and Slye, in the Induction to Webster and Marston's Male-content. The traditions, which have been handed down by Wright, and Roberts, about Lowin's representations of Falstaff, Hamlet, and Henry VIII. cannot be true, if applied to any preceding period to the accession of Charles I. More experienced Actors performed Shakspeare's characters, when they were first presented to the publick. He certainly played in the For of Jonson, in 1605, in the Alchymist, during 1610, and in Catiline, during 1611. He stood the second in the enumeration of the King's players in the list of 1629, after Hemings, and before Taylor. In the sarcastick verses, which were addressed to Ben Jonson, in consequence of his insolent treatment of the publick, it is said :— "Let Lowin cease, and Taylor scorn to touch These two players certainly became the chiefs of the King's Company, after the secession of Condel, and Hemmings, about the year 1627. In December, 1624, this whole company, with Lowin, and Taylor, at their head, were obliged to make a submission to Sir Henry Herbert, for acting the play, called The Spanishe Viceroy, without his licence, as Master of the Revels. At a subsequent period, Lowin and Swanston were obliged to ask Sir Henry's pardon, "for their ill manners." In 1647, Lowin, and Taylor, stood at the head of the ten player-editors of Beaumont and Fletcher's dramatical folio. In 1652, these two concurred in publishing, as a trifling resource, during the miseries of the grand rebellion, The Wild Goose Chase of Fletcher. During a very advanced age, Lowin, for a livelihood, kept an inn, at Brentford, called The Three Pigeons. And, he finished his lengthened career of life, being buried in the cemetery of St. Martin's in the Fields, on the 18th of March, 1658-9, when administration to his goods was granted to Martha Lowin, who was probably either his widow, or his daughter." Such were the players, who, in conjunction with those more celebrated persons, whom I formerly mentioned,' were the actors, that represented Shakspeare's characters, either when his dramas first appeared, or when the original players had retired from the scene. It was little foreseen, by any of them, that Shakspeare's name would emblazon theirs; that their fame would be carried along the oblivious stream of time, borne up by his strength, and eternized by the immortality of his renown. It must be allowed, however, that both the actors, and the dramatists, owed great obligations to the Privy Council, and to Parliament, for their several regulations of the scene; though they were not always grateful to their best friends, who supported their usefulness, if at the same time they corrected their abuses. The gentle Shakspeare sometimes touched his superiors with a fine edged lancet; Ben Jonson was prompted, by his natural ruggedness, to strike them with a butcher's cleaver. In this manner, did he attempt to resist the Privy Council's order, in June, 1600, " for the restraint of the immoderate use of Playhouses." In his Poetaster, which was acted, in the subsequent year, by the Children of the Chapel, he made Tucca say: "Thou shalt have a monopoly of playing confirmed to thee and thy Covey, under the Emperor's broad Seal for this Service." Jonson's sarcasm incited the playhouse proprietors to persevere in opposing a salutary measure; and their perseverance, in obstinate error, induced the Privy Council to enforce, by severer injunctions, an useful regulation. It is from those regulations, as they stand recorded, in the Council Registers, and the Statute Book, that we now know so many theatrical facts, which gave rise to the many conjectures of the historians of our stage. It was not known, or at least, had been little noticed, that, by a regulation of the fanatick Mary, which had been enforced by the wiser Elizabeth, plays had been looked into, and reviewed, even before Shakspeare came out into scenick life. This circumspection, in respect to the morals of youth, was carried to the two Universities, about the time, that Shakspeare began to write for the stage. From their attention to morality, the prudent councils of Elizabeth extended their care to the interests of religion: As early as 1578, stage playing was forbidden in Lent; and in 1587, the acting of plays, at the theatres, was prohibited on Sundays. For all the purposes of honest recreation, the number of playhouses was restrained to two, in 1600, the year when the bright Sun of Elizabeth began to set in Clouds, 1 By not knowing that there had been such a restraint on the number of playhouses, the learned Whalley supposed, that aukward stroke of the morose Jonson "to have been a slight gird at the practice of monopolies, now [then] growing into use." [Whalley's edit. 2. v. 99.] It cannot be too often repeated, that one fact is worth a thousand pages of erudite conjecture. The dawn of a new reign brought with it uncommon changes in the scenick world. The contemporaries of Shakspeare, who, at that epoch, were placed under a better regimen, almost all disappeared, with the effluxion of time, before the demise of James, in 1625. It is a curious fact, that at this epoch, the established Companies of London strolled often into the country; owing, no doubt, to the multiplicity of associated players, and the paucity of attractive plays. A still more remarkable fortune attended the Playhouses than the actors. In 1589, there existed in, and about, London, only two; The Theatre and the Curtain:3 Before the year 1629, there were erected, notwithstanding every opposition, fifteen additional Stages, or Common Playhouses, though these did not all exist, during the same period. In 1613, the Globe Theatre was burnt, by the negligent discharging of a peal of ordnance, during the acting of Henry VIII. * It appears from Sir Henry Herbert's Official Register, that on the 1st of July, 1625, he granted a Confirmation of the King's Company's Patent to travel, for a year. [Rym. Foed. 18 T. p. 120.] 3 In Martin's Month's Minde, a scarce pamphlet, which was printed in 1589, without the name of the publisher, it was said, scoffingly:" And the other now wearie of our State mirth, that for a pennie may have far better by odds, at the Theater, and Curten, and any blind playing house, every day."-This whimsical writer is supposed to have been Thom. Nash :-" And this has made the young youths his [Martins] sons to chafe above measure especially with the players, whom saving their liveries (for indeed they are her Majesties men, and these not so much as her good subjects) they call rogues, for playing their enterludes; and asses, for travelling all day for a pennie."-These extracts show better, than has yet been done, the number of the playhouses, and the price of admission to them, about the year 1589, being the æra, probably, of Shakspeare's acquaintance with the stage. but it was rebuilt, in the subsequent year, in a more commodious form, and with more splendid decorations. In 1617, the Fortune theatre, in Golden Lane, was also burnt, by negligence; but, was soon rebuilt, in a handsomer style. Five Inns, or Common Ostleries, were converted into playhouses; also a Cockpit, and St. Paul's singing School; a theatre was erected in the Blackfriars: and during the year 1629, another was established in the Whitefriars. While playhouses were thus destroyed and built; while the managers of publick amusements did not yield prompt obedience to publick authority; Sir William Davenant was empowered on the 26th of March, 1639, to erect a new Theatre, near The Three Kings' Ordinary, in Fleet Street: But, on some disagreement with the Earl of Arundel, the Landlord, D'Avenant was obliged to relinquish a project, which he was ere long enabled to prosecute, in a different place, and form." • Howe's Chronicle, 103-4. "The admirers of the stage, and the lovers of truth, may be glad to peruse the document by which D'Avenant obliged himself to relinquish his purpose of building a playhouse in Fleet Street, which was copied from the original; and which was obligingly communicated by Mr. Craven Ord: "This Indenture made the second day of October in the fifteenth yeare of the Raigne of our Soveraigne Lord Charles by the grace of God of England, Scotland, France and Ireland King Defender of the faith &c Annoq Dm 1639. Between the said King's most Excellent May of the first part and William D’Avenant of London Gent. of the other part. Whereas the said King's most excellent Ma' by his highnes Letters patents under the great Seal of England bearing date the six and twentieth day of March last past before the date of theis presents Did give and |