James I. reached Theobalds, in his journey from Edinburgh to London, on the 7th May, 1603. Before he quitted his own capital he had had various opportunities of witnessing the performances of English actors; and it is an interesting, but at the same time a difficult question, whether Shakespeare had ever appeared before him, or, in other words, whether our great dramatist had ever visited Scotland? We have certainly no affirmative testimony upon the point, beyond what may be derived from some passages in Macbeth," descriptive of particular localities, with which passages our readers must be familiar: there is, however, ample room for conjecture; and although, on the whole, we are inclined to think that he was never north of the Tweed, it is indisputable that the company to which he belonged, or a part of it, had performed in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and doubtless in some intermediate places. We will briefly state the existing proofs of this fact.

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The year 1599 has been commonly supposed the earliest date at which an association of English actors was in Scotland; but it can be shown beyond contradiction that "her Majesty's players," meaning those of Queen Elizabeth, were in Edinburgh ten years earlier'. In 1589, Ashby, the ambassador extraordinary from

Vision and a Prince's Glorie," 4to, 1603, were called upon to contribute some verses in honour of the late Queen:

"You poets all, brave Shakespeare, Johnson, Greene, Bestow your time to write for England's Queene, &c. Excepting for this notice of "brave Shakespeare," the production is utterly contemptible, and must have been the work of some of the "goblins and underelves" of poetry, who, according to a poem in H. Chettle's " England's Mourning Garment," had put forth upon the occasion "rude rhimes, and metres reasonless."

1 Between September, 1589, and September, 1590, Queen Elizabeth had sent, as a present to the young King of Scotland on his marriage, a splendid mask, with all the necessary appurtenances, and we find it charged for in the accounts of the department of the revels for that period. See "Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage," vol. i. p. 270. It is most likely that the actors from London accompanied this gift.

England to James VI. of Scotland, thus writes to Lord Burghley, under date of the 22d October:

"My Lord Bothw[ell] begins to shew himself willing and ready to do her Majesty any service, and desires hereafter to be thought of as he shall deserve: he sheweth great kindness to our nation, using her Majesties Players and Canoniers with all courtesie "."

In 1589, the date of Ashby's dispatch, Shakespeare had quitted Stratford about three years, and the question is, what company was intended to be designated as "her Majesty's players." It is an admitted fact, that in 1583 the Queen selected twelve leading performers from the theatrical servants of some of her nobility, and they were afterwards called "her Majesty's players;" and we also now know, that in 1590 the Queen had two companies acting under her name3: in the autumn of the preceding year, it is likely that one of these associations had been sent to the Scottish capital for the amusement of the young king, and the company formed in 1583 may have been divided into two bodies for this express purpose. Sir John Sinclair, in his "Statistical Account of Scotland," established that a body of comedians was in Perth in June, 1589; and although we are without evidence that they were English players, we may fairly enough assume that they were the same company spoken of by Ashby, as having been used courteously by Lord Bothwell in the October following. We have no means of ascertaining the names of any of the players, nor indeed, excepting the leaders Laneham and Dutton, can we state who were the members of the Queen's two companies in 1590. Shakespeare might be one of them; but if he were, he might not

2 From MS. Harl. 4647, being copies of despatches from Mr. Ashby to different members of the Council in London. We are indebted to Mr. N. Hill for directing our attention to this curious notice.

See Mr. P. Cunningham's " Extracts from the Revels' Accounts," (printed for the Shakespeare Society,) p. xxxii.; and this vol., p. xxxvii.

belong to that division of the company which was dispatched to Scotland.

It is not at all improbable that English actors, having found their way north of the Tweed in 1589, would speedily repeat their visit; but the next we hear of them is, not until after a long interval, in the autumn of 1599. The public records of Scotland show that in October, 1599, (exactly the same season as that in which, ten years earlier, they are spoken of by Ashby) 431. 6s. 8d. were delivered to "his Higness' self," to be given to "the English comedians:" in the next month they were paid 417. 12s. at various times. In December they received no less than 3331. 6s. 8d.; in April, 1600, 107.; and in December, 1601, the royal bounty amounted to 400/.+

Thus we see, that English players were in Scotland from October, 1599, to December, 1601, a period of more than two years; but still we are without a particle of proof that Shakespeare was one of the association. We cannot, however, entertain a doubt that Laurence Fletcher, (whose name, we shall see presently, stands first in the patent granted by King James on his arrival in London) was the leader of the association which performed in Edinburgh and elsewhere, because it appears from the registers of the town council of Aberdeen, that on the 9th October, 1601, the 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

For these particulars of payments, and some other points connected with them, we are indebted to Mr. Laing, of Edinburgh, who has made extensive and valuable collections for a history of the Stage in Scotland.

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 16015. 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.

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, 1603, 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 profanation'.

1 The paragragh 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