That our old writers confidered Historical Plays as fomewhat diftin&t from Tragedy and Comedy, appears from numberless paffages of their works. "Of late

days, fays Stow, inftead of thofe ftage-playes (y) "have been used Comedies, Tragedies, Enterludes, "and HISTORIES both true and fained." Survey of London (x).-Beaumont and Fletcher, in the prologue to The Captain, fay,

66

"This is nor Comedy, nor Tragedy,
"Nor HISTORY.".

Polonius in Hamlet commends the actors, as the best in the world" either for Tragedie, Comedie, HisTORIE, Paftorall," &c. And Shakespeare's friends, Heminge and Condell, in the first folio edit. of his plays, in 1623, have not only intitled their book

Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, HISTORIES, "and Tragedies :" but in their Table of Contents have arranged them under thofe three feveral heads : placing in the clafs of HISTORIES, "K. John, Richard II. Henry IV. 2 pts. Henry V. Henry VI. 3 pts, Richard III. and Henry VIII."

This diftinction deferves the attention of the critics : for if it be the firft canon of found criticifm to examine any work by thofe rules the author prescribed for his obfervance, then we ought not to try Shakespeare's HISTORIES by the general laws of Tragedy or Co medy. Whether the rule itself be vicious or not, is another inquiry: but certainly we ought to examine a work only by thofe principles according to which it was compofed. This would fave a deal of impertinent criticism.

III. We have now brought the inquiry as low as was intended, but cannot quit it, without entering into a fhort

(1) The Creation of the World, acted at Skinners-well, in 1409. (x) See Mr. Warton's Obfervations, vol. 2. p. 109.

fhort defcription of what one may call the œconomy of the ancient English stage.

Such was the fondness of our forefathers for dramatic entertainments, that not fewer than NINETEEN Playhouses had been opened before the year 1633, when Prynne published his Hiftriomastix (a). From this writer it should seem that "tobacco, wine, and "beer (b)" were in those days the ufual accommodations in the theatre as now at Sadlers Wells.

With regard to the players themselves, the feveral companies were retainers, or menial fervants to particular noblemen (c), who protected them in the exercise

of

(a) He fpeaks in p. 492. of the play-houses in Bishopfgate-street, and on Ludgate-hill, which are not among the SEVENTEEN enumer ated in the Preface to Dodfley's Old Plays.

(b) So, I think, we may infer from the following paffage, viz. "How many are there, who according to their feveral qualities,

fpend 2d. 3 d. 4d. 6d. 12 d. 18 d. 2s. and fometimes 48. or 5 s. "at a play-house, day by day, if coach-hire, boat-hire, tobacco, "wine, beere, and fuch like vaine expences, which playes doe ufu"ally occafion, be caft into the reckoning?" Prynne's Hiftriom. P. 322.

But that Tobacco was fmoked in the play-houfes, appears from Taylor the Water-poet, in his Proclamation for Tobacco's Propagation. "Let PLAY-HOUSES, drinking-fchools, taverns, &c. be con"tinually haunted with the contaminous vapours of it; nay (if it "be poffible) bring it into the CHURCHES, and there choak up "their preachers." (Works, p. 253.) And this was really the cafe at Cambridge: James I. fent a letter in 1607, against "taking To "bacco" in St. Mary's. So I learn from my friend Mr. FARMER. A gent. has informed me, that once going into a church in Holland, he faw the male part of the audience fitting with their hats on, fmoking tobacco, while the preacher was holding forth in his Morning-gown.

(c) See the Pref. to Dodfley's Old Plays.- -The author of an old Invective against the Stage, called A third Blast of Retrait from Plaies, &c. 1580. 12mo. fays, "Alas! that private affection should “so raigne in the nobilitie, that to pleasure their fervants, and to "upholde them in their vanitye, they should reftraine the magiftrates "from executing their office!... They [the nobility] are thought to "be covetous by permitting their fervants... to live at the devotion

" or

of their profeffion and many of them were occafionally ftrollers, that travelled from one gentleman's house to another. Yet fo much were they encouraged, that, notwithstanding their multitude, fome of them acquired large fortunes. Edward Allen, master of the playhouse called the Globe, who founded Dulwich college, is a known inftance. And an old writer fpeaks of the very inferior actors, whom he calls the Hirelings, as living in a degree of fplendor, which was thought enormous in that frugal age (d).

At the fame time the ancient prices of admiffion were often very low. Some houses had penny-benches. (e) The two-penny gallery" is mentioned in the prologue to Beaumont and Fletcher's Woman-Hater.

And

for almes of other men, paffing from countrie to countrie, from one "gentleman's houfe to another, offering their fervice, which is a "kind of beggerie. Who indeede, to fpeake more trulie, are be86 come beggers for their fervants. For comonlie the good-wil 66 men beare to their Lordes makes them draw the ftringes of their 66 purfes to extend their liberalitie." Vid. pag. 75, 76, &c.

(d) Stephen Goffon in his Schoole of Abuse, 1579. 12mo. fo. 23. fays thus of what he terms in his margin PLAYERS-MEN: "Over "lafhing in apparel is fo common a fault, that the very hyerlings "of fome of our Players, which stand at revirfion of vi. s. by the "week, jet under gentlemens nofes in futis of filke, exercifing them"felves to prating on the ftage, and common fcoffing when they 66 come abrode, where they look afkance over the shoulder at every man, of whom the SUNDAY before they begged an almes. I fpeake not this, as though everye one that profeffeth the qualitie fo abused "himfelfe, for it is well knowen, that fome of them are fober, "difcreete, properly learned, honeft houfholders and citizens, wellthought on among their neighbours at home," [he feems to mean EDW. ALLEN abovementioned] "though the pryde of their fhadowes (I meane thofe hangbyes, whom they fuccour with ftipend) caufe them to be fomewhat il-talked of abroad."

