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equally peftiferous and noyfome to the commonweal. this time both Moralities and Myfteries were made the vehicle of religious controverfy; Bale's Comedy of the three Laws of Nature, printed in 1538, (which in fact is a Myftery,) being a difguifed fatire againft popery; as the Morality of Lufty Juventus was written exprefsly with the fame view in the reign of king Edward the Sixth 3. In that of his fucceffor queen Mary, Mysteries were again revived, as appendages to the papiftical worhip. In the year 1556," fays Mr. Warton, " a goodly ftage-play of the Paffion of Chrift was prefented at the Grey-friars in London, on Corpus-Chrifti day, before the Lord-Mayor, the Privy-council, and many great eftates of the realm. Strype alfo mentions, under the year 1557, a ftage-play at the Grey-friers, of the Paffion of Chrift, on the the day that war was proclaimed in London against France, and in honour of that occafion. On Saint Olave's day in the fame year, the holiday of the church in Silver-ftreet which is dedicated to that faint, was kept with much folemnity. At eight of the clock at night, began a ftage-play of goodly matter, being the miraculous hiftory of the life of that faint, which continued four hours, and concluded with many religious fongs." No Myfteries, I believe, were reprefented during the reign of Elizabeth, except fuch as were occafionally performed by thofe who were favourers of the popish religion, and those already mentioned,

known

3 This mode of attack" (as Mr. Warton has obferved) "was feldom returned by the oppofite party: the catholick worship founded on fenfible reprefentations afforded a much better hold for ridicule, than the religion of fome of the fects of the reformers, which was of a more fimple and fpiritual nature." HIST. OF E. P. Vol. II. p. 378, n. The interlude, however, called Every Man, which was written in defence of the church of Rome, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, is an exception. It appears alfo from a proclamation promulgated early in the reign of his fon, of which mention will be made hereafter, that the favourers of popery about that time had levelled several dramatick invectives against Archbishop Cranmer, and the doctrines of the reformers. 4 HIST. OF E. P. Vol. III. p. 326.

5 That Myfteries were occafionally represented in the early part of queen Elizabeth's reign appears from the affertions of the controver

known by the name of the Chester Mysteries, which had been originally compofed in 1328, were revived in the time of king Henry the Eighth, (1533,) and again performed at Chester in the year 1600. The laft Mystery, I believe, ever reprefented in England, was that of Chrift's Paffion, in the reign of king James the First, which Prynne tells us was "performed at Elie-House in Holborne, when Gundomar lay there, on Goodfriday at night, at which there were thousands prefent"."

In France the reprefentation of Myfteries was forbid in the year 1548, when the fraternity affociated under the name of The Actors of our Saviour's Paffion, who had received letters patent from king Charles the Sixth in 1402, and had for near 150 years exhibited religious plays, built their new theatre on the fite of the duke of Burgundy's houfe; and were authorised by an Arret of parliament to act, on condition that they should meddle with none but profane subjects, fuch as are lawful and honeft, and not reprefent any facred Myfteries "." Reprefentations founded on holy writ continued to be exhibited in Italy till the year 1660, and the Mystery of Chrift's Paffion was reprefented at Vienna fo lately as the early part of the prefent century.

Having thus occafionally mentioned foreign theatres, I take this opportunity to obferve, that the ftages of France fo lately as in the beginning of queen Elizabeth's reign were entirely unfurnished with scenery or any kind of decoration, and that the performers at that time remained on the stage the whole time of the exhibition; in which mode perhaps our Myfteries in England were reprefented. For this information we are indebted to the elder Scaliger, in whofe Poeticks is the following curious paffage. "Nunc in Gallia ita agunt fabulas, ut

fial writers. They play" (fays one of them,)" and counterfeite the whole Paffion fo trimly, with all the feven forowes of our lady, as though it had been nothing else but a fimple and plain enterlude, to make boyes laugh at, and a little to recreate forowful harts." Becbive of the Romife Churche, 1580, p. 207. See alfo fupra, p. 19, n. 5. 6 Hiftriomaftix, quarto, 1633, p. 117. n.

7 Riccoboni's Account of the Theatres of Europe, 8vo. 1741, p. 124.

omnia in confpectu fint; UNIVERSUS APPARATUS difpofitis fublimibus fedibus. Perfonæ ipfæ nunquam difcedunt: qui filent pro abfentibus habentur. At enimvero perridiculum, ibi fpectatorem videre te audire, et te videre teipfum non audire quæ alius coram te de te loquatur; quafi ibi non fis, ubi es: cum tamen maxima poetæ vis fit, fufpendere animos, atque eos facere femper expectantes. At hic tibi novum fit nihil; ut prius fatietas fubrepat, quam obrepat fames. Itaque recte objecit Æfchylo Euripides apud Ariftophanem in Ranis, quod Niobem et Achillem in fcenam introduxiffet capite co-operto; neque nunquam ullum verbum qui fint loquuti ." That is, "At prefent in France [about the year 1556] plays are reprefented in fuch a manner, that nothing is withdrawn from the view of the fpectator. The whole apparatus of the theatre confifts of fome high feats ranged in proper order. The perfons of the scene never depart during the reprefentation: he who ceafes to speak, is confidered as if he were no longer on the stage. But in truth it is extremely ridiculous, that the spectator should see the actor listening, and yet he himself should not hear what one of his fellow-actors fays concerning him, though in his own prefence and within his hearing: as if he were abfent, while he is prefent. It is the great object of the dramatick poet to keep the mind in a conftant ftate of fufpence and expectation. But in our theatres, there can be no novelty, no furprife: info

Jul. Cæf. Scaligeri Poetices Libri Septem. Folio, 1561. 1. 1. c. 21. Julius Cæfar Scaliger died at Agen, in the province of Guienne in France, on the 21st of October, 1558, in the 75th year of his age. He wrote his Poeticks in that town a few years before his death.

