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THE ELIZABETHAN PLAYHOUSE
AND OTHER STUDIES

Seven Hundred and Sixty Copies printed ;
type distributed. No. Z^/^

PERFORMANCE OF THE LIBERATIONE DI TIRRENO IN THE DUCAL PALACE [Fr
AT FLORENCE IN 1616— AFTER CALLOT'S ETCHING {See p. 104.)

A'rir//

THE ELIZABETHAN PLAYHOUSE

AND OTHER STUDIES

W. J. LAWRENCE

ILLUSTRATED

Date

SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON

MCMXII

v./

Printed by A. H. Bullen, at The Shakespeare Head Press,
Stratford-upon-Avon.

To
WILLIAM ARCHER

PREFACE

In connection with the existing, actively pursued inquiry
into the physical conditions and stage conventionalisms
of the Elizabethan Playhouse, I lay claim with par-
donable pride to the mild honours of a pioneer. Ten
years ago, when I first began to publish the result of my
prolonged investigations on the subject, there were no
scientific workers in the field. At home and abroad, in
Germany, in America, there are many now. To those
who desire to see how notable has been the progress made
in this department of research during the past decade I
commend Professor Reynolds' critical retrospect, "What
we know of the Elizabethan Stage ", as published last year
in Modern Philology at Chicago. To myself the seriousness
of this advance has been vividly brought home by the
circumstance that, on examination, the first fruits of my
labours in this field have proved too axiomatic to bear the
test of reproduction. I refer here more particularly to a
paper on " Some Characteristics of the Elizabethan-Stuart
Stage," contributed in 1903 to Englische Studien^ which at
least justified itself in inspiringand directing other workers.
Vainglorious as this may sound, it is simply an echo of
what has been publicly acknowledged.

In bringing the following papers together for republica-
tion in collected form, I have been ruled in my selection
by desire to illustrate, not only the rise and progress of
the Platform Stage, but in what degree the characteristics

viii Preface

of that stage coalesced with and otherwise influenced the
early Picture Stage. It will be found, I think, that these
studies embody full details of the evolution of the English
theatre in its primary and secondary stages, or, in other
words, from its inception in the inn-yards until the close
of the seventeenth century. In them some attempt has
been made to indicate what features were indigenous and
what derivative, a task undertaken with the view of
combating the popularly accepted idea that all the salient
characteristics of the Restoration playhouse were imported
wholesale from France. There can be little doubt that
during the first two centuries of its history the English
theatre, as an institution, was highly individualised.

For courteously sanctioning the reprinting of these
papers, I have to thank the editors of the various periodi-
cals in which, with one exception, they all originally
appeared. The first, third and fourth are taken from the
Jahrbuch der Deutscben Shakespeare-Geselhcbaft (i 908-1 1),
the second from Englische Studien (1908), the fifth — with
the accompanying illustrations — from The English Illus-
trated Magazine (1903), the sixth from ne Gentleman's
Magazine (1902), and the seventh, eighth, ninth and
tenth from Anglia (1903-9). All have been carefully
revised, some amplified, and one — the paper, on "Music
and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre" — entirely rewrit-
ten. In view of the publication of Sir Ernest Clarke's
article on ^^"The 'Tempest as an opera" in The Athenaeum
of August 25, 1906, — a contribution which immediately
earned for its writer in some ill-informed quarters the
honours of a discoverer, and whose raison d'etre 1 then

Preface ix

vigorously challenged — it is necessary to state that my
paper on the same subject, now republished, originally
appeared in Anglia in 1904 (Vol. xxvii, pp. 205 sqq.),
and that the only material strengthening of the argument
has been derived from my supplementary contribution on
the point, published in Notes and Queries later in the same
year (loth S., ii. 329). Irrespective of the plates which
accompany the paper on "The Mounting of the Carolan
Masques", all the illustrations have been newly added.
They have been chosen as much for their rarity as their
appositeness. One other new feature of the book remains
to be commented upon, the final paper, written after the
first sheets had been printed off, by way of supplement
to the opening study. This addition was rendered impera-
tive by the appearance of Monsieur Feuillerat's article in
The Daily Chronicle^ revealing preliminary proof of the
existence of an earlier playhouse in the Blackfriars.

My thanks are finally due to my publisher, Mr. A. H.
Bullen, for placing at my disposal in the reading of the
proofs his wide knowledge of Elizabethan life and litera-
ture. It may be that 1 have not been apt pupil enough so to
profit by his advice as to be able to disarm Criticism ;
but 1 feel assured that he has, at least, taught me how

to blunt its weapons.

W. J. Lawrence.
Dublin, March^ 191 2.

CONTENTS

Preface ...... vii

L The Evolution and Influence of the

^ Elizabethan Playhouse ... i

II The Situation of the Lords' Room . 27

III Title and Locality Boards on the Pre-

Restoration Stage . . . . 41

y'lV Music and Song in the Elizabethan

Theatre ...... 73

V The Mounting of the Carolan Masques 97

VI The Story of a Peculiar Stage Curtain 109

VII Early French Players in England . 123

VIII Proscenium Doors : an Elizabethan

Heritage . . . . . .157

IX Did Thomas Shadwell write an Opera

on "The Tempest" ? . . . 191

X Who wrote the Famous "Macbeth"

Music? 207

XI New Facts about the Blackfriars :

Monsieur Feuillerat's Discoveries . 225

Bibliography ..... 245

Index ....... 257

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

Performance of the Liberatione di Tirreno in the
Ducal Palace at Florence in 1616 — after
Callot's etching {^See p. 104.) . . Frontispiece

Auditorium of the Pergolese Theatre, Florence, as

seen from the stage (1657) . . . 9

Frontispiece to ne Wits^ or Sport upon Sporty 1663.
(Usually misdescribed as The Red Bull
Theatre) 18

Inigo Joneses design for the proscenium front and

main scene of the pastoral oi Florimene . 48

Inigo Jones's design for the proscenium of Shirley's

masque The 'Triumph of Peace (1634) . . loi

Inigo Jones's design for Triumphal Chariots . 103

Inigo Jones's design for the proscenium of

D'Avenant's masque The Temple of Love (1635) ^ ^5

Uninscribed sketch by Inigo Jones for a masque-

scene

106

Drury Lane Theatre, 1697 : Joe Haines, mounted

on an ass, speaking an epilogue . . . 169

Frontispiece to Harlequin Horace^ 3rd edition (1735) 177

De Burson's new stage front of the Theatre Royal,

Covent Garden ( 1 821) .... 184

The last of the proscenium doors : Adelphi The-
atre, Liverpool (i 832-1 905) . . . 189

French multiple-scene for Durval's tragi-comedy

Agarite , . . . . . .241

h^^

The Evolution and Influence of the
Elizabethan Playhouse

Within the span of Shakespeare's birth and death there
took place a vital melioration of the conditions of English
acting and playgoing, together with some slight improve-
ment in the status of the player. It is true that, subject
to certain reservations, the stage still remained, as it had
been constituted by Act of Parliament, a banned vocation.
But, if viewed with no favourable eye by the middle
classes, the player had already won the countenance of the
court, and taken thereby a stride towards his enfranchise-
ment.

In 1576, or nine years before William Shakespeare
arrived in London, an epoch-marking event in stage annals
had taken place. This was the erection in Moore-fields,
outside the city boundaries, of the Theater, a structure
without prototype, ranking not only as the first permanent
English playhouse but as the first organised public theatre
. in modern Europe. It is matter of curiosity, as well as
I importance, that an event which deflected the trend of
Elizabethan dramaturgy and led to the immediate system-
1 ization of the player's irregular calling should have been
) brought about purely by force of outward circumstance.
No evidence exists to show that up to the period when
James Burbage solved a difficult problem by building the
Theater under protection of a royal patent, either players
or playgoers were otherwise than content with the primi-
tive histrionic conditions obtaining in the several inn-yards.
For years it had been customary to give performances twice
or three times a week on removable stages — possibly the
"boards and barrel-heads" referred to in The Poetaster as
the later resource of "strutters" — in the yards of well-
known hostells like the Cross Keys in Grace-church Street,

2 The Evolution and Influence of

the Bull in Bishopsgate Street, and the Bell Savage on
Ludgate Hill. In divers ways these ill-regulated assem-
blies had given dire offence to the Puritans who constituted
the Common Council. In recurrent periods of plague they
were always viewed as a menace to the public health, and
every outbreak was marked by prohibition of acting.
Despite all protests, the players persisted in desecrating
the Lord's Day by their performances. Apprentices had
been distracted from their work by the allurements of
Melpomene and Thalia; there had been "sundry slaugh-
ters and maimings of the Queen's subjects" by falling
scaffolds and ill-handled stage ordnance ; and, worst of
all, young maids and good citizens' daughters had been
inveigled into "privie and unmete contracts" in the rooms
overlooking the yards. ^ In December, 1 574, the Common
Council had issued an order imposing municipal censor-
ship of the drama, and it was only a question of time as
to when the players would be expelled from the city.^
Forewarned, however, was forearmed, and, when it came,
the blow fell on well protected shoulders.

When a decision was arrived at to migrate northwards
to the Liberty of Halliwell, in Shoreditch, with the view
of nullifying the gravity of the situation, Burbage and his
associates were forced to evolve a suitable playhouse out
of their varied experiences, both in public and in private,
in town and country. For the reason that the old bull- and
bear-baiting amphitheatres on the Bankside potently indi-
cated how the greatest number of spectators could be
accommodated in the least possible space, the Theater was
built, like them, of wood and circular or octagonal in shape.
Doubtless its near neighbour of a year or so later, the
Curtain, was constructed on similar lines. ^

* Collier's H'tu, Eng. Dram. Poetry (1831), i. p. 214 note.

* The expulsion probably came circa 1582, but the order is undated. Cf. Mr. E. K.
Chambers's review of Ordish's Early London Theatres in The Academy for August 24, 1 895.

' The Theater and the Curtain were two of the four "amphitheatra" referred to
by Johannes de Witt. It is plain to be seen that no square-shaped playhouse existed
in 1593, else of a surety Nash would not have written then in The Unfortunate Travel-
ler : *'I sawc a banketting house belonging to a merchant that was the meruaile of the

The Elizsbethan Playhouse 3

Burbage's house was so elaborately decorated that John
Stockwood, in a sermon delivered at Paul's Cross on
August 24, 1578, could refer to it as "the gorgeous playing
place erected in the fields." "The painted stage" or "painted
theatres" is the phrase applied to the two Shoreditch houses
at different periods by Gabriel Harvey ^ in his letters, and
Spenser in his Tears of the Muses ( 1 59 1 ). One recalls in this
connexion what Johannes de Witt wrote a few years later
concerning the Swan, whose columns were "painted in
such excellent imitation of marble that it might deceive
even the most cunning."

In keeping with his quality as pariah, the Elizabethan
player entertained no very lofty opinion of his calling,
made no particular effort to keep the temple of the Muses
undesecrated. The fact that neither the Theater nor the
Curtain was intended solely for dramatic purposes postu-
lated to some extent their internal arrangement. We
know from Stow^ that both were built "for the shewe of
Activities, comedies, tragedies and histories for recreation."
What the the word "activities" here implies can be gathered
from a characteristic passage in Gosson's Plays confuted in
Five Actions (1582), wherein it is maintained that the
devil entices the eye in the play-house by sending in
"garish apparell, masques, vaulting, tumbling, dauncing
of gigges, galiardes, moriscoes, hobby horses, shewing of
judgeling castes — nothing forgot that might serve to set
out the matter with pompe, or ravish the beholders with
variety of pleasure". Other side shows, such as fencing
matches, were also held in the Shoreditch playhouses.
The public uses to which they were put were practically
without limit. Following on the heels of his visit to
London in 1596, Ludwig, Prince of Anhalt, wrote a poem
commemorative of his travels, in which he pointed out that

world . . . It was builtc round of green marble like a Theater without;" &c. Seethe
prologue to Old Fortunatus (1599) for indication of the circular disposition of the audito-
rium of the Rose.

^ The Letter Book of Gabriel Harvey y 1573-80 (Camden Society 1884), p. 67.

' Cf, T. Fairman Ordish, Early London 2'beatres, p. 45, et seq.

4 'The Evolution and Influence of

the English capital boasted four theatres \ which were
utilised, not only for dramatic purposes, but for the bait-
ing of bulls and bears and for cockfights. Most of these
cruel and debasing exhibitions demanded a clear arena :
hence probably the main reason why the inn-yard principle
of the removable stage was adopted at the Theater and the
Curtain. As a matter of fact little deviation took place at
either house from the stage conventionalities and play-
going habitudes of the inn-yard era. So insensible was the
transition that the space occupied by the groundlings (who
remained standing at all save the private theatres for long
after Shakespeare's day) inherited the old designation of
"yard."^ That the later term "pit'* was a contraction of
"cock-pit", in part confirming the statement of Ludwig,
Prince of Anhalt, is clearly indicated in Leonard Digges'
lines on Shakespeare's Poems ( 1 640) :

Let but Beatrice
And Benedicke be seen, loe in a trice
The cock-pit, galleries, boxes, are all full.
To hear Malvoglio that crosse-garter'd gull.

As in the inn-yards, acting in the Shoreditch theatres
took place in the afternoon by natural light. Beyond the
covering in of the circumambient galleries, the two houses
remained unroofed. Exposure to the elements having
been thitherto the normal experience of the groundling,
the perpetuation of his discomfort was accepted with
equanimity. A quarter of a century later, however, the
public theatres were to be placed at some disadvantage by
the cosiness of the covered-in private houses. One recalls
how "Webster, in his "Address to the Reader", prefixed to
The White Devil^ accounts for the ill-success of his play
(as probably produced at the Curtain in the harsh winter
of 1607-8), by averring it was "acted in so dull a time of

^ The other two probably being the Rose and Newington Butts, both on the
south side. Cf. W. B. Rye, England as seen by Foreigners^ p. 133.

2 So, too, the signboard by which the playhouse was known, the system of prelim-
inary payment at the door and secondary "gathering" in the galleries, and the three
trumpet-blasts shortly before the performance were all relics of the inn-yard period.

ne Elizabethan Playhouse 5

winter and presented in so open and black a theatre ", that
it failed to attract a fitting audience.

Following the old inn-yard system, the stage in our'^
earliest theatres was a simple, rush-strewn platform, jutting
out prominently into the yard. It had neither a proscen-
ium arch nor a front curtain, both of which were essential
characteristics of the picture stage and were not to be
permanently adopted in England until the period of the
systematic employment of scenery, a year or two after
the Restoration. Under such conditions Drama could not •
be wholly, or even largely, an art of emotional illusion.
It was simply a more or less discursive narrative put into
action. The story was told rather than realised. With the \
stage surrounded by spectators and the player embarrass- }■
ingly close to his public, acting, to be effective, had to be \
rhetorical and vigorous. With the bulk of the audience /
noisy and turbulent attention had to be gained by resolute-
ness of attack and a certain measure of direct appeal.

We come now to the point of departure between the
physical conditions of the inn-yard stage and the stage of
the first public theatres ; or, in other words, to a considera-
tion of the various improvements suggested by the short-
comings and inconveniences of the earlier system. The
paramount need of a readily accessible dressing room, with
wardrobe and store for properties, led at once to the crea-
tion of the "tiring-house". So far, however, from being
an isolated or hidden structure, this was adroitly conjoined
to the stage and made to suiiserve the purposes of the play.
Its composite fa9ade formed a permanent background to
theaction, and the whole afforded a crude resemblance
to the sTcene of the Attic Theatre of the fifth century.
Authentic details of the prime characteristics of the Shore-
ditch theatres are almost wholly lacking, but these can be
soundly, if laboriously, deduced by collating the stage
directions in the plays written for the two houses and
examining the evidence thus obtained by the light of the
information derivable from interior views of subsequent
theatres. To some extent the aspect of the tiringrhouse

6 The Evolution and Influence of

recalled the background of the older stages In the inn-
yards, but it would appear that at least one important hint
had been taken from the screen of the banquetting halls in
the palaces, universities and inns of court, halls in which
the players had occasionally given performances. From
this source came the principle of the two frontal doors,
forming the normal (but not complete) method of entrance
and exit.

The deft combination of platform and tiring-house was
of extremely grateful utility. It permitted of the division
of the circuit of action into three distinct parts. The value
of this arrangement lay in the fact that, on a stage devoid of
scenery, it yielded the necessary illusion of a sudden change
of place. First there was the outer platform, or stage
proper. To this was appended an inner stage formed by
a central passage, or opening, between the two frontal
doors of the tiring-house, and hidden from view, when not
in use, by arras curtains suspended by rings to an iron rod
and working laterally. These curtains were commonly
known as "traverses". At the back of this recess was the
third door of entrance, that "mid-door'* of whose employ-
ment we read occasionally in old stage directions. ^ This
inner area came to be known in theatrical parlance as "the
study "^, probably from the nature of the scene for which
it was most commonly employed. But it was utilised for
a variety of other interiors, such as caves, arbours, count-
ing-houses, prisons, shops, tombs, tents and (occasionally)
bed-chambers. Its employment was, to some extent,
restricted by the remoteness and obscurity of its position,
an inconvenience which almost invariably demanded the

^ Cf. G. F. Reynolds, Some Principles of Elizabethan Staging in Modern Philology,
ii. 587, note 3. The remoter position of the third door is clearly indicated in the
following stage direction from The Second Maiden^ Tragedy {161 i)y iv. 3: — "Enter
the Tirant agen at a farder dore, which opened, bringes hym to the Toombe wher
the Lady lies buried ; the Toombe here discouered ritchly set forthe." Here what
took place was this. The Tyrant made his exit by one of the frontal doors and the
traverses were drawn open, revealing the tomb on the inner stage. Then the Tyrant
re-entered by the mid-door at the extreme back.

' For examples of the phrase see Titus Andronicus, v. 2; Hamlet, Q. i. Sc. vi. 105-8;
The Woman Hater, v. i ; Life and death of Lord Cromwell, iii. 1. (where the scene is an
hostel).

ne Elizabethan Playhouse 7

bringing in of lights at the commencement of all inner
scenes. ^ Most of the emblematic set-pieces used as aids to
the imagination were placed here. One cannot speak of
a fixed rule, but they were generally put into position and
removed under cover of the traverses. Apart from these
traverses (or curtains designed for theatrical use), the stage
was also adorned with tapestry hangings or painted cloths.
A sufficiency of evidence exists to show that these were
changed for draperies of black whenTragedy was performed,
but the prevalent idea that the stage was hung with blue
for comedies, due to a curious surmise of Malone's, has no
foundation in fact.^

The third division of the circuit of dramatic action was
known as "the upper stage", or what is tersely indicated
in the old stage directions as "above". It took the form
of a central room on the first story of the tiring-house,
immediately over the inner stage, and was fronted by a bal-
cony, behind which hung another set of traverses. The
upper stage answered indifferently for city walls, Antony's
rostrum, or the lookout of a vessel. Many, but not all,
upper chamber scenes were acted within this area. Some
effects of the kind were more illusively procured by means
of practicable windows over the two frontal entering doors.'
At many of the theatres, when not in dramatic use, the
upper stage was occupied by the musicians and boy-singers.
It is matter of certitude that at all houses alike their nor-
mal position was on an elevation at the back.

Taking a hint from the habitudes of old inn-yard audi-
ences, Burbage and the other builders of the first public
theatres saw fit to make the tiring-house a source of revenue
by devoting portions of it to the service of the exclusive

* Cf. The Tnvo Italian Gentlemen^ ii. 2 ; Satiromastixj i. 2 ; The Martyr'd Souldier^
iii. 2 ; *Tis Pitty she's a fVbore^ iii. 6.

2 See the induction to A fVarning for Faire Women ; also Tragedy's speech
preceding the second act. In The Rape of Lucrece (1594), we have the line, "Black
Stage for Tragedies, and murthers fell ". For Malone's conjecture, see C. I. Elton,
William Shakespeare, his family and friends, p. 462.

' %{. Two Angry Women ofAbington, iii. 2 ; The Insatiate Countess, iii. i ; Blurt,
Master Constable, iv. 3 ; The Partiall Latv, i. 5, and ii. 5 ; Othello, Q. 1622, i. i ; The
Taming of the Shrew, v.

8 '^he Evolution and Influence of

playgoer. On the same level with the upper stage were
constructed a few latticed boxes for spectators, one of which
was distinctively known as "the lords' room". Our first
definite trace of this aristocratic rendezvous is at the Rose
on the Bankside in 1592, but it doubtless had earlier and
other existence. In less than seventeen years, however, its
use had been abandoned by the nobles to a very inferior
type of playgoer, a change which was apparently brought
about by the growing fashion of sitting on the stage.

At a period when the players were becoming more and
more luxurious in stage attire, the sole theatrical extrava-
gance of the Shakespearean era, it was not to be expected
that they would continue to brave the elements with the
fortitude and equanimity of their fellow sufferers, the
stinkards in the yard. The problem was to aflFord them
shelter from the pelting rain without unduly darkening
the house, or obstructing the spectators' view from any
part. It was solved by erecting over the stage, at an eleva-
tion corresponding to the ceiling of the uppermost gallery
in the auditorium, a thatched (or possibly, tiled and leaded)
half-roof, sloping down from the tiring-house and known
indifferently as "the shadow" or "the heavens". This
curious makeshift had the additional advantage of serving
as a sounding-board. Proof of the presence of the heavens
in Burbage's house is afforded by a quaint metaphorical
conceit of Nash's, in his preface to Sidney's Astrophel and
Stella (1591) :

. . . Let not your surfeted sight, new come fro such puppet
play, think scorne to turn aside into this Theater of pleasure, for
here you shal find a paper stage streud with pearle, an artificial
heau'n to ouershadow the faire frame, and christal wals to encounter
your curious eyes, whiles the tragicommedy of loue is performed
by starlight.

Surmounting the tiring-house in the early public theatres,
at a slight elevation above the roofing of the galleries,
was a turret, or hutch, from which the flag, bearing the
symbol of the house, was hoisted an hour or so before the

^he Elizabethan Playhouse 9

rormance. It was here, at short intervals before the
entry of the Prologue, that the three Trumpet blasts were
blown. As a matter of fact, the turret, so far from being
purely ornamental, was put to a great variety of useful
purposes. Through its apertures stage ordnance were let
off, a custom that led to the destructive fire at Shakespeare's
Globe. Here thunder was simulated by "roll'd bullet" and
" tempestuous drum " ; and here was situated the windlass,
or other rude machinery whereby the "creaking throne",
or the substantial deity-bearing cloud, was lowered. ^

Something remains to be said of the arrangement of the
auditorium in the Elizabethan public theatre, a portion of
the house which practically attained completeness at the
outset, so few and trivial are the variations that can be
traced. To the first English theatre-builders must the
credit be given of having originated the modern system
of the threje_galleJ:^, a disposition commented upon by
Samuel Kiechel of Ulm as a novelty, when he visited
London in 1585.^ Apparently the lowermost and middle
galleries were divided into commodious boxes and the
uppermost galleries left open. Not all, if any, of the rooms
and galleries were provided with seats, although in most
parts stools and cushions could be procured by paying
extra. Details on this point are, however, somewhat vague.
All we know for certain is that the scale of prices dimin-
ished in ratio with the height of the gallery. In keeping
with this system, "the gentlemen's room", or "twelve-
penny room", usually the most expensive part of the
house, was situated on the lowermost gallery close to the
stage.

So far as can be determined, no Pre-Restoration play-
house had a separate entrance to every particular section
of the building. The public theatres were only provided

^ Cf. Prologue to E'very Man in bis Humour ; CymbelinCy v. 4 ; Alphomus^ f^i"g of
ArragOKy opening of Act i ; The Silver Age^ passim.

