XV
ACTORS
[Bibliographical Note.—I include a few managers who were not necessarily themselves actors. The earlier studies of stage biography were mainly concerned with the Chamberlain's and King's men in the list of 'The Names of the Principall Actors in all these Playes', prefixed to the Shakespearian F_{1} of 1623. The statements about them in [J. Roberts] Answer to Mr. Pope's Preface to Shakespeare (1729) are conjectural and not, as sometimes supposed, traditional. A good deal was collected from wills and registers by E. Malone (Variorum, iii. 182), G. Chalmers (ibid. iii. 464), and J. P. Collier, Memoirs of the Principal Actors in the Plays of Shakespeare (1846, Sh. Soc. revised edition in H. E. D. P. iii. 255), and is summarized by K. Elze, William Shakespeare (tr. 1888), 246. New ground was broken by F. G. Fleay, On the Actor Lists, 1578-1642 (R. Hist. Soc. Trans. ix. 44), and in the list in Chronicle History of the London Stage (1890), 370. Here he criticizes Collier's claim to have a list of 500 actors, as he cannot find 'that any list at all was found among his papers', and suggests that a forgery was planned. I am glad to have an opportunity for once of defending Collier, even if it is only against Fleay. The fifth report (1846) of the Sh. Soc. shows that 'a volume of the original actors in plays by writers other than Shakespeare was in preparation, and Bodl. MS. 29445 contains a number of rough extracts made by Collier and P. Cunningham from London parochial registers, with a digest of these and other material, entitled 'Old Actors. Collections for the Biography of, derived from Old Books & MSS. Alphabetically arranged'. I have used this manuscript and cite it as 'Bodl.' or 'B.'. The information is mainly from the registers of St. Saviour's, Southwark, St. Andrew's Wardrobe, St. Anne's, Blackfriars, St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, St. Giles', Cripplegate, and other churches. It appears to be reliable, except perhaps in one or two points. One would, of course, prefer to have the registers themselves in print, but with the exception of those of St. James's, Clerkenwell (Harl. Soc.), and A. W. C. Hallen's Registers of St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, the published London Registers, as shown by A. M. Burke, Key to the Ancient Parish Registers of England and Wales (1908), are precisely those of least theatrical interest. The Southwark registers in particular, and the other records of that parish, including the 'token-books' or annual lists, street by street, of communicants, ought to be made available. Some notes from them are in W. Rendle, Bankside (1877, Harrison, Part ii). Southwark marriages (1605-25) are in Genealogist (n. s. vi-ix). In these records 'man' clearly means 'player'. Extracts from other registers may be found in parochial histories and elsewhere. Some from St. Giles's, Cripplegate, are in J. P. Malcolm, Londinium Redivivum (1802-7), iii. 303, J. J. Baddeley, St. Giles, Cripplegate (1888), and W. Hunter's Addl. MS. 24589. C. C. Stopes, Burbage, 139, gives a full collection from St. Leonard's, Shoreditch. An interesting list of actors and their addresses c. 1623 is in C. W. Wallace, Gervase Markham, Dramatist (1910, Sh.-Jahrbuch, xlvi. 345), cited as 'J'. The citations 'H' and 'H. P' are from Greg's editions of Henslowe's Diary and Henslowe Papers.]
