master Edmond Powell of Fulham, gentleman, and by them to be diftributed. Item, I give, devife, and bequeath unto my said well beloved wife Elizabeth Cundall, and to my faid well beloved daughter Elizabeth Finch, all my household stuff, bedding, linen, brafs, and pewter, whatsoever, remaining and being as well at my houfe in Fulham aforefaid, as alfo in my house in Aldermanbury in London; to be equally divided between them part and part alike. And for the more equal dealing in that behalf, I will, appoint, and requeft my faid overfeers, or the greater number of them, to make divifion thereof, and then my wife to have the preferment of the choice. Item, I give and bequeath unto my coufin Frances Gurney, alias Hulfe, my aunt's daughter, the fum of five pounds, and I give unto the daughter of the faid Frances the like fum of five pounds. Item, I give, devife and bequeath unto fuch and fo many of the daughters of my coufin Gilder, late of New Buckenham in the county of Norfolk, deceased, as fhall be living at the time of my decease, the fum of five pounds apiece. Item, I give and bequeath unto my old fervant Elizabeth Wheaton, a mourning gown and forty fhillings in money, and that place or priviledge which the now exercifeth and enjoyeth in the houfes of the Black fryers, London, and the Globe on the Bankfide, for and during all the term of her natural life, if my estate shall so long continue in the premises; and I give unto the daughter of the faid Elizabeth Wheaton the fum of five pounds, to be paid unto the faid Elizabeth Wheaton, for the ufe of her faid daughter, within the fpace of one year next after my decease. And I do hereby will, appoint and declare, that an acquittance under the hand and feal of the faid Elizabeth Wheaton, upon the receipt of the faid legacy of five pounds, for the use of her faid daughter, fhall be, and shall be deemed, adjudged, conftrued, and taken to be, both in law and in equity, unto my now executrix a fufficient release and discharge for and concerning the payment of the same. Item, I give, devife, and bequeath, all the rest and refidue of my goods, chattels, leafes, money, debts, and perfonal eftate, whatsoever, and wherefoever, (after my debts fhall be paid and my funeral charges and all other charges about the execution of this my will first paid and difcharged) unto my faid well beloved wife, Elizabeth Cundall. Item, My will and mind is, and I do hereby defire and appoint, that all fuch legacies, gifts and bequefts as I have by this my will given, devifed or bequeathed unto any perfon or perfons, for payment whereof no certain time is hereby before limited or appointed, fhall be well and truly paid by my executrix within the space of one year next after my decease. Finally, I do hereby revoke, countermand, and make void, all former wills, testaments, codicils, executors, legacies, and bequefts, whatsoever, by me at any time heretofore named, made, given, or appointed; willing and minding that these prefents only fhall ftand and be taken for my laft will and teftament, and none other. In witnefs whereof I the faid Henry Cundall, the teftator, to this my prefent laft will and teftament, being written on nine fheets of paper, with my name fubfcribed to every fheet, have fet my feal, the thirteenth day of December, in the third year of the reign of our fovereign lord Charles, by the grace of God king of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. HENRY CUNDALL. Signed, fealed, pronounced and declared, by the faid Henry Cundall, the teftator, as his last will and teftament, on the day and year above written, in the presence of us whose names are here under written: Robert Yonge. Hum. Dyfon, Notary Publique. And of me Ro. Dickens, fervant unto the faid Notary. Probatum fuit teftamentum fuprafcriptum apud Lond. coram magiftro Richardo Zouche, legum dolore, Surrogato, 24° die Februarii, 1627, juramento Elizabethe Cundall, relicte dicti defuncti et executr. cui, &c. de bene, &c. jurat. was joined with Shakspeare, &c. in the licence granted in 1603.-He is introduced, perfonally, in the induction to Marston's Malecontent, 1604, and from his there ufing an affected phrafe of Ofrick's in Hamlet, we may collect that he performed that part. He died before the year 1612.* RICHARD COWLEY appears to have been an actor of a low clafs, having performed the part of Verges in Much Ado about Nothing. He lived in the parish of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, and had two fons baptized there; 2 Heywood's Apology for Actors. Cuthbert, born in 1597, and Richard, born in 1599. I know not when this actor died. JOHN LOWIN was a principal performer in thefe plays. If the date on his picture in the Afhmolean Museum at Oxford is accurate, he was born in 1576. Wright mentions in his Hiftoria Hiftrionica that "before the wars he used to act the part of Falstaff with mighty applaufe;" but without doubt he means during the reign of King Charles the First, from 1625 to 1641. When our poet's King Henry IV. was firft exhibited, Lowin was but twenty-one years old; it is therefore probable that Heminge, or fome other actor, originally reprefented the fat knight, and that feveral years afterwards the part was refigned to Lowin. He is faid by Roberts the player to have alfo performed King Henry the Eighth and Hamlet; but with refpect to the latter his account is certainly erroneous; for it appears from more ancient writers, that Jofeph Taylor was the original performer of that character.+ Lowin is introduced, in perfon, in the Induction to Marfton's Malecontent, printed in 1604; and he and Taylor are mentioned in a copy of verses, written in the year 1632, foon after the appearance of Jonfon's Magnetick Lady, as the two moft celebrated actors of that time: "Let Lowin ceafe, and Taylor fcorn to touch 3 This date, which the engraver of the annexed portrait [i. e. in Mr. Malone's edition, 1790.] has inadvertently omitted, is"1640, Etat. 64." A Hiftor. Hiftrion, and Rofcius Anglicanus. Befide the parts already mentioned, this actor reprefented the following characters: Morofe, in The Silent Woman ;-Volpone, in The Fox ;-Mammon, in The Alchymift ;-Melantius, in The Maid's Tragedy;-Aubrey, in The Bloody Brother;-Bofola, in The Dutchess of Malfy:-Jacomo, in The DeJerving Favourite;-Eubulus, in Massinger's Picture; Domitian, in The Roman Actor;-and Belleur, in The Wild Goofe Chace. Though Heminge and Condell continued to have an interest in the theatre to the time of their death, yet about the year 1623, I believe, they ceased to act'; and that the management had in the next year devolved on Lowin and Taylor, is afcertained by the following note made by Sir Henry Herbert in his office-book, under the year 1633. "On friday the nineteenth of October,' 1633, I fent a warrant by a meffenger of the chamber to fupprefs The Tamer Tamd, to the Kings players, for that afternoone, and it was obeyd; upon complaints of foule and offenfive maters conteyned therein. They acted The Scornful Lady instead of it. I have enterd the warrant here. These are to will and require you to forbeare the actinge of your play called The Tamer Tamd, or the Taminge of the Tamer, this afternoone, or any more till you have leave from mee; and this at your perill. On friday morninge the 18 Octob. 1633. 'To Mr. Taylor, Mr. Lowins, or any of the King's players at the Blackfryers.' "On faterday morninge followinge the booke was brought mee, and at my Lord of Hollands $ So the MS. though afterwards Sir Henry Herbert calls it "friday the 18th." |