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explain the nature of the story about to be represented, in | of redress and correction," while her kingdom of England is alternate stanzas; and the whole performance is wound up intended by "Respublica," and its inhabitants represented by an epilogue from the bishop, enforcing the moral, which by "People" the Reformation in the Church is distinguished of course was intended to illustrate, and impress upon the as "Oppression ;" and Policy, Authority, and Honesty, are audience, the divine origin of the doctrine of transubstantia- designated "Avarice," "Insolence," and "Adulation." tion. Were it necessary to our design, and did space allow this is distinctly stated by the author on his title-page, while of it, we should be strongly tempted to introduce some he also employs the impersonations of Misericordia, Vericharacteristic extracts from this hitherto unseen production; tas, Justitia, and Pax, (agents not unfrequently resorted to but we must content ourselves with saying, that the language in the older miracle-plays) as the friends of "Nemesis," the in several places appears to be older than the reign of Queen, and as the supporters of the Roman Catholic religion Edward IV., or even of Henry VI., and that we might be in her dominions. disposed to carry back the original composition of the drama to the period of Wickliffe, and the Lollards.

It was not until the reign of Elizabeth that miracle-plays were generally abandoned, but in some distant parts of the kingdom they were persevered with even till the time of James I. Miracle-plays, in fact, gradually gave way to moral plays, which presented more variety of situation and character; and moral plays in turn were superseded by a species of mixed drama, which was strictly neither moral play nor historical play, but a combination of both in the same representation.

Of this singular union of discordant materials, no person who has hitherto written upon the history of our dramatic poetry has taken due notice; but it is very necessary not to pass it over, inasmuch as it may be said to have led ultimately to the introduction of tragedy, comedy, and history, as we now understand the terms, upon the boards of our public theatres. No blame for the omission can fairly be imputed to our predecessors, because the earliest specimens of this sort of mixed drama which remain to us have been brought to light within a comparatively few years. The most important of these is the "Kynge Johan" of Bishop Bale. We are not able to settle with precision the date when it was originally written, but it was evidently performed, with additions and alterations, after Elizabeth came to the throne. The purpose of the author was to promote the Reformation, by applying to the circumstances of his own times the events of the reign of King John, when the kingdom was placed by the Pope under an interdict, and when, according to popular belief, the sovereign was poisoned by a draught administered to him by a monk. This drama resembles a moral play in the introduction of abstract impersonations, and a historical play in the adaptation of a portion of our national annals, with real characters, to the purposes of the stage. Though performed in the reign of Elizabeth, we may carry back the first composition and representation of "Kynge Johan" to the time of Edward VI.; but, as it has been printed by the Camden Society, it is not necessary that we should enlarge upon it.

1

Nothing would be gained by a detail of the import of the tedious interlocutions between the characters, represented, it would seem, by boys, who were perhaps the children of the Chapel Royal; for there are traces in the performance that it was originally acted at court. Respublica is a widow greatly injured and abused by Avarice, Insolence, Oppression, and Adulation; while People, using throughout a rustic dialect, also complain bitterly of their sufferings, especially since the introduction of what had been termed "Reformation" in matters of faith: in the end Justitia brings in Nemesis, to effect a total change by restoring the former condition of religious affairs; and the piece closes with the delivery of the offenders to condign punishment. The production was evidently written by a man of education; but, although there are many attempts at humour, and some at variety, both in character and situation, the whole must have been a very wearisome performance adapted to please the court by its general tendency, but little calculated to accomplish any other purpose entertained by the writer. In all respects it is much inferior to the "Kynge Johan" of Bale, which it followed in point of date, and to which, perhaps, it was meant to be a counterpart.

In the midst of the performance of dramatic productions of a religious or political character, each party supporting the views which most accorded with the author's individual opinions, John Heywood, who was a zealous Roman Catholic, and who subsequently suffered for his creed under Edward VI. and Elizabeth, discovered a new species of entertainment, of a highly humorous, and not altogether of an uninstructive kind; which seems to have been very acceptable to the sovereign and nobility, and to have obtained for the author a distinguished character as a court dramatist, and ample rewards as a court dependent.3 These were properly called "interludes," being short comic pieces, represented ordinarily in the interval between the feast and the banquet; and we may easily believe that they had considerable influence in the settlement of the form which our stage-performances ultimately assumed. Heywood does not appear to have begun writing until The object of Bale's play was, as we have stated, to after Henry VIII. had been some years on the throne; but, advance the Reformation under Edward VI.; but in the while Skelton was composing such tedious elaborations as reign of his successor a drama of a similar description, and his " Magnificence," which, without any improvement, merely of a directly opposite tendency, was written and acted. It carries to a still greater length of absurdity the old style has never been mentioned, and as it exists only in manu- of moral plays, Heywood was writing his "John Tib and script of the time, it will not be out of place to quote its Sir John," his "Four Ps," his "Pardoner and Friar," and title, and to explain briefly in what manner the anonymous pieces of that description, which presented both variety of author carries out his design. He calls his drama "Res-matter and novelty of construction, as well as considerable publica," and he adds that it was "made in the year of our wit and drollery in the language. He was a very original Lord 1553, and the first year of the most prosperous reignwriter, and certainly merits more admiration than any of of our most gracious Sovereign, Queen Mary the First." his dramatic contemporaries.

