r the Bull.[12]

[Footnote 12: See The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 55-57.]

1583. William Rendle, in _The Inns of Old Southwark_, p. 235, states
that in this year "Tarleton, Wilson, and others note the stay of the
plague, and ask leave to play at the Bull in Bishopsgate, or the Bell
in Gracechurch Street," citing as his authority merely "City MS." The
Privy Council on November 26, 1583, addressed to the Lord Mayor a
letter requesting "that Her Majesty's Players [i.e., Tarleton, Wilson,
etc.] may be suffered to play within the liberties as heretofore they
have done."[13] And on November 28 the Lord Mayor issued to them a
license to play "at the sign of the Bull in Bishopsgate Street, and
the sign of the Bell in Gracious Street, and nowhere else within this
City."[14]

[Footnote 13: See _The Remembrancia_, in The Malone Society's
_Collections_, I, 66.]

[Footnote 14: C.W. Wallace, _The First London Theatre_, p. 11.]

1587. "James Cranydge played his master's prize the 21 of November,
1587, at the Bellsavage without Ludgate, at iiij sundry kinds of
weapons.... There played with him nine masters."[15]

[Footnote 15: _MS. Sloane_, 2530, f. 6-7, quoted by J.O. Halliwell in
his edition of _Tarlton's Jests_, p. xi. The Bell Savage seems to have
been especially patronized by fencers. George Silver, in his _Paradoxe
of Defence_ (1599), tells how he and his brother once challenged two
Italian fencers to a contest "to be played at the Bell Savage upon the
scaffold, when he that went in his fight faster back than he ought,
should be in danger to break his neck off the scaffold."]

Before 1588. In _Tarlton's Jests_[16] we find a number of references
to that famous actor's pleasantries in the London inns used by the
Queen's Players. It is impossible to date these exactly, but Tarleton
became a member of the Queen's Players in 1583, and he died in 1588.

[Footnote 16: First printed in 1611; reprinted by J.O. Halliwell for
The Shakespeare Society in 1844.]

At the Bull in Bishops-gate-street, where the Queen's
Players oftentimes played, Tarleton coming on the stage, one
from the gallery threw a pippin at him.

There was one Banks, in the time of Tarleton, who served the
Earl of Essex, and had a horse of strange qualities; and
being at the Cross Keys in Gracious Street getting money
with him, as he was mightily resorted to. Tarleton then,
with his fellows playing at the Bell by,