1600. and January 6th and March 3d, 1601. From that time nothing is heard of this company in London, till the performance of Twelfth Night at the Readers' Feast in the Middle Tempie, on the 2d of February, 1602. During this very period, an English company, with Laurence Fletcher at their head, are found acting in Scotland. In December, 1601, the King's patronage to them reached the sum of 400l. While there, they made an excursion to Aberdeen, where the registers of the Town Council have the following entry, under the date of October 9th, 1601: "The Provost, Baillies, and Council ordain the sum of thirty-two marks to be given to the King's servants now in this burgh, who play comedies and stage-plays; by reason they are recommended by his Majesty's special letter, and have played some of their comedies in this burgh." Thirteen days after, on the 22d, a number of persons, described as "knights and gentlemen," received the highest honour the corporation of Aberdeen could bestow: they were admitted burgesses of the Guild; and among them we find "Laurence Fletcher, comedian to his Majesty." 66 All this, to be sure, does not prove that Shakespeare himself or any members of his company were then in Scotland. But it is somewhat remarkable, that in less than two years after, this same Laurence Fletcher is named first in the company, whom the King's patent recognises as our servants." The presumption is certainly strong, that this company were the "King's servants" who had been "recommended by his Majesty's special letter" to the authorities of Aberdeen. And Knight justly observes, that "the terms of this paten* exhibit towards the players of the Globe a favour and countenance, almost an affectionate solicitude for their welfare, which is scarcely reconcileable with a belief that they first became the King's players by virtue of this instrument.” We will dismiss the subject with a short quotation from a paper "On the Site of Macbeth's Castle at Inverness," read to the Scottish Society of Antiquaries by John Anderson Esq., in 1828. "The extreme accuracy," says he, “with which Shakespeare has followed the minutiae of Macbeth's career has given rise to the opinion, that he himself visited those scenes which are immortalized by his pen." The event proved that the King's patent was not intended as a mere barren honour. During the spring and summer after his accession, playing was suspended in London, and most of the players scattered off into the country, by reason of the plague; nor was it till the 9th of April following that the city authorities received from the Court an order “to permit and suffer the three companies of players to the King, the Queen, and the Prince, publicly to exercise their plays in their several usual houses for that purpose." It appears, however, that Shakespeare was in London in October, 1603; for on the 20th of that month the wife of Edward Alleyn wrote to her husband, then in the country, of her having seen him. The letter is in some places defaced, so that the words cannot be made out; but a part of it has been given as follows: "About us the sickness doth cease, and likely more and more, by God's help, to cease. All the companies be come home, and well, for aught we know. About a week ago there came a youth, who said he was Mr. Francis Chaloner's man, who would have borrowed £10, to have bought things for . . . and said he was known unto you, and Mr. Shakespeare of the Globe, who came... said he knew him not, only he heard of him that he was a rogue, so he was glad we did not lend him the money. Richard Jones went to seek and inquire after the fellow, and said he had lent him a horse. I fear me he gulled him, though he gulled not us. The youth was a pretty youth, and handsome in apparel: we know not what became of him." Meanwhile, the King did not forget his players. During some part of the winter he kept his Court at Wilton, which was the seat of William Herbert, Farl of Pembroke; and the accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber show an entry of £30 paid to John Heminge "for the pains and expenses of himself and the rest of his company, in coming from Mortlake in the county of Surrey unto the Court, and there presenting before his Majesty one play on the 2d of Decem ber, by way of his Majesty's reward." In the Christmas season following, Shakespeare and his fellows presented six plays before the King and Prince at Hampton Court, receiving twenty nobles for each play. And the accounts just quoted from have an entry, February 8th, 1604, of £32 as "his Majesty's free gift to Richard Burbage, for the maintenance and relief of himself and the rest of his company; they not being allowed, from fear of the plague, to play publicly in or near London, "till it should please God to settle the city in a more perfect health." The next Christmas season, in 1604-5, it appears from the Accounts of the Revels at Court, that no less than eleven plays, seven of them being Shakespeare's, were performed by the same company, “in the Banqueting-House at Whitehall." Of these seven, one was Measure for Measure, which is here met with for the fist time; the other six were Othello, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Lost, King Henry V., and The Merchant of Venice. On the 21st of January, £60 were paid "to John Heminge, one of his Majesty's players, for the pains and expenses of himself and the rest of his company, in presenting six plays before his Majesty.” This seems a proper place for introducing a statement that first appeared in Lintot's edition of Shakespeare's Poems, 1710: "That most learned Prince, and great patron of learning, King James the First, was pleased with his own hand to write an amicable letter to Mr. Shakespeare; which letter, though now lost, remained long in the hands of Sir William Davenant, as a credible person now living can testify." We "like not the security." Dr. Farmer conjectured that the letter might have been written by way of return for the compliment paid to the Stuart family in Macbeth. Prob ably the conjecture may as well be left, along with the letter itself, to the credulity or incredulity of the reader. Somewhat more of credit may be due to an epigram copied by Mr. Collier from “a coeval manuscript" in his possession: "SHAKESPEARE ON THE KING. "Crowns have their compass, length of days their date Of nought but earth can earth make us partaker, Mr. Collier adds, "We have seen these lines in more than one other old manuscript; and, as they were constantly attributed to Shakespeare, and are in no respect unworthy of his pen, we have little doubt of their authenticity." On the 30th of January, 1604, Samuel Daniel, one of the smaller stars, but yet a star, in that constellation of poets that shed such lustre on the age, was appointed Master of the Queen's Revels. Soon after, he wrote to Lord Ellesmere a letter thanking him for the appointment; in which we have the following: "I cannot but know that I am less deserving than some that sued by other of the nobility unto her Majesty for this room. If Mr. Drayton, my good friend, had been chosen, I should not have murmured, for sure I am he would have filled it most excellently; but it seemeth to mine humble judgment, that one who is the author of plays now daily presented on the public stages of London, and the possessor of no small gains, and moreover himself an actor in the King's company of comedians, could not with reason pretend to be the Master of the Queen's Majesty's Revels, forasmuch as he would sometimes be asked to approve and allow of his own writings. Therefore he, and more of like quality, cannot justly be disappointed, because, through your Honour's gracious interposition, the chance was haply mine." The allusion here is clearly to Shakespeare. And we thus learn that he was at the time one of the King's company, and that he, or others for him, had made some interest to get the place which fell to Daniel. The children, formerly known as the choir-boys of the Chapel Royal, had lately been taken into the Queen's service as a set of juvenile plav. ers, and the duties of the office in question were, to superintend their performances, and appoint what they should perform. The place was probably sought by Shakespeare in the purpose of retiring from the stage. As Master of the Queen's Revels, he would of course have borne in certain matters the royal authority, and been brought into frequent personal intercourse with Majesty. It was most likely his position as an actor, and not as an author, that worked against his wish in this particular; and perhaps the lines quoted from Davies' Scourge of Folly in our third Chapter had reference to his failing of the appointment: "Hadst thou not play'd some kingly parts in sport, And been a king among the meaner sort." In another poem entitled Humour's Heaven on Earth, 1609. Davies alludes to certain "stage-players," and to Fortune's treatment of them, thus: "Some follow'd her by acting all men's parts: Wherein men saw their faults, though ne'er so small; In a marginal note he gives "W. S., R. B." as the initials of those whom Fortune had not duly rewarded; which initials clearly point to William Shakespeare and Richard Bur bage as the persons meant." • The same writer, in his Microcosmus, 1603, has the following lines, wherein allusion is made, apparently, to the Poet's cxi. th Sonnet, though the latter had not then been printed : "Players, I love ye and your quality, |