Note 1010 — XI THE ACTOR'S ECONOMICS

Dr. Greg (Henslowe, ii. 22, 25) shows that Henslowe almost certainly held a lease of the Barge, the Bell, and the Cock 'vppon the banke called Stewes', describes these houses as 'licensed brothels', and infers that Henslowe was 'the intermediate landlord between the stew-keepers and the Reverend Father in God, the Lord Bishop of Winchester'. It is possible that the tradition, as well as the name, of the district endured into Elizabeth's reign, but Dr. Greg forgets, in his Voltairean mood, that the system of episcopal licences terminated in the reign of Henry VIII (Rendle, Bankside, xi). Ultimately Alleyn secured on the property the settlement of his wife Constance, daughter of John Donne, Dean of St. Paul's, which must surely have established its respectability.