English Actors From Shakespeare To Macread

Front matter

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R 792.0290922 BAK V.1 Baker, Henry Barton.

English actors from

CHAPTER i, INTRODUCTORY

The Mystery and Miracle Plays—Moralities and Interludes-— Great Increase of Actors—The City and the Theaters—The Seven Theaters—Size and Prices of Admission—Scenery— Salathiel Pavy—Dick Tarleton—Anecdotes of his Tricks and “ Gags” ; . 3 é : : : - 3

CHAPTER “Il: THE ORIGINAL ACTORS OF SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS, Shakespeare—Richard Burbadge as an Actor—His Epitaph— Will Kempt and his Adventures—Hemings, Condell and Slye—Alleyn and Dulwich College—The Closing of the Theaters by the Puritans—Persecution of the Players—Robert Cox and his Mummeries—Beginning of the Revival . 18

PART Li:

THE ACTORS OF THE RESTORATION AND THE BETTERTON SCHOOL.

CHARTER 1.

THE ACTORS OF THE RESTORATION.

Killigrew’s and Davenant’s Patent—Articles of Agreement —Copy of the First Drury Lane Playbill — Killigrew’s Company — Hart — Anecdotes of Joe Haines—The First English Actress—Nell Gwynne—Anecdotes—Sir William Davenant . : " , ; : “ : a vi CONTENTS.

Chapter II. Betterton And His Associates

Rivalry—Degradation of the Stage—The Patent bought for £80—Thomas Betterton—His Style of Acting—His High Position — His Last Appearance—A Good Story—Will Mountfort—His Tragical Fate—Kynaston, the Famous Boy Actress—Smith—A Famous Heavy Villain—Verbruggen— Nokes — Leigh —Cave Underhill—Dick Estcourt—Pictures and Anecdotes of their Acting . = : ; a 5O

CHAP TER iL: THE LADIES.

Mrs. Betterton, the First Great Lady Macbeth—Mrs. Mountfort—Cibber’s Wonderful Description of her Acting—Mrs. Bracegirdle—Anecdotes of Her Charity and Spotless Character-—-Mrs. Barry—Her Early Career—Dismissed the Theater three times for Incapacity—Otway’s Evil Genius—Her Great Talent " : ; : : : : . 06

Chapter Iv; Colley Cibber

His Early Career—How he obtained his First Salary—His First Success—George Powell and the Bailiffs—How Colley obtained his First Success—His First Play—More Disappointment—“ Richard the Third” and the “Careless Husband "—The New Theater in the Haymarket—Suspension of the Drury Lane Patent—The Triumvirate—Description of the Theater of the Period—Of the Audiences—Anecdotes— Dresses—Scenery, etc. : : : ; : = pit

CHAPTER GV: COLLEY CIBBER AND HIS ASSOCIATES.

Dogget—Robert Wilks—His Extraordinary Diligence—A Sketch of the Triumvirate—The Managers in Council— Barton Booth—His Success as Cato—Proposed as a Sharer

CONTENTS. vii

—His -Marriage—His Characters—Cibber’s Quarrel with Pope—His Retirement—His Justice Shallow—His Death— Theophilus Cibber—Joe Miller—Mrs. Oldfield—Mrs. Porter —‘ Polly Peachem” . ; : : . : % 9

Chapter VI, James Quin

Decline of the Stage—An Unfortunate Manager—The First English Harlequin and Inventor of Pantomimes—The Original Captain Macheath—Garrick’s Prototype in Richard III.— The Romance of Quin’s Parentage—His Success as Falstaff and Cato—His Artificial Style—His Picture in the Rosciad— At Leicester House—The ‘“‘ Mrs. Quin’s ”—-His Duels—The Riot at Lincoln’s Inn Fields—Anecdotes of his Wit and Benevolence . - - : : , : ‘ Sea

PART TL

THE GARRICK PERIOD.

CHAPTER

DAVID GARRICK.

His Birth—Early Love of Acting—Education—Voyage to Lisbon—His Boyhood—Samuel Johnson—His and Garrick’s Journey to London—David’s Visits to the Theater—Goes into the Wine Business—Foote’s Mot—The London of 1738 —Garrick’s First Appearance in London—Goodman’s Fields Theater—The Licensing Act—Garrick as Harlequin—His Début as Richard—Copy of the Playbill—His Marvelous Success—Quin’s Mot—Engaged for Drury Lane—His Hamlet-—Abel Drugger—Anecdotes of his Supposed Meanness— Of his Generosity—A Jest of Quin’s . ; ; alge

CHAPTER II.

