upon the security of his property, as well as of the plays he was to write for the company, in the receipts of which the old manager was a sharer. I copy it literatim.

"Sr, I hav bin befor the Doctor, and acknowledged the deed with the chardg of 13. I pray, Sr, send me the 20s you promysed, and for the mans name, my cozin will carry it ouer himself without your trouble. Sr, the assurance is such as noe alderman can giv you better, and for Mr Benfield, we hav made an absolute end with him to your content: so I rest, "Yrs to command,

"ROB. DABORNE.

"The deed is acknowledged, and the end is made, and with Mr Benfield: I pray you send him the monye.

"JHO. FOSTER."

It is no where stated, that I am aware of, what "Jho. Foster" had to do with the transaction: he was possibly the scrivener who had drawn the deed; but the whole, with the exception of that name, is in the handwriting of Daborne.

The next scrap is subscribed by William Rowley, the dramatist and actor, by Joseph Taylor, the very celebrated performer, who until lately was supposed to have been the original Hamlet, (see "The Alleyn Papers," p. 86,) and by Robert Pallant, also a player of great repute. Other names of members of the company no doubt followed these three, but they have been torn away, and even the signature of Pallant is not entire the address is also wanting, but it seems to relate to some transaction between either Henslowe and the company, or Alleyn and the company, respecting the purchase of the wardrobe or part of it, for the payment for which the

VOL. I.

C

members of the association were to give bond: it runs precisely thus:

"Wee are well contented with that agreement which was concluded betweene you and our fellow Tailor, which was five and fiftye pounds. Wee desire that the clothes may be here to morrow morning, and bondes shall be sealde for the paiement of it.

"WILLIAM ROWLEY.

"JOSEPH TAYLOR.
"ROB PALLANT."

The body of the paper is in the handwriting of Rowley, who puts his name first, while Pallant's name, which comes first in the fac-simile in "The Alleyn Papers," p. 87, is only third. The location was perhaps merely accidental.

A third paper in my hands is a copy of verses, in the form of an acrostic, addressed by John Day, the distinguished dramatic poet, author of various extant plays, to Thomas Dowton, who had been an actor as early as 1597, whose name stands second among the players of Prince Henry, in 1603, and who was at the head of the players of the Elector Palatine, in 1612. These dates I take from the "History of English Dramatic Poetry and the Stage," i. p. 351, 381, 395; and from the tenor of what follows we may believe that while the actor had grown rich, the poet had continued poor, and by means of these lines had made some charitable appeal to him. Every fact that has come to light serves to shew that the profession of an actor in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. was very profitable; but the dramatists of that time, either from the low price at which they sold their productions, or from habitual carelessness, did not generally partake of the riches acquired by mere actors: this is pretty much the case in our own times. Day's lines are as follows:

:

66

Acrostic Verses upon the Name
of his worthie friende, Maister

Thomas Dowton.

The wealthy treasure of America

H id in the vaines and artiers of the earthe,
Or the riche pearle begotten in the sea,

M ade rounde and oriente in his naturall birthe,
A re not all valewde, in the eye of arte,

S oe much (by much) as a compassionate harte.

D etermine, then, to keepe that wealthie mine,
O f all exchequers in the world the beste:
Wisdome the quoine, the stamp upon 't devine,
The man that owes it beares this motto, "Bleste.”
Of all my friendes ('twere shame to wrong desarte)
Not one of all beares a more passionate harte.

JOHN DAY.

Artiers," in the second line, seems not to have been an unusual way, at the time, of spelling arteries; but this laborious trifle has little to recommend it but the ingenuity of its construction however, it is not worse than many similar productions which were much in fashion in the middle of the reign of James I. Dowton had at this date, we may presume, retired from the stage, and lived upon his acquired property, out of which Day wished him to make some donation, in order to show that he was possessed of that "best of all exchequers,” a "compassionate heart."

The next and last manuscript I have to offer seems also to have been a charitable appeal by the same poet, but in prose; and from it we learn that Day had written a poem on the Miracles of Christ, which, I believe, has not survived, and perhaps was never printed. It was sent in manuscript to some patron of Day's, (for the superscription is wanting, the whole having been torn away, excepting the words "very good,” and

Esquier,") as a new year's gift, and the object, of course, was to procure a pecuniary recompence.

"Sr, It hath bene an antient custome in (this great Isle of Man) the world, for men, in any fashion acquainted, at the birthe of the new yeare to new date the band of their loves, and, by som present or gifte, new seale and more strongly condition them which custome to continew, and to pay som part of the duty in which I stand obliged to your worshipp, I am bold to present you with this small Poeme, contayning the Miracles of our Blest Saviour. And hopeing you will receyve it as gratefully, as I tender it willinglie, I cease your trouble, "Desirous to be all yours,

"JOHN DAY."

It is not to be disputed that these are mere trifles, but they add something to our knowledge of men who were cotemporary with Shakespeare in both departments of the stage, as fellowdramatists and fellow-actors.

J. F. HERBERT.

May 5, 1844.

ART. VI.-The profits of old Actors.

In several parts of his recently published "Life of Shakespeare," Mr. Collier alludes to the fact, that at the latter end of the reign of Elizabeth, and in the commencement of that of James I., acting was a very profitable employment. He shows, p. ccxxii, that Richard Burbage died, in 1619, worth £300 a year in land, besides personal property; and in his "Memoirs of Edward Alleyn," and in the "Alleyn Papers," he has adduced evidence to prove, that the founder of Dulwich College was worth even more, and at an earlier date. I only refer to these circumstances in order to direct attention to an incidental confirmation of the position, that theatrical speculations were very advantageous from about 1590 to 1615; that is, during the period that Shakespeare was a writer for the stage. It is contained in a small volume of Epigrams, printed in 1613, under the title of "Laquei Ridiculosi, or Springes for Woodcocks," by H. P.-the initials, as is generally supposed, of Henry Parrott. The whole work consists of 339 epigrams, divided into two books, and epigram 131 runs thus:—

"Theatrum licentia.

"Cotta's become a Player, most men know,

And will no longer take such toyling paines;

For here's the spring (saith he) whence pleasures flow,
And brings them damnable excessive gaines ;

That now are cedars growne from shrubs and sprigs,
Since Greene's Tu quoque, and those Garlicke Jigs."

Greene's "Tu quoque" is of course the comedy so called, originally published the year after the appearance of Parrott's

La quei Ridiculosi," aud inserted in vol. vii. of the last edition of "Dodsley's Old Plays:" "those Garlicke Jigs" may