FOOTNOTES:
[1145] See Ben Jonson's Poetaster, act iii. sc. 4, and his Masque of the Fortunate Isles. Whalley's edit. vol. ii. p. 49, vol. vi. p. 190.
[1146] Howleglass is said in the Preface to have died in MCCCCL. At the end of the book, in MCCCL.
[1147] Imprynted ... by Wyllyam Copland: without date, in 4to. bl. let. among Mr. Garrick's old plays, K. vol. x.
[1148] This play has been reprinted by Mr. Hawkins in his three vols. of old plays, intitled, The Origin of the English Drama, 12mo. Oxford, 1773. See vol. i. p. 27.
[1149] The second person of the Trinity seems to be meant.
[1150] The before-mentioned are male characters.
[1151] i. e. The five senses. These are frequently exhibited as five distinct personages upon the Spanish stage (see Riccoboni, p. 98), but our moralist has represented them all by one character.
[1152] See more of Every Man in vol. ii. pref. to B. ii., note.
[1153] "Imprynted by me Wynkyn de Worde," no date; in 4to. bl. let. This play has also been reprinted by Mr. Hawkins in his Origin of the English Drama. vol. i. p. 69.
[1154] "Apud Dunestapliam ... quendam ludum de sancta Katerina (quem miracula vulgariter appellamus) fecit. Ad quæ decoranda, petiit a sacrista sancti Albani, ut sibi Capæ Chorales accommodarentur, et obtinuit. Et fuit ludus ille de sancta Katerina." Vitæ Abbat. ad fin. Hist. Mat. Paris, fol. 1639, p. 56. We see here that plays of miracles were become common enough in the time of Mat. Paris, who flourished about 1240. But that indeed appears from the more early writings of Fitz-Stephens: quoted below.
[1155] Vid. Abregè Chron. de l'Hist. de France, par M. Henault, à l'ann. 1179.
[1156] See Fitz-Stephens's description of London, preserved by Stow (and reprinted with notes, &c., by the Rev. Mr. Pegge, in 1774, 4to.): "Londonia pro spectaculis theatralibus, pro ludis scenicis, ludos habet sanctiores, representationes miraculorum," &c. He is thought to have written in the reign of Henry II. and to have died in that of Richard I. It is true at the end of this book we find mentioned Henricum regem tertium; but this is doubtless Henry II.'s son, who was crowned during the life of his father, in 1170, and is generally distinguished as Rex juvenis, Rex filius, and sometimes they were jointly named Reges Angliæ. From a passage in his chap. De Religione, it should seem that the body of St. Thomas Becket was just then a new acquisition to the church of Canterbury.
[1157] See prologue to Wife of Bath's Tale, v. 6137, Tyrwhitt's ed.
[1158] M. L'enfant, vid. Hist. du Conc. de Constance, vol. ii. p. 440.
[1159] The Regulations and Establishments of the Houshold of Hen. Alg. Percy, 5th Earl of Northumb. Lond. 1770, 8vo. whereof a small impression was printed by order of the late Duke and Duchess of Northumberland to bestow in presents to their friends. Although begun in 1512, some of the regulations were composed so late as 1525.
[1160] This was not so small a sum then as it may now appear; for, in another part of this MS. the price ordered to be given for a fat ox is but 13s. 4d. and for a lean one 8s.
[1161] At this rate the number of plays acted must have been twenty.
[1162] Pr. at the Sun in Fleet-str. by W. de Worde, no date, b. l. 4to.
[1163] Mr. Garrick has an imperfect copy (Old Plays, i. vol. iii.). Thtu Dramatis Personæ are: "The Messenger [or Prologue]. Nae re naturate. Humanytè. Studyous Desire. Sensuall Appetyte. The Taverner. Experyence. Ygnoraunce. (Also yf ye lyste ye may brynge in a dysgysynge.)" Afterwards follows a table of the matters handled in the interlude; among which are: "Of certeyn conclusions prouvynge the yerthe must nedes be rounde, and that yt is in circumference above xxi. M. myle."——"Of certeyne points of cosmographye—and of dyvers straunge regyons,—and of the new founde landys and the maner of the people." This part is extremely curious, as it shews what notions were entertained of the new American discoveries by our own countrymen.
