This remonstrance was also subscribed by six other heads of houses:-Roger Goade, R. Some, Umphrey Tyndall, William Whitaker, Edmund Harwell, and John Jegon; and there is reason to suppose that it was effectual. In the next year, Dr. Thomas Legge (author of the Latin Tragedy of Richard III., so highly praised by Sir John Harington in his Apology of Poetry) was Vice Chancellor; and in a communication to Lord Burghley he refers to some offence given to the Queen, probably by the preceding letter, and mentions, that the University of Cambridge had sent some of its body to Oxford, to witness the entertainment there given to her Majesty, in order to be better prepared hereafter to obey her directions*.

This difference, as far as we can judge, was arranged A. D. by the next year, when the University of 1594-5. Cambridge acted 'certaine comœdies and one tragœdie,' and through its then Vice-Chancellor, Thomas Nevile, requested the loan of the royal robes in the Tower for this purposet. This favour had been

*Lansdown MS., No. 75.

The subsequent is a copy of the letter containing this request: it is among the Lansdown MSS., No. 78.

Our bounden dutie in most humble wise remembred. 'Whereas we intend, for the exercise of young gentlemen & scholers ' in our Colledge, to set forth certaine Comœdies and one Tragedie, 'there being in that Tragœdie sondry personages of greatest astate 'to be represented in auncient princely attire, which is no where to be had but within the office of the Roabes at the Tower; it is our 'humble request, your most honorable Lordship would be pleased 'to graunt your Lordships warrant unto the chiefe officers there,

granted before, and probably, on this occasion, it was not refused.

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The Blackfriars Theatre, built in 1576, seems, after the lapse of twenty years, to have required extensive repairs, if, indeed, it were not, at the end of that period, entirely rebuilt. This undertaking, in 1596, A. D. seems to have alarmed some of the inhabit- 1596. ants of the Liberty; and not a few of them, some of honour,' petitioned the Privy Council, in order that the players might not be allowed to complete it, and that their farther performances in that precinct might be prevented. A copy of the document, containing this request, is preserved in the State Paper Office, and to it is appended a much more curious paper-a counter petition by the Lord Chamberlain's players, entreating that they might be permitted to continue their work the theatre, in order to render it more commodious, and that their performances there might not be interrupted. It does not appear to be the original, but a copy, without the signatures, and it contains, at

upon

'that upon sufficient securetie we might be furnished from thence with 'such meete necessaries as are required. Which favor we have found 'heretofore on your good Lordships like honorable warrant, that hath 'the rather embouldened us at this time. And so, craving pardon for 'this presumption, with remembrance of our dayly prayers unto God 'for the preservation of your honorable health to his owne great glory, we humbly take our leave. From Trinitie Colledge in Cambridge, 28° January, 1594-[5],

Your Lordships most bounden,

6 ever to be commaunded,
'Thomas Nevile.'

the commencement, an enumeration of the principal actors who were parties to it. They occur in the following order, and it will be instantly remarked, not only that the name of Shakespeare is found among them, but that he comes fifth in the enumeration :• Thomas Pope,

This remarkable paper has, perhaps, never seen the light from the moment it was presented, until it was very recently discovered. It is seven years anterior to the date of any other authentic record, which contains the name of our great dramatist, and it may warrant various conjectures as to the rank he held in the company in 1596, as a poet and as a player*. It is in these terms:

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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, Wil

* Malone had nothing upon which to found himself, but the list of actors in some of Ben Jonson's plays, and the enumeration in the licence of 1603. The name of Shakespeare is, in the latter, preceded only by that of a person (Lawrence Fletcher) not mentioned in 1596, as having anything to do with the company: Burbage, Phillips, and

liam Slye, Nicholas Tooley, and others, servaunts to the Right Honorable the Lord Chamberlaine to her • Majestie.

• Sheweth most humbly, that your Petitioners are 6 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, commedies, 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 con'venient for the entertainement of auditories coming 'thereto. That to this end your Petitioners have all ' and eche of them put down sommes of money, accord⚫ing 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. Further

Hemings, who stand before him in 1596, were postponed to him in 1603, to such importance does he seem to have risen in the interval, It is not necessary to point out other differences.

· more, that in the summer season your Petitioners are ' able to playe at their new built house on the Bank'side calde the Globe, but that in the winter they are compelled to come to the Black friers; 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 them selves and their families, but be unable to practise them selves in anie playes or enterludes, when calde upon to perform for the recreation and solace of her Matie and her honora'ble 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 boun'den, will ever pray for the increasing honor and hap'pinesse of your honorable Lordshipps.'

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It is to be presumed, that this petition accomplished its object, as we no where find, that there was any pause in the performances at Blackfriars, beyond that which always occurred in the summer, when probably these repairs were undertaken and completed, as at that date the company would be acting at the Globe.

We have had no accounts from the office of the