 /. for the year to Edward Pierce, 

 Master of the Paul's Boys, to keep that theatre closed. The pro- 

 prietors of Whitefriars, they say, paid the other half. 



How and why Paul's Boys ceased to act has been explained in 

 a variety of ways. These documents furnish the single needed 

 word of fact that settles the question. Whether they acted in 

 some part of the Church or outside is likewise removed from 

 speculation. 



These documents unite with others to show how, when, and by 

 whom the company called the Children of the Queen's Revels at 

 Whitefriars was organized. 



In this introductory word, I do not wish to verge upon analysis 

 of the records, nor even to attempt to suggest the new items of 

 fact. That must be deferred to later publications. I desire here 

 merely to give a brief, general notion of the documents, which 

 speak to the literary-historical student entertainingly and instruc- 

 tively for themselves. 



339 