[1164] Described in vol. ii. preface to book ii. The Dramatis Personæ of this piece are: "Messenger, Lusty Juventus, Good Counsail, Knowledge, Sathan the devyll, Hypocrisie, Fellowship, Abominable-lyving [an Harlot], God's-merciful-promises."
[1165] I have also discovered some few exeats and intrats in the very old interlude of the Four Elements.
[1166] Bp. Bale had applied the name of tragedy to his mystery of Gods Promises, in 1538. In 1540 John Palsgrave, B.D., had republished a Latin comedy, called Acolastus, with an English version. Holinshed tells us (vol. iii. p. 850), that so early as 1520, the king had "a good comedie of Plautus plaied" before him at Greenwich; but this was in Latin, as Mr. Farmer informs us in his curious Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare, 8vo. p. 31.
[1167] See Ames, p. 316. This play appears to have been first printed under the name of Gorboduc, then under that of Ferrex and Porrex, in 1569; and again under Gorboduc, 1590. Ames calls the first edition quarto; Langbaine, octavo; and Tanner, 12mo.
[1168] The general reception the old moralities had upon the stage will account for the fondness of all our first poets for allegory. Subjects of this kind were familiar with every one.
[1169] Bp. Warburt. Shakesp. vol. v.
[1170] Reprinted among Dodsley's Old Plays, vol.i.
[1171] In some of these appeared characters full as extraordinary as in any of the old moralities. In Ben Jonson's masque of Christmas, 1616, one of the personages is Minced Pye.
[1172] The first part of which was printed in 1559.
[1173] Catal. of Royal and Noble authors, vol. i. p. 166-7.
[1174] This must not be confounded with the mysteries acted on Corpus Christi Day by the Franciscans at Coventry, which were also called Coventry Plays, and of which an account is given from T. Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, &c., in Malone's Shakesp. vol. ii. part ii. p. 13-14.
[1175] Not 1012, as printed in Laneham's Letter, mentioned below.
[1176] Ro. Laneham, whose letter, containing a full description of the shows, &c., is reprinted at large in Nichols's Progresses of Q. Elizabeth, &c., vol. i. 4to. 1788. That writer's orthography being peculiar and affected, is not here followed.
[1177] Laneham, p. 37.
[1179] Ibid.
[1180] Laneham describes this play of Hock Tuesday, which was "presented in an historical cue by certain good-hearted men of Coventry" (p. 32), and which was "wont to be play'd in their citie yearly" (p. 33), as if it were peculiar to them, terming it "their old storial show" (p. 32). And so it might be as represented and expressed by them "after their manner" (p. 33): although we are also told by Bevil Higgons, that St. Brice's Eve was still celebrated by the northern English in commemoration of this massacre of the Danes, the women beating brass instruments, and singing old rhimes, in praise of their cruel ancestors. See his Short View of Eng. History, 8vo. p. 17. (The preface is dated 1734.)
[1182] Laneham, p. 33.
[1183] The Rhimes, &c., prove this play to have been in English: whereas Mr. Tho. Warton thinks the mysteries composed before 1328 were in Latin. Malone's Shakesp. vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 9.
[1184] Laneham, p. 32.
[1185] See Nichols's Progresses, vol. i. p. 57.
[1186] Laneham, p. 38-39. This was on Sunday evening, July 9.
[1187] The Creation of the World, acted at Skinner's-well in 1409.
[1188] See Stow's Survey of London, 1603, 4to. p. 94 (said in the title-page to be "written in the year 1598"). See also Warton's Observations on Spenser, vol. ii. p. 109.
[1189] The same distinction is continued in the second and third folios, &c.
[1190] See Malone's Shakesp. vol. i. part ii. p. 31.
