VOL. I. we learn, that one of either the performers or proprietors had feven shares and a half; but of what integral PROLEGO Tum is not mentioned. MENA. From the prices of admiffion into our ancient theatres, which have been already mentioned, I imagine, the utmost that the fharers of the Globe play-house could have received on any one day, was about thirty-five pounds. So lately NOTES. "That he would freat, and fume, and chafe, and swear, "And in fome paffion or ftrange agonie < Tucca. "Fare thee well, my honeft penny-biter: commend me to seven shares and a half, [I fuppofe he means either one of the proprietors, or one of the principal actors] and remember tomorrow-If you lack a fervice, you fhall play in my name, rafcals; [alluding to the cuftom of actors calling themselves the fervants of certain noblemen] but you shall buy your own cloth, and I'll have two shares for my countenance." Poctafter, 1602. Though I have fuppofed the Globe theatre capable of containing fo many perfons as to produce fomewhat more than thirty-five pounds, twenty pounds was probably esteemed a confiderable receipt. I know not indeed whether even this is not rather too highly rated; for we find the whole company received but half that fum from his majesty, for the exhibition of a play at court.If, however, we fuppofe twenty pounds to have been an ordinary receipt; that one half of this fum belonged to the proprietors, and that the other half was divided into one hundred fhares; the player who had five thares in each play, received ten fhillings. Mr. Hart and Mr. Kynafton, both very celebrated actors, had but ten fhillings a day, cach, at the king's theatre in 1681. See Gildon's Life of Betterton, p. 8. In 1684, when the the duke's and the king's company joined, the profits of acting (we are told by C. Cibber) were divided into twenty fhares, ten of which went to the proprietors or patentees, and the other moiety to the principal actors, in different divifions, proportioned to their merit. For feveral years after the Reftoration, (another writer informs us) every whole farer in Mr. Hart's company got 1000. per annum. Hift. Hiftrion. 1699. But of these whole farers, there were probably not more than two or three, and they must have been proprietors as well as actors. Taylor, the water-poet, fays, that two play-houses on the Bankfide, the Rofe and the Sevan, were frequented daily by three or four thousand people. [See ante p. 36, Note "]. Taking then the lowest number, each of them contained one thousand five hundred perfons. The Globe was at least as large as either of lately as the year 1685, Shadwell received, by his third day, VOL. I. on the reprefentation of The 'Squire of Alfatia, 130. which PROLEGODownes the prompter fays was the greateft receipt that had MENA. been ever taken at Drury-Lane play-houfe, at fingle prices. It appears from the Mff. of lord Stanhope, treasurer of the chambers to king James I. that the cuftomary fum paid to John Heminge and his company, for the performance of a play at court, was twenty nobles, or fix pounds thirteen hillings and four pence. And Edward Alleyn mentions in his Diary, that he once had fo flender an audience in his theatre called the Fortune, that the whole receipts of the houfe amounted to no more than three pounds and fome odd hillings. Thus fcanty and meagre were the apparatus and accommodations of our ancient theatres, on which thofe dramas NOTES. of thefe; in the South View of London, as it appeared in 1599, it is larger than the Swan: (the Rofe is not there delineated). Suppofing, however, this account of Taylor's to have been exaggerated, and that the Globe theatre held but one thousand two hundred perfons, if nine hundred paid fixpence a-piece, and three hundred one fhilling each, the produce would be 37. 10s. The theatre in Black-fryars probably did not produce, on any one day, above half that fum. Each of the modern theatres, in Drury Lane and Covent Garden, holds two thousand three hundred perfons. e Rofc. Anglican. p. 41. f His majefty occafionally added three pounds fix fhillings and eight pence, by way of bounty. For this information we are indebted to Mr. Oldys.-See Bieg. Brit. article Alleyn. vol. I. p. 153. edit. 1778. From the Diary of Edward Alleyn, I expected to have learned feveral particulars relative to the ancient stage. But on enquiring for it at Dulwich College, I was informed by the gentleman who has at prefent the care of the library there, that this curious history of the private life of the founder, which had been preferved in the College for more than a century, had by the unaccountable negligence of fome former librarian, been loft within these few years. In Dulwich College there was likewife, formerly, a very valu able collection of old plays, that had been made by Mr. Cart wright, the comedian, (a friend of Edward Alleyn) and bequeath. ed by him to the Society. It was, I believe, the first collection made in England, and contained above five hundred plays. Mr. Garrick fome years ago obtained a few of them, in exchange for fome other books; being added to his large collection, which he has ordered, by his Will, to be depofited in the British Museum, they are again appropriated to the ufe of the publick. VOL. I. E were VOL. I. were firft exhibited, that have fince engaged the attention of PROLEGO. fo many learned men, and delighted fo many thousand specMENA. tators. Yet even then, we are told by a writer of that age, "that dramatick poefy was fo lively expreffed and reprefented on the publick stages and theatres of this city, as Rome in the auge of her pomp and glory, never faw it better performed; in refpect of the action and art, not of the coft and fumptuoufnefs." Of the actors on whom this high encomium is pronounced, the original performers in our author's plays were probably the most eminent. The following are the only notices that I have met with, relative to them. Names of the Original ACTORS in the Plays of SHAKSPEARE: WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. There is reafon to believe that he performed the part of NOTE. h Sir George Buck. This writer appears to have compofed a treatise concerning the English stage; but I know not whether it was ever printed. See The Third Univerfity of England, at the end of Stowe's Annals, p. 1082. edit. 1631: "Of this art [the dramatick] have written largely Petrus Victorius, &c.