2 Cf. W. B. Rye, England as seen by Foreigners^ p. 88. This disposition was un-
known in Venice c. 1609. See Coryat^s Crudities (Glasgow 1905), ii. p. 386. The earliest
known view of a modern Italian auditorium is that of the Pergolese Theatre in Florence,
engraved in 1657, and reproduced on opposite page.

lo ne Evolution and Influence of

with two doors, one for general admission to the yard and
galleries, and the other (by which the lords and the stool-
holders, as well as the actors, entered), leading into the tiring-
house. Writing to Sir Ralph Winwood on July 8, 1613,
Chamberlain conveys intelligence of the disastrous fire at
the Globe on St. Peter's Day, " which fell out by a peal of
chambers (that I know not upon what occasion were to be
used in the play), the tampin or stopple of one of them
lighting in the thatch that cove]:ed the house, burn'd it
down to the ground in less than two hours with a dwel-
ling house adjoyning ; and it was a great marvaile and fair
grace of God that the people had so little harm, having
but two narrow doors to get out." ^ This curious restriction
of the number of entrances was due to the continuance
of the inn-yard and bear-baiting system of preliminary
payment at the door with subsequent "gathering" inside.
"Those who go to Paris Gardens, the Bell Savage, or
Theater", writes Lambard in his Fer ambulation of Kent
(1596), "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 quiet standing ". The perpetuation
of this clumsy system,^ which, subject to some modifica-
tions, lasted until considerably after the Restoration, was
due to the circumstance that in the early public theatres,
the proprietor rarely, if ever, leased the house to the
players, preferring to take a portion of the receipts. ^ This
meant prompt payment and less risk. Hence the reason
why the players, themselves were remunerated by shares
and not by salaries, and were generally expected to find
their own costumes and defray the daily charge for " hire-
lings ". Methods of dividing the receipts varied according
to the period and the playhouse. At the Theater the players
received "the profitts arising from the doors", and Burbage

* Winwood's Memoriahy iii. p. 469. Cf. Reliq. Wotton. (1685), p. 425, where the
play is said to have been King Henry VllI,

* A somewhat similar system is still pursued in Southern Europe. For a modern
Spanish analogy, see Henry Lyonnet's Tbiatre en Espagne (1897), p. 17.

* Cf. W. W. Greg, Hensloive's Diary, ii. p. 128 and p. 134 note j also Karl
Mantziusy Himry of Theatrical Art (1904), iii. pp. 82, 109, 146.

The Elizabethan Playhouse 1 1

the proprietor the money gathered in the galleries. But at
the second Globe and the Blackfriars half a century later
(when the daily charges defrayed by the sharers had con-
siderably increased), the players received "all the commings
in at the dores to themselves and halfe the galleries from
the house-kepers. " ^

Except at the first performances of new plays when the
ordinary rates of admission were doubled, prices at the pub-
lic theatres during the strictly Shakespearean era ran from
a penny to a shilling. An allusion in Nash's Martin's
Month's M/W shows that in 1 5 89' admission to the Theater
and the Curtain was a penny. This made the playgoer free
of the yard, into which one and all hurried. " In the play-
houses in London", wrote Gosson^ in 1582, "it is the
fashion of youthes to go first into the yarde, and to carry
their eye through every gallery ; then like unto ravens,
when they spye the carion, thither they flye, and press as
near to the fairest as they can ". Ingress to the other parts
could be obtained by external staircases,^ but an extra charge
was subsequently enforced, according to the locality, the
fee being collected during the performance by "gatherers",
who were sometimes pressed into stage service as super-
numeraries. Hence the reason why the top gallery is
somewhat confusingly referred to in contemporary plays
and pamphlets as "the penny gallery", "the two-penny
gallery" and "the two-penny room".^ The charge for
this part would be a penny, but the preliminary payment
at the door made the total cost two-pence.

Nothing is more interesting in the social life of the
Elizabethan-Stuart era than to note the frequent shiftings
of the centre of gravity in the theatrical world. With the
erection on the Bankside of the Rose and the Swan in the
last decade of the sixteenth century, the tide of fashion set
in southward, much to the satisfaction and increase of the

^ HalHwell-PhilHpps, Outlines^ 3rd ed. p. 549.
' Plays Confuted in Five Several Actions.

' Reached from the pit by the steps marked "ingressus" in van Buchell's sketch
of the Swan.

* Collier's Hist. Eng. Dram. Poetry (1831), iii. pp. 343-4.

1 2 ne Evolution and Influence of

Thames, watermen. Although differing materially from
each other in point of magnitude, the two new houses pre-
sented no serious departure from type. One is not unmindful
that the evidence oir the well-known Dutch drawing of the
Swan runs counter to this assertion, but, on the other hand,
potent reasons exist for believing that van Buchell's sketch
is not a minutely accurate mirroring of the playhouse it
depicts at second hand. ^ It is, indeed, matter for regret
that we have no completely satisfying view of the interior of
a Pre-Restoration playhouse, nothing that corroborates or
amplifies the evidence synthetically derived. The Roxana
and Messalina illustrations merely tantalise. Both suffer
from the grave defect that even the meagre details presented
cannot be authoritatively applied to any particular theatre
or kind of theatre. The more illuminative frontispiece to
The Wits^ or Sport upon Sport (1662) — so long misdescribed
as a view of the Red Bull but now recognised as a view of
a "private" theatre^ — cannot be taken strictly as evidence
for the Elizabethan period, even if one uses that term in
its widest sense. It deals with the surreptitious perform-
ances of Cox's Drolls during the Commonwealth, or, in
other words, after the general dismantling of the theatres
under the repressive act of 1648.

The art and mystery of playgoing,as mordantly revealed
by Dekker in Tbe Guls Hornbooke in 1609, must not be
too literally applied to the Bankside houses of a decennium
earlier. In the intervening period the uprise and vogue of
the "private" theatres had brought about certain modifi-
cations, not only of the conditions of playgoing, but of
dramatic representation. We are prone to look upon all
the Southwark theatres as mere summer resorts, forgetful
of the fact that performances were given there at all seasons
until shortly after the dawn of the new century. At the
Rose or the Swan, in and about the year 1595, the per-

1 Cf. T. F. Ordish, Early London Theatres^ pp. 264-70 j G. F. Reynolds, Mod.
Phil., ii. p. 587 ; Victor E. Albright, The Shakespearian Stage, p. 39 ; The Tribune news-
paper, of Aug. 17, 1907, Mr. William Archer's feuilleton on The Growth of the Play-
bouse.

' Cf. Victor Albright, op. cit. pp. 40-3.

^he Elizabethan Playhouse

formance generally began at two o'clock in the winter and
three in the summer, and lasted from two to three hours,
according to the season and the duration of light.^ Within
this limit a drama in five acts, and a brief jig (otherwise
a rhymed musical farce) had usually to be given. Although
acting was often a matter of uncertainty and largely
depended on the state of the weather, meagre bills convey-
ing particulars of the place of performance, the play and
the hour were generally posted up in the city a day or two
previously.^ But as excessive rain might occasion an
eleventh-hour postponement, the intending playgoer could
not be assured positively about the arrangement till he
saw the flag hoisted above the theatre. Resort had to be
made to the Rose or Swan betimes in order, bodily, to
secure a place. For the benefit of those who, through
coming early, arrived dinnerless, eatables and drinkables,

. including fruits, nuts, and bottled beer, were vended in
the theatre. No preliminary music to wile away the time

^ was vouchsafed these eager enthusiasts, but powdered
tobacco and the latest thing in pamphlets were procurable
for a consideration, and the tedium of waiting could be
allayed by reading, smoking, and playing cardsi Nor must
one overlook, in this connexion, Gasson's vivid testimony
to the early assembling of women in the galleries and to the
eagerness with which hot-blooded youth sought them out.
This factor in the economy of Elizabethan playgoing is par-
ticularly notable, seeing that in no continental theatre of the
sixteenth century, or the first quarter of the seventeenth,
was there frank and free interminglement of the sexes. ^

^ Three hours is the period ini.icz.ttdiinyf\it\.%tone'i Heptameron of Civil Diicoursa
(1582), and Dekker's Raven s Almanack (1609). " The space of two hours and a half
and somewhat more " is alluded to in the induction to Bartholomew Fairy as played at
the Hope in 16 14. See also the prologue to The Lover's Progress^ and the epilogue to
The Loyal Subject.

2 It was also customary, at the end of every performance, to announce the next
play and the day of acting. See the allusion to this practice in the lines headed "The
Stationer", by H. Moseley, prefixed to the First Folio Beaumont and Fletcher (1647).
It is curiously illustrative of the intense conservatism of the player-folk that this
custom should have been maintained in the English theatre down to the middle of the
last century.

^ Cf. H. A. Rennart, Life of Lope de Fega^ chap, vi ; Coryafs Cruditiei (Glasgow,
1905), ii. p. 386 ; Quarterly Revieiv, Vol. cii, p. 416.

14 'The Evolution and Influence of

There was no provision of programmes, as, for other
reasons besides the vagaries of the weather, there was
seldom any absolute certainty in the Bankside houses as
to what would be performed. During Shrovetide and
other holiday periods the players were at the mercy of the
"saylers, watermen, shoemakers, butchers, and appren-
tices" then enjoying an unwonted leisure, and had to give
them what they demanded, or risk the destruction of the
theatre. ^ But to prevent misunderstanding (the playgoer
having the right to depart without payment previous to

J' the appearance of the gatherers ^), it was usual, at public
and private theatres alike, to expose on the stage, with
the opening of the doors, a titleboard indicating in text
letters what piece was about to be performed. Notwith-
standing this habituation of the Elizabethan audience to
inscribed boards, one sees no reason for believing what has

' been so often averred, viz., that changes of scene were
regularly indicated in a similar way. It is tolerably certain,
however, that in plays like Pericles^ where the action oscil-

f lates rapidly from country to country, as well as in plays
of the Marlowean order, where the scene occasionally

1 changes while the characters remain on the stage, resort was

/ made to inscribed locality-boards to prevent confusion.
Whether in the theatres in the Fields or on the Bank-
side there was tacit obedience (probably more from force of
habit than deliberate bowing to authority) to the City ordi-

. nance that " no playing be in the dark, so that the auditory
may return home before sunset". This limitation of the
traffic of the stage to a period of between two hours and
a half and three hours largely conditioned much that was
distinctive in Elizabethan dramaturgy, as well as the entire

. technics of the Elizabethan player. Since time had to be

\ rigidly economised, waits of all kinds were studiously

* See the remarkably vivid description of these saturnalia in Gayton's Festivoui
Notes on the History of the renoiuned Don Quixote (1654).

' This custom, so far as applied to the boxes, long survived the Elizabethan era,
and even penetrated into Ireland. It obtained in the Dublin playhouse early in the
eighteenth century.

The Elizabethan Playhouse 1 5

avoided. Speech had to be at once fluent, articulate, and
well modulated. Action became well-nigh continuous, and
the interplay of character upon character a merry-go-round.
Act-divisions were indicated rather than realised, and gen-
erally lasted no longer than it took a dumb show to pass
across the stage, or Chorus to deliver a brief speech.

Although not exactly the first of its order (a select
silenced playhouse having been previously established in
the Singing School of St. Paul's), the Blackfriars,' as built
by the Burbages and opened by Henry Evans in 1597
under royal patronage, was the first "private" theatre of
importance, and the exemplar of its type. As much a public
theatre as any house on the Bankside, it was only private
in the sense that privacy was obtained for its better class
patrons by charging higher prices of admission, the cheapest
seats costing six-pence. But if more was charged, more, as
we shall see, was provided.

For the first six years of its history the Blackfriars was
virtually a Court Theatre subsidised by the Queen. The
lessees were responsible only for rent and repairs, the
heavier charges for maintenance, apparel, and furniture for
the Children of the Chapel, who composed the actors and
singers, being borne by the royal exchequer. In other
respects, the Blackfriars enjoyed a distinction beyond
any other playhouse of its era. It was the first London
theatre to be honoured by a visit from a reigning monarch.
We know for certain that the Queen attended the perform-
ance there on Tuesday, December 29, 1601.^ This may
not have been her first visit and, doubtless, was not her
last. The vogue of the young eyases caused much heart-
burning among the adult players, especially as Elizabeth,
in furthering the interests of the petted children, sought
to suppress, or restrict the other companies.

* Cf. C. W. Wallace, The Children of the Chapel at Blackfriars, p. 95. Several of
my details concerning the Blackfriars have been derived from this valuable work, but
occasionally I have been compelled to exercise an independency of judgment where the
results of extended personal study and research run counter to Prof, Wallace's deduc-
tions.

■ 1 6 The Evolution and Influence of

By reason of the persistence of many of its characteristics,
the private theatre formed the connecting link between the
platform stage of Shakespeare's day and the picture stage
of Dryden's. Others of the type may be briefly referred
to. Paul's, reconstituted shortly after the opening of the
Blackfriars, had an audience of almost equal distinction,
and might have enjoyed a similar vogue, had not its reper-
tory consisted for the most part of "musty fopperies of
antiquity". Five or six years later, synchronising with
the dawn of James the First's reign, the Children of the
King's Revels had their private house in Whitefriars, to be
known later (after its re-edification for the adult players),
as Salisbury Court. About 1615 the Cockpit in Drury
Lane was transformed into a private theatre and called the
Phoenix, from its sign. As often as not, however, it was
referred to by its earlier designation. Largely owing to
the disrepute of its surroundings, the Phoenix never gained
distinction of audience, and the quality of its performances
was little superior to that of the average public theatre.

With the building of the Blackfriars came in many vital
improvements. So rapid an advance in a single essay was
remarkable, for it must be remembered that the divergency
of the private from the public theatre was considerably
greater than the divergency of the public theatre from the
inn-yard. To begin with, the era of the roofed theatre,
with acting by artificial light, had now dawned. Again, the
Blackfriars was the first of the rectangular, as opposed to
the circular, or octagonal, houses. It was likewise the first
to possess a rectilinear auditorium. ^ Of this the shape and

* I am basing here on Prof. Wallace's plausible argument (op. cit. chap, i.), which
neither admits of proof nor disproof. But if the Blackfriars' auditorium began square-
shaped it ended round. In Middleton's The Mayor of Quinborough (i66i), as certainly
acted there before the Civil War, Raynulph, as Prologue says :

"What Raynulph, monk of Chester can,

Raise from his Polychronicon

That raiseth him, as works do men,

To see long-parted light agen,

That best may please this round fair ring^

With sparkling diamonds circled in^

I shall produce."

The Elizabethan Playhouse 17

general disposition were almost wholly conditioned by
pre-existent circumstances. The Blackfriars was a second
floor theatre, constructed in an old monastic hall some
66 feet long by 46 feet broad. Incapable of providing
accommodation for more than six hundred people, it was
smaller than any existing playhouse, not even excepting
Henslowe's "little Rose". But within its narrow confines
several innovations of practical issue were at once effected. /
From being the worst, the pit now became the best part 'i
of the house. No longer at the mercy of the elements, it J
was furnished with benches in gradually ascending rows. ^ \
The house had also the regulation three galleries, not,
however, as in the existing public theatres, ovoid in form,
but running along three sides of a rectangle. It has been
asserted that the Blackfriars was the model for at least two
of the later private houses^, but it is gravely to be doubted
whether the rectangular auditorium was ever repeated in
any house of this order. When Antonio's Revenge was
produced at Paul's c. November, 1599, the prologue
maintained that "a sullen tragic scene" was adapted to
the melancholy of the season : —

Therefore, we proclaim,
If any spirit breathes within this round
Uncapable of weighty passion

let such

Hurry amain from our black-visaged shows.

The "sparkling diamonds", I take it, were the ladies' eyes — which oftener sparkled
in the private than the public theatres. Or the reference might be to the abounding
lights of "the torchy Friars."

^ The benches of the Blackfriars are distinctly referred to by Thomas Carew in
his lines to D'Avenant on The Just Italian^ and the benches of Salisbury Court in the
epilogue to The Scholars. Undoubtedly it was from the earlier private houses that the
Restoration theatres of the picture stage order derived the principle of the amphithe-
atrical pit, with the benches systematically covered with green cloth, an arrangement that
held good up to the eighteenth century. Abundant evidence of its existence is to hand,
owing to the fact that the contemporary continental pit was invariably a standing one,
and that several French travellers have testified to the superiority of the English system.
Among these are Balthasar de Monconys (1663), Brunet (1676) and Misson (1698).

' C. W. Wallace, op. cit. p. 18 note 3 and elsewhere.

1 8 The Evolution and Influence of

The reference here not only indicates the circular disposi-
tion of the auditorium, but disproves Professor Wallace's
assertion that the PauFs theatre had no galleries. "This
round "^ could not refer to the Singing School in which
the playhouse was constructed ; for that, most assuredly,
was rectangular. Moreover, one treads on firm ground in
inferring that the Phosnix had curved galleries, seeing
that it was constructed in a cockpit, and that Shakespeare
in King Henry F makes the Chorus speak of the Globe (or
was it the Curtain ?) as "this cockpit" and "wooden O."

So much for the Blackfriars auditorium. On turning
our attention stagewards what first strikes us is the notable
advance towards the slow-coming isolation of the player and
his domains. This, however, was matter of accident, not of
artistic intention. It was due to the comparative smallness
of the hall. So far from projecting as of old into the middle
of the pit, and being surrounded on three sides by the
groundlings, the stage shrank proportionately in depth and
increased in breadth. It was made to extend right across the
hall, a disposition that led to the devotion of some little
space at either end to the service of privileged spectators.^
Moreover, as the house was designed for strictly theatrical
purposes, the stage was made permanent, boarded in below ^
and embellished along the front with a carved balustrade.
Much inconvenience must have been experienced by the
players on the old removable, unpalisaded stages (of the
type represented in the well-known Swan sketch), more
particularly in connexion with the working of traps, always
a vital factor in Elizabethan performances. Few theatres
but must have had several of these traps ; many plays
demanded the simultaneous employment of three or

' One is always safe in taking these references literally, provided one is certain of
the place of performance. Thus, in the prologue to The Whore of Babylotiy as written
for delivery at the Fortune, we have "the charmes of silence through this square be
throwne."

' If this new system of stage-building was followed at all the later private theatres,
as Prof. Wallace infers, then we have no authentic view of the interior of any house
of the order. The Roxana and Messalina prints both show projecting stages ; and the
frontispiece to The IVits, despite presenting signs and tokens of the private theatre in
the matter of artificial lighting, indicates the groundlings on two sides.

lOTHilllMIlllIIillinT^^

FRONTISPIECE TO THE WITS, OR SPORT UPON SPORT {1663).
(Usually misdescribed as the Red Bull Theatre.)

[To face p. 18.

The Elizabethan Playhouse 19

four.^ The Induction to The Poetaster shows that the Black-
friars stage had a central trap, and the masque in The Maid's
Tragedy indicates the use of others. Hence one reason
why the stool-holders could not have sat about promis-
cuously, and must have been assigned a circumscribed
position. It is noteworthy also that with the introduction
of the permanent stage came speaking in the cellarage :
instance, the ghost in Hamlet,^

Beyond the fact that there was considerable elaboration
of spectacular effect ^, stage routine at the Blackfriars ruled
much as in the public houses. But some modification of
the old physical conditions was clearly brought about by
the complete roofing and the consequent resort to wax and
tallow for lighting purposes. We know that the turret
and its flag disappeared; and we can assume that "the
shadow " was dispensed with. No other material alteration
in stage regions took place, save a vital change in the
position of the two main entering doors. On the old
removable stages no permanent projections beyond the
straight front of the tiring-house were practicable. Accord-
ingly the two doors with their surmounting windows had
to be flush with the facade. This arrangement was more
calculated to satisfy the vision of the main body of specta-
tors than suit every possible variety of dramatic situation.
Detours had to be made where passages across the stage
were demanded. Scenes where the action took place at
opposite upper windows in a street were impossible to
visualize. Hence situations such as that in The Devil is
an Ass^ ii. 2, had to be eschewed. But on the permanent
stage of the Blackfriars these difficulties and restrictions

^ Cf. The Whore of Babylon (Fortune Theatre), the dumb show of Falsehood
(ed. Pearson, ii. 243) -^ If It Be Not a Good Play, the Di'uill is in it (Red Bull), epilogue of
Hell; and Messalinoy v. 3.

^ Cf. Antonio's Revenge (1600 at Paul's), v. 2. In all public theatres preceding
the Blackfriars, as well as in the Blackfriars itself, the cellarage could hardly have ex-
ceeded five feet in depth. The stage was on a level with the line of vision, and there
could have been no excavation in houses where the scaffold was occasionally removed
for the holding of other entertainments. This also applies to the Blackfriars but for a
different reason — the peculiar location of the theatre.

' Note the practicable working fountain in Cynthia's Re-velsy a characteristic
feature of the Court mounting of the period.

I 20 ^he Evolution and Influence of

were obviated by placing the two main entering doors and
their overhanging balconies in an oblique position at either
end of the tiring-house. ^ A host of later stage directions
testify to the gratefulness of this arrangement. For example,
in ne Malcontent^ v. 2, we have "Enter from opposite
sides Malevole and Maquerelle singing."^ The older
directions of this sort read " enter from the one door . . .
the other door." So much more satisfactory in its results
was this new oblique disposition that it was adopted in all
subsequent public and private theatres, with the possible
exception of the Hope. Not only this, but it aiforded the
prototype of the proscenium doors and balconies of the
Restoration picture-stage, a conventionality that maintained
its sway in the English theatre to a period almost within
living memory.

The Blackfriars custom of sitting on the stage, so agree-
able to those who carried a year's revenue on their backs,
and desired to "publish a handsome man and a new suit,"
quickly spread to the public theatres, despite the grum-
bling of the players, the girdings of Jonson, and the
vigorous protests of the groundlings. Not, indeed, until
near the middle of the eighteenth century was the stool-
holder to be wholly banished from the scene. ^ In Pre-
Restoration days the presence of these intruders militated
against the procuring of sustained scenic illusion by means
of material accessories, with the result that properties
remained in their primitive stage of symbolism. It was
only in the imitation of natural phenomena that realism

^ Cf. Shakespeare-Jahrbuchj xliv. pp. 165-6, Mr. William Archer's reprinted article
on The Fortune Theatre ; Albright, op. cit. pp. 47-9. The Dutch sketch of the Swan
illustrates the older method. Had this obtained at the Blackfriars, Perigot's opening
speech in the fifth act of The Faithful Shepherdess would have seemed absurd. Immedi-
ately on his entry he espies Clorin seated in her cabin (i. e. on the inner stage) and says : —

"Yon is her Cabin, thus far off I'll stand
And call her forth ; for my unhallowed hand
I dare not bring so near yon sacred place."

' See also Nice Valour y iii. 3 ; Four Plays in One, Sc. 4 (The Triumph of Love),
dumb show ; The Little French Lawyer, iii. i ; The Chances, v. 3 ; Wife for a Month, ii. i.

' Dekker discourses upon this incubus with delicious irony in The Guls Hornhooke.
For a vivid picture of a typical Blackfriars audience at a somewhat later period, see
H. FitzjcfFrey, Notes from Blackfrycrs (1620).

ne Elizabethan Playhouse

was aimed at. Thunder, lightning, rain, mists ^, blazing
stars, the singing of birds, all were illusively simulated.

At "the torchy Friars" good music was a predominant
characteristic. The gross afterpieces, known as "jigs",
which had so long delighted the rough frequenters of the
public theatres were abandoned in favour of intercalated
song and dance. The high reputation for its music gained
by the Blackfriars early in its first, or subsidised, period was
never afterwards lost or rivalled. In the beginning this dis-
tinction was largely attained by the quality of the prelude
with which it regaled its patrons for a whole hour before
the play.^ The strange thing was that, notwithstanding
all these extraneous musical features, the earliest comer
was not detained at the Blackfriars any longer than three
hours, or about the limit of a public theatre performance.^
This dispatch is all the more curious seeing that the
necessity for undue rapidity of action had been precluded
by the employment of artificial light. But it may be that
strict economy ruled, wax and tallow being expensive.

It is noteworthy that the two innovative theatres of the
Elizabethan era, each typical of its class, were built by
James Burbage. But Burbage's death apparently took
place before the Blackfriars was finished, and the work
was probably completed under the superintendence of his
son Richard. There is here an important continuity, for
the younger Burbage constructed in 1598, largely out of
the material of the demolished Theater, the never-to-
be-forgotten Globe on the Bankside. All the theatrical

^ Mists (as in Arden of Faversham^ iv. 2 and 3) were effected by smoke arising
from a trap. For mimic rainstorms, see If It Be Not a Good Play, the Divell is in I
(ed. Pearson, iii. p. 326) ; and The Brazen Agey Act i, dumb show. It is impossible to
divine how this effect was managed.

