nt. Though the Mayor and Court, at the
entreaty of the company, agreed not to inform the Earl of their
misconduct, it is not unlikely that this and similar happenings came to
his knowledge, as they seem to have had little respect for municipal
authorities. They were again in trouble in March 1584, when they
quarrelled with the Leicester authorities. Finding at their inn at
Leicester the commission of the Master of the Revels' company, which in
leaving Leicester three days before this company had inadvertently left
behind, they appropriated it and presented it to the Leicester
authorities as their own, stating that the previous company had stolen
it from them. Not being believed, they were forced to produce their own
licence, when they were refused permission to play, but given an angel
to pay for their dinner. Later in the day, meeting the Mayor on the
street, they again asked leave to play, and, being refused, abused the
Mayor with "evyll and contemptuous words, and said they would play
whether he wold or not," and went "in contempt of the Mayor with drum
and trumpet through the town." On apologising later to the Mayor and
begging him not to inform the Earl of Worcester, they secured leave to
play on condition that they prefaced their performance with an apology
for their misconduct and a statement that they were permitted to play
only by the Mayor's goodwill.[18]

If their past reputation had been good in Leicester there seems to be no
reason why they should have wished to perform under another company's
licence. We may infer that these were not isolated instances of their
misbehaviour, and that their change of title in 1585 was made necessary
by reports of their misconduct coming to the notice of the old Earl of
Worcester. No company of players is known to have acted under this
nobleman's licence after 1585.

In 1589, when the process of amalgamation between the Lord Admiral's,
the Lord Chamberlain's, and Lord Leicester's companies, and Lord
Strange's acrobats, which resulted in the formation of Lord Strange's
company, was under way, discarded members of their companies, including,
no doubt, some of the players of the old Worcester company, secured a
licence from the new Earl of Worcester and continued to perform--though
mostly as a provincial company--until 1603. Other old members, including
Robert Brown--the leader of the former Worcester company--and Richard
Jones, formed a new company for continental performance