triumphe againe on the Stage, and have his bones In this same "Pierce Pennilesse," 1592, Nashe also praises Edward Alleyn: "Not Roscius nor Esope, those tragedians admired before Christ was borne, could ever performe more in action than famous Ned Allen. This leads me to think Alleyn was the Tragedian who played Talbot, so to the life. "Pierce Pennilesse" may have been read by Robert Green before it was printed, and this high praise by Nashe added fuel to the bitter envy felt by Greene against the genius of Shakespeare, to whom he alludes in his "Grotes worth of Wit," 1592, under the name of Shakescene," i. e., a property man about the stage. Chettle is supposed to allude to Shakespeare in his "Kinde-Hearts Dream" December, 1592, as follows: "Myselfe hath seene his demeanor no less civill than he excellent in the qualitie he professes; besides divers of worship have reported, his uprightness of dealing, which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writing, that approves his Art." All this is written about an unnamed author. Chettle had not seen his writing, but "divers of worship" had "reported" all this and Chettle bowed to their authority. Chettle had only seen his "demeanor." It is because it is so rare, that we treasure every crumb of evidence that falls from the pens of Shakespeare's contemporaries. Whoever the unnamed author was, he was backed or supported by "divers of worship" as early as 1592. Therefore when the Comedy of Errors was performed at Gray's Inne, the author's name was not mentioned. His name first appeared on a play, Love's Labors Lost, in 1598. My opinion is that the Comedy of Errors was especially written for its production at Gray's Inn on December 28, 1594. Meres mentions it for the first time in 1598 in Palladis Tamia, where he merely calls it "Errors." It was first printed in the Folio of 1623. It will be remembered that the night on which the Comedy of Errors was played by "a Company of base and common fellowes" "was ever after called the night of Errors" by the members of Gray's Inn. In his Essay on Friendship, Bacon says:-"If a man hath not a friend he may quit the stage," and I firmly believe when the friendless young Shakespeare fled from Stratford to London, Bacon took him under his wing and sheltered him. Without this shelter he would have been classed as a vagabond or a masterless man. It is a coincidence that the first record we have of his connection with players is with the Lord Chamberlaines servants, on the very date on which the Comedy of Errors was performed at Gray's Inn, and is as follows: "To William Kempe, William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage, servants to the Lord Chamberleyne, upon the Councelles warrant dated at Whitehall xv. to Marcij, 1594, for twoe severall comedies or enterludes shewed by them before her Majestie in Christmas tyme laste This was recorded in the accounts of the treasurer of the Chamber and printed by Hallwill Phillipps in the 6th Ed. of his Outlines 1, 109. The Comedy of Errors was performed at Gray's Inn on "Innocents Day at Night," December 28, 1594. And from this date Shakespeare wore the livery of the Lord Chamberlain's men. Sir Henry Carey, the first Lord Hunsdon, Lord Chamberlain to the Queen, was Elizabeth's first cousin. It was by his courtesy the actors were permitted to play the "Comedy of Errors" in Gray's Inn Hall. Two years after this, in 1596, it is thought Bacon wrote the following letter from Gray's Inn to the Earl of Shrewesbury: "It may please your good Lordship, I am sorry the joint masque from the four Inns of Court faileth; wherein I conceive there is no other ground of that event but impossibility. Nevertheless, because it falleth out that at this time Grey's Inn is well furnished of gallant young gentlemen, your lordship may be pleased to know, that rather than this occasion shall pass without some demonstration of affection from the Inns of Court, there are a dozen gentlemen of Grey's Inn, that out of the honour which they bear to your Lordship and my Lord Chamberlain to whom at their last masque they were so much bounden, will be ready to furnish a masque; wishing it were in their powers to per form it according to their minds. And so for Your Lordship's very humble and much boun- I conjecture that "their last masque" referred to in this letter was a part of the Gesta Grayorum, and the letter shows Bacon's appreciation of the Lord Chamberlain's courtesy in allowing his servants to perform a Comedy of Errors. Spedding comments on this letter as follows: "The next is the original found among the Burghley papers in the Landsdown collection, and was probably addressed to the first Lord Burghley though the address has disappeared with the flyleaf, and the docket does not supply it. If so, it must have been written before the autumn of 1598, but it seems impossible to determine on what occasion. I do not remember to have met with any report of a projected masque by the four Inns of Court united. But I find that on the 15th of October, 1596, Bacon wrote to the Earl of Shrewsbury from Grey's Inn, "to borrow a horse and armour for some public shew"; and this may possibly have reference to the same. Occasions of the kind occurred frequently, and though small things sometimes serve to illustrate things of importance, it is not very likely that anything would be gained by ascertaining the particulars of the "demonstration of affection" here proposed. 'Letters and Life of Bacon,' Vol II, p. 370." "Small things" do indeed "sometimes serve to illustrate things of importance." Were it not for the Gesta Grayorum, which was sold for a shilling on its publication in 1688, we would never have known that Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors was "played by the players" in Gray's Inn, December 28, 1594. It may be that some day we will discover where Canning, the printer of the Gesta Grayorum, found the original manuscript. My esteeemd friend, the late Bertram Dobell, Poet and Bibliographer, wrote me, March 30, 1911: * "Some day, I feel sure,-or tolerably sure-a In writing about Shakespeare, conjecture is bound to force itself upon the writer; like Banquo's ghost, it will not down. Therefore if Bacon became an encouraging friend to the youth from Stratford, we can readily understand Shakespeare's rapid advancement, * The mention of Bertram Dobell's name recalls to mind these lines from one of his sonnets in A Lover's Moods sent me by their author in March, 1914: "To prove myself true poet and true lover Has been my life's devoutly cherished aim, I sought, nor dared the laurel wreath to claim: On me the guerdon of a poet's fame, I care not, for at last love's power I know, And poet am since lover I became." His son, Percy John Dobell in his tender Memoir of his father. states that "the proof sheets of this book were corrected and returned. but my father did not live to see a completed copy." The poet passed into the silent land December 14, 1915. |