^ See the important extract from the Diary of Philipp Julius, Duke of Stetten-
Pomerania (1602), given by C. W. Wallace, op. cit. chap. ix. Beyond doubt the Black-
friars custom formed the prototype of the *' First, Second, and Third Music " of the
Restoration period. Hence the tenor of the Duke's remarks is curiously iterated by
later visitors, such as Sorbieres (1664) and Magolotti (1669). In the belated Travels
of the latter we read, *' before the comedy begins, that the audience may not be tired
with waiting, the most delightful symphonies are played ; on which account many
persons come early to enjoy this agreeable amusement."

^ The actual traffic of the stage rarely exceeded a period of two hours. See
prologue to The Two Noble Kinsmen and to Love's Pilgrimage.

22 The Evolution and Influence of

improvements of the age were therefore due to the enter-
prise of the one family, father and son. It must not be
overlooked that the Globe was in the direct line of pro-
gress. Although its auditorium had all the normal charac-
teristics of the older public theatres, some melioration took
place in the arrangement of the stage, based on the im-
provements at the Blackfriars.

We have no authentic view of Shakespeare's famous
theatre on the Bankside, but we know at least that it was
circular in outline.^ Whether or not it was the " wooden
O " referred to by the Chorus in King Henry V^ it was
certainly the house spoken of in the prologue to ne Merry
Devill of Edmonton in 1608 :

We ring this round with our invoking spelles.*

Surrounded by dykes and reached by light bridges, the
Globe stood on a sort of islet. Its situation is vividly
pictured in Ben Jonson's Execration upon Vulcan, Over its
galleries was a thatched roofing, an arrangement that
eventually occasioned its destruction by fire. IJnlike most
of the other Bankside houses, its record remained unsullied
by bull- and bear-baiting. Since it was strictly a playhouse,
we may take it that, after the manner of the Blackfriars, it
had a permanent, palisaded stage, projecting, however (as
in the earlier public houses), into the yard. That the Globe
stage was surrounded on its three sidesby a low balustrade^
possibly with a view of resisting the encroachments of the
groundlings, can be gleaned from Middleton's allusion in
the poetical introduction to Tbe Blacke Booke {i 604.). Lucifer,
on ascending to speak the prologue to his own play, says :

^ Halliwell-Phillipps, in his Outlines^ identifies an uninscribed, turretless playhouse
in Hondius' view of North and South London in Speed's Theatre of the Empire of Great
Britaine (1610), as the Globe. But Fleay {Chron. Hist. Eng. Stage^ p. 146) traverses this
ascription in pointing out that the so-called Globe is more likely the Rose. No reliance
can be placed on the evidence of the old maps. They were based for the most part on
surveys made many years previously ; and in them the Bankside theatres are seldom
correctly located. Cf. William Martin's The Site of the Globe Playhouse of Shakespeare
(1910) as reprinted from Surrey Arcbaological Collections, Vol. xxiii.

* Cf. the lines "On Sejanus," by "Ev. B." : —

" When in the Globe's fair ring, our world's best stage," etc.

' Doubtless similar to the stage rails indicated on the engraved title pages of
Roxana and Messalina.

The Elizabethan Playhouse I3

And now that I have vaulted up so high,
Above the stage rails of this earthen Globe,
I must turn actor and join companies.

There seems to be no valid reason for doubting that one
invariable concomitant of the permanent (as opposed to the
removable) stage was the oblique entering doors. Some
slight evidence exists to show that the Globe had these.
In The Merry Devill of Edmonton^ v. 2, as performed there,
the scene represents two opposite inns whose signs have
been mischievously stolen or transposed. Note that the
host of the George refers to his rival as " mine overthwart
neighbour." The situation dejnands two opposite doors,
with or without overhanging signs, and could not be
realised by two doors ranged along a straight line in the
front of the tiring-house.

Shortly after the opening of the Globe, two other public
theatres were built on the north side of the river, the Red
Bull in St. John Street, Clerkenwell, and the Fortune in
Golden Lane, Cripplegate. ^ Both appealed to much the
same type of playgoer, a rough and ready type, delighting
in robustious melodrama and exuberant declamation. " I
have heard," writes Gayton in 1654,^ "that the Poets of
the Fortune and Red Bull had always a mouth-measure
for their actors (who were terrible tear-throats) and made
their lines proportionable to their compasses, which were
sesquipedales — a foot and a half."

Built in 1599, after the general disposition (but not the
form) of the Globe, the Fortune was a square-shaped
theatre with a rectangular auditorium. It enjoys the
distinction of being the only Pre-Restoration playhouse

^ No authentic view of either has come down to us. Albright (op. cit. p. 45)
plausibly identifies the Messalina illustration as a view of the Red Bull, an ascription
which, at first sight, seems borne out by what Baker {Biog. Dramatical 1782, i. 266)
says of Thomas Jordan, viz., that he was "a performer belonging to the company at
the Red Bull, and acted the part of Lepida in the tragedy of Messalina." But difficulties
crop up on further examination. The King's Revels men shifted about from theatre
to theatre, and we have no record of the house where Richards' tragedy was first pro-
duced. And even if we had, we have no evidence to show that the view on the
engraved title-page represents the stage of that particular theatre.
^ ^ op. cit.

24 '^^^ Evolution and Influence of

which call be scientifically reconstructed. Basing on its
extant building contract, and supplementing the incom-
plete details by knowledge derived from other sources, Mr.
Walter H. Godfrey, the well-known London architect, has
drawn up a series of elaborate plans which visualize satis-
factorily the main characteristics of the first Fortune.^
The only seriously debatable point in connexion with this
sound reconstruction is the position of the staircases, which,
on due reflection, would appear to have been external.^

It only remains to add that within the strictly Shake-
spearean era a complete cycle of theatre-building took
place. The last public playhouse erected in the poet's
lifetime — the malodorous Hope on the Bankside-T-was a
reversion to type. Modelled largely on the Svpn, the
Hope was provided with a removable stage, so that it might
maintain the unsavoury traditions of the old Bear Garden
which it had superseded.

In reviewing the story of the English drama and its
habitat in the seventeenth century, it is impossible to draw
any sharp line of demarcation. The outbreak of the Civil
War simply indicates (in military phrase) a marking of
time, not a dismissal. When activities were renewed it
was on the old basis. The first theatres of the Restoration
period were strictly of the Elizabethan order. Even when
these were superseded one cannot say that the platform
stage passed away and left no trace. Some of its physical
characteristics and not a few of its conventionalities became
the inheritance of the picture stage. So, too, many of the play-
going customs of Shakespeare's day lasted until Congreve's.
The great Elizabethan impetus cannot be said to have wholly
spent itself until the middle of the nineteenth century.

^ For the designs, contract, and excursus, see Mr. Godfrey's article, "An
Elizabethan Theatre" in The Architectural Review for April, 1908. Cf. Shakespeare-
Jahrbuchy 1908, pp. 159-66, The Fortune Theatre. For an independent reconstruction
of the Cripplegate house, by A. Forestier, see The Illustrated London Neivs of August 12,
191 1. This, while in some respects an improvement on Mr. Godfrey's designs, is marred
by one or two unwarrantable features, such as the curtain dividing the upper stage from
front to back, and the partition at the front of the yard.

' See my review of Mr. Godfrey's plans in the article on " The Old Fortune " in
The Tribune newspaper of October 23, 1907.

The Situation of the Lords' Room

Writing in his Guls Hornbooke (i 609) on " How a Gallant
should behave himselTTna Playhouse," DelcIceFa33resses
his pretended fledgeling in a vein of masterly irony and
contrives to pillory some of the foibles of the time.
" Sithence then " he says, "the place is so free in entertain-
ment, allowing a stoole as well to the Farmers sonne as to
your Templer : that your Stinkard has the selfe-same
libertie to be there in his Tobacco-Fumes, which your
sweet Courtier hath : and that your Car-man and Tinker
claime as strong a voice in their suffrage, and sit to give
judgment on the plaies life and death, as well as the
prowdest Momus among the tribe of Critick : it is fit that
hee, whom the most tailors bils do make roome for, when
he comes, should not be basely (like a vyoll) casd up in a
corner.

'^Whether therefore the gatherers of the publique or
private Playhouse stand to receive the afternoones rent,
let our Gallant (having paid it) presently advance himselfe
up to thojrhrone^ of the Stage. I meane not into the
3C6rHs roome/ (which is now but the Stages Suburbs) : No,
irhose boxes, by the iniquity of custome, conspiracy of
waiting women and Gentlemen-Ushers, that there sweat
together, and the covetousnes of Sharers, are contemptibly
thrust into the reare, and much new Satten is there dambd,
by being smothred to death in darknesse. But on the very
Rushes where the Comedy is to daunce, yea, and under

^ Prof. Schelling, who is much too apt to take Dekker's figurative phrasing literally,
stumbles badly over this passage. See Elizabethan Drama i. 175. He thinks the
reference was to the actual property throne which he deems accordingly almost a
permanent feature of the stage. Dekker's meaning is made apparent by the Second
Child's instruction to the green playgoer in the Induction to Cynthia's Revels : "Olord
sir ! will you betray your ignorance so much ? Why throne yourself in state, as other
gentlemen use, sir?" Or, in other words, hire a stool and take a conspicuous position
on the stage.

30 The Situation of the Lords* Room

the state of Cambises himselfe must our fethered Estridge,
like a piece of Ordnauce, be planted valiantly (because
impudently) beating >downe the mewes and hisses of the
opposed rascality." '

Than this, no did passage dealing with the Elizabethan-
Stuart stage has been more sadly misinterpreted. It is only
within the last decennium that a scientific examination of
early physical conditions has been entered upon, and no
investigator has as yet attained sufficient knowledge to
tear out the heart of Dekker's fascinating mystery. Towards
that consummation the following excursus may ultimately
prove helpful.

Our first business is to note that Dekker's reflections
are not limited in their application. They deal, on his own
showing, with both the public and the private theatre, and
one cannot but assume that all the customs referred to in
the chapter were common to both. ^

The gull is instructed to seat himself on the stage at the
psychological moment, or, in other words, when "the
quaking prologue" is about to enter. He has come in by
the tiring-house door, having duly paid the preliminary
price of admission ; more remains to be disbursed for a
stool. The same doorway leads to the Lords' room, a resort
to be avoided, as it has lost its high repute. He is not
told why Rank and Fashion had abandoned these boxes to
waiting women and gentlemen-ushers. It may be that
they wearied of trying to execute the impossible feat of
seeing the action that occasionally took place on the inner
stage beneath them, and, in sheer desperation, increased
the numbers of that growing body who sat on the stage
itself. This would have necessitated some enlargement of
the scaflFold, more in breadth, probably, than in depth, but
still with some deepening. The actual position of the
tiring-house would not be — could not be — altered ; and
yet, if we assume that acting went on well to the front of

* Prof. Wallace disputes this (op. cit. chap. xi. pmsim), but his contentions have
been effectively disposed of by Mr. C. R. Baslcervill in his paper on "The Custom of
sitting on the Elizabethan Stage" in Modern Philology (Chicago), viii. No. 4, April, 191 1.

The Situation of the Lords' Room 31

the stage, the boxes at the back would be so much the more
remote from the main action. Dark and ill-placed, they
should no longer have been let to spectators, but the
cupidity of the players induced them to turn the deserted
rooms into a licentious rendezvous for the lower middle
classes.

By those not profoundly versed in Dekker 's pamphleteer-
ing style, it might possibly be argued that the description
of the Lords' room as "now but the Stages Suburbs"
implies that the position of the boxes for the nobility had
recently been altered. That this was not so, seems demon-
strated by the fact that no topical allusion to the Lords'
room can be traced later than The Guh Hornbooke, What
one really requires to grasp is that Dekker uses the word
"suburbs" in a sinister metaphorical sense, hard to arrive
at now but readily comprehended by his contemporaries.
In Lanthorn and Candle-Light (1608), he had already
devoted a whole chapter to a gruesome description of the
iniquities of London's suburbs. "Would the Divell hire
a villaine to spil bloud.''" asks he. "There he shall finde
him. One to blaspheme ; there he hath choice. A Pandar
that would court a matron at her praiers '^ hes there. A
cheator that would turne his owne father a begging ; He's
there too: A harlot that would murder her new-borne
Infant ? Shee lies in there." That Dekker meant to imply
by "suburbs of the stage" a disreputable and undesirable
locality is shown by a quaint passage in the first chapter of
The Guh Hornbooke^ wherein we learn of "Potato-pies,
and Custards" that "stood like the sinful suburbs of
Cookery, and had not a wall (so much as a handfuU hie)
built rownd about them."^

As much of thi% interpretation appears a mere begging
of the question/l hasten to advance some proof that the
boxes for the/nobility were originally situated aloft in the

' Cf. Nashe's Cbrists Teares over lervsalem (1593)," London^ what are thy Suburbs but
licensed Stewes ? Can it be so many brothel-houses of salary sensuality and sixe-penny
whoredome (the next doore to the Magistrates) should be set up and maintained," etc.,
etc. See also Dekker's Jan to Make Ton Merrie^ No. 59,

32 The Situation of the Lords' Room

tiring-house, and that before 1609 the position had been
abandoned.

Of the four known views of interiors of early non-scenic
theatres, three show incontestably that spectators sat in
elevated boxes at the back of the stage. ^ The existence of
this custom at the public hous^ is indicated in the well-
known sketch of the Swany^nd at the private by the
erroneously ascribed fronjnspiece to Kirkman's Drolls^
which, popular acceptance to the contrary notwithstanding,
does not represent the Red BuU.^ Professor Baker, as
behoves a thick-and-thin supporter of Dr.Cecil Brodmeier's
individual exposition of the alternation theory, scouts the
possibility of spectators sitting at the back of the stage, and
opines that De Witt's sketch is largely responsible for the
persistence of the idea. He tries to explain away the evidence
it presents, forgetful of the fact that corroboration of its
details in this respect is ample.^ " It is by no means clear,"
he writes, "that the persons seen in this gallery in the
print are not actors watching the scene on the front stage, so
that any argument from it starts from an exceedingly weak
premise. Secondly, the great majority of the Elizabethan
plays call for use of the upper stage. How convenient and
how probable, to turn the occupiers of the upper stage
seats out when the exigencies of the play demanded! Above
all, why should rational theatre-goers wislj to gaze on the
backs of the actors and to sit in the one^art of the house
where hearing would be most difficult." Xhe prime mistake
here is in supposing that the whole of the second floor in
the tiring-house was given over to the upper stage. A
sufficiency of pictorial and textual evidence exists to show
that only a central portion of the floor was so allotted ; the

^ Unfortunately the tiny view on the title-page of Messalina has been lopped of its
air proportions through the exigencies of engraving.

2 The print, with its details of artificial lighting, plainly indicates a private theatre,
and the Red Bull was never otherwise than a public one. The ascription was unknown
to Malone and is utterly unwarranted. It dates apparently from 1809, when the plate
was reproduced separately in London with a long inscription associating it with the
Red Bull.

* See his Development of Shakespeare as a Dramatist, p. 75.

ne Situation of the Lords' Room 33

remainder was divided up into boxes for the musicians
and for spectators. Even if some of the boxes were occasion-
ally pressed into the service of the scene to represent
windows, — a not improbable supposition — I see no reason
why the spectators should not h^ve been disturbed. Those
who went there took all risks/' Spectators of a similar order
had to undergo a like discomfiture at a much later period.
In the London theatres of the eighteenth century there
were stage boxes over the two proscenium doors, and in
these spectators frequently sat. It is to this arrangement
Tate Wilkinson refers when he says in his Memoirs "when-
ever a Don Choleric in The Fop's Fortune, or Sir Amorous
Vainwit in A Woman's a Riddle, or Charles in The Busy
Body, tried to find out secrets, or plot an escape from a
balcony, they always bowed and thrust themselves into
the boxes over the stage, amidst the company, who were
greatly disturbed, and obliged to give up their seats."
Prof. Baker's query as to why rational people should desire
to occupy such a generally undesirable position as that of
the back boxes can be satisfactorily answered. The nobility
went there in the beginning because they could enter by
the tiring-house door, and be completely isolated from the
mob. When the inconvenience of the locality from the
mere playgoer's point of view became unbearable, the
Lords' room was abandoned to the desecrations of those
who made of it a mart for illicit love and bought kisses.

The earliest known reference to the Lords' room occurs
in Henslowe's Diary, in a list of payments made for the
building or repairing of the Rose circa 1592 :

pd. for sellynge of the Rome ouer the tyerhowsse. ... x s.
pd. for sellinges my lords Rome. . . . xiiij s. ^

It may be that the association of the two entries does
not warrant us in assuming the propinquity of the two
rooms ; but if we take it that the room over the tiring-
house is represented by the garret in the Swan sketch out

' Ed. Greg (1904), p. 10. Collier makes sad hash of these details. Cf. Hist. Eng,
Dram. Poetry (1831), iii. 317.

34 '^^^ Situation of the Lords' Room

of which the trumpeter is emerging, the Lords* room at the
Rose might well have been on the lower story. That it
was sub-divided is apparently indicated by Henslowe's
use of the word "sellinges," and the relative payments
show that it occupied a somewhat larger area than the
top room.

Two important textual allusions bring into sharper
perspective the evidence presented in the three interior
fews, and go far towards clinching my main argument.
'Every Man Out of his Humour was acted at the Globe in
1599. In Act ii. sc. i., Carlo Buffone comments upon
Fastidious Brisk's boasting of his intimacy with certain
courtiers thus : "There's ne'er a one of these but might
lie a week on the rack, ere they could bring forth his name;
and yet he pours them out as familiarly as if he had seen
them stand by the fire in the presence, or ta'en tobacco
with them over the stage, in the lords* room." ^ This is
definite enough. " Over the stage " fan only be interpreted
to mean above in the tiring-house. None of the rooms in
the auditorium proper could be said to be over the stage.
In the Swan sketch, as well as in the so-called Red Bull
frontispiece, a clear space (for the use of spectators in the
yard or pit) is shown between the sides of the platform and
the lowermost gallery. At the Fortune theatre, as one can
readily deduce from the building contract,^ this space
formed a gap of some six feet on each side. On the Messalina
and Roxana engraved title-pages (wherein the type of
theatre represented cannot be satisfactorily determined) we
have indications in the narrowing stage of a similar arrange-
ment. From these facts may be safely predicated the
existence of a definite rule for the public theatres. The
chances are, however, that in the private houses, with their
comfortably seated pits, a different system obtained. On

* Compare Webster's induction to Tbe Malcontent (Globe, 1 604) :

John Loivin : Good sir, will you leave the stage ? I'll help you to a private

room.
Sly : Come Cuz, lets take some tobacco . . .
' Given in extenso, from Malone's Shakespeare, in Halliwell-Phillipps' Outlines^
3rd ed., pp. 524 ff.

The Situation of the Lords' Room

Prof. Wallace's showing the stage in Burbage's Blackfriars
extended right across the entire width of the hall. ^ Even
conceding this, it is doubtful if the Lords' rooms during the
first lustrum of this house's history were situated otherwhere
than in the tiring-house. One longs to speak decisively
on this point so that one might the more readily visualize
that amiable habitude of Ben Jonson's at the Friars,
caustically alluded to in Satiromastix, or the Untrussing of the
Humorous Poet (1602), in that curious passage beginning,
"Besides you must forswear to venture on the stage
when your play is ended, and to exchange courtesies and
compliments with the gallants in the Lords' rooms, to make
all the house rise up in arms and to cry ^that's Horace,
that's he ! that's he ! '" &c.

Before the period of its degradation the Lords' room was
more remarkable for the conspicuousness and distinction
bestowed upon its occupants than for its play-seeing con-
veniency. That a certain type of ruffler haunted the place
is seen in an undated epigram on "Spongus the gallant"
preserved in The Dr. Farmer Chetham MS, Commonplace
BooP:

He playes at Primero^ over the stage,
fighte for the wall, and keepes a lac'te Cloke page ;
. Ryde through the streetes in glisteringe braverie
y and swallowes not the least indignitie.

/To occupy a seat in the Lords' room was accordingly to
place oneself where all eyes would naturally be attracted.
The action had no other background than the tiring-house.
That was the sense in which such a seat was "the best and
most conspicuous place" according to the allusion of Sir
John Davies in his Epigrams^ :

Rufus the Courtier, at the theatre,

Leauing the best and most conspicuous place.

' op. cit. pp. 215, et. seq.
' Ed. Grosart (1873), pt. i. p. 104.

^ A fashionable game at cards. *'I left him at primero with the Duke of Suffolk.'
King Henry VIII, i. 2,

"♦ Published at Middelburgh circa 1598.

36 The Situation of the Lords' Room

Doth either to the stage himselfe transfer,

Or through a grate^ doth show his doubtful face.

For that the clamorous frie of Innes of court,
Filles up the priuate roomes of greater prise ;
And such a place where all may haue resort.
He in his singularitie doth despise.

Yet doth not his particular humour shunne
The common stews and brothels of the towne,
Though all the world in troupes do thither runne,
Clean and vnclean, the gentle and the clowne :

Then why should Rufus in his pride abhorre
A common seate, that loues a common whore.

As for the waiting-women and gentlemen-ushers who
resorted to the Lords' room after it had fallen from its high
estate, and who, according to Dekker, sweltered there in
ignoble obscurity, some allusion to this well-marked and
undiscriminating type of playgoer is evidently intended in
Ben Jonson's lines to Fletcher on The Faithful Shepherdess:

The wise and many-headed bench that sits
Upon the life and death of plays and wits,
ComposM of gamester, captain, knight, knight's man.
Lady or pusil, that wears maske or fan.
Velvet or taffata cap^ ranked in the dark
With the shops foreman^ or some suche brave sparke^
(That may judge for his sixpence) had before
They saw it half, damn'd thy whole play.

One wonders whether it would be safe from this to draw
the inference that the Lords' rooms, at the period of their
decline and fall, were known as " sixpenny rooms ". In the
induction to The Magnetick Lady (1632), Jonson makes
allusion to " the faeces or grounds of your people, that sit
in the oblique caves and wedges of your house, your six-
penny mechanicks." In The Actors' Remonstrance^ a satirical

* Grated stage boxes were sometimes pressed into the service of the scene. Cf.
The Two Noble Kinsmen^ ii. i, the Daughter's penultimate speech. Also i King Henry
Vly i. 4, where Salisbury on the upper stage talks of looking "through the Grate." In
The Picture^ iv. 2, Ubaldo, in his shirt, peeps out of a grated window in the upper part
of the tiring-house.

The Situation of the Lords' Room

tract published in 1643 after the silencing of the theatres,
promise is made on behalf of the players that in future
they will cease to admit into their "sixpenny rooms those
unwholesome enticing harlots that sit there merely to be
taken up by apprentices or lawyers' clerks." If it was to
the harpy and her prey that the old Lords' room was given
over, one can readily divine why they were content to sit
there in semi-darkness, seeing little of the action, unseen
of the audience.

The question naturally suggests itself, to what part of
the house did the gallants resort after they had forsaken
the Lords' room ? Many doubtless sat upon the stage, but
this position, from its aptness to evoke "the mewes and
hisses of the opposed rascality," could not have been grate-
ful to all. Dekker in the Frotemium of his Guh Hornbooke
reveals to us the position sometimes occupied by the gallant
who had matriculated in "the new-found Colledge of
Criticks." Addressing shallow censurers of this kidney, he
writes, "I conjure you (as you come of the ng\\t goose-caps)
staine not your hose ; but when at a new play you take up
the twelve-penny rome next the stage ; (because the Lords
and you may seeme to be haile fellow wel-met) there draw
forth this booke, read alowd, laugh alowd, and play the
Antickes^ that all the garlike mouthd stinkards^ may cry
out. Away with the fool.''

As the witling could not give the impression of being
hail fellow well met with thje nobility without sitting in
their midst, it follows thar the twelvepenny room must
have been the part of me house generally resorted to
by the higher orders after they had forsaken the Lords'
room.

Apar't from the distinction of tariff between the public
and the private theatres, there was apparently no uniform
charge for admission to any particular part in all the houses

^ A phrase commonly applied to the groundlings. One can here cite Dekker in
elucidation of himself. Scoffing at the vanity of the players in his section on Winter
in Raven's Almanack^ he writes : "Ye shall be glad to play three hours for two-pence
to the basest stinkards in London, whose breath is stronger than garlick, and able to
poison all the twelvepenny rooms."

