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addressed by Thomas Carew to Mr. (afterwards sir William) Davenant, he thus describes the audiences and actors at these public theatres :

"These are the men, in crowded heaps that throng
To that adulterate stage, where not a tongue
Of th' untun'd kennel can a line repeat
Of serious sense."

THE CURTAIN THEATRE WAS situated in the neighbourhood of Shoreditch. The Curtain Road still exists; and near this spot, it is very probable that the playhouse stood. It was called The Curtain, because the original sign bang outside was a striped curtain. When it was built, has not, we believe, been ascertained; but it is mentioned, in Heath's Epigrams, 1610, as being then open; and The Hector of Germany was performed in it by a company of young men in 1615.

The performers at this theatre were called The Prince's Servants, till the accession of Charles the First, soon after which period, it appears to have been used only by prize-fighters.

INTERIOR OF THE THEATRES. IT has already been observed, that many of our ancient dramatic pieces were performed in innyards, in which, in the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, the comedians, who then first united themselves into companies, erected an occasional stage. The galleries at the end, and on each side of the inn-yards, were similar to our modern inns, and were well adapted for the accommodation of the audience. They were ranged over each other; and the same form was retained in the erection of the regular theatres. The small rooms under the lowest, answered to our present boxes, and were called rooms. The stage was erected in the area, with its back to the gateway, where the admissionmoney was taken. The middle of the area was appropriated to the lowest class of visitants. Plays could only be acted in these places in fine weather, as there was no roof. In the middle of the Globe, and other public theatres, there was likewise an open area, where the common people stood to see the exhibition; from which circumstance, they are called by Shakspeare "the groundlings," and by Ben Jonson, the " understanding gentlemen of the ground." This part, in the private theatres, was termed the pit, and had seats. The boxes (or rooms as they were called) were of considerable size in the public theatres. The body of the house was lighted by cressets, a sort of large open lanterns, nearly similar in size to those fixed in the poop of a ship.

THE STAGE.

THE stage was separated from the audience only by pales, and was strewed with rushes, the usual covering of floors in Shakspeare's time. On some occasions it was entirely matted; but this was very rare. The curtain, which hangs in front of the modern stage, drawn up by lines and pullies, though not a modern invention, (for it was used by Inigo Jones in the masque at court) was yet an apparatus, to which the simple mechanism of our ancient theatres had not arrived. The curtains opened in the middle, and were drawn backwards and forwards on an iron rod. In some playhouses they were woollen, in others made of silk. Towards the rear of the stage was a balcony, or upper stage, about eight or nine feet from the ground. On the front of it, curtains were hung, to occasionally conceal the persons who sat in it. At each side of it was a box, sometimes called the private box, which was at a lower price, and where some persous sate, either from economy or singularity. From this balcony, a part of the dialogue was spoken, when a play was exhibited within a play (as in Hamlet); the court, or audience, before

whom the piece was played, sat in the balcony; and a curtain being hung across the stage, the performers entered between that curtain and the real audience; and when it was drawn, began their performances, addressing themselves to the balcony, with their backs to the spectators in the theatre. A tolerable idea of this balcony, &c. may be gathered from the fac-simile wood-cut prefixed to the description of the Red Bull Theatre.

When tragedies were performed, the stage was hung with black, as appears from the following extract from the Induction to A Warning for Fair Women, 1599; as well as from many other passages in the old dramatic writers:

"History..Look, Comedie, I mark'd it not till now,

The stage is hung with blacke, and I perceive The auditors prepar'd for tragedie." Trap-doors are not a modern invention. Their early use is implied in the marginal directions of many of the old plays. In All for Money, a morality, 1578, is the following: "Here, with some fine conveyance, pleasure shall appeare from beneathe." So, in Marston's Antonio's Revenge, 1602: " Enter Balurdo from under the stage." In Macbeth, the cauldron sinks; and in The Roaring Girl, 1611, there is a character called Trap Door.

The prompter, or book-holder as he was sometimes called, and the property-man, were regular appendages of the stage. In the Induction to Cynthia's Revels, 1601, we have the following passage: "I assure you, sir, we are not so officiously befriended by him, (the author,) as to have his presence in the tiring-house, to prompt us aloud, stamp at the book-holder, swear for our properties, curse the ,poor tire-man, rayle the musicke out of tune, &c." And in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Quince says, "In the mean time, I will draw a bill of properties, such as our play wants."

