in their rent to the extent of L132 12_s._ 11_d._; "and,"
the court adds, "there will be a quarter's rent more at Michaelmas
next [i.e., in twenty-five days], which is doubted will be also
unpaid, amounting to L33 1_s._ 4_d._"[469] The excuse of the lessees
for their failure to pay was the "restraint from playing."[470]

[Footnote 467: Young, _The History of Dulwich College_, I, 114.]

[Footnote 468: The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 391, 392;
Malone, _Variorum_, III, 239.]

[Footnote 469: Young, _The History of Dulwich College_, I, 114.]

[Footnote 470: The College appealed to the Lord Keeper, who on January
26 ordered the payment of the sum. But two years later, February,
1640, we find the College again petitioning the Lord Keeper to order
the lessees of the Fortune property to pay an arrearage of L104 14_s._
5_d._ See Collier, _The Alleyn Papers_, pp. 95-98.]

This "restraint" was removed on October 2, 1637, and the players
resumed their performances at the Fortune. But in the early summer of
1639 they fell victims to another bit of ill luck even more serious
than their long inhibition. In a letter of Edmond Rossingham, dated
May 8, 1639, we read: "Thursday last the players of the Fortune were
fined L1000 for setting up an altar, a bason, and two candlesticks,
and bowing down before it upon the stage; and although they allege it
was an old play revived, and an altar to the heathen gods, yet it was
apparent that this play was revived on purpose in contempt of the
ceremonies of the Church."[471]

[Footnote 471: Printed in _The Calendar of State Papers, Domestic,
1639_, p. 140.]

During the Easter period, 1640, the players returned to their old
quarters at the Red Bull. After their unhappy experiences at the
Fortune they were apparently glad to occupy again their former home.
The event is celebrated in a Prologue entitled _Upon the Removing of
the Late Fortune Players to the Bull_, written by John Tatham, and
printed in _Fancies Theatre_ (1640):[472]

Here, gentlemen, our anchor's fixt; and we
Disdaining _Fortune's_ mutability,
Expect your kind acceptance.

[Footnote 472: The Prologue is printed in full by Malone, _Variorum_,
III, 79.]

The writer then hurls some uncomplimentary remarks at the Fortune,
observing complacently: "We have ne'er an actor here has mouth enough
to tear language by the ears." It is true that during these later
years the Fortune had fallen into ill repute with pe