38 ne Situation of the Lords' Room

of any one category at any specific period. ^ But generally
speaking, a shilling (or, in other words, about six or seven
shillings of the present currency) was the highest charge
demanded. In this connexion Collier quotes from Sir T.
Overbury's Characters (16 14), "If he have but twelvepence
in his purse he will give it for the bej^t^oom in the play-
house." This he takes to be decisiv^^ If then this twelve-
penny room "next the stage" w^S the most expensive part
of the house, there is every reason to believe — not only
from Dekker's allusion but from other circumstances —
that it was situated in the lowermost gallery. In the
English theatre the rule has invariably held good (beginning
with the first tier of boxes, not with the basement), the
higher you go, the less you pay.

It must be said with^mphasis that this twelvepenny
room was no new deytce fashioned as a substitute for the
old Lords' room./ldentity of position shows that the
twelvepenny room was only another name for the gentle-
men's boxes, which were undoubtedly co-existent with the
tiring-house room during the period it was frequented by
the nobility. From the outset of its career the Globe had
these gentlemen's rooms, for the Fortune was built after
the manner of the Globe, and in the Fortune contract
we read of " fower convenient divisions for gentlemen's
roomes" in one of the galleries, the' particular locality,
however, remaining unspecified. /But the information
lacking can be obtained by a careful study of the Hope
contract of 1 6 1 3 . In even greater degree than the Fortune
was based on the Globe was the Hope constructed on the
lines of the Swan. One finds it stipulated in the Hope
contract that Gilbert Katherens should "also make two
boxes in the lower most storie fitt and decent for gentlemen
to sitt in ; and shall also make the partitions betweene the
roomes as they are at the saide playhouse called the Swan."

* Cf. Collier, Hist. Eng. Dram. Poetry (1831), iii. 341. The inflated prices at the
Hope in 16 14, enumerated in the induction to Bartbolomeiv Fair^ are accounted for by
the fact that the Globe had just been burnt down. This meant less opposition and
more demand for places.

'The Situation of the Lords' Room 39

We turn now to the valuable sketch of the interior of
the Swan, and we find that van Buchell, acting on the
instructions of his friend-Johannes de Witt, has inscribed
across the very portiop^of the lowermost story indicated
by Dekker ("the twelvepenny room next the stage") the
word orchestra. ^ This is conclusive. Neither in its original
nor its latterday sense was the term here applied, but in
a sense peculiar to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Cotgrave in his Dictionary ^ published in 161 1, defines
orchestre as "the senators' or noblemen's places in a tlieatre,
between the stage and the common seats.** In Serlio's
d)Srsign for a stage and auditorium,^ a genuine orchestra,
in the classic sense, intervenes between the two, and the
seats nearest the bare space are indicated as those occupied
by the noblest spectators. As this was the normal arrange-
ment on the continent throughout the sixteenth century,
and as the orchestra itself was no longer made use of, the
term came to be applied by natural transition to the seats
occupied by the highest classes. Instances of the use of
the word orchestra in this sense could be multiplied. Perhaps
the most striking example is to be found in the Orbis
Sensualium Pictus of Jan Amos Komensky, particularly in
that edition of the book published in London in 1659,
with the High Dutch portions translated into English by
Charles Hoole. The Latin description of Plate Number
cxxxii, entitled Ludus ScenicuSy runs as follows. — "In
Theatro (quod vestitur Tapetibus, et tegitur Sipariis)
Comoediae vel Tragaediae aguntur, quibus repraesentantur
memorabiles ; ut hie, Historia de Filio prodigo, et Patre,
ipsius, a quo recipitur, domum redux. Actores (Histriones)
agunt personati ; Morio dat Jocos. Spectatorum primarii,
sedent in Orchestra, plebs stat in Cavea, et plaudit, si
quid arridet." Hoole's translation of this reads, " In a Play-
house (which is trimmed with hangings, and covered with

^ Several writers have viewed the phrase with a purely modern intelligence and
given it a false interpretation. Cf. Dr. Richard Wegener, Die bUhnen einricbtungen des
Sbakespeareschen Theaters, p. 1 5 1 ; also Karl Blind's review of Gaedertz in The Academy,
No. 840, p. 391.

' Serlio, Architettura (Paris, 1545. Book II, dealing with Perspective.)

40 The Situation of the Lords' Room

curtains) Comedies and Tragedies are acted, wherein
memorable things are represented ; as here, the History
of the Prodigal Son, and his Father, by whom he is enter-
tained, being returned home. The Players act being in
disguise; the Fool maketh jests. The chief of the Spec-
tators sit in the Gallery, the Common Sort stand on the
Ground, and clap their hands, if anything please them."
Hoole, in rendering the passage, strives as far as possible
to make it applicable to the English theatre. There is
a touch of insular realism in his "trimmed with hangings,
and covered with curtains." But his translation is chiefly
noteworthy for the fact that " spectatorum primarii sedent
in Orchestra" is rendered by "the chief of the spectators
sit in the Gallery." This was probably as near as he could
get to the exact truth at a time when the London theatres
had long been silenced by the Puritans.

If the foregoing conclusions win any degree of acceptance
from scholars, it seems to me the result must be disastrous
to the alternation theory. In the latest stages of its develop-
ment, that theory (as expounded by Brodmeier) calls for
a central enclosure formed of curtains hanging from the
front and sides of "the Heavens." To those who have
full knowledge of the physical conditions of the Elizabethan
stage such an arrangement is inconceivable. In creating
it to bolster up their cause, the alternationists failed to
take into consideration the presence of spectators at the
> back. Are we asked in all seriousness to believe that from
first to last the occupants of the tiring-house rooms would
have been content with seeing barely a moiety of the action.?
Possibly at a pinch we might stretch our imaginations so
far as to concede that the players had the audacity to
ignore the claims of the philanderers who infested these
boxes in 1608 and thereabouts. But what of the years that
preceded } Would the Elizabethan nobles whose patronage
of the Lords* room gave it its title have suflFered such
indignity ^

Title and Locality Boards on the Pre-
Restoration Stage

Side by side with the strenuous efforts that are now being
made to arrive at the prime physical characteristics of the
Elizabethan stage it is desirable that some one should
undertake the task of thoroughly investigating the origin
and influence of certain stage conventions which were
either born of those physical conditions or contributed to
their establishment. Moreover, the time is ripe for rigid
scientific discussion of one or two principles whose existence
has long been suspected but never definitely established.
Of this order is the vexata qucestio of inscribed scene-boards,
a matter on which there has been much dogmatism and very
little argument. Among scientific investigators Professor
Reynolds stands alone in point of making serious attempt
to pluck out the heart of the mystery. ^ My purpose now is
to consider the question in its broadest aspect, throwing out
a wide drag-net with the hope of bringing to the surface
all the available data relative to the employment of inscribed
boards and inscriptions generally on the early stage. The
subject permits of easy division into two sections, the one
dealing with title-boards and the other with scene-boards,
and it will be most convenient to discuss the former first.
So far as the general employment and persistent usage
pT title-boards on the Tudor and early Stuart stage are
concerned, all is plain sailing. The only difficulty is to
determine whether the custom was qf purely native origin
or derived from foreign initiative. Later on, in connexion
with the masque-titles I shall discuss the point more fully,
ybut at present I must content myself with saying that
a prolonged study of early European theatrical conditions

^ See his Some Principles of Elizabethan Staging (Chicago 1905), i. pp. 20 et seq.
(= Modern Philology^ Vol. ii. 581-614), to which I beg to express my obligations.

44 ^^^^^ ^^^^ Locality Boards

has imbued me with the impression that the prototype of

the English title-board must be sought for in Italy, that

great fount of scenic inspiration. If this theory be sound,

the principle must have been int^duced into the court

entertainments of Henry VIIL/oy one or other of the

Italian painters, or artificers, that we know to have been

\ employed there. ^ The traffic of the players with the court

\ would lead to the transference of so grateful an expedient

( to the popular stage.

Whether of native or foreign origin, the convention of
the title-board can be traced back in private performances
to 1 528. Writing early in that year of a representation of
Phormio^ given by the Children of Paul's before Cardinal
Wolsey, the Venetian ambassador says "the hall in which
they dined, where the comedy was performed, had a large
garland of box in front, in the centre of which was inscribed
in gilt letters Terentii Phormio.'"^

Assuming for argument's sake the correctness of my
/ theory, it is vital to approximate the period when the title-
! board first began to be utilised on the popular stage. We
; shall see later that it was not an uncommon practice for
the Prologue in the closing years of Elizabeth's reign to
make allusion to, or imply the presence of, the title-board;
and in view of this habit it will not be unprofitable to seek
in the prologues and inductions to the moralities and inter-
ludes of some thirty or forty years earlier for similar
allusions and implications. In Ralph Roister Doister^ c. 1 55 1,
the only reference to the title occurs in the last stanza of
the Prologue :

Our Comedy or Interlude, which we intend to play

Is named Royster Doyster, indeed,

Which against the vainglorious doth inveigh.

Whose humour the roysting sort continually doth feed.

' Cf. Collier, Annah (1831), i. 100. Italian influence is clearly apparent on the
scenic adornment of the court entertainments of Henry VIII. The trees and foliage
fashioned out of silk in the great spectacle of November 10, 1528, chronicled by Hall
(Collier, i. 11 1-2), followed the device of Girolamo Genga of Urbino. See Walker,
Historical and Critical Essay on the Revival of the Drama in Italy, 1805, P* ^02.

' Venetian State Papers, January 8, 1528, as cited by Reynolds.

On the Pre- Res (oration Stage 45

Here the word " indeed" seems to suggest a simultaneous
pointing to the title-board by the speaker ; the only alterna-
tive is that the wordwas weakly demanded by the exigencies
of the rhyme. ^ In Edwards's court play of Damon and
Pythias (1564) the introductory address not only particu-
larises the title of the piece but the scene of action, a
circumstance that might be taken to imply the absence of
boards of all kinds, were it not fairly well assured that title-
bpards (at least) were in use at court at this period. But
y({ we restrict our examination to the moralities and inter-
ludes of the popular stage in the pre-theatrical era — or in
other words before the establishment of the regular play-
houses— it will be found that, generally speaking, the
prologues avoid all reference to title or locality. This
omission points at least to the employment of title-boards.
Coming down to a slightly later period, one finds in the
prologue to The Conflict of Conscience (c. 1 581) an allusion
which seems to point to the presence on the stage, or sudden
exposure by the speaker, of a title-board :

And for because we see by proofe that men do soone forget
Those thinges for which to call them by no name at all they

knowe,
Our author, for to helpe short wittes, did thinke it very meete
S6me name for this his Comedy in preface for to showe.

/clear evidence is afforded us in the Revels Accounts of
4he employment of title-boards at court in the meridian of
Elizabeth's reign. In the Account Book for 1579-80
a payment is recorded "for the Garnyshinge of xiiij titles"
in gold and silver.^ During that period eight plays were
performed at court and a ninth prepared. It is difficult to
divine the possible utility of the other five titles, unless,
as seems probable, they served for scene-indications. No
such problem presents itself in connexion with the item of
fifteen shillings noted in the Accounts for 1580-81, as

* Cf. the prol. to the Enterlude of Respublica (1533) :

" But nowe of thargumente to towch a worde or twayne :
The Name of our playe ys Respublica, certaine."
The title is mentioned here that it may be fully expounded.

* Cunningham, Re'veh Accounts [i%\z)y p. 162. {Re-uelsj ed. Feuillerat 1908, p. 328.)

46 ^itle and Locality Boards

paid to William Lyzard for the " painting of ix. titles with

f^, cop^^rtment^j."^ These were apparently for actual titles

W only. Reckoning the two challenges at Tilt, there were

exactly nine entertainments at court in the period comprised

by the Account Book.

So little analogy exists between the elaborate and gradu-
ally expanding scheme of mounting in the Stuart masques
and the vague and indeterminate background of the contem-
porary drama as presented in the ordinary playhouse, one
takes leave to think that the persistence of the inscribed
title on the proscenia of Ben Jonson^s graceful fantasies
was rather the perpetuation of an old court convention
than a practice suggested by the customs of the theatre.
^ Although he was not without creative faculty as a scenic
j artificer, Inigo Jones mainly derived his inspiration from
I direct observation in Italy, and it was in tracing back some
I of his fundamental principles to their source I arrived at
I the conclusion tHat the convention of the inscribed title
I originally came from that country.^

\ If we look for a moment at the rise and progress of the

ephemeral emblematic proscenium — those frontispieces, as
they were called in England, which were constructed for
a special court, or academic performance — we shall see that
the conditions which obtained in Italy in the latter half of
the sixteenth century were almost exactly paralleled in the
later Stuart Masques. Thus when the comedy oi L! Hortensio
was presented by the Accademia degF Intronati at Siena
in 1560 before Cosmo I., the arms of the ducal guest were
placed in the centre of the proscenium arch, and at a distance
below the insignia of the quaintly named academy. Between
the two came the inscription, "Generosolntronato. | Thus-
corum Principi. | Intronatorum Hilaritas." Below on
niches on either side were statues of Poetry and Comedy,
each with its respective motto of "miscet utile dulci" and
"vitae speculum."^ The period was one of fertile scenic

* op. cit. p. 169. (Feuillerat, p. 338.)

' It was followed in France, c. 1637. Cf. Lacroix, Le 17® S'thcle, Lettres, Sciences
et Arts, pp. 219 and 279-80, woodcuts.

' "WilkcTy Historical and Critical Essay on tbeReviitaloftheDramain //a/y,p.239 note.

*" On the Pre- Restoration Stage 47

resource and spirited experimentation, when state rivalled
state in matters of artistry, and central authority was wholly
lacking. For aught we know to the contrary, it may be
that at an earlier period other academies or some of the
great courts had placed the title of the play at the head of
the proscenium instead of these purposeless inscriptions. ^
Relatively to the number of known productions the details
that have come down to us of the characteristics of specific
proscenia are proportionately few. But so far as extant
evidence permits one to judge, a single broad decorative
scheme obtained throughout Italy; the system pursued
at Siena in 1 560 held good for the frontispiece of Ermiona
at Padua in 1632.

How closely the ornate proscenia of the Stuart masques
approximated to the earlier Italian method can be seen by
examining the details in the Tethys Festival of Samuel
Daniel (1610) :

First, on eyther side stood a great statue of twelve foot high,
representing Neptune and Nereus, Neptune holding a Trident, with
an Anchor made to it, and this Mot, His artibus : that is Regendo
et retinendo^ alluding to this verse of Virgill, He tibi erunt artisy
&c. Nereus holding out a golden fish on a net, with this word
Industrial the reason whereof is deliuered after, in the speech uttered
by Triton, These Sea-Gods stood on pedestals, and were al of
gold. Behinde them were two pillasters, on which hung compart-
ments, with other deuises; and these bore up a rich Freeze, wherein
were figures of tenne foot long, of flouds and Nymphes, with a
number of naked children, dallying with a draperie, which they
seemed to hold up, that the Scene might be seene, and the ends
thereof fell downe in foldes by the pillasters. In the midst was a

* Some meagre evidence can be adduced to show the existence of a later convention
of the sort among the Italians. In Le Tbe&tre Italien de Gberardi, a collection of plays
presented by the Italian comedians in Paris towards the close of the seventeenth century,
one finds a series of highly realistic engravings of scenes in which the play-title is
frequently shown on an escutcheon in the centre of the festooned top drapery. (For
some characteristic reproductions see N. M. Bernardin, La Comidie Italienne en France^
1 902, pp. 27, 32 and 35.) It might be claimed, of course, that this was a fanciful device
of the engraver simply to afford a ready means of identifying the plates, as they are not
otherwise inscribed. But the intense realism and glaring theatricality of the views rebut
this. Although the frontispiece to Arlequin Protee depicts a seascape, it is to be remarked
that besides the inscribed title and top drapery, the design actually shows the four stage
chandeliers, A photograph of the scene could not have been more literal.

48 Title and Locality Boards

compartment with this inscription, Tethyos Epinicia^ Tethys feasts
of triumph. This was supported with two winged boyes, and all
the work was done with that force and boldnesse on the gold and
silver, as the figures seemed round and not painted.

Here the only divergence from the Italian method, as
known to us, was in the use of an inscribed title. Occasion-
ally one comes across stricter parallels, as in the case of
Lovers Made Men (otherwise known as The Masque of Lethe)
in 1 6 1 7, and in Shirley's masque of The Triumph of Peace in
1 634. Neither of these had an exposed title, an omission
contrary to th» usual practice in the generality of court
masques and pastorals for which Inigo Jones provided the
mounting. Among productions of the sort whose books
clearly indicate the use of proscenium titles are Florimene
(1629), Chloridia ( 1 63 1 ), Tempe Restord ( 1 63 1 ), The Temple
of Love (1635), Corona Minerva (1636), Luminalia (1637)
and Salmacida Spolia (1640).^

Apart from the regular usage of the ordinary theatres,
a point on which I shall have something to say presently,
there were other performances of a special or private order
where the convention of the title-board was maintained.
One of the earliest instances where a special proscenium
was constructed in an English playhouse for a particular
production was that of Microcosmus at Salisbury Court in
1637. We find from the book of Nabbes' masque that
the frontispiece was "of a workmanship proper to the fancy
of the rest, adorn'd with brasse figures of Angles and Divels,
with Several inscriptions, the Title in a Escocheon supported
by an Angell and a Divell." Again, in Candia Restaurata,
a spectacle presented at Apethorpe before the Earl and
Countess of Westmoreland on February 12, 1640- i, one
of the features of the frontispiece was "a scroule" on which
was "written in greate CANDY RESTORED."'

It is noteworthy that in experimenting with his primi-
tive English operas in the ticklish times of the Common-

^ In Shirley's comedy The Bird in a Cage, in the scene of the intercalated masque
of Jupiter and Danae, Donella says, "Now whet your inventions and about it, imagine
our scene exprest, and the new Prison, the title advanc'd in forme."

^ British Museum, Add. MS. 34,221.

z z

o ^ =^

On the Pre- Restoration Stage 49

wealth, D'Avenant arrived at the neat expedient of making
the one central inscription answer at once for the convey-
ance of both title and locality. In The Siege of Rhodes at
Rutland House in 1656, and again at the Cockpit play-
house in Drury Lane in 1659, the single word "Rhodes"
was shown on a tablet over the proscenium. So too in The
Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru at the Cockpit in 1658, the
inscription employed was merely "Peru." D'Avenant's
statement concerning the special frontispiece provided for
this shows that his aim was to carry forward the masque-
convention, it being " designed by way of preparation to
give some notice of that argument which is pursued in
the scene."

Possibly it might have been better to discuss some of
the foregoing details in strict chronological relationship
with the data concerning the observance of the title-con-
vention in the ordinary playhouses. In striving, however,
to indicate the possible origin of that convention I have
deemed it politic to keep the records of the court and of
the playhouse apart. Moreover, to mingle details of the
proscenium-title of the private, or special, performances
with a consideration of the title-convention as pursued in
the regular theatres (where no proscenia were ordinarily
employed, and none at all known before c. 1637) would
have been to confuse the issue.

One has no evidence to show whether or not the players
had adopted the principle of the title-board in the inn-
yard stage of their history, but the chances are — so requi-
site and complementary was the expedient — that the usage
was common before the building of The Theater and the
Curtain. At a period when programmes were not pro-
vided \ it was vital that the casual playgoer should have
some ready means of discovering the name of the play
about to be presented. Bills containing little more than

* Malone's statement that programmes or playbills with casts of characters were
not made use of in England until the beginning of the eighteenth century has been
challenged, but not disproved. The specious Drury Lane bill of 1663 reproduced by
Collier {Annalsy iii. 384) has been proved a forgery. See The Connoisseury Vol. xviii.
1907, No. Ixii. pp. 222-3, art. on "Old Playbills."

50 Title and Locality Boards

this information were certainly posted about the city, but
many came to the Bankside houses, attracted by the raising
of the flag, or blowing of the preliminary trumpet-blasts,
who had not cast eyes on these announcements. Moreover,
the daybill oflFered no particular guarantee of the perform-
ance specified, and the non-provision of programmes facili-
tated a change of piece at the eleventh hour, frequently at
the caprice of the assembled groundlings.^ Consequently
a title-board was necessary to acquaint the early-comer with
what he was going to see. He was not asked to buy a pig
in a poke ; if he knew the play already and disliked it he
could have his money back. This usage was common to
all theatres alike, the principle of the title-board being as
well recognised in private houses of the Blackfriars order
as in the more popular houses on the Bankside.

Early employment of the title-board in the theatres of
Shoreditch is, I think, indicated by the allusion in The
Spanish Tragedy (c. 1587), where Hieronimo, when about
to present the bye-play of Solyman and Perseda, says
"Hang out the title; our scene is Rhodes." Later evi-
dence for the theatrical, as contrasted with the court,
usage is of a more direct and better defined order. In
the later Elizabethan period one infers that the title-board
was in situ from the very opening of the doors. Other-
wise many of the allusions in the contemporary prologues
are incomprehensible. The tone of most of these proems
connotes early exposure of the board. Thus in The History
of Sir John Oldcastle {i6oo\ the Prologue says, "the doubt-
ful title. Gentlemen, prefixt upon the argument, we have
in hand may breed suspense," etc., etc. ; and in the induc-
tion to Cynthia's Revels (i 600, at the Blackfriars), the Third
Child says, " first the title of this play is Cynthia's Revels,
as any man that hath hope to be saved by his book can
witness." In The Poetaster (1601), Envy as Prologue

' Cf. Gayton, Festivous Notes on Don Quixote (1654), as cited by R. J. Broadbent in
Stage fVbispersy p. 82. We learn here of the arbitrary and ferocious conduct of Bankside
audiences at Shrovetide and other holiday periods, when the players were often com-
pelled, "notwithstanding their bills to the contrary, to act what the major part of
the company had a mind to." When they proved refractory the house was pulled down
pver their heads. The whole passage is very remarkable.

On the Pre-Restoration Stage 51

reads the board, but affects to see only the sub-title of The
Arraignment, In IFily Beguiled {160^) an ingenious surprise
is sprung upon the spectator at the outset. The Prologue
and the Player enter simultaneously, and the former asks
the latter " How now my honest Roague, what Play shall
we have here to-night ?" ^ He gets as reply, " Sir, you may
look upon the Title." He glances at the board, and, more
in the role of spectator than of Prologue, says, with some
petulance, "What Spectrum once again V Then a Juggler
arrives upon the scene to stop all argument. "Marry,
sir," he says, " I will show you a trick of cleanly convey-
ance . . . Come aloft,^ Jack, for thy master's advantage.
He's gone, I warrant ye." And then, according to the
direction, " Spectrum is conveyed away, and M^ily Beguiled
stands in the place of it."

A difficulty arises in connexion with this curious induc-
tion which recalls a similar situation at the beginning of
The Knight of the Burning Pestle^ as performed at the
Whitefriars in 1 6 1 1 . The Citizen says to the Prologue,
" and now you call your play The London Merchant. Down
with your title, boy ! down with your title ! " The diffi-
culty in both cases is to determine what play was an-
nounced on the bills, assuming that playgoers placed
serious credence in these placards. In this matter one finds
oneself impaled on the horns of a dilemma. On the one
hand, to have announced tVily Beguiled or The Knight of
the Burning Pestle on the bills would have been to defeat
the purpose of the playwright, and on the other, to baulk
an audience really assembled to see Spectrum or The London
Merchant might have created a riot. At best the trick was
far from calculated to produce good humour, and it is
noteworthy that The Knight of the Burning Pestle narrowly
escaped damnation at the hands of its first audience.
There is some reason to believe that at the period roughly

* Like Macbeth's "Amen" this "to-night" sticks in the throat. It seems to
imply a court (or at least not an ordinary) performance. On the other hand, the refer-
ence to the auditorium in the epilogue (as cited in Collier's Annah^Wi. 441) as "this
circled round" shows the place of performance to have been a theatre.

2 For "come aloft," see Percy Society publications, Vol. v. pp. 45 and 84 note.

J2 'Title and Locality Boards

indicated by the two plays, the titles of new pieces were
not given on the bills in the announcements of first per-
formances. There was always great resort to a virgin play,
as betokened by the advance of prices, and it may be that
it sufficed to announce the production of a new piece by
a specific author without naming the title. That some
omission of the sort took place on first performances
seems apparent from the phrasing of the opening lines of
the prologue to The Devil is an Ass. This would explain
away the difficulty in connexion with the premieres of fVily
Beguiled and The Knight of the Burning Pestle^ but we still
remain mystified as to the subsequent occasions on which
the two inductions would be performed. I dwell here
upon the riddle, without pretending to solve it, because
it seems to show that in the absence of programmes there
was a tacitly understood laxity of arrangement whereby
the performance could be changed at the eleventh hour.
This indetermination would make the use of the title-
board all the more imperative.

