'I. L. Roscio'. Collier claims to have found in a copy of this the note 'By Jhon Lowin. Witnesseth Tho. D. 1610'.[1] A John Lowen married Joan Hall, widow, by licence, in St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, on 29 October 1607.[2] Shortly afterwards a John Lowin was paying a poor-rate of 2d. weekly in the liberty of the Clink. The Southwark token-books attest his residence 'near the playhouse' and in other parts of the parish at various dates from 1601 to 1642.[3] He was overseer of Paris Garden in 1617-18.[4] But in 1623 he lived in Lambeth (J. 348). He is named as a legatee and overseer in the will of his 'fellow' John Underwood in 1624. It appears from the Sharers Papers that he had no interest in the play-houses until after the death of Heminges in 1630, when he was admitted to purchase two sixteenths of the Globe and one eighth of the Blackfriars. From this time onwards he seems to have shared the business responsibilities of the company with Joseph Taylor. He was also prominent as an actor.[5] Wright enumerates amongst his parts Shakespeare's Falstaff; but when Roberts adds Hamlet and Henry VIII, he is presumably guessing that Lowin was 'fat and scant of breath'. He may have been the original Henry VIII, for Downes reports that Betterton was instructed in the part by Sir William Davenant, 'who had it from old Mr. Lowen, that had his instructions from Mr. Shakespeare himself'.[6] Wright tells us that at the outbreak of civil war he was 'superannuated', and 'in his latter days kept an inn (the Three Pigeons) at Brentford, where he dyed very old (for he was an actor of eminent note in the reign of King James the First), and his poverty was as great as his age'.[7] He signed with Taylor the dedication to Fletcher's The Wild-goose Chase in 1652, the publication of which was an attempt to relieve their necessities. A 'John Lewin' who left a widow Martha, was buried at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields on 18 March 1659, and a 'John Lowen' at St. Paul's, Covent Garden, on 16 March 1669.[8] Probably a G. Lowin who played Barnaveldt's daughter to Lowin's Barnaveldt in 1619 was his son.
LYLY, JOHN. Blackfriars lessee, 1583; Oxford's payee, 1584; and dramatist.
MACHIN, RICHARD. Germany, 1600-3, 1605-6.
MAGETT, STEPHEN. Admiral's tireman, 1596, 1599 (?) (H. ii. 295).
MARBECK, THOMAS. Admiral's, 1602.
MARSHALL, CHARLES. Palsgrave's (provincial), 1616.
MARSTON, JOHN. Blackfriars lessee, 1603-8, and dramatist.
MARTINELLI (?), ANGELICA. Italians, >1598.
MARTINELLI, DRUSIANO. Italians, 1578.
MARTON, THOMAS. Chapel, 1602.
MARTYN, WILLIAM. Payee for a company at Ipswich, 20 February 1572 (Murray, ii. 290).
