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eld mysteries and moralities (f), and the popular dramatic poets seem to have made them their models. From the graver sort of moralities our modern Tragedy appears to have derived its origin; as our Comedy evidently took its rise from the lighter nterludes of that kind. And as most of these pieces contain an absurd mixture of religion and buffoonery, an eminent critic (g) has well deduced from thence the origin of our unnatural Tragi-comedies. Even after the people had been accustomed to tragedies and comedies, moralities still kept their ground: one of them entitled "The New Custom" (h) was printed so late as 1573: at length they assumed the name of masques, (i) and, with some classical improvements, became in the two following reigns the favourite entertainments of the court.

IV. The old mysteries, which ceased to be acted after the reformation, appear to have given birth to a Third Species of stage exhibition, which, though now confounded with tragedy and comedy, were by our first dramatic writers considered as quite distinct from them both: these were historical plays, or Histories, a species of dramatic writing, which resembled the old mysteries in representing a series of historical events simply in the order of time in which they happened, without any regard to the three great unities. These pieces seem to differ from tragedies, just as much as historical poems do from Epic: as the Pharsalia does from the Æneid.

What might contribute to make dramatic poetry take this form was, that soon after the mysteries ceased to be exhibited, was published a large collection of poetical narratives, called "The Mirrour for Magistrates, (a) wherein a great number of the most eminent characters in English history are drawn relating their own misfortunes. This book was popular, and of a dramatic cast; and therefore, as an elegant writer (b) has well observed, might have its influence in producing historical plays. These narratives probably furnished the subjects, and the ancient mysteries suggested the plan.

There appears indeed to have been one instance of an attempt at an Historical Play itself, which was perhaps as early as any mystery on a religious subject; for such, I think, we may pronounce the representation of a memorable event in English history, that was expressed in actions and rhimes. This was the old Coventry play of "Hock Tuesday,"(c) founded on the story of the massacre of the Danes, as it happened on St. Brice's night, November 13, 1002.(d) The play in question was performed by certain men of Coventry, among the other shows and entertainments at Kenilworth Castle, in July 1575, prepared

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(g) Bp. Warburt. Shakesp. vol. v.

(h) Reprinted among Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. i. (i) In some of these appeared characters full as extraordinary as in any of the old Moralities. In Ben Jonson's Masque of Christmas, 1616, one of the personages is Minced Pye. (a) The first part of which was printed in 1559. (b) Catal. of Royal and Noble Authors, vol. p. 1667. (c) This must not be confounded with the mysteries acted on Corpus Christi day by the Franciscans at Coventry, which were also called Coventry Plays, and of which an account is given from T. Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, &c. in Malone's Shaks. vol. ii. part ii. pag. 13, 14.

(d) Not 1012, as printed in Lancham's Letter, mentioned

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for Queen Elizabeth, and this the rather because the matter mentioneth how valiantly our English women, for the love of their country, behaved themselves."

The writer, whose words are here quoted, (e) hath given a short description of the performance; which seems on that occasion to have been without recitation or rimes, and reduced to mere dumbshow; consisting of violent skirmishes and encounters, first between Danish and English "lanceknights on horse back," armed with spear and shield; and afterwards between "hosts" of footmen: which at length ended in the Danes being "beaten down, overcome, and many led captive by our English women." (f)

This play, it seems, which was wont to be exhibited in their city yearly, and which had been of great antiquity and long continuance there,(g) had of late been suppressed, at the instance of some well meaning but precise preachers, of whose "sourness" herein the townsmen complain; urging that their play was "without example of ill manners, papistry, or any superstition;"(h) which shows it to have been entirely distinct from a religious mystery. But having been discontinued, and as appears fron the narrative, taken up of a sudden after the sports were begun, the players apparently had not been able to recover the old rhimes, or to procure new ones, to accompany the action; which if it originally represented "the outrage and importable insolency of the Danes, the grievous complaint of Huna, king Ethelred's chieftain in wars* ;" his counselling and contriving the pict to dispatch them; concluding with the conflicts above mentioned, and their final suppresion" expressed in actions and rhimes after their manner,"(i) one can hardly conceive a more regular model of a complete drama; and, if taken up soon after the event, it must have been the earliest of the kind in Europe.t