The stage was lighted by candles fixed in large branches similar to those used in churches; and before 1611, we find that wax-lights were used. These branches being found inconvenient, from their obstructing the sight of the spectators, were subsequently removed, and small circular wooden frames, with holes in which candles were fitted, supplied their place: four of these frames were hung on each side of the stage. It was not till Garrick's return from France in 1765, that the present mode of lighting the scenery by lamps invisible to the audience, was adopted. It appears from the cut which accompanies the description of the Red Bull theatre that the front of the stage was illuminated by a row of lamps or candles.

SCENERY AND DECORATIONS. WHETHER what we understand by scenes were in use in Shakspeare's time, is a matter of dispute Steevens takes the among the commentators. affirmative side of the question; but a great portion of his argument seems to rest on mere analogy and conjecture. "Where" says he, "machinery was discovered, the less complicated adjunct of scenes was scarcely wanting.. is introduced, the scene of a bed-chamber would of

course be at hand.

Where a bed

Macduff examines the outside of Inverness castle with such minuteness, that he distinguishes even the nests which the martins had built under the projecting parts of its roof. Romeo, standing in a garden, points to the tops of fruit-trees gilded by the moon. The prologue-speaker to the Second Part of King Henry IV. expressly shews the spectators this wormeaten hold of ragged stone,' in which Northumberland was lodged. Iachimo takes the most exact inventory of every article in Imogen's bed-chamber, from the silk and silver, of which her tapestry was wrought, down to the Cupids that support her andirons. Had not the inside of this apartment, with its proper furniture, been represented, how

ridiculous must the actions of Iachimo have appeared! He must have stood looking out of the room for the particulars supposed to be visible within it." [Absurd as this may seem, it was most probably the case.]. . . . . .“ In one of the parts of King Henry VI. a cannon is discharged against a tower; and conversations are held in almost every scene from different walls, turrets, and battlements," &c.

Malone adopts the opposite opinion, and appears to have the best of the argument. The following is an epitome of his reasoning. He contends that moveable scenes were not in use in England till 1605, when three plays were performed at Oxford before James I. thus described by a contemporary writer: "The stage was built at the upper end of the hall, as it seemed at the first sight: but indeed it was but a false wall faire painted, and adorned with stately pillars, which pillars would turn about: by reason whereof, with the help of other painted clothes, the stage did vary three times in one tragedy." It is observable that the writer of this account does not appear to be acquainted with the word scene, but employs "painted clothes" in that sense. Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598, gives three definitions of the word, but none applicable to the modern acceptation. Cotgrave's English and French Dictionary, 1611; Bullokar's English Expositor; Minsheu's Guide to the Tongues, 1617; and Cockeram's English Dictionary, 1656; are equally deficient; "and can it be supposed says Malone, "that all these writers should have been ignorant of it?" Steevens makes a weak attempt to confute this by saying, that "little deference is due to the authority of ancient dictionaries, which usually content themselves with allotting a single sense to a word, without attending to its different shades of meaning," but here is not a shade of meaning, but a distinct meaning.

Sir Philip Sydney, describing the state of the stage in his time, says: "Now you shall have three ladies walk to gather flowers, and then we must believe the stage to be a garden. By and by, we heare news of shipwracke in the same place, then we are to blame if we accept it not for a rock," &c. From these remarks, and the result of much research into the early dramatic writers, Malone is led to conclude, that scenery was unknown till 1605; but that what is termed machinery was in very early use, though it seldom went beyond a tomb, a painted chair, a sinking cauldron, or a trap-door. Some doubt may, however, be entertained, whether in Romeo and Juliet any exhibition of Juliet's monument was given on the stage. Romeo, perhaps, only opened with his mattock one of the stage trapdoors, which might have represented a tomb-stone, by which he descended to a vault beneath the stage, where Juliet was deposited.

The stage was hung with arras or tapestry, as appears from a passage in the dedication to Ben Jonson's New Inn, performed at Blackfriars, and damned. The poet, incensed at its reception, published the play, and accusing his auditors of ignorance, says: "As the stage furniture or arras clothes, they were there; as spectators, away; for the faces in the hangings and they beheld alike." So also in the Induction to Cynthia's Revels, 1601: "Sir John, I am none of your fresh pictures, that use to beautify the decayed old arras in a publick theatre."

