EDWARD ALLEYN’S FOUNDATION
This is the first of a number of extracts in the Year Book from Dr. Jan Piggott’s Dulwich College – a History, 1606-2008. Next year is the Quatercentenary of Edward Alleyn’s Foundation of his ‘College of God’s Gift’ at Dulwich in 1619. It is well known how famous Alleyn was as a young actor, creating title roles written for him by Christopher Marlowe; and also how prosperous he was, as proprietor of the Rose Theatre and the Bear Garden on Bankside, building later the Fortune Playhouse, near the modern Barbican.
At the age of 34 Alleyn was rich enough to leave the stage; at 46 he bought the large Dulwich estate, becoming Lord of the Manor. In 1604 Alleyn, who was thirty-eight, came out of retirement from the stage. He welcomed King James I, shortly after his arrival from Scotland, on behalf of the City of London in an out-of-doors pageant, The Magnificent Entertainment Given to King James ; the text was a collaboration between Ben Jonson and Thomas Dekker. On 15 March the King, with the Court and the City dignitaries, processed from
the Tower through the streets to see and listen to scenes from an allegorical play performed in the open air at a series of temporary triumphal arches, some forty-two feet high, carved and gilded with statuary and set up at cross-roads. The arches, designed by Stephen Harrison, had been erected on behalf of ‘the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, the Council, Commoners
and Multitude’, together with the Italian, Dutch and Belgian communities.
From a series of detailed engravings made at the time by
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