one of the most dutiful and generous of sons to an
amiable mother, whose old age he cheers with punctual bounty, and by the
most constant and pious filial reverence and affection.

Mr. Cooper has a sister, or at least had one, a lady of high personal
endowments and great goodness. She was early married to Mr. Perreau of
Calcutta, a gentleman who stands as high in the opinion of the world as
any man in India.

Of the merit of Mr. Cooper as an actor we shall have occasion to speak
in another part of this work.

LIFE OF ALLEYN, THE PLAYER.

Mr. Edward Alleyn, who though an actor, is ranked among "the British
Worthies," was born in London in 1566, and trained at an early period to
the stage, for which he was naturally qualified by a stately port and
aspect, corporal agility, flexible genius, lively temper, retentive
memory, and fluent elocution. Before the year 1592 he seems to have
acquired a very considerable degree of popularity in his profession; he
was one of the original actors in the plays of Shakespeare, and a
principal performer in some of those of Jonson; but it does not now
appear what were the characters which he personated. They were probably
the most dignified and majestic, for to these the portly and graceful
figure of his person was well adapted. At length he became master of a
company of players, and the proprietor of a playhouse called the
Fortune, which he erected at his own expense, near Whitecross-street;
and he was also joint proprietor and master of the Royal Bear-Garden, on
the Bank side, in Southwark. By the profits accruing from these
occupations, added to his paternal inheritance, and to the dowries of
his two wives, by whom he had no children, he amassed a considerable
property, which he bestowed in a manner that has redounded more to his
honour than his professional merit. The wealth thus acquired enabled him
to lay the foundation of a college, for the maintenance of aged people,
and the education of children, at Dulwich in Surrey, which institution,
called "The College of God's Gift," subsists at this time in an improved
and prosperous state. The liberal founder, before he was forty-eight
years of age, began this building after the design, and under the
direction of Inigo Jones: and it is presumed that he expended eight or
ten thousand pounds upon the college, chapel, &c. before the buildings
and gardens were finished, which was about the year 1617.

Alleyn had long been regarded b