" Mr. Parke proceeds to record, by way, perhaps, of
fortifying his story: "Although this may appear ridiculous and
improbable, an occurrence of a similar kind took place several years
afterwards at Covent Garden Theatre, when Cooke, the popular actor,
having got drunk, the favourite afterpiece of 'Love a la Mode' was
performed before a London audience (he being absent) without the
principal character, Sir Archy MacSarcasm."
CHAPTER XXVII.
BENEFITS.
Philip Henslowe, who, late in the sixteenth century, was proprietor of
the old Rose Theatre, which stood a little west of the foot of London
Bridge, at Bankside, combined with his managerial duties the
occupation of pawnbroker, and was employed, moreover, as a kind of
commission agent, or middleman, between dramatic authors and actors.
It probably seemed as natural to the manager to engage in these
different employments as to require his players to "double" or
"treble" parts in plays possessed of an unusually long list of
_dramatis personae_. He had married Agnes Woodward, a widow, whose
daughter, Joan, became the first wife of Edward Alleyn, the actor, the
founder of Dulwich College.
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