>Possibly there was less liability to sudden changes of
^|ferformance at the better class "private" theatres, where
the players were not at the mercy of a rough and ready
audience. As time went on, patrons of houses like the
Blackfriars would place more and more dependence on
the authenticity of the bills, and there would be less need
for early exposure of the title-board. Indications occur in
the later Stuart period showing that, so far from being
hung up with the assembling of the audience, the board
was not seen until borne in by the prologue-speakep/
Collier has already drawn attention to the fact that, in a
late revival of The City Wit of Brome, Sarpego, in allud-
ing to the circumstance that the play had been written
before Ben Jonson's death, says :

Some in this round may have both seen *t and heard.
Ere I, that bear its title, wore a beard. ^

^ AnnaUy iii. 376. Note the direction at the beginning of the masque in Byron* i
Tragedhy as at the Blackfriars c. 1607 : "Mus. and a Song, above, and Cupid enters
with a Table written, hung about his neck, after him two Torche-bearers." This table
was probably a title-board.

On the Pre- Restoration Stage ^^

When, with the opening of the first Dublin theatre in
1 634, the title-board convention was carried to Ireland, the
system pursued there was the personal bringing-in of the
board by the speaker of the introductory address. This is
indicated in the prologue ^ to James Shirley's new comedy
of Rosania ; or Love's Victory as delivered there c. 1638 :

Rosanta ? methinks I hear one say
What's that ? 'Tis a strange title to a play.
One asks his friend who late from travel came,
What tis ? supposing it some country's name :
Who rather than acknowledge ignorance,
Perhaps says, 'tis some pretty town in France
Or Italy, and wittily discloses,
'Twas called Rosania, for the store of roses.
A witty comment : — others that have seen
And fashionably observed the English scene.
Say ^ut with less hope to be understood)
Such tidies unto plays are now the mood,
AglaurOy Claricilla^ — names that may
(Being ladies) grace and bring guests to the play.
To save this charge of wit, that you might know
Something i' the title, which you need not owe
To another's understanding, you may see^^^
In honest English there, Love\ Victory.

Here the speaker-doubtless -reversed the title-board,
which he had been holding all the time, and showed the ^
sub-title on the other side. There would have been no point
in the lines if both title and sub-title were already exposed
to view on a board hanging up against the tiring-house. M'

One other possible allusion to the bringing on of the
board in this way occurs in the secondary prologue to The
Poor Mans Comfort^ as spoken at the Red Bull on May 28,
1 66 1, and printed some years later in Thomas Jordan's
undated book of verse, A Nursery of Novelties in Variety of
Poetry.^ In this case the speaker entered " reading the title "
and began by saying :

The Poor Man's Comfort^ this title some will say
Is fitter for a Pray'r book than a Play.

' Shirley's Poems (London, 1646), p. 148. The play is believed to be identical with
The Doubtful Heir^ as afterwards acted at the Blackfriars, and printed in quarto in 1652.
* p. 23-

54 '^ifi^ ^nd Locality Boards

The evidence here is doubtful as we have no clue to
the position of the board, whether in the speaker's hand
or already hanging on the fa9ade of the tiring-house. But
the allusion is otherwise of value, as it shows the continu-
ance of the old title-board convention up to the very dawn
of the Restoration picture stage. ^

This marked persistence of one specific order of inscrip-
tions points to the congruity of others, and, in the continued
absence of programmes, makes out ?i prima facie case for the
use of scene boards. It is difficult to see why the Elizabethan
stage manager should not have resorted to these ready
expedients for dissipating the recurring vagueness of the
place of action, considering that both he and the dramatist
were prone to rely upon inscriptions to get them out of
much lesser difficulties. In Fulwell's Like Will to Like
(c. 1568), as the text clearly shows, Lucifer came on at the
beginning with his name "written on his back and in his
breast." ^ No greater mistake could be made than to rate
this a mere puerility peculiar to the primitive stage. Seventy
years later the device is still to be found persisting. In A
Tricke to Cheat the Divell{Kct iv, as at the Cockpit in 1 639),
several dancers come on singly, each with his vocation or
attributes inscribed on his breast thus, " I am a Scrivener,"
" I am a Prodigall," etc., etc. Inscribed bannerets were also
utilised in processions, notably in The Triumph of Love and
The Triumph of Death in Beaumont and Fletcher's Four
Plays in One^ a composite piece assigned by Fleay to the
Revels boys in 1608. We see therefore there was no lack
of insular precedent of a cognate order for the establish-
ment of a scene-board convention. If we take a wider pur-
view we shall find the actual prototype of the system in the
French mysteries of the fifteenth century.^

^ For other allusions to title-boards see the lists of properties in The Cuck-Queanes
and the Cuckolds Errants and The Faery Pastorall of William Percy, (c. 1600 at Paul's)}
the prologues to Belie've as Tou List and Fancies Chaste and Noble (1632 at Cockpit); and
the Induction to The Magnetic Lady (Blackfriars, 1632).

2 Cf. Feuillerat, Revels Documents, p. 20. The Greek "Woorthyes" in a Court
Masque of c. 1560 had their names inscribed on their backs and breasts. In OldFortu-
natus (1599), i. 3, Vice and Virtue bear Latin mottoes on their garments.

^ Cf. Emile Morice, Histoire de la Mise en Seine defiuis les Mysteresjusqu^h Cid (1836),
p. 82.

On the Pre-Restoration Stage 55

5^' the symbolical multiple scene of the early sacred
drama was due the principle of the scene-boards. In no
other way could the arbitrary bringing together of Videly
separated localities be rendered comprehensible. At the
representation of The Mystery of the Incarnation given at
Rouen in 1485, no fewer than twenty-two mansions symbol-
ising various edifices and localities were ranged side by
side along the back of a shallow stage some 66 metres long,
each mansion with its distinguishing inscription.^ A similar
system obtained in The Mystery of the Passion as given at
Valenciennes in 1547.^ The usage in France is clearly
demonstrated in a prologue to an old play cited by
Jusserand,^ wherein the spectators are acquainted con-
cerning the various places of action —

vous les povez cognoistre
Par Tescritel que dessus voyez estre.

No greater service to the cause of English theatrical
history has been done than Chambers' explosion of the
time-honoured fallacy that the primitive English miracle
play was of the processional order.^ A vital link in the chain
of dramaturgic evolution was lacking until he made clear
the fact that originally the method of staging was that of
the unified composite scene. Here at last the student of
English mounting has a terminus a quo. Personally, how-
ever, I fail at the outset to find any positive evidence of the
use of locality-boards (or inscriptions) in the primitive
English miracle play, but feel thoroughly assured of their
employment. The custom can surely be deduced from
continental habitude ; analogy, if legitimate at all, is per-
missible here. Moreover we have distinct traces of the
locality-boards in the multiple setting of the early Eliza-

* Private information from Prof. Eugene Rigal of Montpellier, to whom I make
my acknowledgments. The Mystery was published in 1886, with an introduction by
M. Pierre de Verdier, but this I have not seen.

* Jusserand, Shakespeare in France^ p. 65. The best reproductions of the miniatures
in the old MS. are those of Victor Fournel, Le Vieux Paris (Tours, 1887, p. 21 et seq.),
where the multiple scene is not only given as a whole, but also in sections, so as to
demonstrate the employment of the mansions.

' Furnival Memorial^ p. 186.

* E. K. Chambers, The Media-val Stage^ ii. 134 and 421.

^6 Title and Locality Boards

bethan secular drama, both at court and elsewhere; and it
is difficult to conceive (viewing its early usage in France)
that the principle was due simply to accretion.

As to the period when our nascent secular dramaturgy

first began to base upon the tenets of the simultaneous

scene, it may be roughly indicated by the first quarter of

the sixteenth century. So early as 1535, when The Satyre

of the Three Estaitis was performed at Cupar, the multiple

setting had begun to be employed on the profane stage in

Scotland. On this occasion, as on its revival at Edinburgh

in 1 540, Sir David Lyndsay's play was given in the open.

t One proof of the composite nature of the stationary scene

I is that the players when not in action sat in the various

' mansions or localities to which they belonged, never leaving

the sight of the audience.^

With the transference of the multiple setting to the
indoor court play came certain vital modifications of its
principles. Questions of space demanded a reduction in the

(number of mansions employed and a more compact system
of grouping. The maximum was now fixed at ^Yt^ and the
mansions were generally arranged in sets of three or five,
according to the scenic exigencies. No longer ranged side by
i side along the back line of a parallelogram, they were placed
,/ symmetrically along the two sides of an equilateral triangle,
/ the apex of which marked the position of the third or fifth
/ w^^jfo;/, placed parallel to the front of the stage and closing
\ in the vista. This arrangement was a distinct advance as it
admitted of the whole being constructed and painted in per-
spective, a device whereby a sort of pictorial homogeneity
was given to the heterogeneous constituents.^ In the
"Articles and ordynaunces concernyng the office of the

^ The same principle was followed in France at the same period, making the
parallelism complete. Cf. Jul. Caes. Scaligeri Poetices Libri Septem. (i56i),lib. i. chap. 21.
Also the comment of Eugene Rigal, Le Theatre Frangais wuant la Periode classiquey p. 241.
This parallelism is probably accounted for by the fact that Lyndsay derived his play from
a French source. Cf. Sir Sidney Lee's The French Renaissance in England^ p. 372 note 3.

^ In France the transition from the mediaeval mystery stage to the modern secular
stage proceeded along the same lines. Cf. Rigal, op. cit. chap. vi. passim. It should be
noted that the entries in the English Revels Accounts dealing with the provision of scenic
appurtenances for specific court plays afford little clue to the actual staging. These
items merely represented new material. Many mansions and other properties in stock
were used again and again.

On the Pre-Restoration Stage 57

Revelles," quoted by Feuillerat from a document of the
period of 1572, it is laid down that

The cheife busynes of the office resteth speciallye in three poyntes.
In makinge of garmentes In makinge of hedpeces and in payntinge.

The connynge of the office resteth in skill of devise, in under-
standinge of historyes, in iudgement of comedies, tragedyes and
shewes, in sight of perspective and architecture some smack of
geometrye and other thinges.^

Among the changes brought about by the new system
was the creation of the coulisses. Instead of remaining from
first to.ikst in full sight of the audience, the characters now
Cameron and went off, according to the requirements. Some
degree of scenic illusion had begun to exist.^
yThat the scenery at Elizabeth's court in the early part of
her reign consisted of these mansions^ or practicable construc-
tions, and not of one surface paintings, is clearly indicated
by the details in the Revels Accounts. In a royal warrant
issued on June it, 1568, for payment of ;^634 odd, to
Sir Thomas Benger, for materials purchased and work done
in connexion with seven plays and six masques, the plays in
question are specified and their scenic appurtenances de-
tailed :

Imprimis, for seven playes ; the first namede, as playne as canne
be; the seconde, the paynfull pillgrimage ; the thirde, Jacke and Jyll;
the forthe, Sixe Fooles ; the fivethe callede, witte an will; the
sixte callede Prodigallitie; the sevoenthe o{ Orestes; and a Tragedie
of the kinge of Scottes: to y^ whiche belonged diuers bowses for
the settinge forthe of the sam^ as Stratoes howse^ Dohhyns howse^
Orestioes howse^ Rome^ the Pall^ce of prosperities Scotlande^ and a gret
Castell one thothere side.^ /

^ Feuillerat, Documents relating to the Office of the Revels in the time of Queen Eliza-
beth (Louvain 1908), pp. 10 ff.

^ Exits and entrances are indicated in John Heywood's Play of the ff^ether f Tinted

in 1533-

^ Comp. " the sittie of Rome " in the inventory taken by Henslowe " of all the pro-
perties for my Lord Admeralles men, the 10 of Marche 1598". This portion of the
Diary, originally transcribed by Malone, is now missing from the MS., and the details
are therefore lacking in Greg's excellent recension. Beyond the lists of properties given
in Percy's plays for the Paul's boys this is the only definite clue presented to the employ-
ment of a symbolic scenic piece in the theatres of the period.

* Harl. MS. 146. f. 15 (^Revels Accounts^ ed. Feuillerat p. 119). Schelling misquotes
this passage from some second hand source. See his Elizabethan Drama^ i. 1 14.

58 I'itle and Locality Boards

It is doubtful whether in action all these constructions
and scenic symbols would have required elucidation. The
purpose of many of the houses would be clearly indicated
by the business of the scene. But pictorial generalities
typifying Scotland or Rome would certainly have demanded
inscriptions.^ Hence Sir Philip Sidney's allusion (c. 1583)
to "Thebes written in great letters on an old doore." It is
satisfactory to find this noble and gallant author making re-
ference to the employment of locality inscriptions. Another
passage in his Apologie for Poetry^ if taken without the con-
text, would give the impression that scene-boards were not
then employed.

But if it be so in Gorboduc, how much more in all the rest ?
where you shall have Asia of the one side, and Africa of the other,
and so many underkingdoms, that the player, when he comes in,
must ever begin by telling where he is, or else the tale will not be
conceived.

The difficulty here is to know whether Sidney is taking
all contemporary stage representations into his purview, or
whether his reflections have restricted application. The
passage has often been cited as proof of the non-employ-
ment of scenery in Elizabethan times, but if it has any
application to the court, or academic, play, the allusion must
be to the difficulty of gaining an immediate sense of locality
in viewing a performance where there was a considerable
commingling of scenic symbols. It was only when the player
emerged from a certain inscribed mansion or departed
through a certain inscribed door that his whereabouts were
fully apparent to the audience. We are speaking now in
relation to all private or semi-private performances, and not
of the public theatres, whose usages remain to be con-
sidered.

It is to be remarked that in Jocasta^ as acted at Gray's Inn
in 1566, where the Unity of Place was preserved, the
players had to be careful as to their exits and entrances,

• A few of the stage directions in early plays with multiple setting seem to imply
the use of elucidatory inscriptions. Thus in Common Conditions (c. 1570) we have "Here
entreth Galiarbus out of Phrigia", and again " Here enter Lamphedon out of Phrigia."

On the Pre-Restoration Stage 59

now departing through " the gate called Electrae," and now
through " the gate called Homoloydes." It is clear that the
significance of these gates could not have been rendered to
the spectators unless each were inscribed. We shall find
later on that occasionally, at least, on the public stage a
special significance was given to specific entrance doors, and
that the actor had to exercise caution in coming in and
going ofF.

One has only to make minute examination of the con-
structive system of Lyly^ to become convinced that the .
multiple setting held sway at court for more than a score
I of years after the erection of The Theater and the Curtain.
That it exercised some influence not only on the popular
staging but on the dramaturgy of Shakespeare*s immediate
I predecessors admits of no dispute. The difficulty is to know
I how long and at what theatres there was strict visualization '
; of the multiple principle. One says strict visualization ad-
visedly, for one has reason to believe — as evidenced by a
curious direction of Percy 's shortly to be discussed — that the
spirit of the principle was more often followed than the 1
letter. Beyond the fact that the Paul's boys made use of
a modified multiple setting c. 1600 on the stage in their
singing-school, it cannot be traced that other playhouses,
public or private, made regular employment of these cum-
brous scenic symbols. But side by side with this lack of direct
evidence we have the fact, so difficult to account for, that
the technique of the pre-Shakespearean theatre-dramatist
was somewhat slavishly based on conventions born of the'
multiple principle. Analyse Marlowe, and you will be con- j ^
vinced of this. At least two of the distinguishing charac- ^^
teristics of the Elizabethan drama had their origin in the 1^
simultaneous setting, the curious system of changing the
scene of action while the characters remained, and the system -
no less curious of completing journeys in full sight of the
audience, instead of describing them or imagining them.

' The student must be warned to avoid the glosses of Mr. R. Warwick Bond, who
has devoted much misplaced ingenuity to the harmful interpretation of Lyly's text by the
usages of the ordinary Elizabethan theatres.

6o Title and Locality Boards

On the whole, there seems some reason to believe that
the players, either during the inn-yard phase of their history
or shortly after the building of The Theater and the Curtain,
made serious attempt to adopt the simultaneous setting in
its literality, but finding the conjunctive properties incon-
venient, began piecemeal to substitute inscribed locality
boards for the cumbersome scenic symbols. In this way the
stage would be gradually cleared of its obstructions without
much change being effected in the conventions belonging
to the original method. That there was a possibility of some
such transition in the Marlowean period is shown by the
option permitted to the Children of Paul's by William
Percy in connexion with the acting of The Faery Pastorall
or Forrest of Elves c. 1600. Under "Properties," Percy gives
what is virtually a scene-plot for the play, and clearly
demonstrates in so doing that the whole was to be arranged
in the simultaneous method :

Highest aloft and on the top of the Musick Tree, the Title
The Faery Pastorall^ Beneath him pind on Post of the Tree the
Scene Eluida Forrest. Lowest ofall over the Canopie NA TTAITBO-
AAION or Faery Chappell. A Kiln of Brick. A Fowen Cott. A
Hollow Oake with vice of wood to shutt to. A lowe well with
Roape and pullye. A Fourme of Turves. A Greene Bank being
Pillowe to the Hed but. Lastly a hole to creepe in and out.

Now if it so be that the Properties of any of These, that be
outward, will not serve the turne by reason of concurse of the
People on the Stage, Then you may omitt the sayd Properties which
be outward and supplye their Places with their Nuncupations onely
in Text Letters.

Here it is to be noted we have a visualized composite
scene, with both title and locality boards. The play has
"A Prologue for the Court," indicating that it had also been
performed before the Queen, but the second paragraph of
the foregoing quotation alludes solely to the crowding of
spectators on the stage of the singing school. This particular
scene-plot is therefore of supreme importance as historical
evidence, not only because it indicates the employment of
locality boards in the performances at court, but for the,

On the Pre-Restoration Stage 6i

reason that it points to the existence of conflicting customs
in the theatre and the consequent unpopularity there of the
multiple system of staging.

Are we safe in making any deductions applicable to the
other private theatres from the routine of the Paul's boys ?
I fear not. Everything tends to show that the stage of the
singing school was a place apart.^ Habituated to perform at
court, the boys were familiarised with the usages of the
multiple scene. On their own stage they were probably
allowed the use of the court properties stored in the Revels
Office, a concession that would cancel the question of ex-
pense. We know already that they appealed to a superior
type of playgoer^ ; but if we were ignorant on that point we
should be compelled to guess at the truth from the fact that
Percy dared to put one of his inscriptions in Greek. Pedantry
of this order would have been resented by a Bankside
audience. Might it not have been to Percy's plays that
Brabant senior referred in the conversation in Jack Drum's
Entertainment dealing with the characteristics of the Paul's
stage ?

Aye ; and they had good plays, but they produce

Such musty fopperies of antiquity.

And do not suit the humorous age's back

With clothes in fashion.

/ Once we depart from the atmosphere of Paul's, our quest
for satisfying evidence of the employment of locality boards
in the Elizabethan theatres becomes unprofitable. Now and
again faint clues crop up, but they hardly permit of sound
inferences, viewing the existence of rebutting details. It
may be that no fixed rule obtained in all the houses of any
one order at any particular period ; the fact remains that
never was there evidence so contradictory.

In many cases the necessity for inscriptions was obviated
by the more illusive employment of sign-boards and trade
symbols. Examples are to be found in Tbe Famous Contention

^ Prof. Feuillerat's recent discovery of an earlier children's theatre in the Black-
friars demands some qualification of this statement. See my closing paper.
^ Cf. Collier, i. 281 and iii. 377 note.

62 Title and Locality Boards

of the Houses of York and Lancaster^ and in the parallel
episode in 2 Henry VI ^ v. 2. So, too, in i Edward IV ^
iv. 3, Shore's shop is indicated by the sign of the Pelican.
In The Knight of the Burning Pestle^ iii. 4, the pole and
basin hanging before the Barber's shop are ingeniously-
pressed into service during the traffic of the scene. These
two properties were utilised in the spirit of the multiple
setting. They must have been in position from the very
beginning of the act, and their continued presence was not
without its incongruity.

Again, opposite the slender amount of positive evidence
indicating the employment of locality boards can be placed
an equally slender amount of negative evidence arguing
against their use. Probably the most significant item on
this latter score is that afforded by Every Man Out of his
Humour^ which we know to have been acted in 1599 at the
Globe. Having arranged that certain extrinsic characters
should be on the stage as Chorus throughout the play (one
of them a supposititious friend of the author and familiar
with the text), Jonson took advantage of the presence of
this friend, Cordatus, to keep indicating the imminent
changes of scene.^ Surely this would have been an utterly
superflous proceeding if locality boards were regularly pro-
vided. Does it not look like as if Jonson, for once, sought
to remedy the persistent vagueness of the scene } If we
concede this, the evidence can only be taken at best to apply
to the Globe theatre at the dawn of its history. Concerning
the usage at the Blackfriars, Jonson gives altogether different
testimony. At that house in 1601 was produced The Poet-
aster^ or the Arraignment. In the induction one finds Envy
coming up a trap to deliver an atrabilious monologue in
which there was much covert girding at the plush-covered
gallants of the day. First she catches sight of the title-board
and gloats over the sub-title, having come to blast the
enjoyment of all present. But her joy turns to dismay when

' For the textual indications of the various changes of scene see the close of the
first act, of Act ii. sc. ii, of Act iii. sc. ii, and Act iv. sc. iv. Note especially the inge-
nious indication at the beginning of Act v. sc. vii.

On the Pre-ResioraHon Stage 63

she finds that the author, instead of laying the scene at
home, has placed it in Rome. That knowledge is evidently-
gained by the sight of another inscription on one or more
boards :

Mark how I will begin : the scene is, ha !

Rome ? Rome ? and Rome ? Crack eye-strings and your balls

Drop into earth.

This passage admits of two interpretations, either that
Envy reads off the one inscription from three locality boards,
or that she merely sees one board and, in her ruminative
agony, indulges in forceful iteration. In taking the former
view, Reynolds assumes that the superscriptions were placed
over three entrance ways.^ But 1 cannot agree with this
reading. Even if we admit for argument's sake the existence
of a convention at the Blackfriars whereby three concurrent
scene boards were used in plays presenting a series of widely
separated localities, its employment cannot be conceded in
a unified play like The Poetaster. However tradition-ridden
the players might have been they were not likely to go to
superfluous trouble. The idea of using three boards to
convey the same intimation in a play of unvarying locality
recalls the action of the over considerate farmer who cut
two holes in his barn door, one for the hen and the other
for her chickens.

But if Reynolds' theory, in its particular application,
be not accepted, it cannot in its broader aspect be dis-
missed cavalierly. If scene-boards were used at all in the
public or private theatres, there were certainly many occa-
sions when three simultaneous boards (placed, say, over
the two side doors and the central curtained passage-way)
would have been a grateful expedient. There are plays
which vividly recall Sir Philip Sidney's sarcasm, plays
whose technique is based on the old multiple convention,

* op. cit. i. 22. Reynolds here says three doors, not three entrance ways, but in
most theatres there were only two conventionally recognised doors giving on to the stage
proper. The third door, of which we find occasional mention, was situated at the back
of the inner stage, and would be frequently out of sight owing to the closing of the
traverses.

64 ^itle and Locality Boards

where the scene chops and changes about with kaleidoscopic
swiftness and variety ; and these for their proper comprehen-
sion seem positively to demand constant resort to locality
boards. Of this order are The Wounds of Civil War^ Pericles^
and The Fair Maid of the West.

In such cases one of two possible methods of scenic clari-
fication might have been pressed into service. Single locality
boards could have been used and changed with each succes-
sive transition, or the dramatist might have been limited
to the maximum of three localities in any one act, all of
which could have been indicated by superscriptions over
the various entrance-ways. The second arrangement would
on all counts have proved the more satisfactory as it per-
mitted of better visualization of the action, and precluded
the necessity of changing the boards during an entire act.
To see whether the dramatist was really limited in the
manner indicated one would require to analyse a consider-
able number of plays of the chronicle or narrative order.
This I have not done. But it may be remarked that we
have in Pericles some slight basis in support of the theory.
Although six widely separated localities are utilised in this
play the action is confined to a maximum of three in any
one act. ^

Only one difficulty presents itself in connexion with the
triple-board theory. Where certain doors represented certain
localities there could have been no laxity of exit and entrance.
A character who accidentally departed for Rome when he
ought to have gone to, say, Jerusalem, would have played
the mischief with the plot. Everything would have had to
be carefully rehearsed and nothing left to chance.