In the early part of Shakspeare's connexion with the stage, the want of scenery seems to have been supplied by writing the names of the different places of action on boards, which were placed so as to be visible to the audience. In The Defence of Poesie, by sir Philip Sydney, 1595, he says: "What child is there, that coming to a play, and seeing Thebes written upon an old door, doth believe that it is Thebes?" And Davenant, in the Introduction to his Siege of Rhodes, 1656, says: "In

the middle of the freese was a compartment, wherein was written Rhodes."

Nothing in the shape of proof that scenery was employed can be adduced from the descriptions which appear in the old plays. The author might be very profuse in such descriptions, to assist the imagination of his readers; but it would by no means follow that his play was actually represented with these auxiliaries.

THE ACTORS.

IN 1583, soon after a furious attack had been made on the stage by the Puritans, twelve of the principal actors were selected from the companies then subsisting, under the license and protection of various noblemen, and were sworn her majesty's servants. Eight of them had an annual allowance of £3: 6s: 8d. each. At that time, there were eight companies of comedians, each of which performed two or three times a week. About the latter part of Shakspeare's time, there were five principal companies in London: the King's Servants, who performed at the Globe, and in Blackfriars; the Prince's Servants, who performed at the Curtain; the Palsgrave's Servants, at the Fortune; the Players of the Revels, at the Red Bull; and the Lady Elizabeth's Servants, or, as they are sometimes called, the Queen of Bohemia's Players, at the Cockpit. The Players at the Globe and at Blackfriars belonged to the same company, namely, the King's Servants, which title they obtained after a license had been granted to them by James I. in 1603. Like the other servants of the household, they were sworn into office, and each allowed four yards of bastard scarlet for a cloak, and a quarter of a yard of velvet for a cape, every second year.

If all the players, whose names are enumerated in the first folio edition of Shakspeare's works, belonged to the same theatre, they formed a numerous company; but this is by no means probable. Indeed, at one time, their complement was so meagre, that it was common for one actor to play three parts, and a battle was decided by half-adozen combatants.

Boys, or young men, performed the female characters; and though as early as 1592, female performers acted in foreign theatres, the prejudices against it in England continued so strong, that women did not appear till near the time of the Restoration; and even then it was considered necessary to apologize for what was considered the indecorum of the innovation. The first female performer played Desdemona; her name is unknown. The verses which were written to introduce a female for the first time to an English audience, were the production of Thomas Jordan, an actor at the Red Bull, and the author of four plays. As a literary curiosity we subjoin them:

"A Prologue, to introduce the first Woman that came to act on the Stage, in the Tragedy called The Moor of Venice.

her:--

"I come, unknown to any of the rest,
To tell you news; I saw the lady drest:
The woman plays to-day: mistake me not,
No man in gown, or page in petticoat:
A woman to my knowledge; yet I can't,
If I should die, make affidavit on't.
Do you not twitter, gentlemen? I know
You will be censuring: do it fairly though.
'Tis possible a virtuous woman may
Abhor all sorts of looseness, and yet play;
Play on the stage, where all eyes are upon
Shall we count that a crime, France counts an honour?
In other kingdoms husbands safely trust 'em ;
The difference lies only in the custom.
And let it be our custom, I advise;
I'm sure this custom's better than th' excise,
And may procure us custom hearts of flint
Will melt in passion, when a woman's in't.
"But, gentlemen, you that as judges sit
In the star-chamber of the house, the pit,
Have modest thoughts of her; pray, do not run
To give her visits when the play is done,
With damn me, your most humble servant, lady;"
She knows these things as well as you, it may be:
Not a bit there, dear gallants, she doth know
Her own descrts,--and your temptations too.

But to the point:---In this reforming age,
We have intents to civilize the stage.
Our women are defective, and so siz'd,

You'd think they were some of the guard disguis'd:
Fer, to speak truth, men act, that are between
Forty and fifty, wenches of fifteen;

With bone so large, and nerve so incompliant,
When you call Desdemona, enter Giant.

