which a great stage had been built in their Hall, it is recorded that
the great throng assembled were forced, first, to "content themselves
with ordinary dancing and revelling, and when that was over, with a
Comedy of Errors like to Plautus his Menoechmus, which was played by
the players." That these "players" were public players is shown in the
Gray's Inn account of these Christmas festivities by another reference
to this "company of base and common fellows" who were "foisted" in "to
make up our disorders with a play of Errors and Confusions."

Since this substitution of the "players" Play for the Play by the
young gentlemen students was unexpected, we can be sure it was not
made for this occasion. It seems obvious that whatever comedy was
specially designed by Shakespeare and his fellow actors for their
Christmas performances before the Queen at Greenwich, would be apt to
be chosen for a sudden repetition at Gray's Inn the same evening. And
of course for such an institution of scholarly gentlemen as Gray's
Inn, a farce based on Plautus would be likely to be thought
appropriate.

So Mrs. Charlotte Stopes argues, who brought into association these
facts and dates. She brings out also, another curious incident or two
concerning what we may take to be the earliest performances of "The
Comedie of Errors." One is that the mother of the Earl of
Southampton,--the young nobleman who was Shakespeare's patron and to
whom the Poet dedicated "Venus and Adonis" and "Lucrece,"--was then
acting officially for her late husband. Thus it fell to her care to
make up his accounts as Treasurer of the Chamber, and she it was who
wrote this particular notice of the acting of Shakespeare before Queen
Elizabeth. Others acting as Treasurer did not find it worth their
while to include the Actors' names in their accounts. This notice of