Whatever this old play, or "storial show,”(k) was at the time it was exhibited to Queen Elizabeth, it had probably our young Shakespeare for a spectator, who was then in his twelfth year, and doubtless attended with all the inhabitants of the surrounding country at these "princely pleasures of Kenelworth,"() whence Stratford is only a few miles distant. And as the Queen was much diverted with the Coventry play, "whereat her Majesty laught well," and rewarded the performers with 2

(e) Ro. Laneham, whose Letter, containing a full descrip ton of the Shows, &c. is reprinted at large in Nicholls' Progresses of Q. Elizabeth, &c. vol. i. 4to, 1788. - That, writer's orthography, being peculiar and affected, is not here followed.

Laneham describes this play of HOCK TUESDAY, which was "presented in an historical cue by certain good-hearted men of Coventry" (p. 32), and which was "wont to be play'd in their citie yearly" (p. 33), as if it were peculiar to them, terming it "their old storial show" (p 32).-And so it might be as represented and expressed by them "after their manner" (p. 33): although we are also told by Bevil Higgons, that St. Brice's Eve was still celebrated by the Northern English in commemoration of this massacre of the Danes, the women beating brass instruments, and singing old rhimes, in praise of their cruel ancestors. See his Short View of Eng. History, 8vo, p. 17. (The Preface is dated 1734).

(f) Laneham, p. 37. (g) Ibid p. 33. (h) Ibid. • Ibid. p. 32. (i) Ibid. p. 33. The Rhimes. &c. prove this play to have been in Erg lish, whereas Mr. Thos. Warton thinks the Mysteries com posed before 1328 were in Latin. Malone's Shakesp. vol. i. pt. ii. p. 9.

(k)Laneham, p. 32. (1) See Nichols's Progresses, vol i. p. 57.

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH STAGE.

bucks, and 5 marks in money: who, “what rejoicing upon their ample reward, and what triumphing upon the good acceptance, vaunted their play was never so dignified, nor ever any players before so beatified:" but especially if our young bard afterwards gained admittance into the castle to see a play, which the same evening, after supper, was there " presented of a very good theme, but to set forth by the actors' well handling, that pleasure and mirth made it seem very short, though it lasted two good hours and more (m)," we may imagine what an impression was made on his infant mind. Indeed the dramatic cast of many parts of that superb entertainment, which continued nineteen days, and was the most splendid of the kind ever attempted in this kingdom; the addresses to the Queen in the personated characters of Sybille, a savage man, and Sylvanus, as she approached or departed from the castle; and, on the water, by Arion, a Triton, or the Lady of the Lake, must have had a very great effect on a young imagi nation, whose dramatic powers were hereafter to astonish the world.

But that the historical play was considered by our old writers, and by Shakespeare himself, as distinct from tragedy and comedy, will sufficiently appear from various passages in their works. "Of late days," says Stow," in place of those stage plays(n) hath been used comedies, tragedies, enterludes and histories both true and fayned(o)."-Beaumont and Fletcher, in the prologue to "The Captain," say,

"This is nor Comedy, nor Tragedy,

Nor History."

Polonius in "Hamlet" commends the actors, as the best in the world, "either for tragedie, comedie, historie, pastorall,"&c. And Shakespeare's friends, Heminge and Condell, in the first folio edit. of his plays, in 1623 (p), have not only entitled their book Mr. William Shakespeare's comedies, histories, and tragedies:" but in their table of contents have arranged them under those three several heads; placing in the class of histories, "K. John, Richard 11, Henry IV, 2 pts. Henry V, Henry VI, 3 pts. Rich. III, and Henry VIII" to which they might have added such of his other plays as have their subjects taken from the old Chronicles, or Plutarch's lives.

Although Shakespeare is found not to have been the first who invented this species of drama(q), yet he cultivated it with such superior success, and threw upon this simple inartificial tissue of scenes such a blaze of genius that his histories maintain their ground in defiance of Aristotle and all the critics of the classic school, and will ever continue to interest and instruct an English audience.

