was

porary writer. "The ftage" (he tells us) built clofe to the upper end of the hall, as it feemed at the first fight: but indeed it was but a falfe wall faire painted, and adorned with ftately pillars, which pillars would turn about; by reafon 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 fcenes employed in the exhibition of the piece. The fcenery was contrived by Inigo Jones, who is defcribed 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." 9

It is obfervable that the writer of this account was not acquainted even with the term, fcene, having ufed painted clothes inftead of it: nor indeed is this furprising, it not being then found in this fenfe in any dictionary or vocabulary, English or foreign, that I have met with. Had the common ftages been furnished with them, neither this writer, nor the makers of dictionaries, could have been ignorant of it. To effect even what was

Leland. Collec. Vol. II. pp. 631, 646. Edit. 1770. See alfo P. 639: "The fame day, Aug. 28, after fupper, about nine of the clock they began to act the tragedy of Ajax Flagellifer, wherein the ftage varied three times. They had all goodly antique apparell, but for all that, it was not acted fo well by many degrees as I have feen it in Cambridge. The King was very wearie before he came thither, but much more wearied by it, and spoke many words of diflike.”

Florio, who appears to have diligently studied our customs, illuftrating his explanations on many occafions by English proverbs, fayings, local defcriptions, &c. in his Italian Dictionary, 1598, defines Scena, in thefe words: "A fcene of a comedie, or tragedie. Alfo a ftage in a theatre, or playhoufe, whereon they play; a fkaffold, a pavillion, or fore part of a theatre, where players make them readie, being trimmed with hangings, out of which

done at Chrift-Church, the Univerfity found it neceffary to employ two of the king's carpenters,

they enter upon the stage. Used alfo for a comedie or a tragedie. Alfo a place where one doth fhew and fet forth himselfe to the world." In his fecond edition, published in 1611, inftead of the words, "A fcene of a comedie or tragedie," we find-“ Any one scene or entrance of a comedie or tragedie," which more precife ly ascertains his meaning.

In Cotgrave's French and English Dictionary printed in 1611, the word scene is not found, and if it had existed either in France or England, (in the fenfe in which we are now confidering it,) it would probably have been found. From the word falat, the definition of which I fhall have occafion to quote hereafter, the writer feems to have been not unacquainted with the English stage.

Bullokar, who was a phyfician, published an English Expofitor in the year in which Shakspeare died. From his definition likewise it appears, that a moveable painted fcene was then unknown in our theatres. He defines Scene, "A play, a comedy, a tragedy, or the divifion of a play into certain parts. In old time it fignified a place covered with boughes, or the room where the players made them readie." Mintheu's large English Dictionary, which he calls A Guide to the Tongues, was published in the following year, 1617, and there Scene is nothing more than "a theatre." Nay, even fo late as in the year 1656, when Cockeram's English Dictionary, or Interpreter of hard English words was published, Scene is only faid to be the divifion of a play into certain parts."

Had our English theatres in the time of Shakspeare been furnished with moveable fcenes, painted in perfpective, can it be fuppofed that all thefe writers fhould have been ignorant of it?

It is obfervable that Coryate in his Crudities, 4to. 1611, when he is boafting of the fuperior fplendour of the English theatres, compared with thofe of Venice, makes no mention of fcenes." I was at one of their playhouses, where I faw a comedie. The house is very beggarly and bafe in comparison of our ftately playhouses in England: neither can their actors compare with us, for apparel, fhows, and muficke." Crudities, p. 247.

It is alfo worthy of remark that Mr. Chamberlaine, when he is fpeaking of the fate of the performances at the Fortune theatre, when it was burnt down in 1621, laments that "their apparel and play-books were loft, whereby thofe poor companions were quite undone;" but fays not a word of fcenes. See alfo Sir Henry Wotton's letter on the burning of the Globe, in 1613, p. 176, n. 6. MALONE.

