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/209

 A L L E Y N. a principal performer : but what ch ifonatcJ in either of thefe poets, is difficult now to iktcimine. I I, is iiov/- ing to the inaccuracy of their editors, who did net print the names of the players oppofite to the characters they ;., i ,i.,,- ed, as the modern cuilom is, but gave one p neral lilt of aclors to the whole fet of plays, as in the old (olio edition of Shakefpeare; or divided one from the other, fetting the du- matis perfonae before the plays, and the catalogue of per- formers after them, as in Jonlon's. Jt may appear furprizing, how one of Mr. Alleyn's pr.i- feflion fhould be enabled to ere;nc paternal fortune, which, though fmall. mi;;ht lay a founda- tion for his future afiluencc; and it ii to be pre fumed that the profits he received from acting, to one of his provident and managing dilpoh'tion, and one who by his excellence i;i playing drew after him fuch crowds of fpeclators, muft have confiderably improved his fortune : befides, he was not only an after, but mafler of a playhoufe, built at his own expence, by which he is faid to have amalTed crnfiderable wealth [A]. He was alfo keeper of the king's wild beads, or mailer of the [A] This was the Fortune play-houfe, near White-crofs-ftreet, by Moorfields. There is a tradition in the neighbour- hood of this phce, that in digging the foundation of this houfe, there was found a confiderable treafure ; fo thst it is probable the whole or greatefl part of it might fall to Mr. Alleyn. At this time they always ailed by day-light, and they had neither fcanes nor actreffes. Sir William Davenant opened the duke cf York's theatre in 1661, with his play of the Siege of Rhodes, and then it was that fcenes firft .appeared. About the fame time two women-players were niit introduced, who grew fo expert, not only in their own parts, but tho'e of the afters, that before the end of king Charles ITs reign, feme plays (particu- larly the Parfon's Wedding) were acted wholly by women. At the time of the Fortune playhoufe, there were four companies more, who all got money, and lived in replication. Mr. Lang- baine, in anfwer to the queftion, How five companies could then be maintained by the town, when in his time two could hardly fubfift? has made the following reply : I. " That though the town v.as ' perhaps not much moie than " half as popubt's, yet then thr prices " were fmall, there being no fcenes ; " and better order kept amongft the " company that came, which maJe very " good people think a play an innocent " diversion for an idle hour or two, the '' plays themfeives being then more in- " ftruclive and moral : whereas cf" late ' ed wirh vizard nrsiks, and their tr;c= " occafioning continual quarrels and " abufes, that many of the more cii- " lized part of the town are uneafy in " the company, and thun the theatre it " they would a houfc of fcjndal. It is an " argument of the votth of the plavs and " players of the Lift ?ge, andeaHly in- " fcned that they were much beyond " ours in this, to coafider that they " could fupport theirfrlves merely from their own merit, the weight of the matter, and thegoodnefs ot tb: allion, without fcenes and machines ; where- as the prefent pleys, with all their fhcw, can hardly draw an aud.enca, unlels there be the additional Inviu- 41 tion of a Cgnioc Fiticli, a monfieur " 1'ALbc, or fome fuch loreipn regale " exprelTed in the bills." LngbaJflc' Hiftrionica, oflavo, 1662, royal
 * ' the playhoui'es arefo extremely pefler-