THEATRES AND PLAYS. Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels from 1622 to 1673, 'He's one whose unbought muse did never fear But to these authorities are to be opposed some lines in the prologue to Dekker's If it be not good, the Devil is in it, 1612, which is the oldest printed testimony I have discovered on the subject. It is not praise is sought for now, but pence 'Though dropp'd from greasy apron audience. 'Clapp'd may he be with thunder, that plucks bays With such foul hands, and with squint eyes doth gaze 'On Pallas' shield, not caring (so he gains A cramm'd third day) what filth drops from his brains.' The practice might vary according to the popularity of the poet, and the terms he was able to make; and in the dedication of the same play, to his loving and loved friends and fellows, the Queen's Majesty's servants,' Dekker complains that hitherto he had been underpaid: his words are a sign the world hath an ill ear, when no 'music is good unless it strike up for nothing: I have Sir John Denham, in the sung so, but will no more.' author of the false Second part of Hudibras, 12mo. 1663, canto i. was the work of Heywood: The ancient poet, Heywood, draws 'From ancestors of these his laws 'The Grecian wars and Beauchamps bold.' 'The Grecian wars' may allude to the same piece which Gayton, in a quotation on a preceding page, calls Greeks and Trojans, coupling it with The Three London Apprentices, undoubtedly Heywood's play. prologue to his Sophy, acted at Blackfriars in 1642, speaks of the second or third day, as belonging to the poet; which confirms, in some degree, the conjecture, that whether the one or the other should be given to the author was matter of distinct arrangement, and not of settled custom. Gentlemen, if you dislike the play, Pray make no words on't, 'till the second day 'Or third be past.' At one period, writing for the stage seems to have become, in a degree, fashionable; and another description of dramatists are alluded to by some of our old poetsthose who did not receive money for, but who paid money with, their plays, in order to procure them to be acted. R. Brome mentions them in his Court Beggar, both in the prologue and epilogue, as well as in the body of his play, performed in 1632: in the prologue, in these terms: • Yet you to him your favours may express 'As well as unto those, whose forwardness 'Makes them your creatures thought, who in a way To purchase fame, give money with their play.' In Act ii., he proposes that a piece of this kind shall, nevertheless, be rejected, unless the author become bound that it shall do 'true and faithful service for a whole term; and in the epilogue, which is in prose, he charges these right worshipful poets' with claiming to have made their interludes' themselves, when, for aught you know, they bought them of university scholars.' Shirley, in his Witty Fair One, 1633, Act iv., tells us that these university scholars' had tried in vain to get their plays performed, even with the inducement of giving money with them; at least, such seems to be the inference from the passage. Violetta observes, We have excellent poets in town, they say;' to which Sir Nicholas replies, with some astonishment, 'I'th' town? what makes so 'many scholars, then, come from Oxford and Cambridge, 'with dossers full of lamentable tragedies and ridiculous 'comedies, which they might here vent to the players, but 'they will take no money for them.' He seems to mean, either that the players will not consent to take money for acting them, or he speaks ironically, that the scholars' will take no money for them,' because they can prevail upon none of the companies to buy them. ON THE PAYMENT OF ACTORS. THE performers at our earlier theatres were distinguished into whole sharers, three-quarter sharers, half sharers, and hired men. 米, Into how many shares the receipts at the doors were divided, in any instance, does not appear; and, doubtless, it depended upon the number of persons of which a company consisted, and other circumstances. Malone' suspected that the money taken was separated into forty portions, and that the receipts at the Globe or Blackfriars did not usually amount to more than 91. on each performance he assigns fifteen of the forty shares to the housekeepers or proprietors, and twenty-two shares to the actors, leaving three shares to be applied to the purchase of new plays. His notion of the nightly receipts was founded upon the accounts of Sir Henry Herbert, which, on this point, do not begin earlier than the year 1628. The King's *Shakespeare by Boswell, iii. 170. players, performing in the summer at the Globe, and in the winter at the Blackfriars, allowed him a benefit at each theatre, for five years and a half: the highest amount he netted was in the first year of this bargain, when he received 177. 10s.; and the lowest 17. 5s.; but the average of the five years and a half was 8l. 19s. 4d. If the clear profits at these houses were no more, Henslowe seems to have taken to himself a very large proportion of the receipts at the Rose and Newington theatres in his entries in the MS. at Dulwich College, from 1591 to 1597, he often makes his share amount to between 31. and 4l., and once to 61. 7s. 8d. Marlow's Jew of Malta produced him 47. as his proportion of the money taken on the 12th June, 1594, when it was by no means a new play; and a piece, called Woman hard to Please, not now known, brought him the sum already mentioned-61. 7s. Sd. Malone, however, imagines (for we are destitute of any clear account upon the point) that on remarkable occasions the whole money taken at the doors of the Globe or Blackfriars might amount to 201.* Sharers, half-sharers, and hired men, are mentioned in the old satirical play, Histriomastix, 1610. In one scene, the dissolute performers having been arrested by soldiers, one of the latter exclaims, Come on, players! now we are the sharers and you the hired men ;' and in another scene, Clout, one of the characters, rejects with some indignation the offer of half a share.' In the same production, we also meet with the term 'master-sharers:' they are spoken of by an officer as more substantial *The author of The Actors Remonstrance, 1643, says that the 'House-keepers' shared 'ten, twenty, nay, thirty shillings' on each night of performance, which they put into 'their large and well-stuffed pockets.' men: You that are master-sharers must provide you your own purses.' Some of the actors, or master-sharers, were also proprietors of more shares than one. Gamaliel Ratsey, in that rare tract, called Ratseis Ghost (printed about 1606), knights the principal performer of a company by the title of Sir Three-shares and a half;' and Tucca, in Ben Jonson's Poetaster (played in 1601), addressing Histrio, observes, Commend me to Seven shares and a half,' as if some individual, at that period, had engrossed as large a proportion. Shakespeare, in Hamlet, speaks of a whole share,' as a source of no contemptible emolument, and of the owner of it as a person filling no inferior station in 'a cry of players.' In Northward Ho! also, a sharer is noticed with respect. Bellamont, the poet, enters and tells his servant, Sirrah, I'll speak with none:' on which the servant asks 'Not a player?' and his master replies: 'No-though a sharer bawl: I'll speak with none, although it be the mouth Of the big company. Three-quarter sharers are mentioned in The Ant and the Nightingale, 1604, (attributed to Middleton,) where he says, the Ant began to stalk like a three-quarter sharer.' In the complaint against Henslowe, drawn up by Joseph Taylor and other players in 1614, it is mentioned that some who had been only three-quarter sharers' had advanced themselves to whole sharers. The value of a share in any particular company would depend upon the number of subdivisions, upon the popularity of the body, upon the stock-plays belonging to it, upon the extent of its wardrobe, and the nature of its properties. Upon this point we are not wholly without information in |