Riccoboni gives us the fame account in his Hiftory of the French Theatre. "In the representations of the Mysteries, the theatre reprefented paradife, hell, heaven, and earth, all at once; and though the action varied, there was no change of the decorations. After an actor had performed his part, he did not go off the stage, but retired to a corner of it, and fate there in full view of all the spectators." Hiftorical and Critical Account of the Theatres in Europe, octavo, 1741, p. 118. We fhall presently fee that at a much later period, and long after the Mysteries had ceafed to be exhibited, "though the action changed, there was no change of decoration," either in France or England.

much

much that the fpectator is more likely to be fatiated with what he has already feen, than to have any appetite for what is to come. Upon this ground it was, that Euripides objected to Efchylus, in The Frogs of Ariftophanes, for having introduced Niobe and Achilles as mutes upon the scene, with a covering which entirely concealed their heads from the fpectators.

Another practice, equally extraordinary, is mentioned by Bulenger in his treatife on the Grecian and Roman theatres. In his time, fo late as in the year 1600, all the actors employed in a dramatick piece came on the ftage in a troop, before the play began, and prefented themselves to the fpectators, in order, fays he, to raise the expectation of the audience. "Putem tamen (quod bodieque fit) omnes actores antequam finguli agerent, confeftim et in turba in profcenium prodiiffe, ut fui expectationem commoverent "." I know not whether this was ever practifed in England. Instead of raifing, it fhould feem more likely to reprefs, expectation. I fuppofe, however, this writer conceived the audience would be animated by the number of the characters, and that this display would operate on the gaping fpectators like fome of our modern enormous play-bills; in which the length of the fhow fometimes conftitutes the principal merit of the entertainment.

Mr. Warton obferves that Moralities were become fo fashionable a fpectacle about the clofe of the reign of Henry the Seventh, that " John Raftall, a learned typographer, brother-in-law to Sir Thomas More, extended its province, which had been hitherto confined either to moral allegory, or to religion blended with buffoonery, and conceived a defign of making it the vehicle of fci ence and philofophy. With this view he published A new INTERLUDE and a mery, of the nature of the iiij. Elements, declaring many proper points of philofophy naturall, and dyvers firaunge landys, &c. In the cofmographical part of the play, in which the poet profeffes to treat of

9 Bulengeri de Theatro, 8vo. 1600, l. 1. p. 60. b.

dyvers ftraunge landys, and of the new-found landys, the tracts of America recently difcovered, and the manners of the natives, are defcribed. The characters are, a Mesfenger, who speaks the prologue, Nature, Humanity, Studious Defire, Senfual Appetite, a Taverner, Experience, and Ignorance'.'

As it is uncertain at what period of time the ancient Myfteries ceafed to be reprefented as an ordinary fpectacle for the amufement of the people, and Moralities were fubftituted in their room, it is equally difficult to afcertain the precife time when the latter gave way to a more legitimate theatrical exhibition. We know that Moralities were exhibited occafionally during the whole of the reign of queen Elizabeth, and even in that of her fucceffor, long after regular dramas had been prefented on the fcene; but I fufpect that about the year 1570 (the 13th year of queen Elizabeth) this fpecies of drama began to lofe much of its attraction, and gave way to fomething that had more the appearance of comedy and tragedy. Gammer Gurton's Needle, which was written by Mr. Sill, (afterwards bishop of Bath and Wells,) in the 23d year of his age, and acted at Chrift's College, Cambridge, in 1566, is pointed out by the ingenious writer of the tract entitled Hiftoria Hiftrionica, as the first piece" that looks like a regular comedy;" that is, the first play that was neither Mystery nor Morality, and in which fome humour and difcrimination of character may be found. In 1561-2 Thomas Sackville lord Buckhurst, and Thomas Norton, joined in writing the tragedy

1 HIST. OF E. P. Vol. II. p. 364. "Dr. Percy fuppofes this play to have been written about the year 1510, from the following lines: Within this xx yere

"Weftwarde he found new landes

"That we never harde tell of before this."

The Weft-Indies were difcovered by Columbus in 1492." Ibid.

2 The licence granted in 1603 to Shakspeare and his fellow-comedians, authorifes them to play comedies, tragedies, hiftories, interludes, morals, paftorals, &c. See alfo The Guls Hornebooke, 1609: "if in the middle of his play, (bee it paftoral or comedie, morall ør tragedie,) you rise with a shrewd and discontented face," &c.

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