He was supposed to speak the prologue himself, in the To the commencement of the reign of Elizabeth we may character of "a Poet;" and although every person he intro-refer several theatrical productions which make approaches, duces is in fact called by some abstract name, he avowedly more or less near, to comedy, tragedy, and history, and still brings forward the Queen herself as "Nemesis, the Goddess retain many of the known features of moral plays. “Tom

1 Bale died in Nov. 1563; but he is nevertheless thus spoken of, as Besides "King Johan," Bale was the author of four extant dramatic still living, in B. Googe's "Eglogs, Epitaphes, and Sonnettes," pub-productions, which may be looked upon as miracle-plays, both in their lished, we have reason to believe, in the spring of that year: we have form and characters: viz. 1. "The Three Laws of Nature, Moses and never seen this tribute quoted, and therefore subjoin it. Christ;" 2. "God's Promises;" 3. "John the Baptist;" 4. "The Temptation of Christ." He also wrote fourteen other dramas of various kinds, none of which have come down to us.

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"Good aged Bale, that with thy hoary heares
Doste yet persyste to turne the paynefull booke
O hapye, man! that hast obtaynde such yeares,
And leav'st not yet on papers pale to looke;
Gyve over now to beate thy weryed braine,
And rest thy penne, that long hath labour'd soore:
For aged men unfyt sure is suche paine,
And thee beseems to labour now no more:
But thou, I thynke, Don Platoes part will playe,
With booke in hand to have thy dying daye."

2 In the library of Mr. Hudson Gurney, to whom we beg to express our obligations for the use of it.

3 John Heywood, who flourished in the reign of Henry VIII., is not to be confounded, as some modern editors of Shakespeare have confounded him, with Thomas Heywood, who became a dramatist more than half a century afterwards, and who continued a writer for the stage until near the date of the closing of the theatres by the Puritans. John Heywood, in all probability, died before Thomas Heywood was born,

only been cajoled and laughed at, makes up his mind to be merry at the wedding of Goodluck and Custance.

In all this we have no trace of anything like a moral play, with the exception, perhaps, of the character of Matthew Merrygreek, which, in some of its features, its love of mischief and its drollery, bears a resemblance to the Vice of the older drama. Were the dialogue modernised, the comedy might be performed, even in our own day, to the satisfaction of many of the usual attendants at our theatres.

Tiler and his Wife" is a comedy in its incidents; but the allegorical personages, Desire, Destiny, Strife, and Patience, connect it immediately with the earlier species of stageentertainment. "The Conflict of Conscience," on the other hand, is a tragedy on the fate of an historical personage; but Conscience, Hypocrisy, Avarice, Horror, &c., are called in aid of the purpose of the writer. "Appius and Virginia" is in most respects a history, founded upon facts; but Rumour, Comfort, and Doctrine, are importantly concerned in the representation. These, and other productions of the same class, which it is not necessary to particularize, show In considering the merits of this piece, we are to recollect the gradual advances made towards a better, because a that Bishop Still's "Gammer Gurton's Needle," which, until more natural, species of theatrical composition.1 Into miracle- of late, was held to be our earliest comedy, was written plays were gradually introduced allegorical personages, who some twenty years after "Ralph Roister Doister" it was finally usurped the whole stage; while they in turn yielded not acted at Cambridge until 1566, nine years subsequent to real and historical characters, at first only intended to to the death of Udall; and it is in every point of view an give variety to abstract impersonations. Hence the origin inferior production. The plot is a mere piece of absurdity, of comedy, tragedy, and history, such as we find them in the language is provincial (well fitted, indeed, to the country the works of Shakespeare, and of some of his immediate where the scene is laid, and to the clownish persons engaged predecessors. in it) and the manners depicted are chiefly those of illiterate rustics. The story, such as it is, relates to the loss of a needle with which Gammer Gurton had mended Hodge's breeches, and which is afterwards found by the hero, when he is about to sit down. The humour, generally speaking, is as coarse as the dialogue; and though it is impossible to deny that the author was a man of talents, they were hardly such as could have produced "Ralph Roister Doister."

