in Whitecross-ftreet. The last two were chiefly frequented by citizens." There were however, but fix companies of comedians; for the playhouse in Blackfriars, and the Globe, belonged to the fame troop. Beside these seven theatres, there were for ments may be erected, with gardens; and a ftreet may be cut through for the better accommodation of the buildings.' The Fortune is fpoken of as a playhouse of confiderable fize, in the prologue to The Roaring Girl, a comedy which was acted there, and printed in 1611: "A roaring girl, whofe notes till now ne'er were, "Shall fill with laughter our vaft theatre." See alfo the concluding lines of Shirley's prologue to The Doubtful Heir, quoted below. Howes in his continuation of Stowe's Chronicle, p. 1004, edit. 1631, fays, it was burnt down in or about the year 1617: "About foure yeares after, [i. e. after the burning of the Globe] a fayre ftrong new-built play-houfe near Golden-lane, called the Fortune, by negligence of a candle was cleane burnt to the ground, but fhortly after re-built far fairer." He is, however, mistaken as to the time, for it was burnt down in December, 1621, as I learn from a letter in Dr. Birch's collection in the Museum, from Mr. John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton, dated Dec. 15, 1621, in which is the following paragraph: "On funday night here was a great fire at The Fortune, in Golding-lane, the first play-house in this town. It was quite burnt downe in two hours, and all their apparell and play-books loft, whereby thofe poore companions are quite undone. There were two other houses on fire, but with great labour and danger were faved." MSS. Birch, 4173. It does not appear whether this writer, by "the first play-houfe in this town," means the first in point of fize or dignity, or the oldeft. I doubt much of its being the oldeft, though that is the obvious meaning of the words, and though Maitland has afferted it: because I have not found it mentioned in any of the tracts relative to the stage, written in the middle of Elizabeth's reign. Prynne fays that the Fortune on its re-building was enlarged. Epiftle Dedicat. to Hiftriomaflix, 4to. 1633. Before this theatre there was either a picture or statue of Fortune. See The English Traveller, by Heywood, 1633: I'le rather ftand here, "Like a ftatue in the fore-front of your houfe 6 Wright's Hifloria Hiftrionica, Svo. 1699, p. 5. fome time on the Bankfide three other publick theatres; The Swan, The Rofe, and The Hope: but The Hope being ufed chiefly as a bear-garden, and The Swan and The Rofe having fallen to decay early in King James's reign, they ought not to be enumerated with the other regular theatres. All the established theatres that were open in 1598, were either without the city of London or its liberties." It appears from the office-book of Sir Henry 7 The Swan and the Rofe are mentioned by Taylor the waterpoet, but in 1613 they were fhut up. See his Works, p. 171, edit. 1633. The latter had been built before 1598. See p. 163, n. 4• After the year 1620, as appears from Sir Henry Herbert's officebook, they were ufed occafionally for the exhibition of prizefighters. Ben Jonfon's Bartholomew-Fair was performed at this theatre in 1614. He does not give a very favourable defcription of it:Though the fair be not kept in the fame region that fome here perhaps would have it, yet think that the author hath therein obferved a fpecial decorum, the place being as dirty as Smithfield, and as itinking every whit."-Induction to Bartholomew Fair. It appears from an old pamphlet entitled Holland's Leaguer, printed in quarto in 1632, that The Hope was occafionally used as a bear-garden, and that The Swan was then fallen into decay. Sunt porro Londini, extra urbem, theatra aliquot, in quibus hiftriones Angli comoedias et tragoedias fingulis fere diebus, in magna hominum frequentia agunt; quas variis etiam faltationibus, fuaviffima adhibita mufica, magno cum populi applaufu finiri folent." Hentzneri Itinerarium, 4to. 1598, p. 132. 2 For the ufe of this very curious and valuable manufcript I am indebted to Francis Ingram, of Ribbisford near Bewdley in Worcefterfhire, Efq. Deputy Remembrancer in the Court of Exchequer. It has lately been found in the fame old cheft, which contained the manufcript Memoirs of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, from which Mr. Walpole about twenty years ago printed the Life of that nobleman, who was elder brother to Sir Henry Herbert. The first Master of the Revels in the reign of Queen Elizabeth was Thomas Benger, whofe patent paffed the great feal Jan. 18, 1560-1. It is printed in Rymer's Fadera. His fucceffor, Edmund Tilney, obtained a grant of this office (the reverfion of which John Herbert, Master of the Revels to King James the Lily, the dramatick poet, had long in vain folicited,) on the 24th of July, 1579, (as appears from a book of patents in the Pells-office) and continued in poffeffion of it during the remainder of her reign, and till October 1610, about which time he died. This office for near fifty years appears to have been confidered as fo defirable a place, that it was conftantly fought for during the life of the poffeffor, and granted in reverfion. King James on the 23d of June, 1603, made a reverfionary grant of it to Sir George Buc, (then George Buc, Efq.) to take place whenever it should become vacant by the death, refignation, forfeiture, or furrender, of the then poffeffor Edmund Tilney; who, if I mistake not, was Sir George Buc's maternal uncle. Mr. Tilney, as I have already mentioned, did not die till the end of the year 1610, and should seem to have executed the duties of the office to the laft; for his executor, as I learn from one of the Exitus books in the Exchequer, received in the year 1611, 120l. 185. 