William Rowley

He also wrote fat-clown parts for himself to play: Jaques in All's Lost by Lust (a role "personated by the Poet", the 1633 quarto states), and Bustopha in The Maid in the Mill, his collaboration with John Fletcher.

He certainly played Simplicity in The World Tossed at Tennis, and probably Chough in A Fair Quarrel – and since these are Middleton/Rowley collaborations, they qualify as two more parts that Rowley wrote for himself.

Three other works that may have been Rowley solo plays have not survived: Hymen's Holidays or Cupid's Vagaries (1612), A Knave in Print (1613) and The Fool Without Book (also 1613).

Most of Rowley's career was spent writing and clowning for this company, which was based at a series of different playhouses, including the Curtain, the Hope and the Red Bull.

Though relatively brief, his stay with the troupe was eventful: in 1624 he was embroiled in both the Game at Chess controversy in August and the Spanish Viceroy affair in December.