1906, 
and ill-founded, on this point, and my 
opinion fhall be Supported by incontelta- 
bie chronological faéig. Soon after Sir 
Walter Raleigh was taken notice of at 
Queen Wlizaveth’s court, he was fent to 
fea by her, and difcovered Virginia in 
1534, when our author was butien years 
old. At his return he continued a cour- 
tier, and debauched a maid of honour, 
whom afterwards he married, Now (up. 
pefing he married ber in 1525, and allow. 
ing that their fon might begin his travels 
at fifteen years old, a period early encugh 
in all conlcience, too early in reafon, this 
bring? us to the yezr 1601, ‘which was 
the tourth year in waich Ben had devoted 
himfelf to Hage writing, and eve y year 
pes a play; it appearing (frum his 
ntrodudtion to the Magnetic Lady) that 
in 1524 and 1589 he produced his firt 
fruits in the dramatic way: Every Man 
in his Humour, and Every Man out of 
his Humour. From which period,. for 
above forty fucceflive years, we find him 
engaged at home both for the ftage, and 
in his fervice as Laureat. And as he ob- 
_ tained the Laureatcy in 1603, when Sir 
Walter’s fon could be but feventeen years 
sid, there was no room or probability of 
his afterwards becoming a travelling tutor. 
* With refpeét to when he became a 
player, how long he continued fo, and in 
what houfe, and what plays his name 2p- 
pears before as an actor, from what fearch 
I have been able to make, I do not find 
his name before any play as an aétor ; yet 
an aflor he was, but I believe barely a 
trolling one. Decker, in his Hifttiomaf- 
tix (a play publified in 1602, and de- 
figned asa reply to Ben’s Poetafter) re- 
proaches our poet with ‘ having lett his 
occupation of being a mortar-treader,toturn 
player ; and with having put up a fuppli- 
cation to be a poor journeyman player, in 
which he had continued, but that he could 
hor fet a good face on it, and fo was ca- 
fhiered.”” Way, if we may admit that 
fatire to be built on fakis, we may glean 
yct fome farther intellig- nce, “ that Ben 
performed the part of Zuliman (.n What 
play I cannot at prefent tell), at the Paris 
Garden, in Southwark; asd toat he am- 
bled by a play-waggon in the high way, 
and took mad Jeronymo’s parr, to get 
ice among the mimicks,”’—-But as to 
Monruty Mac. No. 3 39" 
~ 
Extratts fron the Port-falia of a Man of Letters. 
4) 
the precife time of thele things, we are 
left a little at Jarge. There feems about 
fix years (viz. from his quitting the Usi- 
verlity, 10.1543, when his firtt play was 
atled), in which his hiftory lies lomewhat 
open; but within this period he was a 
bricklayer, a player, a toliier, and firme 
ing himfelf fora poer, That he was a 
foldier, we have aurhority trom his own 
words, He had difobsiged the officers in 
the character of Captsin Tucca, and fir d- 
ing himfelf obliged to make an apology 
for it, he did it in an epigram at the end 
of his Poetahter, duretted to true loluiers, 
in which he fays, 
I {wear by your true friend, roy Mufe, I love 
Your great proteifion, whica I once did proves 
And did not fhame it with my ations then, 
No more than I dare now do with my pen. 
Decker likewile hints, in his Hiltriomattiz, 
at our Ben’s valour, and his being a man 
of the fword, To fay the truth, lam 
in doubt whether this is Icvelled at his 
real profeffion of foldierthip, or at a fatal 
accident which, Lam afiaid, befeil Ben, 
and which, perhaps, had better be flipped 
over in filence. 
“ Wood fays, that the falary of the 
Poet Laureat was at that time tool. per 
annum, but Lam doubtful of his autno- 
rity inthis point, but dare not be pofitive 
on the queftion ; perhaps, he might mean 
thus: an hundred marks in falary, which, 
at 138.40. makes 66). 133. 4d. and a butg 
of fack, which has always been commut- 
ed at 401—In the whole, 96). 143. 4d. 
It is cestain till after James the Firtt’s 
demife, Ben had but a penfion of one 
hundred marks annual.y ; for in his peti- 
tion to King Charles the Fit he fet it out 
fo, and mtreats the Kiag— 
to make 
Of your Grace, for goodnefs fake, 
Thofe your father’s marks, your pounds. 
“If any thing above may be of fervice 
to your Memoirs, I fhall he happy tha: I 
could in any degree contribute to 4 {cheme 
of jomuch merit, or, in any fort, thewa 
difpolition of approving myfelf, Sir, 
** Your ovedient humble fcrvsnt, 
‘© LEW. THEOBALD.” 
“< To the Rev. Mr. Birch, 
in St. Fobe’s-lane, Clerkenwell,” 
E MZ‘ OIRS 