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1

What is justly to be considered the oldest known comedy in our language is of a date not much posterior to the reign of Henry VIII, if, indeed, it were not composed while he was on the throne. It has the title of "Ralph Roister Doister," and it was written by Nicholas Udall, who was master of Eton school in 1540, and who died in 1557.2 It is on every account a very remarkable performance; and as the scene is laid in London, it affords a curious picture of metropolitan manners. The regularity of its construction, even at that early date, may be gathered from the fact, that in the single copy which has descended to us it is divided into acts and scenes. The story is one of common, every-day life; and none of the characters are such as people had been accustomed to find in ordinary dramatic entertainments. The piece takes its name from its hero, a young town-gallant, who is mightily enamoured of himself, and who is encouraged in the good opinion he entertains of his own person and accomplishments by Matthew Merrygreek, a poor relation, who attends him in the double capacity of companion and servant. Ralph Roister Doister is in love with a lady of property, called Custance, betrothed to Gawin Goodluck, a merchant, who is at sea when the comedy begins, but who returns before it concludes. The main incidents relate to the mode in which the hero, with the treacherous help of his associate, endeavours to gain the affections of Custance. He writes her a letter, which Merrygreek reads without a due observance of the punctuation, so that it entirely perverts the meaning of the writer: he visits her while she is surrounded by her female domestics, but he is unceremoniously rejected: he resolves to carry her by force of arms, and makes an assault upon her habitation; but with the assistance of her maids, armed with mops and brooms, she drives him from the attack. Then, her betrothed lover returns, who has been misinformed on the subject of her fidelity, but he is soon reconciled on an explanation of the facts; and Ralph Roister Doister, finding that he has no chance of success, and that he has

1 One of the latest pieces without mixture of history or fable, and consisting wholly of abstract personages, is, "The Tide tarryeth no Man," by George Wapul, printed in 1576: only a single copy of it has been preserved, and that is in the library of the Duke of Devonshire. The principal persons introduced into it have the following names:Painted-profit, No-good-neighbourhood, Wastefulness, Christianity, Correction, Courage, Feigned-furtherance, Greediness, Wantonness, and Authority-in-despair.

2 A very interesting epistle from Udall is to be found in Sir Henry Ellis's volume (edited for the Camden Society) "Original Letters of Eminent Literary Men." That of Udall is first in the series.

3 This single copy is without title-page, so that the year when it was printed cannot be ascertained; but Thomas Hacket had a licence in 1566 for the publication of "a play entitled Rauf Ruyster Duster," as it is called on the registers of the Stationers' company. We may presume that it was published in that year, or in the next.

By "the older drama," we mean moral plays, into which the Vice was introduced for the amusement of the spectators: no character so called, or with similar propensities, is to be traced in miracle-plays. He was, in fact, the buffoon of our drama in, what may be termed, its second stage; after audiences began to grow weary of plays founded upon Scripture-history, and when even moral plays, in order to be relished, required the insertion of a character of broad humour, and vicious inclinations, who was sometimes to be the companion, and at

The drama which we have been accustomed to regard as our oldest tragedy, and which probably has a just claim to the distinction, was acted on 18th January, 1562, and printed in 1565.5 It was originally called "Gorboduc;" but it was reprinted, in 1571 under the title of "Forrex and Porrex," and a third time in 1590 as "Gorboduc." The first three acts were written by Thomas Norton, and the last two by Thomas Sackville, afterwards Earl of Dorset, and it was performed "by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple." Although the form of the Greek drama is observed in "Gorbodue," and each act concluded by a chorus, yet Sir Philip Sidney, who admitted (in his "Apology of Poetry") that it was "full of stately speeches and well-sounding phrases," could not avoid complaining that the unities of time and place had been disregarded. Thus, in the very outset and origin of our stage, as regards what may be termed the regular drama, the liberty, which allowed full exercise to the imagination of the audience, and which was afterwards happily carried to a greater excess, was distinctly asserted and maintained. It is also to be remarked, that "Gorboduc" is the earliest known play in our language in which blank-verse was employed; but of the introduction of blank-verse upon our public stage, we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. It was an important change, which requires to be separately considered.

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We have now entered upon the reign of Elizabeth; and although, as already observed, moral plays and even miracleplays were still acted, we shall soon see what a variety of subjects, taken from ancient history, from mythology, fable, and romance, were employed for the purposes of the drama.

others, the castigator, of the devil, who represented the principle of evil among mankind. The Vice of moral plays subsequently became the fool and jester of comedy, tragedy, and history, and forms another, and an important, link of connexion between them.

5 In the Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, ii. 482, it is said that the earliest edition of "Gorboduc" has no date. This is a mistake, as is shown by the copy in the collection of Lord Francis Egerton, which has "anno 1565, Septemb. 22" at the bottom of the title-page. Mr. Hallam, in his admirable "Introduction to the Literature of Europe," &c. (Second Edit. vol. ii. p. 167), expresses his dissent from the position, that the three first acts were by Norton, and the two last by Sackville. The old title-page states, that "three acts were written by Thomas Norton, and the two last by Thomas Sackville." the printer, William Griffith, were misinformed, this seems decisive. Norton's abilities have not had justice done to them.

