decide. Why and how he acquired the name of Tooley, by which he was known all his life, and which he himself subscribed to the nuncupative will of his "master" in 1619, and to his own in 1623; and whether it had any and what connexion with Tooley (or St. Olave's) Street, Southwark, must remain matter for future explanation. A person of the name of William Tooley was "yeoman Lord of Misrule," in a list of the household establishment of Henry VIII.;1 and in 1576-7 a play, called "Toolie," was represented at Hampton Court by the players of Lord Howard.2

Both Malone and Chalmers state positively, that Nicholas Tooley acted in Tarlton's plat of "the Second Part of the Seven Deadly Sins" before 1588, and Chalmers goes so far as to assert that Tooley acted Rhodope; but the fact is, that the performer of that part is only called "Nich," which may mean any other Nicholas besides Tooley. At the same time it is not at all unlikely to have been Tooley, then a boy, as we suppose, of thirteen or fourteen, and an apprentice to Richard Burbadge, whose name is found in the same piece. Possibly Tooley was introduced only as "Nich," because the writer of the "plat" did not know whether to call him Tooley or Wilkinson;3 but it is to be observed that in the same document we have Will, Saunder, and Ned as the Christian names of other performers.

He had advanced to the rank of one of one of the “ owners and players" at the Blackfriars in 1596, when the principal members of the company addressed the privy council, in order

1 "History of English Dramatic Poetry and the Stage," i., 96. 2 Mr. P. Cunningham's "Extracts from the Revels' Accounts," p. 102. 3 He is perhaps the "Nicke" mentioned in Mrs. Alleyn's letter to her absent husband of 20th October, 1603; "Memoirs of Edward Alleyn," p. 63. Who was the "old Tooley" mentioned by Nash in his "Have with you to Saffron Waldon," in 1596, where he speaks of his pronunciation of the "neoteric tongues" professed by G. Harvey?

that they might be permitted to complete the repair and enlargement of that theatre: Nicholas Tooley's name is last in the list of eight sharers.

He was not named in the patent granted by James I. at his accession, but when that instrument was renewed and confirmed on 27th March, 1619, Tooley is placed fifth in a list of twelve performers, being preceded only by Heminge, Burbadge (who had died a few days before), Condell, and Lowin. There is no doubt that at this date Tooley was a much employed member of the association called the King's players.

1

What became of Tooley in the interval between 1596 and 1610 we have little information, unless he were the narrator of the anecdote of Shakespeare and Burbadge in Manningham's Diary, which belongs to the years 1601 and 1602. It is not necessary to repeat the story here, and we only allude to it now, in order to mention that a person of the name of Tooley, Towley, or Towse (for the authority is very imperfectly written and blotted in the MS.) is there quoted as the person who told the incident to Manningham. It is possible that between 1596 and 1610 Tooley, like Kemp, had temporarily joined some other company; but we are to bear in mind, that when Augustine Phillips made his will, in May 1605, he left his fellow, Nicholas Tooley," a legacy of twenty shillings, mentioning him with other members of the company of the King's players. Therefore, if Tooley retired from the association at all, he had returned to it in 1605; and our reason for imagining that he had not continued with his "master" Burbadge is, that we do not meet with his name as one of the actors in any of Ben Jonson's earlier dramas: if he played in "Every Man in his Humour," "Every Man out of his Humour," " Sejanus," or Volpone," he was not enumerated by their author among the "principal comedians"

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1 It was first quoted in "Hist. of Eng. Dram. Poetry and the Stage," i., 331. It may also be found in Collier's " Shakespeare, i., cxci.

engaged in their representation. We hear of him in 1610 as one of the ten chief actors in " The Alchemist," and in 1611 as similarly employed in "Catiline;" and his name occupies precisely the same place in both lists, viz., the last but one in the second column. For greater distinctness we will quote them as they stand at the end of "Catiline," in the folio of 1616, which, as we have before stated, we suppose to have been prepared and corrected by Ben Jonson :

We have no clue to the parts he and others took in "The Alchemist" or "Catiline," and the same remark will apply to at least fourteen plays by Beaumont and Fletcher, before which the name of Tooley is inserted as that of one of the actors. Among his latest performances must have been characters in "The Prophetess," "The Sea Voyage," and "The Spanish Curate," all of which were licensed for the stage in 1622. His name is also inserted by the playereditors among the actors of "A Wife for a Month;" but this must be an error not hitherto pointed out: that comedy was not sanctioned for performance by the Master of the Revels until 27th May, 1624, and Tooley had then been dead nearly a year he did not even act in "The Maid in the Mill," because it was licensed about a month after his decease, but in this instance his name is omitted at the bottom of the dramatis personæ.

