Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/472

 468 Hillebrand The present compilation is evidently and avowedly inspired by Professor Feuillerat's editions of the Revels Accounts for Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth. Most unfortunately the chain of these records is broken just at the point where we would prize it most during the fruitful first two decades of the 17th century whence have come down to us only a few precious fragments. But with the entry of Henry Herbert into the mastership of the Revels in July, 1623, the continuity of records resumes. As every one knows, the Office Book of Herbert, like that of Sir George Buc, has disappeared; yet luckily not before it was known and studied by two faithful scholars, Edmund Malone and George Chalmers, and through their liberal citations preserved to the world. These quotations, covering the period 1622-1642, give an invaluable framework on which to build the dramatic history of those years. Professor Adams has undertaken to gather from printed sources all evidences relating to the theatrical activities of Herbert. Thus he has not only reassembled the Office Book, but he has printed a half-dozen miscellaneous documents relating to Herbert and the Revels Office prior to 1642, and above forty documents relating to similar activities between 1660 and his death in 1673. The sources of these materials are chiefly comprised in Malone's History of the Stage, Chalmers' Apology and Supplementary Apology, Halliwell-Phillipps' Col- lection of Ancient Documents Respecting the Office of the Revels, and Rebecca Warner's Epistolary Curiosities. The collection is divided into three parts: The Office Book 1622-1642; Miscellaneous Documents, L622-1642; and Miscel- laneous Documents, 1642-1673. The entries of the first section are conveniently classified under such headings as Censorship of Plays, Licenses of Plays, Licenses for the Press, Licenses of Playhouses and Companies, Plays and Masques at Court. There are copious footnotes dealing with identities of plays, first performances, authorship, actors, and theatres, wherein the voice of Frederic Gard Fleay, not undisputed, is nevertheless dominant. The second section of miscellaneous documents between 1622 and 1642 contains unimportant business data aside from two lists of plays acted at Court by the King's Company, 1636-1639. The third section of miscellaneous docu- ments between 1660 and 1673 presents vividly the story of Herbert's fight to gain back his office and his licensing authority, his partial success, his lawsuits with Davenant and Killigrew, and his compounding with Killigrew. It includes also documents relating more directly to the history of the drama, like the list of plays acted by the King's Company between 1660 and 1662. This section makes an invaluable beginning for the study of the Restoration stage and drama of the transitional period.