Unless

6 Richard Edwards, a very distinguished dramatic poet, who died in 1566, and who wrote the lost play of "Palamon and Arcite," which was acted before the Queen in September of that year, did not follow the example of Sackville and Norton: his "Damon and Pithias" (the only piece by him that has survived) is in rhyme. See Dodsley's Old Plays, last edition, vol. i. p. 177. Thomas Twine, an actor in "Palamon and Arcite," wrote an epitaph upon its author. "Gammer Gurton's Needle," and "Gorboduc," (the last printed from the second edition) are also inserted in vols. í. and ii. of Dodsley's Old Plays.

Stephen Gosson, one of the earliest enemies of theatrical | (he remarks) in this quality is most vain, indiscreet, and out performances, writing his "Plays confuted in Five Actions" of order. He first grounds his work on impossibilities; a little after the period of which we are now speaking, but then, in three hours, runs he through the world, marries, gets adverting to the drama as it had existed some years before, children, makes children men, men to conquer kingdoms, tells us, that "the Palace of Pleasure, the Golden Ass, the murder monsters, and bringeth gods from heaven, and Ethiopian History, Amadis of France, and the Round fetcheth devils from hell: and, that which is worst, their Table," as well as "comedies in Latin, French, Italian, and ground is not so unperfect as their working indiscreet; not Spanish, have been thoroughly ransacked to furnish the weighing, so the people laugh, though they laugh them for play-houses in London." Hence, unquestionably, many of their follies to scorn. Many times, to make mirth, they the materials of what is termed our romantic drama were make a clown companion with a king: in their grave counobtained. The accounts of the Master of the Revels between cils they allow the advice of fools; yea, they use one order 1570 and 1580 contain the names of various plays repre- of speech for all persons, a gross indecorum." This, it will sented at court; and it is to be noted, that it was certainly be perceived, is an accurate account of the ordinary license the practice at a later date, and it was probably the prac- taken in our romantic drama, and of the reliance of poets, tice at the time to which we are now adverting, to select long before the time of Shakespeare, upon the imaginations for performance before the Queen such pieces as were most of their auditors. in favour with public audiences: consequently the mention of a few of the titles of productions represented before Elizabeth at Greenwich, Whitehall, Richmond, or Nonesuch, will show the character of the popular performances of the day. We derive the following names from Mr. P. Cunningham's "Extracts from the Revels' Accounts," printed for the Shakespeare Society:

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To the same effect we may quote a work by Stephen Gosson, to which we have before been indebted," Plays confuted in Five Actions,"--which must have been printed about 1580:-"If a true history (says Gosson) be taken in hand, it is made, like our shadows, longest at the rising and falling of the sun, shortest of all at high noon; for the poets drive it commonly unto such points, as may best show the majesty of their pen in tragical speeches, or set the hearers agog with discourses of love; or paint a few antics to fit their own humours with scoffs and taunts; or bring in a show, to furnish the stage when it is bare." Again, speaking of plays professedly founded upon romance, and not upon "true history," he remarks: "Sometimes you shall see nothing but the adventures of an amorous knight, passThe Four Sons of Fabius.ing from country to country for the love of his lady, encoun

Mutius Scævola.

Portio and Demorantes.
Titus and Gisippus.
Three Sisters of Mantua.
Cruelty of a Stepmother.
The Greek Maid.

Rape of the second Helen

History of Sarpedon.
Murderous Michael.
Scipio Africanus.
The Duke of Milan.

The History of Error.

These are only a few out of many dramas, establishing the multiplicity of sources to which the poets of the time resorted.1 Nevertheless, we find on the same indisputable authority, that moral plays were not yet altogether discarded in the court entertainments; for we read, in the original records, of productions the titles of which prove that they were pieces of that allegorical description: among these are "Truth, Faithfulness, and Mercy," and The Marriage of Mind and Measure," which is expressly called "a moral."

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Our main object in referring to these pieces has been to show the great diversity of subjects which had been dramatised before 1580. In 1581 Barnabe Rich published his "Farewell to Military Profession," consisting of a collection of eight novels; and at the close of the work he inserts this strange address "to the reader:"-" Now thou hast perused these histories to the end, I doubt not but thou wilt deem of them as they worthily deserve, and think such vanities more fitter to be presented on a stage (as some of them have been) than to be published in print." The fact is, that three dramas are extant which more or less closely resemble three of Rich's novels: one of them "Twelfth Night," another, "The Weakest goeth to the Wall;" and the third the old play of "Philotus."

