the subject of it shows beyond dispute that it belongs to this period, while the lord mayor and aldermen were endeavouring to expel the players from a situation where they had been uninterruptedly established for more than thirty years. There can be no doubt that the object the players had in view was attained, because we know that the lord mayor and his brethren were not allowed, until many years afterwards, to exercise any authority within the precinct and liberty of the Blackfriars, and that the King's servants continued to occupy the theatre long after the death of Shakespeare. CHAPTER XVIII Warrant to Daborne, Shakespeare, Field, and Kirkham, for the Children of the Queen's Revels, in Jan. 1610. Popu larity of juvenile companies of actors. Stay of Daborne's warrant, and the reasons for it. Plays intended to be acted by the Children of the Queen's Revels. Shakespeare's dramas between 1609 and 1612. His retirement to Stratford, and disposal of his property in the Blackfriars and Globe theatres. Alleyn's purchases in Blackfriars in 1612, Shakespeare's purchase of a house in Blackfriars from Henry Walker in 1613, and the possible cause of it explained. Shakespeare described as of Stratford-upon-Avon. THERE is reason for believing that the important question of jurisdiction had been decided in favour of the King's players before January, 1609-10, because we have an instrument of that date authorizing a juvenile company to exhibit at Blackfriars, as well as the association which had been in possession of the theatre ever since its original construction. One circumstance connected with this document, to which we shall presently advert, may however appear to cast a doubt upon the point, whether it had yet been finally determined that the corporation of London was by law excluded from the precinct of the Blackfriars. It is a fact, of which it may be said we have conclusive proof, that almost from the first, if not from the first, the Blackfriars theatre had been in the joint possession of the publique eare. Their trust and sute nowe is not to bee molested in their way of life, whereby they maintaine them selves and their wives and families, (being both married and of good reputation) as well as the widows and orphanes of some of their dead fellows. "Your Lo most bounden at com. "Copia vera." Lord Southampton was clearly mistaken when he Blackfriars theatre had been built nearly fifty years been built about thirty-three years. "H. S." stated that the in 1608 it had Lord Chamberlain's servants and of a juvenile company called the Children of the Chapel: they were also known as "her Majesty's Children," and " the Children of the Blackfriars" and it is not to be supposed that they employed the theatre on alternate days with their older competitors, but that, when the Lord Chamberlain's servants acted elsewhere in the summer, the Children of the Chapel commenced their performances at the Blackfriars.1 After the opening of the Globe in 1595, we may presume that the Lord Chamberlain's servants usually left the Blackfriars theatre to be occupied by the Children of the Chapel during the seven months from April to October. The success of the juvenile companies in the commencement of the reign of James I., and even at the latter end of that of Elizabeth, was great; and we find Shakespeare alluding to it in very pointed terms in a well-known passage in "Hamlet," which we suppose to have been written in the winter of 1601, or in the spring of 1602. They seem to have gone on increasing in popularity, and very soon after James I. ascended the throne, Queen Anne took a company, called "the Children of the Queen's Revels," under her immediate patronage. There is no reason to doubt that they continued to perform at Blackfriars, and in the very commencement of the year 1610 we find that Shakespeare either was, or intended to be, connected with them. At this period he probably contemplated an early retirement from the metropolis, and might wish to avail himself, for a short period, of this new opportunity of profitable employment. Robert Daborne, the author of two dramas that have been printed, and of several others that have been lost, seems to have been a man of good family, and of some interest at court; 1 See Hist. Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, vol. iii. p. 275, where such is conjectured to have been the arrangement. 