poete, 66s. 8d. Item to a Welsh Rymer, in reward, 13s. 4d. Item, to my Lord Privie-Seals fole, in rew. 10s. Item, to Pachye the fole, for a rew. 6s. 8d. Item, to the foolish duke of Lancaster, 3s. Item to Dix the foles master, for a months wages, 10s. Item, to the King of Frances fole in rew. 41. Item, to the Frenshe players, in rew. 20s. Item, to the tumbler upon the ropes, 20s. Item, for heling of a seke maid, 6s. 8d. [Probably the piece of gold given by the King in touching for the evil.] Item, to my lord princes organ-player, for a quarters wages at Michell. 10s. Item, to the players of London, in reward, 10s. Item, to Master Barnard3, the blind poete, 100s. Item, to a man and woman for strawberries, 8s. 4d. Item, to a woman for a red rose, 2s." The foregoing extracts are from a book, of which almost every page is signed by the King's own hand, in the 13th year of his reign. The following are taken from a book which contains an account of expences in the 9th year of his reign: "Item, to Cart for writing of a boke, 6s. 8d. Item, payd for two playes in the hall, 26s. 6d. Item, to the kings players for a reward, 100s. Item, to the king to play at cardes, 100s. Item, lost to my lord Morging at buttes, 6s. 8d. Item, to Harry Pyning, the king's godson, in reward, 20s. Item, to the players that begged by the way, 6s. 8d."

Some of these articles I have preserved as curious, though they do not relate to the subject immediately before us. This account ascertains, that there was then not only a regular troop of players in London, but also a royal company. The intimate knowledge of the French language and manners which Henry

3 Barnard Andreas of Tholouse, preceptor to Prince Arthur. He was poet laureat and histriographer to the King. See Speed, 490, Pol. Verg., &c.

4 For these extracts I am indebted to Francis Grose, Esq. to whom every admirer of the venerable remains of English antiquity has the highest obligations.

must have acquired during his long sojourn in foreign courts, (from 1471 to 1485,) accounts for the article relative to the company of French players.

In a manuscript in the Cottonian Library in the Museum, a narrative is given of the shews and ceremonies exhibited at Christmas in the fifth year of this king's reign, 1490: "This Cristmass I saw no disgysyngs, and but right few plays; but ther was an abbot of mis-rule, that made muche sport, and did right well his office.-On Candell Mass day, the king, the qwen, my ladye, the king's moder, with the substance of al the lordes temporell present at the parlement, &c. wenten a procession from the chapell into the hall, and soo into Westmynster Hall:-The kynge was that daye in a riche gowne of purple, pirled withe gold, furred withe sabuls.At nyght the king, the qwene, and my ladye the kyngs moder, came into the Whit hall, and ther had a pley."-" On Newyeeres day at nyght, (says the same writer, speaking of the year 1488,) ther was a goodly disgysyng, and also this Cristmass ther wer many and dyvers playes."

A proclamation which was issued out in the year 1547 by King Edward the Sixth, to prohibit for about two months the exhibition of " any kind of interlude, play, dialogue, or other matter set forth in the form of a play, in the English tongue," describes plays as a familiar entertainment, both in London and in the country, and the profession of

Leland. Collect. vol. iv. Append. pp. 235, 256, edit. 1774. s Itinerant companies of actors are probably coeval with the first rise of the English stage. King Henry the Seventh's bounty to some strolling players has been mentioned in the preceding page. In 1556, the fourth year of Queen Mary, a remonstrance was issued from the Privy Council to the Lord President of the North, stating, "that certain lewd [wicked or dissolute] persons, naming themselves to be the servants of Sir Francis Lake, and wearing his livery or badge on their sleeves, have wandered about these north parts, and representing certain plays and interludes, reflecting on the queen and her consort, and the formalities of the mass." Strype's Memorials, vol. iii. Append. iii. p. 185.

"Forasmuch

an actor as common and established. as a great number of those that be common players of interludes and playes, as well within the city of London as elsewhere within the realme, doe for the most part play such interludes as contain matter tending to sedition," &c. By common players of interludes here mentioned, I apprehend, were meant the players of the city, as contradistinguished from the king's own servants. In a manuscript which I saw some years ago, and which is now in the library of the Marquis of Lansdown, are sundry charges for the players belonging to King Edward the Sixth; but I have not preserved the articles. And in the house-hold book of Queen Mary, in the Library of the Antiquarian Society, is an entry which shows that she also had a theatrical establishment: "Eight players of interludes, each 66s. 8d.-261. 13s. 4d."

