having been baptized October 6, 1590. Beside this child, he had four sons; John, born in 1598, who died an infant; a second John, baptized August 7, 1599; William, baptized October 3, 1602, and George, baptized February 11, 1603-4; and eight daughters; Judith, Thomasine, Joan, Rebecca, Beatrice, Elizabeth, Mary, (who died in 1611,) and Margaret. Of his daughters, four only appear to have been married; Alice to John Atkins in January, 1612-13; Rebecca to Captain William Smith; Margaret to Mr. Thomas Sheppard, and another to a person of the name of Merefield. The eldest son, John, probably died in his father's lifetime, as by his last will he constituted his son William his executor.

William, whose birth Wood has erroneously placed in 1605, was a student of Christ Church, Oxford, where he took the degree of a Master of Arts in 1628. Soon after his father's death he commenced a dramatick poet, having produced in March, 1632-3, a comedy entitled The Coursinge of a Hare, or the Madcapp, which was performed at the Fortune theatre, but is now lost. He was likewise author of two other plays which are extant; The Fatal Contract, published in 1653, and The Jews Tragedy, 1662.

From an entry in the Council-books at Whitehall, I find that John Heminge was one of the principal proprietors of the Globe playhouse, before the death of Queen Elizabeth. He is joined with Shakspeare, Burbadge, &c. in the licence granted by King James, immediately after his accession to the throne in 1603; and all the payments made by the Treasurer of the Chamber in

6 MS. Herbert.

1613, on account of plays performed at court, are "to John Heminge and the rest of his fellows." So also in several subsequent years, in that and the following reign. In 1623, in conjunction with Condell, he published the first complete edition of our author's plays; soon after which it has been supposed that he withdrew from the theatre; but this is a mistake. He certainly then ceased to act," but he continued chief director of the king's company of comedians to the time of his death. died at his house in Aldermanbury, where he had long lived, on the 10th of October, 1630, in, as I conjecture, the 74th or 75th year of his age, and was buried on the 12th, as appears by the Register of St. Mary's, Aldermanbury, in which he is styled, "John Heminge, player.”

He

I suspect he died of the plague, which had raged so violently that year, that the playhouses were shut up in April, and not permitted to be opened till the 12th of November, at which time the weekly bill of those who died in London of that distemper, was diminished to twenty-nine. His son William, into whose hands his papers must have fallen, survived him little more than twenty years, having died some time before the year 1653: and where those books of account of which his father

S

7 That he and Condell had ceased to act in the year 1623, is ascertained by a passage in their Address "to the great varietie of readers," prefixed to our poet's plays. "Read him therefore, and againe, and againe: and if then you do not like him, surely you are in some manifest danger not to understand him, And so we leave you to other of his friends, whom if you need, can be your guides." i. e. their fellow-comedians, who still continued on the stage, and, by representing our author's plays, could elucidate them, and thus serve as guides to the publick.

• MS. Herbert,

speaks, now are, cannot be ascertained. One cannot but entertain a wish, that at some future period they may be discovered, as they undoubtedly would throw some light on our ancient stage-history. The day before his death, John Heminge made his will, of which I subjoin a copy, extracted from the Registry of the Prerogative Court. In this instrument he styles himself a grocer, but how he obtained his freedom of the Grocers' Company, does not appear.

"IN the name of God, Amen, the 9th day of October, 1630, and in the sixth year of the reign of our sovereign Lord, Charles, by the grace of God king of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. I John Heminge, citizen and grocer of London, being of perfect mind and memory, thanks be therefore given unto Almighty God, yet well knowing and considering the frailty and incertainty of man's life, do therefore make, ordain, and declare this my last will and testament in manner and form following.

First, and principally, I give and bequeath my soul into the hands of Almighty God, my Maker and Creator, hoping and assuredly believing through the only merits, death and passion, of Jesus Christ my saviour and redeemer, to obtain remission and pardon of all my sins, and to enjoy eternal happiness in the kingdom of heaven; and my body I commit to the earth, to be buried in christian manner, in the parish church of Mary Aldermanbury in London, as near unto my loving wife Rebecca Heminge, who lieth there interred, and under the same stone which lieth in part over her there, if the same conveniently may be: wherein I do desire my executor herein after named carefully to see my

will performed, and that my funeral may be in decent and comely manner performed in the evening, without any vain pomp or cost therein to be

bestowed.

Item, My will is, that all such debts as I shall happen to owe at the time of my decease to any person or persons, (being truly and properly mine own debts,) shall be well and truly satisfied and paid as soon after my decease as the same conveniently may be; and to that intent and purpose my will and mind is, and I do hereby limit and appoint, that all my leases, goods, chattles, plate, and household stuffe whatsoever, which I leave or shall be possessed of at the time of my decease, shall immediately after my decease be sold to the most and best benefit and advantage that the same or any of them may or can, and that the monies thereby raised shall go and be employed towards the payment and discharge of my said debts, as soon as the same may be converted into monies and be received, without fraud or covin; and that if the same leases, goods, and chattles, shall not raise so much money as shall be sufficient to pay my debts, then my will and mind is, and I do hereby will and appoint, that the moiety or one half of the yearly benefit and profit of the several parts which I have by lease in the several playhouses of the Globe and Black-fryers, for and during such time and term as I have therein, be from time to time received and taken up by my executor herein after named, and by him from time to time faithfully employed towards the payment of such of my said own proper debts which shall remain unsatisfied, and that proportionably to every person and persons to whom I shall then remain indebted, until by the said moiety or one

half of the said yearly benefit and profit of the said parts they shall be satisfied and paid without fraud or covin. And if the said moiety or one half of the said yearly benefit of my said parts in the said play-houses shall not in some convenient time raise sufficient moneys to pay my said own debts, then my will and mind is, and I do hereby limit and appoint, that the other moiety or half part of the benefit and profit of my said parts in the said playhouses be also received and taken up by my said executor herein after named, and faithfully from time to time employed and paid towards the speedier satisfaction and payment of my said debts. And then, after my said debts shall be so satisfied and paid, then I limit and appoint the said benefit and profit arising by my said parts in the said playhouses, and the employment of the same, to be received and employed towards the payment of the legacies by me herein after given and bequeathed, and to the raising of portions for such of my said children as at the time of my decease shall have received from me no advancement. And I do hereby desire my executor herein after named to see this my will and meaning herein to be well and truly performed, according to the trust and confidence by me in him reposed.

Item, I give, devise, and bequeath, unto my daughter Rebecca Smith, now wife of Captain William Smith, my best suit of linen, wrought with cutwork, which was her mother's; and to my son Smith, her husband, his wife's picture, set up in a frame in my house.

Item, I give and bequeath unto my daughter Margaret Sheppard, wife of Mr. Thomas Sheppard, my red cushions embroidered with bugle, which were her mother's; and to my said son Sheppard,