CONTENTS. RICHARD BURBADGE AND OTHER ORIGINALS OF SHAKE- The Early English Drama and the First Theatres.-The Com- pany of the Globe Playhouse, Burbadge, Kempe, Hem- Colley Cibber, Wit, Actor, Playwright, and Poet-Laureate.-A Patriarch of the Stage, linking together two Great Eras.- His Career as Player and Author.-Theophilus Cibber's PAGE The Misery and Suffering of his Childhood.-Vicissitudes as a Strolling Player.-Makes his Début in London as Shylock. -Instant Recognition by the Town.-His Career in Eng- Kean's Rival in Acting, and Contrast in Character.-A Repu- table, Laborious, and Conscientious Life.-Charles Young holds the London Stage for Twenty-five Years against Kemble, Cooke, and Garrick.-The English Talma, and his One of the Most Brilliant of Modern Comédiennes.-A Touch- ing and Romantic Story.-The Modern Mrs. Bellamy and LIGHTS OF THE OLD ENGLISH STAGE. CHAPTER I. RICHARD BURBADGE AND OTHER ORIGINALS OF SHAKESPEARE'S CHARACTERS. The Early English Drama and the First Theatres.-The Company of the Globe Play-House, Burbadge, Kempe, Heminge, Caudell, Sly, Taylor, and Alleyn.-Traditions of their Acting. AN Elizabethan writer distinctly states that before 1570 "he neither knew nor read of any such theatres, set stages or playhouses as have been purposely built within man's memory." When the performances were not given in private houses, inn-yards still sufficed for accommodation, as they had a century and more previously. In 1572, so greatly had the number of actors increased that it was enacted that all who could not show licenses signed by two justices of the peace should be dealt with as rogues and vagabonds. The servants and mechanics, some from pride, some from idleness, some because they felt within them the stirrings of nobler talents, had deserted their legitimate callings and taken up wholly with their occasional ones; such was no doubt the origin of the earlier theatrical companies. In 1586 Walsingham mentions two hundred players as being in or near London; this perhaps is an exaggeration, and of course includes not only the regular companies but the irregular troupes who played in inn-yards without li cense. In 1574 the first royal license, still extant, was granted to James Burbadge (the father of Richard) and other players of Lord Leicester's, giving them the right to play within the city of London and its liberties, or any cities, towns, or boroughs throughout England. This was strongly opposed by the mayor and aldermen, already tainted with Puritanism, and it would seem to a certain extent effectually, for it is doubtful whether the actor ever obtained a footing within the jurisdiction of those potentates. It has been surmised that the opposition of the city to plays being performed in the inn-yards within its bounds first brought about the construction of regular theatres. This opposition continued to vent itself in petitions and complaints to the sovereign; the great concourse of people they brought prevented customers from getting to their shops, impeded marriages, burials, etc. In 1600 an order was issued in council to limit the theatres to two, the Fortune and the Globe; but there seems to have been no attempt to carry it out, for in 1616 we find the mayor calling attention to this order, and directing the suppression of Blackfriars. The rapidity with which the public profession of actor advanced in estimation and position is noticed in the following passage from the continuation of Stowe's Chronicle by Howes: "Comedians and stage players of former times were very poor and ignorant in respect of this time; but being now (1583) growne very skilful and exquisite |