Besides proof by the law of averages of the limitation
to three localities per act, to establish this theory one would
require to show that the Elizabethan entrance-ways were
given on occasion a localised significance akin to the old
Greek convention. This should not be at all an impossible
task viewing the evidence that lies ready to hand. Jonson

^ On the other hand in the third act of Antony and Cleopatra we have thirteen
"scenes" dealing with at least six different localities.

On the Pre-Restoration Stage 65

we know did not write narrative plays with an ever-changing
scene, and Reynolds appositely cites Jasper Maync's en-
comium of rare old Ben, setting forth that in his works
" The stage was still a stage, two entrances Were not two
parts o' the world, disjoined by seas/'^ We have already
seen in connexion with Jocasta that as early as 1566 the
academic stage had given a specialized significance to the
entrance-ways. Forty years later we have evidence that
something of the sort had recently been done on the public
stage. Discussing "How a Gallant should behave in Powles
Walk," Dekker, in the fourth chapter of his Guh Horn-
booke (1609), gives the following curiously phrased in-
struction ;

Your Mediterranean lie, is then the onely gallery, wherein the
pictures of all your true fashionate and complementall Guls are,
and ought to be hung up : into that gallery carry your neat body,
but take heede you picke out such an hour, when the maine Shoale
of Ilanders are swimming up and downe. And first observe your
doores of entrance, and your Exit^ not much unlike the plaiers at
the Theatres, keeping your Decorums, even in phantasticaHty. As
for example : if you prove to be a Northerne Gentleman, I would
wish you to passe through the North doore, more often (especially)
then any of the other : and so, according to your countries, take
note of your entrance.

View this passage in association with Jasper Mayne's
later allusion, and the meaning becomes clear. Little, how-
ever, but disappointment ensues when one comes to search
for stage directions corroborating this specialized employ-
ment of the doors. Only two plays yield us evidence of
the existence of any such convention ; and it would be
perilous on the strength of these to infer its diffused or
continuous employment. One of the two, The Cuck-Queanes
and the Cuckolds Errants^ or the Bearing Downe of the Inne
(c. 1600), I shall now have occasion to discuss in detail.
In the case of the other, Nabbes' comedy of Covent Garden
(c. 1638), one has reason to suspect the employment of an

* Jonsonus Virbiusy 1638. Reynolds, i. 22.

66 Title and Locality Boards

elaborately constructed and illusively painted homogeneous
stationary scene.

Reynolds' triple-board theory gains some measure of sup-
port from the remarkable construction o^The Cuck-Queanes
and the Cuckolds Errants, Percy's directions certainly imply
the existence of some such conventionalism, and the play
is sound evidence for the routine pursued at the Paul's
playhouse. Symbolic simultaneous representation of three
several places is clearly indicated in the scene-plot, headed
"Properties," prefixed to the piece.

Harwich^ in Midd of the stage Colchester with Image of Tarlton,
Signe and Ghirlond under him also. The Raungers Lodge^ Maldon^ a
Ladder of Roapes trussed vp neare Harwich. Highest and aloft the
Title The Cuck-Queanes and Cuckolds Errants. A Long Fourme.

Here we are to suppose that Harwich and Maldon were
represented by the two side entering doors. Although no
mention is madeof the employment of locality-boards, their
presence may be inferred from the phrasing of the textual
stage directions. Colchester, we note, is in the middle of
the stage, and Tarleton's Ghost in entering from there to
speak the prologue is instructed to play awhile "lowe on
his Tabour . . . standing at entrance of doore and right
under the beame." We are justified by this in surmising
that the superscription of Colchester together with the
image and sign-board were placed over the middle door
at the back of the inner stage. ^ The only possible alterna-
tive would deny to the Paul's stage a central traverse and
inner section, and substitute for the traverse a middle door.
This I cannot accept.

Let us look now for a moment at some of Percy's stage
directions to see the working of his treble method :

Act i. sc. I. Doucebella, Floradin and Rofe Joice enter. Mar-
ginal note, "They enter'd from Maldon." Sc. 2. Nim and Shift

* Cf. Mr. Walter H. Godfrey's conjectural plan of the Fortune in Shakespeare
Jahrbuch (1908), p. 160. For some evidence in support of Messrs. Archer and Godfrey's
oblique side-door theory, see my extracts from Percy's textual stage directions, notably
those from Act i. sc. ii. and Act in. sc. i. But one must be careful not to confuse the
characteristics of the public and the private theatres. /

On the Pre'Restoration Stage 67

enter. Marginal note, "they mett from Maldon and from Har-
wich." Sc. 4. Four characters come on. A textual stage direction
says "they enterd from Harwich all."

Act iii. sc. I. Two characters come on. Marginal note, "They
mett, Denham from Maldon, Lacy from Harwich." At the end
of the scene is the instruction " they crossd Denham to Harwich,
Lacy to Maldon."

Act iv. scene i. " The Direction. Aruania, Doucebella, in their
riding attyres . . . Doucebella from Maldon, Aruania from
Harwich. They spake aloofe."

Whatever may have been the common practice at the
private theatres towards the close of Elizabeth's reign,
there is some reason to believe that at houses of this order
a quarter of a century or so later, locality-boards were not
hung up at the beginning of the performance. In The
Broken Hearty as played at the Blackfriars in 1633, the pro-
logue began by saying

Our scene is Sparta. He whose best of art

Hath drawn this piece calls it The Broken Heart.

One would be inclined to think here that the haste in
pointing out the scene of action was occasioned by the
absence of a locality-board. But the same argument might
be advanced to prove the non-employment of a title-board,
and the example therefore is far from conclusive. I should
not have been disposed to refer to it, had it not been for
my discovery of more definite evidence. In ne Cardinal^
as acted before 1641, the openinglinesofthe prologue run :

The Cardinal ! 'Cause we express no scene

We do believe most of you gentlemen.

Are at this hour in France, and busy there —

As much as to say, " Gentlemen, owing to the vagueness
of the inscription of our title-board, the chances are your
minds have been dwelling on Richelieu." The whole point
here would have been lost if the locality-board were already
in position.

We come now to consider the question of the employ-
ment of scene-boards from a textual standpoint, particularly
in relation to those unlocated scenes which puzzle the

68 Title and Locality Boards

modern editor, and, by a parity of reasoning, must have
befogged the mind of the average Elizabethan playgoer,
if unelucidated by inscriptions. Now and again, Shake-
speare presents difficulties of this order. In discussing one
of these it is vital to recall that in the absence of programmes
the identity of a fresh character had to be arrived at by the
traffic of the scene. In All's IVell That Ends Well^ iii. i,
the Duke of Florence enters with two Frenchmen and
a troop of soldiers, but the text affiDrds no clue either to
the place of action or the identity of the Duke. Another
equally unlocated scene occurs at the beginning of the fifth
act.^ In both cases scene-boards are positively demanded,
and only one serious objection can be proffisred to their use.
If placards were hung up throughout the action it hardly
seems likely that the dramatist left the stage manager labori-
ously to deduce the various localities from the text. The
simplest way would have been for the author to write in
the scenic indications during the process of composition,
but judging by the. absence of such indications from the
printed copies that course was apparently not pursued.^
Many plays are known from internal evidence to have been
printed from prompt copies, and I have heard it advanced
in private discussion of this matter that scene-boards could
not have been used without some reference being made to
them in the marginalia of these working copies. The
speaker looked upon this argument as decisive, but I am
far from thinking it so. Why should it have been the
prompter's business to superintend the shifting of the
boards ? His known duties were quite onerous enough
without this added responsibility. Had he not to watch
the book, to be ever ready to give the word, to call the
actors, summon the incidental and inter-act music, see
to the bringing in of properties, the opening of traps, the
flashing of the lightning and the rolling of the thunder } ^

1 Cf. 2 Henry Vly iv. 9.

2 Now and again we come across a stray indication, not only localising the action
but hinting at the employment of scene boards. Note Reynolds' apt citation from
A Warning for Fair Women (1599), "Enter Two Carpenters under Newgate."

3 Cf. the marginal instructions in Believe as Tou Listy The Custom of the Country,
The City Madam and other plays printed from prompt copies.

On the Pre- Res (oration Stage 69

Opposite this it might be argued that the normal position
of the prompter was on the stage beside the characters —
an arrangement no more incongruous than the presence
of the stool-holders — and that most of his instructions
were given by deputy. The same call-boy who carried
messages into the tiring-house could see personally to the
changing of the boards. All this sounds feasible until we
come to consider the probable position of the boards,
viewed by the light of the information yielded by Percy's
plays. To be readily seen from all parts of the house the
boards would have to have been placed centrally at the
back, and at some considerable elevation. This could not
have been done from below with the necessary neatness and
dispatch, but, supposing the boards to have been hung out
on the balustrade fronting the upper stage, could easily
have been done from above. One must remember there
were other officials in the theatre besides the prompter upon
whom the duty might have devolved, say the stage-keeper
or the tireman.^ If it be asked how the person so appointed
would have known when to make the necessary changes,
I should reply that it would not be a difficult matter for the
theatre copyist, when transcribing the actors' parts, to make
out a scene-plot with speech or music cues. When in doubt,
he had the author to appeal to.

We have seen that there is a reasonable a priori argument
in favour of locality-boards in the Elizabethan playhouse.
The point also admits of discussion a posteriori^ but the
evidence deducible by this method is not very decisive,
seeing that one has difficulties in determining what par-
ticular conventionalism was perpetuated, wj>cther of the
playhouse or the court, or a fusion of botjK^It must suffice
now to demonstrate that in the later Stuart masques, as well as
in a few privately performed plays of the saroe period, we
have clear proof of resort to locality-inscriptipfis, and that too
in scenes which were illusively represented. In Chapman's

^ For the stage-keeper see the induction to Bartboloi^eiv Fair and the prologue to
The Example. According to the prologue to Hannibal and Scipioy he, or they (for at some
theatres there were several), generally wore a sort of uniform. For some of the duties
of the tiremen sec the inductions to The Malcontent and The Staple of Neivi.

70 'Title and Locality Boards

Masque of the Middle Temple and Lincoln's Inn (1613),
the scene showed a Silver Temple standing on an eminence
and bearing inscription in golden letters, "Honoris Fanum."
In Tatham's pastoral, Love Crowns the End^ as acted by
scholars at Bingham in Nottinghamshire in 1632, we have
the direction at the close of the scenically mounted pro-
logue, " Exit. A place discovered all green mirtles, adorn'd
with Roses, a Title written over 't thus : LOVERS' VAL-
LEY." In the unnamed, anonymous masque presented
by Prince Charles at Richmond on September 12, 1636,
and subsequently printed at Oxford, the second scene,
" a well-ordred Campe," bore the inscription Expeditio Brito-
martis "in a Compartement."

My own impression is that in these cases it was the
old court conventionalism that was perpetuated. To admit
as much is to suggest on the strength of the meagre evi-
dence to hand that the same specific conventionalism
imposed itself on the early scenic conditions of the new
Restoration theatres. At Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1663,
as well as at court, was performed a comedy called The
Slighted Maid^ a hodge-podge of pastoral, masque, and opera,
evidently modelled on the hybrid court productions of
Louis XIV. In the middle of Act iii we find the direction
"the Scene is discovered, over which in capital Letters
is writ CAMPI ELTSUr Again, the closing scene of
the last act is thus particularised in the printed copy : "The
Scene, Vulcan's Court, over it is writ, Foro del Volcane."
Here the Italian inscription seems to point to a foreign
source for the particular scenic eiFect, a not improbable sup-
position seeing that in the absence of native scene-painters,
Italian artists were brought over from Paris shortly after
^.he Restoration. The curious point is that no evidence
exists of the employment of locality-inscriptions on the
contemporary continental stage, whether public or private.

To sum up on the question of scene-boards, the really
vital question of this inquiry. With a caution entirely
uncharacteristic, I must content myself with the possi-
bilities suggested on the way, and resolutely refuse to

On the Pre-Restoration Stage 7 1

hazard the formulation of any general principles. Clearly
the available data are insufficient to pontify upon ; nor can
I foresee the likelihood of new evidence of moment being
unearthed. No single pass-key can ever be found to unlock
all the doors of the mystery, and for this reason the whole
truth is never likely to be known. We have definite evi-
dence for the employment of locality-boards at one play-
house at a specific period — PauFs c. 1600 — and we have
reason to suspect their employment at other houses at
varying periods. Of the modus operandi^ save in the one
particular instance mentioned, we cannot be certain. Proof
of the existence of a certain custom at a private theatre
cannot be taken as proof of its existence at a contemporary
public theatre. The Globe and the Blackfriars, although
maintained so long by the one body of players, failed to
follow exactly the same routine. Marston, in a note to the
epilogue of his Sophonisha^ begs the reader not to blame
him "for the fashion of the Entrances and Musique of
this tragedy, for know it is printed only as it was presented
by youths, and after the fashion of the private theatre."
Broadly speaking then, there were two fashions, that of the
public theatre, apparently based upon the conventionalisms
of the inn-yard, and that of the private theatre, where
closer and closer approximation seems to have been made
as time went on to the methods of the court. We cannot
find that the public theatres of the pre-Restoration era
ever proceeded beyond the scrappy symbolic mounting of f
the miracle plays ; but in the private theatres as early as
c. 1634 some tentative use had been made of successive
scenery of the primitive latter-day order. Not only is there
a line of demarcation between the two, but one must re-
member that during the first forty years of the seventeenth
century both types were in irregular process of evolution,
the public theatre, however, arriving the more rapidly at its
maturity. Once the investigator has grasped these facts he
will have become convinced of the futility of generalisation.

Music and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre

In the latter half of the eighteenth century, when curiosity
began to be aroused as to the prime characteristics of the
Elizabethan stage, someone, who permitted himself to be
deceived by the fallacious evidence of the quartos, put on
foot an untenable theory of wholesale continuous perform-
ance in Shakespeare's day. Malone^ doubtless thought
he had given this its quietus, but more than a century
after it had been decently interred its bones have been
resurrected by the alternationists ^ with the vain hope
of bolstering up their equally untenable theory. The
chances are that in clairning too much the alternationists
have proved too little. Although continuous performance
as a hard and fast principle cannot be maintained, there are
some reasons to believe that on occasion certain long plays
like Hamlet were given without a break, or with only a
single break. In the public theatres exigencies of time
would have demanded this. So Intimately Is the problem
associated with the rise and progress of inter-act music that
no apology need be made for discussing it at length in a
paper devoted to a wide consideration of the fruitful topic
of music and song in the Elizabethan Theatre.

For the existence of inter-act music In our earliest play-
houses one readily finds sufficing precedent. Considerably
before the English drama had a permanent abiding place
the divisions were so indicated. One of the "wise saws"
In The School of Abuse might well have been pointed by its
author Into a modern instance. "Poetrie and pyping",
writes Gosson, "haue allwaies bene so vnlted toglther,
that til the time of Melanlppldes, Pipers were Poets' hyer-
lings." Primitive English comedy was nothing if not musical.

* Shakespeare Variorum (ed. Boswell, 1821), iii. m.

' For a lucid exposition of the alternation theory, see Mr. William Archer's article
on "The Elizabethan Stage" in The Quarterly Revieiu for April, 1908, p. 448. et seq.

76 Music and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre

I Ralph Roister Doister vividly illustrates how large a space
in Tudor days was occupied by melody and song, when no
gentleman could be said to be fully educated who was in-
capable of singing his part at sight. ^ In a quaint onomato-
poeic way Udall makes Dobinet Doughtie indicate what
instruments were in common use among the people in the
middle of the sixteenth century :

With euery woman is he in some loues pang,
Then vp to our lute at midnight, twangledome twang,
Then twang with our sonets, and twang with our dumps.
And heyhough from our heart, as heauie as lead lumpes :
Then to our recorder with toodleloodle poope
As the howlet out of an yuie bushe should hoope.
Anon to our gittern, thrumpledum, thrumpledum, thrum,
Thr^mpledum, thrumpledum, thrumpledum, thrumpledum,
thrum.

\y the very nature of things, the musicians associated
with the impermanent, plastic stage could not be assigned
any well recognised conjunctive position. Textual indica-
tions clearly show that they were brought on the scene as
occasion required, to figure as auxiliaries and lend modest
illusion to the action.^ In Gammer Gurton's Needle one finds
definite allusion to the custom of playing music between
the acts. At the end of the second act Diccon says :

Into the towne, will I, my frendes to vysit there.

And hether straight again, to see the end of this gere :

In the mean time, felowes, pipe upp; your fiddles, I say, take

them.
And let your freyndes here such mirth as ye can make them. ^

With the dawn of English tragedy in 1 562 emblematical
dumb shows came to be united, in the graver drama, with
the inter-act music. One doubts not that a few hints were

* Cf. Ernest Walker's History of Music in England^ p. 58.

2 Ralph Roister Doister^ iii. 3, at end. In John Redford's Moral Play of Wit and
Science (Shakespeare Society, 1848), viol players come on twice to accompany songs.
Some of the music in this piece (by the author) is preserved in the British Museum.
See Add. MSS. 15,223, ff. 11-28.

^ For a quaint German analogue, see Karl Mantzius' History of Theatrical Art
(1903), ii. pp. 150-1.

Music and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre 77

taken in the beginning from the more elaborate intermedii
of the Italians. Through this clumsy innovation careful
regulation of the music became imperative. That some
considerable pains were taken to adapt the strain to the
action can be seen from an intelligent study of the direc-
tions in Gorhoduc and Tancred and Gismunda,^ Closely as
these two plays are ajlied in point of time, one notes in the
latter a significant advance on the principle of the purely
symbolical dumb show. The intercalated pantomime was
performed to " a sweet noise of still pipes," and other
appropriate music, by the actual personages of the drama,
and led up smoothly without break to the opening of the
succeeding act. Here the dumb show was far from "in-
explicable," and fully justified itself by binding the action.
For once, possibly for the first time, there was unbroken
continuity. The pity of it was that where in later days the
dramatist resorted to the dumb show, either in the intervals
or during the main action, to eke out defective construc-
tion, he mostly burdened it with cloudy symbolism.^ A few
exceptions are to be noted. While the music is playing
between the second and third acts of Marston's WhatTou
Will^ Rydel creeps in to observe Jacomo and the others
dress Francisco. At the end of the second act of The Phoenix
(i 607), we have the direction, " Exeunt. Towards the close
of the musick the justices three men prepare for a rob-
berie." Prefixed to the Mth3.ct of Parasitas termor the Fawne
is the direction, "Whilst the Act is a-playing, Hercules
and Tiberio enter ; Tiberio climbs the tree, and is received
above by Dulcimel, Philocalia and a Priest : Hercules stays
beneath." This instruction, it may be noted, is evidence for
the employment of inter-act music at the Blackfriars about
the year 1 605. Again, in the interval following the second
act of The Changeling, De Flores comes in, and hides behind
a door the naked rapier required for the sudden dispatch of
his victim in the succeeding act.

1 See also The Misfortunes of Arthur (1588).

' For a comprehensive article on "Dumb Shew in Elizabethan Drama before
1620," see Englische Studieriy xliv. (191 1), p. 8.

Music and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre

# What with the prevalence of dumb shows in the early
Tudor drama and the marked taste for music, it seems
\ probable that the first theatres made no immediate depar-
ture from precedent. Intervals of time between successive
scenes and successive acts would be indicated by the playing
of music. Stage directions are not wanting to show this
occasional marking of the divisions between scenes by brief
instrumental selections, ^ and even in some cases where the
direction is lacking the playing of music is absolutely sug-
gested by the nature of the constructiop<'^±Iow .atherwise
I could the break be conveyed to the atidience between the
/ third and fourth scenes of the third act oiThe Jew ofMalta^
I each of which occurs in the same place but with an inter-
Lveiiing^lapse piLtixneJi

We have clear evidence that music was employed to
adjust the mood of the spectator to the tone of the coming
act, and, with equal frequency, to herald the approach of
some important personage or accentuate the stress of some
simulated emotion^'^In The Two Italian Gentlemen of
Anthony Munday, which dates from about 1584, instruc-
tions are given as to the particular kind of music to be
played between^he acts, "a pleasant galliard," "a solemn
dump," etc.^Z^t us not rashly assume, however, that direc-
tions of this nature invariably originated with the author
of the play. Collier states rather foolishly that " Marston
is very particular in his Sophonisba (1606), in pointing out
the instruments to be played during the four intervals of
the acts : 'the cornets and organ playing loud-full music,'
for act i; 'organs, mixed with recorders,' for act ii ;

^ a. A Looking Glassefor London (1594), 1. 558, when Remilia says "Shut close
these curtaines straight and shadow me." Then "they draw the Curtaines and musick
plaies." A new scene begins with the entrance of the Magi. In Middleton's Tour Five
Gallants (Blackfriars c. 1605), iv. i, is the direction "the musicke plaies on a while,
then enter Tailbee, his man after, trussing him." Their appearance marks the begin-
ning of scene ii. In The Fair Maid of the West, Part i (163 i), Act iv. the duration
of the interval between the second and third scenes is indicated by the curt direction,
"Hautboys long." The instruction at the end of this act, "act long," shows that the
act-intervals varied in length.

2 A song is sung whilst Bassanio ruminates over the caskets in The Merchant of
Venice (First Folio), iii. 2. In Messalina (1640), Act iii. "solemne musick" is played
during Montanus* speech at the banquet. Cf. Professor A. C. Bradley's Oxford Lectures
on Foe try, p. 369.

Music and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre 79

* organs, viols and voices* for act iii ; and 'a base lute
and a treble viol* for act iv. In the course of act v he
introduces a novel species of harmony, for we are twice
told that ' infernal music plays softly. ' "y Here we have an
obvious overlooking of the fact that^in a note to the epi-
logue, Marston writes : " After all, let me intreat my Reader
not to taxe me for the fashion ofthe Entrances and Musique
of this tragedy, for know it is printed only as it was pre-
sented by youths, and after the fashion ofthe private stage."
In other words, The fVonder of Women ^ or the Tragedy of
Sophonisha had been produced at the Blackfriars by the
Children of the Queen's Revels. ^-'Taken in conjunction
with a curious passage in Webster's induction to the aug-
mented version of The Malcontent .^^ acted by the King's
players at the Globe in 1604) Marston's protest reveals
the existence of a serious divergence in certain matters of
routine between the public and the private theatres. In
Webster's induction, William Sly asks the players how
they came by the piece about to be acted, and learns from
Condell that they had found it. "What are your additions .? "
queries Sly; and Burbage replies, " Sooth, not greatly need-
full; only as your sallet to your great feast, to entertain a
little more time, and to abridge the not receiv'd custom of
musicke in our theatre." Whether accurate or not in all its
details, Fleay's elucidation of Webster's induction throws
some light on the colloquy just cited. "It further appears
from the Induction," he writes, "that in 1604 (no doubt on
the reconstruction ofthe Blackfriars boys as the Queen's
Revels Children in January), they Most' this play, which
was appropriated by the King's men in retaliation for the
boys having stolen their Jeronymo and acted it c. 1600."^

Additions made "to abridge the not receiv'd custom of
musicke" at the Globe must obviously have been matter
substituted in place of certain internal musical features of
the original play. It is vital to emphasise this, superfluous
as it sounds, for, with regard to the employment of music,

* Hiit, Eng. Dram, Poetry (1831), iii. 449.
' Biog. Chron, Eng. Drama^ ii. 28, 78.