We shall purge every thing that is unclean,
Lascivious, scurrileus, impious, or obscene;
And when we've put all things in this fair way,
Barebones himself may come to see a play."

tion to their rank and merit. Malone conjectures that "the whole clear receipt was divided into forty shares, of which the proprietors had fifteen, the actors twenty-two, and three were devoted to the purchase of new plays, dresses, &c. From Ben Jonson's Poetaster, it should seem that one of the performers had seven shares and a half; but of what integral sum is not mentioned. Shakspeare in

The Epilogue, which consists of but twelve lines, his Hamlet (Act III. Sc. 2.) speaks of a whole

is in the same strain of apology:

"And how do you like her? Come, what is't ye drive at ? She's the same thing in publick as in private;

As far from being what you call a whore;

As Desdemona, injur'd by the Moor:
Thea he that censures her in such a case,
Hath a soul blacker than Othello's face.
But, ladies, what think you? for if you tax
Her freedom with dishonour to your sex,
She means to act no more, and this shall be
No other play but her own tragedy.

share as no contemptible emolument; and from the same play we learn that some of the performers had only half a share. Others probably had still less." About twenty pounds was a considerable receipt at the Blackfriars and Globe on any one day. The players had not, as now, annual benefits. This was a custom which did not come into practice till about 1650.

She will submit to none but your commands, Skottowe says: "The actors on the old stage And take commission only from your hands." were divided into two classes, sharers and hireEven after the Restoration, and when female lings. The sharer was remunerated by a proporperformers became somewhat general, men acted tion of the profits of the theatre; and an allowance women's parts. Kynaston, who was very hand-of four, five, or six shillings a week was given to some, divided the palm with them, and in many characters was supposed to be superior.

In the masques and other dramatic pieces represented at court, the performers' dresses were splendid; gold, silver, silk, satin, velvet, and feathers, were employed with profusion: but the public theatres were at first but scantily furnished; sabsequently, however, the left-off clothes of the nobility, and the dresses used in the masques, found their way into the player's wardrobe.

Some curious manuscripts relative to the stage were found at Dulwich-college, which were transmitted to Mr. Malone. Among them, was a large folio volume of accounts kept by Mr. Philip Henslowe, proprietor of the Rose, which throw considerable light on theatrical affairs from 1597 to 1603, and particularly on that part of the subject now ander consideration. There is an inventory of the dresses, stage properties, &c., of the Lord Admiral's Servants, by which it would appear that the dresses were rather of a costly description. Among them are mentioned an orange tawny satin doublet, laid thick with gold lace; a blue taffeta suit; a pair of carnation satin venetians, laid with gold lace; Harry the Fifth's velvet gown; an ash-coloured satin doublet, laid with gold; a peach-coloured ditto; a pair of cloth of gold hose, with silver pins; a long robe with spangles; and a variety of other rich dresses; besides an ample stock for the less costly attired characters. Some idea of their value may be formed from another part of this inventory, which states a doublet of white satin, laid thick with gold lace, and a pair of "rowne pandes" hose of cloth of silver, to have cost £7, and nine other suits are stated at £37. "Kings," says Skottowe, "figured in crowns, imperial, plain, or surmounted with a sun; and globes and sceptres graced their bands. Neptune had his garland and trident, and Mercury bis wings. Armour was in common use on the stage...... Greene introduces a player, in his Groat's Worth of Wit, boasting that his share in the stage apparel could not be sold for two hundred pounds."

Those who played male characters frequently wore periwigs, which, in the age of Shakspeare, were not in common use; for in Hall's Virgidemarium, 1597, the fashion is ridiculed as novel and fantastic. Vizards were also occasionally used, "partly," says Puttenham in his Arte of English Poesie, 1589, "to supply the want of players, when there were more parts than there were persons."

The precise emoluments of the actors cannot be easily ascertained. From some documents which remain, it appears, that after deducting the expenses of the theatre, the profits were divided into shares, of which, part belonged to the proprietors, and the remainder was divided among the actors, in propor

his boy, who played either juvenile or female characters. The hireling was engaged at a weekly salary, and his services sometimes secured, by special articles of agreement, to a particular theatre, for two or three years. His stipend was naturally proportioned to his abilities: one notice occurs of the engagement of an actor at five shillings a week for one year, and six shillings and eight-pence for the second. .... It is improbable that Shakspeare obtained more than six shillings and eight-pence a week for his services on the stage."

