trumpets, cornets, hautboys, lutes, recorders, viols, and organs. The band, which, I believe, did not confist of more than eight or ten performers, fat (as I have been told by a very ancient stage-veteran, who had his information from Boman, the contemporary of Betterton,) in an upper balcony, over what is now called the ftage-box." From Sir Henry Herbert's Manufcript I learn, that the musicians belonging to Shakspeare's company were obliged to pay the Mafter of the "In the towne will I, my frendes to vyfit there, "And hether straight again, to see the end of this gere: "And let your freyndes here fuch mirth as ye can make them." It has been thought by fome that our author's dramas were exhibited without any paufes, in an unbroken continuity of scenes. But this appears to be a mistake. In a copy of Romeo and Juliet, 1599, now before me, which certainly belonged to the playhouse, the endings of the acts are marked in the margin; and directions are given for musick to be played between each act. The marginal directions in this copy appear to be of a very old date, one of them being in the ancient style and hand-" Playe musicke.” See the ftage-directions in Marfton's Sophonifba, acted at the Blackfriars theatre, in 1606: "The ladies draw the curtains about Sephonifba;-the cornets and organs playing loud full muficke for the act. Signat. B 4. Organ mixt with recorders, for this act. Signat. D 2. Organs, viols, and voices, play for this act. Signat. E 2. "A bafe lute and a treble viol play for this act." Signat. F z 7 In the laft fcene of Maflinger's City Madam, which was firft acted at Blackfriars, May 25, 1632, Orpheus is introduced chanting thofe ravishing ftrains with which he moved "Charon and Cerberus, to give him way "To fetch from hell his loft Eurydice." The following stage-direction, which is found in the preceding fcene, fupports what has been fuggested above, concerning the ftation of the muficians in our ancient theatres: "Muficians come down, [i. e. are to come down,] to make ready for the fong at Arras." This fong was to be fung behind the arras. Revels an annual fee for a licence to play in the theatre. Not very long after our poet's death the Blackfriars' band was more numerous;" and their reputation was fo high as to be noticed by Sir Bulftrode Whitelocke, in an account which he has left of the fplendid Mafque given by the four Inns of Court on the fecond of February, 1633-4, entitled The Triumph of Peace, and intended, as he himself informs us, "to manifeft the difference of their opinion from Mr. Prynne's new learning, and to confute his Hiftriomaftix against interludes." A very particular account of this mafque is found in his Memorials; but that which Dr. Burney has lately given in his very curious and elegant Hiflory of Mufick, from a manufcript in the poffeffion of Dr. Moreton, of the British Museum, contains fome minute particulars not noticed in the former printed account, and among others an eulogy on our poet's band of muficians. "For the Muficke," fays Whitelocke, "which was particularly committed to my charge, I gave to Mr. Ives, and to Mr. Lawes, 100l. a piece for their rewards for the four French gentlemen, the queen's fervants, I thought that a handfome and liberall gratifying of them would be made known to the queen, their miftris, and well taken by her. I therefore invited them one morning to a collation 8 For a warrant to the Mufitions of the king's company, this 9th of April, 1627,-£.1. 0. 0.” MS. Herbert. 9 In a warrant of protection now before me, figned by Sir Henry Herbert, and dated from the Office of the Revels, Dec. 27, 1624, Nicholas Underhill, Robert Pallant, John Rhodes, and feventeen others, are mentioned as being all imployed by the kings Ma.ties fervants in theire quallity of playinge as mufitions, and other neceffary attendants." 2 Vol. III. p. 376. att St. Dunstan's taverne, in the great room, the Oracle of Apollo, where each of them had his plate lay'd by him, covered, and the napkin by it, and when they opened their plates, they found in each of them forty pieces of gould, of their master's coyne, for the firft difh, and they had caufe to be much pleased with this furprifall. "The rest of the mufitians had rewards anfwearable to their parts and qualities; and the whole charge of the muficke came to about one thousand pounds. The clothes of the horsemen reckoned one with another at £.100 a fuit, att the leaft, amounted to £.10,000.