Upon the manner in which the materials thus procured were then handled, we have several contemporaneous authorities. George Whetstone, (an author who has principally acquired celebrity by writing an earlier drama upon the incidents employed by Shakespeare in his "Measure for Measure") in the dedication of his "Promos and Cassandra," gives a compendious description of the nature of popular theatrical representations in 1578. "The Englishman

1"The Play of Fortune," in the above list, is doubtless the piece which has reached us in a printed shape, as "The Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune :" it was acted at court as early as 1573, and again in 1582; but it did not come from the press until 1589, and the only copy of it is in the library of Lord Francis Egerton. The purpose of the anonymous writer was to compose an entertainment which should possess the great requisite of variety, with as much show as could at that early date be accomplished; and we are to recollect that the court theatres possessed some unusual facilities for the purpose. The "Induction" is in blank-verse, but the body of the drama is in rhyme. "The

tering many a terrible monster, made of brown paper, and
at his return is so wonderfully changed, that he cannot be
known but by some posy in his tablet, or by a broken ring,
We can
or a handkerchief, or a piece of cockle-shell."
hardly doubt that when Gosson wrote this passage he had
particular productions in his mind, and several of the cha-
racter he describes are still extant.

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Sir Philip Sidney is believed to have written his "Apology of Poetry" in 1583, and we have already referred to it in connexion with " connexion with "Gorboduc." His observations, upon the general character of dramatic representations in his time, throw much light on the state of the stage a very few years before Shakespeare is supposed to have quitted Stratford-upon-Avon, and attached himself to a theatrical company. “Our tragedies and comedies (says Sidney) are not without cause cried out against, observing neither rules of honest civility, nor skilful poetry. But if it be so in Gorboduc, how much more in all the rest, where you shall have Asia of the one side, and Afric of the other, and so many other under-kingdoms, that the player, when he comes in, must ever begin with telling where he is, or else the tale will not be conceived. Now you shall have three ladies walk to gather flowers, and then we must believe the stage to be a garden: by and by we hear news of a shipwreck in the same place; then, we are to blame if we accept it not for a rock. Upon the back of that comes out a hideous monster with fire and smoke, and then the miserable beholders are bound to take it for a cave; while, in the meantime, two armies fly in, represented with four swords and bucklers, and then what hard heart will not receive it for a pitched field? Now, of time they are much more liberal; for ordinary it is that two young princes fall in love: after many traverses she is got with child, delivered of a fair boy; he is lost, groweth a man, falleth in love, and is ready to get another child, and all this in two hours' space: which how absurd it is in sense, even sense may imagine, and art hath taught, and all ancient examples justiHistory of the Collier," also mentioned, was perhaps the comedy subsequently known and printed as "Grim, the Callier of Croydon ;" and it has been reasonably supposed, that "The History of Error" was an old play on the same subject as Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors."

2 Until recely no edition of an earlier date than that of 1606 was known; but there is an impression of 1581 at Oxford, which is about to be reprinted by the Shakespeare Society. Malone had heard of a copy in 1583, but it is certainly a mistake.

3 It was reprinted for the Bannatyne Club in 1835, by J. W. Mackenzie, Esq.

fied." He afterwards comes to a point previously urged by companies attached to particular places; and in coeval Whetstone; for Sidney complains that plays were "neither records we read of the players of York, Coventry, Lavenright tragedies nor right comedies, mingling kings and ham, Wycombe, Chester, Manningtree, Evesham, Mile-end, clowns, not because the matter so carrieth it, but thrust in Kingston, &c. the clown by head and shoulders, to play a part in majestical matters with neither decency nor discretion; so as neither the admiration and commiseration, nor right sportfulness is by their mongrel tragi-comedy obtained."

It will be remarked that, with the exception of the instance of "Gorboduc," no writer we have had occasion to cite mentions the English Chronicles, as having yet furnished dramatists with stories for the stage; and we may perhaps infer that resort was not had to them, for the purposes of the public theatres, until after the date of which we are now speaking.

Having thus briefly adverted to the nature and character of dramatic representations from the earliest times to the year 1583, and having established that our romantic drama was of ancient origin, it is necessary shortly to describe the circumstances under which plays were at different early periods performed.

