The Queen's Men, 1583–1592

Abstract

The Master of the Revels, Edmund Tilney, entered a traveling charge of one pound in the Revels Accounts when he was called to court “to choose out a companie of players for her majestie. Stow recorded this event in his Abridgement of the English Chronicle:This yeare 1583, the Queene being at Barne Elmes, at the earnest suite of sir Francis Walsingham, shee entertained twelve Players into her service, and allowed them wages and liveries as Groomes of the Chamber, and untill then she had none of her owne, but divers Lords had Players.

The Will of Simon Jewell and the Queen’s Men Tours in 1592

“…9 The Queen's Men, established originally with twelve members in 1583, is known in 1587-8 to have been split into two groups for touring the provinces separately, one half under John and Lawrence Dutton, the other half under John Laneham. 10 As Laneham died in ca 1591, and Jewell does not mention him or either of the Dutton brothers, we do not know whether Jewell was in 1592 a member of the Duttons' or of ex-Laneham's group. Although we are not certain exactly how many original sharers, including the newly recruited ones, remained involved in the management of the whole company as of 1592, it is at least certain that there were six sharers in one of the two split groups.…”