DAVID GARRICK (continued).

His Marriage—A Romance—The Rival Romeos—Garrick’s Home Life—His King Lear—His Sir John Brute—Roses and

Viii CONTENTS.

Thorns—Declining Power of Attraction—His Visit to Paris —His “Rounds” —He Visits Rome, Naples, Parma—His Splendid Reception Everywhere—“ The Sick Monkey ”—His Re-appearance in London—His Welcome—The Stratford Jubilee—Retiring—Farewell Performances—In the House of Commons—Anecdotes of Mrs. Garrick—Her Death—Garrick as an Author—As an Actor—A Sketch of his Character —His Eccentricities . : : : : : se 5.)

CHAPTER. Il.

CHARLES MACKLIN,

His Early Adventures—Original Ideas upon Acting—Engaged by Rich—Sadler’s Wells in the Last Century—A Man About Town—Victimised—His Quarrel and Reconciliation with Quin—“ The Jew that Shakespeare Drew ”’—His Quarrel with Garrick—Turns Innkeeper and Lecturer—Foote’s Witticisms upon the Subjects—Bankruptcy—A Dramatic Author —A Riot—His Characteristics—His Law Suits—Proposes to turn Farmer at eighty-five—‘ The Man of the World ”— Anecdotes of Macklin’s Longevity—His Last Appearance upon the Stage—Anecdotes of his Last Years—A Wonderrue Fame? : : ; : : : : . 74

CHAPTER IV.

SOME FAMOUS TRAGEDIANS OF THE GARRICK PERIOD.

Spranger Barry-—His Great ‘“ Points ”—His Sensibility—His Great Success—His Splendid Style of Living—Failing Health —A Picture of him in his Latter Days—Mossop—A Picture of his Acting—His Hapless Fate—Anecdotes of his Pomposity and Impecuniosity—Reddish—A Wonderful Instance of the Association of Ideas—Ross—The Moral Influence of the Stage — Davies — John Henderson — His Falstaff — How Johnny Gilpin first became the Rage—Henderson’s Powers as an Actor—His Death and Burial

. (“oo -eeonam

CONTENTS. ix

GHAPTER DV: SOME FAMOUS COMEDIANS OF THE GARRICK PERIOD.

Harry Woodward—His Acting as Petruchio—Ned Shuter— His Singular Character—Anecdote of Whitfield—Making Royal Visitors Useful—Weston—The Life of a Wandering Thespian—The Original Jerry Sneak—His great Comic Powers—Lichtenberg’s Picture of his Acting as Scrub— Quick, George the Third’s Favorite Comedian—The Handsome O’Brien—His Elopement with an Earl’s Daughter 216

CHAPTER VI.

THE ORIGINAL ACTORS OF THE “SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL.”

Smith, the Charles Surface—Tom King, the Sir Peter Teazle —‘ Plausible Jack Palmer,” the Joseph Surface—Anecdotes of his Impudent Mendacity—His Strange Death—Yates, the Sir Oliver—Died of Stewed Eels—Baddeley, the Moses—His Bequests—Parsons, the Crabtree—A Romantic Marriage— Dodd, the Sir Benjamin Backbite — Farren —Lamash — Packer, the Careless—Trip—Snake . : - ae223

CHALTERGV UE

SAMUEL FOOTE,

His Birth and Family—At the Bedford—First Literary Production—History of the Haymarket Theater—Foote’s First Appearance upon the Stage—“ Diversions of the Morning ”— «A Dishof Tea”—A Cat Concert—“ Iterum, Iterum, Iterumque ”—He sets up as a Fortune Teller—His Satire upon the Whitfieldites—‘‘ One-Legged George Faulkner ”— Loses a Limb—The Tailors’ Riot—‘“ The Christian Club”—A Good Story—The Duchess of Kingston—Nemesis—His Death— His Character—His Mots—Johnson’s Opinion of him—His Comedies . 5 : ‘ F Fi : . dee Bev t CONTENTS.

