[The performers at our earlier theatres were distinguished into whole
shares, three-quarter sharers, half sharers, seven-and-a-half sharers,
hired men, &c. In one scene of the _Histriomastic_, 1610, the dissolute
performers having been arrested by soldiers, one of the latter
exclaims, "Come on, players! now we are the sharers, and you the hired
men;" and in another scene, Clout, one of the characters, rejects with
some indignation the offer of "half a share." Gamaliel Ratsey, in that
rare tract, _Ratseis Ghost_, 1606, knights the principal performer of a
company by the title of "Sir Three Shares and a Half;" and Tucca, in
Ben Jonson's _Poetaster_, addressing Histrio, observes, "Commend me to
Seven shares and a half," as if some individual at that period had
engrossed as large a proportion. Shakspeare, in _Hamlet_, speaks of "a
whole share" as a source of no contemptible emolument, and of the owner
of it as a person filling no inferior station in "a cry of payers." In
_Northward Ho!_ also, a sharer is noticed with respect. Bellamont the
poet enters, and tells his servant, "Sirrah, I'll speak with none:" on
which the servant asks, "Not a player?" and his master replies:
"No, though a sharer bawl:
I'll speak with none, although it be the mouth
Of the big company."
The value of a share in any particular company would depend upon the
number of subdivisions, upon the popularity of the body, upon the
stock-plays belonging to it, upon the extent of its wardrobe, and the
nature of its properties.--See Collier's _English Dramatic Poetry_,
vol. iii. p. 427.]
_Madden's "Reflections and Resolutions proper for the Gentlemen of
Ireland."_--This work, by the Rev. Samuel Madden, was first published in
Dublin in 1738, and was reprinted at the expense of the late Mr. Thomas
Pleasants, in one vol. 8vo., pp. 224, Dub. 1816. I possess two copies of
the original edition, likewise in one vol. 8vo., pp. 237, and I have seen
about a dozen; and yet I find in the preface to the reprint the following
paragraph:
"The very curious and interesting work which is now reprinted, and
intended for a wide and gratuitous circulation, is also of uncommon
rarity; there is not a copy of it in the library of Trinity College, or
in any of the other public libraries of this city, which have been
searched on purpose. (One was purchased some {200} years ago for the
library of the Royal Dublin Society, if I mistake not, for 1l. 6s., or
rather more.) The profoundly learned Vice-Provost, Doctor Barrett,
never met with one; and many gentlemen well skilled in the literature
of Ireland, who have been applied to for information on the subject,
are even unacquainted with the name of the book."
Of Dr. Madden, known as "Premium" Madden, few memorials exist; and yet he
was a man of whom Johnson said, "His was a name Ireland ought to honour."
The book in question does not appear to be of "uncommon rarity." Is it
considered by competent judges of "exceeding merit?" I would be glad to
know.