The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and
Instruction, Vol. 13, Issue 371, May 23, 1829, by Various

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Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 13,
Issue 371, May 23, 1829

Author: Various

Release Date: March 6, 2004 [eBook #11487]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

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THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.

VOL. 13, NO. 371.] SATURDAY, MAY 23, 1829. [PRICE 2d.

* * * * *

THE FORTUNE PLAYHOUSE.

[Illustration: The Fortune Playhouse.]

The Engraving represents one of the playhouses of Shakspeare's time,
as the premises appeared a few years since. This theatre was in Golden
Lane, Barbican, and was built by that celebrated and benevolent actor
Edward Alleyn, the pious founder of Dulwich College, in 1599. It was
burnt in 1624, but rebuilt in 1629. A story is told of a large treasure
being found in digging for the foundation, and it is probable that the
whole sum fell to Alleyn. Upon equal probability, is the derivation of
the name "The Fortune." The theatre was a spacious brick building, and
exhibited the royal arms in plaster on its front. These are retained in
the Engraving; where the disposal of the lower part on the building into
shops, &c. is a sorry picture of the "base purposes" to which a temple
of the Drama has been converted.

According to the testimony of Ben Jonson and others, Alleyn was the
first actor of his time, and of course played leading characters in the
plays of Shakspeare and Jonson. He was probably the Kemble of his day,
for his biographers tell us such