translations in his Tragical Discourses, mentioned vol. i. p. 248. He seems to have been an enemy to theatrical amusements, and in 1574 translated from the French, A Form of Christian Policy, the seventh chapter of which, among other things, insists that players were cast out of the church, and that all dissolute plays ought to be for bidden.' p. 422. 'To the same point we may quote the authority of Sir Philip Sidney.'] Among the numerous tributes by contemporary poets to the memory of Sir Philip Sydney, one, by an author of very considerable celebrity, has hitherto escaped notice it is by Thomas Churchyard, and it was published in the form of a pamphlet of only four leaves, under the title of "The Epitaph of Sir Phillip Sidney, Knight, lately Lord Governour of Floshing. Imprinted at London, by George Robinson,' &c., 4to., n. d. At the back of the title are 'Churchyard's arms,' and it is followed by a prose address to Lady Sidney, the widow of Sir Philip, in which the author speaks of the great encouragement at that period given to arts and letters, and mentions that he had been preceded by some other writer, who had treated the subject 'learnedly and sententiously.' As this is a production of the utmost rarity, I will make a short quotation from it. A portly presence, passing fine, • With beautie furnisht well, 'Well seene and read in divers artes, His works they shewe the same: 'Brought home both language lawde and lore, 'And might the lawrell weare, And crownd with garland be therefore, ' And style of honour beare. • In conscience cause and countries care, To farre he ventred for renowne, To short he made his skope, 'To soone that stately stalke fell downe, In whom was such great hope.' p. 428. Note †, for Alarum of London, read Looking Glass for London. Vol. III. p. 52. Note*, for plagiaries read plagiarisms. p. 69. 'Amends for Ladies could not have been written before 1611.'] It has been elsewhere shown, that Amends for Ladies is alluded to by Anthony Stafford, in his Niobe dissolved into a Nilus, 1611, as already in existence, so that it could hardly have been produced before 1610: it was preceded by A Woman is a Weathercock, by the same author, who perhaps was not so young as has been supposed, although he continued one of the Children of the Queen's Revels in 1609. p. 93. The play of William Longsword by Drayton.'] The only other notice of this play I ever met with is in a MS., belonging to Mr. Haslewood, a copy of the brief (or 'breviat' as it is there called) on behalf of the Plaintiffs in the case of Sir H. Herbert and Thelwall v. Betterton, on the dispute regarding the authority of the Master of the Revels. The date of the first part of the following quotation from it, accords with the entry by Drayton himself in Henslowe's Account-book. Several plays allowed by Mr. Tylney is 1598, which is 62 ' years since. Sir William Longsword As The Fair Maid of London Richard Cordelyon See the Books. 'King and no King to be acted in 1611, and the same to be ' printed. 'Hog hath lost his Pearle, and hundreds more.' It is said, in the same MS., that the two last were 'allowed by Sir George Buck.' p. 147. • Greene's Funerals is certainly unworthy of Barnefield's pen.'] Since this was written, the sight of a copy of Richard Barnefield's Cynthia with certaine Sonnets, 1595, has enabled me directly to contradict the position, that Greene's Funerals, 1594, was by the same author. Barnefield tells the readers of his Cynthia, that that poem was his 'second fruit,' and that his Affectionate Shepherd had been his 'first;' although he had been 'thought of some to have been the author of two books heretofore.' One of those ' two books' was no doubt Greene's Funerals, printed with the initials R. B. on the title-page. From Barnefield's Poems in divers Humours, 1598, I quote the following, because it relates to Shakespeare, and because it has been misquoted by Malone (Shakespeare by Boswell, i. 482). The writer, after praising Spenser, Daniel, and Drayton, thus proceeds: 'And Shakespeare thou, whose hony flowing vaine (Pleasing the world) thy praises doth obtaine; 'Whose Venus, and whose Lucrece (sweete and chaste) 'Thy name in fames immortall booke hath plac't, p. 159. For sequunter read sequuntur. p. 263. The Theatre and Curtain are mentioned together in A Mirour of Monsters, a tract against the vices caused by the infectious sight of Plays,' by Wil. Rankin, 4to., 1587. It contains no information regarding the condition of the stage and drama at that date. It has been supposed that the author was the same William Rankins who is mentioned as the writer of Hannibal and Scipio, and several other plays in Henslowe's Diary, under the date of 1600, but this is questionable. In his Palladis Tamia, fol. 277, Meres mentions a person of the name of Rankins, with Hall and Marston, as a satirist. In some blank leaves at the end of a MS. volume of Sermons, by Dr. Donne and others, in my hands, are inserted a number of pious and moral poems, and one page is headed 'W. Rankins of Ingratitude to God,' but the poem itself has not been transcribed. The writer of A Mirour of Monsters, of the Satires noticed by Meres, and of this poem, was probably the same man. p. 268. The Curtain Theatre.] It is termed The Curtain at Holywell,' in the title of a b. 1. ballad, which was sung there, and is preserved in the Pepysian Library: it is without date, and called The Man in the Moon drinks Claret.' . p. 313. Alleyn had certainly retired from the stage before 1612.'] He seems to have had some concern in the Blackfriars theatre, by the subsequent entry in his Journal, called The Founder's Book of Accounts,' formerly preserved at Dulwich College. It extends from 1617 to 1622. 'Oct. 22, 1617. Pd. Mr. Travise rent for the Black Fryars, • 401. Os. Od. He had also an interest in the Red Bull, as appears by the following: ⚫ Oct. 3. 1617. I went to the Red Bull and rd [received] for 'the Younger Brother, but 37, 6s. 4d.' The subsequent items relate to the rebuilding of the Fortune in 1622. 'April 16, 1622. Dinner at the Hart in Smithfield, wth the builders off the Fortune, 3s. May 14. Paid the first payment for the Fortune building, 257.: spent 1s. 6d.' p. 321. For Vennor read Vennard, p. 324. The Red Bull Theatre.'] The frontispiece to 'The Wits, or Sport upon Sport,' printed for Henry Marsh, 1662, represents the interior of the Red Bull Theatre, supposed to be taken from the front of the stage, the point of sight being on a level with the foot-lights. The spectators are also ranged along the sides of the stage, on which stand Falstaff and the Hostess, Claus, the French DancingMaster, the Changeling, and Simpleton the Smith, while |