At the end of the play, it was customary for the actors to kneel on the stage, and pray for their patrons; and, in the public theatres, for the king and queen. This prayer sometimes made part of the epilogue. (See the epilogue to Henry IV. Part II.) From this, Steevens conjectures, arose the addition of Vivant rex et regina to the modern play-bills.

THE MUSIC.

THE band consisted of eight or ten performers, who sat in an upper balcony, over what is now termed the stage-box. The principal instruments were cornets, (a sort of horn) hautboys, lutes, recorders, (similar to a flageolet) viols, and organs. Before the play began, there were three flourishes, or soundings, as they were then termed : music was likewise played between the acts. An annual fee of twenty shillings was paid by the musicians of Shakspeare's theatre to the Master of the Revels for a license.

Shortly after Shakspeare's death, the band at the Blackfriars theatre became more numerous, and was in such high repute, that they were employed in the splendid masque given by the four inns of court in 1633, and are thus eulogized by sir Bulstrode Whitelocke, who had the management of the musical department of the masque: "For the musicke, which was particularly committed to my charge, I gave to Mr. Ives, and to Mr. Lawes, £100 a-piece for their rewards: for the four French gentlemen, the queen's servants, I thought that a handsome and liberall gratifying of them would be made known to the queen their mistris, and well taken by her. I therefore invited them one morning to a collation 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 first dish, and they had cause to be much pleased with this surprisall.

"The rest of the musitians bad rewards an

swearable to their parts and qualities; and the

D

whole charge of the musicke came to about one thonsand pounds. The clothes of the horsemen, reckoned one with another at £100 a suit, att the least, amounted to £10,000.-The charges of all the rest of the masque, which were borne by the societies, were accounted to be above twenty thousand pounds.

"I was so conversant with the musitians, and so willing to gain their favour, especially at this time, that I composed an aier my selfe, with the assistance of Mr. Ives, and called it Whitelocke's Coranto; which being cried up, was first played publiquely by the Blackefryars musicke, who were then esteemed the best of common musitians in London."

PROLOGUES AND EPILOGUES.

THE speaker of the prologue entered immediately after the third sounding of the music, attired in a long black velvet cloak, as appears from the Induction to Cynthia's Revels, 1001; and from the prologue to The Coronation by Shirley, of which the following is an abstract:

"Since 'tis become the title of our play,
A woman once in a coronation may
With pardon speak the prologue, give as free
A welcome to the theatre, as he

That with a little beard, a long black cloak,
With a starch'd face and supple leg, hath spoke
Before the plays this twelvemonth, let me then
Present a welcome to these gentlemen."

Again, in the prologue to The Woman-Hater, by Beaumont and Fletcher, 1607: "Gentlemen, inductions are out of date, and a prologue in verse is as stale as a black velvet cloake and a bay garland." Some traces of this custom may be observed in the suit of black, which used, within these few years, to be always worn by prologue speakers; and the complete dress of the ancient prologue speaker is still retained in the play exhi

bited in Hamlet.

Epilogues were not always regular appendages to plays in Shakspeare's time: many of his dramas had none, or if they had, they have not been preserved. In such of his plays as have them, with the exception of the Second Part of Henry IV. where it is spoken by a dancer, the epilogue is spoken by one of the persons of the drama, and is adapted to the character of the speaker; a circumstance not observable in the epilogues of any of his coutemporaries.

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THE CLOWN.

THIS was a personage of no mean importance, whose constant office was to preserve the stage from vacancy, by amusing the audience with his extemporary buffoonery. "When stage plays," says Lupton in his Eleventh Book of Notable Things, "were in use, there was in every place one that was called the Foole; as the proverb saies: like a foole in a play.' At the Red Bull playhouse it did chance that the Clown or the Fool being in the attireing house, was suddenly called upon the stage, for it was empty. He suddenly going, forgot his fooles-cap. One of the players bad his boy take it, and put it on his head as he was speaking. No such matter (saies the boy) there's no manners nor wit in that nor wisdom neither; and my master needs no cap, for he is known to be a fool without it as well as with it." Encounters of wit often took place between the Clown and the spectators; and he usually expressed his jokes in doggrel rhyme. Wilson and Tarleton (the latter particularly) were much celebrated for their talent in this way. It is said of Tarleton, that the moment he shewed his face, he set the theatre in a roar. The following anecdotes are related of him :

He was once performing at the Red Bull, when a fellow in the gallery threw an apple at him, which hit him on the cheek. He took up the apple, and

advancing to the front of the stage, thus addressed the audience:

"Gentlemen, this fellow, with his face of mapple,
Instead of a pippin hath thrown me an apple;
But as for an apple he hath east a crab,

So, instead of an honest woman, God hath sent him a drab."