[1193] See Malone's Shakesp. vol. i. part ii. p. 49. Here histories, or historical plays, are found totally to have excluded the mention of tragedies; a proof of their superior popularity. In an order for the King's comedians to attend King Charles I. in his summer's progress, 1636 (ibid. p. [144]), histories are not particularly mentioned; but so neither are tragedies: they being briefly directed to "act playes, comedyes, and interludes, without any lett," &c.
[1195] This is believed to be the date by Mr. Malone, vol. ii. part ii. p. 239.
[1197] See Malone's Shakesp. vol. vi. p. 427. This ingenious writer will, with his known liberality, excuse the difference of opinion here entertained concerning the above tradition.
[1198] He speaks in p. 492 of the playhouses in Bishopsgate-street and on Ludgate-hill, which are not among the seventeen enumerated in the preface to Dodsley's Old Plays. Nay, it appears from Rymer's MSS. that twenty-three playhouses had been at different periods open in London; and even six of them at one time. See Malone's Shakesp. vol. i. pt. ii. p. 48.
[1199] So, I think, we may infer from the following passage, viz.: "How many are there, who, according to their several qualities, spend 2d. 3d. 4d. 6d. 12d. 18d. 2s. and sometimes 4s. or 5s. at a playhouse, day by day, if coach-hire, boat-hire, tobacco, wine, beere, and such like vaine expences, which playes doe usually occasion, be cast into the reckoning?" Prynne's Histriom. p. 322.
But that tobacco was smoaked in the playhouses appears from Taylor the Water-poet, in his Proclamation for Tobacco's Propagation: "Let play-houses, drinking-schools, taverns, &c. be continually haunted with the contaminous vapours of it; nay (if it be possible) bring it into the churches, and there choak up their preachers." (Works, p. 253.) And this was really the case at Cambridge: James I. sent a letter in 1607 against "taking Tobacco" in St. Mary's. So I learn from my friend Dr. Farmer.
A gentleman has informed me that once, going into a church in Holland, he saw the male part of the audience sitting with their hats on, smoking tobacco, while the preacher was holding forth in his morning-gown.
[1200] See the extracts above, in p. [439], from the E. of Northumb. Houshold Book.
[1201] See the Preface to Dodsley's Old Plays. The author of an old invective against the stage, called A third Blast of Retrait from Plaies, &c., 1580, 12mo., says: "Alas! that private affection should so raigne in the nobilitie, that to pleasure their servants, and to upholde them in their vanitye, they should restraine the magistrates from executing their office!... They [the nobility] are thought to be covetous by permitting their servants ... to live at the devotion or almes of other men, passing from countrie to countrie, from one gentleman's house to another, offering their service, which is a kind of beggerie. Who indeede, to speake more trulie, are become beggers for their servants. For comonlie the good-wil, men beare to their Lordes, makes them draw the strings of their purses to extend their liberalitie." Vid. p. [75], [76], &c.
[1202] Stephen Gosson, in his Schoole of Abuse, 1579, 12mo., fol. 23, says thus of what he terms in his margin Players-men: "Over lashing in apparel is so common a fault, that the very hyerlings of some of our Players, which stand at revirsion of vis. by the week, jet under gentlemens noses in sutis of silke, exercising themselves to prating on the stage, and common scoffing when they come abrode, where they look askance over the shoulder at every man, of whom the Sunday before they begged an almes. I speake not this, as though everye one that professeth the qualitie so abused himselfe, for it is well knowen, that some of them are sober, discreete, properly learned, honest housholders and citizens, well-thought on among their neighbours at home." [he seems to mean Edw. Allen above mentioned] "though the pryde of their shadowes (I mean those hangbyes, whom they succour with stipend) cause them to be somewhat il-talked of abroad."
