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Further sufficiently placed in them A knaves head, for a difference from alle honest men.

The wreathe is a chayne of chaungeable red, To shew they ar vayne and fickle of head; The creste is a lastrylle whose feathers ar blew, In signe that these fydlers will never be trew; Whereon is placed the horne of a gote, Because they ar chast, to this is theyr lotte, For their bravery, indented and parted, And for their knavery innebulated.

Mantled lowsy, wythe doubled drynke, Their ancient house is called the Clynke; Thys Posy they beare over the whole earthe, Wylt please you to have a fyt of our mirthe? But reason it is, and heraultes allowe welle, That fidlers should beare their armes in a towelle.

In 1587-8 tumblers were at Bath under Warwick's name. I do not understand the entry of his men in the Ipswich accounts, as playing on 10 March 1592. Ambrose Dudley died in 1590, and his doubtfully legitimate nephew, Sir Robert Dudley, does not seem even to have claimed the title until 1597. The Ipswich records are unreliable, but possibly Lady Warwick maintained a company for a while. The Corporation of London were considering some 'cause' of hers as to plays in May 1594 (App. D, No. xcviii).

ix. THE EARL OF OXFORD'S MEN

John de Vere, s. of John, 15th Earl of Oxford; nat. c. 1512; succ. as 16th Earl and Lord Great Chamberlain, 21 Mar. 1540; m. Margaret Golding, 1547; ob. 3 Aug. 1562.

Edward de Vere, s. of John, 16th Earl of Oxford; nat. 2 Apr. 1550; succ. as 17th Earl and Lord Great Chamberlain, 3 Aug. 1562; m. (1) Anne, d. of William Lord Burghley, Dec. 1571, (2) Elizabeth Trentham, c. 1591; ob. 24 June 1604. Of his daughters by (1), Elizabeth m. William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby, 26 Jan. 1595; Bridget m. Francis, Lord Norris; Susan m. Sir Philip Herbert, afterwards Earl of Montgomery, 27 Dec. 1604.

The Earls of Oxford had their players as far back as 1492. A company belonging to the 16th Earl caused a scandal by playing in Southwark at the moment when a dirge was being sung for Henry VIII in St. Saviour's on 6 February 1547. It is probably the same company which is traceable in 1555-6 at Dover, in 1557-8 at Ipswich, in 1559-60 and