Chapter VIII. A Famous Mimic

His Parentage—An Interview with Garrick — Disappointed Hopes—Success in Dublin—An Indignant Manager—Garrick in a Fix—An Eccentric Lady—Rich and his Favorite Cat—An Extraordinary Monologue . : ; 2 6

Chapter IX. The Tragedy Queens

Mrs. Pritchard—Compared with Mrs. Siddons—Their Different Readings in Lady Macbeth—Mrs. Pritchard in the Banquet

Scene—Mrs. Cibber—Titania and Bottom—Contemporary,

Descriptions of her Acting—Her Unhappy Domestic Life— A Sir Pandarus—Garrick’s Valediction upon Her—George Anne Bellamy—Her Début—An Eccentric Duchess—A Romantic Abduction—Garrick Counter-checked—An Irishman Puzzled—An Actress’s Vengeance—A Singular Marriage Contract—A Ladies’ Battlk—A Faded Beauty—The Last Chapter of a Sad Romance—Mrs. Spranger Barry—A Persecuted Pair—Her Second Husband—Twice a Widow— Hamlet Fiddling an Irish Jig—Mrs. Barry and Mrs. Siddons

— An Unequal Contest— Mrs. Yates— Miss Younge—A Touch of Nature . : : : : : : eeecs

Chapter X. The Comedy Ladies

Peg Woffington—Her First Introduction to the Profession— Another Cinderella—An Interview with Rich—A London Success—Her Amour with Garrick—President of the Beef- Steak Club— Defying an Audience—Her Powers as an Actress — Aristocratic Connections —A Melancholy Last

=e ee

= = CONTENTS:

iage—Her Jealousy of Garrick—Her Penchant for Trag- -The Disadvantages of Corpulence—Mrs. Abington— eRe:

ft

BURBADGE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. _

PNMCLISH AGIORS:

FROM SHAKESPEARE TO MACREADY,

INTRODUCTORY.

The Mystery and Miracle Plays—Moralities and Interludes—Great Increase of Actors—The City and the Players—The Seven Theaters—Size and Prices of Admission—Scenery—Salathiel Pavy— Dick Tarleton—Anecdotes of his Tricks and ‘‘ Gags,”

NGLAND was one of the first countries in which the Mystery and Miracle plays of the Middle Ages were performed. The monks introduced them to supersede the profane mummeries, remnants of paganism and of the ancient fairs, and toimpart to the ignorant populace such knowledge of Scripture as they found convenient. Early in the twelfth century the Miracle play of St. Catherine was performed at Dunstable; from 1268 to 1577 there were annual exhibitions of this kind at Chester; and at York from 1408 to 1546. Churches -and chapels were the earliest theaters, and monks and parish clerks the first actors. But sometimes, even as early as the fifteenth century, tradesmen, artificers, and guilds got up performances at their own expense. The Miracle plays were acted upon temporary erections of timber; there were three scaffolds or platforms—the bottom one represented hell, the middle earth, the topmost heaven. The Virgin, the Saints, the Saviour, even the Supreme Being, were the characters; the subjects were selected from striking incidents in the Bible or in ;

the Lives of the Saints, such as the Fall of Man, the Flood, the Passion of Christ, the Crucifixion. These dramas were destitute of point or plan, and merely represented the stories according to the letter of Scripture or legend.*

In the time of Henry the Sixth a new species of dramatic entertainment was invented, called the Morality, which very soon superseded the older form. In this was contained the first germ of the drama proper. It was more artificial in construction, being usually an allegorical representation of the passions, vices, and virtues; there was some attempt at a plot, and even at delineation of character. The favorite personage of these productions was ‘the Vice,” a witty, sarcastic,and mischievous attendant of the devil, who was afterwards developed into the clown of the Elizabethan drama. The profanity, blasphemy, and licentious indecency of these exhibitions were such that in 1542 Bishop Bonner forbade all ecclesiastics henceforth appearing upon the public stage.

The Interlude, of which John Heywood was the inventor, somewhere in the third decade of the sixteenth century, was another step towards the modern drama; it was, however, merely a piece of gross buffoonery, half extemporaneous, although it was the immediate predecessor of our first English comedy, if that term can be applied to such a work as “Ralph Roister Doister,”’ written in the reign of Edward the Sixth. But the “ Moralities” continued to be represented by guilds and mechanics

* To such an extent was this realism carried that in an old Mystery play entitled ‘‘ The Old and New Testaments,” Adam and Eve appeared perfectly naked. It would have been considered impious to have represented them otherwise than they are described in Genesis.

