Page:The portrait of Mr. W. H (IA portraitofmrwh01wild).pdf/89

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The Portrait of Mr W. H.
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sons, the Salmacis of the strange pageant of “Tamburlaine”: Will. Ostler, who was one of “The Children of the Queen’s Chapel,” and accompanied King James to Scotland: George Vernon, to whom the King sent a cloak of scarlet cloth, and a cape of crimson velvet: Alick Gough, who performed the part of Cænis, Vespasian’s concubine, in Massinger’s “Roman Actor,” and three years later that of Acanthe, in the same dramatist’s “Picture”: Barrett, the heroine of Richards’ tragedy of “Messalina”: Dicky Robinson, “a very pretty fellow,” Ben Jonson tells us, who was a member of Shakespeare’s company, and was known for his exquisite taste in costume, as well as for his love of woman’s apparel: Salathiel Pavy, whose early and tragic death Jonson mourned in one of the sweetest threnodies of out literature: Arthur Savile, who was one of “the players of Prince Charles,” and took a girl's part in a comedy by Marmion: Stephen Hammerton, “a most noted and beautiful woman actor,” whose pale oval face with its heavy-lidded eyes and somewhat sensuous mouth looks out at us from a curious miniature of the time: Hart, who made his first success