But "And will not deaf us with lewd noise and tongues, "This play, meant for your persons, not the place." The superior discernment of the Blackfriars audience may be likewise collected from a passage in the preface prefixed by Hemings and Condell to the first felio edition of our author's works: "And though you be a magistrate of wit, and sit on the stage at Blackfriers, or the Cockpit, to arraigne plays dailie, know these plays have had their trial already, and stood out all appeales.' A writer already quoted informs us that one of these theatres was a winter, and the other a summer, house. As the Globe was partly exposed to the weather, and they acted there usually by day-light, it appeared to me probable (when this Essay was originally published) that this was the summer theatre; and I have lately found my conjecture confirmed by Sir Henry Herbert's Manuscript. The king's company usually began to play at the Globe in the month of May. The exhibitions here seem to have been more frequent than at Blackfriars, till the year 1604, or 1605, when the Bankside appears to have become less fashionable, and less frequented than it formerly had been. Many of our ancient dramatick pieces (as has been already observed) were performed in the yards of carriers' inns, in which, in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the comedians, who then first united themselves in companies, erected an occasional stage. The form of these temporary playhouses seems to be preserved in our modern theatre. The galleries, in both, are ranged over each other on three sides of the building. The small rooms under the lowest of these galleries answer to our present boxes; and it is obBervable that these, even in theatres which were built in a subsequent period expressly for dramatick exhibitions, still retained their old name, and are frequently called rooms, by our ancient writers. The yard bears a sufficient resemblance to the pit, as at present in use. We may suppose the stage to have been raised in this area, on the fourth side, with its back to the gateway of the inn, at which the money for admission was taken. Thus, in fine weather, a playhouse not incommodious might have been formed. Hence, in the middle of the Globe, and I suppose of the other publick theatres, in the time of Shakspeare, there was an open yard or area, where the common people stood to see the exhibition; from which circumstance they are called by our author groundlings, and by Ben Jonson "the understanding gentlemen of the ground." The galleries, or scaffolds, as they are sometimes called, and that part of the house which in private theatres was named the pit, seem to have been at the same price; and probably in houses of reputation, such as the Globe, and that in Blackfriars, the price of admission into those parts of the theatre was sixpence, while in some meaner playhouses it was only a penny, in others twopence. The price of admission into the best rooms or boxes, was, I believe, in our author's time, a shilling; though afterwards it appears to have risen to two shillings, and half a crown. At the Blackfriars theatre the price of the boxes was, I imagine, higher than at the Globe. From several passages in our old plays we learn, that spectators were admitted on the stage, and that the criticks and wits of the time usually sat there. Some were placed on the ground; others sat on stools, of which the price was either sixpence, or a shilling, according, I suppose, to the commodiousness of the situation. And they were attended by pages, who furnished them with pipes and tobacco, which was smoked here as well as in other parts of the house. Yet it should seem that persons were suffered to sit on the stage only in the private playhouses, (such as Blackfriars, &c.) where the audience was more select, and of a higher class; and that in the Globe and the other publick theatres, no such licence was permitted. The stage was strewed with rushes, which, we learn from Hentzner and Caius de Ephemera, was in the time of Shakspeare the usual covering of floors in England. On some occasions it was entirely matted over; but this was probably very rare. The curtain which hangs in the front of the present stage, drawn up by lines and pullies, though not a modern invention, (for it was used by Inigo Jones in the masques at court,) was yet an apparatus to which the simple. mechanism of our ancient theatres had not arrived; for in them the curtains opened in the middle, and were drawn backwards and forwards on an iron rod. In some playhouses they were woollen, in others, made of silk. Towards the rear of the stage there appears to have been a balcony, or upper stage; the platform of which was probably eight or ተ hine feet from the ground. I suppose it to have been supported by pillars. From hence, in many of our old plays, part of the dialogue was spoken; and in the front of it curtains likewise were hung, so as occasionally to conceal the persons in it from the view of the audience. At each side of this balcony was a box, very inconveniently situated, which sometimes was called the private box. In these boxes, which were at a lower price, some persons sate, either from economy or singularity. How little the imaginations of the audience were assisted by scenical deception, and how much necessity our author had to call on them to "piece out imperfections with their thoughts," may be collected from Sir Philip Sidney, who, describing the state of the drama and the stage, in his time, (about the year 1583,) says, "Now you shall have three ladies walk to gather flowers, and then we must beleeve the stage to be a garden. By and by we heare news of shipwrack 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 hidious monster with fire and smoke; and then the miserable beholders are bound to take it for a cave; while in the mean time two armies fly in, represented with four swords and bucklers, and then what hard hart wil not receive it for a pitched field." The first notice that I have found of any thing like moveable scenes being used in England, is in the