"This valuable manuscript, having lain for a considerable time in a damp place, is unfortunately damaged, and in a very mouldering condition; however, no material part of it appears to have perished."
Such being the case, it becomes more than ever desirable that this interesting volume should be sought after, and the whole of its contents put on record before its total decay. Surely, if its depositary is known, and accessible, it is well worth the attention of the Shakespeare Society, or some other learned body instituted for the preservation of documents of this nature.
A biographical account of the various persons that have held the appointment of "Master of the Revels," with such particulars of the stage as would necessarily fall in, would form a valuable Prolegomena to the publication of Sir Henry's Office-Book. We have, it is true, much information upon this subject, but in a very scattered form.
I have now before me a list of the "Masters of the Revells," with the dates of their patents, which I beg to transcribe. It is of more than ordinary value, being in the handwriting of Sir Henry Herbert himself, and copied at the back of the worthy knight's "Petition to Charles the Second against the Grant to Killegrew and Davenant to form Two Companies of Players."
"Masters of ye Revells.
| "Sir Richard Guilford | - not on record. |
| Sir Thomas Cawerden | - [1544] 36 Henry VIII. |
| Sir Thomas Beneger | - not on record. |
| Sir John Fortescue | - not on record. |
| Edmund Tilney, Esq. | - July 24 [1578] 21 Eliz. |
| Sir George Buck | - June 23 [1603] I Jac. |
| Sir John Astley | - [1612] 10 Jac. I. |
| Benjamin Johnson | - [1617] 15 Jac. I. |
| Sir Henry Herbert, and Simon Thelwall, Esq. | - Aug. 21 [1629] 5 Car. I." |
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.