ART. VI.-The profits of old Actors. In several parts of his recently published "Life of Shakespeare," Mr. Collier alludes to the fact, that at the latter end of the reign of Elizabeth, and in the commencement of that of James I., acting was a very profitable employment. He shows, p. ccxxii, that Richard Burbage died, in 1619, worth £300 a year in land, besides personal property; and in his "Memoirs of Edward Alleyn," and in the " Alleyn Papers," he has adduced evidence to prove, that the founder of Dulwich College was worth even more, and at an earlier date. I only refer to these circumstances in order to direct attention to an incidental confirmation of the position, that theatrical speculations were very advantageous from about 1590 to 1615; that is, during the period that Shakespeare was a writer for the stage. It is contained in a small volume of Epigrams, printed in 1613, under the title of "Laquei Ridiculosi, or Springes for Woodcocks," by H. P.—the initials, as is generally supposed, of Henry Parrott. The whole work consists of 339 epigrams, divided into two books, and epigram 131 runs thus :— "Theatrum licentia. "Cotta's become a Player, most men know, And will no longer take such toyling paines; Greene's "Tu quoque" is of course the comedy so called, originally published the year after the appearance of Parrott's "La quei Ridiculosi," aud inserted in vol. vii. of the last edition of "Dodsley's Old Plays:" "those Garlicke Jigs " may be explained by a passage in another comedy found in vol. vi. of that valuable selection from our ancient drama: I refer to "The Hog hath lost his Pearl," where the following dialogue takes place between Haddit, a poet, and a Player: 66 Player. The muses assist you, sir. What! at your study so early? "Haddit. O! chiefly now, sir; for Aurora Musis amica. "Player. Indeed I understand not Latin, sir. "Haddit. You must then pardon me, Mr. Change-coat; for, I protest unto you, it is so much my often converse, that, if there be none but women in my company, yet I cannot forbear it. Player. That shows your more learning, sir. But, I pray you, is that small matter done I entrusted you for? "Haddit. A small. matter! You'll find it worth Meg of Westminster, although it be but a bare jig. 66 Player. O, lord! sir, I wish it had but half the taste of Garlick. ...... "Haddit. Garlick stinks to this: if it prove that you have not more than e'er Garlick had, say I am a boaster of my own works; disgrace me on the open stage, and bob me off with ne'er a penny." If any further illustration be wanted, it may be found in a couplet of the Works of John Taylor, the water-poet, printed in 1630, where he says:— "And for his action he eclipseth quite The Jig of Garlick or the Punk's delight;" which may establish that the jig had a second title, which in fact is distantly alluded to by Haddit. The play of "Meg of Westminster" is spoken of by Nat. Field in his excellent comedy, "Amends for Ladies," act ii., sc. 1, which was re printed some years ago in a supplementary volume to Dodsley's Collection it is much to be regretted that sufficient encouragement was not given to that laudable undertaking; although it affords the more room to the Shakespeare Society, which, I trust, will follow up its plan of printing farther specimens of our early drama. However, this is beside the question in relation to which I quoted the epigram from H. Parrott's Epigrams. By the way, and before I conclude, I may ask if the following do not clearly allude to Ben Jonson, and to his early trade of bricklaying? It is numbered 163; and if it have been already quoted, it has escaped my memory. 66 Cignus per plumas Anser. "Put off thy buskins, Sophocles the great, And mortar tread with thy disdained shanks. Alas! it seems thy feathers are but loose DRAMATICUS. ART. VII. - Illustration of a Passage in Twelfth Night: the passing measure Pavin. I am anxious to avail myself of the intended publication of the Papers of the Shakespeare Society, in order to make an addition to a note in the impression of "Shakespeare's Works completed under my care. The note to which I am desirous of appending a supplement is upon a passage in “Twelfth Night," act v., sc. 1, where Sir Toby Belch says of "Dick surgeon," who, he is told, is drunk : "Then, he's a rogue, and a passy-measures pavin. I hate a drunken rogue." The difficulty here, with all the commentators, has been to understand why" Dick surgeon" is called "a passy-measures pavin:" having become intoxicated, of course he has passed the ordinary measures of discretion in his cups; but the word "pavin" also requires farther explanation. I was not aware, until very recently, that there was in Shakespeare's time a wellknown dance, called "the passing measure pavin;" and it is to this that Sir Toby clearly alludes. "Dick surgeon" has passed his measures in getting drunk, and these words instantly bring pavin" to the knight's mind, which was not inappropriate, because, as stated in the note, (Shakespeare's Works, iii., 413, edit. 1844) a pavin was "a slow, heavy movement, such as a drunken man might be supposed to execute in his intoxication." Musical authorities tell us, that "passy-measures," as it stands in the old copies, is a corruption of passamezzo, and such may be the fact; but nobody seems to have known, any more than myself, that there was a dance, in which Queen Elizabeth must often have joined, called "the passing measure pavin." 66 I have before me a list of thirteen dances, in a manuscript of the time, with curious descriptions of the figures belonging to them, and the first of these is "the passinge measure pavyon," which is thus explained, I do not say how intelligibly to modern professors : "The passinge measure Pavyon. "2 singles and a double forward, and Among the other twelve dances we find "my Lord of Essex measure," "the Queenes Allmane," and various others, not perhaps so much illustrative of Shakespeare as of the court entertainments at the period when he was a writer for the stage, and when his plays were performed at Whitehall, Greenwich, Richmond, &c., as part of the amusements during Christmas and Shrovetide, at which seasons these dances were also in request. Even their titles are amusing; and, although some of them are new (not being mentioned, as I apprehend, elsewhere) others will be recognized as having been repeatedly referred to by dramatists, and other writers, about two centuries and a half ago. I therefore shall not hesitate to subjoin the whole, with the technical terms employed in the descriptions, exactly as they stand in the manuscript. I have already quoted “The passing measure pavin," or pavyon, which comes first, and the second is the well known dance of "Turculony. "A double foreward, reprince back 4 tymes-2 singles, a double foreward: reprynce back twice, a double foreward: reprynce back 4 tymes. "My Lo. of Essex measure. "A double foreward, one single syde 4 tymes: 2 syngles syde, a double foreward: reprins back. |