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 XII

INTRODUCTION. THE BOY COMPANIES

[Bibliographical Note.—The first systematic investigation into the history of the companies was that of F. G. Fleay, which, after tentative sketches in his Shakespeare Manual (1876) and Life and Work of Shakespeare (1886), took shape in his Chronicle History of the Stage (1890). Little is added by the compilations of A. Albrecht, Das Englische Kindertheater (1883), H. Maas, Die Kindertruppen (1901) and ''Äussere Geschichte der Englischen Theatertruppen (1907), and J. A. Nairn, Boy-Actors under the Tudors and Stewarts (Trans. of Royal Soc. of Lit.'' xxxii). W. W. Greg, Henslowe's Diary (1904-8), made a careful study of all the companies which had relations with Philip Henslowe, and modified or corrected many of Fleay's results. An account of the chief London companies is in A. H. Thorndike, Shakespeare's Theater (1916), and utilizes some new material collected in recent years. W. Creizenach, Schauspiele der Englischen Komödianten (1889), and E. Herz, Englische Schauspieler und Englisches Schauspiel (1903), have summarized the records of the travels of English actors in Germany. C. W. Wallace, besides his special work on the Chapel, has published the records of several theatrical lawsuits in ''Advance Sheets from Shakespeare, the Globe, and Blackfriars (1909), in Nebraska University Studies, ix (1909), 287; x (1910), 261; xiii (1913), 1, and in The Swan Theatre and the Earl of Pembroke's Servants (1911, Englische Studien'', xliii. 340); the present writer has completed the information drawn from the Chamber Accounts in P. Cunningham's Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels at Court (1842) by articles in M. L. R. ii (1906), 1; iv (1909), 153 (cf. App. B); and a number of documents, new and old, including the texts of all the patents issued to companies, have been carefully edited in vol. i of the Collections of the Malone Society (1907-11). Finally, J. T. Murray, English Dramatic Companies (1910), has collected the published notices of performances in the provinces, added others from the municipal archives of Barnstaple, Bristol, Coventry, Dover, Exeter, Gloucester, Marlborough, Norwich, Plymouth, Shrewsbury, Southampton, Winchester, and York, and on the basis of these constructed valuable accounts of all the London and provincial companies between 1558 and 1642. Most of the present chapter was written before Murray's book appeared, but it has been carefully revised with the aid of his new material. I have not thought it necessary to refer to my original provincial sources, where they are included in his convenient Appendix G, but in using his book it should be borne in mind that he has made a good many omissions in carrying data from this Appendix to the tables of provincial visits, which he gives for each company. For a few places I have had the advantage of sources not drawn upon by Murray, and these should be treated as the references for any facts as regards such places not discoverable in Murray's Appendix.