In this celebrated passage many terms are used in connexion with the theatre. The quick comedians were the lively, quick witted actors who, by their inventive methods, will produce a play according to the rules of the Commedia del’ arte, which is meant by “extemporally will stage us.” The meaning of the phrase, some “squeaking Cleopatra will boy my greatness” will be apparent to every one conversant with the theatrical history of Shakespeare’s time. At that period of dramatic history no woman was allowed to appear on the public stage, all female characters being represented by boys or men, which custom lasted until the Restoration. It is generally acknowledged that a Mrs. Hughes was the first woman to act on the public stage, appearing in the character of Desdemona. This innovation was of the utmost importance, and an interesting reference was made to this new custom in a specially written prologue by Thomas Jordan.
“I come unknown to any of the rest
To tell the news I saw the lady drest:
The woman plays the part to-day; mistake me not,
No man in gown or page in petticoat.”
In comparison with former times, the stage must have reaped an enormous benefit by this change.
“Our women are defective and so sized
You’d think they were some of the guard disguised,
For to speak truth, men act that are between
Forty and fifty, wenches of fifteen