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a member), for greater security. The will is dated 3rd January, 1613-14; and, as we have stated, it was proved by the widow on the 4th May, 1614. It is in these terms:

In the name of the Father, the Sonne, and the Holy Ghoste. I, Alexander Cooke, sick of body, but in perfect minde, doe with mine owne hand write my last will and testament. First, I bequeathe my soule into the hands of God, my deer Saviour Jesus Christ, who bought it and payd for it deerly with his blood on the crosse; next, my body to the earthe, to be buryed after the manner of Christian buryall.

Item, I do give and bequeath unto my sonne Francis the some of fifty pounds, to be delivered to him at the age of one and twenty yeeres.

Item, I doe give and bequeath unto my daughter Rebecca the some of fiftye pounds also, to be delivered to hir at the age of seaventeene. years, or at hir day of mariage, which it shall please God to bring firste, which somes of money are bothe in one purse in my cuberd. Item, I doe give and bequeathe unto the childe which my wife now goeth with, the some of fiftye pounds allso, which is in the hand of my fellowes, as my share of the stock, to be delivered, if it be a boy, at one and twenty yeres, if a girle at seaventeene, or day of maryage, as before: all whiche somes of moneyes I doe intreate my Master Hemings, Mr. Cundell, and Mr. Frances Caper (for God's cause) to take into their hands, and see it saflye put into Grocers Hall, for the use and bringinge up of my poore orphants.

Item, I doe further give and bequeathe unto my daughter Rebecca the windowe cushens made of needle worke, together withe the window cloathe, court cuboard cloathe, and chimneye cloathe, being all bordered about with needle worke sutable, and greene silke fringe.

If any of my children dye ere they come to age, my will is that the survivers shall have there parte equallye divided to the last. If all my children dye ere they come to age, my will is that my brother Ellis, or his children, shall have one halfe of all; the other halfe to be thus divided to my five sisters, or theire children, tenn pounds apiece amongst them, my brother John's daughter other tenne pounds, the reste to my wife if she live then, if not to Ellis and his. If my brother Ellis dye ere this, and leave no childe of his body, my will is, it shall all be equally distributed amongst my sisters and the children of

there bodys, only my wive's parte reserved, if she live: my wife paying all charges of my buriall, performing my will in every poynte as I have set downe, my will is she shall injoy and be my full and lawfull executrix [of] all my goods, chattels, moveables, debbts, or whatsoever is mine in all the worlde.

This is my last will and testament. In witness whereof I have set to my hand January the third, 1613. By me,

ALLEX. COOKE.

Chalmers printed the preceding document; but the only fact he supplies connected with the biography of Alexander Cooke is, that Augustine Phillips left him a legacy, as one of his fellow-actors, in 1605. To some he gave "thirty shillings in gold," viz. to Shakespeare, Condell, and Christopher Beeston, who was his "servant;" and to others 66 twenty shillings in gold," viz. to Laurence Fletcher, Armyn, Cowley, Cooke, and Tooley.

1 66 Apology for the Believers," p. 447.

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SAMUEL GILBURNE

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Was "unknown" to Malone; and but for the will of Augustine Phillips, which Malone had not seen, we should have been without a single particular regarding him. In May, 1605, he was out of his time, because Phillips calls Gilburne my late apprentice ;" and he bequeaths to him "the sum of forty shillings, and my mouse-coloured velvet hose, and a white taffaty doublet, a black taffaty suit, my purple cloak, sword and dagger, and my base viol." We may infer that Gilburne could play upon the instrument thus left to him by his master and instructor in the business of the stage: we may also conclude that he was a young man, not long out of his articles; but as we never hear of him afterwards upon any other authority, he either died early, or quitted the profession. His name appears in no old list of dramatis persona as a representative of one of the characters; so that, excepting what may be gathered from the fact that he was pupil to Phillips, a comedian, we know not what branch of the profession he followed.

The name of Gilburne does not occur about the required period in the Southwark registers, but it is met with frequently in those of Shoreditch: we there find John, Thomas, William Gilburne, &c., but no Samuel Gilburne. We have looked for it also in vain in Cripplegate, Aldermanbury, and Blackfriars; and our actor probably came from, and died in the country.

1

See our memoir of Phillips, p. 87 of this volume.

ROBERT ARMIN.

The subsequent extract from "Tarlton's Jests" relates to the introduction of Armin to the stage: as it was published, and re-published, in the life-time of Armin, we may perhaps place the more confidence in the general accuracy of the statement. It is headed, "How Tarlton made Armin his adopted son, to succeed him."

Tarlton keeping a tavern in Gracechurch Street, he let it to another, who was indebted to Armin's master, a goldsmith in Lombard Street, yet he himself had a chamber in the same house; and this Armin, being then a wag, came often thither to demand his master's money, which he sometimes had, and sometimes had not. In the end, the man, growing poor, told the boy he had no money for his master, and he must bear with him. The man's name being Charles, Armin made this verse, writing it with chalk on a wainscoat :

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Indeed, Charles the great before,

But now Charles the less, being poor.'

Tarlton, coming into the room, reading it, and partly acquainted with the boy's humour, coming often thither for his master's money, took a piece of chalk, and wrote this rhyme by it:

"A wag thou art; none can prevent thee,

And thy desert shall content thee.

Let me devine.-As I am

So in time thou'lt be the same:

My adopted son therefore be,

To enjoy my clown's suit after me."

1 Oldys, in his MS. notes upon Langbaine, tells us, on the supposed authority of "Tarlton's Jests," that the tavern-keeper's name was Charles Tarlton, but this is clearly a mistake.

And see how it fell out. The boy, reading this, so loved Tarlton after, that regarding him with more respect, he used to his plays, and fell in a league with his humour: and private practice brought him to present playing, and at this hour performs the same, where, at the Globe on the Bankside, men may see him.1

It has been supposed on this authority that Armin became Tarlton's boy or apprentice, and was instructed by him such may have been the fact, but the book called "Tarlton's Jests" affords no evidence of it. Armin was apprentice to a goldsmith when he became acquainted with Tarlton, and all we learn is, that Tarlton prophesied that Armin should be his successor in clown's parts, and that the boy, from his personal liking for Tarlton, frequented plays in which Tarlton acted, and admired, if not acquired, his humour: afterwards Armin had an opportunity of displaying his talents at the Globe theatre on the Bankside.

Tarlton, as has been repeatedly stated, died in September, 1588, and how long before that date he had given encouragement to Armin we know not; but his pupil (if such indeed he were) was a mere boy: probably he was not a grown man when he lost his theatrical patron. If we suppose Armin to have been seventeen or eighteen at the death of Tarlton, he was born about 1570 or 1571, consequently an actor of considerable standing in the spring of 1603, when James I. granted the patent to his players, in which the name of Armin comes last but one, preceding that of Richard Cowley.

The first edition of "Tarlton's Jests," now known, bears date in 1611, but there were evidently earlier impressions, and the three parts into which they are divided were separately printed Thomas Pavior had a license to publish "the second part of "Tarlton's Jests" on 4th August, 1600; and Nash mentions them (possibly then consisting only of the first part)

1 "Tarlton's Jests and News out of Purgatory" (edited for the Shakespeare Society by J. O. Halliwell, Esq.), p. 22.

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