Alleyn, Edward

Edward Alleyn, engraving by W. Heydemann after S. Harding [Credit: Mary Evans Picture Library]

1, 1566, London, Eng.—died Nov. 25, 1626, London) one of the greatest actors of the Elizabethan stage and founder of Dulwich College, London. Rivaled only by Richard Burbage, Alleyn won the outspoken admiration of such authors as Ben Jonson and Thomas Nashe for his interpretations of Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus, and The Jew of Malta and of Robert Greene's Orlando Furioso.

After his marriage (1592) to Joan Woodward, stepdaughter of the theatrical manager Philip Henslowe, he became part owner in Henslowe's ventures (which included bearbaiting and bullbaiting as well as theatrical enterprises) and eventually sole proprietor of several playhouses and other properties in London. Among these were the Rose Theatre at Bankside, the Paris Garden, and the Fortune Theatre in St. Luke's—the last occupied by the Admiral's Men, with which Alleyn was associated as the leading actor and manager off and on from c. 1587. In 1619 Alleyn founded the College of God's Gift at Dulwich, later reorganized as Dulwich College. In 1623 his wife died, and he married Constance, daughter of the poet John Donne.