was I seated ere a very elegant dame,
but in a mask, came and placed herself beside me.... She
asked me for my address, both in French and English; and on
my turning a deaf ear, she determined to honour me by
showing me some fine diamonds on her fingers, repeatedly
taking off no fewer than three gloves, which were worn one
over the other.... This lady's bodice was of yellow satin
richly embroidered, her petticoat of gold tissue with
stripes, her robe of red velvet with a raised pile, lined
with yellow muslin, with broad stripes of pure gold. She
wore an apron of point lace of various patterns; her
head-tire was highly perfumed, and the collar of white satin
beneath the delicately-wrought ruff struck me as extremely
pretty.

[Footnote 449: "Diaries and Despatches of the Venetian Embassy at the
Court of King James I, in the Years 1617, 1618. Translated by Rawdon
Brown." (_The Quarterly Review_, CII, 416.) It is true that the notice
of this letter in _The Calendar of State Papers, Venetian_, XV, 67,
makes no mention of the Fortune; but the writer in _The Quarterly
Review_, who had before him the entire manuscript, states positively
that the Fortune was the playhouse visited. I have not been able to
examine the manuscript itself, which is preserved in Venice.]

That the players were prepared to entertain distinguished visitors
both during the performance and after is shown by a letter from John
Chamberlain, July 21, 1621, to Sir Dudley Carleton. "The Spanish
Ambassador," he writes, "is grown so affable and familiar, that on
Monday, with his whole train, he went to a common play at the Fortune
in Golding Lane; and the players (not to be overcome with courtesy)
made him a banquet, when the play was done, in the garden
adjoining."[450]

[Footnote 450: Nichols, _The Progresses of King James_, IV, 67.]

Upon its completion the new building was occupied by the Admiral's
Men, for whom it had been erected. This troupe of players, long famous
under the leadership of Edward Alleyn, was now one of the two
companies authorized by the Privy Council, and the chief rival of the
Chamberlain's Men at the Globe. Henslowe was managing their affairs,
and numerous poets were writing plays for them. They continued to act
at the Fortune under the name, "The Admiral's Men," until May 5, 1603,
when, as Henslowe put it, they "left off play now at the King's
coming."[451]

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