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IT WAS A QUIET NIGHT in the taprooer as Tuck Smythe sat down to a siht at the Toad and Badger tavern, however, did not necessarilyof the phrase It si hurled, no furniture was being overturned, and no skulls were being broken (Admittedly, broken skulls did not occur as frequently as broken furniture and crockery, largely because players, as a rule, had less of a tendency toward violence than histrionics) Smythe knew that the occasional broken bone or tas not altogether out of the question, but then such incidents did not often involve actors, who usually kneell enough to s whenever the action center stage became a bit unruly

Despite the general tumult over which the ursine Courtney Stackpole presided as the innkeeper, Ser was not really the sort of tavern where blood could flow as freely as small beer Those sorts of places could more readily be found in Southwark or Whitechapel, where sean wars often braith the weatherbeaten riverh drovers froht, blades could be drawn as readily as ale The Toad and Badger, fortunately, was not that sort of tavern It was rowdy and boisetrous, to be sure, but for all that, it was more loud than lethal and its charm lay primarily in the eccentricities of its patrons, most of ere simple tradesmen and entertainers

On this particular occasion, the ate part because the fortunes of the Queen’s Men were lately in decline The previous sulish countryside, but their perforht in nearly as much as they had hoped The harvests had been poor for two years running, and while people in the countryside were generally starved for entertain and could scarcely afford even the very reasonable price of admission to a play

In es where they had stopped, rather than set up in the courtyard of a local inn, as was their custoe square, then played for free to gain an audience Afterwards, they would simply pass the hat All too often, unfortunately, they had found that the number of people in their audience had well outnumbered the few coins that they had left behind

To add insult to their injury, there were nu the countryside of late, posing as legitimate companies of players They would herald their arrival in a toith a fanfare of cornets and sackbuts, then with dras, and declamations, the iendary Queen’s Men,” or “the illustrious and acclaimed Lord Admiral’s Men,” or “the Earl of Leicester’s Own Grand Coitiht under the law to perform anywhere as players Nevertheless, that did not stop scores of enterprising scoundrels froons and so theitimate players out on tour from London

These rogues would coe soether from bits and pieces filched from various plays that they had seen in London or, worse still, put on a play that they had stolen in its entirety by attending several perfor different parts to memory Much of the time, a play that was stolen in this manner resulted in a production that was a hopeless mish-mosh of misremembered lines and markedly inferior perforht S perpetrated Unfortunately, no sooner would these imposters leave a town that they had visited than nu little doubt as to the culprits

Needless to say, the victi bands were not very well disposed toward legitimate companies of players who came to visit afterward The Queen’s Men had been driven froes they came to on their tour and S pelted with sticks and stones hurled by the angry townspeople at their last stop

At least London ’s critics did not hurl anything more hazardous than a feell-turned epithets

When the company had finally cos there were not much better The playhouses were all closed down, in part because of plague, and in part because of rioting apprentices who had taken to roa into violent, bloody battles with their rivals on the slightest provocation There had been nu bands of hooligans, not to e done to life and limb, as well Smythe could not see what the players had to do with it As he saw it, the bla boys had been apprenticed They clearly failed to exercise the proper aes and allowed the boys too much free tied, the authorities had apparently decided that any place where large nuround for violence, and so the playhouses had all been closed down ‘til further notice

Sht that it was terribly unfair to penalize the players by denying theh they were entirely innocent of any wrongdoing… however, there was nothing they could do about it Between their unsuccessful tour and the playhouses being closed, most of the Queen’s Men were now dead broke They had lost several members who had left the company to pursue other work, and those with anythe little they had with their less fortunate co a fellow to aout the best in theht The players took care of their own