Before Shakespeare wrote, historical plays do not appear to have attained this distinction, being not mentioned in Q. Elizabeth's licence in 1574(r) to James Burbage and others, who are only impowered "to use, exercyse, and occupie, the arte and facultye

(x) Laneham, p. 38, 39. This was on Sunday evening. July 9.

(n) The Creation of the World, acted at Skinners well in 1409.

(0) See Stow's Survey of London, 1603, 4to, p. 94, (said in the title page to be "written in the year 1598.") See also Warton's Observations on Spenser, vol. ii, p. 109. (p) The same distinction is continued in the 2d. and 3d. felios, &c.

(q) See Malone's Shakesp. vol- i. part ii. p. 31.

(r) See Malone's Shakesp. vol. i. pt. ii. p. 37.

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of playenge comedies, tragedies, enterludes, stageplayes, and such other like."-But when Shakespeare's histories had become the ornaments of the stage, they were considered by the public, and by himself, as a formal and necessary species, and are thenceforth so distinguished in public instruments. They are particularly inserted in the licence granted by K. James I, in 1603 (s), to W. Shakespeare himself, and the players his fellows; who are authorized to use and exercise the arte and faculty of playing comedies, tragedies, histories, interludes, morals, pastorals, stage-plaies, and such like."

The same merited distinction they continued to maintain after his death, till the theatre itself was extinguished; for they are expressly mentioned in a warrant in 1622, for licensing certain "late comedians of Q. Anne deceased, to bring up children in the qualitie and exercise of playing comedies, histories, interludes, morals, pastorals, stage-plaies, and such like." The same appears in an admonition issued in 1637 (t) by Philip Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, then Lord Chamberlain, to the master and wardens of the company of printers and stationers; wherein is set forth the complaint of his Majesty's servants the players, that "diverse of their books of comedyes and tragedyes, chroniclehistoryes, and the like," had been printed and published to their prejudice, &c.

This distinction, we see, prevailed for near half a but after the Restoration, when the stage century; revived for the entertainment of a new race of auditors, many of whom had been exiled in France, and formed their taste from the French theatre, Shakespeare's histories appear to have been no longer relished; at least the distinction respecting them is dropt in the patents that were immediately granted after the king's return.

This appears not only from the allowance to Mr. William Beeston in June 1660(u), to use the house in Salisbury-court "for a play-house, wherein comedies, tragedies, tragi-comedies, pastoralls, and interludes, may be acted," but also from the fuller grant (dated August 21, 1760)(v) to Thomas Killigrew, Esq. and Sir William Davenant, knt. by which they have authority to erect two companies of players, and to fit up two theatres "for the representation of tragydies, comedyes, playes, operas, and all other entertainments of that nature.'

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But while Shakespeare was the favourite dramatic poet, his histories had such superior merit, that he might well claim to be the chief, if not the only historic dramatist that kept possession of the English stage; which gives a strong support to the tradition mentioned by Gildon (w), that, in a conversation with Ben Jonson, our bard vindicated his historical plays, by urging, that, as he had found "the nation in general very ignorant of history, he wrote them

(8) Ibid. p. 40.

Ibid. p. 49. Here Histories, or Historical Plays, are found totally to have excluded the mention of Tragedies; a proof of their superior popularity. In an Order for the King's Comedians to attend K. Charles I in his summer's progress, 1636, (Ibid. p. 144.) Histories are not particularly mentioned: bu so neither are tragedies: they being briefly directed to "act playes, comedyes, and interludes, without any lett," &c. (t) Ibid, p. 139.

(u) This is believed to be the date by Mr. Malone, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 239. (v) Ibid. p. 244. (w) See Malone's Shakesp. vol. vi. p. 427. This ingenious writer will, with his known liberality, excuse the difference of opinion here entertained concerning the above tradition.

in order to instruct the people in this particular." This is assigning not only a good motive, but a very probable reason for his preference of this species of composition; since we cannot doubt but his illiterate countrymen would not only want such instruction when he first began to write, notwithstanding the obscure dramatic chroniclers who preceded him; but also that they would highly profit by his admirable lectures on English history so long as he continued to deliver them to his audience. And, as it implies no claim to his being the first who introduced our chronicles on the stage, I see not why the tradition should be rejected.

