o weakened by infirmities, that he could give them
but little light into their inquiries; and all that could be
recollected from him of his brother Will in that station was the faint,
general, and almost lost ideas he had of having once seen him act a
part in one of his own comedies, wherein being present to personate a
decrepit old man, he wore a long beard, and appeared so weak and
drooping and unable to walk, that he was forced to be supported and
carried by another person to a table, at which he was seated among some
company who were eating, and one of them sang a song."

[83] This description applies to old Adam in As You Like It. Many are
the evidences that Shakespeare's reputation had from time to time a
struggle to maintain itself. James Howard, in Pepys's day--

"Belonged to the faction which affected to believe that there was no
popular love for Shakespeare, to render whom palatable he arranged
Romeo and Juliet for the stage, with a double denouement--one serious,
the other hilarious. If your heart were too sensitive to bear the
deaths of the loving pair, you had only to go on the succeeding
afternoon to see them wedded, and set upon the way of a well-assured
domestic felicity."

In 1678 Rymer asserted (was it undesignedly a true testimony to the
acting of his time?) that Shakespeare had depicted Brutus and Cassius
as "Jack Puddins."

Here, as in many another detail, we are reminded, of course, of the
difference between our own and past times in mimic as in real life. For
Prynne one of the great horrors of the stage was the introduction of
actresses from France by Henrietta Maria, to take the place of young
[84] male actors of whom Dr. Doran has some interesting notices. Who
the lady was who first trod the stage as a professional actress is not
known, but her part was Desdemona. And yet it was long after that--

"Edward Kynaston died (in 1712). He lies buried in the churchyard of
St. Paul's, Covent Garden. If not the greatest actor of his day,
Kynaston was the greatest of the 'boy-actresses.' So exalted was his
reputation 'that,' says Downes, 'it has since been disputable among the
judicious, whether any woman that succeeded him so sensibly touched the
audience as he.'"

In Charles II.'s time it was a custom to return the price of admission
to all persons who left the theatre before the close of the first act.
Consequently, many shabby persons were wont to force their way in
without paying, on t