3d. due to Mr. Tilney on the last day of the preceding October, for one year's expences of office. In the edition of Camden's Britannia, printed in folio in 1607, Sir George Buc is called Mafter of the Revels, I fuppofe from his having obtained the reverfion of that place: for from what I have already ftated he could not have been then in poffeffion of it. April 3, 1612, Sir John Aftley, one of the gentlemen of the privy-chamber, obtained a reverfionary grant of this office, to take place on the death, &c. of Sir George Buc, as Ben Jonfon, the poet, obtained a fimilar grant, October 5, 1621, to take place on the death, &c. of Sir John Aftley and Sir George Buc. Sir George Buc came into poffeffion of the office about November 1610, and held it till the end of the year 1621, when, in confequence of ill health, he refigned it to King James, and Sir John Aftley fucceeded him. How Sir Henry Herbert got poffeffion of this office originally I am unable to afcertain; but I imagine Sir John Aftley for a valuable confideration appointed him his deputy, in August 1623, at which time, to ufe Sir Henry's own words, he "was received as Matter of the Revels by his Majefty at Wilton;" and in the warrant-books of Philip Earl of Pembroke, now in the Lord Chamberlain's office, containing warrants, orders, &c. between the years 1625 and 1642, he is conftantly ftyled Mafter of the Revels. If Sir John Aftley had formally refigned or furrendered his office, Ben Jonfon, in confequence of the grant obtained in the year 1621, muft have fucceeded to it; but he never derived any emolument from that grant, for Sir John Aftley, as I find from the probate of his will, in the prerogative office, (in which it is obfervable that after our poet's death, in the year 1622, there were but five principal companies of comedians in Lon he calls himself Mafter of the Revels, though both the duties and emoluments of the office were then exercifed and enjoyed by another,) did not die till January 1639-40, above two years after the poet's death. To make his title ftill more fecure, Sir Henry Herbert, in conjunction with Simon Thelwall, Efq. August 22, 1629, obtained a reverfionary grant of this much fought-for office, to take place on the death, furrender, &c. of Sir John Astley and Benjamin Jonfon. Sir Henry held the office for fifty years, though during the ufurpation he could not exercise the functions nor enjoy the emoluments of it. Sir George Buc wrote an exprefs treatife as he has himself told us, on the ftage and on revels, which is unfortunately loft. Previous to the exhibition of every play, it was licensed by the Master of the Revels, who had an established fee on the occafion. If ever therefore the Office-books of Mr. Tilney and Sir George Buc fhall be found, they will afcertain precifely the chronological order of all the plays written by Shakspeare; and either confirm or overturn a fyftem in forming which I have taken fome pains. Having however found many of my conjectures confirmed by Sir Henry Herbert's manufcript, I have no reafon to augur ill concerning the event, fhould the registers of his predecessors ever be discovered. The regular falary of this office was but ten pounds a year; but, by fees and other perquifites, the emoluments of Sir George Buc in the first year he came into poffeffion of it, amounted to near 100l. The office afterwards became much more valuable. Having mentioned this gentleman, I take this opportunity of correcting an error into which Anthony Wood has fallen, and which has been implicitly adopted in the new edition of Biographia Britannica, and many other books. The error I allude to, is, that this Sir George Buc, who was knighted at Whitehall by King James the day before his coronation, July 23, 1603, was the author of the celebrated History of King Richard the Third; which was written. above twenty years after his death, by George Buck, Efq. who was,. I fuppofe, his fon. The precife time of the father's death, I have not been able to ascertain, there being no will of his in the prerogative office; but I have reafon to believe that it happened foon after the year 1622. He certainly died before Auguft 1629. The Office-book of Sir Henry Herbert contains an account of almost every piece exhibited at any of the theatres from August 1623, to the commencement of the rebellion in 1641, and many curious anecdotes relative to them, fome of which I fhall presently have occafion to quote. This valuable manufcript having lain for a 4 don; the King's Servants, who performed at the Globe and in Blackfriars; the Prince's Servants, who performed then at the Curtain; the Palfgrave's Servants, who had poffeffion of the Fortune; the players of the Revels, who acted at the Red Bull;+ and the Lady Elizabeth's Servants, or, as they are fometimes denominated, the Queen of Bohemia's players, who performed at the Cockpit in DruryLane.s When Prynne published his Hiftriomaftix, (1633) there were fix playhouses open; the theatre in Blackfriars; the Globe; the Fortune; the Red Bull; the Cockpit or Phoenix, and a theatre in Salisbury-court, White-friars." confiderable time in a damp place, is unfortunately damaged, and in a very mouldering condition, however, no material part of it appears to have perished. I cannot conclude this long note without acknowledging the obliging attention of W. E. Roberts, Efq. Deputy Clerk of the Pells, which facilitated every search I wished to make in his office, and enabled me to ascertain fome of the facts above stated. 31622. The Palfgrave's fervants. Frank Grace, Charles Maffy, Richard Price, Richard Fowler, Kane, Curtys Grevill." MS. Herbert. Three other names have perifhed. Of these one must have been that of Richard Gunnel, who was then the manager of the Fortune theatre; and another, that of William Cartwright, who was of the fame company. "The names of the chiefe players at the Red Bull, called the players of the Revells. Robert Lee, Richard Perkings, Ellis Woorth, Thomas Baffe, John Blany, John Cumber, William Robbins." Ibidem. 5"The cheife of them at the Phoenix. Chriftopher Beefton, Jofeph More, Eliard Swanfon, Andrew Cane, Curtis Grevill, William Shurlock, Anthony Turner." Ibidem. Eliard Swanfton in 1624 joined the company at Blackfriars. That part of the leaf which contained the lift of the king's fervants, and the performers at the Curtain, is mouldered away. It has been repeated again and again that Prynne enumerates Seventeen playhouses in London in his time; but this is a mistake; he exprefsly fays that there were only fix, (fee his Epistle Dedica |