he London theatres had
doubtless reached Stratford. From such incidents seems to have sprung
the opportunity which offered Shakespeare fame and fortune. According to
Rowe's vague statement, 'he was received into the company then in being
at first in a very mean rank.' William Castle, the parish clerk of
Stratford at the end of the seventeenth century, was in the habit of
telling visitors that he entered the playhouse as a servitor. Malone
recorded in 1780 a stage tradition 'that his first office in the theatre
was that of prompter's attendant' or call-boy. His intellectual capacity
and the amiability with which he turned to account his versatile powers
were probably soon recognised, and thenceforth his promotion was assured.

The acting companies.

Shakespeare's earliest reputation was made as an actor, and, although his
work as a dramatist soon eclipsed his histrionic fame, he remained a
prominent member of the actor's profession till near the end of his life.
By an Act of Parliament of 1571 (14 Eliz. cap. 2), which was re-enacted
in 1596 (39 Eliz. cap. 4), players were under the necessity of procuring
a license to pursue their calling from a peer of the realm or 'personage
of higher degree;' otherwise they were adjudged to be of the status of
rogues and vagabonds. The Queen herself and many Elizabethan peers were
liberal in the exercise of their licensing powers, and few actors failed
to secure a statutory license, which gave them a rank of respectability,
and relieved them of all risk of identification with vagrants or 'sturdy
beggars.' From an early period in Elizabeth's reign licensed actors were
organised into permanent companies. In 1587 and following years, besides
three companies of duly licensed boy-actors that were formed from the
choristers of St. Paul's Cathedral and the Chapel Royal and from
Westminster scholars, there were in London at least six companies of
fully licensed adult actors; five of these were called after the noblemen
to whom their members respectively owed their licenses (viz. the Earls of
Leicester, Oxford, Sussex, and Worcester, and the Lord Admiral, Charles,
lord Howard of Effingham), and one of them whose actors derived their
license from the Queen was called the Queen's Company.

The Lord Chamberlain's company.

The patron's functions in relation to the companies seem to have been
mainly confined to the grant or renewal of the actors' licenses.
Constant alteration