Shakespeare and his London Associates 97 



qualety or nomber as in & by the said Replication is surmised were 

 disperced & driven each of them to provide for himselfe by reason 

 that the playes ceasinge in the Citty of London either through 

 sicknes or for some other cause he the said Comp u was noe longer 

 able to mayneteyne them togeither w oh ought by noe meanes for 

 the reasons aboue declared to be imputed vnto anie fait in these 

 def tes And without that that the said Comp u hath lost by the dis- 

 persinge of the said Companie at the least one thousand poundes 

 As in and by the said Replication is most vntruely & vaineglori- 

 ously surmised onely to raise the Credditt of his estate w ch these 

 def tes verely thinke was neuer soe good as to be able to disburse 

 so great a stocke as could haue brought him in soe great a benefitt. 

 And without that that any other matter thinge or things clause 

 sentence article or allegaa'on in the said Replication Conteined 

 specified or declared materiall or effectuall in the lawe to be 

 Reioyned vnto by these defend tes & not heere in this Reioynder 

 sufficiently reioyned vnto Confessed & avoyded trau^rsed or 

 denied is true All which matters & thingcy these def tes are ready 

 to aucr & prove as this h : Co rt shall award & therefore they the 

 said def tes pray as before in theire said aunswere they haue 

 prayed./ 



Viuian 



[5] 



Court of Requests, Note Book, 6-8 James I (Miscellaneous 

 Books, 152) fol. 260. 



[The Clerk's minute book of the Court's orders and decrees, recorded in 

 a rapid and difficult modified Gothic hand as a memorandum of the Court's 

 oral decisions and directions.] 



Trnnino Paschoe Anno Regni Regis Jacobi Angliae ffranciae 

 et hibcraiae 8° et Scotiae 43V viz 



[Monday the xxj th day of Maij and 

 the last day of this present Terme/ 



Robt Keysar vs Richard Burbage et al the def tes vppon notice 

 texamyne their witnesses that the cause may come to hearinge 



357 



