Traces of English players in southern Europe are few and far between. That Kempe’s travels of 1601 took him to Italy has already been noted.[907] There were some English acrobats at Madrid in January 1583.[908] On 25 May 1598 the Confrères de la Passion leased their theatre in Paris, the Hôtel de Bourgogne, to ‘Jehan Sehais comédien Anglois’, and on 4 June obtained judgement in the court of the Châtelet, ‘tant pour raison du susdit bail que pour le droit d’un écu par jour, jouant lesdits Anglais ailleurs qu’audit Hôtel’.[909] I do not know whether I am justified in finding under the French disguise of ‘Jehan Sehais’ the name of one John Shaa or Shaw, conceivably related to Robert Shaw of the Admiral’s men, who witnessed an advance by Henslowe to Dekker on 24 November 1599.[910] In 1604 another English company was in France, and gave a performance on 18 September in the great hall at Fontainebleau, the effect of which upon the imagination of the future Louis XIV, then a child of four, is minutely described in the singular diary of his tutor and physician, Jean Héroard.[911]
‘Mené en la grande salle neuve ouïr une tragédie représentée par des Anglois; il les écoute avec froideur, gravité et patience jusques à ce qu’il fallut couper la tête à un des personnages.’
On 28 September, Louis was playing at being an actor, and on 29 September, says Héroard:
‘Il dit qu’il veut jouer la comédie; “Monsieur,” dis-je, “comment direz-vous?” Il repond, “Tiph, toph,” en grossissant sa voix. À six heures et demie, soupé; il va en sa chambre, se fait habiller pour masquer, et dit: “Allons voir maman, nous sommes des comédiens.”’
Finally, on 3 October:
‘Il dit, “Habillons-nous en comédiens,” on lui met son tablier coiffé sur la tête; il se prend à parler, disant: “Tiph, toph, milord” et marchant à grands pas.’
It has been suggested on rather inadequate grounds that the play seen by Louis may have been 2 Henry IV. Possibly the princely imagination had merely been smitten by some comic rough and tumble.[912] But it is also conceivable that the theme may have been the execution of John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, at the restoration of Henry VI in 1470.[913]
It would be rash to assume that these records of 1598 and 1604 represent all the visits of English actors to France during the Elizabethan period; and it is not improbable that a search in the municipal archives of Picardy and Normandy, as thorough as that which has been carried out for Germany, might yield notable results. Some general evidence that tours in France did take place can be cited. John Green, dedicating his version of Nobody and Somebody to the Archduke Maximilian about 1608, says that he had been in that country.[914] His, indeed, so far as dates go, might have been the company of 1604. And France, no less than Germany, is referred to as scoured by the English comedians about 1613.[915]
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 F1 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.]