[Footnote 12: Like almost all their colleagues, they had much literary
taste. When public events compulsorily retired them from the stage,
they, with the aid of the dramatist Shirley and eight other actors,
two of whom were members with them of Shakespeare's old company, did
an important service to English literature. In 1647 they collected for
first publication in folio Beaumont and Fletcher's plays; only one,
_The Wild Goose Chase_, was omitted, and that piece Taylor and Lowin
brought out by their unaided efforts five years later.]
Both these men kept alive from personal knowledge some oral
Shakespearean tradition during the fifty years and more that followed
his death. Little of their gossip is extant. But some of it was put
on record, before the end of the century, by John Downes, the old
prompter and librarian of a chief London theatre. According to
Downes's testimony, Taylor repeated instructions which he had received
from Shakespeare's own lips for the playing of the part of Hamlet,
while Lowin narrated how Shakespeare taught him the theatrical
interpretation of the character of Henry the Eighth, in that play of
the name which came from the joint pens of Shakespeare and Fletcher.
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