ey did, for at some date
before 1635 they moved to the large Red Bull Playhouse. Richard Heton
wrote: "And whereas my Lord of Dorset had gotten for a former company
at Salisbury Court the Prince's service, they, being left at liberty,
took their opportunity of another house, and left the house in
Salisbury Court destitute both of a service and company."[642]

[Footnote 642: Richard Heton, "Instructions for my Pattent," _The
Shakespeare Society's Papers_, IV, 96.]

This person, Richard Heton, who describes himself as "one of the
Sewers of Her Majesty's Chamber Extraordinary," had now obtained
control of Salisbury Court, and had become manager of its
affairs.[643] He apparently induced the Company of His Majesty's
Revels to leave the Fortune and return to Salisbury Court, for in 1635
they acted there Richard Brome's _The Sparagus Garden_. But their
career at Salisbury Court was short; on May 12 of the following year
all playhouses were closed by the plague, and acting was not allowed
again for nearly a year and a half. During this long period of
inactivity, the Company of His Majesty's Revels was largely dispersed.

[Footnote 643: We find a payment to Richard Heton, "for himself and
the rest of the company of the players at Salisbury Court," for
performing a play before his Majesty at Court, October, 1635.
(Chalmers's _Apology_, p. 509.) Exactly when he took charge of
Salisbury Court I am unable to learn.]

When at last, on October 2, 1637, the playhouses were allowed to open,
Heton found himself with a crippled troupe of actors. Again the Earl
of Dorset interested himself in the theatre. Queen Henrietta's
Company, which had been at the Cockpit since 1625, having "disperst
themselves," Dorset took "care to make up a new company for the
Queen";[644] and he placed this new company under Heton at Salisbury
Court. Heton writes: "How much I have done for the upbuilding of this
Company, I gave you some particulars of in a petition to my Lord of
Dorset." This reorganization of the Queen's Men explains, perhaps, the
puzzling entry in Herbert's Office-Book, October 2, 1637: "I disposed
of Perkins, Sumner, Sherlock, and Turner, to Salisbury Court, and
joyned them with the best of that company."[645] Doubtless Herbert,
like Dorset, was anxious for the Queen to have a good troupe of
players. This new organization of the Queen's Men continued at
Salisbury Court without interruption, it seems, until the closing of
the playhouses i