tended as a ridicule on Sir John Oldcastle, the good Lord Cobham. This our author disclaims; reminding the audience, that there can be no ground for such a supposition. I call them. (says he) hard and unjust opinions, "for Sir John Oldcastle was no debauchee, but a protestant martyr, and our Falstaff is not the man;" 1. e. is no representation of him, has no allusion whatsoever to him.

Shakspeare seems to have been pained by some raport that his inimitable character, like the de spicable buffoon of the old play already mentioned, whose dress and figure resembled that of Falstaff, (see a note on K. Henry IV. P. I.) was meant to throw an imputation on the memory of Lord Cobham; which, in the reign of so zealous a friend in the Protestant cause as Elizabeth, would not have heen easily pardoned at court. Our author, had he been so inclined, (which we have no ground for supposing,) was nuch too wise to have ever directed any ridicule at the great martyr for that cause, which was so warmly espoused by his Queen and pa-. troness. The former ridiculous representations of Sir John Oldcastle on the stage were undoubtedly produced by `papists, and probably often exhibited, in inferior theatres, to crowded audiences, between the years 1580 and 159o.

MALONE.

P. 252, last 1. I wonder no one has remark➡ ed at the conclusion of the epilogue, that it was. the custom of the old players, at the end of their performance, to pray for their patrons. Thus, at the end of New Custom:

"Preserve our noble Queen Elizabeth, and her councell all."

And in Locrine:

"So let us pray for that renowned maid," &c. And in Middleton's Mad World my Masters: "This shows like kneeling after the play; I praying for my lord Owemuch and his good countess our honourable lady and mistress."

FARMER.

Almost all the ancient interludes I have met with, conclude with some solemn prayer for the King or Queen, house of commons, &c. Hence perhaps the Vivant Rex & Regina, at the bottom of our modern play-bills. STEEVENS.

END OF THE NINTH VOLUME.