Introduction

This section of the book gives a detailed history of one or more of the individual playing companies known to have performed in London between about 1560 and 1642. To the end of each history is attached a list of the plays, the players, and other known helpers, the company’s playing-places in London, a record of its appearances in different parts of the country on tour, and its appearances at court. This last item is the factor that largely determines the inclusion of the company in these chapters, since none of the commercial companies is known to have presented a play at court unless it had been performing in London at some point in the preceding autumn, and its play had been approved then by the Master of the Revels. The lists of entries from the provincial records about the companies on their travels that appear at the end of each chapter are given here in the most concise form practicable.