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/210

 A L L E Y N. Nat. Kifr. and Antiq, of Surry, vul. l.p.ino. Edward Flowers Continual, of Stowe's A .,.,.., of LngJ. royal bear-garden, which was frequented by vafl crowds of fpetators ; and the profits anting from thefe foorts are foid to have amounted to five hundred pounds per annum. He vas thrice married ; and the portions of his two firft wives, they leaving him no illue to inherit, mU'.lit probably contri- bute to this benefaction. Such kind of donations have been frequently thought to proceed more from vanity and oftenta- tion than real piety ; but this of Mr. Alleyn has been afcrib- ed to a very fingular caufe, for the devil has been faid to be the firft promoter of it. Mr. Aubrey mentions a tradition, " that Mr. Aileyn playing a demon with fix others, in one tl of Shakefpeare's plays, was, in the midft of the play, fur- " prized by an apparition of ;he devil ; which fo worked on u hib fancy, that he made a vow, which he performed by " building Dulwich College," He began the foundation of this'college, under the direction of Inigo Jones, in 1614 ; and the buildings, gardens, &c. were finished in 1617, in which he is faid to have expended about 10,000 1. After the college v/as built, he met with fume difficulty in obtain- ing a charter for fettling his lands in mortmain ; for he pro- poled to endow it with 8cool. per annum, for the mainte- nance of one maficr, one warden, znd four fellows, three whereof were to be clergymen, and the fourth a fkilful r>r- ganift ; alfo fix poor men, and as many women, befides twelve poor boys, to be educated till the aoe of fourteen or fixteen, and then put out to fome trade or calling. The ob- druclion he met with, arofe from the lord chancellor Bacon, who v;ifhed king James to fettle part of thofe lands for the fupport of two academical lectures; and he wrote a letter to the marquis of Buckingham, dated Auguft 18, 1618, entreat- ing him to ufe his imereft with his majefty fur that pur- pofe [B], Mr. Alley n's foilicitation was however at laft com- [B] The letter is as follows: "I now write to give the king an account of a patent J have frayed at the feal : it is ot licence to give in mortmain eight hundred pound land, though it be of tenure in chief", to Allen ihat was the p'.uyer, fcr an hofpital. J like well that Alien phyeth the laft al of his life fo well ; but if his ma- ijive away hus to amortize his tvnurer, his court of wanls will decay j which I had well hoped /hou'd irn- piuve. But that v, huh moved me ch'.-rly, is that his nujeHy now htely did obfolutcly deny fir Hrn-y Saviie tor tv,o hundred pounds, and fir Ed- .s_aJys for one hundred pounds, to the perpetuating of tw'o leflurcs, ' the one in Oxford, the other in Cm- ' nour to his niajefty, and of which ' there is great wanr ; whereas hofpi- ' tals abound, and beggars abound never a whit the lels. It hisnupfty do like to paf* the book at all, yet if he " would be pleafed to abrioge the eight " hundred pounds to five hunJ;;d " pounds, and then give way to the " other two books for the univerfity, it " were a princely woikj and I would " make an humhle fuit to the king, and " defire your lordfTiip to join in it, that " it might bsfo." The Works of Fr.in- cis Lord Bico.o, vol. iv. tol. 1740. p- phcd
 * briHo-, foundauon? of fingnlar ho-