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one after another by both handes: a double rownd on the left hand, and travys 4.

"La Down Sella.

"2 doubles forward, 2 syngles syde, a double foreward. Reprince back twyes: 2 singles foreward: cast of; a double rownd twyes: the pavyon, over, travis 4 foreward; reprince bace twyse.

"Labonetta.

"The pavyon twyes over: 2 doubles foreward; 2 singles syde. Reprince back twise, a double and 6 foreward: one single syde. Reprince back twise.

"Lache Mysa.

"2 doubles foreward; 2 syngles syde twyse: the pavyon once over by both handes and a double rownd bothe wayes: parte, a double syde. Longe on the lefte hand: a double on the right hand: 2 syngles syde: turne a double rownd on the lefte hand; 2 syngles syde, and turne a double on the right hand.

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“2 doubles forward, 2 longe singles syde, 2 syngles forward: cast of a double and turne you, and doe two singles and a double foreward the other way. And turne you agayne at the end of the double: 4 doubles foreward: 2 longe singles syde, a double forward. Parte, and turne in a double twyes."

Some of the names have been strangely corrupted, such as "La Down Sella" for La Donzella, "Lache Mysa" for La Chemise, &c., but the names will perhaps be quite as intelligible as any other part of this singular relic: some of the figures appear to have been of a very complicated character, and it would be curious to witness an attempt to revive them.

I am

not acquainted with any similar manuscript of so early a date; but it is worth preserving, if only because, as we have shown in the outset, it so singularly illustrates an obscure passage in "Twelfth Night."

April 12, 1844.

J. P. C.

P. S. Since the above was written, a friend has referred me to MS. Rawl., No. 108, in the Bodleian Library, which contains a list of dances, some of them mentioned in the preceding enumeration, but not including that which mainly gives it importance," the passinge measure pavyon." The dances in the Rawlinson MS. are these, in the uncouth orthography of the time: "The pavyan: Turquy lonye le basse: my Lord of Essex measures: Tynternell: Lorayne Allemayne: the old Allmayne: the long Pavyan: Cecyllya Allemayne: the newe Cycillia Allemaine : Cecyllya Pavyan: Quarto dispayne: the nyne Muses." My friend adds, that the MS. in the Bodleian Library is of about the same date, judging from the writing only, as my own list of dances, which I should fix between 1580 and 1590.

ART. VIII.-Origin of the Curtain Theatre, and mistakes regarding it.

In his History of the English Stage, prefixed to Mr. J. Payne Collier's edition of Shakespeare, published in the present year, the following note is appended to the words, "The Curtain,' which occur at page xxxvi, note 10, viz:—

"It has been suggested by some that the Curtain Theatre owed its name to the curtain employed to separate the actors from the audience. We have before us documents, which on account of their length we cannot insert, shewing that such was probably not the fact, and that the ground on which the building stood was called the Curtain, perhaps as part of the fortifications of London, before any playhouse was built there. For this information we have to offer our thanks to Mr. T. E. Tomlins, of Islington."

Mr. Collier, in using the words "perhaps as part of the fortifications of London," has been thought to express that the documents with which I furnished him gave an authority for so doing; but, as this is not the case, and as I am not aware of any fortifications of the kind ever existing there, I am desirous that the documents themselves should appear, that the reader may draw his own conclusions from them. In thus repudiating Mr. Collier's conjecture, or rather in removing the responsibility from myself, it is done in no other spirit but with that desire for minute accuracy which so generally characterizes all Mr. Collier's researches.

By indenture of bargain and sale, enrolled in Chancery,' and bearing date 20 February, 9 Eliz., [156] made between Sir James Blount knight Lord Mountjoy and Dame Katheryn,

1 Claus. 9 Eliz., p. 14.

his Wife, sole daughter of Sir Thomas Leighe, knight, deceased, of the one part, and Maurice Longe, citizen and Clothworker of London, and William Longe, one of the sons of the said Maurice Longe of the other part, in consideration of three score pounds, the said Lord Mountjoy and his Wife bargained and sold &c. to said Maurice and William his son, the following, viz :-" All that the House tenement or Lodge commonly called the curteyne, and all that parcel of ground and close walled and enclosed with a bricke wall on the west and north parties, called also the Curteyn close, sometime appertaining to the Priory of Haliwell now dissolved, set lying and being in the parish of Shorteditch, in the County of Middlesex, Together with all gardens, fish-ponds, wells, hereditaments, and brick walls, (&c.) to the same belonging, now in the tenure or occupation of Wilkingeson and Roberte Manne."

By another Indenture of bargain and sale enrolled in Chancery,' and bearing date 23 August, 14 Eliz., [1571] made between "Maurice Longe, citizen and Clothworker of London and Jane his wife, on the one partye, and Sir William Allyn, knight, at this present Lord Mayor of the Citye of London, on tother partye," in consideration of Two hundred pounds, the said Maurice and Jane bargained and sold &c. to said Sir William Allyn the piece of ground and house that had been purchased of Lord Mountjoy, by the description of “All that house tenement or lodge commonly called the Curteyn, and all that parcell of ground and close walled and enclosed with a bricke walle on the West and North parts, called also the Curteyn close, (&c., in precisely the same words as in the last mentioned deed.)

2

By another Indenture of bargain and sale enrolled in Chancery, bearing date 18 March, 23 Eliz., [158] made between "William Longe of London Clothworker one of the sonnes of Maurice Longe citizen and Clothworker of London deceased,

1 Claus. 14 Eliz., p. 17.

2 Claus. 23 Eliz., p. 2.

on one partie, and Thomas Harberte citizen and Girdler of London on tother partie," in consideration of a "certen sum," the said William Longe bargained and sold to said Thos. Harberte, "All that the house, tenement, or lodge, commonly called the Curtayne, And also all that parcell of ground and close walled and enclosed with a bricke wall on the West and north parties, and in part with a mud wall on the West side or end towards the South, called also the Curtayne close, sometyme appertaining to the late Priory of Halliwell now dissolved, set lying and being in the parish of St. Leonard in Shortedyche alias Shordiche in the County of Middlesex, With all the Gardens Fish-ponds and brick walls to the premises or any of them belonging: And all and singular other Messuages, tenements edifices and buildings with all and singular their appurtenances, erected and builded upon the said close called the Curtayne, or upon any part or parcell thereof or to the same now adjoining, now or late in the severall tenures or occupations of Thomas Wilkinson, Thomas Wilkins, Robert Medley, Richard Hicks, Henry Lanman and Robert Manne, or any of them, or any of their assign or assigns: And also all other messuages, lands, and tenements, and hereditaments, with their appurtenances, set, lying, and being in Halliwell Lane, in the said parish of St. Leonard."

In the licences or patents of alienation granted upon this occasion, cited below,' (for this property, being holden of the Crown in capite, could not be aliened without licence enrolled,) the property is somewhat differently and more concisely described as "totam illam parcellam terre cum pertinen inclus' muro lapideo vocat' a bricke wale, vulgariter vocat' seu cognit' per nomen de le Curteyne jacen' in australi parte domus sive mansionis Comitis Rutland, nuper dissolut' priorat de Holliwell quondam pertinen', jacen' in paroch' Sci' Leonardi in Shordiche in Com' Midd"."

1 Pat. 23 Eliz., p. 10, m. 34. Pat. 23 Eliz., p. 6.

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