In the reign of Henry VIII., and perhaps in that of his predecessor, the gentlemen and singing-boys of the Chapel Royal were employed to act plays and interludes before the court; and afterwards the children of Westminster, St. Paul's, and Windsor, under their several masters, are not unfrequently mentioned in the household books of the palace, and in the accounts of the department of the revels.1 In 1514 the king added a new company to the dramatic retinue of the court, besides the two companies which had been paid by his father, and the associations of theatrical children. In fact, at this period dramatic entertainments, masques, disguisings, and revels of every description, were carried to a costly excess. Henry VIII. raised the sum, until then paid for a play, from 67. 13s. 4d. to 10%. William Cornyshe, the master of the children of the chapel, on one occasion was paid no less a sum than 2007., in the money of that time, by way of reward; and John Heywood, the author There were no regular theatres, or buildings permanently of interludes before mentioned, who was also a player upon constructed for the purposes of the drama, until after 1575. the virginals, had a salary of 201. per annum, in addition to Miracle-plays were sometimes exhibited in churches and in his other emoluments. During seasons of festivity a Lord the halls of corporations, but more frequently upon move- of Misrule was regularly appointed to superintend the able stages, or scaffolds, erected in the open air. Moral sports, and he also was separately and liberally remuneplays were subsequently performed under nearly similar rated. The example of the court was followed by the circumstances, excepting that a practice had grown up, courtiers, and the companies of theatrical retainers, in the among the nobility and wealthier gentry, of having dramatic pay, or acting in various parts of the kingdom under the entertainments at particular seasons in their own residences.' names of particular noblemen, became extremely numerous. These were sometimes performed by a company of actors Religious houses gave them encouragement, and even assisted retained in the family, and sometimes by itinerant players,2 in the getting up and representation of the performances, who belonged to large towns, or who called themselves the especially shortly before the dissolution of the monasteries: servants of members of the aristocracy. In 14 Eliz. an act in the account-book of the Prior of Dunmow, between was passed allowing strolling actors to perform, if licensed March 1532 and July 1536, we find entries of payments by some baron or nobleman of higher degree, but subjecting to Lords of Misrule there appointed, as well as to the players all others to the penalties inflicted upon vagrants. There- of the King, and of the Earls of Derby, Exeter, and Sussex. fore, although many companies of players went round the In 1543 was passed a statute, rendered necessary by the country, and acted as the servants of some of the nobility, polemical character of some of the dramas publicly reprethey had no legislative protection until 1572. It is a singu-sented, although, not many years before, the king had himlar fact, that the earliest known company of players, travel-self encouraged such performances at court, by being present ling under the name and patronage of one of the nobility, at a play in which Luther and his wife were ridiculed. The was that of the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard act prohibits "ballads, plays, rhymes, songs, and other fanIII. Henry VII. had two distinct bodies of "actors of tasies" of a religious or doctrinal tendency, but at the same interludes" in his pay, and from henceforward the profession time carefully provides, that the clauses shall not extend to of a player became well understood and recognized. In the songs, plays, and interludes" which had for object "the later part of the reign of Henry VII., the players of the rebuking and reproaching of vices, and the setting forth of Dukes of Norfolk and Buckingham, and of the Earls of virtue; so always the said songs, plays, or interludes medArundel, Oxford, and Northumberland, performed at court. dle not with the interpretations of Scripture.” About this period, and somewhat earlier, we also hear of

1 As early as 1465 a company of players had performed at the wedding of a person of the name of Molines, who was nearly related to Sir John Howard, afterwards Duke of Norfolk. See "Manners and Household Expenses of England," printed by Mr. Botfield, M. P., for the Roxburghe Club in 1841, p. 511.

2 The anonymous MS. play of "Sir Thomas More," written towards the close of the reign of Elizabeth, gives a very correct notion of the mode in which offers to perform were made by a company of players, and accepted by the owner of the mansion. Four players and a boy (for the female characters) tender their services to the Lord Chancellor, just as he is on the point of giving a grand supper to the Lord Mayor and Corporation of London: Sir Thomas More inquires what pieces they can perform, and the answer of the leader of the company supplies the names of seven which were then popular; viz., "The Cradle of Security," "Hit Nail on the Head," "Impatient Poverty," "The Four Ps," "Dives and Lazarus," "Lusty Juventus," and "The Marriage of Wit and Wisdom." Sir Thomas More fixes upon the last, and it is accordingly represented, as a play within a play, before the banquet. "Sir Thomas More" was regularly licensed for public per

formance.

3 Either from preference or policy, Richard III. appears to have been a great encourager of actors and musicians: besides his players, he patronized two distinct bodies of "minstrels," and performers on instruments called "shalms." These facts are derived from a manuscript of the household-book of John Lord Howard, afterwards duke of Norfolk, preserved in the library of the Society of Antiquaries, and recently printed for the use of the members of the Roxburghe Club, as a sequel to Mr. Botfield's volume.

4 At a considerably subsequent date some of these infant companies performed before general audiences; and to them were added the Children of the Revels, who had never been attached to any religious establishment, but were chiefly encouraged as a nursery for actors. The Queen of James I. had also a company of theatrical children under her patronage.

"

The permanent office of Master of the Revels, for the

5 For this information we are indebted to Sir N. H. Nicholas, who has the original document in his library. Similar facts might be established from other authorities, both of an earlier and somewhat later date.

