as

MB WALLACK,

Dessandro Massaroni in
the Brigand.

London Published Jan? 1.1830. by Whittaker Treacher & C Ave Maria Lane.

and at the Artists Repository, and Public Library, 37. Charlotte Street. Rathbone Place.

Rogers.sc

THE above curious portrait was taken from a wooden cut of the actor, prefixed to his drama of "Nine Dais VVonder, performed in a dance from London to Norwich: containing the pleasure, paines, and kind entertainment of William Kempe, between London and that city, in his late morrices; wherein is somewhat set down worth note, to reprove the slanders spread of him; many things mery, nothing hurtful; written by himself, to satisfie his friends, B. L., 1600:" with a wooden cut of Kempe as a morrice dancer, preceded by a fellow with a pipe and drum; whom (in the books) he calls Thomas Sly, taberer. It is dedicated to "the true, ennobled, and most bountiful Mistress, Anne Fitton, Mayde of honour to the most sacred Mayde Royall, Queene Elizabeth."

The accounts which have been handed down to us of this actor, are very trifling; he was, however, one of the disciples and suc

It has long been a source of regret to the admirers of Dramatic Literature, that the accounts which have been handed down to us of our early actors, are so extremely scanty and diffused, while our knowledge of their persons or dresses is so confined, that the few portraits of them which are extant, are deemed valuable curiosities. The Editor has been for some time past busily employed in obtaining the materials for presenting his readers with illustrated memoirs of them.

T T

cessors of the famous Tarleton, (who was buried on the 3d of September, 1588,) as well" in the favour of her Majesty, as in the good thoughts of the general audience." He was one of the original actors in Shakspeare's plays; and appears, from the quarto editions, to have been the first performer of Peter, in Romeo and Juliet, in 1595; and of Dogberry, in Much Ado about Nothing, in 1600. He was also the original Shallow. He was remarkable for that extemporal wit which Shakspeare reproves in Hamlet's well known address to the players. Kempe was a dancer, as well as actor. He is not mentioned in the license of 1603, by King James, as one of his servants; nor recognized by Augustus Phillips, 1605, as one of his fellows. He obtained some note by his writings, if we may judge from the following expression in the drama of the Return from Parnassus :Indeed, master Kempe, you are very famous; but that is as well for your works in print, as your part in case." His pieces are as follows: 1. The Kitchen-Stuff Woman; Jigge, 1595. (In those days, the word jigge, signified a farce as well as a dance.)

2. Men of Gotham; a Merriment.-Not published.

3. Nine Dais Wonder.

Kempe is supposed to have died of the plague, in 1603.

ROBERT ARMIN

Was an author as well as actor; and appears to have occasionally performed the part of Clown, or Fool, in Shakspeare's plays. Some verses were addressed to him, by John Davis, of Hereford, on that subject. He belonged to the Globe, Blackfriars, and was living in

1611.

In Tarleton's Jests, it is said that he was an apprentice at first to a goldsmith in Lombard-street; and, that going to a tavern in Gracechurch-street, to dun the keeper thereof, who was a debtor to his master, Tarleton, who had been the owner of it, and was now only a lodger, saw some verses written by Armin on the wainscot, upon his master's said debtor, whose name was Charles Tarleton; and he liked them so well, that he wrote others under them, prophesying, that as he was, so Armin should be; therefore he called him his adopted son, to wear the Clown's suit after him. And so it fell out, for the boy was so pleased with what Tarleton had written of him, so respected his person, so frequented his plays, and so learned his humour and manners, that, from his private practice, he came to public playing his parts, and was in great repute for the same all the former part of King James's reign.

Besides the Two Maids of More-clacke, he wrote a book, called "A Nest of Ninies, simply of themselves, with compounds," 1008; and, at Stationers'-hall was entered, in the same year, 66 a book called

Phantasm, the Italian Taylor and his Boy; made by Mr. Armin, servant to his Majesty, and a true Discourse of the practices of Elizabeth Caldwell, Ma. Jeffrey Bownd, Isabell Hull, Widdow, and George Fernely, on the parson of Ma. Thomas Caldwell, in the county of Chesser, to have murdered and poysoned him with divers others." The following curious dedication appears at the end of the copy, which presents a pithy instance of epistolary cleverness. "To the right honourable, and his singular good lady, the lady Mary Chandois, R. A. wisheth health and everlasting happiness.

"My honourable and very good lady, considering my dutie to your kind ladiship, and remembering the vertues of your prepared minde, I could doe no lesse but dedicate this strange worke to your view, being both matter of moment and truth. And to the whole world it may seeme strange, that a gentlewoman so well brought up in gods feare, so well married, so virtuous ever, so suddinly wrought to this act of murder; that when your ladiship doth read as well the letter as the book, of her own indighting, you will the more wonder that her vertues coulde so aptly tast the follies of vice and villanie. But so it was, and for the better proofe that it was so, I have placed my kinsman's name to it, who was present at all her troubles, at her comming to prison, her beeing in prison, and her going out of prison to execution. That those gentlemen to whom he dedicates his worke witnessed, may also be pertakers in that kind, for the proofe thereof, that your ladiship and the world so satisfied, may admire the deede, and hold it as strange as it is true.

"We have many giddie pated poets, that could have published this report with more eloquence, but truth in plaine attire is the easier knowne let fixion maske in Kendall greene. It is my qualitie, to adde to the truth, truth, and not leasings to lyes. Your good honor knawes Pincks, poore hart, who in all my services to your late deceased kind lord, never savoured of flattiree, or fixion; and therefore am now the bolder to present to your vertues, the view of this late truth, desiring you to so thinke of it, that you may be an honourable mourner at these obsequies, and you shall no more doe, than manie more have doone. So with my tendered dutie, my true ensuing storie, and my ever wishing well, I do humbly commit your ladiship to the prison of heaven, wherein is perfect freedome.

"Your ladiship's ever, in duty and service,

"ROBERT ARMIN."

There was published in the year 1604, a pamphlet, entitled "A Discourse of Elizabeth Armin," who with some other accomplices attempted to poison her husband. Whether this anecdote has any reference to our author, we cannot pretend to affirm; but think it by no means improbable, from the correspondence of the date with the times in which he flourished.