1

(from his two shares and three quarters,) at £19 6s. per week; according to which statement each share in the King's company produced but £210 10s. a year. In Sir W. D'Avenant's company, from the time their new theatre was opened in Portugal Row, near Lincoln's Inn Fields, (April 1662,) the total receipt, (after deducting the nightly charges of " men, hirelings, and other customary expenses,") was divided into fifteen shares, of which it was agreed by articles previously entered into, that ten should belong to D'Avenant; viz. "two towards the house-rent, building, scaffolding, and making of frames for scenes; one for a provision of habits, properties, &c. for a supplement of the said theatre; and seven to maintain all the women that are to perform or represent women's parts in tragedies, comedies, &c. and in consideration of erecting and establishing his actors to be a company, and his pains and expenses for that purpose for many years." The other five shares were divided in various proportions among the rest of the troop.

In the paper above referred to it is stated by Sir Henry Herbert, that D' Avenant, "drew from these ten shares £200 a week:" and if that statement was correct each share in his play-house then produced annually £600, supposing the acting season to have then lasted for thirty weeks.

Such were the emoluments of the theatre soon after the restoration, which we have stated here from authentic documents, because they may assist us in our conjectures concerning the profits derived from stage exhibitions at a more remote and darker period.

[To be concluded in No. II.]

OTWAY'S "ORPHAN."

The plot of this celebrated tragedy, though generally supposed to be invented by the author, is taken from a fact related in a very scarce pamphlet (of which, 1 believe, only two copies are now to be found) entitled "English Adventures," published in 1667. The following are the principal particulars.

The father of Charles Brandon, afterwards Duke of Suffolk, retired, on the death of his lady, to the borders of Hampshire. His family consisted of two sons, and a young lady, the daughter of a friend lately deceased, whom he adopted as his own child. This lady, being singularly beautiful, as well as amiable in her manners, attracted the affection of both the brothers. The elder, however, was the favorite, and he privately married her; which the younger not knowing, and overhearing an appointment of the lovers to meet the next night in her bed chamber, he contrived to get his brother otherwise employed, and made the signal of admission himself (thinking it was a mere intrigue). Unfortunately, he succeeded.

On a discovery, the lady lost her reason, and soon after died. The two brothers fought and the elder fell. The father broke his heart in a few months afterwards. The younger brother, Charles Brandon, the unintentional author of all this misery, quitted England in despair, with a fixed determination of never returning. Being abroad for several years, his nearest relations supposed him dead, and began to take the necessary steps of obtaining his estates, when, roused by this intelligence, he returned privately to England, and for a time took obscure lodgings in the vicinity of his family mansion.

While he was in this retreat, the young king (Hen. VIII), who had just buried his father, was one day hunting on the borders of Hampshire, when he heard the cries of a female in distress in an adjoining wood. His gallantry immediately summoned him to the place, though he then happened to be detached from all his courtiers; when he saw two ruffians attempting to violate the honour of a young lady. The king instantly drew on them; a scuffle ensued, which roused the reverie of Charles Brandon, who was taking his mornings walk in an adjoining thicket: he immediately ranged himself on the side of the king, whom he then did not know; and by his dexterity soon disarmed one of the ruffians, while the other fled.

The king charmed with this act of gallantry so congenial to his own mind, inquired the name and family of the stranger; and not only repossessed him of his patrimonial estates, but took him under his immediate protection.

It was this same Charles Brandon who afterwards privately maried Henry's sister Margaret, Queen-dowager of France; which marriage the king not only forgave, but created him Duke of Suffolk, and continued his favour towards him to the last hour of the Duke's life. He died before Henry; and the latter showed in his attachment to this nobleman, that notwithstanding his fits, he was capable of a cordial and steady friendship. He was sitting in council when the news of Suffolk's death reached him; and he publickly took that occasion, both to express his own sorrow, and to celebrate the merits of the deceased. He declared that during the whole course of their acquaintance his brother-in-law had not made a single attempt to injure an adversary, and had never whispered a word to the disadvantage of any one; "and are there any of you, my Lords, who can say as much?" when the King subjoined this word (says the historian) he looked round in all their faces, and saw that confusion which the consciousness of secret guilt naturally threw upon them.

