temporary writers refer to them much oftener than to the plays. In the year in which 'Lucrece' was published, Willobie thus alludes to it in his Avisa,' 4to. 1594, Though Collatine have deerely bought To high renowne a lasting life, and a marginal note to a work entitled 'Polimanteia,' 4to. 1595, informs us that "all praise" the Lucretia of "sweet Shakespeare." Barnefield, in his 'Poems in Divers Humors,' 1598,* rests the poet's reputation on these poems, *There is a very curious copy of this work, written in cypher, among the Ashmolean MSS. No. 1153. See Mr. Black's Catalogue, col. 1020. And Shakespeare, thou, whose hony-flowing vaine, Well may the bodye dye, but fame dies never. Mr. Collier has mentioned several other testimonies of the same kind. We may conclude with the following, which occurs as late as 1614, in Freeman's 'Rubbe and a Great Cast,' a curious collection of epigrams, and does not appear to have been yet quoted: To Master W. Shakespeare. Shakespeare, that nimble Mercury, thy braine, So fit for all thou fashionest thy vaine. At th' horse-foote fountaine thou hast drunk full deepe; Who loves chaste life, there's Lucrece for a teacher, True modell of a most lascivious leatcher. Besides in plaies thy wit windes like Meander, Thence (sic) Terence doth from Plautus or Menander: Then let thine owne works thine owne worth upraise, 'Venus and Adonis' appeared in 1593, with a sort of apologetic dedication to Henry, Earl of Southampton,—“ I know not how I shall offend in dedicating my unpolished lines to your lordship, nor how the world will censure me for choosing so strong a prop to support so weak a burden; only if your Honour seem but pleased, I account myself highly praised, and vow to take advantage of all idle hours till I have honoured you with some graver labour." The dedication to 'Lucrece,' 1594, is in a tone far more confident,-"The warrant I have of your honourable disposition, not the worth of my untutored lines, makes it assured of acceptance: what I have done is yours; what I have to do is yours; being part in all I have devoted yours." These dedications are precious fragments, the only letters of Shakespeare that have descended to our times. It would appear from them that Lord Southampton had rewarded the author of Venus and Adonis,' and Mr. Collier ingeniously conjectures that the munificent gift of that nobleman to Shakespeare, recorded by Rowe, was presented in return for the dedication to that poem, and was partially employed by the great dramatist as his contribution to the erection of the Globe theatre; but it must not be forgotten that the date of publication in these matters is no positive criterion, for, although Venus and Adonis' was not published till 1593, the MS. of it with the dedication might have been presented to Lord Southampton long before that period. Rowe speaks of the gift I have alluded to with great diffidence. "There is," he says, "one instance so singular in the magnificence of this patron of Shakspeare's, that if I had not been assured that the story was handed down by Sir William D'Avenant, who was probably very well acquainted with his affairs, I should not have ventured to have inserted, that my Lord Southampton at one time gave him a thousand pounds to enable him to go through with a purchase which he heard he had a mind to.' ." This amount must be exaggerated, for, considering the value of money in those days, such a gift is altogether incredible. Apart from this limitation, there is every reason for believing the general truth of Rowe's account.* The Globe theatre was erected about the year 1594, and was used for dramatic performances by the Lord Chamber *This tradition is also mentioned by Oldys in a commonplace book, MS. Addit. 12523, p. 127, which is apparently an independent authority. lain's servants during the summer, their other house in the Blackfriars being their winter theatre. The Globe was not sufficiently warm or protected from the weather to be used in the winter time, and it seems that early in the year 1596 the company were desirous of repairing and enlarging the Blackfriars theatre, "to make the same more convenient for the entertainment of auditories coming thereto." In this project they were opposed by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, who appear to have been great enemies to theatrical amusements, and the players therefore found it necessary to petition the Privy Council, which they did in the following curious document, discovered by Mr. Collier in the State Paper Office : To the right honourable the Lords of her Majesties most honourable Privie Councell. The humble petition of Thomas Pope, Richard Burbadge, John Hemings, Augustine Phillips, William Shakespeare, William Kempe, William Slye, Nicholas Tooley, and others, servaunts to the Right Honorable the Lord Chamberlaine to her Majestie. Sheweth most humbly, that your petitioners are owners and players of the private house, or theatre, in the precinct and libertie of the Blackfriers, which hath beene for many yeares used and occupied for the playing of tragedies, comedics, histories, enterludes, and playes. That the same, by reason of its having beene so long built, hath fallen into great decay, and that besides the reparation thereof, it has beene found necessarie to make the same more convenient for the entertainement of auditories coming thereto. That to this end your petitioners have all and eche of them put down sommes of money, according to their shares in the said theatre, and which they have justly and honestly gained by the exercise of their qualitie of stage-players; but that certaine persons, (some of them of honour) inhabitants of the said precinct and libertie of the Blackfriers, have, as your petitioners are infourmed, besought your honourable lordshipps not to permitt the said private house any longer to remaine open but hereafter to be shut up and closed, to the manifest and great injurie of your petitioners, who have no other meanes whereby to maintain their wives and families, but by the exercise of their qualitie as they have heretofore done. Furthermore, that in the summer season your petitioners are able to playe at their new built house on the Bankside calde the Globe, but that in the winter they are compelled to come to the Blackfriers; and if your honorable Lordshipps give consent unto that which is prayde against your petitioners, they will not onely, while the winter endures, loose the meanes whereby they now support themselves and their families, but be unable to practise themselves in anic playes or enterludes, when calde upon to perform for the recreation and solace of her Matie and her honorable court, as they have beene heretofore acustomed. The humble prayer of your petitioners therefore is, that your honorable lordshipps will grant permission to finish the reparations and alterations they have begun; and as your petitioners have hitherto been well ordred in their behaviour, and just in their dealings, that your honorable lordshipps will not inhibit them from acting at their above namde private house in the precinct and libertie of the Blackfriers, and your petitioners, as in dutie most bounden, will ever pray for the increasing honor and happinesse of your honorable lordshipps. This petition was only partially successful, the Lords of the Council permitting the company to repair the theatre, "butt not to make the same larger then in former tyme hath bene."* It will be observed that in this document the actors named are termed "owners and players," and that each of them had "put down sommes of money, according to their shares in the said theatre." Owner was a term of greater import than sharer, and we may conclude that Shakespeare in 1596 was in possession of a permanent interest in the Blackfriars theatre. For the next discovery respecting the poet we are again indebted to the untiring zeal of Mr. Collier. It appears that Alleyn's Bear-garden was a source of annoyance to some of the inhabitants of Southwark who resided in its immediate vicinity, and in July 1596 they made a formal complaint of their grievances, Shakespeare being one of the complainants. is thus established that Shakespeare resided near the Beargarden in Southwark at that period. The following curious *See a letter quoted by Mr. Collier, p. 156. It Mr. Collier, however, has not discovered the purport of the document. When Malone mentioned the MS. in 1796, in his Inquiry, p. 215, he probably had other papers with it detailing more particularly the object of complaint, otherwise he could not have concluded from the paper here printed that "our poet appears to have lived in Southwark, near the Bear-garden, in 1596." The incessant noise and tumult raised by this place of amusement must have been a source of great annoyance to the immediate neighbourhood. |