lding not
only stronger, but also more attractive in appearance and more modern
in equipment.

[Footnote 220: Greg, _Henslowe's Diary_, I, 7.]

The immediate occasion for these extensive alterations and repairs was
the engagement of Lord Strange's Men to occupy the playhouse under
Henslowe's management. This excellent troupe, with Edward Alleyn at
its head, was perhaps the best company of actors then in London. It
later became the Lord Chamberlain's Company, with which Shakespeare
was identified; even at this early date, although documentary proof is
lacking, he may have been numbered among its obscure members. The
troupe opened the Rose on February 19, 1592, with a performance of
Robert Greene's _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_, and followed this with
many famous plays, such as _The Spanish Tragedy_, _The Jew of Malta_,
_Orlando Furioso_, and _Henry VI_.[221]

[Footnote 221: For a list of their plays see Greg, _Henslowe's Diary_,
I, 13 ff.]

The coming of Lord Strange's Men to the Rose led to a close friendship
between Henslowe and Edward Alleyn, then twenty-six years of age, and
at the height of his fame as an actor, a friendship which was cemented
in the autumn by Alleyn's marriage to Henslowe's stepdaughter (and
only child) Joan Woodward. The two men, it seems, were thoroughly
congenial, and their common interests led to the formation of a
business partnership which soon became the most important single force
in the theatrical life of the time.

Lord Strange's Men continued to act at the Rose from February 19 until
June 23, 1592, when the Privy Council, because of a serious riot in
Southwark, ordered the closing of all playhouses in and about London
until Michaelmas following. Strange's Men very soon petitioned the
Council to be allowed to reopen their playhouse; the Council, in
reply, compromised by granting them permission to act three days a
week at Newington Butts. This, however, did not please the actors, and
they started on a tour of the provinces. In a short time, discovering
that they could not pay their expenses on the road, they again
petitioned for permission to open the Rose, complaining that "our
company is great, and thereby our charge intolerable in traveling the
country," and calling attention to the fact that "the use of our
playhouse on the Bankside, by reason of the passage to and from the
same by water, is a great relief to the poor watermen there."[222] The
petition was accompanied by a sup