and 1 chyme of belles, and 1 beacon," "the sittie of Rome,” a “raynbowe," and the “cloth of the Sone and Mone." Nor should the trees of "gowlden apelles," and of "Tantelouse" be omitted.

In the representation of masques and regular dramatic pieces at court, the dresses worn by the performers were remarkable for their elegance and splendour. Gold, silver, silk, satin, velvet, and feathers, in every variety of colour and combination, were exhausted in adorning the actors. Nor was splendour the only consideration: considerable pains were bestowed, and expense incurred, in the provision of dresses, attributes, and ornaments, appropriate to the characters represented.

However cramped by poverty, various causes combined to enable the theatres to emulate the

bravery of the royal stage. The customary habits of the noble and wealthy were splendid; and their rejected wardrobes found ready sale at the theatre, where a slight diminution of lustre was immaterial, and casual soils were well compensated by cheapness of acquisition. As plays or masques were not frequently acted more than once at court, little necessity existed for the preservation of the dresses which were used; and they, of course, readily found their way into the posses

sion of the only persons to whom they could be valuable. Like the scenery, the dresses of the theatres would vary, in quality and variety, with the opulence or poverty of their treasuries; but it is certain, that at most of the principal playhouses the apparel was various, appropriate, and elegant. Kings figured in crowns, imperial, plain, or surmounted with a sun; and globes and sceptres graced their hands. Neptune had his garland and his trident, and Mercury his wings. Armour was in common use on the stage. A great quantity of the theatrical wardrobe was of satin, velvet, taffety, and cloth of gold; ornamented with gold and silver lace, or embroidery, probably producing an effect little inferior to what is now witnessed.* Greene introduces a player, in his Groats worth of Wit, boasting that his share in the stage apparel could not be sold for two hundred pounds.

The theatre being thus furnished for the reception of an audience, the next care of the manager was to announce to the public the entertainment prepared for them. For this purpose he availed himself of the multiplicity of posts, which formerly encumbered the streets of the metropolis; their conspicuousness being extremely favourable to the display of bills of the performance. The

* Inventory of the properties of the Lord Admiral's Company, 1598.

name of the play to be acted was printed without any list of the characters, or of the persons who were to personate them.

The hour of performance varied at different theatres from between one to three o'clock in the afternoon.

The situation of the Globe, and other places of public amusement on the side of the Thames opposite to the city, has made us acquainted with

point of our ancestors' manners. 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 company found their way to Blackfriars, and the theatres in Middlesex, on foot, on horseback, or in coachés.

No distinction seems to have been made in any of the theatres between the company frequenting the upper galleries or scaffolds, and the pit or yard. The "groundling" and "gallerycommoner" paid alike for admission to the places which they severally occupied, though that price varied with the rank and reputation of the theatre they went to: at the Blackfriars and the Globe they gave sixpence; at the Fortune twopence, and, at some of the inferior houses, as little as one penny. The best rooms,

or boxes, at the Globe, were a shilling; at Black

friars, apparently, sixpence more, and the price was subsequently raised even as high as half-acrown. Such were the ordinary terms of admission to the theatres; but on the first night of a new play the prices were doubled, and, occasionally, trebled. Dramatic poets were admitted gratis. Nine or ten pounds was the average, and double that sum a very extraordinary receipt at either the Globe or Blackfriars theatres.*

It was customary in the theatres denominated private, to admit that class of spectators who frequented the boxes, on the stage, where they were accommodated with stools, for which they paid, according to the comparative eligibility of their situation, either sixpence or a shilling. 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 Globe was much the largest theatre, but its prices being less, its receipts did not exceed those of the Blackfriars house.

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 illmannered rabble.

Numerous methods were devised to wile away the tedious hour previous to the commencement of the performance: books and cards, nuts and apples, bottled ale and pipes, were placed in requisition by the varying tastes of the motley assemblage. A band, composed of trumpets, cornets, hautboys, lutes, recorders, viols, and organs, attended in the theatre, and by flourishes or soundings, at short intervals, announced the near approach of the commencement of the en tertainment: the third sounding was the signal for the entrance of "the Prologue," invariably dressed in a long black velvet cloak: his humble demeanour, and supplicatory aspect and address, confessed the entire submission of the managers and actors to the public will. Only one dramatic piece was exhibited, but relief and variety were given to the entertainment by the feats of dancers, tumblers, and conjurers, and the introduction of music between the acts. To what further extent the orchestra was made use of is uncertain. Many old plays furnish instances of