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English players received 32 marks as a gratuity, and that on 22d October the freedom of the city was conferred upon Laurence Fletcher, who is especially styled "comedian to his Majesty." The company had arrived in Aberdeen, and had been received by the public authorities, under the sanction of a special letter from James VI.; and, although they were in fact the players of the Queen of England, they might on this account be deemed and treated as the players of the King of Scotland.

Our chief reason for thinking it unlikely that Shakespeare would have accompanied his fellows to Scotland, at all events between October, 1599, and December, 1601, is that, as the principal writer for the company to which he was attached, he could not well have been spared, and because we have good ground for believing that about that period he must have been unusually busy in the composition of plays. No fewer than five dramas seem, as far as evidence, positive or conjectural, can be obtained, to belong to the interval between 1598 and 1602; and the proof appears to us tolerably conclusive, that "Henry V.," "Twelfth Night," and “Hamlet,” were written respectively in 1599, 1600, and 1601. Besides, as far as we are able to decide such a point, the company to which our great dramatist belonged continued to perform in London; for although a detachment under Laurence Fletcher may have been sent to Scotland, the main body of the association called the Lord Chamberlain's players exhibited at court at the usual seasons in 1599, 1600, and 1601'. Therefore, if Shakespeare visited Scotland at all, we think it must have been at an earlier period, and there was undoubtedly ample time between the years 1589 and 1599 for him to have done so. Nevertheless, we have no tidings that any English actors were in any part of Scotland during those ten years.

1 The accounts of the revels' department at this period are not so complete as usual, and in Mr. P. Cunningham's book we find no details of any kind between 1587 and 1604. The interval was a period of the greatest possible interest, as regards the performance of the productions of Shakespeare, and we earnestly hope that the missing accounts may yet be recovered.

CHAPTER XV.

Proclamation by James I. against plays on Sunday. Renewal of theatrical performances in London. Patent of May 17th, 1608, to Laurence Fletcher, William Shakespeare, and others. Royal patronage of three companies of actors. Shakespeare's additional purchases in Stratford-upon-Avon. Shakespeare in London in the autumn of 1603; and a candidate for the office of Master of the Queen's Revels. Characters Shakespeare is known to have performed. His retirement from the stage, as an actor, after April 9th, 1604.

BEFORE he even set foot in London, James I. thought it necessary to put a stop to dramatic performances on Sunday. This fact has never been mentioned, because the proclamation he issued at Theobalds on 7th May, containing the paragraph for this purpose, has only recently come to light. There had been a long pending struggle between the Puritans and the players upon this point, and each party seemed by turns to gain the victory; for various orders were, from time to time, issued from authority, forbidding exhibitions of the kind on the Sabbath, and those orders had been uniformly more or less contravened. We may suppose, that strong remonstrances having been made to the King by some of those who attended him from Scotland, a clause with this special object was appended to a proclamation directed against monopolies and legal extortions. The mere circumstance of the company in which this paragraph, against dramatic performances on Sunday, is found, seems to prove that it was an after-thought, and that it was inserted, because his courtiers had urged that James ought not even to enter his new capital, until public steps had been taken to put an end to the profanation1.

The King, having issued this command, arrived at the Charter-house on the same day, and all the theatrical companies, which had temporarily suspended their performances, began to act again on the 9th May. Permission to this

1 The paragraph is in these terms, and we quote them because they have not been noticed by any historian of our stage.

"And for that we are informed, that there hath been heretofore great neglect in this kingdome of keeping the Sabbath day; for the better observing of the same and avoyding all impious prophanation, We do straightly charge and commaund that no Beare-bayting, Bulbayting, Enterludes, common Playes, or other like disordered or unlawful exercises, or pastimes, be frequented, kept, or used at any time hereafter upon the Sabbath day.

Given at our Court at Theobalds, the 7 day of May, in the first yeare of our Reigne."