"The people," says the relator," laughed heartily; for the fellow had a quean to his wife." Another of these stories, we give in the author's own words: "At the Bull at Bishops-gate, was a play of Henry the Fifth, [the performance which preceded Shakspeare's,] wherein the judge was to take a box on the eare; and because he was absent that should take the blow, Tarleton himselfe, ever forward to please, tooke upon him to play the same judge, besides his own part of the clowne; and Knel, then playing Henry the Fifth, hit Tarleton a sound box indeed, which made the people laugh the more, because it was he: but anon, the judge goes in, and immediately Tarleton in his clownes cloathes comes out, and asks the actors, What news? O, saith one, had'st thou been here, thou shouldest have seen prince Henry bit the judge a terrible box on the eare. What, man, said Tarleton, strike a judge! It is true, i'faith, said the other. No other like, said Tarleton, and it could not be but terrible to the judge, when the report so terrifies me, that methinkes the blowe remaines still on my cheeke, that it burnes againe. The people laught at this mightily, and to this day I have heard it commended for rare; but no marvell, for he had many of these. But I would see our clownes in these days do the like. No, I warrant ye; and yet they thinke well of themselves

too.

The principal office, however, of the Clown was to amuse the audience at the end of the performance. On these occasions, it was usual to desproposed to him by the spectators; but they were cant, in a humourous style, on various subjects more commonly entertained with what was termed a jig: this was a ludicrous composition in rhyme, tabor. In these jigs there were sometimes more sung by the Clown, accompanied by his pipe and actors than one, and the most unbounded license of usually some scurrilous exposure of persons among tongue was allowed; the pith of the matter being or well known to the audience.

AUTHORS AND CRITICS.

OLDYS, in one of his manuscripts, intimates that authors had their benefit on the first day of a new play; but in the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth, the second day appears to have been appropriated to their remuneration. It is not known when the custom of giving the third day commenced; but it seems that in 1612, it was an established usage; although instances occur at a subsequent period, (particularly between 1625 and 1641) of their having the second day. The profit of three representations did not become the established right of authors till after the year 1720. Otway had only one, and this his necessities frequently obliged him to mortgage before the representation.

When an author sold his piece to the proprietors of a theatre, it could not be performed by any other company; but when that was not the case, he caused it to be published. This however seemed rather to be an act of self-defence, to prevent the sale of surreptitious copies, than for the sake of emolument. Marston, in his preface to the Malecontent, 1604, seems to regret the necessity of it: "One thing only affects me; to think, that scenes invented merely to be spoken, should be inforcively published to be read; and that the least hurt I can receive is to do myself the wrong, But since others otherwise would do me more, the least inconvenience is to be accepted: I have therefore myself set forth this comedie."

About twenty nobles (£6: 13s : 4d.) seem to have

off their tragick habits, and conclude the day with the Merry Milk-maides. And unlesse this were done, and the popular humour satisfied, (as sometimes it so fortun'd, that the players were refractory,) the benches, the tiles, the laths, the stones, oranges, apples, nuts, flew about most liberally; and, as there were mechanicks of all

been the usual price of the copyright of a play in Shakspeare's time. The printed play was sold for sixpence; and the usual present of a patron for a dedication was forty shillings. Dramatic poets (as in our time) had free admission to the theatres. Every play was licensed by the Master of the Revels before it could be performed. His fee, in the time of Elizabeth, was only a noble ; but at a sub-professions, who fell every one to his own trade, sequent period, it was two pounds.

It was usual to carry table-books to the theatre, to note down the passages, which were made matter of censure or applause: this may account for some mutilated copies of Shakspeare's plays, which are yet extant. The custom of "damning" a play on its first representation, is at least as ancient as Shakspeare's time. No less than three plays of Ben Jonson seem to have suffered this fate.

THE AUDIENCE.

