no means of deciding what parts Robert Goughe filled in the productions of Shakespeare or of other poets: his name is not appended to the dramatis persona of any plays by Ben Jonson, or Beaumont and Fletcher; and, as he died early in 1625, he had no opportunity of appearing in the works of later writers. The probability certainly is, that he sustained female characters in some of the earlier plays of our great dramatist; but we have not the slightest clue to any of them, and we need not indulge in conjectures which our readers can now form as well for themselves. Neither Malone nor Chalmers knew anything of the marriage, family, or death of Goughe: we find the last event thus recorded in the bound register-book, made out from the monthly accounts at St. Saviour's : Buried: 1624, Feb. 19, Robert Goffe, a man, which might apply to any other Robert Goughe besides our actor; but in the monthly account, from which the registerbook was certainly copied, the " quality" of the "man" is thus distinguished :— 19 Feb., 1624, Robert Goffe, a player, buried. Why the person who transcribed the book substituted "man" for "player" does not appear; but this is another circumstance which shows the superior value of the more ancient, and often more particular and explanatory, records. RICHARD ROBINSON. This player may have been an original actor in some of Shakespeare's later dramas, and he just outlived the complete and final suppression of the stage. Of his death, and of the date at which it occurred, which have been matters of dispute, we shall speak in due course. His earliest appearance in any list of actors is at the end of Ben Jonson's "Catiline," first represented "by the King's Majesty's servants," in 1611. Robinson was probably the youngest performer in the company: he is certainly the only member of whom we do not hear before, and we may conclude that he sustained one of the four female characters. He had most likely been adopted into the association as a representative of parts of that kind. Ben Jonson divides the "principal tragedians" in his "Catiline" into two columns, and places Robinson at the bottom of the first, and Ecclestone at the bottom of the second. Such seems to have been the class of characters Robinson usually performed early in his career, but Gifford tells us, that he "undoubtedly played the part of Wittipol" in Ben Jonson's "Devil is an Ass," which was produced in 1616: Wittipol is "a young gallant," and might very well have been placed in Robinson's hands, though we have no distinct proof that it was assigned to him. In this very play Ben Jonson speaks of Robinson in terms of extraordinary eulogy, as an actor of female characters: it occurs in act ii., scene viii., of the earliest edition of 1631; but Gifford makes it the third scene of the second act, and changes "Dick Robinson," the familiar name by which he was known among 1 Ben Jonson's Works, v. 73. 1 his fellows, into "Dickey Robinson:" it will be observed that in the following quotation Ben Jonson twice calls him Dick Robinson : Engine. Why, sir, your best will be one o' the players. Merecraft. No; there's no trusting them. They'll talk on't, And tell their poets. Engine. What if they do? the jest Will brook the stage. But there be some of 'em Are very honest lads. There is Dick Robinson, A very pretty fellow, and comes often To a gentleman's chamber, a friend of mine: we had The merriest supper of it there, one night. The gentleman's landlady invited him To a gossip's feast: now, he, sir, brought Dick Robinson, (I lent him clothes) but to see him behave it, Merecraft. They say he's an ingenious youth. Engine. O, sir! and dresses himself the best! beyond Forty o' your ladies! Did you ne'er see him? Merecraft. No: I do seldom see those toys. But think you That we may have him? Engine. Sir, the young gentleman, I tell you of can command him. This, it will be remembered, was acted in 1616, five years after we first hear of Robinson, and when he had established himself in public estimation in the line adverted to. The only female character he is known to have filled is the lady of Govianus in "The Second Maiden's Tragedy," but at what date is uncertain neither do we know at what period he began to represent male characters. He acted in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Bonduca," "Double Marriage," "Wife for a Month," and "Wild Goose Chase:" the last (published, as we have already stated, in 1652, by Lowin and Taylor) was brought out in 1621, and in it Robinson had not the part even of a young man, much less of a woman: he was "La Castre the indulgent father of Mirabel." In Carlell's " 1 Deserving Favourite" he was Orsinio, and in Webster's "Duchess of Malfi" he followed that experienced actor, Condell, as the Cardinal, about the year 1622. By this time he was evidently disqualified for the sort of characters he had sustained in his youth. As soon as his name could be included in any patent to the King's players, it is found there. James I. made no concession of this kind to his own theatrical servants between 1603 and 1619 at the former date Robinson must have been quite a boy, but at the latter, when the king confirmed his patent of 1603, Robinson's name comes last but one in a list of twelve performers. In 1624 he subscribed the submission to the Master of the Revels, for acting "The Spanish Viceroy," immediately after Joseph Taylor; and there is no doubt that he was then an eminent member of the company. His name fills precisely the same place in the patent granted by Charles I. in 1625, and there are only four actors before him, and eight after him. Condell being dead in 1629, Robinson's name stands fourth in the order, then issued, for cloaks for the King's players: Heminge, Lowin, and Taylor, only precede him in the enumeration of fourteen performers. Nothing seems recorded of Robinson for an interval of 1 "Acted by Master Richard Robinson" is placed after the name of the character in Lowin and Taylor's edition of 1652: Robinson had then been dead about five years; and the mere information, that such and such parts were "acted" by such and such players, is placed against the names of all the performers in the comedy but three: of Mirabel it is said, "incomparably acted by Master Joseph Taylor;" of Belleur we are told that it was "most naturally acted by Master John Lowin;" and of Pinac the criticism is, that it was "admirably well acted by Master Thomas Pollard." eighteen years, but we may be sure that he remained on the stage as long as the Puritans permitted that there should be a stage for him to remain on. His name follows that of Lowin in the dedication to the folio of Beaumont and Fletcher's works in 1647; and the list, which we have inserted on p. 260, contains the last notice of several distinguished actors of, what may be called, the school of Shakespeare and Burbadge. We know absolutely nothing respecting the family of which Richard Robinson came; but, as may be imagined, we find the name of Robinson of frequent occurrence in the old registers, and sometimes with the prefix of Richard. Thus, at St. Giles's, Cripplegate, we have Richard Robinson married to Priscilla Harrys on 11th January, 1599, much too early for our actor; and on 2nd September, 1581, we find the burial of "Isaac, sonne to Richard Robinson," at St. Anne's, Blackfriars. This Richard Robinson may have been the father of our actor, but we discovered no trace of any family connexion beyond the identity of names.1 We now come to the disputed question of the death of Robinson; and, in relation to it, we meet with the following passage in a work we have often before quoted, Wright's Historia Histrionica, 1699:-" When the stage was put down, and the rebellion raised, most of the players, 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 Basing House) by Harrison, he that was after hanged at Charing Cross, who 1 A person of the name of Richard Robinson, “a man more debased by many than he merits of any, so good parts are there in the man," assisted Thomas Churchyard in his book entitled "A true Discourse historicall of the succeeding Governours in the Netherlands." 1602. 4to. If this Richard Robinson were the father of the actor, we have no evidence on the point. |