A warrant granted to Josias D'Aunay,[710] Hurfries de Lau, and others, for to act plays at a new house in Drury Lane, during pleasure, the 5 May, 1635. The King was pleased to command my Lord Chamberlain to direct his warrant to Monsieur Le Fevure, to give him a power to contract with the Frenchmen for to build a playhouse in the manage-house, which was done accordingly by my advice and allowance.[711] [Footnote 710: Should we place a comma after "Josias"? That "Josias Floridor" was the leader of the troupe we know from two separate entries; cf. Chalmers, _Apology_, pp. 508, 509.] [Footnote 711: Malone, _Variorum_, III, 122, note.] In Glapthorne's _The Ladies' Priviledge_ is a good-natured allusion to the French Company and their vivacious style of acting:[712] _La._ But, Adorni, What think you of the French? _Ador._ Very airy people, who participate More fire than earth; yet generally good, And nobly disposition'd, something inclining To over-weening fancy. This lady Tells my remembrance of a comic scene I once saw in their Theatre. _Bon._ Add it to Your former courtesies, and express it. [Footnote 712: Act II, Scene i. This passage is pointed out by Lawrence, _The Elizabethan Playhouse_, p. 137.] Whereupon, according to the stage direction, Adorni "acts furiously." In the margin of his Office-Book Sir Henry Herbert writes complacently: "These Frenchmen were commended unto me by the Queen, and have passed through my hands gratis." This was indeed a rare favor from Herbert; but they did not so easily escape his deputy, William Blagrove, who accepted from them the sum of "three pounds for his pains." How long the French actors occupied their temporary playhouse in Drury Lane is not clear. In the Lord Chamberlain's book we find an entry showing that they presented a play at Court in December, 1635: "Warrant to pay L10 to Josias Floridor for himself and the rest of the French players for a tragedy by them played before His Majesty Dec. last."[713] The entry is dated January 8, 1636, and, so far as I can discover, this is the last reference to the French players in London. We may suppose that shortly after this they returned to Paris. [Footnote 713: Stopes, _op. cit._, p. 98, Chalmers, _Apology_, p. 509.] V DAVENANT'S PROJECTED THEATRE IN FLEET STREET On March 26, 1639, William Davenant, who had succeeded Ben Jonson as Poet Laureate, secured from King Charles a royal patent under the Great Seal of England to erect a playhouse in Fleet Street, to be used not only for regular plays, but also for "musical entertainments" and "scenic representations." Davenant, as we know, was especially interested in "the art of perspective in scenes," and also in the Italian _opera musicale_. The royal patent--unusually verbose even for a patent--is printed in full in Rymer's _Foedera_, XX, 377; I cite below all the essential passages: