ing every day more contemptible in the world's opinion, he died, like Voltaire, a mixture of imbecility, folly and irresolution." His picture forms the frontispiece of a jest book, which bears his name, and which answers Chettle's description of him; "the next, by his suit of russet, his buttoned cap, his taber, his standing on his toe, and other tricks, I know either to be the body or the resemblance of Richard Tarleton, who living, for his pleasant conceits, was of all men liked, and dying, for mirth left not his like." There are many strange stories recorded of his wit and his rogueries, but most of them have been applied to other celebrated jesters. Here is one that much savours of a tale told of Rabelais. Having run up a long score at an inn at Sandwich, and not being able, or not feeling disposed to pay, he made his boy accuse him of being a seminary priest. When the officers came they found him upon his knees crossing himself most devoutly; they paid his reckoning, made him prisoner and carried him off to London. He was taken before Recorder Fleetwood, who knew him well, and laughing heartily at the trick, not only discharged but invited him home to dinner. Another anecdote illustrates what has been before Isaid of the license allowed to the clowns. In a performance of "Henry the Fifth"-not Shakespeare's, but the old play of that name-Tarleton had to double the Chief Justice with the clown, and

TARLETON'S “GAGS."

21

the actor who personated Prince Hal gave him a ringing slap upon the face. Soon after the Justice's exit, Tarleton re-entered in his proper character. "Had'st thou been here then," said one of the actors, "thou would'st have seen Prince Henry hit the Judge a terrible box on the ear." "What, strike a judge?" exclaimed the clown, "then it must be very terrible to the judge, since the very report so terrifies me that my cheek burns again with it."

The old rhyme,

"The King of France with forty thousand men,

Went up a hill and then came down again,"

is mentioned in a Tract of 1642 as being one of " Old Tarleton's" songs.

CHAPTER II.

THE ORIGINAL ACTORS OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS.

Shakespeare-Richard Burbadge as an Actor-Eis Epitaph-Will Kempt and his Adventures-Hemings, Condell and SlyeAlleyn and Dulwich College-The Closing of the Theatres by the Puritans-Persecution of the Players- Robert Cox and his Mummeries-Beginning of the Revival.

HERE is but little record of the actors of this

THERE

period, except of those who were the originals in Shakespeare's plays. Their names stand thus in the first folio:

"The names of the principal actors in all these plays."

SHAKESPEARE AND RICHARD BURBADGE. 23

Of the first, and mightiest name in the list, little need be said, since it would be useless to enter into a discussion upon Shakespeare's merits as an actor; his contemporaries are silent upon the subject, and we are therefore without any means of judging. That he thoroughly understood the art is proved by his address to the players in "Hamlet;" but that is no proof of his own excellence, since there are many men who, although they are admirable judges of acting and excellent stage-managers, are very inferior performers. We know that he played the Ghost in his own "Hamlet," that he was the original Know'ell in "Every Man in his Humour," and that he was in the first cast of "Sejanus"and that is all.

The BURBADGES are believed to have sprung from a good Warwickshire family. James Burbadge has already been noticed in the previous chapter as an actor and the builder of the Blackfriars Theatre. The date of Richard's birth is unknown; Payne Collier surmises that he was Shakespeare's junior. He probably went upon the stage when quite a boy as a performer of female characters; and we find him holding a prominent position in his profession previous to 1588. An agreement is still extant between Richard Burbadge and a certain carpenter for the construction of the Globe Theatre. Of the lives of these old actors little is known; there were no anecdote-mongers in those days to pry into the

domesticities of celebrated men, and to make notes of every green-room scandal and tattle, or to write their reminiscences and take posthumous vengeance upon friends and enemies alike. Pleasant it would be for us if there had been such, for then we should have known Shakespeare the man as well as Shakespeare the dramatist. But literature and art were such recent creations that people had not yet learned to comprehend their value, and having little interest themselves in the private affairs of their professors, thought posterity would feel less, or none at all. Probably their lives were uneventful enough; most of them appear to have been highly respectable citizens, whose days were absorbed in the study and exercise of their art; their nights passed in the company of gay gallants who eagerly sought their society, were perhaps a little wild; but it was an age of life and vigour, when men's veins were filled with hot blood, and not the red stagnant fluid that now does service for it. Burbadge was the first of that noble line of great tragic actors which ended with Macready for ever, it would seem; and must have been, according to contemporary testimony, a most consummate master, second to none. All that is known of his biography may be contained in a few words. He was born, and lived, and died, in Holywell, (now the High Street,) or Halliwell Street, as it was then called, Shoreditch. According to one of his epitaphs, "On the death of that great