Shakespeare came to London first in 1585.  Whether on this, his first visit, he became connected with the theatres is uncertain.  At any rate it is most probable that he saw Burbage in some of his favorite characters, and perhaps made his acquaintance; being first employed as a kind of servant in the theatre, and afterwards as a player of inferior parts.  It was not until about 1591-1592, that Shakespeare began to turn his attention seriously to dramatic authorship.  For five years of his life we are absolutely without any evidence as to what were his pursuits.  But there can be little doubt that during this interval he was virtually undergoing a special form of education, consisting rather of the study of human nature than that of books, and was acquiring the art of dramatic construction—­learnt better in a theatre than anywhere else.  Unfortunately, we have no record of the intercourse between Shakespeare and Burbage; but there can be little doubt that between the dramatist, who was himself an actor, and the actor, who gave life to the greatest creations of his imagination, and who, probably, amazed no less than delighted the great master by the vividness and power of his impersonations, there must have existed a close friendship.  Shakespeare, unlike most men of genius, was no bad man of business; and, indeed, a friend of mine, who prides himself upon being a practical man, once suggested that he selected the part of the Ghost in Hamlet because it enabled him to go in front of the house between the acts and count the money.  Burbage was universally acknowledged as the greatest tragic actor of his time.  In Bartholomew Fair, Ben Jonson uses Burbage’s name as a synonym for “the best actor”; and Bishop Corbet, in his Iter Boreale, tells us that his host at Leicester—­

      “when he would have said King Richard died,
    And call’d, ‘A horse!  A horse!’ he, Burbage, cried,”

In a scene, in which Burbage and the comedian Kemp (the J.L.  Toole of the Shakespearean period) are introduced in The Return from Parnassus—­a satirical play, as you may know, written by some of the Members of St. John’s College, Cambridge, for performance by themselves on New Year’s Day, 1602—­we have proof of the high estimation in which the great tragic actor was held.  Kemp says to the scholars who are anxious to try their fortunes on the stage:  “But be merry, my lads, you have happened upon the most excellent vocation in the world for money; they come north and south to bring it to our playhouse; and for honors, who of more report than Dick Burbage and Will Kempe; he is not counted a gentleman that knows not Dick Burbage and Will Kempe; there’s not a country wench that can dance ‘Sellenger’s Round,’ but can talke of Dick Burbage and Will Kempe.”

That Burbage’s fame as an actor outlived his life may be seen from the description given by Flecknoe:—­