edeli, a Monsieur
    l'Abbé, or some such foreign regale expressed in the bottom of
    the bill.

    +Love.+ To waive this digression, I have read of one Edward
    Alleyn, a man so famed for excellent action, that among
    Ben Jonson's epigrams I find one directed to him, full of
    encomium, and concluding thus--

        _Wear this renown; 'tis just that who did give
        So many poets life, by one should live._

    Was he one of the Blackfriars?

    +True.+ Never as I have heard (for he was dead before my time).
    He was master of a company of his own, for whom he built
    the Fortune Playhouse from the ground, a large round brick
    building. This is he that grew so rich, that he purchased a
    great estate in Surrey and elsewhere; and having no issue, he
    built and largely endowed Dulwich College in the year 1619[81],
    for a master, a warden, four fellows, twelve aged poor people,
    and twelve poor boys, &c. A noble charity!

    +Love.+ What kind of play-houses had they before the wars?

    +True.+ The Blackfriars, Cockpit, and Salisbury Court were
    called private houses, and were very small to what we see now.
    The Cockpit was standing since the Restoration, and Rhodes's
    company acted there for some time.

    +Love.+ I have seen that.

    +True.+ Then you have seen the other two in effect, for they
    were all three built almost exactly alike for form and bigness.
    Here they had pits for the gentry, and acted by candlelight.
    The Globe, Fortune, and Bull were large houses, and lay partly
    open to the weather, and there they always acted by daylight.

    +Love.+ But prythee, Trueman, what became of these players when
    the stage was put down, and the Rebellion raised?

    +True.+ Most of them, except Lowin, Taylor, and Pollard (who
    were superannuated) went into the king's army, and, like good
    men and true, served their old master, though in a different,
    yet more honourable capacity. Robinson was killed at the taking
    of a place (I think Basi