Dear REED-L,

Alan Somerset wishes to make the following announcement:

"Alan Somerset is very pleased to announce the publication of his new website, Performers without Patrons. (https://playerswithoutpatrons.ca) This site extends the scope of the REED website, Patrons and Performances, by presenting an index to the over 3700 records of performers on tour before 1642, for whom no patron was recorded. These represent a little over a third of the total records of performers outside London in the period. Over 935 of these performers without patrons were professional touring players; their patrons’ names were often omitted simply by accident. Beyond professional actors, these records bring to light a multitude of performer types – musicians, minstrels, waits, acrobats, freaks, bearwards, lion-tamers, camel-keepers and many others. These records of performers without patrons allow us more fully to understand the contexts from which grew the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries."