with Shakspeare, Burbadge, &c. in the licence granted by King James immediately after his acceffion to the throne in 1603; and all the payments made by the Treasurer of the Chamber in 1613, on account of plays performed at court, are "to John Heminge and the rest of his fellows." So alfo in feveral fubfequent years, in that and the following reign. In 1623, in conjunction with Condell, he published the first complete edition of our author's plays; foon after which it has been fuppofed that he withdrew from the theatre; but this is a mistake. He certainly then ceafed to act," but he continued chief director of the king's company of comedians to the time of his death. He died at his houfe in Aldermanbury, where he had long lived, on the 10th of October 1630, in, as I conjecture, the 74th or 75th year of his age, and was buried on the 12th, as appears by the Regifter of St. Mary's Aldermanbury, in which he is ftyled, John Heminge, player."

I fufpect he died of the plague, which had raged fo violently that year, that the playhouses were fhut up in April, and not permitted to be opened till the 12th of November, at which time the weekly bill of those who died in London of that diftemper, was diminished to twenty-nine. His fon William, into whofe hands his papers must have

9 That he and Condell had ceafed to act in the year 1623, is afcertained by a paffage in their Addrefs" to the great varietie of readers," prefixed to our poet's plays. "Reade him therefore, and againe, and againe and if then you do not like him, furely you are in fome manifeft danger not to understand him. And fo we leave you to other of his friends, whom if you need, can be your guides." i. e. their fellow-comedians, who ftill continued on the ftage, and, by reprefenting our author's plays, could elucidate them, and thus ferve as guides to the publick.

2 MS. Herbert.

fallen, furvived him little more than twenty years, having died fome time before the year 1653: and where thofe books of account of which his father fpeaks, now are, cannot be afcertained. One cannot but entertain a wifh that at fome future period they may be discovered, as they undoubtedly would throw fome light on our ancient ftage-history. The day before his death, John Heminge made his will, of which I fubjoin a copy, extracted from the Registry of the Prerogative Court. In this inftrument he ftyles himself a grocer, but how he obtained his freedom of the grocers' company, does not appear.

IN

[N the name of God, Amen, the 9th day of October, 1630, and in the fixth year of the reign of our fovereign Lord, Charles, by the grace of God king of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, defender of thefaith, &c. I John Heminge, citizen and grocer of London, being of perfect mind and memory, thanks be therefore given unto Almighty God, yet well knowing and confidering the frailty and incertainty of man's life, do therefore make, ordain, and declare this my laft will and teftament in manner and form following.

First, and principally, I give and bequeath my foul into the hands of Almighty God, my Maker and Creator, hoping and affuredly believing through the only merits, death and pailion, of Jefus Chrift my faviour and redeemer, to obtain remiffion and pardon of all my fins, and to enjoy eternal happiness in the kingdom of heaven; and my body I commit to the earth, to be buried in chriftian manner, in the parish church of Mary Aldermanbury in London, as near unto my loving wife Rebecca Heminge, who lieth there interred, and under the fame ftone which lieth in part over her there, if the fame

conveniently may be: wherein I do defire my executor herein after named carefully to fee my will performed, and that my funeral may be in decent and comely manner performed in the evening, without any vain pomp or coft therein to be bestowed.

Item, My will is, that all fuch debts as I fhall happen to owe at the time of my decease to any perfon or perfons, (being truly and properly mine own debts,) fhall be well and truly fatisfied and paid as foon after my decease as the fame conveniently may be; and to that intent and purpose my will and mind is, and I do hereby limit and appoint, that all my leafes, goods, chattles, plate, and household ftuffe whatfoever, which I leave or fhall be poffeffed of at the time of my decease, fhall immediately after my decease be fold to the moft and best benefit and advantage that the fame or any of them may or can, and that the monies thereby raised fhall go and be employed towards the payment and discharge of my faid debts, as foon as the fame may be converted into monies and be received, without fraud or covin; and that if the fame leafes, goods, and chattels, fhall not raife fo much money as fhall be fufficient to pay my debts, then my will and mind is, and I do hereby will and appoint, that the moiety or one half of the yearly benefit and profit of the feveral parts which I have by leafe in the feveral playhoufes of the Globe and Black-fryers, for and during fuch time and term as I have therein, be from time to time received and taken up by my executor herein after named, and by him from time to time faithfully employed towards the payment of fuch of my faid own proper debts which fhall remain unfatisfied, and that proportionably to every perfon and perfons to whom I fhall then

remain indebted, until by the faid moiety or one half of the faid yearly benefit and profit of the faid parts they fhall be fatisfied and paid without fraud or covin. And if the faid moiety or one half of the faid yearly benefit of my faid parts in the said play-houses fhall not in fome convenient time raise fufficient moneys to pay my faid own debts, then my will and mind is, and I do hereby limit and appoint, that the other moiety or half part of the benefit and profit of my faid parts in the faid playhouses be alfo received and taken up by my faid executor herein after named, and faithfully from time to time employed and paid towards the speedier fatisfaction and payment of my faid debts. And then, after my faid debts fhall be fo fatisfied and paid, then I limit and appoint the said benefit and profit arifing by my faid parts in the faid playhouses, and the employment of the fame, to be received and employed towards the payment of the legacies by me herein after given and bequeathed, and to the raifing of portions for fuch of my faid children as at the time of my decease fhall have received from me no advancement. And I do hereby defire my executor herein after named to fee this my will and meaning herein to be well and truly performed, according to the truft and confidence by me in him repofed.

Item, I give, devife, and bequeath, unto my daughter Rebecca Smith, now wife of Captain William Smith, my best fuit of linen, wrought with cutwork, which was her mother's; and to my fon Smith, her husband, his wife's picture, set up in a frame in my house.

Item, I give and bequeath unto my daughter Margaret Sheppard, wife of Mr. Thomas Sheppard, my red cushions embroidered with bugle, which VOL. II.

Ꮓ

were her mother's; and to my faid fon Sheppard, his wife's picture, which is alfo fet up in a frame in my houfe.

Item, I give and bequeath unto my daughter Elizabeth, my green cushions which were her

mother's.

Item, I give and bequeath unto my daughter Merefield my clothe-of-filver ftriped cushions which were her mother's.

Item, I give and bequeath unto fo many of my daughter Merefield's, and my daughter Sheppard's children, as fhall be living at the time of my deceafe, fifty fhillings apiece.

Item, I give and bequeath unto my grandchild, Richard Atkins, the fum of five pounds of lawful money of England, to buy him books.

Item, I give and bequeath unto my fon-in-law John Atkins, and his now wife, if they fhall be living with me at the time of my decease, forty fhillings, to make them two rings, in remembrance of me.

Item, I give and bequeath unto every of my fellows and sharers, his majesties fervants, which fhall be living at the time of my decease, the fum of ten fhillings apiece, to make them rings for remembrance of me.

Item, I give and bequeath unto John Rice, Clerk, of St. Saviour's in Southwark, (if he fhall be living at the time of my decease,) the fum of twenty fhillings of lawful English money, for a remembrance of my love unto him.

Item, I give and bequeath unto the poor of the parish of St. Mary, Aldermanbury, where I long lived, and whither I have bequeathed my body for burial, the fum of forty fhillings of lawful English money, to be diftributed by the churchwardens of the fame parish where moft need fhall be.