n the "Rose" on the
Bankside, Southwark, the scene of the earliest successes of S. as an
actor and playwright. Subsequently to 1594, he acted occasionally in a
playhouse in Newington Butts, and between 1595 and 1599 in the "Curtain."
In the latter year the "Globe" was built on the Bankside, and 10 years
later the "Blackfriars:" and with these two, but especially with the
former, the remainder of his professional life was associated. It is not
unlikely that he visited various provincial towns; but that he was ever
in Scotland or on the Continent is improbable. Among the plays in which
he appeared were Jonson's _Every Man in his Humour_ and _Sejanus_, and in
_Hamlet_ he played "The Ghost;" and it is said that his brother Gilbert
as an old man remembered his appearing as "Adam" in _As You Like It_. By
1595 S. was famous and prosperous; his earlier plays had been written and
acted, and his poems _Venus and Adonis_, and _Lucrece_, and probably most
of the sonnets, had been _pub._ and received with extraordinary favour.
He had also powerful friends and patrons, including the Earl of
Southampton, and was known at Court. By the end of the century he is
mentioned by Francis Meres (_q.v._) as the greatest man of letters of the
day, and his name had become so valuable that it was affixed by
unscrupulous publishers to works, _e.g._ _Locrine_, _Oldcastle_, and _The
Yorkshire Tragedy_, by other and often very inferior hands. He had also
resumed a close connection with Stratford, and was making the restoration
of the family position there the object of his ambition. In accordance
with this he induced his _f._ to apply for a grant of arms, which was
given, and he purchased New Place, the largest house in the village. With
the income derived from his profession as an actor and dramatist, and his
share of the profits of the Globe and Blackfriars theatres, and in view
of the business capacity with which he managed his affairs, he may be
regarded as almost a wealthy man, and he went on adding to his influence
in Stratford by buying land. He had enjoyed the favour of Elizabeth, and
her death in 1603 did nothing to disturb his fortunes, as he stood quite
as well with her successor. His company received the title of the "King's
Servants," and his plays were frequently performed before the Court. But
notwithstanding this, the clouds had gathered over his life. The
conspiracy of Essex in 1601 had involved several of his friends and
patrons in dis