OTWAY took his plot from the fact related in this pamphlet; but to avoid perhaps interfering in a circumstance which might affect many noble families at that time living, he laid the scene of his tragedy in Bohemia.

There is a large painting of the above incident now at Woburn, the seat of his grace the Duke of Bedford, and the old Duchess-dowager, in shewing this picture a few years before her death to a nobleman, related all the particulars of the story.

The character of ANTONIO in the above play (an old debauched senator, raving about plots and political intrigues) is supposed to have been intended for that celebrated character Anthony the first Earl of Shaftesbury.

Lambeth, May 11, 1821.

GLANVILLE.

FOR THE DRAMATIC POCKET MAGAZINE

SHAKSPERIANA.

No. I.

Being a Collection of Anecdotes, and Fragments-relating to Shakespeare-with critiques, and observations or his Dramatic powers and compositions, original and select.

BY G. CREED.

-The mighty majesty of SHAKSPEARE rose
There sprung the glowing thought, the powerful mind,
Which charmed, instructed, and amazed mankind;
O'er the dark world burst forth a radiant light,
A Comet streaming thro' the depth of night
Gave to a race unknown, a matchless name,
And made his country glorious in his fame!"

1.-SHAKSPEARE'S SCIENCE.

There can be no doubt that SHAKSPEARE had a considerable portion of scientific knowledge. Pope says, that "Whatever object of nature, or branch of SCIENCE, he either speaks of, or describes, it is always with competent, if not extensive knowledge." And Theobald, "With regard to his thinking it is certain, that he had a general knowledge of ALL THE SCIENCES;" and did they, who are engaged in scientific pursuits, and who love and admire the writings of the "immortal bard," examine with accuracy those passages in which allusions are made to subjects, that have particu-larly engaged their attention, many beauties would be elicited, which have escaped the notice of the most erudite commentators, whose erudition is for the most part wasted in quarrelling with each other, or in seeking the footsteps of the poet in beaten ways, which happily he never trod.

CASSIUS's account of the sickness of Cæsar, is a remarkable instance of minute accuracy.

"He had a fever when he was in Spain,

And when the fit was on him, I did mark

How he did shake; 'tis true, this God did shake :
His coward lips did from their colour fly;

And that same eye, whose bend doth awe the world,
Did lose his lustre : I did hear him groan;

Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans
Mark him, and write his speeches in their books,
Alas! it cryed, give me some drink, Titinius.”

An eminent physician and lecturer of the present day, refers his pupils to the above passage, as a perfect description of a paroxysm of intermittent fever.

2.

"By contagion or by complaisance to the taste of the times in which he lived, SHAKSPEARE falls sometimes into the fashionable mode of writing; but this is only by fits, for many parts in all his plays are written with the most noble, elegant, and uncorrupted simplicity, such is his merit, that the more just and refined the taste of the nation has been, the more he has increased in his reputation. He was approved by his own age, admired by the next, and is almost adored by the present." MRS. MONTAGUE.

3.-DEER-STEALING.

It is a common anecdote of SHAKSPEARE, that he was more than once engaged in deer-stealing from the Park of Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecot, near Stratford; but the crime does not appear to have been thought so seriously of at that time, as it would be now, for though he was prosecuted, he was not punished, and when he afterwards lampooned the knight in a ballad, and was again prosecuted, he merely ran away to “ Shelter himself in London.”—The frequency of the practice, and the public encouragement it received, are proved by the following quotation and remark by an anonymous writer.

"I will insert a letter of Queen Elizabeth, written to him [Peregrine Bertie] with her own hand; and, reader, deal in matters of this nature, as when venison is set before thee, eat the one, and read the other, never asking whence either came!" Fuller's Worthies Linc. p. 102. Deerstealing was in great vogue in Dr. Fuller's time, and to that custom the Author alludes.

D