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The usual time of acting was early in the afternoon*, plays being generally performed by day-light+. All female parts were performed by men, no English actress being ever seen on the publick stage ‡ before the civil wars. And as for the playhouse furniture

and

"of unseemelie sentences, passing out of the mouth of a ❝ruffenlie plaier, doth more content the hungrie humors "of the rude multitude, and carrieth better rellish in "their mouthes, than the bread of the worde, &c." Vide page 63, 65, 69, &c, I do not recollect that exclamations of this kind occur in Prynne, whence I conclude that this enormity no longer subsisted in his time.

It should also seem, from the author of the Third Blast, above quoted, that the Churches still continued to be used occasionally for theatres. Thus in page 77, he says, "that "the Players (who, as has been observed, were servants of the nobility), "under the title of their maisters, or as reteiners, are priviledged to roave abroad, and permitted to publish their mametree in everie temple of God, and that throughout England, unto the horrible contempt of "praier."

*"He entertains us (says Overbury, in his character of an Actor) in the best leasure of our life, that is, be"tweene meales; the most unfit time either for study, or "bodily exercise."-Even so late as in the reign of Charles 11. Plays generally began at three in the afternoon.

+ See Biogr. Brit. I. 117. n. D.

I say "no ENGLISH Actress-on the PUBLICK Stage," because Prynne speaks of it as an unusual enor mity, that "they had French-women actors in a play not

"long

and ornaments, though some houses were probably

more decorated than others, yet, in general,

"they

had no other scenes nor decorations of the stage, "but only old tapestry, and the stage strewed with "rushes, with habits accordingly*:" as we are assured in a short discourse on the English stage, subjoined to Flecknoe's Love's KINGDOM, 1674, 12mo.

"long since personated in Black-Friars Playhouse." This was in 1629, vide p. 215. And though female parts were performed by men or boys on the publick stage, yet in Masques at Court, the Queen and her ladies made no scruple to perform the principal parts, especially in the reigns of James I. and Charles I,

Sir William Davenant, after the Restoration, introduced women, scenery, and higher prices. See Cibber's Apology for his own Life,

*It appears from an epigram of Taylor, the Water-Poet, that one of the principal theatres in his time, viz. The Globe on the Bankside, Southwark (which Ben Jonson calls the Glory of the Bank, and Fort of the whole Parish), had been covered with thatch till it was burnt down in 1613.(See Taylor's Sculler, Epig, 22, P, 31. Jonson's Execra tion on Vulcan.)

Puttenham tells us, they used Vizards in his time, "partly "to supply the want of players, when there were more parts "than there were persons, or that it was not thought meet to

trouble... princes chambers with too many folks." [Art of Eng. Poes. 1589. p. 26.] From the last clause, it should seem that they were chiefly used in the MASQUES at Court.

ADDITIONS

ADDITIONS

TO THE

THE ESSAY

ΟΝ ΤΗΕ

ORIGIN of the ENGLISH STAGE.

T

Ir is not easy to ascertain the time when Plays of Miracles began in England, but they appear to have been exhibited here very soon after the conquest. Mat. Paris tells us, that Geoffery, afterwards Abbot of St. Albans, a Norman, who had been sent for over by Abbot Richard to take upon him the direction of the school of that monastery, coming too late, went to Dunstable, and taught in the abbey there; where he caused to he acted (probably by his scholars) a MIRACLE-PLAY of ST. CATHARINE, composed by himself. This was long before the year 1119, and probably

....

Apud Dunestapliam. quendam ludum de sancta Katerina (quem MIRACULA vulgariter appellamus) fecit. Ad quæ decoranda, petiit a sacrista sancti Albani, ut sibi Capa Chorales accommodarentur, et obtinuit. Et fuit ludus ille de santa Katerina. Vitæ Abbat. ad fin, Hist. Mat. Paris. fol. 1639, p. 56. We see here that plays of Miracles were become common enough in the time of Mat. Paris, who flourished

about

probably within the 11th century. The above play of ST. CATHARINE was, for aught that appears, the first spectacle of this sort that was exhibited in these kingdoms and an eminent French writer thinks it was even the first attempt towards the revival of Dramatick Entertainments in all Europe; being long before the Representations of MYSTERIES in France; for these did not begin till the year 1398 *..

Again, the learned and ingenious historian of the council of Constance † ascribes to the English the introduction of Plays into Germany. He tells us that the Emperor having been absent from the council for some time, was at his return received with great rejoicings, and that the English fathers in particular did, upon that occasion, cause a sacred comedy to be acted before him on Sunday the 31st of January 1417; the subjects of which were: THE NATIVITY OF OUR SAVIOUR; THE ARRIVAL OF THE EASTERN MAGI; and THE MASSACRE by HEROD. Thence it appears, says this

about 1240. But that indeed appears from the more early account of FITZ-STEPHENS: see p. 134. note; see also the very correct Edition of this old writer, with valuable notes, [lately published by the Rev. Mr. PEGGE,] Lond. 1774, 4to.

* Vid. Abregé Chron. de l'Hist. de Fr. par M. HENAULT. à l'an. 1179.

+ M. L'ENFANT, vid. Hist, du Conc. de Constance, vol. ii. p. 440.

writer,

writer, that the Germans are obliged to the English for the invention of this sort of spectacles, unknown to them before that period.

But the fondness of our ancestors for this piece of dramatick exhibition, and some other curious particulars relating to the early history of the English stage, will appear from a large MS. containing the ESTABLISHMENT OF THE HOUSEHOLD OF HENRY PERCY, 5th Earl of Northumberland *, Anno Dom. 1512. In the following Extracts from this book it will be seen that the exhibiting of the old mysteries or scripture plays entered into the stated regulations of domestick œconomy in the houses of our ancient nobility, and that it was as much the business of the Chaplain in those days to compose Plays for the family, as it is now for him to make Sermons.

I shall give the extracts in the same order in which they occur in different parts of the book, viz.

*This MS. belongs to the present ILLUSTRIOUS DESCENDANTS of that Nobleman, who have, with their ufual condescension, been prevailed on to have a small number of copies printed from this very curious and invaluable MS. (Lond. 1770. 8vo.) which shows, beyond any other monument of antiquity now extant, the almost royal state and splendour of our ancient Barons, the number of their attendants, the regulations of their household, and the whole plan of their domestick economy.

Sect

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