Tarlton's News out of purgatory (1590) : a modern-spelling edition ...

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He is described as an 'ordenary grome off her majestes chamber 1
in a record of his graduation as a Master of Fence in 1587,
and also in his will of 1588. The last mention of him with
the Company, before his will was made, seems to be in a
manuscript dated 30 June 1588, which concerns the non-payment
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of subsidy by members of the Company.
The only documented contemporary tale of Tarlton which
includes any detail of interest concerning the man, is that
told by witnesses of a fight in Norwich in 1583, in which some
of the Queen's Men, then acting at the Red Lion Inn, were
involved. The witnesses' versions do not vary in substance,
and events can be reconstructed from any of their accounts, for
instance that of Edmunde Brown,
..the gate-keper and hee stryvynge, Tarleton
came out of the stayge, and would have thrust
hym out at the gate, but in the meane tyme
one Bentley, he wich played the Duke, came
of the stage, and with his hiltes of his
sworde he strooke Wynsdon upon the heade,
and offered hym another strype, but Tarleton
defended yt, whereupon Wynsdon fled out of
the gate. /-
Tarlton died on 3 September 1588, and from the knowledge
that he made his will, died, and was buried all in one day
Halliwell surmises that he died of the plague (Jests, p.xii).
However, there is no evidence of there having been plague, or
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even of precautionary restraints, in the years 1588-91. After
his death a dispute arose concerning his will, and from
documents appertaining to this, and from the will itself, several
Q
interesting biographical details may be gleaned. In his will
Tarlton leaves everything to his son Phillip, still a minor,
and as guardians of this son and administrators of his property