2 This fact we have upon the authority of Henslowe's Diary. See the Hist. Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, vol. i. P. 346.

effect was given by James I., and communicated through the ordinary channel to the players, who soon found reason to rejoice in the accession of the new sovereign; for ten days after he reached London he took the Lord Chamberlain's players into his pay and patronage, calling them "the King's servants," a title they always afterwards enjoyed. For this purpose he issued a warrant, under the privy seal, for making out a patent under the great seal', authorizing the nine following actors, and others, to perform in his name, not only at the Globe on the Bankside, but in any part of the kingdom; viz. Laurence Fletcher, William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, Augustine Phillippes, John Heminge, Henry Condell, William Sly, Robert Armyn, and Richard Cowley.

1 It runs verbatim et literatim thus :

BY THE KING.

"Right trusty and welbeloved Counsellor, we greete you well, and will and commaund you, that under our privie Seale in your custody for the time being, you cause our letters to be derected to the keeper of our greate seale of England, commaunding him under our said greate Seale, he cause our letters to be made patents in forme following. James, by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, Fraunce, and Irland, defendor of the faith, &c. To all Justices. Maiors, Sheriffs, Constables, Head boroughes, and other our officers and loving subjects greeting. Know ye, that we of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge, and meere motion have licenced and authorized, and by these presentes doe licence and authorize, these our servants, Lawrence Fletcher, William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, Augustine Phillippes, John Hemmings, Henrie Condell, William Sly, Robert Armyn, Richard Cowlye, and the rest of their associats, freely to use & exercise the arte and faculty of playing Comedies, Tragedies. Histories, Enterludes, Moralls, Pastoralls, Stage plaies, and such other like, as that thei have already studied or hereafter shall use or studie, aswell for the recreation of our loving subjects, as for our solace and pleasure, when we shall thinke good to see them, during our pleasure. And the said Comedies, Tragedies, Histories, Enterludes, Moralls, Pastoralls, Stage plaies, and such like, to shew & exercise publiquely to their best commoditie, when the infection of the plague shall decrease, as well within theire now usuall howse called the Globe, within our county of Surrey, as also within anie towne halls, or mout halls, or other convenient places within the liberties & freedome of any other citie, universitie, towne, or borough whatsoever within our said realmes and dominions. Willing and commaunding you, and every of you, as you tender our pleasure, not only to permit and suffer them heerin, without any your letts, hinderances, or molestations, during our said pleasure, but also to be ayding or assisting to them, yf any wrong be to them offered. And to allowe them such former courtesies, as hathe bene given to men of their place and qualitie: and also what further favour you shall shew to these our servants for our sake, we shall take kindly at your hands. And these our letters shall be your sufficient warrant and discharge in this behalfe. Given under our Signet at our mannor of Greene wiche, the seaventeenth day of May in the first yere of our raigne of England, France, and Ireland, & of Scotland the six & thirtieth. Ex per Lake." The patent under the great seal, made out in consequence of this warrant, bears date two days afterwards.

We miss from this list the names of Thomas Pope, William Kempe, and Nicholas Tooley, who had belonged to the company in 1596; and instead of them we have Laurence Fletcher, Henry Condell, and Robert Armyn, with the addition of Richard Cowley. Pope had been an actor in 1589, and perhaps in May, 1603, was an old man, for he died in the February following. Kempe had joined the Lord Admiral's players soon after the opening of the Fortune, on his return from the Continent, for we find him in Henslowe's pay in 1602. Nicholas Tooley had also perhaps withdrawn from the association at this date, or his name would hardly have been omitted in the patent, as an established actor, and a man of some property and influence; but he, as well as Kempe, not long subsequently rejoined the association with which they had been so long connected.

