in these early years, and that in this manner it
incurred Burghley's ill-will.

Previous to the year 1567 there existed a company under the patronage of
Lord Hunsdon; between that date and 1582 there is no record of any
company acting under this nobleman's licence. In July 1582 there is
record that Lord Hunsdon's company acted at Ludlow, and upon 27th
December 1582 we have record that Lord Hunsdon's players acted before
the Court, presenting _A Comedy of Beauty and Housewifery_. The
provincial records show a few performances by this company in the
provinces in every year, except one, between 1582 and 1589; while 1587
shows no provincial performance, a payment of five shillings is recorded
in Coventry "to the Lord Chamberlain's Musicians that came with the
Judge at the assizes"; these were, no doubt, a portion of Burbage's
company, Lord Hunsdon then being Lord Chamberlain. This entry, however,
is immediately preceded by the entry of a payment of twenty shillings to
the Lord Admiral's players. It shall be shown that the Admiral's company
was affiliated with Burbage at this time.

The Lord Hunsdon who patronised this company from the time of its
inception, in 1582, until we hear no more about it in 1589, was the same
Henry Carey, Baron Hunsdon, who, in 1594, still holding the office of
Lord Chamberlain, again took Burbage and his theatrical associates under
his protection.

In imagining James Burbage as a member of the Queen's company of players
for several years following 1583, and ending in about 1591, it has been
customary also to assume that the Queen's company played regularly, when
in London, at Burbage's Theatre during these years; and that the Lord
Admiral's company, between 1585 and 1591, played principally at the
Curtain. There is very slight foundation for the former, and not the
slightest for the latter, assumption, both of which were first mooted by
Halliwell-Phillipps, and in which he has since been followed blindly by
the compilers. The supposition that the Queen's company made their
London centre at the Theatre from 1583 onwards, is based upon the
disproved assumption that Burbage was the manager of this company. This
supposition has been supported by the argument that Tarleton, who was a
member of the Queen's company after 1583, is mentioned in 1592, in
Nashe's _Pierce Penniless_, as having "made jests" "at the Theatre,"
and again in Harrington's _Metamorphosis of Ajax_ in 1596, as follows:
"Which word