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The original, from which the following was copied, is in the State Paper Office.

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To our right trusty and right welbeloved Cousins ' and Councellors, William Earle of Pembroke, Cham'berlaine of our Household, and Thomas Earle of Arundell; to our trusty and right welbeloved Coun'cellor John Lo. Digby, Vice-chamberlen of our 'Howsehould, and to our right trusty and welbeloved 'Councellors, Sir Robert Naunton, Knight, one of our Principal Secretaries of State, Sir George Calvert, 'Knight, one other of our Principall Secretaries of State, ' and Sir Fulke Grivill, Knight, Chancellor and Under"treasurer of our Exchequer, or to any fowre of them. 'James R.

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Right trusty and right welbeloved Cousins and 'Councellors, and right trusty and welbeloved Coun'cellors, wee greete you well. Whereas at the humble 'suite of our servants John Cotton, John Williams ⚫ and Thomas Dixon, and in recompence of their ser'vices, wee have been pleased to licence them to buyld an Amphitheater, which hath passed our Signett and is stayed at our Privy Seale; and finding therein 'conteyned some such wordes and clauses, as may in some constructions seem to give them greater liberty, 'both in the point of buylding and using of exercises, 'then is any way to be permitted, or was ever by us ' intended, Wee have thought fitt to commaund and ' give authority unto you, or any fower of you, to cause 'that already passed to be cancelled, and to give order 'unto our Sollicitor generall for the drawing up of a

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new warrant for our signature to the same parties, according to such directions and reservations as herewith wee send you. Wherein we are more par'ticular, both in the affirmative and the negative, to 'the end that, as on the one side we would have nothing pass us to remaine upon record, which either 'for the forme might not become us, or for the sub'stance might cross our many Proclamations (pur'sued with good successe) for buyldings, or on the ' other side might give them cause to importune us 'after they had ben at charges, to which end we wishe that you call them before you, and lett them know our pleasure and resolution therein. Given under our Signett at our Honor of Hampton Court, the 29th of September in the eighteenth yeare of our 'Raigne of greate Brittaigne, France and Ireland.'

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It will be found afterwards, from certain letters which passed upon this subject early in the reign of the successor of King James, that no other patent was granted to the parties, thus summarily deprived of what had been formally conceded.

The Mask of the Metamorphosed Gipsies, by Ben Jonson, was played while King James was on progress, twice in the month of August, at Burleigh on the Hill and at Belvoir, and a third time at Windsor, in September. The folio of 1640 states incorrectly, that all three representations of this highly approved production were in the month of August. Gifford asserts, that this is the only MS. piece of Jonson's in existence, and he had the use of a copy belonging to

Mr. Heber: I have already shown that there are two other Masks by the same author, in his own handwriting, among the royal MSS. in the British Museum. On the 26th August, 1621, James was at Woodstock, where he saw Barten Haliday's Marriage of the Arts. It is not to be wondered that the King found the performance wearisome, and that he offered three times to leave the hall, where it was played by the Students of Christchurch.

On the Sunday night preceding the 15th of December, 1621, a catastrophe similar to that which had happened to the Globe on the Bankside, visited the Fortune theatre in Golding Lane: it was burnt to the ground in two hours, and the dresses and plays were also consumed. Such particulars as are known are given in the separate account of that theatre. It was square and of wood, but it was rebuilt round and of brick, and it was not completed until 1623. At the date of this accident the Elector Palatine's players, who had possession of it, were called the Palsgrave's servants, and they consisted of the following persons:

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and some others. This information is derived from the Office-book of Sir Henry Herbert, who in August,

1623, was formally appointed by Sir John Astley Deputy Master of the Revels *. From that valuable record many of the particulars of the Annals of the Stage, hereafter to be inserted, will be obtained: it was long in the hands of Malone, who made ample use of the materials.

Some of the actors performed at more than one theatre, as Cane and Grevill, mentioned in the preceding list of players at the Fortune, are also stated by Sir H. Herbert to have been at the same date players at the Phoenix or Cockpit †, together with

'Christopher Beeston,

'Joseph More,

'Eliart Swanston,

'William Shurlock, and

Anthony Turner.'

It is probable that these were younger performers, and that they were members of the company originally called the Children of the Queen's Revels in 1603. When Eliart Swanston had attained the proper age,

He seems to have acted in that capacity as early as May, 1622, and his Office-book extends back to that date; so that Sir John Astley never executed the duties of Master of the Revels in person.

6 Soon after his (Shakespeare's) death, four of the principal com'panies then subsisting made a union, and were afterwards called "the ' United Companies,” but I know not precisely in what this union con'sisted. I suspect it arose from a penury of actors, and that the mana" gers contracted to permit the performers in each house occasionally to 'assist their brethren in the other theatres in the representation of 'plays.' Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell, iii., 224. This conjecture is in some degree supported by the fact mentioned above, but I do not know any other distinct instance of the kind.

he (as Malone observes *) joined the King's servants at the Globe and Blackfriars, and is sometimes mentioned as one of the leaders.

The players of the Revels,' as they are called by Sir H. Herbert, (after they had lost the name A.D. of the Children of the Revels,) acted in 1622, 1622. at the Red Bull, and consisted of the following performers:

Robert Lee,
Richard Perkins,
Ellis Worth,

Thomas Basse,

John Blaney,

John Cumber, and

William Robins t.

Sir Henry Herbert only professes to give the names of the chiefe of them.' The part of the leaf containing the names of the King's servants, and of those who performed at the Curtain, who must have been the Prince's servants, had mouldered away, so that Malone was not able to decypher them. The deficiency may, however, as far as relates to the King's servants, be

* Shakespeare by Boswell, iii., 60.

†These players, under the name of the late comedians of Queen Anne deceased,' on the 8th of July, 1622, obtained a warrant for a Privy Seal, licensing them to bring up children in the quality and 'exercise of playing comedies, histories, interludes, morals, pastorals, " stage plays, and such like, &c., to be called by the name of the Chil'dren of the Revels. This fact appears from a MS., No. 515, in the Inner Temple Library, supposed to be a copy of some part of the Lord Chamberlain of the Household's Book.

VOL. I.

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