In a subsequent period we have the following satirical fling at the shewy exterior and supposed profits of the actors of that time. Vid. Greene's Groatsworth of Wit, 1625, 4to.: "What is your profession?"—"Truly, Sir, ... I am a Player." "A Player?... I took you rather for a Gentleman of great living; for, if by outward Habit men should be censured, I tell you, you would be taken for a substantial man." "So I am where I dwell.... What, though the world once went hard with me, when I was fayne to carry my playing-fardle a foot-backe: Tempora mutantur ... for my very share in playing apparrell will not be sold for two hundred pounds.... Nay more, I can serve to make a pretty speech, for I was a country Author, passing at a Moral," &c. See Roberto's Tale, sign. D. 3. b.
[1203] So a MS. of Oldys, from Tom Nash, an old pamphlet-writer. And this is confirmed by Taylor the Water-poet, in his Praise of Beggerie, p. 99:
"Yet have I seen a beggar with his many, [sc. vermin]
Come at a play-house, all in for one penny."
[1204] So in the Belman's Night-Walks by Decker, 1616, 4to. "Pay thy two-pence to a player, in this gallery thou mayest sit by a harlot."
[1205] Induct. to Ben Jonson's Bartholomew-fair. An ancient satirical piece called The Blacke Book, Lond. 1604, 4to., talks of "The six-penny roomes in play-houses;" and leaves a legacy to one whom he calls "Arch-tobacco-taker of England, in ordinaries, upon stages both common and private."
[1206] Shakesp. Prol. to Hen. VIII.—Beaum. and Fletch. Prol. to the Captain, and to the Mad-lover.
[1207] This etymology hath been objected to by a very ingenious writer (see Malone's Shakesp. vol. i. part ii. p. 59), who thinks it questionable, because, in St. Mary's church at Cambridge, the area that is under the pulpit, and surrounded by the galleries, is (now) called the pit; which, he says, no one can suspect to have been a Cockpit, or that a playhouse phrase could be applied to a church. But whoever is acquainted with the licentiousness of boys, will not think it impossible that they should thus apply a name so peculiarly expressive of its situation: which from frequent use might at length prevail among the senior members of the University; especially when those young men became seniors themselves. The name of Pit, so applied at Cambridge, must be deemed to have been a cant phrase, until it can be shewn that the area in other churches was usually so called.
[1208] So Ste. Gosson, in his Schoole of Abuse, 1579, 12mo., speaking of the players, says, "These, 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 Blast of Retrait from Plaies, 1580, 12mo. "Let the magistrate but repel them from the libertie of plaeing on the Sabboth-daie.... To plaie on the Sabboth is but a priviledge of sufferance, and might with ease be repelled, were it thoroughly followed." P. [61]-[62]. So again: "Is not the Sabboth of al other daies the most abused?.... Wherefore abuse not so the Sabboth-daie, my brethren; leave not the temple of the Lord." ... "Those unsaverie morsels of unseemelie sentences passing out of the mouth of a ruffenlie plaier, doth more content the hungrie humors of the rude multitude, and carrieth better rellish in their mouthes, than the bread of the worde, &c." Vid. p. [63], [65], [69], &c. I do not recollect that exclamations of this kind occur in Prynne, whence I conclude that this enormity no longer subsisted in this time.
It should also seem, from the author of the Third Blast above quoted, that the churches still continued to be used occasionally for theatres. Thus, in p. [77], he says, that the players (who, as hath been observed, were servants of the nobility), "under the title of their maisters, 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."
[1209] "He entertaines us" (says Overbury in his Character of an Actor) "in the best leasure of our life, that is, betweene meales; the most unfit time either for study or bodily exercise." Even so late as in the reign of Charles II. plays generally began at three in the afternoon.
[1210] See Biogr. Brit. i. 117, n. D.
[1211] I say "no English actress ... on the public stage," because Prynne speaks of it as an unusual enormity, that "they had Frenchwomen actors in a play not long since personated in Blackfriars playhouse." This was in 1629, vid. p. 215. And tho' female parts were performed by men or boys on the public stage, yet in masques at Court, the Queen and her ladies made no scruple to perform the principal parts, especially in the reigns of James I. and Charles I.