2"The Christian turned Turk." 1612, and "The Poor Man's Comfort," 1655. In "The Alleyn Papers," (printed by the Shakespeare Society,) may be seen much correspondence between Daborne and Henslowe respecting plays he was then writing for the Fortune theatre. By a letter from him, dated 2nd August, 1614, it appears that Lord Willoughby had sent for him, and it is most likely that Daborne went to Ireland under this nobleman's patronage. It is certain that, having been regularly educated, he went into the Church, and had a living at or near Waterford, where, in 1618, he preached a sermon which is extant. While writing for Henslowe he was in great poverty, having sold most of the property he had with his wife. We have no information as to the precise time of his death, but his "Poor Man's Comfort" was certainly a posthumous production: he had sold it to one of the companies of the day before he took holy orders, and, like various other plays, after long remaining in manuscript, it was published. His lost plays, some of which he wrote in conjunction with other dramatists, appear from "The Alleyn Papers" to have been-1. Machiavel and the Devil; 2. The Arraignment of London; 3. The Bellman of London; 4. The Owl; 5. The She Saint; besides others the titles of which are not given. and in January 1609-10, he was able to procure a royal grant, authorizing him and others to provide and educate a number of young actors, to be called "the Children of the Queen's Revels." As we have observed, this was not a new association, because it had existed under that appellation, and under those of " the Children of the Chapel" and "the Children of the Blackfriars," from near the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth. Daborne, in 1609-10, was placed at the head of it, and not, perhaps, having sufficient means or funds of his own, he had, as was not unusual, partners in the undertaking those partners were William Shakespeare, Nathaniel Field, (the celebrated actor, and very clever author) and Edward Kirkham, who had previously enjoyed a privilege of the same kind'. A memorandum of the warrant to "Daborne and others," not there named, is inserted in the Entry Book of Patents and Warrants for Patents," kept by a person of the name of Tuthill, who was employed by Lord Ellesmere for the purpose, and which book is preserved among the papers handed down by his lordship to his successors. In the same depository we also find a draft of the warrant itself, under which Daborne and his partners, therein named, viz. Shakespeare, Field, and Kirkham, were to proceed2; and it is a circumstance deserving notice, that 6. 1 He was one of the masters of the Children of the Queen's Revels in 1603-4. See Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, vol. i. p. 352. 2 It runs thus: "Right trusty and welbeloved, &c., James, &c. To all Mayors, Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace, &c. Whereas the Queene, our dearest wife, hath for her pleasure and recreation appointed her servaunts Robert Daiborne, &c. to provide and bring upp a convenient nomber of children, who shall be called the Children of her Majesties Revells, knowe ye that we have appointed and authorized, and by these presents doe appoint and authorize the said Robert Daiborne, William Shakespeare, Nathaniel Field, and Edward Kirkham, from time to time to provide and bring upp a convenient nomber of children, and them to instruct and exercise in the quality of playing Tragedies, Comedies, &c., by the name of the Children of the Revells to the Queene, within the Blackfryers, in our Citie of London, or els where within our realm of England. Wherefore we will and command you, and everie of you, to permitt her said servaunts to keepe a convenient nomber of children, by the name of the Children of the Revells to the Queene, and them to exercise in the qualitie of playing according to her royal pleasure. Provided alwaies, that no playes, &c. shall be by them presented, but such playes, &c. as have received the approbation and allowance of our Maister of the Revells for the tyme being. And these our lres. shall be your sufficient warrant in this behalfe. In witnesse whereof, &c., 4° die Janij. 1609. "Proud Povertie. Antonio. Kinsmen. Triumph of Truth. Engl. Tragedie. Stayed." "the Children of the Queen's Revels" were thereby licensed not only to act "tragedies, comedies," &c. in the Blackfriars theatre, but "elsewhere within the realm of England;" so that even places where the city authorities had indisputably a right to exercise jurisdiction were not exempted. It will be recollected that this had been a point in dis pute in 1574, and that the words "as well within our city of London" were on this account excluded from the patent granted by Elizabeth to the players of Lord Leicester, though found in the privy seal dated three days earlier. For the same reason, probably, they are not contained in the patent of James I. to Fletcher, Shakespeare, and others, in 1603. We may be satisfied that the warrant of 1609-10 to Daborne and his partners was not carried into effect, and