—as it were in vaine for me to fay any thing of the art; befides, that I have written thereof a particular treatife." If this treatise be yet extant, it would probably throw much light on the prefent enquiry. The The author of Hiftoria Hiftrionica, 1699, concurs with VOL. I. Rowe, in faying, there was a ftage-tradition, that Shakspeare was much more celebrated as a poet than as an actor. RICHARD BURBAGE appears to have been a tragedian. He is introduced in perfon, in an old play called The Returne from Parnaffus, and inftructs a Cambridge fcholar how to play the part of King Richard III. See alfo bifhop Corbet's Poems, 1648: "For when he would have faid, king Richard dy'd, "And call'd a horse, a horse, he Burbage cry'd." He was one of the principal fharers or proprietors of the Globe and Black-fryars play-houfes. In a letter preferved in the British Museum, (Mf. Harl. 7002,) written in the year 1613, the actors at the Globe are called Burbage's Company*. He died, as we learn from Camden, (who styles him "alter Rofcius," in 1619. The following character of Burbage is given by Flecknoe, in his Short Difcourfe of the English Stage, 1664: "He was a delightful Proteus, fo wholly transforming himfelf into his part, and putting off himself with his cloaths, as he never (not so much as in the tyring-house) affumed himself again until the play was done.-He had all the parts of an excellent orator, animating his words with speaking, and fpeech with action; his auditors being never more delighted than when he fpake, nor more forry than when he held his peace: yet even then, he was an excellent actor ftill, never falling in his part, when he had done fpeaking, but with his looks and gefture maintaining it ftill unto the height." JOHN HEMINGE is faid by Roberts the player to have been a tragedian. He does not produce any authority, but probably his affertion was grounded on fome theatrical tradition. From an entry in the Council-books at Whitehall, I find that he was manager or principal proprietor of the Globe play-house before the death of queen Elizabeth. He is joined with Shakfpeare, Burbage, &c. in the licence granted by king James NOTES. *In Jonfon's Mafque of Chriftmass, 1616, Burbage and Heminge are both mentioned as managers: "I could ha' had money enough for him an I would ha' been tempted, and ha' let him out by the week to the king's players: Mafter Burbage has been about and about with me; and fo has old Mr. Heminge too; they ha' need of him." Anfer to Pope, 1729. This writer fays, that Heminge and E 2 in PROLEGO PROLEGO- VOL. I. in 1603; and all the payments made in 1613 by lord Stanihope, treasurer of the chambers to king James I. on account of plays performed at court in that year, are to "John Heminge and the reft of his fellows." In 1623, in conjunction with Condell and Ford the poet, he published the first complete edition of our author's plays; foon after which time it has been fuppofed that he withdrew from the theatre; but this is a mistake. He continued chief director of the king's company of comedians till 1629 *, in which year he either died or retired from the ftage. AUGUSTINE PHILIPS. This actor is likewife named in the licence granted by king James in 1603. It appears from Heywood's Apology for Actors, printed in 1610, that he was then dead. În an extraordinary exhibition, entitled The Seven Deadly Sins, (of which an account will be given hereafter) he represented Sardanapalus. I have not been able to learn what parts he performed in our author's plays; but believe that he was in the fame class as Kempe, and Armine; for he appears, like the former of these players, to have published a ludicrous metrical piece, which was entered on the Stationers' books in 1595. Philips's production was entitled The Figg of the Slippers. WILLIAM KEMPE was the fucceffor of Tarleton. "Here I must needs remember Tarleton, (fays Heywood, in his Apology for Actors,) in his time gracious with the queen his foveraigne, and in the people's general applaufe; whom fucceeded Will. Kempe, as well in the favour of her majeftie, as in the opinion and good thoughts of the general audience." From the quarto editions of fome of our author's plays, we learn that he was the original performer of Dogberry in Much Ado about Nothing, and of Peter in Romeo and Juliet. From an old comedy called The Returne from Parnaffus, we may collect, that he was the original Juftice Shallow; and the contemporary writers inform us that he ufually acted the part of a Clown; in which character he was celebrated for his extemporal wit*. Launcelot in the Merchant of Venice, NOTES. and * Extracts from the Warrant-book of the earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, lord chamberlain of the houfhold to king Charles I. poft, p. 389. * See The Antipodes, by Brome, 1638: 66 -you, Sir, are incorrigible and "That |