OUR EARLIEST THEATERS. 5 down to the end of Elizabeth’s reign. In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Shakespeare has _ bequeathed us an exquisitely comic picture of such actors.

The theater was usually an inn-yard, and the galleries that surrounded the ancient hostelries gave the first idea of the subsequent buildings. Even in Shakespeare's time the pit was indifferently called the pit or the yard. There were attempts, even as far back as the Miracle plays, at scenic effects and stage properties. In a drawing of the time of Henry the Sixth, we are shown a scene in a “ Morality,” where there are five stages, and a castle in thecenter. In one entitled “ Mary Magdalen,” mention is made of the introduction of a castle and a ship. In another, “Cain,” the action necessitated a change of scene from the exterior to the interior of a cottage, in which a peasant’s wife was discovered in bed, with an infant in a cradle beside her. According to a stage direction in ‘ Noah’s Flood,” Noah goes into the ark, which is ordered to be boarded round about, and painted with all the various kinds of beasts and fowls. Ina play on the conversion of St. Paul, there is a direction for the use of thunder.

The first legislative enactment in which the profession of actor is mentioned is one of the reign of Edward the Fourth, which exempts all players from the sumptuary laws. In a book of expenses of the reign of Henry the Seventh, there is an entry of one hundred shillings given as a reward to the King’s players. In the household books of this sovereign, from 1492 to 1509, several companies are mentioned—that of the King, of the Duke of Buckingham, of the Earls of Oxford and Northumberland ; and according to the same authority a company was attached to each of the following cities and towns: London, Coventry, Wycombe, Mile End, Wymborne Minster, and Kingston. These, however, were only the aciors of the guilds, or servants of the nobility, trained to represent Moralities and Mummeries, and not at all answering to the modern idea of theatrical companies. Licenses for performing plays were granted by Henry the Eighth and Queen Mary, and in the latter reign, Strype, in his Memorials, speaks of “certain lewd persons naming themselves to be the servants of Sir Francis Lake, and wearing his livery or badge on their sleeves,” wandering in the north, and representing plays and interludes reflecting on the Queen and her consort, and the formalities of the mass.* In 1526 theatrical amusements had become so fashionable that it was usual, on the celebration of any notable event in families of distinction, and on all festivals and holidays, either to have a play represented by the performers attached to the house, retainers of some kind trained to that purpose, or to hire such substitutes as Bottom and his companions.

An Elizabethan writer distinctly states that before 1570, “he neither knew nor read of any such theaters, set stages, or playhouses as have been purposely built within man’s memory.” Unless the performances were given in private houses or the Universities, inn-yards still sufficed, as they had done a century and more previously. In 1572, so greatly had the number of players increased, that it was enacted that all who could not show licenses signed by two justices of the peace should be dealt with as rogues and vagabonds. The servants and mechanics, some from pride, some from idleness, some because they felt within them the stirrings of

* The custom of introducing living persons upon the stage and holding them up to abuse and ridicule still obtained in Shakespeare’s time, and is glanced at by Hamlet in the lines to Polonius: .‘ After your death you Sey better have a bad epitaph, than their (the players’) ill report while you ive.

INCREASE OF ACTORS. y)

nobler talents, had deserted their legitimate and taken up wholly with their occasionai callings. Such was no doubt the origin of the earliest theatrical companies. In 1586 Walsingham mentions two hundred players as being in or near London; this statement is perhaps an exaggeration, and of course includes not only the regular companies but the unlicensed troupes who played in inn-yards,

