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soe soone shot up," and as these new men that were never bred from children in the King's service" (was not Pollard so? see above); and grow genuinely indignant at the thought of the proposed outrage. The passage of the utmost interest in their paper, and in the whole collection, is that in which they sketch the history of the theatres and of the company.

"The father of us, Cutbert and Richard Burbage, was the first builder of playhouses, and was himselfe in his younger yeeres a player. The Theater he built with many hundred poundes taken up at interest. The players that livd in those first times had only the profitts arising from the dores, but now the players receave all the comings in at the dores to themselves, and halfe the galleries from the houskeepers. Hee built this house upon leased ground by which means the landlord and hee had a great suite in law, and by his death the like troubles fell on us his sonnes. Wee then bethought us of altering from thence, and at like expense built the Globe, with more summes of money taken up at interest which lay heavy on us many yeeres: and to ourselves we joyned those deserveing men, Shakspere, Hemings, Condall, Phillips, and others, partners in the profittes of that they call the House, but makeing the leases for twenty-one yeeres hath beene the destruction of ourselves and others, for they dying at the expiration of three or four yeeres of their lease, the subsequent yeeres became dissolved to strangers as by marrying with their widdowes and the like by their children. Thus Right Honorable as concerning the Globe, where wee ourselves are but lessees. Now for the Blackfriers that is our inheritance; our father purchased it at extreame rates and made it into a playhouse with great charge and troble, which after was leased out to one Evans, that first sett up the boyes commonly called the Queene's Majesties Children of

M

the Chappell. In processe of time, the boyes growing up to bee men, which were Underwood, Field, Ostler, and were taken to strengthen the King's service, and the more to strengthen the service, the boyes dayly wearing out, it was considered that house would be as fitt for ourselves, and soe purchased the lease remaining from Evans with our money, and placed men players which were Hemings, Condall, Shakspeare, &c. And Richard Burbage who for thirty-five yeeres paines, cost and labour, made meanes to leave his wife and children some estate, and out of whose estate soe many of other players and their families have beene mayntaned, these new men, that were never bred from children in the King's service would take away, with oathes and menaces, that we shall bee forced, and that they will not thanke us for it; soe that it seemes they would not pay us for what they would have or wee can spare, which more to satisfie your honor than their threatening pride, we are for ourselves willing to part with a part betweene us, they paying according as ever hath beene the custome and the number of yeeres the lease is made for.”

It is not too much to say that this is one of the most important passages regarding Shakespeare that has yet been discovered. As to his connection with the stage, it is the most important.

We cannot do more now than point out the leading features of it. We are sure that, for exposition and illustration, it is in good hands with Mr. Halliwell. And we hope that he will let as little time as is consistent with sound workmanship elapse before he makes the result of his researches generally accessible.

For the first time we have a direct and trustworthy account of Shakespeare's first connection with the Lord Chamberlain's players and the Globe Theatre. It would

appear that it was after the building of the Bankside Theatre that "those deserving men Shakspeare, Hemings, Condall, Phillips and others" were made "partners in the profittes of that they call the House." Now that house was erected about 1594; so that a certain list, purporting to give the names of the Blackfriars shareholders in 1589, or rather the views it represents, for the list itself has now for some years been accepted as spurious, are finally negatived. Again we see that those biographers are mistaken who have represented the building of the Globe as undertaken by Shakespeare himself. Further, it was not, it would seem, till the time when Evans's lease of the Blackfriars Theatre was purchased back from him that the said "deserving men" acted in that theatre. Now this re-purchase was made when the Children of the Chapel whom Evans had "set up" there grew to be men. Of these children, Underwood, Field, and Ostler are specially named; and we know that these three acted as boys in Ben Jonson's Poetaster in 1601, and that Ostler and Underwood acted as men in The Alchemist in 1610. If they were taken to strengthen the King's service, the transference did not take place till after May, 1603, obviously, and also because not till the accession of James the First was Burbage's company specially retained by the King, and entitled the "King's Players." Thus we learn that Shakespeare's connection with the Blackfriars Theatre began at a much later date than is commonly supposed. Also, does it not seem probable that he continued to act later than the general opinion allows? On various other matters of interest suggested by this passage, we cannot now enter.

The sixth document reports how Shanks had attempted to make an arrangement with this discontented three; "but they not onely refused to give satisfaccion, but restrained him from the stage.”

The series concludes with a memorandum by the Lord Chamberlain :—

"I desire Sir H. Herbert and Sir John Finett, and my solicitor Daniell Bedingfield, to take this petition and the several papers heerunto annexed into their serious considerations, and to speake with the severall parties interested, and therupon and upon the whole matter to sett downe a proportionable and equitable summe of money to bee payd unto Shankes for the two partes which hee is to passe unto Benfield, Swanston, and Pollard, and to cause a finall agreement and convayances to be settled accordingly, and to give mee an account of their whole proceedinges in writing."1.

Aug. 1, 1635.

1 A copy of these documents is now to be found in the Appendix to Part I. of Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps' Illustrations of the Life of Shakespeare. Longmans, 1874.

X.

A CONCORDANCE TO SHAKESPEARE'S

POEMS.1

(From the Academy for Oct. 17, 1874.)

It is not likely fove these win more than a century war

T is not likely that there will soon be an end of Shake

has raged over the remains of the great dramatist, and the odium Shakespearianum has scarcely been surpassed by that which characterizes rival theologians. There have arisen from time to time noisy sciolists, who have settled everything to their own satisfaction with an overbearing dogmatism varying inversely with their fitness for the work; and a glance at the criticism of our own day suffices to show that this breed is not extinct, or on the verge of extinction. Literary quackery has in fact displayed itself with peculiar brilliancy in connection with Shakespeare. The mountebank has come forward with his nostrum, and audacious and blatant after the manner of his kind, professed to cure every disorder; and for an hour or so foolish people have listened. But presently this gentleman and his goods have disappeared, and some new doctor has taken his place and bawled out the virtues of some fresh panacea. The Commentators have become proverbial, not for wisdom. Not that there have not been amongst them men of infinite

1 A Concordance to Shakespeare's Poems: An Index to every Word therein contained. By Mrs. Horace Howard Furness. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott and Co., 1874.)