"Item. My lorde usith and accustomyth to gyf yerely when his lordship is at home to every lordis PLAYERS, that comyth to his lordshipe betwixt Crystynmas ande Candelmas xs." — Ibid. The reader will observe the great difference in the rewards here given to such Players as were retainers of noble personages, and such as are styled Strangers, or, as we may suppose, only strollers. The profession of the common player was about this time held by some in low estimation. In an old satire entitled Cock Lorreles Bote9, the author, enumerating the most common trades or callings, as carpenters, coopers, joiners, &c., mentions "Players, purse-cutters, money-batterers, III. It hath been observed already that plays of Miracles, or Mysteries, as they were called, led to the introduction of Moral Plays, or Moralities, which prevailed so early, and became so common, that towards the latter end of King Henry the VIIth's reign John Rastel, brother-in-law to Sir Thomas More, conceived a design of making them the vehicle of science and natural philosophy. With this view he published T. A new interlude and a mery of the nature of the tiii elements declarynge many proper points of phylosophy naturall, and of dyvers straunge landes 1o, &c. 101 It is 9 Pr. at the Sun in Fleet-street, by W. de Worde: no date, b. 1. 4to. 10 Mr. Garrick has an imperfect copy, (Old Plays, I. vol. iii.) The Dramatis Personæ are, "T. The Messengere [or Prologue] Nature naturate. Humanytè. Studyous Desire. Sensuall Appetyte. The Taverner. Experyence. Ygnoraunce. (Also yf ye lyste ye may brynge in a dysgysynge.)" Afterwards follows a table of the matters handled in the interlude. Among which are "T. Of certeyn conclusions prouvynge the yerthe must nedes be rounde, and that it hengyth in the myddes of the fyrmament, and that yt "T. Of certeyne points of is in circumference above xxi M. myle."— cosmographye- and of dyvers straunge regyons, landys and the maner of the people." This part is extremely curious, as it shows what notions were entertained of the new American discoveries by our own countrymen. and of the new found observable that the poet speaks of the discovery of America as then recent: "Within this xx yere Westwarde be founde new landes, That we never harde tell of before this," &c. The West Indies were discovered by Columbus in 1492, which fixes the writing of this play to about 1510, (two years before the date of the above Houshold-Book). The play of Hick-Scorner was probably somewhat more ancient, as he still more imperfectly alludes to the American discoveries, under the name of "the Newe founde Ilonde." Sign. A. vij. It is observable that in the older Moralities, as in that last mentioned, Every-man, &c. there is printed no kind of stage direction for the exits and entrances of the personages, no division of acts and scenes. But in the moral interlude of Lusty Juventus1, written under Edward VI., the exits and entrances begin to be noted in the margin?: at length in Queen Elizabeth's reign, Moralities appeared formally divided into acts and scenes, with a regular prologue, &c. One of these is reprinted by Dodsley. Before we quit this subject of the very early printed Plays, it may just be observed that, although so few are now extant, it should seem many were printed before the reign of Queen Elizabeth; as at the beginning of her reign, her INJUNCTIONS, in 1559, are particularly directed to the suppressing of "many Pamphlets, PLAYES, and Ballads; that no manner of person shall enterprize to print any such," &c. but under certain restrictions. Vide Sect. v. In the time of Henry VIII. one or two dramatic pieces had been published under the classical names of Comedy and Tragedy3, but they appear not to have been intended 1 Described in vol. ii. Preface to book ii. The Dramatis Personæ of this piece are, T. Messenger. Lusty Juventus. Good Counsaill. Knowledge. Sathan the devyll. Hypocrisie. Fellowship. Abominable-lyving [an Harlot]. God's-merciful-promises." 2 I have also discovered some few Exeats and Intrats in the very old Interlude of the Four Elements. 3 Bp. Bale had applied the name of Tragedy to his Mystery of GODS for popular use it was not till the religious ferments had subsided that the public had leisure to attend to dramatic poetry. In the reign of Elizabeth, tragedies and comedies began to appear. in form, and could the poets have persevered, the first models were good. Gorbodur, a regular tragedy, was acted in 15614; and Gascoigne, in 1566, exhibited Jocasta, a translation from Euripides, as also The Supposes, a regular comedy, from Ariosto: near thirty years before any of Shakspeare's were printed. The people, however, still retained a relish for their old Mysteries and Moralities 5, and the popular dramatic poets seem to have made them their models. The graver sort of Moralities appear to have given birth to our modern Tragedy; as our Comedy evidently took its rise from the lighter interludes of that kind. And as most of these pieces contain an absurd mixture of religion and buffoonery, an eminent critic 6 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, was printed so late as 1573: at length they assumed the name of Masques, and Promises, in 1538. In 1540, John Palsgrave, B.D. had republished a Latin comedy called Acolastus, with an English version. Holingshed tells us (vol. iii. p. 850,) that so early as 1520, the king had "a goodlie comedie of Plautus plaied" before him at Greenwich; but this was in Latin, as Mr. Farmer informs us in his curious "Essay on the Learning of Shakspeare." 8vo. p. 31. See Ames, p. 316. This play appears to have been first printed under the name of Gorbodut; then under that of Ferrer and Porrer, in 1569; and again, under Gorbodur, 1590. Ames calls the first edit. 4to.; Langbane, 8vo.; and Tanner, 12mo. 5 The general reception the old Moralities had upon the stage, will account for the fondness of all our first poets for allegory. Subjects of this kind were familiar to every body. 6 Bp. Warburt. Shaksp. vol. v. 7 Reprinted among Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. i. 8 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. 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 rise 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, there was published a large collection of poetical narratives, called The Wirrour for Wagistrates9, 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 10 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 ACTION AND This was the old Coventry play of Hock Tuesday1, RHYMES. 9 The first part of which was printed in 1559. 10 Walpole, Catal. of Royal and Noble Authors, vol. i. p. 166, 7. 1 This must not be confounded with the Mysteries acted on Corpus Christl day by the Franciscans at Coventry, which were also called COVENTRY PLAYS, and of which an account is given from T. Warton's History of English Poetry, &c., in Malone's Shakspeare, vol. ii. part ii. p. 13, 14. founded on the story of the massacre of the Danes, as it happened on St. Brice's night, November 13th, 10022. The play in question was performed by certain men of Coventry, among the other shows and entertainments at Kenilworth Castle in July, 1575, prepared 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 quoted3, hath given a short description of the performance; which seems on that occasion to have been without recitation or rhymes, and reduced to mere dumb-show; consisting of violent skirmishes and encounters, first between Danish and English, "lanceknights on horseback," 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 4." This play, it seems, which was wont to be exhibited in their city yearly, and which had been of great antiquity and long continuance there5, 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, pa 2 Not 1012, as printed in Laneham's letter, mentioned below. 9 Ro. Laneham, whose LETTER, containing a full description of the Shows, &c. is reprinted at large in Nichols's "Progresses of Queen 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 66 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 rhymes, in praise of their cruel ancestors. See his Short View of Eng. History, 8vo. p. 17. (The Preface is dated 1734.) 4 Laneham, p. 37. 5 Ibid. p. 33. |