narrative of the entertainment given to King James at Oxford, in August, 1605, when three plays were performed in the hall of Christ Church, of which we have the following account by a contemporary writer. "The stage" (he tells us)" was built close to the upper end of the hall, as it seemed at the first sight but indeed it was but a false wall faire painted, and adorned with stately pillars, which pillars would turn about; by reason whereof, with the help of other painted clothes, their stage did vary three times in the acting of one tragedy:" that is, in other words, there were three scenes employed in the exhibition of the piece. The scenery was contrived by Inigo Jones, who is described as a great traveller, and who undertook to "further his employers much, and furnish them with rare devices, but produced very little to that which was expected." It is observable, that the writer of this account was not acquainted even with the term, scene, having used painted clothes instead of it: nor indeed is this surprising, it not be ing then found in this sense in any dictionary or vocabulary, English or foreign, that I have met with. Had the common stages been furnished with them, neither this writer, nor the makers of dictionaries, could have been ignorant of it. To effect even what was done at Christ-Church, the University found it necessary to employ two of the king's carpenters, and to have the advice of the controller of his works. The Queen's Masque, which was exhibited in the preceding January, was not much more successful, though above 3000l. was expended upon it." At night," says Sir Dudley Carleton, "we had the Queen's Maske in the Banquetinghouse, or rather her Pageant. There was a great engine at the lower end of the room, which had motion, and in it were the images of sea-horses, (with other terrible fishes,) which were ridden by the Moors. The indecorum was, that there was all fish and no water. At the further end was a great shell in form of a skallop, wherein were four seats; on the lowest sat the queen with my lady Bedford; on the rest were placed the ladies Suffolk, Darby," &c. Such were most of the Masques in the time of James the First: triumphal cars, castles, rocks, caves, pillars, temples, clouds, rivers, tritons, &c. composed the principal part of their decoration. In the courtly masques given by his successor during the first fifteen years of his reign, and in some of the plays exhibited at court, the art of scenery seems to have been somewhat improved. In 1636 a piece written by Thomas Heywood, called Love's Mistress or the Queen's Masque, was represented at Denmark House before their Majesties." For the rare decorements" (says Heywood in his preface)" which new apparelled it, when it came the second time to the royal view, (her gracious majesty then entertaining his highness at Denmark House upon his birthday,) I cannot pretermit to give a due character to that admírable artist Mr. Inigo Jones, master surveyor of the king's worke, &c. who to every act, nay almost to every scene, by his excellent inventions gave such an extraordinary lustre upon every occasion changing the stage, to the admiration of all the spectators." Here, as on a former occasion, we may remark, the term scene is not used: the stage was changed, to the admiration of all the spectators. e; In August, 1636, The Royal Slave, written by a very popular poet, William Cartwright, was acted at Oxford before the king and queen, and afterwards at Hampton-Court. Wood informs us, that the scenery was an exquisite and un common piece of machinery, contrived by Inigo Jones. The play was printed in 1639; and yet even at that late period, the term scene, in the sense now affixed to it, was unknown to the author; for describing the various scenes employed in this court-exhibition, he denominates them thus: "The first Appearance, a temple of the sun.-Second Appearance, a city in the front, and a prison at the side," &c. The three other Appearances in this play were, a wood, a palace, and a castle. In every disquisition of this kind much trouble and many words might be saved, by defining the subject of dispute. Before therefore I proceed further in this inquiry, I think it proper to say, that by a scene, I mean, A painting in perspective on a cloth fastened to a wooden frame or roller; and that I do not mean by this term, "a coffin, or a tomb, or a gilt chair, or a fair chain of pearl, or a crucifix;" and I am the rather induced to make this declaration, because a writer, who obliquely alluded to the position which I am now maintaining, soon after the first edition of this Essay was published, has mentioned exhibitions of this kind as a proof of the scenery of our old plays; and taking it for granted that the point is completely established by this decisive argument, triumphantly adds, "Let us for the future no more be told of the want of proper scenes and dresses in our ancient theatres." A passage which has been produced from one of the old comedies, proves that the common theatres were furnished with some rude pieces of machinery, which were used when it was necessary to exhibit the descent of some god or saint; but it is manifest from what has been already stated, as well as from all the contemporary accounts, that the mechanism of our ancient theatres seldom went beyond a tomb, a painted chair, a sinking cauldron, or a trap-door, and that none of them had moveable scenes. When King Henry VIII. is to be discovered by the Dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk, reading in his study, the scenical direction in the first folio, 1623, (which was printed apparently from playhouse copies,) is, The King draws the curtain, [i. e. draws it open] and sits reading pensively;" for, beside the principal curtains that hung in the front of the stage, they used others as substi tutes for scenes, which were denominated traverses. If a bedchamber is to be represented, no change of scene is mentioned; but the property-man is simply ordered to thrust forth a bed, or, the curtains being opened, a bed is exhibited, |