Southampton City Archives: SC2/6/5

f 28v

Coppie of a Warraunt vnder the handes of the lords of the
priuie Counsell for players copied the 3d of Iuly
1593

Whereas it was thought meete that duringe the tyme of the infection and Continuance of the sicknes in the Cittie of london there shoulde no plaies, or Enterludes be vsd for avoidinge of Assemblies, & Concourse of people in anie vnsuall place appointted near the said Cittie And that the bearers hereof Edward Allen, servaunt to the right honorable the lord high Admirall, William Kempe , Thomas Pope Iohn heminges Augustus Phillippes and George Brian beinge all one Companie, seruauntes to our verie good lorde the Lord Straunge are restrained their exercise of plaienge within the said Cittie, and liberties thereof Yet is not thereby ment but that they shall and maye in regard of the seruice by them donne, and to be donn at the Courte, exercise their qualities of playenge Comedies Tragedies and such like in anie other Citties Townes, and Corporations where the infection is not, soe it be not within seven miles of london, or of the Courte, that they maye bee in the better readines hereafter for her maiestes seruice whensoeuer theie shalbe therevnto called Theis therefore shalbe to Wyll and requier yow that theie maie without your lett, or Contradiction vse theire said exercise, at there most convenient tymes & places, The accustomed tymes of devine seruice prayer excepted, ffrom the Courte at Croydon the vjth daie of Maie 1593

(signed) Iohn Canterbury (signed) Henry Derby (signed) EssesxEssex

(signed) Charles Howard(signed) Hunisdon/

(signed) Thomas buckhurst (signed) Iohn wolley

To all maiars sheriffs Iustices of the Peace Bailiffes Constables, hedboroughes and all other hir Maiestes officers and louinge subiectes to whome it shall apertaineth to euerie of them/.

  • Footnotes
  • Glossed Terms
    • maiar n mayor
  • Endnote

    Lord Strange's men had been forced onto the road when the Rose and other London theatres were shut down due to plague early in 1593. It is likely that they visited Southampton around the third of July, presenting a copy of their warrant from the privy council, which the town had copied into Knaplocke's Book. The accounts in the Book of Fines for this year have been torn out, so unfortunately no reward to Strange's men at this time has survived. Henslowe's Diary indicated that their repertoire while at the Rose in late 1592 and January 1592/3 included The Jew of Malta, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, 'harey the vj' (which may or may not have been Shakespeare's), and 'Jeronymo,' no doubt Kyd's Spanish Tragedy (Lawrence Manley and Sally–Beth MacLean, Lord Strange's Men and Their Plays (New Haven, 2014), 258–64, 336–7).

  • Document Description

    Record title: Knaplocke's Book
    Repository: Southampton City Archives
    Shelfmark: SC2/6/5
    Repository location: Southampton

    Knaplocke's Book is the earliest of the town's 'books of instruments,' which are collections of copies of a range of civic documents, including indentures, statutes, debts, acquittances, official letters, apprenticeships, and the like. This manuscript gets its name from the fact that it was compiled by Robert Knaplocke, mayor in 1575–6.

    1576–86; English and some Latin; paper; i + 183 + i; 420mm x 290mm; modern pencil foliation; original tooled leather cover.

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