The Salisbury Court Playhouse[621] was projected and built by two men whose very names are unfamiliar to most students of the drama--Richard Gunnell and William Blagrove. Yet Gunnell was a distinguished actor, and was associated with the ownership and management of at least two theatres. Even so early as 1613 his reputation as a player was sufficient to warrant his inclusion as a full sharer in the Palsgrave's Company, then acting at the Fortune. When the Fortune was rebuilt after its destruction by fire in 1621, he purchased one of the twelve shares in the new building, and rose to be manager of the company.[622] In addition to managing the company he also, as we learn from the Herbert Manuscript, supplied the actors with plays. In 1623 he composed _The Hungarian Lion_, obviously a comedy, and in the following year _The Way to Content all Women, or How a Man May Please his Wife_.[623] Of William Blagrove I can learn little more than that he was Deputy to the Master of the Revels. In this capacity he signed the license for Glapthorne's _Lady Mother_, October 15, 1635; and his name appears several times in the Herbert Manuscript in connection with the payments of various companies.[624] Possibly he was related to Thomas Blagrove who during the reign of Elizabeth was an important member of the Revels Office, and who for a time served as Master of the Revels. [Footnote 621: The playhouse discussed in this chapter was officially known as "The Salisbury Court Playhouse," and it should always be referred to by that name. Unfortunately, owing to its situation near the district of Whitefriars, it was sometimes loosely, though incorrectly, called "Whitefriars." Since it had no relation whatever to the theatre formerly in the Manor-House of Whitefriars, a perpetuation of this false nomenclature is highly undesirable.] [Footnote 622: Malone, _Variorum_, III, 66.] [Footnote 623: Chalmers's _Supplemental Apology_, pp. 216-17. He may also have been the author of a play called _The Masque_, which Herbert in 1624 licensed: "For the Palsgrave's Company, a new play called _The Masque_." In the list of manuscript plays collected by Warburton we find the title _A Mask_, and the authorship ascribed to R. Govell. Since "R. Govell" is not otherwise heard of, we may reasonably suppose that this was Warburton's reading of "R. Gunell." Gunnell also prefixed a poem to the Works of Captain John Smith, 1626.] [Footnote 624: Malone, _Variorum_, III, 66, 122, 176, 177.]