persons that are
meant thereby." The Privy Council ordered the Justices of the Peace to
examine into the case and to punish the offenders.[138]

[Footnote 137: Possibly Derby's Men.]

[Footnote 138: See Dasent, _Acts of the Privy Council_, XXXI, 346.]

Early in 1604 a draft of a royal patent for Queen Anne's Players--who
had hitherto been under the patronage of Worcester[139]--gives those
players permission to act "within their now usual houses, called the
Curtain, and the Boar's Head."[140] On April 9, 1604, the Privy
Council authorized the three companies of players that had been taken
under royal patronage "to exercise their plays in their several and
usual houses for that purpose, and no other, viz., the Globe,
scituate in Maiden Lane on the Bankside in the County of Surrey, the
Fortune in Golding Lane, and the Curtain in Holywell."[141] The King's
Men (the Burbage-Shakespeare troupe) occupied the Globe; Prince
Henry's Men (the Henslowe-Alleyn troupe), the Fortune; and Queen
Anne's Men, the Curtain.

[Footnote 139: The company was formed by an amalgamation of Oxford's
and Worcester's Men in 1602. See The Malone Society's _Collections_,
I, 85.]

[Footnote 140: The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 266.]

[Footnote 141: Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, p. 61; Dasent, _Acts of the
Privy Council_, XXXII, 511.]

But the Queen's Men were probably dissatisfied with the Curtain. It
was small and antiquated, and it must have suffered by comparison with
the more splendid Globe and Fortune. So the Queen's players had built
for themselves a new and larger playhouse, called "The Red Bull." This
was probably ready for occupancy in 1605, yet it is impossible to say
exactly when the Queen's Men left the Curtain; their patent of April
15, 1609, gives them permission to act "within their now usual houses
called the Red Bull, in Clerkenwell, and the Curtain in
Holywell."[142] It may be that they retained control of the Curtain in
order to prevent competition.

[Footnote 142: The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 270.]

What company occupied the Curtain after Queen Anne's Men finally
surrendered it is not clear. Mr. Murray is of the opinion that Prince
Charles's Men moved into the Curtain "about December, 1609, or early
in 1610."[143]

[Footnote 143: _English Dramatic Companies_, I, 230.]

In 1613 "a company of young men" acted _The Hector of Germany_ "at
the Red Bull and at the Curtain." Such plays, however, written and
acte