Sir William Davenant, after the restoration, introduced women, scenery, and higher prices. See Cibber's Apology for his own Life.
[1212] See A Short Discourse on the English Stage, subjoined to Flecknoe's Love's Kingdom, 1674, 12mo.
[1213] It appears from an epigram of Taylor the Water-poet, that one of the principal theatres in his time, viz. the Globe on the Bankside, Southwark (which Ben Jonson 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. Jonson's Execration on Vulcan.)
Puttenham tells us they used vizards in his time, "partly to supply the want of players, when there were more parts than there were persons, or that it was not thought meet to trouble ... princes chambers with too many folkes." [Art of Eng. Poes. 1589, p. 26.] From the last clause, it should seem that they were chiefly used in the masques at Court.
[1214] Coryate's Crudities, 4to. 1611, p. 247.
[INDEX OF BALLADS AND POEMS IN THE FIRST VOLUME.]
Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudesley, [153].
Aged Lover renounceth Love, [179].
Alcanzor and Zayda, [338].
Bryan and Pereene, [328].
Carre, Captain, [148].
Cauline, Sir, [61].
Character of a Happy Life, [317].
Chevy Chase, Ancient Ballad of, [19].
Chevy Chace, Modern Ballad of, [249].
Child of Elle, [131].
Cophetua, King, and the Beggar Maid, [189].
Corydon's Farewell to Phillis, [209].
Cupid's Pastime, [314].
Death's Final Conquest, [264].
Dowsabell, [304].
Edom o' Gordon, [140].
Edward, Edward, [82].
Estmere, King, [85].
Farewell to Love, [310].
Friar of Orders Gray, [242].
Frolicksome Duke, or the Tinker's Good Fortune, [238].
Gentle River, Gentle River, [331].
Gernutus, the Jew of Venice, [211].
Gilderoy, [318].
Jephthah, Judge of Israel, [182].
Jew's Daughter, [54].
Lancelot du Lake, Sir, [204].
Leir, King, and his Three Daughters, [231].
My Mind to me a Kingdom is, [294].
Northumberland (Henry, 4th Earl of), Elegy on, [117].
Northumberland betrayed by Douglas, [279].
Otterbourne, Battle of, [35].
Passionate Shepherd to his Love, [220].
Patient Countess, [298].
Rising in the North, [266].
Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne, [102].
Robyn, Jolly Robyn, [185].
Song to the Lute in Musicke, [187].
Spence, Sir Patrick, [98].
Take those Lips away, [230].
Take thy old Cloak about thee, [195].
Titus Andronicus's Complaint, [224].
Tower of Doctrine, [127].
Ulysses and the Syren, [311].
Willow, Willow, Willow, [199].
Winifreda, [323].
Witch of Wokey, [325].
Youth and Age, [237].
END OF VOLUME THE FIRST
Transcriber's Notes:
Simple spelling, grammar, and typographical errors were corrected.
Punctuation normalized.
Anachronistic and non-standard spellings retained as printed.
Page vii ERRATA were applied where indicated
Proper drop caps were not possible with poetry as the poem would not wrap properly around the image. The drop cap images were included in the left margin adjacent to where they should have been.
This e-text includes characters that will only display in UTF-8 (Unicode) file encoding, such as:
- Eἰkων Βασιλιkή
- Ðe.. næꝼꞃe nohꞇ leaꞅunᵹa. ne ιꝺeleꞅ leoðeꞅ pẏꞃcean ne mιhꞇe;
- Œ, œ ("oe" ligature)
If any of these characters do not display properly, you may have an incompatible browser or unavailable fonts. First, make sure that the browser's "character set" or "file encoding" is set to Unicode (UTF-8). You may also need to change your browser's default font. The free [ Junicode] font works well.
The following Anglo-Saxon Uncial characters have no Unicode equivalent. Ordinary Latin 1 characters were substituted instead.
| Uncial |  | C |
 | e | |
 | G | |
 | M | |
 | S |