BEFORE the performance commenced, and between the acts, the audience amused themselves in various ways, reading, playing at cards, drinking ale, and smoking tobacco. Refreshments were supplied by attendants, who cried their articles with as much vociferation as our modern purveyors. In 1633, women smoked tobacco in the theatre as well as men.

We have already stated (p. xliii.) that the superior class of the spectators in what were termed the private theatres, were allowed to sit on the stage."Here the fastidious critic was usually to be met with, the wit ambitious of distinction, and the gallant, studious of the display of his apparel or his person. Either seated, or else reclining on the rushes on the floor, they regaled themselves with the pipes and tobacco, which their attendant pages furnished. The felicity of their situations excited envy, or their affectation and impertinence disgust, among the less polished part of the audience, who frequently vented their spleen in hissing, hooting, and throwing dirt at the intruders on the stage: it was the cue of these gallants to display their high breeding by an entire disregard of the proceedings of the ill-mannered rabble." The spleen of the audience was not vented merely on these interlopers; the players were frequent victims to their caprice, of which the following extract from Gayton's Notes on Don Quixote, 1654, furnishes a lively picture:

"Men came not to study at a playhouse, but love such expressions and passages, which with ease insinuate themselves into their capacities. Lingua, that learned comedy of the contention betwixt the five senses for superiority, is not to be prostituted to the common stage, but is only proper for an academy; to them bring Jack Drum's Entertainment, Greene's Tu Quoque, the Devil of Edmonton, and the like; or if it be on holy dayes, when saylers, watermen, shoe-makers, butchers, and apprentices, are at leisure, then it is good policy to amaze those violent spirits with some tearing tragedy, full of fights and skirmishes, as the Guelphs and Guiblins, Greeks and Trojans, or the Three London Apprentices; which commonly ends in six acts, the spectators frequently mounting the stage, and making a more bloody catastrophe amongst themselves, than the players did. I have known upon one of these festivals, but especially at Shrove-tide, where the players have been appointed, notwithstanding their bills to the contrary, to act what the major part of the company had a mind to; sometimes Tamerline, sometimes Jagarth, sometimes The Jew of Malta, and sometimes parts of all these; and, at last, none of the three taking, they were forced to undress and put

and dissolved a house in an instant, and made a raine of a stately fabrick. It was not then the most mimical nor fighting man, Fowler nor Andrew Cane, could pacifie: prologues nor epilogues would prevaile; the devill and the fool were quite out of favour. Nothing but noise and tumult fils the house, untill a cogg take 'em, and then to the bawdy-houses and reforme them; and instantly to the Bank's Side, were the poor bears must conclude the riot, and fight twenty dogs at a time besides the butchers, which sometimes fell into the service; this performed, and the horse and jack-anapes for a jigge, they had sport enough that day for nothing."

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The modes of conveyance to the theatres were various, some going in coaches, others on horseback; but "it was the very acme of gentility to be rowed across the river by a pair of oars: the employment of a sculler was carefully shunned by the fine gentleman as plebeian and ignoble."

The price of admission into the best rooms or boxes seems to have fluctuated, but the general price was a shilling. In the Scornful Lady, printed in 1616, one-and-sixpenny places are mentioned. From the prologue to The Queen of Arrogan, acted in May 1640, we learn that as much as two shillings was paid; and in Wit without Money, acted be. fore 1620, mention is made of the half-crown boxe." The galleries and pit were sixpence; but, in the meaner playhouses, only a penny, in others, two-pence. On the first day of a new play, the prices were raised, sometimes to double, and even to treble the usual sum. This was also the case on the author's nights, or on the representation of expensive plays.

During the reign of Elizabeth, plays were performed in the public theatres on Sundays, (out of the hours of prayer,) as well as on other days. This practice was prohibited at the interference of the magistrates; but the prohibition does not appear to have lasted long; for we find that queen Elizabeth, when she visited Oxford, in 1592, did not scruple to be present at an exhibition on Sunday night, the 24th September, in that year.

The performance commenced at one o'clock in the afternoon, and was sometimes concluded in two hours. As late as 1667 they commenced at three; in 1696 they were an hour later. Only one piece was acted in a day. In the time of James 1. plays appear to have been acted every day, at each theatre, during the winter season, except in the time of Lent, when they were not permitted on Wednesdays and Fridays. For leave to perform on the other days of Lent, they paid a fee to the Master of the Revels.

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