Upon the whole we have had abundant proof, that both Shakespeare and his contemporaries considered his histories, or historical plays, as of a legitimate distinct species, sufficiently separate from tragedy and comedy; a distinction which deserves the particular attention of his critics and commentators; who, by not adverting to it, deprive him of his proper defence and best vindication for his neglect of the Unities, and departure from the classical dramatic forms. For, if it be the first canon of sound criticism to examine any work by whatever rule the author prescribed for his own observance, then we ought not to try Shakespeare's Histories by the general laws of tragedy or comedy. Whether the rule itself be vicious or not, is another inquiry; but certainly we ought to examine a work only by those principles according to which it was composed. This would save a deal of impertinent criticism.

V. We have now brought the inquiry as low as was intended, but cannot quit it, without entering into a short description of what may be called the (Economy of the ancient English stage.

Such was the fondness of our forefathers for dramatic entertainments, that not fewer than nineteen play-houses had been opened before the year 1633, when Prynne published his Histriomastix (a). From this writer it should seem that "tobacco, wine and beer(b),"were in those days the usual accommodations in the theatre, as within our memory at Sadler's Wells.

With regard to the players themselves, the several companies were (as hath been already shown (c) re

(a) He speaks in p. 492, of the Play houses in Bishopsgatestreet, and on Ludgate-hill, which are not among the seventeen enumerated in the Preface to Dodsleys's Old Plays. Nay, it appears from Rymer's MSS. that twenty-three Playhouses had been at different periods open in London: and even six of them at one time. See Malone's Shakesp. vol. i. pt. ii. p. 48.

(b) So, I think, we may infer from the following passage, viz. How many are there, who, according to their several qualities, spend 2d. 3d. 4d 6d. 12d. 18. 2s. and sometimes 4s. or 5s. at a play-house day by day, if coach-hire, boathire, tobacco, wine, beere, and such like vaine expences, which playes do usually occasion, be cast into the reckoning?" Prynne's Histriom. p. 322.

But that tobacco was smoked in the playhouses, appears from Taylor the water-poet, in his proclamation for tobacco's propagation. "Let play-houses, drinking-schools, taverns, &c. be continually haunted with the contaminous vapours of it; nay (if it be possible) bring it into the Churches, and there choak up their preachers." (Works, p. 253.) And this was really the case at Cambridge: James I. sent a letter, in 1607, against "taking_tobacco" in St. Mary's. So I learn from my friend Dr. Farmer.

A gentleman has informed me, that once going into 2 church in Holland, he saw the male part of the audience sitting with their hats on, smoking tobacco, while t preacher was holding forth in his morning gown.

(c) See the extracts above, in p. 139 from the E. of Nei thumb. Houshold Book.

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tainers, or menial servants to particular noblemen,(d) who protected them in the exercise of their profession; and many of them were occasionally Strollers, that travelled from one gentleman's house to another. Yet so much were they encouraged, that, notwithstanding their multitude, some of them acquired large fortunes. Edward Allen, master of the playhouse called the Globe, who founded Dulwich college, is a known instance. And an old writer speaks of the very inferior actors, whom he calls the hirelings, as living in a degree of splendour, which was thought enormous in that frugal age(e).

At the same time the ancient prices of admission were often very low. Some houses had pennybenches(f). The "two-penny gallery" is mentioned in the prologue to Beaumont and Fletcher's WomanHater (g). And seats of three-pence and a groat seem to be intended in the passage of Prynne above referred to. Yet different houses varied in their prices : that play-house called the Hope had seats of five several rates from six-pence to half-a-crown(h). But

(d) See the Pref. to Dod-ley's Old Plays.-The author of an old invective against the Stage, called, A third Blast of Retrait from Plaies, &c. 1580, 12mo, says, "Alas! that private affection should so raigne in the nobilitie, that to pleasure their servants, and to upholde them in their vanitye. they should restraine the magistrates from executing their office!....They [the nobility are thought to be covetous by permitting their servants...to live at the devotion or almes of other men, passing from countrie to countrie, from one gentleman's house to another, offering their service, which is a kind of beggerie. Who indeede, to speake more truelie, are become beggers for their servants. For comonlie the good-wil, men beare to their Lordes, makes them draw the stringes of their purses to extend their liberalitie." Vid. pag. 75, 76, &c.