possibly on that account: although it may have been decided at this date that the lord mayor and aldermen had no power forcibly to exclude the actors from the Blackfriars, it may have been held inexpedient to go the length of authorizing a young company to act within the very boundaries of the city. So far the corporation may have prevailed, and this may be the cause why we never hear of any steps having been taken under the warrant of 1609-10. The word "stayed" is added at the conclusion of the draft, as if some good ground had been discovered for delaying, if not for entirely withholding it. Perhaps even the question of jurisdiction had not been completely settled, and it may have been thought useless to concede a privilege which, after all, by the operation of the law in favour of the claim of the city, might turn out to be of no value, because it could not be acted upon. Certain it is, that the new scheme seems to have been entirely abandoned; and whatever Shakespeare may have intended when he became connected with it, he continued, as long as he remained in London, and as far as any evidence enables us to judge, to write only for the company of the King's players, who persevered in their performances at the Blackfriars in the winter, and at the Globe in the summer. It will be seen that to the draft in favour of "Daborne and others," as directors of the performances of the Children of the Queen's Revels, a list is appended, apparently of dramatic performances in representing which the juvenile company was to be employed. Some of these may be considered, known and established performances, such as “Antonio," which perhaps was intended for the "Antonio and Mellida" of Marston, printed in 1602; "Grisell," for the "Patient Grisell" of Dekker, Chettle, and Haughton, printed 1 See Hist. Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, vol. i. p. 212. in 1603; and "K. Edw. 2.," for Marlowe's "Edward II," printed in 1598. Of others we have no information from any quarter, and only two remind us at all of Shakespeare: "Kinsmen," may mean "The two Noble Kinsmen," in writing which, some suppose our great dramatist to have been concerned; and "Taming of S," is possibly to be taken for "The Taming of the Shrew," or for the older play, with nearly the same title, upon which it was founded. Troilus and Cressida" and "Pericles" were printed in 1609, and to our mind there seems but little doubt that they had been written and prepared for the stage only a short time before they came from the press. With the single exception of "Othello," which came out in 4to in 1622, no other new drama by Shakespeare appeared in a printed form between 1609 and the date of the publication of the folio in 1623'. We need not here discuss what plays, first found in that volume, were penned by our great dramatist after 1609, because we have separately considered the claims of each in our preliminary Introductions. "Timon of Athens," "Coriolanus," " Antony and Cleopatra," "Cymbeline," "The Winter's Tale," and "The Tempest," seem to belong to a late period of our poet's theatrical career, and some of them were doubtless written between 1609 and the period, whatever that period might be, when he entirely relinquished dramatic composition. Between January 1609-10, when Shakespeare was one of the parties to whom the warrant for the Children of the Queen's Revels was conceded, and the year 1612, when it has been reasonably supposed that he quitted London to take up his permanent residence at Stratford, we are in possession of no facts connected with his personal history. It would seem both natural and prudent that, before he withdrew from the metropolis, he should dispose of his theatrical property, which must necessarily be of fluctuating and uncertain value, depending much upon the presence and activity of the owner for its profitable management. In his will (unlike some of his contemporaries who expired in London) he says nothing of any such property, and we 1 One copy of the folio is known with the date of 1622 upon the title-page. The volume was entered at Stationers' Hall on the 8th Nov. 1623, as if it had not been published until late in that year, unless we suppose the entry made by Blount and Jaggard some time after publication, in order to secure their right to the plays first printed there, which they thought might be invaded. sum. 2 We ought, perhaps to except a writ issued by the borough court in June 1610, at the suit of Shakespeare, for the recovery of a small A similar occurrence had taken place in 1604, when our poet Bought to recover 17. 15s. Od. from a person of the name of Rogers, for corn sold to him. These facts are ascertained from the existing records of Stratford. VOL. 1.-P |