Theatre," just as he might have done at the expiration of the lease granted in 1575.1 Allein, at that date, as he says, "an aged man," seems to have pursued the matter with great rancour against the two theatrical brothers; and this is proved by the fact that he even charged two of the subordinate parties with perjury, when they swore that James Burbadge in 1586 had laid out £240 upon the premises in repairs. We find no ground for disbelieving these witnesses (Richard Hudson and Thomas Osborne, carpenters) and it is to be recollected that 1586 was about the period when James Burbadge was authorized to claim of Allein a renewed lease for twenty-one years. Another circumstance shows that Allein was in a very revengeful disposition in the suit: it is this; that he went the absurd length of imputing to the Registrar of the Court of Requests, Richard Lane, that he had entered into a conspiracy with Cuthbert and Richard Burbadge, by which he was to record the decree of the Judges more favourably to them than to him. This last accusation does not appear to have been persevered in; but of course Lane was obliged to answer Allein's bill, exhibited against him, which was declared to be both "untrue and slanderous." As no decree, that I am aware of, has been preserved either in the Chancery suit, or in that subsequently instituted in the Court of Requests, we can only guess at the decision. It appears that an issue at common law had been directed by 1 The last notice we possess of "The Theatre" is contained in Edward Guilpins' "Skialetheia, the Shadow of Truth," which was printed in 1598. The playhouse was still standing at that date, but out of use, and empty : the author likens a melancholy man to it, when he says "But see yonder, One, like the unfrequented Theatre, Walks in dark silence and vast solitude." This must have been written very shortly before the house was pulled down by the Burbadges, and the materials carried away to the Bankside. the Lord Chancellor; and the Burbadges were the instigators of the proceedings in the Court of Requests for an injunction to stay Allein from prosecuting his suit in equity until the decision of the action at common law. Which party had most justice on their side is not a point of the smallest consequence now, but the facts I have drawn from the bills and answers, in relation especially to "The Theatre" in Shoreditch, are new and valuable. Kensington, 10th November, 1848. J. PAYNE COLLIER. ART. IX.-Two specimens of the Poetry of Philip Stubbes, the author of "The Anatomy of Abuses," 1583, and the enemy of theatrical performances, unknown to bibliographers. In pursuance of my promise, (vol. iii., p. 16) I now send the copy of a very rare (I apprehend, unique) poetical tract by Philip Stubbes, the author of "The Anatomy of Abuses," 1583, in which, as is well known, is contained his celebrated attack on theatrical performances. This, I take it, brings him within the purpose of our Society, established "for the illustration of Shakespeare and his works, and for the elucidation of any matter connected with the history and condition of our early drama and stage." Stubbes seems to have been the third printed opponent of plays, play-makers, and players; and on a future occasion I shall endeavour to furnish some particulars of his life, which have hitherto escaped notice, but are worth preserving. It is very clear that the great bibliographical authority, Ritson, knew nothing of this tract but what Stubbes himself says of it in the second impression of his "Anatomy of Abuses," which, like the first impression, came out in 1583. It is contained in the chapter headed "Greate swearyng in Ailgna," which, in fact, is new in that edition, not being contained in the one which preceded it. On fo. 83 B., the following passage occurs: "There was a certaine yong man dwellyng in Enlocnilshire, in Ailgna, (whose tragicall discourse I my self penned about two yeares agoe, referring you to the said booke for the further declaration therof) who was alwaies a filthie swearer: his common othe was by God's bloud. The Lorde, willyng his conversion, chastised him with sicknesse, manie times, to leave the same, and moved others ever to admonish him of his wickednesse: but all chastisementes and lovyng corrections of the Lorde, al freendly admonitions and exhortations of others he utterly contemned, stil persevering in his bloudie kinde of swearyng. Then the Lord, seeing that nothing would prevaile to winne him, arested him with his Sargeant Death, who with speede laied holde on hym and cast hym upon his death bed, where he languished a great while in extreeme miserie, not forgettyng to spewe out his olde vomite of swearyng. At the last, the people perceiving his ende approach, caused the Bell to toll, who hearyng the Bell toll for him, rushed up in his bed very vehemently, saiyng, God's bloud, he shall not have me yet.' With that his bloud gushed out, some at his toes endes, some at his fingers endes, some at his wristes, some at his nose and mouth, some at one joint of his body, some at an other, never ceasing till all the bloud of his bodie was stremed forthe: and thus ended this bloudie swearer his mortall life, whose judgement I leave to the Lord.” This is the subject of the first portion of the tract I enclose, and of this Ritson, as I have said, obtained only a hint from an edition of "The Anatomy of Abuses" posterior to the first. The tract itself, it will be seen, comprises the narrative in verse of another incident, of a somewhat corresponding character, which happened at Donnington, in Leicestershire, and of which narrative in verse I can find no hint in any work of a bibliographical kind. I transmit a copy of the whole; not that they have the smallest pretension to merit on the score of authorship, but merely because they came from the pen of a man who had made himself so notorious: the title-page is a facsimile. The work is the more curious, because I am not aware of the existence of any other specimen of versification by Philip Stubbes, excepting a dialogue between "The Author and his Booke," on two widely printed pages, prefixed to the "Anatomy of Abuses" in all the editions of that popular production. 4 Before I conclude, I may mention that, either by my own error, or that of the printer, there is a mistake at the close of my last communication, where a reference is given to Camden's Annals of Elizabeth, under the year 1586: it ought, of course, to be 1585, for Parry was executed on 2d March of that year. 27th April, 1848. JAMES PURCELL REARDON. Two wunderfull and rare Examples. Of the vndeferred and present The other vpon a woman, named straungely appeared, as in the dis- reade. In Iune last. 1581. Written by Phillip Stubbes. Imprinted at London for William Wright, and are to be solde at shoppe in the rowe, adioyning to |