Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/622

Rh 584 A L L E Y N rare excellence in the histrionic art. Ben Jonson, a critic nowise prone to exalt the merits of men of mark among his contemporaries, but addicted rather to disparagement, and even, as Drummond of Hawthornden tells, to bitterest detraction, bestowed, nevertheless, unstinted praise on Alleyn s acting (see Jonson s Epigrams, No. 89). Nash, in Pierce Pennyless, his Supplication to the Devil, expresses in prose the same eulogy that Jonson renders in verse. Hey- wood calls Alleyn &quot;inimitable,&quot; &quot;the best of actors,&quot; and &quot; Proteus for shapes and Eoscius for a tongue.&quot; (Prologue to Marlowe s Jew of Malta.) Peele s letter to Marlowe, quoted by several of Alleyn s biographers, telling of a merry meeting at which Shake speare, Ben Jonson, and Alleyn figure in the front rank of a group of choice spirits, has long been numbered among literary forgeries. (See the Life prefixed to Dyce s Peele s Works, 1829.) But ample and clear evidence remains to show his great celebrity as an actor. His professional earnings as a player formed, however, one only, and not the chief, among several sources from which he drew the wealth that afterwards sustained his great foundation ; and his fame as an actor must long since have faded into a dim tradition, of little or no concern to present times, but for the association of his name with an institution around which cluster interesting historic reminiscences, and whose future is fraught with high promise. He inherited house property in Bishops- gate from his father. His marriage, in 1592, with Joan Woodward, stepdaughter to Henslowe, a successful specu lator in theatrical and kindred enterprises, brought him eventually much wealth. He became successively part owner in Henslowe s ventures, and in the end sole pro prietor of sundry play-houses and other resorts for the diversion of pleasure-seekers. Among these were the Rose Theatre at Bankside, in close contiguity to Shakespeare s Globe Theatre ; the Paris Garden, in the same vicinage, where were enacted such pastimes as bear-baiting, bull- baiting, and other sports of the period ; and the Fortune Theatre in St Luke s. He filled, too, in conjunction with Henslowe, the post of &quot;master of the king s games of bears, bulls, and dogs.&quot; He continued to discharge the duties of this office long after he had relinquished his other profes sional work. Alleyn s ownership in Dulwich lands began in 1G06, and further acquisitions, made in the course of the next five years, during which he was gradually breaking away from the actual practice of the histrionic art, though not from theatrical speculations or kindred enterprises, increased his holding to more than 1300 acres. His residential con nection with Dulwich began in 1G07. He occupied the manor-liouse, a mansion even then very ancient, but which is still tenanted, after many additions and alterations. The priors and abbots of Bennondsey owned and occupied it through the four centuries preceding their expulsion in 1537, when Henry VIII. assigned their house and adjacent church lands to Thomas Calton, grandfather to the Calton who sold his heritage to Alicyn. Some details respecting this and other purchases of neighbouring estates are set forth in Alleyn s own writing, in a small thick memorandum-book which, with other Alicyn papers pre served at Dulwich, has been carefully scrutinised by the writer of this notice. The landed property stretches from the crest of that range of Surrey hills on whose summit rests the Crystal Palace, to the crest of the parallel ridge, three miles nearer London, known in its several portions as Herno Hill, Denmark Hill, and Champion Hill. Alleyn acquired this Large suburban property for little more than 10,000, which may be estimated as equivalent to 50,000 in the present day. But the present value of the lands which he bought for such a price is hardly under a million and a-half sterling, so enormous has been the rise in the value of land in and near London. Alleyn had barely got full possession of this property before the question how to dispose of it began to press upon him. He was still childless, after twenty years of wedded life. Then it was that the prosperous player the man &quot; so acting to the life that he made any part to become him &quot; (Fuller, Worthies) began &quot;playing the last act of his life so well&quot; (Bacon s Letter to the Marquis of Buckingham, dated 18th August 1618), as to gain the general applause of his own age, and a large measure of admiration in after times. He built and endowed in his own lifetime the College of God s Gift at Dulwich. All was completed in 1617, except the charter or deed of incorporation for setting his lands in mortmain. Tedious delays occurred in the Star Chamber, where Lord Chancellor Bacon was scheming to bring the pressure of kingly authority to bear on Alleyn with the aim of securing a large portion of the proposed endow ment for the maintenance of lectureships at Oxford and Cambridge. Alleyn finally carried his point, and the College of God s Gift at Dulwich was founded, and endowed under letters patent of James I. dated 21st of June 1619. The college, as thus incorporated, consisted of twelve &quot;poor scholars&quot; and as many pensioners, the latter comprising equal numbers of men and Avomen &quot; poor brethren &quot; and &quot; poor sisters,&quot; together with a teaching and governing staff of six higher officials. These latter included a master and a warden, who were always to be of the founder s surname, and four fellows, all &quot;graduates and divines,&quot; among whom were apportioned the ministerial work of the chapel, the instruction of the boys, and the supervision of the almspeople or pensioners. The scholars and pensioners were to be drawn in equal numbers from the four London parishes out of which the founder drew his wealth. A curious legend, dating from the time of the founder, and always current afterwards among the pen sioners on his bounty, tells that he was scared into hie generous and charitable scheme by an apparition of the devil, in propria persona, among some theatrical demons in a drama in which he was acting. In the fright thus occasioned he was said to have made a vow, which ho redeemed in the founding of Dulwich College. Alleyn was never a member of his own foundation, as stated by Heywood, and copied by succeeding writers. The college records clearly set this point at rest. But he continued to the close of his life to guide and control the affairs of his foundation, under powers reserved to himself in the letters patent. His diary shows that he mixed much arid intimately in the daily life of the college. Many of the jottings in that curious record of daily doings and incidents favour the inference that he was genial, kind, amiable, and withal a religious man. His fondness for his old professional work is indicated by the fact that he engaged the boys in occasional theatrical performances. At a festive gathering on the 6th of January 1622 &quot;the boyes play d a playe.&quot; Shakespeare s name is interw r oven with local traditions bearing on Alleyn s life at Dulwich, and the links of association between these famous contemporaries afford strong antecedent probability that the tradition sprang from something more solid than &quot; such stuff as dreams are made of.&quot; Each began and closed his professional career as a stage-player in nearly the self-same period and in neighbouring theatres. During several years they were near neighbours in their homes at Bankside, then the headquarters of players and play-houses. Leading actors then, as afterwards, came much in contact with the living authors whose creations they personated. Alleyn per formed in &quot; Leir,&quot; the &quot; Moore of Venis,&quot; &quot; liomeo,&quot;