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 and Ipswich on 31 July 1567. Then it secured a footing in London, and appeared at Court during the Christmas of 1567-8, on 26 December 1568, and on 5 February 1570. On 2 February 1570 it played at the Lincoln's Inn Candlemas 'Post Revels'. It was also at Canterbury in 1569, Saffron Walden in 1569-70, and Maldon in 1570. Presumably it was a later company to which Gabriel Harvey referred in 1579 (cf. p. 4), and the death of Lord Rich in 1581 might naturally have led to its disbandment or change of service.

iv. LORD ABERGAVENNY'S MEN

Henry Neville, s. of George, 3rd Lord Abergavenny; succ. as 4th Lord, 1535; ob. 1586.

The only London record of this company is a civic licence for it of 29 January 1572 (App. D, No. xxi), but it is found in provincial records at Dover, Canterbury, Leicester, Bristol, and Faversham in 1571 and 1572, and at Ludlow in 1575-6.

v. THE EARL OF SUSSEX'S MEN

Thomas Radcliffe, s. of Henry, 2nd Earl; nat. c. 1526; m. (1) Elizabeth, d. of Thomas Earl of Southampton, (2) Frances, d. of Sir William Sidney, 26 Apr. 1555; succ. as 3rd Earl, 17 Feb. 1557; Lord Chamberlain, 13 July 1572; ob. 9 June 1583.

Henry Radcliffe, s. of Henry, 2nd Earl; nat. c. 1530; m. Honora, d. of Anthony Pound, before 24 Feb. 1561; succ. as 4th Earl, 1583; ob. 14 Dec. 1593.

Robert Radcliffe, s. of 4th Earl; nat. c. 1569; m. (1) Bridget, d. of Sir Charles Morison, who ob. Dec. 1623, (2) Frances Shute; succ. as 5th Earl, 1593; acting Earl Marshal, 1597, 1601; ob. 22 Sept. 1629.

The third Earl of Sussex had a company, which proved one of the most long-lived of the theatrical organizations of Elizabeth's time and held together, now in London and now in the provinces, under no less than three earls. It first makes its appearance at Nottingham on 16 March 1569, at Maldon in 1570, on 28 January 1571, and on 20 August 1572, at Ipswich in 1571-2, at Canterbury and Dover in 1569 and 1570, and in 1569-70 at Bristol, Gloucester, and Ludlow, where it was of six men. Sussex became Chamberlain in July 1572 and in the following winter his company came to the Court, whose Christmases it helped to enliven pretty regularly until the death of its first patron in 1583. As I have shown elsewhere (ch. vi), Sussex seems to have had occasional