Shakespeare of Stratford/The Biographical Facts/Fact 42
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XLII. THE KING’S MEN PERFORM SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS AT COURT (1604–1605).
Extracts from the Revels Accounts. (Public Record Office.)
The Revels Book. Anno 1605. The Accompt of the Office of the Revels of this whole year’s charge in anno 1604, until the last of October, 1605.
| The Players | 1604 | The poets which made the plays |
| By the King’s Majesty’s Players | Hallowmas Day, being the first of November, a play in the banqueting house at Whitehall, called The Moor of Venice. | |
| By his Majesty’s Players | The Sunday following a play of The Merry Wives of Windsor. |
|
| By his Majesty’s Players | On St. Stephen’s Night [Dec. 26] in the Hall a play called Measure for Measure. | Shaxberd |
| ....... | ||
| By his Majesty’s Players | On Innocents’ Night [Dec. 28] the Play of Errors. | Shaxberd |
| ....... | ||
| By his Majesty’s Players | Between New Years Day and Twelfth Day [Jan. 6] a play of Love’s Labour’s Lost. | |
| ....... | ||
| By his Majesty’s Players | On the 7 of January was played the play of Henry the Fift[h]. | |
| ....... | ||
| By his Majesty’s Players | On Shrove Sunday a play of the Merchant of Venice. | Shaxberd |
| ....... | ||
| By his Majesty’s Players | On Shrove Tuesday a play called the Merchant of Venice, again commanded by the King’s Majesty. | Shaxberd |
Note. These notices, discovered by Peter Cunningham in 1842, were branded as ‘unquestionably a modern forgery’ by Halliwell-Phillipps, who however admits that the facts they record are otherwise confirmed and probably true. There is a strong probability at present in favor of the genuineness of the document. The strange spelling (e.g. in Shaxberd) is doubtless owing to the fact that the paper was written by a newly arrived Scot.