uable corporate asset by
its sharers. At times a company possessing a licence would diminish by
attrition until the ownership of the licence became vested in the hands
of a few of the original sharers, who, lacking either the means or
ability to continue to maintain themselves as an effective independent
organisation, would form a connection with a similarly depleted company
and perform as one company, each of them preserving their licensed
identity. In travelling in the provinces such a dual company would at
times be recorded under one title, and again under the other, in the
accounts of the Wardens, Chamberlains, and Mayors of the towns they
visited. Occasionally, however, the names of both companies would be
recorded under one payment, and when their functions differed, they seem
at times to have secured separate payments though evidently working
together--one company supplying the musicians and the other the actors.

If we find for a number of years in the provincial and Court records the
names of two companies recorded separately, who from time to time act
together as one company, and that these companies act together as one
company at the same London theatre, we may infer that the dual company
may be represented also at times where only the name of one of them is
given in provincial or Court records. It is likely that the full numbers
of such a dual company would not make prolonged provincial tours except
under stress of circumstances, such as the enforced closing of the
theatres in London on account of the plague; and that while the entire
combination might perform at Coventry and other points within a short
distance of London, they would probably divide their forces and act as
separate companies upon the occasions of their regular provincial
travels.

Such a combination as this between two companies in some instances
lasted for years. The provincial, and even the Court records, will make
mention of one company, and at times of the other, in instances where
two companies had merged their activities while preserving their
respective titles.[11] A lack of knowledge of this fact is responsible
for most of the misapprehension that exists at present regarding
Shakespeare's early theatrical affiliations.

Under whatever varying licences and titles the organisation of players
to which Shakespeare attached himself upon his arrival in London may
have performed in later years, all tradition, inference, and evidence
poin