Thus stoutly backed, Shakespeare appeared for the
first time in the royal presence-chamber of Greenwich Palace on the
evening of St Stephen's Day (the Boxing Day of subsequent generations)
in 1594.
Extant documentary evidence attests that Shakespeare and his two
associates performed one "comedy or interlude" on that night of Boxing
Day in 1594, and gave another "comedy or interlude" on the next night
but one; that the Lord Chamberlain paid the three men for their
services the sum of L13, 6s. 8d., and that the queen added to the
honorarium, as a personal proof of her satisfaction, the further sum
of L6, 13s. 4d. These were substantial sums in those days, when the
purchasing power of money was eight times as much as it is to-day, and
the three actors' reward would now be equivalent to L160.
Unhappily the record does not go beyond the payment of the money. What
words of commendation or encouragement Shakespeare received from his
royal auditor are not handed down, nor do we know for certain what
plays were performed on the great occasion. All the scenes came from
Shakespeare's repertory, and it is reasonable to infer that they were
drawn from _Love's Labour's Lost_, which was always popular in later
years at Elizabeth's Court, and from _The Comedy of Errors_, where the
farcical confusions and horse-play were after the queen's own heart
and robust taste.
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