BURBADGE AS AN ACTOR. 25 master in his art and quality, painting and playing," he was doubly an artist; and Payne Collier conjectures that Martin Droeshout's engraving of Shakespeare, in the first folio, was taken from a likeness painted by Burbadge. There is no evidence to support such a supposition, but it is not at all an improbable one. There are many testimonies still extant of the high esteem in which he was held. In the "Return from Parnassus," one of the characters says: "For honour, who of more repute than Dick Burbadge and Will Kempt-he is not accounted a gentleman who does not know Dick Burbadge and Will Kempt." He was universally acknowledged to stand at the head of his profession and to be above rivalry. Wagers were frequently made in those days upon the merits of favourite actors, who were compared one against the other; even the great Alleyn was at times involved in such trials of skill, but never Burbadge; with him it was not believed possible to contest. He died in 1618, some say of the plague, but this line, in an epitaph from which I shall presently quote, "He (Death) first made seizure of thy wondrous tongue," seems to indicate paralysis. In the register of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, we read: "1618. Richard Burbadge, player, was buried the xvjth of March, Halliwell Street." He was the original of the greater number of Shakespeare's heroes-of Corio lanus, Brutus, Romeo, Hamlet, Othello, Lear, Shylock, Macbeth, Henry V., Prince Hal, and Richard the Third. Bishop Corbet, in his "Iter Boreale," relating how his host at Leicester described the battle of Bosworth Field, says: "Besides what of his knowledge he could say, He had authenticke notice from the play; Which I might guess, by's mustering up the ghosts, And policyes, not incident to hostes; But chiefly by that one perspicuous thing, Where he mistooke a player for a king, For when he would have sayed, 'King Richard dyed,' Here are extracts from a famous elegy which enumerates some of his greatest characters and gives us an excellent idea of his acting: "He's gone, and with him what a world are dead, Friends every one, and what a blank instead! Take him for all in all, he was a man Not to be match'd, and no age ever can. No more young Hamlet, though but scant of breath, Poor Romeo never more shall tears beget For Juliet's love and cruel Capulet: Harry shall not be seen as king or prince, They died with thee dear Dick, * * And Crookback, as befits, shall cease to live. We vainly now may hope to understand. *It will be noted how differently this and other names are spelt by different authors, but the orthography of proper names was little attended to in our early literature. BURBADGE'S EPITAPH. Brutus and Marcius henceforth must be dumb, Thy stature small, but every thought and mood Wherein beyond the rest he moved the heart, All these and many more with him are dead. England's great Roscius! for what Roscius Had'st thou but spoke with Death, and us'd the power Of his assault, he had let fall his dart And quite been charm'd with thy all-charming art." 27 "He was a delightful Proteus," says Flecknoe,† "so wholly transforming himself into his part, and putting off himself with his clothes, as he never, * All representatives of Shylocks wore a red wig until Kean donned a black, the former colour it would seem, however, has the authority of the original. In the "Discourses on the English Stage." (not so much as in the tyring house) assumed himself again until the play was done. * * * * He had all the parts of an excellent actor (animating his words with speaking and speech with action) his auditors being never more delighted than when he spoke, nor more sorry than when he held his peace; yet even then he was an excellent actor still, never failing in his part when he had done speaking; but with his looks and gesture, maintaining it still unto the height." The Queen of James the First died about the same time, but royalty was forgotten in grief for the stage favourite, as it was pointed out by a satiric poet of the time. "Burbadge, the player, has vouchsafed to die! Therefore in London is not one eye dry. * Dick Burbadge was their mortal god on earth: But where's the grief should follow good Queen Anne ?" Tarleton's immediate successor and almost equal in wit was WILL KEMPE; but he was a legitimate actor as well as a clown, being, it is supposed, the original Dogberry, Peter, Launce, Shallow, Launcelot Gobbo, Touchstone, and the First Gravedigger. In an old pamphlet he is spoken of as "the most comical and conceited cavaleire M. de Kempe, jestmonger and vice-gerent general to the ghost of Dick Tarleton." Heywood, in his "Apology for Actors," says, "To whom (Tarleton) succeeded WILL KEMPE AND His adventures. 29 Will Kempe, as well in the favour of Her Majesty as in the opinion and good thoughts of the general audience." Nash speaks of him in 1589 as a complete and finished actor, whose fame had extended even beyond the shores of England. But it is thought that Hamlet's diatribe against "gagging" was especially meant for Kempe. Like Tarleton, he did not confine his wit and vagaries to the stage, but frequently practised them out of doors. There is in an old pamphlet, dated 1600, written by him, entitled "Nine Daies Wonder. Performed in a Morris Dance from London to Norwich, containing the pleasures, paines and kinde entertainments of William Kempe between London and that City," &c. On the title-page there is a woodcut representing Kempe, dancing with bells on his legs, wearing a brocaded jacket and scarf, attended by Thomas Sly, another noted actor, as tabourer. It need scarcely be remarked that this strange expedition was undertaken for a wager. A yet more extraordinary feat was performed by him under the same condition-walking backwards to Berwick. Another time he journeyed to France and Rome, dancing all the way it would seem from the following verse: "He did labour after the tabor, For to dance; then into France To skip it. |