(e) Stephen Gosson, in his Schoole of Abuse, 1579, 12mo. fo. 23, says thus of what he terms in his margin Playersmen: Over lashing in apparel is so common a fault, that the very hyerlings of some of our Players, which stand at revirsion of vi s. by the week, jet under gentlemens noses in sutis of silke, exercising themselves to prating on the stage, and common scoffing when they come abrode, where they look askance over the shoulder at every man, of whom the Sunday before they begged an almes. I speake not this, as though everye one that professeth the qualitie so abused himselfe, for it is well knowen, that some of them are sober, discreete, properly learned, honest housholders and citizens, well-thought on among their neighbours at home," [he seems to mean Edw. Allen above mentioned] "though the pryde of their shadowes (I meane those hange byes, whom they succour with stipend) cause them to be somewhat il-talked of abroad.

In a subsequent period we have the following satirical fling at the showy exterior and supposed profits of the actors of that time.-Vid. Greene's Groatsworth of Wit, 1625, 4to. "What is your profession?"-"Truly, sir,.... 1 am a Player." "A Player?....I took you rather for a Gentleman of great living; for, if by outward habit men should be censured, I tell you, you would be taken for a substantial man." "So I am where I dwell.....What, though the world once went hard with me, when I was fayne to carry my playing-fardle a foot-backe: tempora mutantur........for my very share in playing apparrell will not be sold for two hundred pounds.... Nay more, I can serve to make a pretty speech, for I was a country author, passing at a Moral, &c." See Roberto's Tale, sign. D. 3. b.

(f) So a MS. of Oldys, from Tom Nash, an old pamphlet writer. And this is confirmed by Taylor the Water-poet, in his Praise of Beggerie, p. 99.

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"Yet have I seen a begger with his many, [sc. ver...in] Come at a play-house, all in for one penny."

(g) So in the Belman's Night-walks by Decker, 1616, 4to. Pay thy two-pence to a Player, in this gallery thou mayest sit by a harlot."

(h) Induct. to Ben Jonson's Bartholomew-fair. An ancient satirical piece, called "The Blacke Book, Lond. 1604, 4to.” talks of "The six-penny Roomes in Playhouses;" and eaves a legacy to one whom he calls "Arch-tobacco taker of England, in ordinaries, upon stages both common and private."

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH STAGE.

a shilling seems to have been the usual price(i) of what is now called the Pit, which probably had its name from one of the play-houses having been a Cock-pit(k).

The day originally set apart for theatrical exhibition appears to have been Sunday; probably because the first dramatic pieces were of a religious cast. During a great part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the playhouses were only licenced to be opened on that day(); but before the end of her reign, or soon after, this abuse was probably removed.

The usual time of acting was early in the afternoon(m), plays being generally performed by daylight(n). All female parts were performed by men, no English actress being ever seen on the public stage(o), before the Civil Wars.

(i) Shakesp. Prol. to Hen. viij.-Beaum. and Fletch. Prol. to the Captain, and to the Mad-lover.

(k) This etymology hath been objected to by a very ingenious writer (see Malone's Shakesp. vol. i. pt. ii. p. 59), who thinks it questionable, because, in St. Mary's church at Cambridge, the area that is under the pulpit, and surrounded by the galleries, is (now) called the pit; which, he says, no one can suspect to have been a cock-pit, or that a playhouse phrase could be applied to a church.-But whoever is acquainted with the licentiousness of boys, will not think it impossible that they should thus apply a name so peculiarly expressive of its situation: which from frequent use might at length prevail among the senior members of the university; especially when those young men became seniors themselves. The name of pit, so applied at Cambridge, must be deemed to have been a cant phrase, until it can be shown that the area in other churches was usually so called.

