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THE THEN REMUNERATION OF ACTORS.

Shakespeare was not less to be envied in having an actor and business associate of admitted great genius to embody and impersonate his wondrous creations. When he died tragic parts were said to have died with him; poets were to cease to write. Sir R. Baker says that Burbage and Alleyn "were two such actors, that no age must ever look to see the like." At his death he bequeathed freehold property valued in those times at twelve hundred a year, besides many other possessions.

Burbage, however, was not the only great actor of his day, neither was money reward only extended to the Globe and Blackfriars. The Fortune Theatre, built in 1599, proved truly a fortune to its chief owner and great actor, Alleyn, the founder of our present grand institution, Dulwich College. Here the Lord Admiral's servants performed. From the indentures between Alleyn and Hemlowe, his co-partner, on the one side, and the builder, Steel, on the other, we learn that the house had three tiers, consisting of boxes, rooms, and galleries, that there were "two-penny rooms," and "gentlemen's"; that the width of the stage was forty-three feet, and the depth thirty-nine and a half, including the tiring house at the back. The balcony was so arranged that when not in use by the players it might be availed of by the audience. We thus see how the old stage directions were fulfilled, as "enter Romeo and Juliet at the window." In the balcony also would sit the Court in "Hamlet," during the performance of the play, and in similar cases of a play within a play, other primitive methods had to be resorted to. The names of the theatres were borrowed from their respective signs exhibited outside. As regards Alleyn's theatre, Heywood speaks of

"The picture of Dame Fortune, Before the Fortune playhouse." Many of the actors were poets also, like their great exemplar, Shakespeare, and were generally worthy of the dramas they represented. The chief men of note were Burbage, Hemings, and Condell, Shakespeare's friends and literary executors, who, "without ambition, either of self-profit or fame-only to keep the memory of so worthy a fellow alive as was our Shakespeare," published the first edition of his collected works; Taylor, Kemp, Sly, Lowin, Field, and other actors of the rank participated in the profits of the company to which they belonged as whole sharers or half-sharers,

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and not, as is too commonly the case in our day, permitting the stars to swallow up the bulk of the proceeds, the other performers being hired at salaries, or were apprenticed to particular members of the company. The emoluments of the sharers were large, as in addition they were frequently called upon to play before the Court, for which the usual payment was ten pounds, and at the mansions of the nobility, at marriages and christenings. The price of admission varied at the different theatres. Ben Jonson has told us

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in an amusing passage what they were in 1614, when his "Bartholomew Fair" was acted at the Hope. In the induction he says, "It shall be lawful for any man to judge his sixpennyworth, his twelvepennyworth, so to his eighteenpence, two shillings, half a crown, to the value of his place, provided always his place get not above his wit." But Dekker speaks of your swindling and gallery commoner buying his sport for a penny, and other writers also of the "penny bench theatres," referring to those of a lower grade.

Such were the theatres of London in which Shakespeare occasionally performed, in order to give vigour to his productions.

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FACSIMILES Of the Entries of BAPTISMS of Shakespeare's Children In the Parish Register.

May 26 Enfana daughter to Mrithiam 5 halfpent

February 2 Hammer & Judeth forme & daughter to millia Shakse

FACSIMILES OF ENTRY OF HIS DAUGHTER SUSANNA'S MARRIAGE WITH DR. HALL.

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John hull youthma & Enfarma Equespen

THE ENTRY OF JUDITH'S MARRIAGE WITH THOMAS QUINEY.

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The Qutony for Judith Seak forw
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FACSIMILE OF BURIAL ENTRY OF THE POET'S ONLY SON, HAMNET, WHO DIED AUGUST 11TH, 1596.

August

112 Hammet filind William Shaks peze

ENTRY OF BURIAL OF THE POET'S FATHER, WHO DIED SEPTEMEER 8TH, 1601.

Septemb.g m3 Jugaños Szaksyoam

OF THE POET'S WIFE, WHO DIED AUGUST 8TH, 1623

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mrs shak pras

OF HIS DAUGHTER SUSANNAH, WIDOW OF DR. HALL, WHO DIED JULY 16TH, 1649.

July) 16 md5 Este panna Hall nordow

OF HIS DAUGHTER JUDITH, WIFE OF THOMAS QUINEY.

thurber 9 Gudi k book exomar quinery Fould

THE PASSING AWAY OF THE MIGHTY SPIRIT IS THUS ENTERED FOR APRIL 25TH, 1616:—

April 25 with Graks pour yout

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SHAKESPEARE AND RICHMOND.

EAUTIFUL RICHMOND!

the many centuried home of Kings as of several of our Sovereign Queens, remains romantic and lovely as of yore; though shorn of its royal turretted Palace, it can now boast of a more highly cultivated country, with public parks and gardens of exter: and kind known to no other spot in the world, where plants and flowers of every region are cared for and bloom in highest perfection by skilled hands, all open to the poorest and humblest as to the richest of

the realm. Who can over-estimate the pleasures here available to all and maintained in greatest perfectitude by the wise aid and bounteous revenues of the nation? On either side of its "Royal Towered Thames," and extending for many miles of distance, are residences surpassing all other neighbourhoods of the great city, unrivalled of the world, and which, in our day, have more than ever been its most attractive adjunct. Though the Sovereign herself be not within its local limit, yet the battlements of her more than regal home are within sight of its heights, and members of the Royal house rejoice to make their homes close within its area, and are frequently seen in the town itself enjoying the delightful drives abounding in every direction around it, mingling graciously to the manner born among the inhabitants with whom it is their pleasure to dwell.

"The Palace of Nonsuch, a private purchase of Queen Elizabeth, and close to Richmond," said Hentzner, in 1598, "is encompassed with parks, gardens, groves orna

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