Shakespeare among the players granted a length of scarlet cloth to celebrate the King's Royal Procession through London (15 March, 1604). Public Record Office, L.C. 2/4/5, f. 78. This document may be copied and downloaded for personal and research purposes only. You must apply to the Public Record Office for any other use.
Acting companies were often involved in activities at Court. In the Master of the Wardrobe record for 15 March, 1604, Shakespeare is listed among "Players" who were given "scarlet red cloth" to be worn for the King's Royal Procession through London.
Between 1590 and 1642, there were approximately twenty companies of actors in London (although only four or five played in town at one time), and more than a hundred provincial troupes. The usual pattern of the companies was to play in London in the winter and spring and to travel in the summer when plague ravaged the city.
There was no guild of players, but the companies organized themselves on the same principles: members were divided into sharers, apprentices*, and hired men*.
Shakespeare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, was one of the few companies to own their own playhouse and to maintain ownership over a long period. By 1608 they were operating two theatres, the Globe and the Blackfriars; the company employed up to twenty actors*.