8o Music and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre

there was more than one disparity at this particular period
betweentheBlackfriarsand the public theatres. It was cus-
tomary, for example, at the Blackfriars to indulge those who
had assembled early with a long vocal and instrumental
prelude, sometimes lasting an hour/ On the other hand, at
no public theatre of the Pre-Restoration epoch can trace of
any overture be found. References occur to music sounding
before the play, but these were to the three trumpet blasts that
invariably preceded the performance. Since the Children of
the Chapel were primarily singers and musicians and only
secondarily actors, it became an easy matter to them to^''^
intersperse music, dancing and song in their various play-^^
To follow in that course would have been a difficult matter
to the adult players of the Globe : hence Webster's allusion.
It must be recalled, moreover, thatat this period song and
. dance in the guhljc theatres were almost wholly confined to
■ the jigs which concluded the performance. In the economy
of the private theatre these ribald afterpieces never had any
place. It was a question of appealing to a different kind of
audience- Whatever the reason for the change, it would
seem, however, that the Globe and possibly some of the
other public theatres made occasional resort at a slightly
later period to the early Blackfriars system of musical, vocal
and terpsichorean interspersions. Assuming Antony and
Cleopatra to be fairly sound evidence for the famous Bank-
side house in 1608, one notes in Act ii. 7 that cheerful
tunes were played during the banquet on Pompey's galley
and that a dance followed. But the period of the change
and the length of its duration cannot be determined. Allied
with the fact that the evidence of the old quartos is not

1 Cf. C. W. Wallace, The Children of the Chapel of Blackfriars, pp. 106-7. The
custom fell into desuetude there with the departure of the Child-actors in 1608, but it
was doubtless revived by them at the Whitefriars in 16 10. It certainly must have persisted
somewhere, since it was the prototype of " the First, Second and Third Music" of the
Restoration Theatre (vide ante p. 21, note 2). Lack of preliminary music at the
Blackfriars in 161 7 is indicated in the following distich from H. Fitz-Jeffrey's Notes

from Blackfryersy issued in that year :

" Come, lets bethink ourselves, what may be found
To deceive time with, till the second sound."

2 For examples of these interspersements, see C. W. Wallace, op. cit. pp. 11 6-7.

Music and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre 8 1

conclusive, outer testimony as to musical interspersions in
the public theatre is wholly lacking.^ The experience of Paul
Hentzner, the Brandenburg jurist, on his visit of Septem-
ber, 1598, goes to show that the common theatres of that
time were not without their attractions of dance and song but
that these were confined to the terminal jigs. "Without the
city," he writes, " are some theatres where English actors
represent almost every day comedies and tragedies to very
numerous audiences \ these are concluded with excellent
music, variety of dances and the excessive applause of those
that are present."^

Two other important divergencies remain to be noted,
n lieu of the unreceived custom of the jig, which gave the
public theatre audience an additional half-an-hour's enter-
tainment, all the private theatres occupied by child-players
favoured their patrons with songs and dances between the
acts. This custom must have operated seriously against
any internal tendency towards continuous or semi-continu-
ous performance. Precisely where it^began one cannot say,
most probably at the Blackfriars.^. As evidence for Paul's
we have the direction at the end of Act ii of Middleton's
A Mad World ^My Masters: "A song sung by the Musicians,
and after the song, a country dance by the actors in their
visards to a new footing." For the Whitefriars in 161 1 the
evidence is still more conclusive. At the close of Act i of
T^he Knight of the Burning Pestle^ the Citizen's Wife expresses
her delight at hearing the fiddles tuning up, and cries, "but
look, look ! here's a youth dances." More music follows at
the end of the second act (where we have an indication of
the playing of Dowland's "Lachrymae") ; and at the end of
the third the boy again dances. That this inter-act dancing
was a common feature of the private theatre performances

* Cf. Calendar State Papers, t^enetian, xv (i 6 17-9), p. 6j, letter of Horatio
Busino, from London, to Signor Georgio Contarini, under date December 8, 161 7.
The experience here described (from the quality of the audience) probably took place at
a private theatre. No authority exists for attributing this experience to the Fortune, as
in The Quarterly RevieiVy Vol. cii. p. 416. This assumption formerly led me seriously
astray. Cf. Shakespeare Jabrbuck (1908), p. 42.

* Pauli Hentznerii Itinerarium Germaniae, Angliae, Italiae, cum indice locorum, reruns
atque verboruTn commemorabilium. Noribergae (1629), p. 196.

82 Musk and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre

at this period is indicated in Beaumont's lines to Fletcher
on the failure of ^e Faithful Shepherdess c. 1 609 :

Nor want there those, who, as the Boy doth dance
Between the acts, will censure the whole Play ;
Some like, if the wax-lights be new that day.

By way of side issue, it may be pointed out that inter-
act songs formed a characteristic feature of the University
drama in the first half of the seventeenth century/ Here
they were probably not so much a following of the Private
Theatre habitude as a survival of the pseudo-classic Chorus.
Of the prevalence of inter-act singing on the London stage
in 1633 we have sufficing testimony in Prynne's Histrio-
mastix : ^

By our owne moderne experience there is nothing more frequent
in all our stage-playes then amorous pastoral or obscene lascivious
love-songs, most melodiously chanted out upon the stage between
each several action ; both to supply that chasme or vacant interim
which the tyring-house takes up in changing the actors' robes to
fit them for some other part in the ensuing scene, — as likewise to
please the itching eares, if not to inflame the outrageous lusts, of
lewde spectators.

The impression conveyed here is that at the time of
writing love-songs were sung between the acts at all theatres
alike. But can we take the statement without corroboration.''
Had Prynne sufficient experience in promiscuous playgoing
to speak with authority on the public theatres.'' It may have
been that in his zeal he conveyed more than he had intended.
Emphasis must, at any rate, be laid on the fact that at no
period of Pre-Restoration stage history have we any other
record of inter-act song or dance in the public theatres.

The final distinguishing custom of the early private
theatre began with the child-players and may have been
confined to them. This was the valedictory song at the
close of the comedy. In IVestward Hoe^ as acted c. 1607 at
PauFs, this was sung off the stage after the actors had

* Cf. The Rivall Friends of Peter Haustcd, as acted at Cambridge in 1632; also
Dr. Fisher's Fuimm Troes as at Oxford (4to 1633 j reprinted in Dodsley).

Music and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre 83

departed. But in y^ Woman is a Weathercock, as acted at the
Whltefriars c. 16 10 by the Children of Her Majesty *s
Revels, the song is bound to the action by Sir John
Worldly*s closing speech beginning, " On, parson on ; and,
boy, outvoice the music." ^

These preludes, interludes, intermezzos and terminal
songs, being clearly identified with child-players, cannot be
taken as customary at all periods of private theatre history.
For at least twenty years after its erection the Cockpit, or
Phoenix, was monopolised by adult companies. One thing,
however, is reasonably assured, viz., that inter-act music
prevailed from first to last in all the private theatres, with-
out exception.^ Even at Paul's, where pressure of circum-
stance confined the children, as we shall see, strictly to "the
two hours' traflic of the stage," intermezzos were given,
though, doubtless, they had often to be reduced to the
narrowest limits. In "a note to the Master of the Children of
Powles," appended to his extant MS. play of NecromanteSy^
William Percy writes :

Memorandum, that if any of the fine and formost of these Pas-
toralls and comoedyes conteyned in this volume, shall but overeach
in length (the children not to begin before foure, after prayers,
and the gates of Powles shutting at six) the tyme of supper, that
then in tyme and place convenient, you do let passe some of the
songs, and make the consort the shorter ; for I suppose these plaies
be somewhat too long for that place. Howsoever, on your own
experience, and at your best direction be it.

"Make the consort^ the shorter" evidently means cur-
tail the inter-act music. It could hardly have referred to
a preliminary concert, such as obtained at the Blackfriars,
which must have been precluded by the exigencies of time.
Even at the Whitefriars, where no such limitations ruled,

^ Cf. the Fool's Jig-song at the close of Tivelfth Night.

' For the Cockpit in 1635, see the prologue to Nabbcs' Hannibal and Scipio. For
the Blackfriars in its later period, see The City Madam (1632), marginal instruction in
Act iv ; also The Fatal Doivryy end of Act ii.

' Collier, op. cit. (1831), iii. 377 note.

* Cf. the same author's The Cuck-Queanes and Cuckolds Errants^ direction at the close
of every act, " Here they knockt up the consort " (i.e., gave the signal for the inter-act
music).

84 Music and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre

the waits between the acts were, on occasion, of the briefest.
In A Woman is a Weathercock the music played in the first
interval began before the act had ended, apparently with the
penultimate speech. Apart from the stage direction, the
music itself is alluded to by the last speaker. A few bars
more at the close of the act would have indicated the break
without causing any material delay.

/It remains now to consider the possibility of occasional
'Continuous (or quasi-continuous) performance in the public
theatres. I say occasional for the reason that the idea of
continuous performance as a principle cannot be entertained.
It would have involved too serious a mental strain, and
called for powers of concentration given to few. Moreover
the possibility is precluded by the evidence for inter-act
music and other division-markings. In " The Piatt of the
Dead Mans Fortune^'' otherwise a prompter's guide made
for the Rose c. 1593, the act-divisions are indicated by
marginal "musique" cues placed opposite rows of crosses.^
In other platts of the same period made for the same theatre,
where music is not indicated, either the Chorus comes on
in the interval or a dumb show is presented. Again, take
Yarrington's Two Tragedies in One^ which Fleay thinks was
given at the Fortune c. 1 600, and which we are, at any rate,
safe in assuming to be a public-theatre play. At the end of
Act iii, Truth, as Chorus, comes on while Merry, with his
back turned to the audience, is mutilating Beech's body.
Addressing himself directly to the audience he says :

I see your sorrowes flowe up to the brim,
And overflowe your cheeks with brinish teares.
But though the sight bring surfeit to the eye,
Delight your eares with pleasing harmonie^
That ears may counter checke your eyes and say,
Why shed teares, this deed is but a playe ?

^ Let us next consider what would have been the neces-
'' sity inthe public theatre for occasional continuous, or quasi-
continuous, performance. Limitation of time combined with

^ Cf, W. W. Greg, The Hemloive Papen, n. 127, appendix ii.

Music and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre 85

extreme length of play might now and again have demanded
this heroic remedy. Where acting was by natural light
and the performance did not begin until two or three
o'clock ^ in the afternoon there was no possibility at any
time save in the summer of extending beyond the normal
limits. If one were assured that these were fully indicated
in the "two hours' traffic" or "two short hours" of the pro-
logues to Romeo and Juliet and Henry VIII^ the possibility
of frequent, nay, almost regular, continuous performance
would have to be conceded. But there is a preponderance
of evidence to show that the maximum period of perform-
ance in the public theatre was three hours. Other and later
references to the shorter period all occur in prologues and
epilogues spoken at private theatres.^ As early as 1582
Whetstone, in his Heptameron of Civil Discourses^ wrote of
three hours as the complement. Dekker, in his section on
Winter, in Raven's Almanack scoffs at the vanity of the
players and tells them that " Ye shall be glad to play three
hours for two pence to the basest stinkards in London,
whose breath is stronger than garlick, and able to poison
all the twelve-penny rooms." Ben Jonson in the induction
to Bartholomew Fair, as acted in 16 14 at the Hope, refers
to the "space of two hours and a half and somewhat more."'
Although within these three hours the public theatre players
had usually to give a tragedy or comedy and a jig, it seems
not unlikely that when a play of excessive length came to
be represented, the jig, despite its popularity, was omitted.
So far as these rhymed afterpieces were concerned, there was
no question of fulfilling an advertised programme. Choice
of jigs was frequently left to the audience, as indicated
in the references to calling for them.^ Evidence is almost
wholly lacking as to the average duration of these gross

^ The evidence, as marshalled by Collier, op. cit. (183 1), iii. 376-7, points to three
o'clock as the usual hour, but there must surely have been an earlier start in the winter.

^ See the prologues to Love's Pilgrimage^ The Two Noble Kinsmen^ and The Unfor-
tunate Lo-vers i also the epilogue to The Scholars.

3 For other references to "three hours," see Prologue to The Lover's Progressy
epilogue to The Loyal Subject^ and Timon's allusion in Lady Alimony (c. 1634).

* Cf. Collier, op. cit. iii. 379 ; also textual allusion in Shirley's Changes^ or Love
in a Maze (1631), showing that the custom had then passed out of vogue.

86 Music and Song in the Elizabethan 'Theatre

afterpieces, but if they approximated to the length indicated
in 'Tarletons News out of Purgatoij^ where gentlemen are
referred to as laughing at them for an hour, all the more
reason why they would have had to go by the board. Every-
thingpointsin the normal condition to very brief inter-acts.
Such an habituation would explain why to many of the
Elizabethan dramatists an act was more an arbitrary divi-
sion than a literary unit, and account for that constructive
peculiarity where acts are finished off abruptly in the middle
of something that demands completion. Assuredly that
remarkable situation in A Midsummer Night's Dream
where the four lovers sleep on the stage from the end
of one act until the middle of the opening scene of the
next would have been perilous had the wait been of any
duration. ^

Under pressure of circumstance the step from intervals
of extreme brevity to a semi-continuous performance would
have been of easy gradation. And it is noteworthy that of
resort to semi-continuous performance we have meagre, if
satisfying evidence. In Mars ton's Histriomastix,^ Act ii, at
the close, Mavortius and his company remain on the stage
till Pride comes on to raise a mist ^ under cover of which
they may disappear. Immediately on the departure of
Mavortius the third act begins. There is again no break
between the third and fourth acts, but the action apparently
ceased between the first and second and the fourth and fifth.
The reason, of course, for these curtailments is that the
play ran to six acts and presented seven incidental songs
and a dance. The final interval, if so it can be styled, was

^ Cf. Mr. William Archer's article in The Quarterly Re'view for April, 1908, pp.
459-60.

2 The alterations in this play for court performance (as indicated by the double
ending, &c.) seriously confuse the issue. But, Fleay to the contrary notwithstanding,
there is no reason for doubting that it had its initial production in a private theatre.
(Cf. R. A. Small, The Stage Quarrel between Ben Jonson and the so-called Poetasters. Breslau,
1899, pp. 77 ff.) The date, c. 1598, and Marston's connexion with Paul's point to the
Singing School as the source, but difficulties arise owing to the two-hours' limit which
ruled there, though, of course, this would account for the semi-continuity. The only
alternative is the Blackfriars.

3 Effected by a cloud of smoke emerging ftom a stage trap. For other examples
see Loves Metamorphosis^ iv. i, and the dumb show in The Prophetess^ Act v.

Music and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre 87

brief and connective. Act v. ends with the departure of
Christoganus. Then "allarmes in severall places, that brake
him off thus : after a retreat sounded, the musicke playes
and Poverty enters." The sixth act then begins. ^

Middleton's No Wit^ no Help Like a Woman s^ was, on
Fleay's showing, originally produced at the Hope in or about
1 6 14. But the printed play as we now have it represents
Shirley's revision of twenty years later. At the end of the
fourth act one finds the direction, " Exeunt Philip Twilight,
and Savourwit. Manent Widow and Mrs. Low-water."
As a colloquy between the two women opens the fifth act,
there was apparently no wait. In this connection it is note-
worthy that the Hamlet of the Folio is divided only as far
as Act ii. sc. 2, as if the remainder of the tragedy ran on
without break. Fleay points out that this particular version
is some two hundred lines short of Shakespeare's full manu-
script, a circumstance that points to its being a sound acting
copy. My impression is that implications of semi-continu-
ous performance are more dependable than implications of
unbroken continuity. It is difficult to divine whence sprung
up that seemingly senseless practice of printing the early
quartos without indication of act-divisions. It was not the
mere perpetuation of an elementary principlp<^^he Enter-
lude ofRespublica (1553) and the comedy of Roister Doister
(1566) are both divided into acts and scenes, the latter, of
course, determined in the French way. It would not be a
difficult matter to prove that many of the later undivided
quartos represented plays that in actual performance had
act-divisions. A noteworthy example is Middleton's private
theatre play The Phoenix (4to 1607), where the breaks are
indicated in the text and shown to have been signified by
the playing of music. It would be probably useless to seek
an explanation why all the Shakespearean quartos, save
the Othello of 1 62 1, are wholly undivided. PrClss ^ thinks

J Cf. C. F. Tucker Brooke, The Shakespeare Apocrypha^ p. 180 {The Life and Death
of the Lord Cromivell, lines 109 fF).

2 Robert PrSlss, Von den alteiten Drucken der Dramen Shakespeares (1905), p. 45 et
seq. For Monkemeyer's reply see his Prolegomena au einer Darstellung der englischen
yolkibiibne zur Elisabeth- und Stuart-Zeii.

8 8 Music and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre

the plays existed in two forms, one for the public theatre
and one for the private ; and he endeavours by this means to
explain the discrepancies between the quartos and the folios.
Monkemeyer seriously traverses this in arguing that the
quartos were mostly surreptitious copies badly taken down.
But one does not exactly see why even the most indifferent
of stenographers should not have noted the act divisions,
if they existed.

Considering the precedent set by the Children of the
Chapel at Blackfriars it is not surprising to find that through-
j out the first half of the seventeenth century the best musi-
f cians were attached to the private theatres. When Shirley's
masque,^ The Triumph of Peace^ was represented at court in
February, 1634, Sir Bulstrode Whitelock superintended
the music, the expense of which came to about one thousand
pounds. "I was so conversant with the musitians," he writes,
"and so willing to gain their favour, especially at this time,
that I composed an aier myselfe, with the assistance of Mr.
Ives, and called it Whitelockes Coranto ; which being cried
up, was first played publiquely by the Blackefryars Musicke,
who were then esteemed the best of common musitians in
London. Whenever I came to that house (as I did some-
times in those dayes, though not often), to see a play, the
musitians would presently play Whitelocke' s Coranto ; and it
was so often called for, that they would have it played twice
or thrice in an afternoone. The queen hearing it, would not
be persuaded that it was made by an Englishman, bicause
she said it was fuller of life and spirit than the English aiers
used to be ; butt she honoured the Coranto and the maker
of ft with her majestyes royall commendation."^

It is interesting to note that owing to the non-provision
of any specified programme of inter-act music, the Eliza-
bethan custom of calling for particular airs persisted in the
theatre until the close of the eighteenth century, and, in
Dublin, often proved the source of considerable trouble
through the recurring demand for party tun^

' Burney's History of MusiCj iii. 376.

Music and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre 89

In Chettle*s Kind-Hart's Dreame one notes a reference
to "Players and Fiddlers" who being " maisterlesse," were
burnt in the ear. It is curious to find that in the theatre,
where the vocations of the two were often seriously con-
fused, players and musicians had to procure a separate license.
On April 9, 1 627, the musicians of the King's company had
to pay Sir Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels, the sum of
one pound (equal to at least ^^ of the present currency) for
a warrant of protection.^ Vexatious as was this impost, it at
least procured the playhouse fiddlers immunity from arrest
as vagabonds when they ventured to exercise their calling
elsewhere. In a whimsical passage in the tract called The
Actor's Remonstrance (1643), written after the silencing of
the theatres, we read, " Our music, that was held so delect-
able and precious, that they scorned to come to a tavern
under twenty shillings salary for two hours, now wander
with their instruments under their cloaks — I mean such as
have any — into all houses ofgood fellowship, saluting every
room where is company with ^Will you have any music,
gentlemen ? ' ''

Collier, in his section on early theatrical music, says that
"Malone refers to a warrant of protection, dated 27th of
December, 1624, by Sir H. Herbert, to Nicholas Underbill,
Robert Pallant, John Rhodes, and seventeen others, *all
imployed by the King's Majesty's servants in their quallity
of playinge as musitians, and other necessary attendants,'
and a doubt must exist whether the musicians did not some-
times perform, and vice versa. We know that Phillippes
and other actors of eminence played upon different instru-
ments, and Pallant was a performer in the ' Plat ' of the
second part of the Seven Deadly Sins, before 1588: possibly
after he had ceased to act he became an instrumental per-
former in the band." ^

It is amusing to find Collier speculating upon a point
which he could have easily determined by a patient examina-

^ Malone's Shakespeare (Dublin, 1794), ii. 81.

2 op. cit. iii. 449. Pallant merely came in as an attendant in the Second Part of
the Se'ven Deadly Sim (1592), and may therefore have been primarily a musician at that
period.

90 Music and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre

tion of the old quartos. We know, for example, that the
musicians often came on the stage in their own character^
and in that capacity were occasionally allotted a few lines. ^
Again, in situations where a great show of supernumeraries
was deemed requisite, both the musicians and the gatherers
were pressed into the service of the scene. ^ I am referring
now to general custom, without laying any stress on the
evidence deducible from plays performed at the Blackfriars,
Paul's and Whitefriars by children. This precaution is
necesssary, as, in all cases, the "little eyases" combined
the two vocations. One other point needs to be emphasised.
When songs were given on the stage (and not, as sometimes,
in the music-room), the musicians almost invariably came
on to play the accompaniment.^ Much of this coming on
in plays of contemporary English life was mere stage
realism. It was customary for the Elizabethan spendthrift
to keep a "noise" of musicians in his employ. Sometimes
they did duty as servants and wore blue liveries. A scene
of this order occurs in 'The City Madam^ Act iii, where
Goldwire, Junior, comes on disguised as a Justice of the
Peace and his fiddlers as watchmen. Happily for the present
day investigator, this play v/as printed from a well-marked
prompt copy, as acted at the Blackfriars. Twenty lines
before the disguised musicians appear, we have the margi-
nal note, " Musicke come down." Similarly in the last act,
occurs the direction " musicians come down to make ready
for the song at the arras."

Whence, it may be asked, did they come ? The question
leads to ^ consideration of the position normally occupied

^ Cf. Othello^ iii. i, where the musicians on the stage (evidently bag-pipers), talk
after playing. In Wit Without Money^ end of Act v, the musicians come on and one of
them speaks. In Monsieur Thomasy iii. 3, a Fiddler enters and takes part in the dialogue.
Afterwards he sings and plays.

2 In Heywood's If Tou Knotv not Me, Tou knoiv Nobody, Part ii (ed. 1 874, p. 297),
we have the direction "Enter Sir Thomas Ramsie, the 2 Lords, My Lady Ramsie, the
Waits in Sergeants* gowns, with an Interpreter." The musicians had just played pre-
viously and now come on as disguised supernumeraries. In several other plays one finds
them referred to as "the waits".

* Cf. Netuifrom Plymouth (1635 at the Globe), Act iii j Cymbeline, ii. 2 ; The Dis-
tresses, Act i. Dancing was also sometimes similarly accompanied, e.g., Lust^s Dominion,
iii. 2, "Enter Oberon and Fairies dancing before him j and Music with them."

Music and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre 9 1

by the musicians when not engaged in the traffic of the
scene. It is plain to be seen at the outset, from the various
duties they had to fulfil, that the position must have been
somewhere within stage regions, where they could obtain
ready access to the tiring-room, and not an isolated box in
the auditorium. This of itself would negative Dr. Wegener's
contention that the position is indicated by the word "orches-
tra" in the well-known Dutch sketch of The Swan, even if
other rebutting evidence were lacking. ^ Curiously enough,
Malone, more than a century ago, got within hail of the
secret, but, in stating the result of his enquiries, only suc-
ceeded in rendering the problem more intricate for pos-
terity. Writing in his "Historical Account of the Rise and
Progress of the English Stage," he says "The band, which,
I believe, did not consist of more than eight or ten per-
formers, sat (as I have been told by a very ancient stage
veteran, who had his information from Bowman, the contem-
porary of Betterton), in an upper balcony, over what is now
called the stage-box." ^ Unfortunately, Malone did not
know, what is well known now, that the Elizabethan theatre,
unlike the theatre of his own time, had neither proscenium
arch nor front curtain ; otherwise he would not have conveyed
his information in precisely these terms. The stage boxes in
the latter half of the eighteenth century were situated on
either side of the "apron," or avant scene, a little in front
of the proscenium arch. ^ It is at least made clear to us,
however, by Malone that the ancient " music-room ";5vas
in stage regions and not in the auditorium proper. ,xMost
likely, what Bowman's acquaintance meant to convey to him
was that the Elizabethan musicians occupied an upper
balcony at the back of the stage. Broadly speaking, this
tallies with most of the evidence educible on the subject.
An important clue is afforded by The Thracian Wonder,
"a comical history," attributed, on its first publication in
1 66 1 , to Webster and Rowley. Fleay's opinion is that this

* Vide ante p. 39.

^ Malone's Shakespeare (Dublin, 1794)) ii. 80. It is painful to find Dr. Brandet
and others endorsing this highly confusing statement.

