Note 91 — BOOK III THE COMPANIES

It is possible that the Treasurer of the Chamber did not pay all the rewards for plays during the earlier years of the reign; but the suggestion of Wallace, i. 108, that, if we had the Books of Queen’s Payments, more information might be available, seems to show a failure to realize the identity of the Tudor Books of King’s Payments with the T. of C. Accounts. There might, however, be rewards in a book subsidiary to the Privy Purse Accounts. I do not think that much can be made of the recital of ‘playes’ as well as ‘maskes’ in the preamble of the Revels Accounts for 1558–9, during which the T. of C. paid no rewards, since this may be merely ‘common form’.