In 1574 the first royal license, still extant, was granted to James Burbadge (the father of Richard) and other players of Lord Leicester's, giving them the right to play within the city of London and its liberties, or any cities or boroughs throughout England. This was strongly opposed by the mayor and aldermen of London, already tainted with Puritanism, and it would seem toa certain extent effectu. ally, for it is doubtful whether the actor ever obtained a footing within the jurisdiction of those potentates. In 1575 we find the players petitioning to be allowed to carry out the terms of their license, if only in the winter months. The reply of the city would seem to confirm the view I have taken of the origin of the profession. “It hath not been used nor thought meet heretofore, that players have or should make their lyving on the art of playing; but men for their lyving us¢ng other and lawful arts, or rctayned in honest services, have by companies learned some interludes for some increase to their profits, by other men’s pleasures, in vacant times of recreation.” It has been surmised that the opposition of the city to plays being performed in the inn-yards within its boundaries first brought about the construction of regular theaters. This opposition continued to vent itself in petitions and complaints to the sovereign, setting forth that the great concourse of people the players brought prevented customers from getting to their shops, impeded marriages, burials, etc. In 1600 an order was issued in council to limit the theaters to two, the Fortune and the Globe; but there seems to have been no attempt to carry it out, for in 1616 we find the mayor calling attention to this order, and directing the suppression of the Blackfriars. ‘There is so great a multitude of coaches,” says the document, “whereof many are hackney coaches, bringing people of all sorts, that sometimes all the streets cannot contain them.” But James, who was always friendly to the players, paid little heed to these Puritanical whinings; in 1603 he had given a license to the company of the Globe and Blackfriars, and from that time they called themselves His Majesty’s Servants, having been before known as the Servants of the Lord Chamberlain.

The rapidity with which the public profession of actor advanced in estimation and position is noticed in the following passage from the continuation of Stowe’s Chronicle by Howes: ‘Comedians and stage players of former times were very poor and ignorant in respect of this time; but being now (1583) growne very skilful and exquisite actors for all matters, they were entertained into the service of divers great lords; out of which companies there were twelve of the best chosen, and, at the request of Sir Francis Walsingham, they were sworne the Queen’s servants, and were allowed wages and liveries as grooms of the Queen’s chamber: and until this year 1583 the Queen had no players.” Most of the actors who died before the rebellion were comparatively wealthy men, and in their wills all are styled “gentlemen.” The “King’s Players,” from the time of James to late in the last century, were allowed four yards of “bastard scarlet cloth for a cloak and a quarter yard of crimson velvet for the cape.” In the “Return from Parnassus,” two Cambridge students, desirous of taking to the stage, are cheered with: “ Be merry, my lads, you have hap-

THE SEVEN THEATERS. 9 pened upon the most excellent vocation in the world for money: they come north and south to bring it to our playhouses.” An old play called “Covent Garden,” (1638), gives the following contrasted picture of the strolling and the regular actor:

“Ralph. We shall be near the Cockpit, and see a play now and then.

“Dobson. But tell me, Ralph, are those players, the ragged fellows that were at our house last Christmas, that borrowed the red blanket off my bed to make their mayor a gown, and had the potlid for Guy of Warwick’s buckler?

“Ralph. No, Dobson, they are men of credit, whose actions are beheld by every one, and allowed for the most part with commendations. They make no yearly dramatic progress with the anatomy of a sumpter-horse laden with the sweepings of Long Lane in a dead vacation, and purchased at the exchange of their own whole wardrobes. They buy not their ordinaries for the copy of a prologue; nor insinuate themselves into the acquaintance of an admiring Ningle who for his free coming in is at the expense of a tavern supper, and rinses their bawling throats with canary.”

The first regular playhouse of which we find any mention was called “The Theater,” and was situated in Shoreditch. The earliest reference to it is in an old book, date 1576, quoted by Payne Collier in his “ Annals of the Stage.” ‘Those who go to Paris Garden, the Bell Savage,* or The Theater, to behold bear-baiting, interludes, or fence-play, must not account of any pleasant spectacle, unless first they pay one penny at the gate, another at the entry of the scaffold, and a third for a quiet standing.” This house, which could have been only a very rude wooden erection, seems to have been aban.

