eyn.
But Alleyn, apparently, did not care to be worried with the management
of the playhouse; so on October 31, 1618, he leased it to the
Palsgrave's Men for a period of thirty-one years, at an annual rental
of L200 and two rundlets of wine at Christmas.[455]

[Footnote 455: Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, p. 27; Young, _The History of
Dulwich College_, II, 260.]

On April 24, 1620, Alleyn executed a deed of grant of lands by which
he transferred the Fortune, along with various other properties, to
Dulwich College.[456] But he retained during his lifetime the whole of
the revenues therefrom, and he specifically reserved to himself the
right to grant leases for any length of years. The transference of
the title, therefore, in no way affected the playhouse, and Alleyn
continued to manage the property as he had been accustomed to do in
the past.

[Footnote 456: The deed is printed by Young, _op. cit._, I, 50. The
Fortune property, I believe, is still a part of the endowment of the
college.]

His services in this capacity were soon needed, for on December 9,
1621, the Fortune was burned to the ground. Alleyn records the event
in his _Diary_ thus: "_Memorandum._ This night at 12 of the clock the
Fortune was burnt." In a less laconic fashion John Chamberlain writes
to Sir Dudley Carleton: "On Sunday night here was a great fire at the
Fortune in Golding-Lane, the fairest playhouse in this town. It was
quite burnt down in two hours, and all their apparel and playbooks
lost, whereby those poor companions are quite undone."[457]

[Footnote 457: Birch, _The Court and Times of James the First_, II,
280. Howes, in his continuation of Stow's _Annals_ (1631), p. 1004,
attributes the fire to "negligence of a candle," but gives no
details.]

The "poor companions" thus referred to were, of course, the players,
who lost not only their stock of apparel, playbooks, and stage
furniture, but also their lease, which assured them of a home. Alleyn,
however, was quite able and ready to reconstruct the building for
them; and we find him on May 20, 1621, already organizing a syndicate
to finance "a new playhouse" which "there is intended to be erected
and set up." The stock of the new enterprise he divided into twelve
equal shares, which he disposed of, as the custom was, in the form of
whole and half shares, reserving for himself only one share.[458] The
plot of ground on which the old playhouse stood he leased to the
several sharers for a peri