the eminent actor, Josias de Soulas, better known by his stage-name
of Floridor,[699] appeared in London, and won such favor at Court that
they were ultimately allowed to fit up a house in Drury Lane for a
temporary theatre. The history of these players is mainly found in the
records of the Master of the Revels and of the Lord Chamberlain. From
the former, Malone has preserved the following entries by Herbert:

On Tuesday night the 17 of February, 1634 [i.e., 1635], a
French company of players, being approved of by the Queen at
her house two nights before, and commended by Her Majesty to
the King, were admitted to the Cockpitt in Whitehall, and
there presented the King and Queen with a French comedy
called _Melise_,[700] with good approbation: for which play
the King gave them ten pounds.

This day being Friday, and the 20 of the same month, the
King told me his pleasure, and commanded me to give order
that this French company should play the two sermon days in
the week during their time of playing in Lent [i.e.,
Wednesdays and Fridays, on which days during Lent the
English companies were not allowed to play], and in the
house of Drury Lane [i.e., the Cockpit Playhouse], where the
Queen's Players usually play. The King's pleasure I
signified to Mr. Beeston [the manager of the Cockpit] the
same day, who obeyed readily. The housekeepers are to give
them by promise the benefit of their interest[701] for the
two days of the first week. They had the benefit of playing
on the sermon days, and got two hundred pounds at least;
besides many rich clothes were given them. They had freely
to themselves the whole week before the week before
Easter,[702] which I obtained of the King for them.

[Footnote 699: See Frederick Hawkins, _Annals of the French Stage_
(1884), I, 148 ff., for the career of this player on the French stage.
"Every gift required by the actor," says Hawkins, "was possessed by
Floridor."]

[Footnote 700: _La Melise, ou Les Princes Reconnus_, by Du Rocher,
first acted in Paris in 1633; see _The Athenaeum_, July 11, 1891, p.
73; and cf. _ibid._, p. 139.]

[Footnote 701: "Housekeepers" were owners, who always demanded of the
players as rental for the building a certain part of each day's
takings. The passage quoted means that the housekeepers allowed the
French players to receive _all_ money taken