It has already been mentioned that originally plays were performed in churches. Though Bonner Bishop of London issued a proclamation to the clergy of his diocese in 1542, prohibiting "all manner of common plays, games or interludes, to be played, set forth, or declared within their churches, chappels," &c. the practice seems to have been continued occasionally during the reign of Queen Elizabeth; for the author of The Third Blast of Retrait from Plays and Players complains, in 1580, that the players are permitted to publish their mammetrie in every temple of God, and that throughout England;" &c. and this abuse is taken notice of in one of the Canons of King James the First, given soon after his accession in the year 1603. Early, however, in Queen Elizabeth's reign, the established players of London began to act in temporary theatres constructed in the yards of inns'; and about the year 1570, I imagine, one or

Fuller's Church History, b. vii. p. 390.

7" In process of time it [playing] became an occupation, and

66

two regular playhouses were erected". Both the theatre in Blackfriars and that in Whitefriars were certainly built before 1580; for we learn from a puritanical pamphlet published in the last century, that soon after that year, many goodly citizens and well disposed gentlemen of London, considering that playhouses and dicing-houses were traps for young gentlemen, and others, and perceiving that many inconveniences and great damage would ensue upon the long suffering of the same,-acquainted some pious magistrates therewith,-who thereupon made humble suite to Queene Elizabeth and her privy-councell, and obtained leave from her majesty to thrust the players out of the citty, and to pull down all playhouses and dicing-houses within their liberties; which accordingly was effected, and the playhouses in Graciousstreet, Bishopsgate-street, that nigh Paul's, that on Ludgate-hill, and the White-friers, were quite pulled down and suppressed by the care of these religious senators The theatre in Blackfriars, not being

9"

many there were that followed it for a livelihood, and, what was worse, it became the occasion of much sin and evil; great multitudes of people, especially youth, in Queen Elizabeth's reign, resorting to these plays: and being commonly acted on Sundays and festivals, the churches were forsaken, and the playhouses thronged. Great inns were used for this purpose, which had secret chambers and places, as well as open stages and galleries." Strype's Additions to Stowe's Survey, folio, 1720, vol. i. p. 247.

8" In playes either those thinges are fained that never were, as Cupid and Psyche, played at Paules, [the school-room of St. Paul's,] and a great many comedies more at the Blackfriers, and in every playhouse in London, which for brevity's sake I overskippe, or," &c. Plays confuted in five Actions, by Stephen Gosson, no date, but printed about the year 1580.

• Richard Reulidge's Monster lately found out and discovered, or the scourging of Tipplers, 1628, pp. 2, 3, 4. What he calls the theatres in Gracious Street, Bishopsgate Street, and Ludgate Hill, were the temporary scaffolds erected at the Cross Keys Inn in Gracechurch Street, the Bull in Bishopsgate Street, and the Bell Savage on Ludgate Hill. That nigh Paul's," was St. Paul's school-room, behind the Convocation-house.

within the liberties of the city of London, escaped the fury of these fanaticks. Elizabeth, however, though she yielded in this instance to the frenzy of the time, was during the whole course of her reign a favourer of the stage, and a frequent attendant upon plays. So early as in the year 1569, as we learn from another puritanical writer, the children of her chapel, (who are described as "her majesty's unfledged minions,") "flaunted it in their silkes and sattens," and acted plays on profane subjects in the chapel-royal1. In 1574 she granted a licence to James Burbage, probably the father of the celebrated tragedian, and four others, servants to the Earl of Leicester, to exhibit all kinds of stage-plays, during pleasure, in any part of England, "as well for the recreation of her loving subjects, as for her own solace and pleasure when she should think good to see them2;" and in the year

"Even in her majesties chapels do these pretty upstart youthes prophane the Lordes-day by the lascivious writhing of their tender limbes, and gorgeous decking of their apparell, in feigning bawdie fables, gathered from the idolatrous heathen poets," &c. The Children of the Chapel stript and whipt, 1569, fol. xiii. b. These children acted frequently in Queen Elizabeth's reign at the theatre in Whitefriars.

2 For the notice of this ancient theatrical licence we are indebted to Mr. Steevens. It is found among the unpublished collections of Rymer, which were purchased by parliament, and are deposited in the British Museum. Ascough's Catalogue of Sloanian and other manuscripts, No. 4625.

"Pro Jacobo Burbage, et aliis, de licentia speciali.

"Elizabeth by the grace of God, Quene of England, &c. To all justices, mayors, sheriffes, bayliffes, head constables, under constables, and all other oure officers and mynisters, greting.

"Know ye, that we of our especiall grace, certen knowledge, and mere motion, have licensed and authorised, and by these presents do lycense and authorise our loving subjectes James Burbage, John Perkyn, John Lanham, William Johnson, and Robert Wilson, servaunts to our trustie and well beloved cosen and counseyllour the Earle of Leycester, to use, exercyse and occupie the arte and facultye of playenge commedies, tragedies, enterludes, stage-playes, and such other like as they have alredie