"In which time, and longe after, he committed very many and grosse abuses, as namely, the giveing of armes, yea, and of some of the nobilitie, to base and ignoble persons, as Yorcke heraulde hath at large sett downe in a booke delivered to the King's Majesty.

"He falsefyed Pedegrees alsoe, as that of Harbourne being of xij. descents, wherein hee made vj. Knights, which God nor man never knewe, nor the man himselfe, when hee was called before the deputy commissioners, could justify no further then his grandfather, who was reputed to be an honest man, but of meane fortune.

"In a Patent which he made of armes to be sent to an Englishman that was become the Kinge of Spayne's subjecte, hee writt himselfe throughout in the Plurall number (nos et nobis) as absolute princes use to doe, and in the ende lefte out the Queene's stile of defensor fidei, because it should not bee displeasinge to the Spaniards, who then were our enemyes.

"Hee gave also the auncyent and royall armes of England, with very litle difference, to one Donkin, a playsterer.

"In the carryadge of himselfe unto his fellows in office he was alwaies a tyraunte; ffor some he sued, some he charged with fellonye, some he beate, others he revyled, and all hee wronged.

"In the late Queene's tyme he would have brought Somersett Glover (an honest man and very worthy heraulde) in question of his life, for delivering in private conference between them his opinion touching the succession: and yett Somersett did not say expresly who should succeed, but said he was of the opinion of Pollidor Virgill, that the yssue of Henry the 7th were to be preferred before others: well, I will not agravate this poynte any further, because the King's majestie (as I am informed) hath seene the very informacion itselfe, written with Dethick's owne hande againste Somersett, whereby it appeared that Dethicke was then no well willer unto the King's Majestie succeeding righte.

"His assaultes and batteryes were to long to write. Two only shall be remembred, because they were at funeralls, and in churches. At the funerall of Sir Henry Sidneye, att Penshurste, he beate the minister in the church; and in the Abbye of Westminster, att the funerall of the Countesse of Sussex, he strooke and hurte with his dagger one Browne, and Draper, brother-in-lawe to Sir William Wade. For the which he indicted him at Newgate; but, by the favour of Mr. Fleetwood, then Recorder, at a purchased sessions, Dethick was acquitted, because Browne (not knowing thereof) appeared

not.

"His behaviour in France, when he went with the Earle of Shrewsbury to carry the Garter to the French King that now is, is most ridiculous, as challenging to sitt above, and to bee served att a board by himselfe; his wearing of a blew ribband, like a knight of the order; his withholding the commission from the Ambassadors, &c., as the Earle had often reported and protested that he was never more troubled with a man in his life.

"His dealing for Rotheram was notorious against the Earle of Kent, and deserved to have beene highly punished in the Starre Chamber, yf he had had his right, as I have heard by Lord Chancellor that now is say.

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But, omitting to say much of these matters, and many others is to be intended, that though the corporall punishment be pardoned, the faultes are not to be taken away, nor to be forgotten.

"It resteth therefore, that we say somewhat how he hath demeaned himself since the King's pardon was obtayned.

"In the late Ambasee to the Duke of Wirtemberghe, wherein he was joyned in commission with the Lord Spencer for the investing of the said Duke with the Order of the Garter, his behaviour and carriage was such and so insolent, as there is no president of the like to be found; ffor, besides that he tooke upon him to bee Ambassadour, (which he yet maintaineth)

and sett up his armes and styles wheresoever he came, he compared with the Lord Ambassador for gentrye, and quarrelled with the knights and gentlemen his followers for preceedency, to their great disturbance: hee forceably kept the commission from the Ambassadour, and sent him a coppie in paper, saying it concerned him more then the Ambassador.

"And when the day of solempnizing the feast came, hee challenged to sitt alone at a table, under an estate, as the Ambassador did, and was served on the knee with carver, tast, and assaye, as a great lord.