That Scenes, and the word-fcene, were used in 1618, may be

we

and to have the advice of the controller of his works. The Queen's Mafque, which was exhibited in the preceding January, was not much more fuccefsful, though above 3000l. was expended upon it. "At night," fays Sir Dudley Carleton, had the Queen's Mafke in the Banqueting-house, 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 fea-horfes, (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 fhell in form of a fkallop, wherein were four feats; on the loweft fat the queen with my lady Bedford; on the rest were placed the ladies Suffolk, Darby," &c.

proved from the following marginal note to the prologue to Barton Holiday's TEXNOгAMIA, published in that year: "Here the upper part of the frene open'd; when straight appear'd an Heaven, and all the pure arts fitting &c.—they descended in order within the scene, while the mufike plaid." A fimilar note is appended to the Epilogue, concluding thus: " and then the Heaven clofed."

I feize this opportunity to obferve, that little deference is due to the authority of ancient Dictionaries, which usually content themselves with allotting a fingle fenfe to a word, without attention to its different fhades of meaning. STEEVENS.

3 Letter from Sir Dudley Carleton to Mr. Winwood, London, Jan. 1604. [i. e. 1604-5,] Winwood's Memorials, II. 43. This letter contains fo curious a trait of our British Solomon, that I cannot forbear tranfcribing another paffage from it, though foreign to our present fubject: "On Saint John's day we had the marriage of Sir Philip Herbert and Lady Sufan performed at Whitehall, with all the honour could be done a great favourite. The court was great, and for that day put on the beft bravery.—At night there was a Mask in the hall, which for conceit and fashion was fuitable to the occafion. The prefents of plate and other things given by the noblemen [to the bride and bridegroom] were valued at 2500l.; but that which made it a good marriage, was a gift of the king's of 500l. land, for the bride's jointure. They were VOL. II.

Such were most of the Masques in the time of James the First: triumphal cars, caftles, rocks, caves, pillars, temples, clouds, rivers, tritons, &c. compofed the principal part of their decoration. In the courtly mafques given by his fucceffor during the first fifteen years of his reign, and in fome of the plays exhibited at court, the art of scenery feems to have been fomewhat improved. In 1636 a piece written by Thomas Heywood, called Love's Mistress or the Queen's Mafque, was represented at Denmark Houfe before their Majefties. "For the rare decorements" (fays Heywood in his preface) "which new apparelled it, when it came the fecond time to the royal view, (her gracious majesty then entertaining his highnefs at Denmark Houfe upon his birth-day,) I cannot pretermit to give a due character to that admirable artift Mr. Inigo Jones, mafter furveyor of the king's worke, &c. who to every act, nay almost to every fcene, by his excellent inventions gave fuch an extraordinary luftre; upon every occafion changing the ftage, to the admiration

lodged in the council-chamber, where the king in his firt and night-gown gave them a reveille-matin before they were up, and fpent a good time in or upon the bed, choose which you will believe. No ceremony was omitted of bride-cakes, points, garters, and gloves, which have been ever fince the livery of the court; and at night there was sewing in the fheet, cafting of the bride's left hofe, with many other petty forceries."

Our poet has been cenfured for indelicacy of language, particularly in Hamlet's converfation with Ophelia, during the repreTentation of the play before the court of Denmark; but unjustly, for he undoubtedly reprefented the manners and converfation of his own day faithfully. What the decorum of thofe times was, even in the higheft clafs, may be conjectured from another paffage in the fame letter: "The night's work [the night of the queen's mafque] was concluded with a banquet in the great chamber, which was fo furiously affaulted, that down went tables and treffes, before one bit was touched."-Such was the court of King James the First.

of all the fpectators." Here, as on a former occafion, we may remark, the term fcene is not used: the flage was changed to the admiration of all the fpectators.*

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 exquifite and uncommon piece of machinery, contrived by Inigo Jones. The play was printed in 1639; and yet even at that late period, the term fcene, in the fenfe now affixed to it, was unknown to the author; for describing the various fcenes employed in this courtexhibition, he denominates them thus: "The first Appearance, a temple of the fun.-Second Appearance, a city in the front, and a prifon at the fide," &c. The three other Appearances in this play were, a wood, a palace, and a caftle.

In every difquifition of this kind much trouble and many words might be faved, by defining the fubject of difpute. Before therefore I proceed further in this inquiry, I think it proper to fay, 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, foon after the first edition of this Effay was

+ If in our author's time the publick ftage had been changed, or in other words, had the Globe and Blackfriars playhouse been furnished with scenes, would they have created fo much admiration at a royal entertainment in 1636, twenty years after his death? 5 Hift. et Antiq. Univ. Oxon. L. I. p. 344.