* One of the inns famous for dramatic performances.

doned as early as 1578. The “Curtain,” in Moor Fields, so called from its sign being a striped curtain, was opened in 1576, and was in use until the commencement of Charles the First’s reign. In Shakespeare’s time there were seven regular theaters: the Curtain, the Blackfriars (built in 1578 by James Burbadge), the Whitefriars (1580), the Red Bull, St. John’s Street, the Cockpit or Phoenix, Drury Lane, situated in Cock-Pit Alley, now know as Pitt Court, not opened until late in James’s reign, the Fortune, Golden Lane, built or rebuilt by Alleyn (1599). There were besides—the Globe, opened about 1594, the Swan, the Rose, and the Hope, on Bankside (Southwark), the Paris Gardens, a summer theater on Newington Butts, and the inn-yards in which dramatic performances continued to be given. For those seven theaters there were only six companies ; the Blackfriars was a winter house, the Globe a summer, and one company sufficed for the two. The Red Bull and the Fortune seem to have been similir to the Britannia and Grecian of the present day. ‘he performances were of an exaggerated and bombastic description, and were chiefly resorted to by citizens and the humbler classes. Blackfriars was a “private” theater; that is to say, the performances were given by torchlight, although not at night; it was roofed in, and the pit had seats, which was not the case at the public theaters, which were thatched only over the stage, the audience part being uncovered, and without seats for the “groundlings.” The aristocratic company had also boxes or rooms, of which they kept the keys, and had the privilege of sitting upon the stage. When all the seats were occupied by the ladies, the gentlemen used to lie at their feet, as we see Hamlet lie at Ophelia’s, while their pages waited beside them with tobacco to replenish their pipes. Every one smoked in the old theaters, frequently played cards; while

SIZE AND PRICES. Ter the groundlings drank ale, ate apples, and cracked nuts. The Bankside theaters, except the Globe, were frequented by a very low class, the entertainment being probably a mixed one of singing, dancing, fencing, and buffoonery. The Swan and the Rose were shut up early in James the First’s reign.

In regard to the size of these buildings, we read that the stage of the Fortune was forty-three feet wide, and, including a dressing-room at the back, thirty-nine and a half feet deep; it was three stories or tiers high, and from floor to ceiling it was thirtytwo feet; the cost of erection was five hundred and fifty pounds. The prices of admission seem to have ranged froma pennytoashilling. But in the Induction to Ben Jonson’s “ Bartholomew Fair,” produced at the Hope in 1614, the Scrivener, in reciting certain articles of agreement, says, “ It shall be lawful for any man to judge his sixpen’worth, his twelve-pen’- worth, to his eighteen-pence two shillings, half-acrown, to the value of his place.” From various allusions in old books, we gather that the play commenced at three,* and that the time of opening was - announced by trumpets and flags. “Each playhouse advances his flag in the air, whither. quickly at the waving thereof are summoned whole troops of men, women, and children.” Besides the play, there was sometimes given a “jig,” that is, a number of satirical coarse verses which were recited by the clown, to the accompaniment of pipe and tabor, to which he also danced.

“Ophelia. You are merry, my lord.

“Hamlet. Oh, your only jig-maker!”’

There were also songs and dances between the acts, to give time for changes of dress.

The monetary arrangements of the old theaters

* ‘All that sing and say Come to the Town-House and see the play, P At three o'clock it shall begin.” —//7stviomastix, 1610.

12 ENGLISH ACTORS. were very simple. After so much had been deducted for the expenses of the house—those of the Blackfriars were forty-five shillings, for lighting, rent, payment of inferior actors, etc.—the residue was divided into quarter, half, or whote shares, by the principals, according to their position. A share and a half at the Blackfriars in 1630 was worth £350, equal to £1,000 of our present money. The average daily takings were from twenty to thirty pounds.

Whether any kind of scenery was used in our ancient theaters is, I think, still a doubtful question ; that it was largely and splendidly employed in the entertainments given at Court, we have only to turn to the Masques of Ben Jonson and Shirley to be assured. Many of the descriptions there given of the elaborate changes, effects, and colored lights, read like the accounts of a pantomime of the present day. It seems strange that no such inventions, however far behind the model, should have been introduced into such a theater as the Blackfriars. Again, if no scenery of any kind was used for his plays in the regular playhouses, why did Shakespeare cumber them with a number of stage directions impossible to be carried out? In the folio edition of “King John,” 1623, we have the direction, “ Enter Arthur on the Walls.” In “Henry VI.,” “Enter Pucelle on the top of a tower.” In Cymbeline, “Jupiter descends in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle; he throws a thunderbolt.” In Act II., Scene 2, of Jonson’s “The Devil is an Ass,” upon the margin of the old copy was printed, “ this scene is acted at two windows, as out of two contiguous buildings.” Many other instances of such probable use of scenery may be found. A curtain, which opened in the middle, veiled the stage until the performance commenced. When a tragedy was represented the stage was hung with black. Hence

