The fame practice prevailed in the time of the emperors; for in the lift of parts which Nero, with a prepofterous ambition, acted in the publick theatre, we find that of Canace, who was reprefented in labour on the ftage.' In the interludes exhibited between the acts undoubtedly women appeared. The elder Pliny informs us, that a female named Lucceïa acted in thefe interludes for an hundred years; and Galeria Copiola for above ninety years; having been first introduced on the fcene in the fourteenth year of her age, in the year of Rome 672, when Caius Marius the younger, and Cneius Carbo were confuls, and having performed in the 104th year of her age, fix years before the death of Auguftus, in the confulate of C. Poppæus and Quintus Sulpicius, A. U. C. 762.° Eunuchs alfo fometimes reprefented women on the Roman ftage, as they do at this day in Italy; for we find that Sporus, who made fo confpicuous a figure in the time of Nero, being appointed in the year 70, [A. U. C. 823] to perfonate a nymph, who, in an interlude exhibited before Vitellius, was to be carried off by a ravisher, rather than endure the indignity of wearing a female dress on the ftage, put himself to death:' a fingular end for one, who about ten years before had been publickly efpoufed to Nero, in the hymeneal veil, and had been carried through one of the ftreets of Rome by the fide of that monster, in the imperial robes of the empreffes, ornamented with a profufion of jewels, 5 Sueton. in Nerone, c. xxi. 6 Plin. Hift. Nat. Lib. VIII. c. xlviii. 7 Xiphilini Vitel. p. 209, edit. H. Stephani, folio, 1592. Thus ancient was the ufage, which, though not adopted in the neighbouring countries of France and Italy, prevailed in England from the infancy of the flage. The prejudice againft women appearing on the fcene continued fo ftrong, that till near the time of the Reftoration, boys conftantly performed female characters; and, ftrange as it may now appear, the old practice was not deferted without many apologies for the indecorum of the novel ufage. In 1659 or 1660, in imitation of the foreign theatres, women were firft introduced on the scene. In 1656, indeed, Mrs. Coleman, the wife of Mr. Edward Coleman, reprefented Ianthe in the First Part of D'Avenant's Siege of Rhodes; but the little fhe had to say was spoken in recitative. The first woman that appeared in any regular drama on a publick ftage, performed the part of Defdemona; but who the lady was, I am unable to afcertain. The play of Othello is enumerated by Downes as one of the ftock-plays of the king's company on their opening their theatre in Drury-lane in April 1663; and it appears from a paper found with Sir Henry Herbert's Office-book, and indorfed by him,' that it was one of the ftock-plays of the fame company from the time they began to play without a patent at the Red Bull in St. John-street, Mrs. Hughs performed the part of Defdemona in 1663, when the company removed to Drury-lane, and obtained the title of the king's fervants; but whether the performed with them while they played at the Red Bull, or in Vere-ftreet, near Claremarket, has not been afcertained. Perhaps Mrs. Saunderfon made her first effay there, though the afterwards 7 See the lift of plays belonging to the Red Bull, in a fubfequent page, ad ann. 1660. was enlifted in D'Avenant's company. The received tradition is, that fhe was the firft English actress." The verfes which were fpoken by way of introducing a female to the audience, were written by Thomas Jordan, and being only found in a very fcarce mifcellany," I fhall here tranfcribe them: "A Prologue, to introduce the first woman that came to act on the flage, in the tragedy called The Moor of Venice. "I come, unknown to any of the reft, "Abhor all forts of loofenefs, and yet play; 8 Mrs. Saunderfon (afterwards Mrs. Betterton) played Juliet, Ophelia, and, I believe, Cordelia. It fhould feem from the 22d line of the Epilogue fpoken on the occafion, that the lady who performed Defdemona was an unmarried woman. Mrs. Hughs was married. The principal unmarried actress in the King's company appears to have been Mrs. Marshall, who is faid to have been afterwards feduced under a pretence of marriage by Aubrey de Vere, earl of Oxford, and who might have been the original female performer of Defdemona. At that time every unmarried woman bore the title of Miftrefs. It is faid in a book of no authority, (Curl's Hiftory of the Stage,) and has been repeated in various other compilations, that Mrs. Norris, the mother of the celebrated comedian known by the name of Jubilee Dicky, was the first actress who appeared on the English ftage: but this is highly improbable. Mrs. Norris, who was in D'Avenant's company, certainly had appeared in 1662, but she was probably not young; for the played Goody Fells, in Toron Shifts, a comedy acted in 1671, and the Nurje in Reformation, acted in 1675. 9 A Royal Arbour of Loyal Poefie, by Thomas Jordan, no date, but printed, I believe, in 1662. Jordan was an actor as well as a poet. "Play on the stage,-where all eyes are upon her:- "But gentlemen, you that as judges fit "You'd think they were fome of the guard difguis'd; "Forty and fifty, wenches of fifteen; "With bone fo large and nerve fo incompliant, The Epilogue which confifts of but twelve lines, is in the fame ftrain of apology: * See alfo the Prologue to The Second Part of the Siege of Rhodes, (acted in April, 1662,) which was spoken by a woman: 66 Hope little from our poet's wither'd wit, "From infant players, fcarce grown puppets yet; "And how do you like her? Come, what is't ye drive at! "As far from being what you call a whore; "She will fubmit to none but your commands, From a paper in Sir Henry Herbert's handwriting I find that Othello was performed by the Red-Bull company, (afterwards his Majefties fervants,) at their new theatre in Vere-ftreet, near Claremarket, on Saturday December 8, 1660, for the first time that winter. On that day therefore it is probable an actress first appeared on the Englifh ftage. This theatre was opened on Thursday November 8, with the play of King Henry the Fourth. Most of Jordan's prologues and epilogues appear to have been written for that company. It is certain, however, that for fome time after the Restoration men alfo acted female parts;' and 3 In a prologue to a play reprefented before King Charles the Second very foon after his Reftoration, of which I know not the title, are thefe lines, from which it appears that fome young men acted the parts of women in that piece: we are forry "We fhould this night attend on fo much glory "With fuch weak worth; or your clear fight engage "To view the remnants of a ruin'd stage: "For doubting we should never play again, "We have play'd all our women into men; "That are of fuch large fize for flesh and bones, "Than tender maids; but your mercy doth pleafe 66 |