MEMOIRS

OF

THE PRINCIPAL ACTORS

IN THE

PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE.

RICHARD BURBADGE.

We cannot better illustrate the carelessness with which matters relating to the personal history of the principal actors in Shakespeare's Plays have been collected by their only biographers, Malone and Chalmers, than by referring to the fact that they both repeatedly consulted the registers of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, and yet failed to note the baptism of one of the children of Richard Burbadge, and the burial of another. This omission is the more extraordinary on the part of Chalmers, because he plumes himself highly on correcting errors committed by Malone.'

The child, whose birth is unrecorded by either, is William Burbadge, born on the 6th November, 1616, about six months after the death of Shakespeare; and it is extremely interesting, since we need entertain little doubt that the boy was named William in memory of our great dramatist, by acting in whose productions Richard Burbadge had attained so lofty a professional reputation, and with whom, as far as we know, he kept up his intimacy to the last. The child whose death escaped the observation of Malone and Chalmers was Sarah, the posApology for the Believers, p. 428, note d.

1

B

thumous daughter of Richard Burbadge, who, having been baptized on the 5th August, 1619, (a fact noticed by previous historians) was buried on the 29th of April, 1625. We have no account of the death or burial of William Burbadge, but we shall have occasion to mention him again in the course of the following memoir.

There is every reason to believe that the Burbadges, who were so importantly connected with our early stage, originally came from Warwickshire. A family of the name was settled at Stratford-upon-Avon in the middle of the sixteenth century, and must have been of some consideration and respectability, because John Burbadge was bailiff of the borough in June, 1555, at which date we meet with the earliest trace of the Shakespeares there.' It also appears by various documents that Burbadges, like Shakespeares, were resident at a remote period in different parts of Warwickshire and the bordering counties. There was however a numerous family of the same name in Hertfordshire; and when arms were granted to Cuthbert Burbadge (the brother of Richard) in 1634, they were the same as those of the Burbadges of Hertfordshire, whence an inference may possibly be drawn that the families of Burbadge of Warwickshire and of Hertfordshire were in some way related.

The oldest member of the family connected with our early stage, as far as we have any information, was James Burbadge, the father of Cuthbert, Richard, and other children, whose

1 Malone's Shakspeare by Boswell, ii., 78; and Collier's Shakespeare, i., 61.

2 Chalmers' Suppl. Apol., 154, note k. Malone and Chalmers differed irreconcilably as to the etymology of the name of Burbadge: the first would have it a corruption of Boroughbridge, and the last, with more plausibility, would derive it from Boar-badge. We do not consider it a point of the slightest consequence, because to settle it either way explains no part of their history: we may mention that in different documents of the time we find the name spelt Burbage, Burbege, Burbadge, Burbidge, Burbedge, and Burbadg.

names will occur hereafter; but we are without the slightest clue to his reason for becoming an actor. It was a profession in bad repute before Elizabeth came to the throne, and long afterwards; and poverty, peculiar circumstances of position, or a strong passion for theatrical performances, could alone have induced an individual to attach himself to it. We first hear of him as one of the players of the Earl of Leicester, when, in May, 1574, that nobleman obtained a patent for James Burbadge, (we give the names in the order in which they occur in the instrument,) John Perkyn, John Lanham, William Johnson, and Robert Wilson, authorizing them to act in any part of the kingdom, including, in express terms, the city of London-"as well within our city of London, and liberties of the same, as also within the liberties and freedoms of any our cities, towns, boroughs, &c., whatsoever, as without the same, throughout our realm of England."

We may presume, from the place his name occupies, that James Burbadge was then at the head of the company; but we cannot tell how long he had been so, nor, indeed, how long he had been a member of the association. We know that Sir Robert Dudley, afterwards Earl of Leicester, had a body of theatrical servants, travelling about the country under the sanction and shelter of his patronage, as early as 1559; for in June of that year he addressed a letter to the Earl of Shrewsbury, requesting that they might receive from him the same license for acting in Yorkshire that they had obtained from several other Lords Lieutenant of counties.2 The individual players are not there enumerated; but, as James Burbadge had advanced to the first place in the company in 1574, it may not be too 1 History of English Dramatic Poetry and the Stage, i., 211, where the instrument, dated 7th May, 1574, is set out at large from the original Privy Seal preserved in the Chapter House, Westminster.

2

Lodge's "Illustrations of British History," i., 307. The letter of Sir Robert Dudley is, however, printed more accurately from the original, now in the library of the Heralds' College, in the "Introduction"

much to suppose that he had been a member of it for some years, if he were not so in 1559. That he was an actor, and not merely a manager, we may be quite certain, because at that date actors only were members of theatrical associations; but no existing evidence shows the nature of the parts he represented. He may, or may not, have been a good performer; and the mere fact that his son obtained the highest eminence in the profession can prove little or nothing, since we are aware of many instances in which the sons of actors of a very inferior grade have been extraordinarily and deservedly successful; while, on the other hand, the sons of first-rate tragedians and comedians have turned out only qualified to sustain the most subordinate characters. Something may no doubt be inferred from the place the name of James Burbadge occupies with his four fellows, two of whom arrived at great distinction; but, at all events, early in his career, as far as a judgment can be formed from the pieces that have come down to us, the drama was not in a condition to afford much scope for the display of ability, whether serious or comic.

The players of the Earl of Leicester, fortified by the patent their patron had procured for them in 1574, seem very soon to have taken measures to establish themselves permanently in London. They had performed a piece at court, called "Mamillia," on 28th Decomber, 1573,1 and "Philemon and Philecia" on Shrove Monday, 1574;2 and we can have no difficulty in deciding, that they must have been called upon to lend their aid for the entertainment of Queen Elizabeth, when she visited Lord Leicester at Kenilworth in the summer of 1575. to the Shakespeare Society's reprint of John Northbrooke's "Treatise against Dicing, Plays," &c., p. vii. In January, 1560-61, "the L. Robert Dudley's Players" performed before the Queen. See Mr. P. Cunningham's "Revels Accounts," printed for the Shakespeare Society.

1 "Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels at Court," edited by Mr. P. Cunningham, p. 51.

2 Ibid., p. 68.