EARL OF OXFORD’S COMPANY
There was a company of actors under the patronage of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, as early as 1562, but no evidence of where they acted is in existence. Again, in 1580, the same Earl was patron of a company of boy actors, who performed chiefly in the provinces or at Court. They are described as the Earl of Oxenford, his boys. Antony Munday, the celebrated dramatist, was at one time a boy actor in this company. The Oxford men are mentioned as those who generally set up their play-bills in the City every day in the week; this notice refers to the year 1585.
The next piece of evidence occurs in the “Remembrancia,” in 1602, when they were permitted to play at the “Boar’s Head,” in Eastcheap; this is the last record of their appearance.
One of their plays, called “The Weakest goeth to the Wall,” has survived; it was acted by Lord Oxenford’s boys, and published in 1600. Meres, in his important review of the poets and dramatists of Elizabethan times, mentions the Earl of Oxford as good in comedy.
Several other companies occasionally acted in London, but little is known of their history. In a document issued by the Privy Council, 1578, it stated that the Lord Mayor should suffer the children of Her Majesty’s Chapel, the servants of the Lord Chamberlain, Thomas Radclyffe, Earl of Sussex, of the Earl of Warwick, of the Earl of Leicester, of the Earl of Essex, and the children of St. Paul’s, and no companies else to exercise plays within the City, whom their Lordships have already allowed thereunto by reason that the companies aforesaid are appointed to play this Christmas before the Queen.
The Earl of Hertford was patron of a company, but only one reference to their playing in London has been chronicled, when they acted at Court in 1592.
The Earl of Hertford’s men were paid £10 on February, 1592, for a play presented before the Queen on Twelfth Night last. Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, also owned a company of players in 1584. There is a record of this company acting in London. In 1589 the Earl was charged with high treason and all his honours were forfeited.