We may assume, perhaps, in the absence of any direct testimony, that Laurence Fletcher did not acquire his prominence in the company by any remarkable excellence as an actor. He had been in Scotland, and had performed with his associates before James in 1599, 1600, and 1601, and in the latter year he had been registered as "his Majesty's Comedian" at Aberdeen. He might, therefore, have been a favourite with the King, and being also a considerable sharer in the association, he perhaps owed his place in the patent of May, 1603, to that circumstance'. The name of Shake

Nothing seems to be known of the birth or origin of Laurence Fletcher, (who died in September, 1608,) but we may suspect that he was an elder brother of John Fletcher, the dramatist. Bishop Fletcher, the father, died on 15 June, 1596, having made his will in October, 1594, before he was translated from Worcester to London. This document seems never to have been examined, but it appears from it, as Mr. P. Cunningham informs us, that he had no fewer than nine children, although he only mentions his sons Nathaniel and John by name. He died poor, and among the Lansdowne MSS. is one, entitled "Reasons to move her Majesty to some commiseration towards the orphans of the late Bishop of London, Dr. Fletcher" this is printed in Birch's "Memoirs." He incurred the lasting displeasure of Queen Elizabeth by marrying, for his second wife, Lady Baker of Kent, a woman of more than questionable character, if we may believe general report, and a satirical poem of the time, handed down only in manuscript, which begins thus :

"The pride of prelacy, which now long since

Was banish'd with the Pope, is sayd of late
To have arriv'd at Bristowe, and from thence
By Worcester into London brought his state.

It afterwards goes on thus :

"The Romaine Tarquin, in his folly blind,

Of faire chaste Lucrece did a Lais make;
But owr proud Tarquin beares a braver mind,
And of a Lais doth a Lucrece make."

We cannot venture to quote the coarse epithets liberally bestowed upon Lady Baker, but the poem ends with these lines:

VOL. I.-N

speare comes next, and as author, actor, and sharer, we cannot be surprised at the situation he occupies. His progress upward, in connexion with the profession, had been gradual and uniform: in 1589 he was twelfth in a company of sixteen members: in 1596 he was fifth in a company of eight members; and in 1603 he was second in a company of nine members.

The degree of encouragement and favour extended to actors by James I. in the very commencement of his reign is remarkable. Not only did he take the Lord Chamberlain's players unto his own service, but the Queen adopted the company which had acted under the name of the Earl of Worcester, of which the celebrated dramatist, Thomas Heywood, was then one; and the Prince of Wales that of the Lord Admiral, at the head of which was Edward Alleyn, the founder of Dulwich College. These three royal associations, as they may be termed, were independent of others under the patronage of individual noblemen'.

The policy of this course at such a time is evident, and James I. seems to have been impressed with the truth of the passage in "Hamlet," (brought out, as we apprehend, very shortly before he came to the throne) where it is said of these "abstracts and brief chronicles of the time," that it is "better to have a bad epitaph, than their ill report while you live." James made himself sure of their good report; and an epigram, attributed to Shakespeare, has descended to us, which doubtless was intended in some sort as a grateful return for the royal countenance bestowed upon the stage, and upon those who were connected with it. We

"But yet, if any will the reason find,

Why he that look'd as lofty as a steeple
Should be so base as for to come behind,

And take the leavings of the common people,
'Tis playne; for in processions, you know,
The priest must after all the people goe."

We ought to have mentioned that the poem is headed "Bishop Fletcher and my Lady Baker." The Bishop had buried his first wife, Elizabeth, at Chelsea Church in December, 1592. Nathaniel Fletcher, mentioned above as included with his brother John in his father's will, is spoken of on a preceding page as "servant" to Mrs. White; but who Mrs. White might be, or what was the precise nature of "Nat. Fletcher's" servitude, we have no information.

1 However, an Act of Parliament was very soon passed (1 Jac. I. c. 7,) to expose strolling actors, although protected by the authority of a peer, to the penalties of 39 Eliz. c. 4. It seems to have been found that the evil had increased to an excess which required this degree of correction; and Sir Edward Coke in his Charge to the Grand Jury at Norwich in 1607, (when at was printed) observes, "The abuse of stage-players, wherewith I find the country much troubled, may easily be reformed, they having no commission to play in any place without leave; and therefore by your willingness if they be not entertained, you may soon be rid of them."

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