that
there might be a cessation of playing and plays to be acted
in the said house near St. Paul's Church aforesaid, for
which the said Rosseter compounded with the said Pierce to
give him, the said Pierce, twenty pounds per annum.[534]

[Footnote 534: Wallace, _Shakespeare and his London Associates_, p.
95.]

By this means Rosseter disposed of the competition of the Paul's Boys.
But, although he secured a monopoly on child-acting, he failed to
secure a monopoly on private playhouses, for shortly after he had
sealed this bargain with Pierce, the powerful King's Men opened up at
Blackfriars. Rosseter promptly requested them to pay half the "dead
rent" to Pierce, which they good-naturedly agreed to do.

In 1613 Whitefriars was rented by certain London apprentices for the
performance "at night" of Robert Taylor's _The Hog Hath Lost His
Pearl_. The episode is narrated by Sir Henry Wotton in a letter to Sir
Edmund Bacon:

On Sunday last, at night, and no longer, some sixteen
apprentices (of what sort you shall guess by the rest of the
story) having secretly learnt a new play without book,[535]
entitled _The Hog Hath Lost His Pearl_, took up the
Whitefriars for their theatre, and having invited thither
(as it should seem) rather their mistresses than their
masters, who were all to enter _per buletini_ for a note of
distinction from ordinary comedians. Towards the end of the
play the sheriffs (who by chance had heard of it) came in
(as they say) and carried some six or seven of them to
perform the last act at Bridewell. The rest are fled. Now it
is strange to hear how sharp-witted the city is, for they
will needs have Sir John Swinerton, the Lord Mayor, be meant
by the Hog, and the late Lord Treasurer by the Pearl.[536]

[Footnote 535: Miss Gildersleeve, in her valuable _Government
Regulation of the Elizabethan Drama_, p. 112, says: "Just what is the
meaning of 'a new Play without Book' no one seems to have
conjectured." And she develops the theory that "it refers to the
absence of a licensed play-book," etc. The phrase "to learn without
book" meant simply "to memorize."]

[Footnote 536: _Reliquiae Wottonianae_ (ed. 1672), p. 402. The letter is
dated merely 1612-13. In connection with the play one should study
_The Hector of Germany_, 1615.]

Apparently the Children of the Queen's Revels continued successfully
at Whitefriars u