single sheet (4 June)
Sonne edward alleyn I comend me vnto you & to my dawghter & very glade to heare of your healthes which god contenewe the causse whie I writte vnto you is this mr Bowes liesse very sycke & every bodey thinckes he will not escape in so mvche that I feare I shall losse alle for docter seasser hath done nothinge for me & as for ower other matter betwext vs I haue bene with my lord admeralle a bowte yt & he promyssed me that he wold move the quene abowte yt & the next daye he Rides frome the corte to winser so that ther is nothinge ther to be hade but good wordes which trvbellis my mynd very mvche for my losse you knowe is very mvche to me I did move my ladey edmones in yt & she very onerabley vssed me for she weant presentley & moved the quene for me & mr darsey of the previ chamber crossed hir & made yt knowne to her that the quene had geven yt all Readey in Reversyon to one mr dorington A pensenor & I haue talked with hime & he confesseth yt to be trew but as yet mr bowes lyveth & what paynes & travell I haue tacken in yt mr langworth shall mack yt knowne vnto you for I haue had his heallp in yt for so mvche as In hime lyesse for we haue moved other great parsonages for yt but as yeat I knowe not howe yt shall pleasse ‸ ⸢god⸣ we shall spead for I ame sure my lord admerall will do nothinge & this I comite you bothe to god leavinge the wholle descord to be vnfolded to you by mr langworth for london this 4 of Iune 1598
| I praye you commend me vnto mr langworth & to all the Reast of our frendes thir | Your to my power (signed) Phillippe Henslow |
Ralph Bowes died a few days later. Greg cites as evidence Henry Lok's letter on 8 June to Sir Robert Cecil; see Henslowe Papers, p 97, n 3; TNA: SP 12/267, f 71. The subsequent patent for Dorrington's grant of the desirable office of the royal game of Bears, Bulls, and Mastiff Dogs, was made on 11 August 1598; see TNA: C66/1485. It is worth noting here that two draft letters patent in the name of Elizabeth I (never executed) survive in separate archives for Henslowe and Alleyn, presumably drawn up by them in anticipation of gaining the office of master of the Bears, Bulls, and Mastiff Dogs in 1598. The draft letter patent for Henslowe, dated June 1598, survives at Dulwich College; see Ioppolo, Henslowe-Alleyn Digitisation Project, MUN 18. A transcription was published by Collier, Memoirs, pp 213-15. Alleyn's draft letter patent, dated 1598, can be found at TNA: WARD 2/61/241/43.
Greg suggests that My Lady Edmonds was 'probably the wife of Sir Thomas Edmonds, Comptroller of the Household, and the Dorothy Edmonds mentioned as a gentlewoman of the privy chamber in 1580'; see Henslowe Papers, p 98, n 9; BL: MS Lansdowne 29, f 161. Edward Darcy was a groom of the privy chamber from 1583–1603; see HPO.
Sir John Dorrington, gentleman pensioner, was knighted at Whitehall on 23 July 1603. The grant to him of the office, with a fee of l0d a day and 4d for his deputy, was made on 7 August 1598; see Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Elizabeth, 1598-1601, Mary Anne Everett Green (ed) (London, 1869), 79. His patent was dated 11 August, and was renewed by James I on 14 July 1603; see Ioppolo, Henslowe-Alleyn Digitisation Project, DC: Mun 25. Arthur Langworth was a friend of Henslowe and Alleyn, frequently mentioned in the diary. He was evidently in town at this moment while his wife was entertaining the Alleyns in the country. Alleyn was still, or again, there when Henslowe sent his subsequent letter of 26 September; see Ioppolo, Henslowe-Alleyn Digitisation Project, DC: MS I, f [2v]. Langworth 'married Rose, daughter of Will Durant of Cottesmore, co. Rutland, and died in 1606, the probate of his will being dated 6 Nov'; see Warner, Catalogue, p 66, n 2.
For an abstract of this record and details of its transcription in other printed sources, see the related EMLoT event.
Record title: Philip Henslowe's Letter to Edward Alleyn
Repository: Dulwich College
Shelfmark: MS II
Repository location: Dulwich
The letter clearly indicates Henslowe's disappointment that friends at court have not ensured his appointment, with Edward Alleyn, as joint successors to Ralph Bowes' lucrative office as master of Bears, Bulls and Mastiff Dogs. Instead the office passed firstly to John Dorrington and then to William Stewart and they would have to wait until 1604 to realize their dream.
For an image of the original manuscript, see Ioppolo, Henslowe-Alleyn Digitisation Project.
4 June 1598; English; paper; single sheet; 220mm x 320mm; good condition; mounted on a modern guard and bound with other documents in a 19th-c. brown cloth binding with gold tooling, title on spine: 'DULWICH | COLLEGE. | ALLEYN | PAPERS. | VOL.II. | BEAR | GARDEN | 1598–1626.' Endorsed on the verso: 'This be deliuered vnto mr | Edwarde Alleyn at | mr arthur Langworthes | at the Brille in | Sussex deliuer |this.' Foliated 1 in pencil by Warner; cited on pp 65–6 of his Catalogue.