(e) So a MS. of Oldys, from Tom Nash, an old pamphlet-writer. And this is confirmed by Taylor the Water-poet, in his Praife of Beggerie. (p. 99.)

"Yet have I feen a begger with his many, [sc. vermin]
Come at a Play-house, all in for one penny."

And feats of three-pence and a groat feem to be intended in the paffage, of Prynne above referred to. Yet different houfes varied in their prices: That playhouse called the HOPE had five feveral priced feats from fix-pence to half-a-crown (f). But the general price of what is now called the PIT, feems to have been a fhilling (g).

2

The day originally fet apart for theatrical exhibition appears to have been Sunday; probably because the first dramatic pieces were of a religious caft. During a great part of Queen Elizabeth's reign the playhouses were only licenfed to be opened on that day (b) : But before the end of her reign, or foon after, this abufe was probably removed.

The

(f) Induct. to Ben. Jonfon's Bartholomew-fair. (g) Shakefp. Prol. to Hen. viij.-Beaum. and Fletch. Prol. to the Captain, and to the Mad-lover. The PIT probably had its name from one of the Play-houses having been a Cock-pit.

(b) So Ste. Goffon, in his Schoole of Abufe, 1579, 12mo. speaking of the Players, fays, " Thefe, because they are allowed to play "every Sunday, make iiii. or v. Sundayes at least every week." fol. 24. -So the author of A Second and Third Blaft of Retrait from Plaies, p. 1580. 12mo. "Let the magiftrate but repel them from "the libertie of plaieng on the Sabboth-daie.

To plaie on "the Sabboth is but a priviledge of fufferance, and might with ease "be repelled, were it thoroughly followed." pag. 61, 62. So again, "Is not the Sabboth of al other daies the most abufed?... Where"fore abufe not fo the Sabboth-daie, my brethren; leave not the "temple of the Lord." "Thofe unfaverie morfels of un"feemelie fentences paffing out of the mouth of a ruffenlie plaier, "doth more content the hungrie humors of the rude multitude, and "carrieth better rellifh in their mouthes, than the bread of the "worde, &c." Vid. pag. 63. 65. 69. &c. I do not recollect that exclamations of this kind occur in Prynne, whence I conclude that this enormity no longer fubfifted in his time.

It should alfo feem, from the author of the Third Blast abovequoted, that the Churches fill continued to be ufed occafionally for theatres. Thus in p. 77. he fays, that the Players, (who, as has been obferved, were fervants of the nobility) "under the title of "their maiters, or as reteiners, are priviledged to roave abroad,

and permitted to publish their mametree in everie temple of God, "and that throughout England, unto the horrible contempt of "praier."

The ufual time of acting was early in the afternoon (i), plays being generally performed by day-light (k). All female parts were performed by men, no English actress being ever feen on the public ftage (1) before the civil wars. And as for the playhoufe furniture and ornaments, tho' fome houfes were probably more decorated than others, yet in general" they had no other "fcenes nor decorations of the ftage, but only old

tapestry, and the ftage ftrewed with rufhes, with. habits accordingly (m):" as we are affured in a fhort discourse on the English stage, subjoined to Flecknoe's LOVE'S KINGDOM, 1674. 12mo.

SOME ADDITIONS TO THE FOREGOING ESSAY WILL BE
FOUND AT THE END OF THIS VOLUME.

(i) "He entertaines us (fays Overbury in his character of an Actor)" in the beft leasure of our life, that is, betweene meales "the moft unfit time either for ftudy, or bodily exercise."-Even fo late as in the reign of Cha. II. Plays generally began at 3 in the afternoon. (k) See Biogr. Brit. I. 117. n. D.

(1) I fay "no ENGLISH Actress-on the PUBLIC Stage," becaufe Prynne fpeaks of it as an unusual enormity, that "they had "French-women actors in a play not long fince perfonated in Black*friars Playhouse." This was in 1629. vid. p. 215. And tho' female parts were performed by men or boys on the public ftage, yet in Mafques at Court, the Queen and her ladies made no fcruple to perform the principal parts, efpecially in the reigns of Jam. I. and Cha. I. Sir William Davenant, after the reftoration introduced women, fcenery, and higher prices. See Cibber's Apology for his own Life.

(m) It appears from an Epigram of Taylor the Water-poet, that one of the principal theatres in his time, viz. The Globe on the Bankfide, Southwark, (which Ben Jonfon calls the Glory of the Bank, and Fort of the whole Parish), had been covered with thatch till it was burnt down in 1613.-(See Taylor's Sculler. Epig. 22. p. 31. Jonfon's Execration on Vulcan.)

Puttenham tells us they used Vizards in his time," partly to fupply the want of players, when there were more parts than there r were perfons, or that it was not thought meet to trouble. princes chambers with too many folkes." [Art of Eng. Poef. 4589. p. 26.] From the laft claufe, it fhould feem that they were chiefly used in the MASQUES at Court.