(Old notes of the Audit Records taken for Malone about the year 1800.) For makeinge readie the halle at Whitehalle for the Kinge, for the plaies againste Christmas, by the space of iiij. daies in the same moneth, lxxviij. s. viij. d.' (MS. Accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber, 1604.)"

May 22, 1604, a little volume is entered in the Stationers' Register and ascribed to "J. Cooke, gent.," called "Epigrames, served out in 52 severall Dishes for every man to tast without surfeting. By I. C. Gent.," 12mo. London. It contains these lines :

"Who'e're will go unto the presse may see

The hated fathers of vilde balladrie.

One sings in his base note the River Thames

Shal sound the famous memory of noble king James;
Another sayes that he will to his death

Sing the renowned worthinesse of sweet Elizabeth.
So runnes their verse in such disordered straine,
And with them dare great majesty prophane.
Some dare do this, some other humbly craves
For helpe of Spirits in their sleeping graves,
As he that calde to Shakespeare, Johnson, Greene,
To write of their dead noble Queene."

"Diaphantus, or the Passions of Love," published in 1604, by Anthony Scoloker, contains the following:

"It should be like the Never-too-well read Arcadia, where the Prose and Verce (Matter and Words) are like his Mistresses eyes, one still excelling another, and without Corivall; or to come home to the vulgar's Element, like Friendly Shakespeare's Tragedies, where the Commedian rides, when the Tragedian stands on Tiptoe: Faith, it should please all, like Prince Hamlet. But

in sadnesse then it were to be feared he would runne mad. Insooth I will not be moonesicke, to please, nor out of my wits though I displeased all."

Hamlet is alluded to as follows: :

"Puts off his cloathes; his shirt he onely weares,
Much like mad-Hamlet; thus as Passion teares."

"The Meeting of Gallants at an Ordinarie; Or, the Walks in Powles," 1604, has this passage:

"Now, Signiors, how like you mine Host? Did I not tell you he was a madde round knave, and a merrie one too? And if you chaunce to talke of fatte Sir John Oldcastle, he will tell you he was his great Grandfather, and not much unlike him in Paunch if you marke him well by all descriptions."

"The Blacke Booke," 1604, has the saying: "Can we not take our ease in our Inne ?'

"The Malcontent," by John Marston, published this year, has the line: "Illo, ho, ho, ho! arte there, old true peny?"

The following plays are published this year:

“The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke. By William Shakespeare. Newly imprinted and enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, according to the true and perfect Coppie. At London: Printed by I. R. for N. L., and are to be sold at his shoppe vnder Saint Dunstons Church in Fleetstreet. 1604."

"The History of Henrie the Fourth; with the battell at Shrewsburie betweene the King and Lord Henry Percy, surnamed Henry Hotspur of the North; with the humorous conceits of Sir John Falstalffe. Newly corrected by W. Shake-speare. London: Printed by

Valentine Simmes for Mathew Law, and are to be solde at his shop in Paules Churchyard, at the signe of the Fox. 1604."

The following is copied from the manuscript accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber : —

"For makeinge readie the greate chamber at Whitehalle for Kinges majestie to see the plaies, by the space of twoe daies mense Novembris, 1604, xxxix. s. iiij. d.”

"For makeinge readie the Banquetinge House at Whitehalle for the Kinges Majestie againste the plaie, by the space of iiij. daies mense Novembris, 1604, lxxviiij. s. viij. d."

"To John Hemynges, one of his Majesties players, uppon the Counselles warraunte dated at the Courte at Whitehall, xxj. die Januarij, 1604, for the paines and expences of himselfe and his companie in playinge and presentinge of sixe enterludes or plaies before his Majestie; viz., on All Saintes daie at nighte, the Sonday at nighte followinge beinge the iij.th of November, 1604, St. Stephens daie at nighte, Innocentes day at nighte, and on the vij.th and viij.th daies of Januarie, - for everie of the saide plaies accordinge to the usualle allowaunce of vj. li. xiij. s. iiij. d the peece, xl. li., and lxvj. s. viij. d for everie plaie by waie of His Majesties rewarde, xx li.; in all, the some of lx. li."