This circumstance tends to show that Webster's "Duchess of Malfi" (in the dramatis persona of which Tooley's name occurs twice, as the representative of Forobosco, who says nothing, and of one of the madmen, whose part was of course mainly action) must have been reproduced before June, 1623.

As we have before had frequent occasion to remark, the tragedy was originally acted about the year 1616, and then also Tooley performed in it.

Respecting the place of his residence during his theatrical career we can give no satisfactory information: the tokenbooks of St. Saviour's, Southwark, contain a John Tooley; he had lived on the west side of the Bank, toward Waverley house," but in the margin opposite his name, in 1612, we read "gone," as if he had then removed. We can only guess that

he may have been related to Nicholas Tooley.

In the same way we may speculate that there might be a family connexion between our actor and Cuthbert Tooley, who was one of the "chirurgeons" to Queen Anne of Denmark, and who walked at her funeral in 1619, as appears by Sir Lionel Cranfield's account of the ceremony in the Audit Office.

At the time Tooley made his will, dated 3rd June, 1623, he was lodging in the house of Cuthbert Burbadge, which we know was in Holywell Street, Shoreditch; but, for some unexplained reason, he was buried in the churchyard of St. Giles, without Cripplegate, and the entry of the event stands thus in the register:

Buried. Nicholas Tooley, Gentleman, from the house of Cuthbert Burbidge, Gentleman. 5 June, 1623.

It is very possible that St. Giles was his own parish church, and that he had lived in Cripplegate before his fatal illness: when attacked by it, he may have gone to lodge with Cuthbert Burbadge; and it will be seen that he bequeaths Mrs. Cuthbert Burbadge £10 additional, as a remembrance of his love for the "motherly care" she had bestowed upon him: the expression reads as if he had been the younger of the two, and supposing Tooley to have born, and baptized Nicholas Wilkinson at St. Anne's, Blackfriars, in 1574-5, he was not fifty at his death.

He mentions neither wife nor child in his will, and the pro

bability is that he died single: the only relations he speaks of are some persons of the name of Cobb, to whom he released certain small debts and gave small legacies, but he left the bulk of his property, "goods, chattels, leases, money, debts, and personal estate," to his "loving friends," Cuthbert Burbadge and Henry Condell, to be equally divided between them. He was under bond for £10 for Joseph Taylor, which he directed his executors to pay: John Underwood and William Ecclestone owed him money, which he released them; but he bequeathed £29 13s. Od., which Richard Robinson was indebted to him, to Sarah Burbadge, daughter of his "late master, Richard Burbadge," as a marriage portion, or, if unmarried, to be paid to her when she came of age.

His charitable bequests (not including £10 for his funeral sermon) were £80 to St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, for the distribution of thirty-two penny wheaten loaves every Sunday to the poor; and we learn from Stow's Survey, by Strype, that the vicar, churchwardens, and vestrymen of the parish, purchased with the £80 a yearly rent-charge, " issuing out of the George in Holywell Street," for the true performance of the trust:1 Tooley also gave £20 to the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate, for the distribution of eight penny loaves every Sunday; but in what way this object was secured in that parish we are unable to state. He was "sick in body" when he made the following will, on 3rd June, 1623; and as he was buried on the 5th June, we may conclude that he died on the 4th June, but of what disorder no where appears.

In the name of God, Amen. I, Nicholas Tooley, of London, gentleman, being sicke in body, but of perfect mynd and memorie, praised be God therefore, doe make and declare this my last will and testament, in forme following; that is to say: first, I commend my soule into the hands of Almightie God, the Father, trusting and assuredlie beleeving, that by the merits of the precious death and passion of his only sonne, and my

1 Stow's Survey, by Strype, edit. 1720, B. iv., p. 53.