chiefly relate to a period of our dramatic history to which I have not brought down my present work.

Last in the list, but unquestionably among the very first in obligation, I have to name my friend Mr. Amyot, Treasurer of the Society of Antiquaries. To him I am indebted, not only for much valuable knowledge, but for the means of information, by most serviceable introductions, and for the kindest aid throughout my undertaking. To all who are acquainted with him, this tribute will appear quite unnecessary.

The views, of the Globe theatre, on the titlepage of Vol. I.; of Paris Garden, on the title-page of Vol. II.; and of the Swan Theatre, on the titlepage of Vol. III.,—are from a Picture of London in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, compared with Vissher's Map, published at Amsterdam in the year 1616. They are more detailed and, I apprehend, more accurate, than any previous representations.

ADDITIONAL NOTES AND CORRECTIONS.

Vol. I. p. 11.

'Exhibitions of a similar kind took place at Coventry, York,' &c.] I make the following extract from J. S. Burn's History of Parish Registers, p. 236, with the reference to which I was favoured by Sir Thomas Phillipps.

From the old church book of Boughton Blean, Kent.'

It. in hands Rychard Spycer for Saynt Petr. lyght viij ewys. 'Anno dni mlio d xxxvti This yere Corpus Christi play was 'plaid at Boughton Strete. Md. Stevy Wylls hayth cowntytt for 'the fyrst play day, iiiil. vs. xd.'

The same curious work, at p. 143, contains the subsequent, not easily explicable entry, which appears to be dramatic. It refers to the town of Loughborough, Leicestershire.

1551 June-The Swat, called "New acquaintance, alias 'Stoupe Knave and know thy Master," began on the 24th of 'this Month.'

p. 16.

In what respects a "disguising" differed from a "mumming" is a point not now perhaps possible to settle.'] The following minute and curious account of the mode in which a disguising,' both by men and women, was to be brought in and regulated on Twelfth-night, is copied from one of the Fairfax MSS., entitled, "The booke of all maner of Orders concernynge an Erles hous,' &c., some part of which is dated 16 Henry VII., although the handwriting appears to be that of the latter end of the

reign of Henry VIII. It provides, first, that the disguising shall not come into the hall until the 'Interlude, Comedy or Tragedy' is ended: it then proceeds thus'The Disguisers to come in aftir this manour following, with iij torcheis to be borne before theim at their riding into the • Hall, with iij yomen waiters suche as shalbe appointed by the 'Marshallis to do it.

'Furst iij yoman waiters to beir iij torchies to light them into ⚫ the hall, and when the saide Disguisars ar comyn into the hall, 'than the saide parsonnes that berith the saide lightes to make 'their obeysaunce and departe, or ellis to stand on side, and the • iiij minstrallis, suche as the Lord haith at that tyme, there to ⚫ stonde in the hall before the saide disguisars com, and assoon as they be comyn into the hall, the minstrallis to stand aside ' and play-And than the disguisars to make their obeysaunce altogeder and daunce suche daunces as they be appointed• And when the saide disguisars hath doon their saide daunces, 'than halfe of them to stand uppon the oon side and halfe

uppon the outher side, if there be no women. Provided al'waies that if their be women disguised, then they to com in 'first. And if there be women disguised, then half of the 'minstrallis afforesaid to set in the outhir disguisars with the ⚫ lightes after they have browght in the women, and they have 'daunced and their obeysaunce made, ande stande a side. And 'they to do as the outhir did before, ande than they to stande Suppon the outher side. Alwaies the men gevinge to the women the prehemynence of their standnge. Alwaies pro

6

•vided that the minstrallis shall bring theym in, playing be'fore thaym such daunces as they shall daunce. Ande when 'they have doon, in like cass the Morris to come in incontinent as is apointed, yf any be ordeynid. And when the saide • Morris arrives in the midist of the hall, than the said min'strallis to play the daunces that is appointid for theim. And ' when they here the said minstrallis play, than to com out oon ' aftir an outhir, as they be appointid. And when they have

the Clown, with the words Tu Quoque, from the play of that name, is coming from behind an arras traversecurtain at the back of the stage. Above this traverse is another striped curtain which covers the balcony. On either side of this striped curtain are three boxes with spectators in them. Besides the foot-lights the stage is illuminated by two chandeliers, which hang from the ceiling on each side of it. I apprehend that the drawing for this plate was made on the temporary re-opening of the Red Bull, after the Restoration.

p. 335.

'Private Theatres were of smaller dimensions than public theatres.'] The two principal public theatres, in the reign of James I. and Charles I., were the Fortune and Red Bull. I have heard (says Gayton in his notes on 'Don Quixote, 1654) that the Poets of the Fortune and 'Red Bull had always a mouth-measure for their actors (who were terrible tear-throats), and made their lines pro'portionable to their compasses, which were sesquipedales -a foot and a half.'

p. 398.

Line 18, for not at all without, read not all without.

p. 400.

And so is now our witty Wilson.'] It may admit of doubt, whether the Wilson here mentioned, and who was connected with Henslowe's company, was not the son and successor of the Robert Wilson who was one of Lord Leicester's servants in 1574. Supposing, however, that he was twenty years old in 1574, he would only be fortyfour when F. Meres wrote in 1598. In a letter signed Tho. Bayly, dated 25th April, 1581, and published in

xxxii

ADDITIONAL NOTES AND CORRECTIONS.

Mr. Hunter's Hallamshire, fol. 1819, p. 59, I find a mention of Wilson as quidam Leycestrii comitis servus. The letter relates to theatrical entertainments before the Earl of Shrewsbury at Sheffield Castle. I have elsewhere mentioned Henslowe's entry regarding the play of Catiline's Conspiracy by Wilson and others, and I will here quote the whole of what Lodge says, in his Defence of Plays, regarding the production by Wilson upon the same subject prior to 1579, anterior to which year Stephen Gosson (whom Lodge is answering) had also written a play named Catiline's Conspiracies. Part of it I have before cited, but I accidentally omitted what relates to Wilson—

Tell me, Gosson, (says Lodge,) was all your own you ' wrote there? [i.e., in his Catiline's Conspiracies.] Did you 'borrow nothing of your neighbours? Out of what booke 'patched you out Cicero's oration? Whence fet you Catalin's ' invective? Thys is one thing-alienam olet lucerna non tuam, so that your helper may wisely reply upon you with Virgil"Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores."

"I made these verses-other bear the name."

Believe me, I should preferr Wilson's shorte and sweete, if I were a judge-a peece surely worthy prayse, the practise of a

good scholler: would the wiser would overlooke that, they may perhaps cull some wisedome out of a player's toye. Well, as it is wisedome to commend where the cause requireth, so it is a poynt of folly to praise without desert.'