Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/208

 17* ALLESTRY. ed a good philologift and poet. He had a chief hand in the verfes and paftorals fpoken in the theatre at Oxford, May 21, 1681, by Mr. William Savile, fecond fon of the marquis of Halifax, and George Cholmondeley, fecond fon of Robert vifcou-nt Kells (both of Chrift-church) before James duke of York, his duchefs, and the lady Anne ; which verfes and paftorals were afterwards printed in the tc Examen Poeti- cum." He died O&ober 15, 1686, and was buried in St. Thomas's church-yard. ALLEYN (EDWARD), a celebrated Englifh player in the reigns of queen Elizabeth and king James, and founder of the IWS. papers college at Dulwich in Surry, was born in London, in the f I 1 ' 5 ." 1 parifh of St. Botolph, Sept. i, 1566, as appears from a me- eoLge! morandum of his own writing. Dr. Fuller fays, that he was Fuller's bred a ftage-player; and that his father would have given Worthies ofhim a liberal education, but that he was not turned for a fe- ngiand. rious courfe of life. He was, however, a youth of an excel- '01. 1001., , r. J lent capacity, a chearrul temper, a tenacious memory, a fweet elocution, and in his perfon of a (lately port and afped} ; all which advantages might well induce a young man to take to the theatrical profefTion. By feveral authorities we find he muft have been on the ftage fome time before 1592; for at this time he was in high favour with the town, and greatly applauded by the beft judges, particularly by Ben Jonfoiij who thus addrefles him in the following lines : If Rome fo great, and in her wifeft age, Fear'd not to boaft the glories of her fiage, A fkilful Rofcius and great ^Efop ; men, Yet crown'd with honours, as with riches then, Who had no lefs a trumpet to their name, Than Cicero, whofe very breath was fame : How can fo great example die in me, That, Alleyn, I fhould paufe to publifti thee ? Who, both their graces, in thyfelf haft more Outftrip'd, than they did all who went before : And prcfent worth, in all doft fo contract, As others fpake, but only thou doft al ; Wear this renown : 'tis juft that who did give numb! 89. So many poets life, by one fhould live. Haywood, in his prologue to Marloe's Jew of Malta, calls him Proteus for fhapes, and Rofcius for a tongue. He ufually played the capital parts, and was one of the original actors in Shakefpeare's plays j in fome of^Ben Jonfon's he was aifo a prin-