286 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
oup north,” Sir William Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling. His tragedies, however,
are dramatic only in title, and not at all adapted for the stage. James VI. endeavoured
to mediate between the clergy and the encouragers of the drama, and, by his royal
authority, stayed for a time their censure of theatrical representations. In the year 1592,
a company of English players was licenced by the King to perform in Edinburgh, against
which an act of the Kirk-sessions was forthwith published, prohibiting the people to resort
to such profane amusements.2 The King appears to have heartily espoused the cause of
the players a few years later, as various entries in the treasury accounts attest, e.g. :-
“ Oct. 1599.-Item, Delyuerit to his hienes selff to be gevin to ye Inglis commeidianis
X;i crownes of ye sone, at iijli. ijs. viijd. ye pece. Nov.-Item. Be his lUabes directioun
gevin to Sr George Elphingstoun, to be delyuerit to ye Inglis commedians, to by timber
for ye preparatioun of ane hous to thair pastyme, as the said S‘ George ticket beiris, xl.
l i ; ” and again a sum is paid to a royal messenger for notifying at the Cross, with sound
of trumpet, “his Mat‘= plesour to all his lieges, that ye saidis commedianis mycht vse
thair playis in E@,” &c. In the year 1601, an English company of players visited
Scotland, and appeared publicly at Aberdeen, headed by “ Laurence Fletcher, comediane
to his Majestie.” The freedom of that burgh was conferred on him at the same time that
it was bestowed on sundry French knights and other distinguished strangers, in whose
train the players had arrived. Mr Charles Knight, in his ingenious life of Shakspeare,
rshows that this is the same player whose name occurs along with that of the great
English dramatist, in the patent granted by James VI,, immediately after his arrival in
the southern capital in 1603, in favour of the company at the Globe ; and from thence he
draws the conclusion that Shakspeare himself visited Scotland at this period, and sketched
out the plan of his great Scottish tragedy amid the scenes of its historic events. By the
same course of iuference, Shakspeare’s name is associated with the ancient Tennis Court
at the Water Gate, as it cannot be doubted that his Majesty’s players made their appearance
at the capital, and before the Court of Holyrood, either in going to or returning
from the northern burgh, whither they had proceeded by the King’s special orders ; but it
must be confessed the argument is a very slender one to form the sole basis for such a
conclusion.
The civil wars in the reign of Charles I., and the striking changes that they led to,
obliterated all traces of theatrical representations, until their reappearance soon after the
Restoration. One curious exhibition, however, is mentioned in the interval, which may be
considered as a substitute for these forbidden displays. “ At this tyme,” says Nicoll, in
1659, ‘ I thair wes brocht to this natioun ane heigh great beast, callit ane Drummodrary,
quhilk being keipit clos in the Cannogate, nane haid a sight of it without thrie pence the
persone, quhilk producit much gape to the keipar, in respect of the great numberis of
pepill that resoirtit to it, for the sight thairof. It wes very big, and of great height, and
clovin futted lyke unto a kow, and on the bak ane saitt, as it were a sadill, to sit on.
Thair wes brocht in with it ane liytill baboun, faced lyke unto a naip.”
Drummond of Hawthornden’a Letters, Archzeol. Scot. vol. iv. p. 83. ’ ‘‘ Nov. 1599.-Item, to Wm. Forsf, measenger, paasand with lettrea to the mercat crow of Eam, chairging ye
elderia and deacouna of the haill four aeasionia of Ed“. to annull thair act maid for ye diacharge of certane Iuglis commedianis,
L a., viiij. d.”-Treasurers’ accounts. 8 Nicoll’a Diary, p. 226.