-The charges of all the rest of the mafque, which were borne by the focieties, were accounted to be above twenty thousand pounds. "I was fo converfant with the mufitians, and fo willing to gain their favour, efpecially at this time, that I compofed an aier my felfe, with the affiftance of Mr. Ives, and called it Whitelocke's Coranto; which being cried up, was firft played publiquely by the Blackefryars Muficke, who were then efteemed the best of common mufitians in London. Whenever I came to that house, (as I did fometimes in those dayes, though not often,) to fee a play, the mufitians would prefently play Whitelocke's Coranto; and it was fo often called for, that they would have it played twice or thrice in an afternoone. The queen hearing it, would not be perfuaded that it was made by an Englishman, bicause she said it was fuller of life and fpirit than the English aiers ufed to be; butt fhe honoured the Coranto and the maker of it with her majeftyes royall commendation. It grew to that request, that all the common mufitians in this towne, and all over the kingdome, gott the compofition of itt, and played it publiquely in all places for above thirtie years after." The ftage, in Shakspeare's time feems to have been separated from the pit only by pales.' Soon after the Reftoration, the band, I imagine, took the ftation which they have kept ever fince, in an orchestra placed between the ftage and the pit.+ The perfon who spoke the prologue, who entered immediately after the third founding,' ufually wore a long black velvet cloak," which, I fuppofe, was 3 "And now that I have vaulted up fo hye, "Above the ftage-rayles of this earthen globe, "Monfieur, you may draw up your troop of forces 4 See the first direction in The Tempeft, altered by D'Avenant and Dryden, and acted at the Duke's Theatre in Lincoln's-InnFields, in 1667: "The front of the ftage is opened, and the band of twentyfour violins, with the harpficals and theorbos, which accompany the voices, are placed between the pit and the ftage." If this had not been a novel regulation, the direction would have been un neceffary. Cotgrave in his Dictionary, 1611, following the idea of ancient Rome, defines Orchestre, "The fenators' or noblemens' places in a theatre, between the ftage and the common feats. Also the stage itfelf." If musicians had fet in this place, when he wrote, or the term orchestre, in its prefent fenfe, had been then known, there is reafon to believe that he would have noticed it. See his interpretation of Falot, above, in p. 219, n. The word orchestre is not found in Minfheu's Dict. nor Bullokar's Expofitor. In Cockeram's Interpreter of hard Words, 1655, it is defined a Scaffold. 5 "Prefent not your felfe on the stage, (efpecially at a new play) untill the quaking prologue hath by rubbing got cullor into his cheeks, and is ready to give the trumpets their cue, that he's upon the point to enter." Decker's Gul's Hornebook, 1609. 6 See the Induction to Cynthia's Revels, 1601: 66 66 I. Child. Pray you, away; why children what do you mean? 2. Child. Marry, that you fhould not speak the prologue. "1. Child. Sir, I plead poffeffion of the cloak. Gentlemen, your fuffrages, for God's fake." confidered as beft fuited to a fupplicatory addrefs. Of this cuftom, whatever may have been its origin, fome traces remained till very lately'; a black coat having been, if I mistake not, within these few years, the conftant ftage-habiliment of our modern prologue-fpeakers. The complete dress of the ancient prologue-fpeaker is ftill retained in the play exhibited in Hamlet, before the king and court of Denmark. An epilogue does not appear to have been a regular appendage to a play in Shakspeare's time; for many of his dramas had none; at least, they have not been preferved. In All's Well that Ends Well, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As you like it, Troilus and Creffida, and The Tempest, the epilogue is spoken by one of the perfons of the drama, and adapted to the character of the speaker; a circumftance that I have not observed in the epilogues of any other author of that age. The epilogue was not always fpoken by one of the performers in the piece; for that fubjoined to The Second part of King Henry IV. appears to have been delivered by a dancer. The performers of male characters frequently So, in the prologue to The Coronation, by Shirley, 1640: "A woman once in a coronation may "That with a little beard, a long black cloak, Again, in the prologue to The Woman-Hater, by Beaumont and Fletcher, 1607: Gentlemen, inductions are out of date, and a prologue in verfe is as ftale as a black velvet cloake, and a bay gar lande." VOL. II. |