Note 913 — BOOK III THE COMPANIES (continued 7)

E. Fournier, Chansons de Gaultier Garguille, lix, and L’Espagne et ses Comédiens en France au xviie Siècle (Revue des Provinces, iv. 496), cites H. Ternaux in Revue Françoise et Étrangère, i. 78, for statements that the head of the English at Fontainebleau was Ganassa, who in Spain had had a mixed company of English, Italians, and Spanish, and on 11 Jan. 1583 had a share in the receipts of a troupe of English volteadores. I have not been able to see the work of M. Ternaux, who does not inspire confidence by calling Ganassa Juan instead of Alberto. There seems to be nothing to connect Ganassa with the volteadores of 1583, except the fact that the Corral de la Pacheca where they played was leased to him for nine or ten years in 1574 (Rennert, 29), and they may therefore have paid him rent. His troupe in 1581–2, as given by Rennert, 479, consisted entirely of Italians, with two Spanish musicians. He is said to have been in Spain in 1603 (Pellicer, i. 57, 72; Rennert, 30), but there is nothing to show that, if so, he went on to France. But Héroard tells us that there was a Spanish rope-dancer at Fontainebleau in 1604, and a very obscure passage in his diary suggests that this Spaniard was really an Irishman. Irish marauders (voleurs) were then giving trouble in Paris, which led Louis to say ‘Ce voleur qui voloit sur la corde étoit Irlandois?’ and Héroard comments, ‘Il étoit vrai; il accommoda le mot de voleur à l’autre signification, il l’avoit vu voler à Fontainebleau’ (Journal, i. 90, 126).