Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lowin, John
LOWIN, JOHN (1576–1659), actor, whose name is also spelt Lowine, Lowen, and Lowyn, and perhaps Lewen, the son of Richard Lowin, a carpenter, was born in the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate, where he was baptised 9 Dec. 1576. He was one of the Earl of Worcester's men at the Rose Theatre in 1602, in which year Henslowe notes that he paid ‘at the appoyntment of John Lowen the 12 of novmbr 1602, unto Mr. Smyth, the some of xs.’ (Diary, ed. Collier, p. 244). On 12 March 1602–3 Henslowe ‘lent unto John Lowyn when he went into the contrey with his company to playe, in redy mony, the some of vs.’ (ib. p. 234), and also paid ‘at the appoyntment of John Lowine unto Mr. Smythe, in fulle payment for his tragedie called the Etallyan tragedie the some of iiij li.’ In 1603 Lowin joined the king's company, performing at the Blackfriars Theatre in winter and the Globe in summer, though his name does not appear in the patent of May 1603. He took part with Shakespeare, Burbage, John Heming, Condell, &c., in the performance of ‘Sejanus,’ 1603, and played also ‘Volpone’ (in the ‘Fox’), 1605, Mammon in the ‘Alchemist,’ 1610, and in ‘Catiline,’ 1611.
In the induction to Marston's ‘Malcontent’ (1604), Burbage, Condell, and Lowin enter in their own persons. Lowin has not much to say, but from his presence it is presumable that he took a part in the subsequent representation in which Burbage was Malevole. In 1607 was issued ‘Conclusions upon Dances, both of this Age and of the olde, Newly compared and set forth by an Outlandish Doctor,’ London, 4to, 1607. This pamphlet, a vindication of dancing from puritan attack, Collier assigns to Lowin, first because the dedication to Lord Dennie, dated 23 Nov. 1606, is signed I. L. Roscio, and again because he has seen a copy ‘in the library of a collector with these words distinctly written upon the title-page, “By Jhon Lowin. Witnesseth Tho. D. 1610”’ (English Dramatic Poetry, iii. 395, ed. 1879). Collier's evidence will be regarded with suspicion, but the reputation of Lowin will not be greatly influenced by the ascription to him of this work. On 29 Oct. 1607, according to Collier, he married Joane Hall, a widow, whom Collier conjectures to have been wealthy, since, when about 1608 an estimate was made of the value of the Blackfriars Theatre, the receipts were divided into twenty shares, of which Lowin owned a share and a half, worth about 350l. He lived near this period in a house in the liberty of the Clink, Southwark, and was charged at the rate of twopence weekly to the poor-rate. Alleyn chronicles, under the date 13 Aug. 1620, ‘John Lowen and his wife dined with me.’ Subsequently, in 1627, he lived in Bradford's Rents, and from 1635 to 1642 in Southwark, in what are called ‘Mr. Brooker's Tenements.’
After the retirement of Heming and Condell about 1623, the management of the king's players seems to have devolved upon Lowin and Taylor, with one or other or both of whom Sir Henry Herbert communicates concerning performances at court. On 20 Dec. 1624 he, with Taylor and other members of the company, apologised to the same authority for having acted in the ‘Spanishe Viceroy,’ a play not licensed by Herbert. Lowin must also have participated in the trouble caused by the performance of Middleton's ‘Game of Chesse’ in 1624, against which Count Gondomar, ambassador of Spain, lodged a complaint. On 19 Oct. 1633 the performance of the ‘Tamer Tamed’ was prohibited by Herbert ‘on complaint of foul and offensive matters contained therein.’ The warning not to play was sent to ‘Mr. Taylor, Mr. Lowin, or any of the King's players at the Blackfriars.’ The book, purged of oaths, profaneness, and ribaldry, was returned to the players on the 21st. Lowin and Swanslow, as chief offenders, craved pardon of Herbert for their ‘ill manners,’ and were forgiven. Alexander Gill, in his attack on Ben Jonson and the ‘Magnetick Lady,’ speaks of Lowin and Taylor as representative actors, urging Jonson to
Let Lowin cease, and Taylor feare to touch
The loathèd stage, for thou hast made it such.
