Charles."[594] Thus Prince Charles's Men, after their
unfortunate experiences at the Hope and at Rosseter's Blackfriars,
came to Beeston's playhouse, where they remained until 1622. In the
spring of that year, however, they moved to the Curtain, and the
Princess Elizabeth's Men occupied the Cockpit.[595] Under their
tenancy, the playhouse seems to have attained an enviable reputation.
Heminges and Condell, in the epistle to the readers, prefixed to the
Folio of Shakespeare (1623), bear testimony to this in the following
terms: "And though you be a Magistrate of Wit, and sit on the stage at
Blackfriars, or the Cockpit, to arraign plays daily." A further
indication of their prosperity is to be found in the records of St.
Giles's Church; for when in 1623 the parish undertook the erection of
a new church building, "the players of the Cockpit," we are informed,
contributed the large sum of L20, and the proprietors, represented by
Christopher Beeston, gave L19 1_s._ 5_d._[596]

[Footnote 591: Wallace, _Three London Theatres_, p. 33.]

[Footnote 592: He had joined Prince Charles's Men.]

[Footnote 593: Wallace, _Three London Theatres_, p. 38.]

[Footnote 594: _Ibid._, p. 40. Fleay, Murray, and others have
contended that the Princess Elizabeth's Men came to the Cockpit in
1619, and have denied the accuracy of the title-page of _The Witch of
Edmonton_ (1658), which declares that play to have been "acted by the
Prince's Servants at the Cockpit often." (See Fleay, _A Chronicle
History of the London Stage_, p. 299.)]

[Footnote 595: Malone, _Variorum_, III, 59.]

[Footnote 596: John Parton, _Some Account of the Hospital and Parish
of St. Giles in the Fields_, p. 235. From a parish entry in 1660 we
learn that the players had to contribute 2_d._ to the parish poor for
each day that there was acting at the Cockpit. (See _ibid._, p. 236.)]

The Princess Elizabeth's Men continued to act at the Cockpit until
May, 1625, when all theatres were closed on account of the plague.
Beeston made this the occasion to organize a new company called "Queen
Henrietta's Men"; and when the theatres were allowed to reopen, about
December, 1625,[597] this new company was in possession of the
Cockpit. But the reputation of the playhouse seems not to have been
enhanced by the performances of this troupe. In 1629, Lenton, in _The
Young Gallant's Whirligig_, writes sneeringly:

The Cockpit heretofore would serve his wit,
But now upon the F