(1) So Ste. Gosson, in his Schoole of Abuse, 1579, 12mo, speaking of the players, says, "These, because they are allowed to play every Sunday, make iiii or v. Sundayes at least every week, fol. 24.-So the author of a Second and Third Blast of Retrait from Plaies, 1580, 12mo. "Let the magistrate but repel them from the libertie of placing on the Sabboth-daie. . . . To plaie on the Sabboth is but a privilege of sufferance, and might with ease be repelled, were it thoroughly followed." pag. 61,62. So again, "Is not the Sabboth of al other daies the most abused? . . . Wherefore abuse not so the Sabboth-daie, my brethren; leave not the temple of the Lord." "Those unsaverie morsels 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." Vid. pag. 63, 65, 69, &c. I do not recollect that exclammations 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 (ccasionally for theatres. Thus, in p. 77, he says, that the layers, (who, as hath been observed, were servants of the obility,)" under the title of their maisters, or as reteiners, are priviledged to roave abroad, and permitted to publish their mametrce in everie temple of God, and that through ut England, unto the horrible contempt of praier."

(m) "He entertaines us" (says Overbury in his character fan Actor)" in the best leasure of our life, that is, betweene neales; the most unfit time either for study, or bodily ex(rcise."-Even so late as in the reign of Cha. II, Plays Lenerally began at 3 in the afternoon."

(n) See Biogr. Brit. i. 117, n. D.

(0) I say "no English Actress-on the public stage," because Prynne speaks of it as an unusual enormity, that "they had French-women actors in a play not long since :ersonated in Blackfriars Playhouse." This was in 1629, id. page 215. And though female parts were performed b men or boys on the public stage, yet in masques at court, i

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Lastly, with regard to the playhouse furniture and ornaments, a writer of King Charles the Second's time(p), who well remembered the preceding age, assures us, that 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 (q)."

Yet Coryate thought our theatrical exhibitions, &c. splendid when compared with what he saw abroad. Speaking of the theatre for comedies at Venice, he says, The house is very beggarly and base, in comparison of our stately playhouses in England: neyther can their actors compare with ours for apparrell, shewes, and musicke. Here I observed certaine things that I never saw before : for I saw women act, a thing that I never saw before, though I have heard that it hath been sometimes used in London: and they performed it with as good a grace, action, gesture, and whatsoever convenient for a player, as ever I saw any masculine actor(r)."

It ought, however, to be observed, that, amid such a multitude of playhouses as subsisted in the Metropolis before the Civil Wars, there must have been a great difference between their several accommodations, ornaments, and prices; and that some would be much more showy than others, though probably all were much inferior in splendour to the two great theatres after the Restoration.

The preceding Essay, although some of the materials are new arranged, hath received no alteration deserving notice, from what it was in the Second edition, 1767, except in Section iv, which in the present impression hath been much enlarged.

This is mentioned, because, since it was first published, the History of the English Stage hath been copiously handled by Mr. Thomas Warton in his "History of English Poetry, 1774, &c." 3 vols. 4to. (wherein is inserted whatever in these volumes fell in with his subject); and by Edmond Malone, Esq. Historical Account of the English who, in his Stage," (Shakesp. vol. i, pt. ii, 1790,) hath added greatly to our knowledge of the economy and usages of our ancient theatres.

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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.

(p) See a short Discourse on the English Stage, sulj ined to Flecknor's "Love's Kingdom," 1674, 12mo.

(q) 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,) .. been covered with thatch till it was burnt down in 1813.-(See Taylor's Sculler, Epig. 22, p. 31. Jonson's Execration 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 folkes." Art of Eng. Poes. 1589, p. 26. From the last clause, it should seem that they were chiefly used in the Masques at Court. (r) Coryate's Crudities, 4to, 1611, p. 247.

I.

