Alleyn

Alleyn, EDWARD, a famous actor, contemporary with Shakespeare, was born in 1566, and died in 1626. His connection with the English stage during the period of its highest prosperity, invests his life with interest to the student of the drama; but it is as the munificent and pious founder of Dulwich College (q.v.) that he principally claims the remembrance of posterity. The building of the college was begun in 1613, and in 1619 the institution obtained the royal charter, after some obstruction on the part of Lord Bacon, who wished the king to apply part of the grant to the foundation of two lectureships at Oxford and Cambridge. Alleyn himself and his wife took up quarters in the college, living on equal terms with the sharers of his bounty. See his Memoirs by Collier (1841); Collier's Alleyn Papers (1843); and Warner's MSS. of Dulwich College (1881).