6 See Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, Vol. i. p. 107. The official account, made out by Richard Gibson, who had the preparation of the dresses, &c., is so curious and characteristic, that we quote it in the words, though not in the uncouth orthography, of the original document: the date is the 10th Nov. 1528, not long before the king saw reason to change the whole course of his policy as regarded the Reformation.

"The king's pleasure was that at the said revels, by clerks in the Latin tongue, should be played in his presence a play, whereof ensueth the names. First an Orator in apparel of gold; a Poet in apparel of cloth of gold; Religion, Ecclesia, Veritas, like three Novices, in garments of silk, and veils of lawn and cypress: Heresy, False-interpretation, Corruptio-scriptoris, like ladies of Bohemia, apparelled in garments of silk of divers colours; the heretic Luther, like a party friar, in russet, damask and black taffeta; Luther's wife, like a frow of Spiers in Almain, in red silk; Peter, Paul, and James, in three habits of white sarsenet and three red mantles, and hairs of silver of damask and pelerines of scarlet, and a cardinal in his apparel; two Sergeants in rich apparel; the Dauphin and his brother in coats of velvet embroidered with gold, and caps of satin bound with velvet; a Messenger in tinsel-satin; six men in gowns of green sarsenet; six women in gowns of crimson sarsenet; War in rich cloth of gold and feathers, and armed; three Almains in apparel all cut and slit of silk ; Lady Peace, in lady's apparel, all white and rich; and Lady Quietness, and Dame Tranquillity, richly beseen in ladies' apparel.

The drama represented by these personages appears to have been the composition of John Rightwise, then master of the children of St. Paul's.

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superintendence of all dramatic performances, was created in 1546, and Sir Thomas Cawarden was appointed to it with an annual salary of 10l. A person of the name of John Bernard was made Clerk of the Revels, with an allowance of 8d. per day and livery1.

It is a remarkable point, established by Mr. Tytler2, that Henry VIII. was not yet buried, and Bishop Gardiner and his parishioners were about to sing a dirge for his soul, when the actors of the Earl of Oxford posted bills for the performance of a play in Southwark. This was long before the construction of any regular theatre on the Bankside; but it shows at how early a date that part of the town was selected for such exhibitions. When Mr. Tytler adds, that the players of the Earl of Oxford were "the first that were kept by any nobleman," he falls into an error, because Richard III., and others of the nobility, as already remarked, had companies of players attached to their households. We have the evidence of Puttenham, in his "Art of English Poesie," 1589, for stating that the Earl of Oxford, under whose name the players in 1547 were about to perform, was himself a dramatist.

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performers. Two years afterwards, the Earl of Leicester obtained from Elizabeth a patent under the great seal, to enable his players James Burbage, John Perkyn, John Lanham, William Johnson, and Robert Wilson, to perform comedies, tragedies, interludes, and stage-plays," in any part of the kingdom, with the exception of the metropolis" The Lord Mayor and Aldermen succeeded in excluding the players from the strict boundaries of the city, but they were not able to shut them out of the liberties; and it is not to be forgotten that James Burbage and his associates were supported by court favour generally, and by the powerful patronage of the Earl of Leicester in particular. cordingly, in the year after they had obtained their patent, James Burbage and his fellows took a large house in the precinct of the dissolved monastery of the Black Friars, and converted it into a theatre. This was accomplished in 1576, and it is the first time we hear of any building set apart for theatrical representations. Until then the various companies of actors had been obliged to content themselves with churches, halls, with temporary erections in the streets, or with inn yards, in which they raised a stage, the spectators Very soon after Edward VI. came to the throne, severe standing below, or occupying the galleries that surrounded measures were taken to restrain not only dramatic per- the open space. Just about the same period two other formances, but the publication of dramas. Playing and edifices were built for the exhibition of plays in Shoreditch, printing plays were first entirely suspended; then, the one of which was called "The Curtain," and the other "The companies of noblemen were allowed to perform, but not Theatre." Both these are mentioned as in existence and without special authority; and, finally, the sign manual, or operation in 15777. Thus we see that two buildings close the names of six of the Privy Council were required to to the walls of the city, and a third within a privileged distheir licenses. The objection stated was, that the plays had triet in the city, all expressly applied to the purpose of a political, not a polemical, purpose. One of the first acts stage-plays, were in use almost immediately after the date of Mary's government, was to issue a proclamation to put of the Patent to the players of the Earl of Leicester. It is a stop to the performance of interludes calculated to ad- extremely likely, though we have no distinct evidence of vance the principles of the Reformation; and we may be the fact, that one or more play-houses were opened about sure that the play ordered at the coronation of the queen the same time in Southwark; and we know that the Rose was of a contrary descriptions. It appears on other autho- theatre was standing there not many years afterwards rities, that for two years there was an entire cessation of John Stockwood, a puritanical preacher, published a sermon public dramatic performances; but in this reign the repre- in 1578, in which he asserted that there were eight ordi sentation of the old Roman Catholic miracle-plays was par-nary places" in and near London for dramatic exhibitions, tially and authoritatively revived. and that the united profits were not less than £2000 a year at least £12,000 of our present money. Another divine, of the name of White, equally opposed to such performances, preaching in 1576, called the play-houses at that time erected, "sumptuous theatres." No doubt, the puritanical zeal of these divines had been excited by the opening of the Blackfriars, the Curtain, and the Theatre, in 1576 and 1577, for the exclusive purpose of the drama; and the five additional places, where plays, according to Stockwood, were acted before 1578, were most likely a play-house at Newington-butts, or inn-yards, converted occasionally into theatres.

