he collected Shakespearean and other anecdotes; he revived the
theatre, cautiously, during the last years of Puritan rule, and told
his stories to the players of the early Restoration. As his Book-
keeper with the Duke of York's Company, Downes heard what Davenant
had to tell; he also, for his Roscius Anglicanus, had notes from
Charles Booth, prompter at Drury Lane. On May 28, 1663, Davenant
reproduced Hamlet, with young Betterton as the Prince of Denmark.
Davenant, says Charles Booth, "had seen the part taken by Taylor, of
the Black Fryars Company, and Taylor had been instructed by the
author, (not Bacon but) "Mr. William Shakespeare," and Davenant
"taught Mr. Betterton in every particle of it." Mr. Elton adds, "We
cannot be sure that Taylor was taught by Shakespeare himself. He is
believed to have been a member of the King's Company before 1613, and
to have left it for a time before Shakespeare's death." {201a} His
name is in the list in the Folio of "the principall Actors in all
these plays," but I cannot pretend to be certain that he played in
them in Will's time.

It is Mr. Pepys (December 30, 1668) who chronicles Davenant's
splendid revival of Henry VIII, in which Betterton, as the King, was
instructed by Sir William Davenant, who had it from old Mr. Lowen,
that had his instruction "from Mr. Shakespear himself." Lowin, or
Lowen, joined Shakespeare's Company in 1604, being then a man of
twenty-eight. Burbage was the natural man for Hamlet and Henry VIII;
but it is not unusual for actors to have "understudies."

The stage is notoriously tenacious of such traditions.

When we come with you to Mr. W. Fulman, about 1688, and the additions
to his notes made about 1690-1708, we are concerned with evidence