t and second part of _Arviragus and Philicia_
were acted at the Cockpit before the King and Queen, the
Prince, and Prince Elector, the 18 and 19 April, 1636, being
Monday and Tuesday in Easter week.[674]

[Footnote 669: Lord Chamberlain's Office-Book, C.C. Stopes,
"Shakespeare's Fellows and Followers," Shakespeare _Jahrbuch_, XLVI,
96.]

[Footnote 670: Herbert MS., Malone, _Variorum_, III, 237.]

[Footnote 671: Herbert MS., Malone, _Variorum_, III, 237.]

[Footnote 672: Lord Chamberlain's Office-Book, Chalmers's _Apology_,
p. 508.]

[Footnote 673: _Ibid._, p. 509.]

[Footnote 674: The Herbert MS., Malone, _Variorum_, III, 238.]

Other similar allusions to performance in the Cockpit might be cited
from the Court records. One more will suffice--the most interesting of
all, since it shows how frequently the little theatre was employed for
the entertainment of the royal family. It is a bill presented by the
Blackfriars Company, the King's Men, for Court performances during the
year 1637. This bill was discovered and reproduced in facsimile by
George R. Wright, F.S.A., in _The Journal of the British
Archaeological Association_ for 1860; but it was wholly misunderstood
by its discoverer, who regarded it as drawn up by the company of
players that "performed at the Cockpit in Drury Lane." He was indeed
somewhat puzzled by the reference to the Blackfriars Playhouse, but
met the difficulty by saying: "There can be little doubt that the
last-named theatre was lent for the occasion to the Cockpit Company,"
although he suggests no reason for this strange borrowing of a theatre
by a troupe that possessed a house of its own, and much nearer the
Court, too. It did not even occur to him, it seems, to inquire how the
Cockpit Company secured the plays which we know belonged to
Shakespeare's old company. Because of these obvious difficulties
scholars have looked upon the document with suspicion, and apparently
have treated it as a forgery.[675] But that it is genuine is indicated
by the history of "The Cockpit-in-Court" as sketched above, and is
proved beyond any question by the fact that the Office-Book of the
Lord Chamberlain shows that the bill was paid:

12th March 1638 {9}.--Forasmuch as His Majesty's Servants,
the company at the Blackfriars, have by special command, at
divers times within the space of this present year 1638,
acted 24 plays before His Majesty, six whereof have been
pe