"The Lord Ambassadour, being ashamed to see him take so much upon him, sent him worde at the table where he sate, that he forgott himselfe greatly; and that hee should ryse, and doe his office, that was, to proclayme the King's style and the Duke's, hee most arrogantly sent him worde againe that he knewe better what belonged to his office then he could tell him; and if hee did any thinge which hee did mislike, hee bidd him putt it into his wryteing tables, and he would answer it when he came home, &c.

"To be breife, in their retourne homeward, hee forsooke the Ambassadour, and pretended to goe through Fraunce. Because he would sell his horse att Paris, he directed his course to the French Courte, and there communicated to the King his legation to the Duke of Wirtembergh, with all the circumstances thereof; the King brought him to the Queene, whose hands hee kiste, with many other complements and jests which passed betweene the Kinge and him, as sithence he hath vainely boasted.

"How high a faulte this was for an Officer of Armes, joyned in commission with a Lord Ambassadour, ffirst to abuse him, and then to forsake him in the journey, and, without warrant, to visitt a forreigne Kinge, and to enforme him of that which perhaps was not requisite to bee knowne, I leave to the judgment of your Lordships, being in myself fully persuaded that

times have beene that a great man for a lesse faulte might very easily have lost his life.

"Lastly, upon his retourne home, the Kinge's Majestie displaced him from his office, and by a commission under the Greate Seale of England directed unto the Earle Marshall, caused William Seager, now Garter, to be created, sworne, and invested in his place, giving him his hande signett and privy seale for the execucion therof, the which for these two yeares (almost) hee hath done and beene ymployed by the King's Majestie in divers royall and publique services. The place of Norroye, Kinge of Armes, which Seager served before, is given to Windsor Herauld; the place of Windsor to Portcullis Pursivant; and the place of Portcullis to Roze Pursevaunte extraordinarye.

"Hereupon Sir William Dethicke, att a Marshall Courte holden in Lent last, humblie and voluntarily submitted himself unto the Lordes Marshalls, and by the mouth of his learned counsel, Mr. Whitlock, acknowledged his imperfeccions and weaknesse, beseeching their Lordshipps to be suitors to the King's Majestie for him, that he might have some competent support dureing his life, which it pleased their Lordshipps to promise and undertake, and caused it to be entred into their Register Booke, as an Order.

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Notwithstanding all which, Mr. William Dethick, growing impatient of delaye, hath not only caused the Register to corrupt their Lordshipps' Order, by crossing and interlyning of the same to his purpose, but doth alsoe sue an assize against the said William Seager for his office, challenging the same to bee his freehould, even as it were in contempte of his Majestie and their Lordshipps' proceedings."

RT. VIII-Original History of "The Theatre," in Shoreditch, and connexion of the Burbadge family with it.

In the "Memoirs of the Principal Actors in the Plays of Shakespeare," (contained in the list of them which precedes the folio of 1623) and in what I have said regarding Richard Burbadge, (pp. 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11) I have introduced some important documents in Chancery, to which my attention was kindly directed by Mr. Monro, one of the Registrars. I apprehended, as I stated, that they referred to the original construction of the Blackfriars Theatre, where many of Shakespeare's dramas were represented; but I since find that they apply to the building which from the first was specifically denominated "The Theatre," in reference to the purpose for which it was erected-the exhibition of what were then ordinarily called stage-plays. No particular edifice, nor any specific locality, was mentioned in the proceedings in Chancery; and as the Blackfriars Theatre and the two playhouses known as "The Theatre" and "The Curtain," in Shoreditch, were built nearly about the same time, (the Burbadge family having an interest in each) I was misled in supposing that the newly discovered papers, which Mr. Monro put into my hands, appertained to the first of the three. In fact, they belong to the second, as I am now prepared to show from other documents, to which my notice was recently drawn by Mr. F. Devon, of the Chapter House, Westminster.

It will be more intelligible, and perhaps more satisfactory, if I do not extract in full detail the documents themselves, but refer to them in a narrative form, inserting here and there, in the words of the originals, such points as I think merit peculiar attention. The papers are very interesting, in relation to the commencement of dramatic performances at a fixed place in the metropolis, and in connexion also with the origin and character of the Burbadge family, one of the