INTRODUCTION. THE present Catalogue has been prepared in accordance with a resolution of the Board of Governors of Dulwich College. It consists of two parts. In the first are described the manuscript volumes' in the College Library, none of which were included in the recently-published catalogue of the printed books; in the second, all the documents in the Muniment Room bearing an earlier date than the death of the Founder as well as a few others of particular interest selected from those of a later period. Several of the Manuscripts and the whole of the Muniments except nos. 65-72 belonged to Edward Alleyn, the actor, Founder of the College. The volumes numbered MSS. i.-vi. and xviii. are made up of letters and separate papers of all kinds, and their united contents are known as the 'Alleyn Papers.' Under this general term they include not only all that remains of Alleyn's own correspondence, but also that of his wife's stepfather, Philip Henslowe, which presumably came into his hands at the death of the latter in 1616. Apart from their value as materials for the Founder's biography, the extraordinary interest they possess in relation to the early history of the English drama and stage has long been 1 Unfortunately the existence of the MSS. now numbered xviii.-xxxvi. was not known to me until the Catalogue was printed. They will be found described in an Appendix (p. 337). |