Note 543 — Chapter XXIV · PLAYERS OF INTERLUDES

Collier, i. 44 and passim; Henry, Hist. of Britain, 454; cf. Appendix E, viii. The Transactions of the New Shakspere Soc. (1877-9), 425, contain papers about a dispute in 1529 between one of the company George Maller, glazier, and his apprentice, who left him and went travelling on his own account. From these it appears that ‘the Kinge’s plaierz’ wore ‘the Kinge’s bage.’ George Maller is the same player who appeared as a witness in the Rastell suit (cf. p. 184). There he is described as a merchant tailor; here as a glazier. That a king’s player should have a handicraft, even if it were only nominal, at all, looks as if the professional actors were not invariably of the minstrel type. Perhaps the glamour of a royal ‘bage’ made even minstrelsy respectable. Arthur, prince of Wales, had his own company in 1498 (Black Book of Lincoln’s Inn, i. 119), and Henry, prince of Wales, his by 1506.