on 26 December 1575 and 1 January and on 5 March 1576. John and Laurence Dutton and Jerome Savage were their payees. Laurence Dutton and possibly others of the company had been, a year before, in Lord Clinton's service. During the next four winters they appeared regularly at Court, and are recorded at Leicester in 1576 and Nottingham on 1 September 1577. On 26 December 1576 they played The Painter's Daughter, and on 18 February 1577 The Irish Knight. The names of their plays on 28 December 1577 and 6 January and 9 February 1578 are not preserved. They were notified by the Privy Council to the Lord Mayor as one of the Court companies for the Christmas of 1578-9 (App. D, No. xl), and played The Three Sisters of Mantua on 26 December and The Knight in the Burning Rock on 1 March. A play intended for 2 February was not performed, but payment was made to Jerome Savage. Gabriel Harvey (cf. p. 4) mentions them as a London company in the summer of 1579. On 1 January 1580 they played The Four Sons of Fabius. A Winchester record of 'Lord Ambrose Dudley's' men in 1581-2 must be an error. The Duttons were evidently a restless folk, and the disappearance of Warwick's men and the appearance of Oxford's men in 1580 is to be explained by another transfer of their services. This is referred to in the following verses:[1] The Duttons and theyr fellow-players forsakyng the Erle of Warwycke theyr mayster, became followers of the Erle of Oxford, and wrot themselves his Comoedians, which certayne Gentlemen altered and made Camoelions. The Duttons, angry with that, compared themselves to any gentleman; therefore these armes were devised for them.
The fyeld, a fart durty, a gybbet crosse-corded,
A dauncing Dame Flurty of alle men abhorred;
A lyther lad scampant, a roge in his ragges,
A whore that is rampant, astryde wyth her legges,
A woodcocke displayed, a calfe and a sheepe,
A bitch that is splayed, a dormouse asleepe;
A vyper in stynche, la part de la drut,
Spell backwarde this Frenche and cracke me that nut.
Parcy per pillery, perced with a rope,
To slythe the more lytherly anoynted with sope;
A coxcombe crospate in token of witte,
Two eares perforate, a nose wythe slytte.
Three nettles resplendent, three owles, three swallowes,
Three mynstrellmen pendent on three payre of gallowes,
- ↑ Wright and Halliwell, Reliquiae Antiquae, ii. 122, from Harl. MS. 7392, f. 97; cf. M. L. R. ii. 5.