It is not necessary to detail the proceedings in connexion with theatrical representations at the opening of the reign of Elizabeth. At first plays were discountenanced, but by degrees they were permitted; and the queen seems at all times to have derived much pleasure from the services of her own players, those of her nobility, and of the different companies of children belonging to Westminster, St. Paul's, Windsor, and the Chapel Royal. The members of the inns of court also performed " Gorboduc" on 18th January, 1562; and on February 1st, an historical play, under the name of "Julius Cæsar," was represented, but by what company is no where mentioned.

In 1572 the act was passed (which was renewed with additional force in 1597) to restrain the number of itinerant

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An important fact, in connexion with the manner in which dramatic performances were patronized by Queen Elizabeth, has been recently brought to light. It has been hitherto

The original appointment of John Bernard is preserved in the 5 In 1557 the Boar's Head, Aldgate, had been used for the perlibrary of Sir Thomas Phillippes, Bart., to whom we owe the addi-formance of a drama called "The Sack full of News;" and Stephen tional information, that this Clerk of the Revels had a house assigned Gosson in his "School of Abuse," 1579, (reprinted by the Shakespeare to him, strangely called, in the instrument, "Egypt, and Flesh- Society) mentions the Belle Savage and the Bull as inns at which Hall," with a garden which had belonged to the dissolved monastery particular plays had been represented. R. Flecknae, in his "Short of the Charter-house: the words of the original are, omnia illa do- Discourse of the English Stage," appended to his "Love's Kingdom," mum et edificia nuper vocata Egipte et Fleshall, et illam domum 1664, says that "at this day is to be seen" that "the inn yards of the cdjacentem nuper vocatam le garneter. The theatrical wardrobe of Cross-Keys, and Bull, in Grace and Bishopsgate Streets" had been the court was at this period kept at St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell. used as theatres. There is reason to believe that the Boar's Head, 2 In his "Edward VI. and Mary," 1839, vol. i. p. 20. Aldgate, had belonged to the father of Edward Alleyn.

3 See Kempe's "Losely Manuscripts," 1835, p. 61. The warrant for the purpose was under the sign manual, and it was directed to Sir T. Cawarden, as Master of the Revels:-"We will and command you, upon the sight hereof, forthwith to make and deliver out of our Revels, unto the Gentlemen of our Chapel, for a play to be played before us at the feast of our Coronation, as in times past hath been accustomed to be done by the Gentlemen of the Chapel of our progenitors, all such necessary garments, and other things for the furniture thereof, as shall be thought meet," &c. The play, although ordered for this occasion, viz. 1st Oct. 1553, was for some unexplained reason deferred until Christmas.

4 There is a material difference between the warrant under the privy seal, and the patent under the great seal, granted upon this occasion: the former gives the players a right to perform as well within the city of London and liberties of the same " as elsewhere; but the latter (dated three days afterwards, viz. 10 May, 1574) omits this paragraph; and we need entertain little doubt that it was excluded at the instance of the Corporation of London, always opposed to theatrical performances.

6 It has been supposed by some, that the Curtain theatre owed its name to the curtain employed to separate the actors from the aience. We have before us documents (which on account of their length we cannot insert) showing that such was probably not the fact, and that the ground on which the building stood was called the Curtain (perhaps as part of the fortifications of London) before any playhouse was built there. For this information we have to offer our thanks to Mr. T. E. Tomlins of Islington.

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7 In John Northbrooke's "Treatise," &c. against "vain plays or interludes," licensed for the press in 1577, the work being then ready and in the printer's hands. It has been reprinted by the Shakespeare Society.

8 See the "Memoirs of Edward Alleyn," (published by the Shakespeare Society) p. 189. It seems that the Rose had been the sign of a house of public entertainment before it was converted into a theatre. Such was also the case with the Swan, and the Hope, in the same neighbourhood.

9 By Mr. Peter Cunningham, in his "Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels," printed for the Shakespeare Society, pp. 32 and

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