ADAM BELL, CLYM OF The clough, AND WILLIAM OF CLOUDESLY,

were three noted outlaws, whose skill in archery rendered them formerly as famous in the North of England, as Robin Hood and his fellows were in the midland counties. Their place of residence was in the forest of Englewood, not far from Carlisle, (called corruptly in the ballad Englishwood, whereas Engle- or Ingle-wood signifies wood for firing.) At what time they lived does not appear. The author of the common ballad on "The pedigree, education, and marriage, of Robin Hood," makes them contemporary with Robin Hood's father, in order to give him the honour of beating them: viz.

The father of Robin a forrester was,
And he shot in a lusty long-bow
Two north-country miles and an inch at a shot,
As the Pindar of Wakefield does know :

For he brought Adam Bell, and Clim of the Clough,
And William a Clowdéslee

To shoot with our Forester for forty mark;
And our Forester beat them all three.

Collect. of Old Ballads, 1727, 1 vol. p. 67. This seems to prove that they were commonly thought to have lived before the popular hero of Sherwood.

Our northern archers were not unknown to their southern countrymen: their excellence at the longbow is often alluded to by our ancient poets. Shakspeare, in his comedy of "Much adoe about nothing," act 1, makes Benedicke confirm his resolves of not yielding to love, by this protestation, "If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat, and shoot at me, and he that hits me, let him be clapt on the shoulder, and called Adam" meaning Adam Bell, as Theobald rightly observes, who refers to one or two other passages in our old poets wherein he is mentioned. The Oxford editor has also well conjectured, that "Abraham Cupid," in Romeo and Juliet, act ii. sc. 1, should be "Adam Cupid," in allusion to our archer. Ben Jonson has mentioned Clym o' the Clough in his Alchemist, act i, sc. 2. And Sir William Davenant, in a mock poem of his, called "The Long Vacation in London," describes the attorneys and proctors, as making matches to meet in Finsbury fields. "With loynes in canvass bow-case tydet: Where arrowes stick with mickle pride;. Like ghosts of Adam Bell and Clymme. Sol sets for fear they'l shoot at him.

Works, 1673, fol. p. 291.

I have only to add further concerning the principal hero of this ballad, that the Bells were noted rogues in the north so late as the time of Queen Elizabeth. See in Rymer's Fœdera, a letter from

Bottles formerly were of leather; though perhaps a wooden bottle might be here meant. It is still a diversion Scotland to hang up a cat in a small cask, or firkin, half filled with soot: and then a parcel of clowns on horseback try to beat out the ends of it, in order to show their dexterity in escaping before the contents fall upon them.

Each with a canvass bow-case tied round his loins.

Lord William Howard to some of the officers of state, wherein he mentions them.

As for the following stanzas, which will be judged from the style, orthography, and numbers, to be of considerable antiquity, they were here given (corrected in some places by a MS. copy in the Editor' old folio) from a black-letter 4to. Imprinted at London in Lothburge by William Copland (no date). That old quarto edition seems to be exactly followed in "Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry, &c. Lond. 1791," 8vo., the variations from which, that occur in the following copy, are selected from many others in the folio MS. above mentioned, and when distinguished by the usual inverted 'comma' have been assisted by conjecture.

In the same MS. this ballad is followed by another, entitled Younge Cloudeslee, being a continuation of the present story, and reciting the adventures of William of Cloudesly's son: but greatly inferic: to this both in merit and antiquity.

PART THE FIRST.

MERY it was in the grene forest
Amonge the levès grene,
Whereas men hunt east and west

Wyth bowes and arrowes kene;
To raise the dere out of theyr denne ;
Suche sightes hath ofte bene sene;
As by thre yemen of the north countrès,
By them it is I meane.

The one of them hight Adam Bel,

The other Clym of the Clough*,
The thyrd was William of Cloudesly,
An archer good ynough.
They were outlawed for venyson,
These yemen everychone;
They swore them brethren upon a day
To Englyshe wood for to gone.
Now lith and lysten, gentylmen,
That of myrthes loveth to here:
Two of them were single men,

The third had a wedded fere.

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of the Clough means Clem. Clemer of the Cliff: for so Clough signifies in the North.

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