J ORENILE SE LA VERS. 13 the opening line of “Henry VI.,” “Hung be the heavens with black.” It was also strewn with rushes. Malone conjectures that towards the rear there was a balcony, about eight or ten feet from the ground,and probably supported by pillars, from which, in many of our old plays, part of the dialogue was spoken; curtains were hung in front of this balcony. The orchestra was placed above what would now be a stage-box; the instruments were trumpets, cornets, hautboys, lutes, recorders, viols, and organs.

Besides the adult actors, there were the Children of St. Paul's (the choristers); those of the Chapel Royal, the Children of the Revels, were still more famous; they were formed into a regular company by Elizabeth; all Lilly’s, and several of Jonson’s and Shakespeare’s plays, were originally performed by these boys, and their great popularity caused much jealousy among the _ professional actors. ‘Do they hold the same estimation (the players) they did when I was inthe city? Are they so followed ?” asks Hamlet of Rosencrantz. “ There is, sir,’ is the reply, “an aiery of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of the question, and are most tyrannically clapped for’t: these are now the fashion, and so berattle the common stages (so they call them), that many, wearing rapiers, are afraid of goose quills, and dare scarce come thither.” These juveniles attained to great perfection, and several became in.after life admirable comedians at the Blackfriars. One, Salathiel Pavy, who acted in Jonson’s “ Poetaster,” and ‘“Cynthia’s Revels,” and who was said to have been inimitable in his representation of old men, died at thirteen, and has been immortalized in the following exquisite verses of the old dramatist :

“Weep with me all that read This little story !

And know, for whom a tear you shed Death’s self is sorry.

’Twas a child that so did thrive In grace and feature,

As Heaven and Nature seemed to strive Which owned the creature.

Years he numbered scarce thirteen When Fates turn’d cruell:

Yet three filled Zodiacs had he been The stage’s jewell ;

And did act, what now we moan, Old men so duly ;

As, sooth, the PARC#& thought him one, He played so truly.

So, by error, to his tate They all consented ;

But viewing him since, alas! too late, They have repented :

And have soughte to give new birth, In baths to steep him ;

But, being so much too good for earth, HEAVEN vows to keep him.”

Perhaps the most important player in the earlier drama was the clown. As it has been said before, he was the lineal descendant of the Vice of the old Moralities; he was introduced into every play, and had unlimited license accorded him; he came on between the acts and scenes, and obtruded himself even upon the action of the play, without any respect to propriety, whenever any new piece of buffoonery struck him. Hence Hamlet's advice to the players: ‘Let those who play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them: for there be of them, that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too; though, in the meantime, some necessary question of the play be then to be considercd : that’s villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it.”

There is no name among the old players more famous than that of Dick Tarleton. ‘“ For a won-

DICK. TARLETON. 15 drous pleasant extemporal wit, he was the wonder of histyme! He was so beloved that men use hs picture for their signs,” says Howes. Another old author tells us: “ For the clown’s part he never had his equal.” Even Ben Jonson, who never missed an opportunity of having a fling at actors, could not refrain from applauding Tarleton. “The selfsame words spoken by another would hardly move aman to smile, which uttered by him would force a sad soulto laughter.” He is said to have been brought to London from Shropshire by one of Lord Leicester’s servants, who found him in the fields tending his father’s swine, and was so astonished by the readiness of his answers and the quickness of his intellect that he proposed he should enter my lord’s service—a proposal Dick was willing enough to embrace. In a little while he was enrolled among the twelve players who formed the Queen’s company, and became a kind of courtjester as well. “‘ When the Queen was serious,” says Fuller, “I dare not say sullen, Tarleton could undumpish her at his pleasure. He told her more of her faults than most of her chaplains, and cured her of her melancholy better than all her physicians.” He fell into disgrace at last, however, and was dismissed from Court for scurrilous reflections upon Leicester and Raleigh. He appears to have chiefly played at the Red Bull; in his latter years he kept a tavern in Paternoster Row, and afterwards the Tabor in Gracechurch Street. He died in 1588, and was buried in St.