1583. William Rendle, in _The Inns of Old Southwark_, p. 235, states that in this year "Tarleton, Wilson, and others note the stay of the plague, and ask leave to play at the Bull in Bishopsgate, or the Bell in Gracechurch Street," citing as his authority merely "City MS." The Privy Council on November 26, 1583, addressed to the Lord Mayor a letter requesting "that Her Majesty's Players [i.e., Tarleton, Wilson, etc.] may be suffered to play within the liberties as heretofore they have done."[13] And on November 28 the Lord Mayor issued to them a license to play "at the sign of the Bull in Bishopsgate Street, and the sign of the Bell in Gracious Street, and nowhere else within this City."[14] [Footnote 13: See _The Remembrancia_, in The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 66.] [Footnote 14: C.W. Wallace, _The First London Theatre_, p. 11.] 1587. "James Cranydge played his master's prize the 21 of November, 1587, at the Bellsavage without Ludgate, at iiij sundry kinds of weapons.... There played with him nine masters."[15] [Footnote 15: _MS. Sloane_, 2530, f. 6-7, quoted by J.O. Halliwell in his edition of _Tarlton's Jests_, p. xi. The Bell Savage seems to have been especially patronized by fencers. George Silver, in his _Paradoxe of Defence_ (1599), tells how he and his brother once challenged two Italian fencers to a contest "to be played at the Bell Savage upon the scaffold, when he that went in his fight faster back than he ought, should be in danger to break his neck off the scaffold."] Before 1588. In _Tarlton's Jests_[16] we find a number of references to that famous actor's pleasantries in the London inns used by the Queen's Players. It is impossible to date these exactly, but Tarleton became a member of the Queen's Players in 1583, and he died in 1588. [Footnote 16: First printed in 1611; reprinted by J.O. Halliwell for The Shakespeare Society in 1844.] At the Bull in Bishops-gate-street, where the Queen's Players oftentimes played, Tarleton coming on the stage, one from the gallery threw a pippin at him. There was one Banks, in the time of Tarleton, who served the Earl of Essex, and had a horse of strange qualities; and being at the Cross Keys in Gracious Street getting money with him, as he was mightily resorted to. Tarleton then, with his fellows playing at the Bell by, came into the Cross Keys, amongst many people, to see fashions. At the Bull at Bishops-gate was a play of Henry the Fifth. The several "jests" which follow these introductory sentences indicate that the inn-yards differed in no essential way from the early public playhouses. 1588. "John Mathews played his master's prize the 31 day of January, 1588, at the Bell Savage without Ludgate."[17]