ALLEYN, EDWARD 0566-1626), English actor and founder of Dulwich college, was born in London Sept. 1, 1566, the son of an innkeeper. In 1586 his name was on the list of the earl of Worcester's players, and he was eventually rated by com mon consent as the foremost actor of his time. Ben Jonson bestowed unstinted praise on Alleyn's acting (Epigrams, No. 89). Nash expresses in prose, in Pierce Penniless, his admiration of him, while Heywood calls him "inimitable," "the best of actors," "Proteus for shapes and Roscius for a tongue." Alleyn inherited house property in Bishopsgate from his father. His marriage, on Oct. 2 2, 1592, with Joan 'Woodward, stepdaughter of Philip Hens lowe, brought him eventually more wealth. He became part owner in Henslowe's ventures and, in the end, sole proprietor of several play-houses and other profitable pleasure resorts. Among these were the Rose theatre at Bankside, the Paris garden and the Fortune theatre in Si. Luke's—the latter occupied by the earl of Nottingham's company, of which Alleyn was the head. He filled, too, in conjunction with Henslowe, the post of "master of the king's games of bears, bulls, and dogs." On some occasions he directed the sport in person, and Stow, in his Chronicles, gives an account of how Alleyn baited a lion before James I. at the Tower.
Alleyn's connection with Dulwich began in 1605, when he bought the manor of Dulwich from Sir Francis Calton. The landed property, of which the entire estate had not passed into Alleyn's hands earlier than 1614, stretched from the crest of that range of Surrey hills on whose summit now stands the Crystal Palace, to the crest of the parallel ridge, three miles nearer Lon don, known in its several portions as Herne hill, Denmark hill and Champion hill. He began the task of building and endowing in his own lifetime the College of God's Gift at Dulwich. All was completed in 1617 except the charter or deed of incorporation for setting his lands in mortmain. Tedious delays occurred in the Star Chamber, but the College of God's Gift at Dulwich was founded and endowed under letters patent of James I. dated June 2 1, 1619. The building had been already begun in 1613 (see Dm..wicH). Alleyn was never a member of his own foundation, but he continued to the close of his life to guide and control its affairs under powers reserved to himself in the letters patent. His diary shows that he took a large part in the life of the college.
Alleyn's first wife died in 1623. The same year he married Constance, daughter of John Donne, the poet and dean of St. Paul's. Alleyn died in Nov. 1626, and was buried in the chapel of the college which he had founded.