48 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2 n <i S. IX. Jan. 21. '60. 



Samuel Luke, was the hero of that poem. Lysons 

 tells us that Sir Henry Rosewell married into the 

 family of the Drakes, but nothing farther. 



X. A. X. 



[William, third son of Richard Rowswell (sometimes 

 spelt Rosewell) of Bradford, in the count}- of Wilts, was 

 solicitor to QueKI Elizabeth ; he bought the manor of 

 Carswell in the parish of Broadhembury, in the county of 

 Devon, and dying in 1565, was succeeded by his eldest 

 son William, who purchased the site of the ancient Ab- 

 bey of Ford, and seated himself there. He'was suc- 

 ceeded by his son Sir Henry Rowswell, who resided at 

 Ford Abbey in Sir William Pole's time (circa 1630), but 

 afterwards sold it to Sir Edmund Prideaux. 



This Sir Henry was knighted at Theobalds on the 17th 

 or 19th of February, 1618. His wife was Mary, daugh- 

 ter of John Drake of Ashe; his family arms, per pale 

 gules and azure, a lion rampant argent. Crest: a lion's 

 head couped argent. We are indebted to Mr. Tuckett's 

 Devonshire Collections for the above information. ] 



Bishop Ltndwood. — Lyndwood, the author 

 of the Provinciate, where born ? AYas he of a 

 family of merchants of that name, to whose me- 

 mory there are some brasses in the church of 

 Linwood parish, near Market Rasen ? 



J. Sansom. 



[William Lyndwood, Bishop of St. David's, was de- 

 scended from a respectable family seated at Lyndewode or 

 Linwood, near Market Rasen, in the county of Lincoln, 

 at which place he was born. He is stated to have been 

 one of seven children Gough (Sepulch. Mon. ii. 52.) has 

 printed an inscription on a slab in the church of that 

 parish to the memory of John and Alice Lyndewode, who 

 are thought to have been the father and mother of the 

 bishop. The father died in 1419. Gough (ib. 53.) has 

 also printed another inscription derived from the same 

 church, to the memory of a second John Lyndewode, who 

 died in 1420, and who is stated to have been a brother of 

 the bishop. We are indebted for these particulars to a 

 valuable biographical notice of the bishop in the Archmo- 

 logia, xxxiv. 411-417.] 



StepItriJ. 



ENGLISH COMEDIANS IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



(l rt S. ii. 184. 459. ; iii. 21. ; vii, 114. 360. 503. ; 

 2 nd S. vii. 36.) 



Mr. L. Ph. C. van den Bergh, J. U. D., in the 



first part of his 's Gravenhaagsche Bijzonderheden 

 ('s Gravenhage Martinus NyhofF, 1857), p. 20 — 

 23., writes : — 



" Already in 1605 a company of English comedians or 

 camerspelers * had erected its trestles at the Hague, and it 

 seems they gave some representations during the fai:. 

 The Hof van (Court of ) Holland, taking ill that this 

 was done without its knowledge, thought fit to summon 

 the players, and by them was acquainted, that they 

 had an act of consent from the Prince, and the magis- 

 trates' permission for eight or ten days: that, further- 

 more, they took three pence a spectator. Hereupon they 

 were forbidden to play after the current week. (Resolu- 

 tien 's Hofs, May 10th, 1605.) Thus, probably, this as- 

 sociation of actors will have given its representations in 



* Khetoricians. 



a tent or booth, pitched up for the purpose, and in the 

 number of Englishmen then, as appears from elsewhere, 

 residing at the Hague, we find good reason for their 

 doing so. 



" In the month of June of next year, they, with the 

 Stadtholder's leavg, again made their entrance-bow to 

 the public, but again only stayed for a short time : which 

 latter fact, considering the journey from England to the 

 Low Countries, makes us surmise that they also will 

 have played in other towns of the United Provinces, 

 though written proofs of this suggestion still be wanting.* 

 And it seems they had ' a good house,' for in the month 

 of April, 1607, they, for a third time, found themselves 

 at the Hague, and again the Hof interfered and hin- 

 dered them from giving any farther representations until 

 the fair. 



" But, in 1608, the States, by express edict, opposed 

 their authority against all scenical representations of 

 whatever kind being given at the Hague, forbidding 

 them as scandalous and pernicious to the commune, and 

 thus, during a couple of years, no vestige of any stage- 

 playing occurs. 



" The nation, meanwhile, had grown accustomed to 

 such shows: even protestant England had admitted, 

 and the Stadtholder with his court seem to have re- 

 lished them. And so it happened that when, in 1610, 

 the strolling actors again presented themselves, the Court 

 of Holland, by resolution of September 24, authorised 

 them to perform on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and 

 Thursday, for which leave they should have to pay to 

 the deacons, in behalf of the poor, a sum of 20 pounds ; 

 this licence was prolonged for a week on the 29th. A 

 similar permission was granted to them on October 9, 

 1612 : this time for a fortnight. Whether they since 

 came back more tban once, I cannot say, as I do not 

 again find them noticed before the year 1629, when the 

 magistrate, under the stipulation of thirtj' guilders for 

 the orphan-house, repeated for them his allowance to 

 perform at the fair. In December of that year their li- 

 cence was renewed, and the tennis-court of the Hof, in 

 the present Hoflaan, conceded to their use. 



" But once more, since that period, I' fell in with an 

 English company of actors, which resided at the Hague 



* If Mr. Van den Bergh had looked over his Navorscher, 

 he would not have overlooked what is stated there (Na- 

 vorscher's Bijblad, 1850, pp. xl. and liv. ; cf. " N. & Q." 

 1" S. vii. 360. 503.) about the English players and their 

 peregrinations ; we can almost follow them step by step. 

 I will not mention the troop of Robert Browne (sic, not 

 Brony ; vide infra), that, in October, 1590, performed 

 at Leyden (Navorscher, viii. 7 ; " N. & Q." 2 nd S. vii. 36.), 

 nor allude to the company of " certain English come- 

 dians," who played at the townhall of Utrecht in July, 

 1597 ; but will only refer to the association of players 

 that (with John Wood as manager?) appears at the 

 Court of Brandenburgh before August the 10th, 1604: 

 comes to Leyden on September 30 of the same year : has 

 an act of consent from his Excellency of Nassau, bearing 

 the date of December 22 : returns to Leyden on January 

 the 6th, 1605 : plays at Koningsberg in Prussia before 

 the Duchess Maria Eleonora in October: is sent away 

 from Eibing " because of its having produced scandalous 

 things on the stage:" is found at Rostock in 1606, and 

 again dismissed in 1607. It seems this company, as your 

 present " Judge and Jury," acted extempore, and like the 

 latter frequently overstepped the then much less rigid 

 rules of decency. That such English comedians were not 

 unknown at Amsterdam in 1615 is proved by what is 

 said in Brederoo's Moortje, Act III. Sc. 4. See "the trans- 

 lation by rav friend John Scott of Norwich, " N. & Q." 

 1" S. vii. 361. 