On the outbreak of civil war, Lowin, Taylor, and Pollard were said to be ‘superannuated’ (Historia Histrionica), and Lowin ‘in his latter days kept an inn (the Three Pigeons) at Brentford, where he dyed very old (for he was an actor of eminent note in the reign of King James the first), and his poverty was as great as his age’ (ib.) In 1652 he and Taylor published an edition in folio of Fletcher's ‘Wildgoose Chase,’ in which about 1621 the former had played Belleur and the latter Mirabel. Malone says that Lowin (his name is Lewin in the register) died in London at the age of eighty-three, and was buried in the ground belonging to the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, 18 March 1658–9. He adds that in the following October administration of the goods of John Lowin was granted to Martha Lowin, assumed to be his widow. Chalmers accepts this statement. On 16 March 1668–9 another John Lowen was interred at St. Paul's, Covent Garden. If, as Collier seems to hint and Mr. Fleay accepts, this is the actor in Shakespeare's plays, he was ninety-three at the time of his death.
In the list of actors in the 1647 folio of Beaumont and Fletcher's plays Lowin and Taylor stand at the head. In that of actors to the 1623 folio of Shakespeare Lowin's name is eleventh. Among the characters he is known to have taken are Melantius in the ‘Maid's Tragedy,’ Aubrey in the ‘Bloody Brother,’ Bosola in the ‘Duchess of Malfi,’ Jacomo in the ‘Deserving Favourite’ of Carlell, 1629, Eubulus in the ‘Picture’ of Massinger, 8 June 1629, Domitian in the ‘Roman Actor,’ 11 Oct. 1626, and Belleur in the ‘Wildgoose Chase,’ 2 Nov. 1632. He also played in the following plays of Fletcher: in 1616 in ‘Valentinian’ and ‘Bonduca,’ 1617 ‘Queen of Corinth,’ 1618 ‘Loyal Subject’ and ‘Knight of Malta,’ 1618–19 the ‘Mad Lover,’ 1620 ‘Woman Pleased,’ ‘False One,’ ‘Little French Lawyer,’ ‘Custom of the Country,’ ‘Double Marriage,’ 1621 ‘Laws of Candy,’ ‘Pilgrim,’ ‘Island Princess,’ 1622 ‘Prophetess’ and ‘Spanish Curate,’ 1623 ‘Maid in the Mill’ and ‘Lover's Progress.’ On 11 Jan. 1631 he was Flaminius in Massinger's ‘Believe as you list.’ He remained a member of King Charles's company until the stoppage of theatrical performances in 1642. In the ‘Historia Histrionica’ of Wright, Truman tells Lovewit that before the wars Lowin used to act with mighty applause Falstaff, Morose, Volpone, Mammon in the ‘Alchemist,’ and Melantius in the ‘Maid's Tragedy.’ That the date of these performances was late is shown in the wording of the phrase, and the declaration made by Collier and others that he was not the original Falstaff is superfluous. Roberts the player, in his answer to Pope, says that Lowin was also Hamlet and Henry VIII. Burbage was the first Hamlet, and Taylor the second; Lowin might have been the first Henry VIII. Downes states in the ‘Roscius Anglicanus’ that Betterton was ‘instructed in it by Sir William, who had it from old Mr. Lowen, that had his instructions from Mr. Shakespeare himself’ (Roscius Anglicanus, 1st ed. p. 24).
A portrait of Lowin is in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.
[Collier's Dramatic Poetry, ed. 1879; Fleay's Chronicle History; Malone's Historical Account of the English Stage; Chalmers's Farther Account of the English Stage; Alleyn's Diary, ed. Collier; Warner's Catalogue of Documents at Dulwich College; Biographia Dramatica; Marston's Dramatic Works, ed. Bullen; Middleton's Dramatic Works, ed. Bullen.]