Robert Benfield, Elliard Swanston and Thomas Pollard petition to be admitted as sharers in the King's company. They note that the present sharers receive a full moiety of the profits of the playhouse, excepting the outer doors, and that those of the housekeepers who are also actors share equally in the profits with the remaining actors. The actors' moiety, however, is used to defray the expense of the house; as a result, there is an inequality between the gains of the actors and the consortium. The three actors then explain the division and ownership of the shares in the Globe playhouse. They complain that in the redistribution of the original shares, three of Mr Heminges' four shares have gone to Mr Shanks; the players have thus been denied the chance to buy into the company. They argue that their contribution to the company is at least equal to that of others who do own shares, and suggest that they should be allowed to purchase parts of shares from those who currently have the largest interest in the playhouse. They ask, similarly, that they be permitted to buy shares in the Blackfriars of Mr Shanks, who alone holds two shares in the playhouse. The document concludes with a list of sharers in the Globe and Blackfriars theatres, including the dates on which they acquired their shares.
| Name | Event Role(s) | Document Role(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Benfield, Robert | player | |
| Swanston, Elliard | player | |
| Pollard, Thomas | player | |
| Heminges, John | playhouse sharer | |
| Shank, John | playhouse sharer | |
| Burbage, Cuthbert | playhouse sharer | |
| Condell, Elizabeth | playhouse sharer | |
| Taylor, Joseph | playhouse sharer | |
| Lowin, John | playhouse sharer | |
| Robinson, Richard | playhouse sharer | |
| Condell, Henry | playhouse sharer | |
| Underwood, John | playhouse sharer |