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Malone (Shakespeare by Boswell, iii. 53) expresses an opinion that they were subsequently named the Lady Elizabeth's players; but he was certainly mistaken, the Lady Elizabeth's players being a distinct company, in connection with Henslowe.

This undertaking, like some others, possibly arose out of the fire at the Globe on the Bankside, which occurred on the 29th of June, 1613, during the performance of a play called All is True, on the story of Henry VIII. It might be either Shakespeare's play, or Samuel Rowley's When you see me you know me, under a new name, or a different piece founded upon both productions. The details of this calamity are given in the separate history of that theatre, but it may be here worth while to subjoin, in a note, a ballad which was written upon the occasion, and which has been preserved in MS.* Howes, in his additions to Stow's Chronicle, referring to the disaster, mentions, that the Globe was rebuilt in the next spring, in far fairer manner than before,' and it was doubtless open through the summer of 1614.

The burning of the Globe seems also to have been the origin of another theatrical undertaking, which,

*Soon after the event a doleful ballad on the general conflagration of the famous Theatre on the Bankside, called the Globe,' was entered on the Stationers' books for publication, and it, perhaps, was the subjoined production, which was printed in the Gent. Mag., vol. lxxxvi. p. 114. It is a very lame effusion, but it mentions some names of interest in the drama, viz., Richard Burbage, Henry Condell, and John Hemmings, but not Shakespeare; which may afford some confirmation of the opinion, that he had retired from all concern with the theatre before it

perhaps, had for object the removal of the performance of plays from the theatres on the south side of the Thames. On the 13th of July, 1613, Sir George Buc received 201., as his fee for a licence to erect a new

was consumed. The burden of the ballad seems to have reference to the title of the play, which was in a course of performance at the time. 'A SONNETT UPON THE PITTIFULL BURNÉING OF 'THE GLOBE PLAY-HOUSE IN LONDON.

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'Out runne the Knights, out runne the Lords,
And there was great adoe,

'Some lost their hatts, & some their swords;

'Then out runne Burbidge too:

The riprobates, thoughe drunke on munday, 'Pray'd for the Foole, and Henry Condye.

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playhouse in the Whitefriars *.' The old theatre there, which had been in existence prior to 1580, was, perhaps, in bad repair, and too small for the audiences it was hoped to attract after the burning of the Globe.

The perry wigs & drumme heads frye,

Like to a butter firkin:

'A wofull burneing did betide

To many a good buffe jerkin.

'Then with swolne lipps, like drunken Flemmings,
'Distressed stood old stuttering Heminges.

• Oh sorrow, &c.

'Noe shower his raine did there downe force [q. sowse] 'In all that sunn-shine weather,

'To save that great renowned howse;

'Nor thou, O ale-house, neither.

'Had it begun belowe, sans doubte,

'Their wives for feare had p- -d itt out.

• Oh sorrow, &c.

'Bee warned, you stage strutters all,

'Least yow againe be catched,

And such a burneing doe befall,

'As to them whose howṣe was thatched:

'Forbeare your whoreing, breeding biles,

And lay up that expense for tiles.
'Oh sorrow, &c.

'Goe drawe yow a petition,

'And doe yow not abhorr itt,

' And get, with low submission,

'A licence to begg for itt;

'In churches, sans churchwarden's checks,

In Surrey and in Middlesex.

'Oh sorrow, pittifull sorrow, and yet all this is true.'

* Sir Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels in 1623, was in possession of the Register kept by Sir George Buc, and from it transcribed into his own office-book the entry in question, apparently with a view of making it a precedent in his own favour, should he be required to favour any project of the same kind.

If this new theatre were then built, of which there is no farther evidence, it was some years afterwards rebuilt, and then called the Salisbury Court playhouse; but most likely the rapid, and perhaps unexpected reconstruction of the Globe interfered with the execution of this enterprise in Whitefriars in the summer of 1613.

The negociation of Henslowe in June, 1603, to renew the lease of the ground on which the Rose Theatre on the Bankside stood, has been mentioned. Whether it was, or was not renewed, it is certain, that before 1613 that playhouse, as well as the Swan and the Hope, had fallen into disuse. Of this fact, John Taylor, the Water-poet, affords distinct evidence in his Watermans suit concerning Players, where he states, that in 1612, the King's men at the Globe (of course before its destruction by fire) formed the only company that continued to play on the Bankside, those who occupied the other playhouses having crossed over the water to perform in Middlesex. As Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair was acted at the Hope, on the 31st of October, 1614, it is very likely that, having been closed as a regular theatre, it was re-opened after the Globe had been consumed, and that it was continued open some time after the Globe was rebuilt. It was at this period in the possession of the Lady Elizabeth's servants,' for so Ben Jonson, on the title-page of his play, calls them; and they were a distinct company from the Prince Palatine's servants, who, as we have seen, exhibited at the Fortune,

The catastrophe at the Globe appears to have led to a third theatrical project; for, about two months after it had happened, Philip Henslowe, and his co-proprietor Jacob Meade, entered into an agreement with one Katherens, a carpenter, for the pulling down and re-constructing Paris Garden, in order that it might be more conveniently used, not merely as a place for bull-baiting, bear-baiting, &c., but for the performance of dramatic productions. There is every reason to believe that this work was executed according to the proposed design.

In 1612 Henslowe was connected with the company called the Lady Elizabeth's servants, and they conceived that they had great reason to complain of him for oppression and various malpractices. The 'articles of grievance' drawn up by Joseph Taylor, who was then at the head of the company*, show that in March, 1612, the Lady Elizabeth's players had joined the performers called the Children of the Revels to the Queen,' under Philip Rosseter, and separated again in March, 1613. Henslowe then made up' a distinct company, which continued to perform (most likely at A. D. Paris Garden) until February, 1614, when 1614. Henslowe broke up the establishment by withdrawing some of the inferior performers, known by the term hired men,' who were paid weekly wages, and had no proportion or share of the receipts. It appears from this document, that the speculation had been a profitable one, and that Henslowe retired, be

They were found at Dulwich College by Malone; but they are not preserved there now. See Shakespeare by Boswell, xxi. 416,

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