"To John Heminges, one of his Majesties plaiers, uppon the Counselles warraunte dated at the Courte at Whitehalle xxiiij. to die Februarij, 1604, for himselfe and the reste of his companie, for iiij. interludes or plaies presented by them before his Majestie at the Courte; viz., on Candlemas day at nighte, on Shrovesundaye at nighte, Shrovemundaye at nighte, and Shrovetuesdaie at night, 1604, at vj. li. xiij. s. iiij. d. for everie plaie, and lxvj. s. viij. d., by waye of his Majesties rewarde for each playe, in all the some of xl. li.

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1605. Mr. Phillipps says (i. 214) :

'Shakespeare's company performed a number of dramas before the Court early in the year, including several of his own. . . . On May the 4th, a few days before his death, the poet's colleague, Augustine Phillipps, made his will leaving to my fellowe, William Shakespeare, a thirty shillinges peece in goold.' And in the following July, Shakespeare made the largest, and in a monetary sense very likely the most judicious, purchase he ever completed, giving the sum of £440 for the unexpired term of the moiety of a valuable lease of the tithes of Stratford, Old Stratford, Bishopton, and Welcombe."

The opening lines of the conveyance are as follows:

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This indenture made the foure and twentythe daye of Julye in the yeares of the raigne of our soveraigne Lorde James, by the grace of God of Englande, Scotlande, Fraunce, and Irelande, kinge, Defender of the Fayeth, etc., that is to saye, of Englande, Fraunce, and Irelande the thirde, and of Scotlande the eighte and thirtythe, Betweene Raphe Hubande of Ippesley in the countye of Warr., esquier, on thone parte, and William Shakespear of Stratford-upon-Avon in the sayed countye of Warr., gent., on thother parte."

The name "William Shakespear" appears in the conveyance thirteen times, and "William Shakespeare" once. The "bond for the performance of covenants" has its first half in Latin, and second half in English," Willielmo Shakespear, generoso," and "William Shakespear."

On the ninth of October the company gave another performance before the Mayor and Corporation of Oxford.

"If the poet, as was most likely the case, was one of the actors on the occasion, he would have been lodging at the Crown Inn, a wine-tavern kept by one John Davenant, who had taken out his license in the previous year, 1604. The landlord was a highly respectable man, filling in succession the chief municipal offices; but although of a peculiarly grave and saturnine disposition, he was, as recorded by Anthony Wood in 1692, 'an admirer and lover of plays and play-makers, especially Shakespeare, who frequented his house in his journies between Warwickshire and London.' His wife is described by the same writer as 'a very beautiful woman, of a good wit and conversation.' Early in the following year the latter presented her husband with a son, who was christened at St. Martin's Church on March the 3d, 1606, receiving the name of William. It was the general belief in Oxford, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, that Shakespeare was William Davenant's godfather, and there is no reason for questioning the accuracy of the tradition." (H.-P. i. 215.)

The following is copied from John Aubrey's "Lives of Eminent Persons," completed in the year 1680:

"Sir William Davenant, knight, poet-laureate, was borne about the end of February in Street in the city of Oxford, at the Crowne taverne; baptized 3. of March, A. D. 1605-6. His father was John Davenant, a vintner there, a very grave and discreet citizen; his mother was a very beautifull woman, and of a very good witt, and of conversation extremely agreeable. They had three sons; viz., Robert, William, and Nicholas, an attorney (Robert was a fellow of St. John's Coll. in Oxon, then preferd to the vicarage of West Kington by Bp. Davenant, whose chaplaine he was), and two handsome daughters, - one m. to Gabriel Bridges, B. D. of C. C. C.,