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Alleyn players in 1607, nor in another list probably of a still earlier date; and from the way in which Thomas Heywood speaks of him in 1612 (Apology for Actors, ed. 1841, p. 43), his retirement could hardly then have been recent:—‘Among so many [actors] dead let me not forget one yet alive, in his time the most worthy, famous Maister Edward Allen.’ His last recorded appearance was on 15 March, 1603–4, when, as Genius, he delivered, ‘with excellent action and a well-tun'de, audible voyce,’ an address to James I at his reception in the city (, Magnificent Entertainment, 1604). Of his eminence as an actor there can be no question. The opinions of Nash and Heywood have already been quoted, and a still more competent critic, Ben Jonson, in his ‘Epigram,’ addressed to Alleyn himself, is equally emphatic. Although Fuller (b. 1608) could not himself have seen him on the stage, he no doubt expresses the general verdict of his older contemporaries, and his testimony is not the less valuable that he shows himself prejudiced against Alleyn's profession: ‘He was the Roscius of our age, so acting to the life that he made any part (especially a majestick one) to become him.’ Very few, however, of the characters he sustained have been recorded. From allusions by Heywood and others he is known to have played the hero in Marlowe's ‘Jew of Malta,’ ‘Tamburlaine,’ and ‘Faustus,’ as well as in the anonymous play ‘Cutlack,’ of which only the title survives. It has also been inferred from the existence at Dulwich of an actor's copy of the part, that he played Orlando in Robert Greene's ‘Orlando Furioso;’ and no doubt he took the leading character in many of the pieces mentioned in Henslowe's diary. There is no evidence, however, that he acted in any of Shakespeare's dramas; and among all his extant papers (spurious documents excepted) Shakespeare's name is only once mentioned. This is in a note of the purchase by Alleyn of his ‘Sonnets’ in 1609.

Besides the Fortune and the Bear Garden, Alleyn's growing wealth had already enabled him to make leasehold investments in Kennington and Southwark, and at Firle in Sussex; and finally, on 25 Oct. 1605, he purchased from Sir Francis Calton the manor of Dulwich. An allusion to this has been found in a sarcastic passage on rich actors in the ‘Return from Parnassus,’ 1606: With mouthing words, that better wits have framed, They purchase lands, and now esquires are made. The sum paid to Calton was 5,000l., of which, however, 3,000l. remained at interest for six years. The bargain was completed on 8 May 1606; but as other holdings had to be bought up, it was not until 1614 that the whole estate passed into Alleyn's hands, at a total cost of nearly 10,000l. Having meanwhile himself removed to Dulwich from Southwark, he began the building of the college, which perpetuates his name, in 1613, the contract for the chapel, schoolhouse, and twelve almshouses, being dated 17 May. The story told by Aubrey (Nat. Hist. and Antiq. of Surrey, 1719, i. p. 190), that this praiseworthy disposal of his gains was due to remorse, quickened by the apparition of the devil when he was acting a demon in one of Shakespeare's plays, is hardly worth notice. As Mr. Collier suggests, it perhaps originated in a distorted account of an alarm at the Rose during a performance of ‘Faustus,’ recorded in Middleton's ‘Black Book,’ 1604. The conjecture that the idea of his college was taken from Sutton's Charterhouse, founded in 1611, only two years before, is more reasonable; and there are references also in his papers to Winchester, Eton, and a similar institution at Amsterdam. Before the building was finished Alleyn lost his father-in-law, Henslowe, who died on or about 9 Jan. 1616. Henslowe's will was in favour of his widow, and it was at once disputed by his nephew and heir-at-law. The result is not recorded, nor does it appear how much of the estate came to Alleyn in right of his wife at her mother's death in April 1617. Meanwhile, on 1 Sept. 1616, the chapel of the college was consecrated by Archbishop Abbot, but a year still elapsed before the full number of inmates were admitted. A diary of Alleyn, extending from 29 Sept. 1617 to 1 Oct. 1622, makes this the best known period of his life. Among other interesting details it shows that the necessary royal patent for the incorporation and endowment of the charity was not obtained without difficulty. It was opposed by Lord Chancellor Bacon for reasons expressed, on 18 Aug. 1618, in a letter to Buckingham, whose interest Alleyn had wisely secured. Bacon's objections were not personal to Alleyn, but were only consistent with what he had before urged to the king against the Charterhouse and all similar charitable foundations (, Life, iv. p. 247, vi. p. 324). On 21 June 1619, the patent at length passed the great seal, and on 13 Sept. Alleyn read and signed the deed of foundation in the chapel, afterwards entertaining the company, among whom was Bacon himself, at a sumptuous banquet. The ‘College of God's Gift’ thus incorporated consisted of a master, warden (both of whom were to be of the name of Alleyn), four