3 Cf. Victor E. Albright, The Shaksperian Stage^ plate 10.

92 Music and Song in the Elizabethan 'Theatre

play was acted c. 1617 by Prince Charles' company. In
Act IV. i. 1865 occurs the stage direction "Pythia above,
behind the curtains." Four lines previously the prompter
notes, "Pythia speaks in the Musick Room behind the

, Curtain." Here we have three significant indications : (i)
^■^\ the Music Room was "above" in the tiring-house ; (2) it

; had front curtains ; (3) and it could be used, occasionally,
for dramatic purposes. All this clearly elucidates a situation
in the third act of The Late Lancashire Witches (1634) as
acted at the second Globe. Quite unconscious of their
offence, the bewitched musicians have been plaguing the
wedding guests with unearthly discords. Each, in fact, has
been playing a different tune. They are asked to try again.
" I, and lets see your faces," says Doughty, "that you play
fairely with us" ; and then follows the direction, "Musitians
shew themselves above."

It was in this " musick room," behind the curtains, that,
when songs had to be rendered "off", the singer usually
took his stand. In Sophonisba^ Act iv (an early Blackfriars
play), "a short song to soft musicke" is heard "above",
and in The Chaste Maid in Cheapside (as at the Swan) we
read at a certain juncture that "while the company seem
to weep and mourn, there is a sad song in the music room."
Even as late as March 23, 1661, the old custom still
obtained. Recording a visit to the Red Bull on that date,
Pepys comments on the vile acting, adding "and with so

I much disorder, amongst others, in the musique-room, the
boy that was to sing a song, not singing it right, his master

jfell about his ears and beat him so, that it put the whole
house into an uproar."

It was doubtless also in the music-room that Ariel sang
when Ferdinand heard the sweet strains above him in the
air. Apparently, however, no hard and fast rule existed :
the ready student will have no difficulty in citing instances
where music or song heard " off" was not rendered above.
Thus, in Sophonisba^ Act iv, " a treble viall and a base lute
play softly within the canopy." No previous mention is
made of the canopy, but the scene was the mouth of a cave,

Music and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre ' 93

and the canopy (or traverses shrouding the inner stage)
evidently covered it. This is shown by the subsequent
direction, "Syphax hastneth within the canopy as to Sopho-
nisba's bed."

Returning now to the main question, it would probably
be futile to seek a single solution to the problem of exact
locality. There are grave reasons for suspecting that not
all theatres of either category at any given period were
arranged alike. Generalisation fails to elucidate that unique
direction in Antonio s Revenge^ v. 5, "while the measure is
dancing Andrugio's ghost is placed betwixt the Musick
houses." To read the riddle set here would be to determine
the normal position occupied by the musicians at Paul's in
1 600. The ghost comes as a silent witness of the murder of
Piero, a deed evidently perpetrated on the inner stage. The
position is indicated by the subsequent na'lve direction,
"the curtaines are drawne [together], Piero departeth."
This means "close the traverses, so that the inner stage
may be cleared and the actor of the murdered man may go
about his business." According to this reading, Andrugio's
ghost must have been stationed somewhere on the side of
the stage near to the front. This position would approxi-
mate very closely to the position indicated by Malone. But
no rule can be safely educed from the evidence yielded by
the play, and everything points to the fact that the stage
of Paul's was of exceptional arrangement. There is little
room to doubt that in the majority of Elizabethan play-
houses a considerable portion of the central space on the
second floor of the tiring-house was devoted to "the upper
stage", and the residue on either side partitioned oif into
boxes for spectators and musicians. Irrespective of other
evidence, the so-called "Red Bull" frontispiece to Kirk-
man's Drolls largely warrants this conclusion.

Some very curious details relative to the disposition of
some unascertainable private theatre, and bearing directly
on our subject, are to be found in Tom Killigrew's comedy,
The Parson s Weddings as first printed in a folio collection
of his plays in 1664. This piece had its first production

94 Music and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre

on the stage at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in October
of the same year, but it bears distinct evidence of having
been written twenty-four years previously. ^ A partial
proof of this is shown by the fact that while Drury Lane
at this period was fully equipped with scenery, the stage
directions largely refer to the arrangement and habitudes
of the earlier non-scenic theatre. Killigrew's first two plays
had been produced at the Cockpit c. 1636-7, and it may
have been that The Parson' 5 JVedding vf?iS originally intended
for that house. On Fleay's showing there is some slight evi-
dence in favour of the Blackfriars. In Act iv. Jolly says he
has got the Blackfriars' music to come and play, and had
been to the theatre to hire them. The crux bristles with
difficulties, but one may take it that the play was designed
either for the Cockpit or the Blackfriars. Here, then, are
three apposite stage directions from the folio copy :

Act i. sc. 2. — "Enter Mistress Pleasant, widow Wild her aunt,
and Secret her Woman, above in the musick room, as dressing her ;
a glass, a table, and she in her night cloaths."

Act iv. sc. 6. — "The tyring room, curtains drawn [open] and
they discourse. His chamber, two beds, two tables, looking glasses,
night cloaths, waist-coats, sweet-bags, sweet meats and wine ;
Wanton dressed like a chambermaid ; all above, if the scene can
be so order'd . . . Enter Widow and Mrs. Pleasant, Wild and
Careless ; the Widow and Mrs. Pleasant salute Wanton . . .
Exeunt Wild and Careless . . . The curtains are closed."

Act V. sc. 2. — "The Fiddlers play in the tiring room, and
the stage curtains are drawn, and discover a chamber, as it were,
with two beds, and the ladies asleep in them ; Mr. Wild being at
Mrs. Pleasant's bedside, and Mr. Careless at the widow's. The
musick awakes the widow."

^ Cf. Fleay, Biog. Cbron, Eng. DramOy ii. 25. The evidence here marshalled shows the
play to have been written c. 1640, but does not show, as Fleay assumes, that it had been
then acted at the Blackfriars. Several indications prove that it had not been performed
till seen by Pepys on October 11, 1664. In the first case the printed copy has neither
prologue nor epilogue. Secondly, Sir Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels, has a record
in his Office Book opposite the name of the play, at the time of the Drury Lane pro-
duction, of a receipt of a licensing fee of £2, Herbert's fee for a revived play at that
period was ;^i and for a new play £2. This is conclusive. Cf. Malone's Shakespeare
(Dublin, 1794), ii. p. 224.

Music and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre 95

Even to those unacquainted with Killigrew's play, it needs
no demonstration to show that the terms "music-room "
and "tyring-room" in these directions refer to particular
parts of the playhouse, not to specific locations in the
action of the piece. Both these rooms were situated aloft
(proof of the position of the tiring-room will be cited later),
and one at least had front curtains. Probably a curtain
before the music-room is implied, as the direction from Act
i. 2 indicates a discovery.^ It would appear that this room
was again utilised in the ensuing scene, where the Widow
and Pleasant show themselves "above" and speak down.
Before going off the "Widow shuts the curtain".

Everything points to the conclusion that the music-room
and the tiring-room in the theatre for which the play was
designed were situated side by side on the first storey of
the tiring-house. Moreover, since the tiring-room must
have occupied a very considerable space, viewing the size
and number of the properties placed there at the one time,
its identity with "the upper stage" seems well assured. To
many inquirers this deduction will doubtless bring in its
train an element of surprise. Few, however, on due reflec-
tion, will be disposed to scoff at the practicability of the
arrangement. This indicated double function of the upper
stage gives added point to the graphic picture of earlier
theatrical times drawn in the original prologue to The
Unfortunate Lovers^ as spoken at the Blackfriars, c. May,
1638. After complaining that audiences had grown fastidi-
ous and looked for more wit in a single play than their
"silly ancestors" were vouchsafed in twenty years,
D'Avenant expatiates upon the complacency of former
generations :

For they, he swears, to the theatre would come,
Ere they had din'd, to take up the best room ;
There sit on benches, not adorn'd with mats,
And graciously did vail their high-crown'd hats

* No thoroughgoing Elizabethan student will allow himself to be deceived for a
moment by this formal "enter". Discoveries were often senselessly phrased in this
manner. Cf. *Tis Pitty She's a JVbore {/\X.Oy 1633), iii. 6 : "Enter the Friar in his study,
sitting in a chayrc, Annabella kneeling and whispering to him", etc.

96 Music and Song in the Elizabethan Theatre

To every half-dress'd player, as he still

Through the hangings peeped to see how the house did fill.

So, too, when the Fortune players moved to the Red
Bull in the Easter of 1640, they begged their new patrons
in a prologue written by Tatham —

... to forbear
Your wonted custom, band[y]ing tile and pear
Against our curtains, to allure us forth ;
I pray, take notice, these are of more worth ;
Pure Naples silk, not worsted, . . . ^

Conceive of the upper stage as shut off from view by
its own particular curtains, and utilised before the play as
a common tiring-room. Under such conditions it is easy
to see how the half-dressed player could peep out from
time to time to watch the filling of the house. Occasions
when the two functions of the upper stage would clash
would be very rare. Save at those brief sporadic periods
when the place was pressed into service as an illusive factor
of the scene, it could always be utilised by the players as a
dressing room. Cumbrous properties were very rarely seen
there, and scenes demanding their use were generally acted
on the inner stage. In this connexion, the elaborate mount-
ing in The Parson s Weddings iv. 6, is apparently the excep-
tion that proves the rule. Killigrew, in devising it, had
his doubts as to its practicability, and adds, " all above, if
the scene can be so ordered." Who knows } Perhaps the
awkwardness of the arrangement contributed in some de-
gree to the long delay in the production of the play.

^ EngUicbe Studietty Vol, xxxii. p. 43.

The Mounting of the Carolan Masques

Owing largely to the glowing peri phrastical descriptions in-
dulged in by Ben Jonson and others, one is apt to think of the
old court masques rather as the creation of Art Magick
than the product of the harmonised labours of poet,
scenic artificer and musician. For almost a score of years the
spirit of inquiry has been striving to dissipate this nebu-
losity of idea, but with little result. It is right and proper
that the literary history of the masque should be scienti-
fically written, but not the soundest and most searching
work of this order can yield to us a definite impression of
the prime characteristics of the masque as a scenical repre-
sentation.^ What rare old Ben states ironically in his Ex-
postulation with Inigo Jones^ that " painting and carpentry are
the soul of masque " has been said in all seriousness by
another masque-poet. " In these things, wherein the only
life consists in shew," writes Daniel in Tethys Festival^ "the
art and invention of the architect gives the greatest grace,
and is of the most importance ; ours the least part, and of
least note in the time of performance thereof " Literary history
in dwelling upon the beauty of the lyrics and the fertility
of imagination displayed by the poet in these graceful
fantasies has reversed the proportions. Of the masque as
spectacle we shall never arrive at a full and true idea until
such time as the considerable number of Inigo Jones's
designs for scenery, proscenia and costume, at present in
the private collection of the Duke of Devonshire at Chats-
worth, be published, together with a lucid exposition of his
complex scenic system from someone profoundly versed in
the intricacies of early Italian stage mechanism. True, an
industrious German scholar,^ like another Curtius, has

* No fault can be found with Mr. H. A. Evans's introduction to his collection of
English Masques (1897) in The War'wick Library series. Within its limits it is a wholly
admirable piece of work.

^ See Dr. Rudolph Brotanek's Die Engliscbe Maskenspiele (Vienna, 1 902).

lOO ne Mounting of the Carolan Masques

thrown himself heroically into the gulf; but the age of
miracles is past, and the gulf still yawns. If I, too, am equally
impotent to close the gap, circumstances have at least con-
spired to enable me to throw in a ton or two of earth.
Some practical discussion of Inigo Jones's scenic system in
the closing days of the court masque is now rendered
possible through the acquisition of four of his designs
(formerly in the Salvin collection), by the Royal Institute
of British Architects, and by the permission graciously
accol*ded to me by its Council to reproduce them.

Given as it was gratuitously, the normal scenically-
.-^dorned masque of the latter Stuart pei:k)d was a luxury
that few but monarchs could afforcp^ Although the cost
might be anything from ;^ 5,000 to ;^2o,ooo, the same
entertainment was rarely presented more than twice, seldom
more than once. During the period of 1612-40 it was
customary in mounting these dainty extravaganzas to pro-
vide for each a specially designed proscenium front, whose
composite ornamentation dealt emblematically with the
subject matter of the masque. / This system, as we have
already seen, was subsequently followed by Sir William
D'Avenant in the earlier presentations of his operas. Hence
it may be predicated, without fear of contradiction, that the
Carolan masque, remote as it was by nature from the ordin-
ary run of theatrical entertainment, had a modest measure
of influence upon the initial scenic system of the Restora-
tion stage.

Although only two out of the four designs by Inigo
Jones now reproduced bear inscriptions (in the autograph
of the great architect), three of them are readily identifiable.
This is a happy circumstance, as it enables one to deal with
concrete examples, and avoid misleading generalities. Thus,
the inscription on our first reproduction "Front. Sery^
[ } Shirley's] masque. Inns of Court, 1633," conveys the
impression that the design was made for The Triumph of
Peace^ as performed at Whitehall on February 3, 1633-4 ;
and resort to the quarto of Shirley's masque turns conjecture
into certainty. Than this, few English court entertain-

INIGO JONES'S DESIGN FOR THE PROSCENIUM OF SHIRLEY'S [Tofacep. \oi
MASQUE THE TRIUMPH OF PEACE (1634).

The Mounting of the Carolan Masques loi

merits have greater historical interest. Not many months
previously, William Prynne, a member of Lincoln's Inn,
had written a treatise against the stage, entitled Histrio-
masiix, m which he had fulminated vehemently against all
women-players. Owing to the circumstance that the English
stage had not as yet begun to employ actresses, and to the
unfortunate coincidence that the book came out the very
morning after the Queen and her ladies had taken part in the
performance of the court pastoral of T/ie Sbepberd's Paradise^
the obnoxious passage was construed into a direct reflection
upon her Majesty. There was a hollow mockery of a trial,
and the luckless Puritan was sentenced to a variety of
punishments, of which the most cruel and unjust was the
loss of his ears. The barbarity of the decree, savouring
more of savagery than a Christian community, only served
to draw the attention of the sober-minded to the scandal-
ous extravagance of the Court. Assuredly the docking
of those ears counted among the factors which event-
ually cost the King his head. Even the masques might
figure in the schedule, for the periodical emulation at
Whitehall of the luxurious habits of the courts of France,
Florence and the Savoy ran the King into debt, and led
to insufferable taxation.

The honourable and learned members of the four Inns
of Court had little sympathy with the extreme views of
their maltreated brother ; and by way of emphasising their
disapproval of his pronouncements, they commissioned
one of their number, James Shirley, the dramatist, of
Gray's Inn, to write a masque for presentment by them
before the Court. The result was The Triumph of Peace^
which owed its title to the King's happy return after allay-
ing the troubles in the north. When one comes to consider
the vast expense, amounting to some £2 1 ,000, incurred by
the four Inns of Court in connexion with this notable celebra-
tion, it must be borne in mind that the indoor entertainment
at Whitehall was preceded by a magnificent public pageant,
in which about two hundred members of the bar partici-
pated. The procession started early in the evening from Ely

I02 'The Mounting of the Carolan Masques

House, Holborn, and, making its way down Chancery Lane,
passed along to Whitehall. It consisted for the most part of
a number of mounted cavaliers, attended by pages and
torchbearers, and followed by trumpeters and truncheon
men. At the rear of the procession came four triumphal
chariots, each drawn by four horses ; and in these, we read,
"were mounted the grand Masquers, one of the foure
houses in every Chariot, seated within a half Ovall, with a
glorious canopy over their heads, all bordered with silver
fringe, and beautified with Plumes of Feathers on the top."
The old quarto also tells us that the four great chariots, (there
were one or two smaller ones) were all "after the Roman
forme, adorned with much embossed and carved workes,
and each of them wrought with silver and his several!
colour. They were mounted on carriages, the Spring-trees,
Pole and Axle-trees, the Charioter's seate,standers, wheels,
with the fellyes, spokes and naves all wrought with silver
and their severall colour." Whitelocke, who was one of the
executive council, relates in his Memorials how there was
much dispute between the grand masquers of the various
Inns on the point of precedence, and that, to obviate the
difficulty, it was finally decided the chariots should be of
the Roman triumphal order, all designed and ornamented
alike, but each with its distinctive colouring. The seats
were made of "an Oval form in the back end of the chariot,
so that there was no precedence in them, and the faces of
all that sat in it, might be seen together." My reason for
dwelling on these details is that Inigo Jones's uninscribed
design for the great chariots happens to be preserved in
the Salvin collection. In reproducing it now, 1 take all
responsibility for the identification.

Having brought the learned masquers and their retinue
to Whitehall, it is time to speak of the ornate frontispiece
surrounding the scene. Let vis then compare the descrip-
tion given of it in the old quarto with Inigo Jones's design.

The border of the front and sides that enclosed all the Scaene
had first a ground of Arbor-worke enter-mixt with loose branches
and leaves, and in this was two Niches, and in them two great

V .J

INIGO JONES'S DESIGN FOR TRIUMPHAL CHARIOTS. {Tojacc p.

The Mounting of the Carolan Masques 103

figures standing in easy postures, in their naturall colors, and much
bigg«r than the h'fe; the one, attired after the Grecian manner,
held in one hand a Scepter, and in the other a Scrowle, and a
picked antique crowne on his head, his curasse was of Gold, richly
enchased, his robe Blue and Silver, his arms and thighs bare with
buskinds enricht with ornaments of Gold, his browne locks long
and curled, his Beard thicke, but not long, and his face was of a
grave and Joviall aspect. This figure stood on a round pedestal
fained of white Marble, enricht with severall carvings; above this
in a compartiment of Gold was written minos. The figure on the
other side was in a Romane habit, holding a Table in one hand,
and a Pen in the other, and a white Bend or Diadem about his
head, his Robe was crimson and gold, his mantle Yellow and Silver,
his Buskins watchet trim'd with Silver, his haire and Beard long
and white, with a venerable aspect, standing likewise on a round
Pedestall answerable to the other. And in the Compartiment over
him was written numa. Above all this in a proportionate distance
hung two great Festons of fruites in colors which served for finish-
ing to these sides. The upper part in manner of a large Freeze was
adorn'd with severall compartimentswith draperies hanging downe,
and the ends tied up in knots, with Trophies proper to feasts and
triumphs, composed of Masking Vizards and torches. In one of the
lesser Compartiments was figured a sharpe-sighted eye, and in the
other a Golden-yoke. In the midst was a more great and rich Com-
partiment on the sides of which sate naked children in their naturall
colors, with Silver wings, in action of sounding Golden Trumpets,
and in this was figured a Caduceus with an Olive-branch, all of
which are Hierogliphicks of Peace, Justice and Law. j

It should be noted that one important feature of the'
stage front, referred to in the book, is lacking in the design.
We are told that the basement "was painted in rusticke
worke," and that in the middle was "a descent of staires in
two branches landing into the roome." But the design bears
indications of having been cut into sections for working
purposes, and it may be that the lower portion is missing.
On the other hand, it might be argued that Inigo Jones,
in designing proscenia, did not always trouble to sketch in
the connective front steps, seeing that they were regular
and indispensible concomitants of all scenically mounted
masques. Theircommon use (obscurely hinted at in Bacon's

I04 'The Mounting of the Car o Ian Masques

essay " On Masques ") serves to bring home to us that the
Carolan Masque, while bearing some resemblance to a
primitive Italian opera, had few of the characteristics of a
normal theatre play. So far from the picture being kept
wholly within the frame, the floor of the hall was, in a
sense, as much the scene of action as the stage. Here there
was some carrying over of old conventions, born of a period
when the masqi^e had neither movable scenery nor a pro-
scenium arch. /When any particular compliment had to be
paid to the Kmg or Queen, the actors came down from the
stage by the proscenium steps and made their way up to
the canopy of state at the other end of the hall before
delivering their sugared lines. ^ This custom, one takes it,
was strictly of native origin, but a second, and more import-
ant, usage of the floor of the hall was largely due to Italian
precedent. Between the stage and the State was a broad
space equivalent to the ancient orchestra, and known as "the
dancing place." This was invariably carpeted with green
cloth.^/Here all the dances executed by the masquers
propef, distinguished as the Entry, the Main, the Revels
and the Going-out, were given.^ On the other hand, the
dancing of the antick-masques was almost invariably con-
fined to the stage.^ Unlike the others, these were dances
in character, more or less relevant to the action, and exe-
cuted by professionals. It is matter for regret that no
picture of a Stuart masque has come down to us, but, seeing
that the system of mounting pursued and the method of
presenting the main dances were strictly in accord with
Italian precedent, the spectacular characteristics of the
Carolan masques are satisfactorily visualized in Callot's
etching of a carnival performance at the Florentine court
in 1616, now reproduced.

^ Cf. H. A. Evans, op. cit. pp. 106, no {The Masque of Flowers^ 1614).

2 Cf. the vivid description of a performance of Ben Jonson's Pleasure Reconciled to
Virtue in 161 8 given in Orazio Busino's translated letter in Cah State Papers^ Venetian^
XV. pp. no et seq.

3 Cf. H. A. Evans, op. cit. intro. p. xxxiv.

* In Lovers Made Men (i 61 7), generally miscalled The Masque ofLethe^ where the
masquers and the antick-masquers are identical, the sole antick-masque was danced on
the floor of the hall.

^■^ '-'^^?^fm*^

s^m^mmmi

INIGO JONES'S DESIGN FOR THE PROSCENIUM OF D'AVENANT'S [Tofacep. 105.
MASQUE THE TEMPLE OF LOVE (1635).

The Mounting of the Carolan Masques 105

At the time when Inigo Jones executed the design given
here in reduced fac-simile, the masque for which it was
made had not received its determinate title. Inscribed,
"For the Quenes Masque of Indiands, 1634'*, it vividly
depicts the proscenium front (or "arch triumphal," as these
proscenia were sometimes called) provided for D'Avenant's
masque 'The Temple of hove ^ as given at Whitehall by the
Queen and her ladies on Shrove Tuesday, February 18,
1634-5. A comparison of the various features of the design
with the following passage from the book of D'Avenant's
masque will readily prove this identity :

At the lower end of the Banquetting house, opposite to the State,
was a stage of six foot high, and on that was raised an Ornament
ot a new Invention agreeable to the subject, consisting of Indian
Trophies : on the one side upon a basement sate a naked Indian
on a whitish Elephant, his legges, short'ning towards the neck of
the beast, his tire and bases of severall coloured feathers, represent-
ing the Indian Monarchy ; on the other side an Asiatique in the
habit of an Indian borderer, riding on a Camell, his Turbant and
Coat differing from that of the Turkes, figured for the Asian
Monarchy ; over these hung sheild-like Compartiments ; in that
over the Indian was painted a Sunne rising, and in the other an
halfe Moone ; these had for finishing the Capitall of a great
Pillaster, which served as a ground to stick them of, and bore up
a larg freeze or border with a Coronice. In this over the Indian
lay the figure of an old man, with a long white haire and beard,
representing the flood Tigris ; on his head a wreath of Canes and
Seage, and leaning upon a great Vrne, out of which runnc water ;
by him in an extravagant posture, stood a Tyger.

At the other end of this freeze lay another naked man, repre-
senting Meander^ the famous river of Asia, who likewise had a
great silver urne, and by him lay an Unicorne.

In the midst of this border was fixed a rich Compartiment,
behind which was a crimson drapery, part of it borne up by naked
children, tack'd up in severall pleats, and the rest was at each end
of the Freeze tyed with a great Knot, and from thence hung down
in foulds to the bottom of the pedestalls ; in the midst of this
Compartiment in an Ovall was written templvm amoris ; all
these figures were in their naturall colours, bigger than the life,
and the Compartiments of Gold.

io6 The Mounting of the Carolan Masques

Inigo Jones's rough, uninscribed sketch for a masque-
scene, reproduced on the opposite page, is none the less
valuable to the student of early scenic conditions because,
through haziness of detail, it admits of no positive identifi-
cation. It bears out, what one readily infers from records of
the famous architect's life, that inspiration was largely de-
rived from the imposing court entertainments of Florence,
Ferrara and Milan. ^ Of.this, its apparent incompleteness
yields subtle indicationHn Italy, as elsewhere, there was no
such thing as irregular, or oblique, raking of the scenic back-
grounds before the last decade of the seventeenth century.
Practically the whole of the scene was expressed on the
wings, which were so symmetrically balanced that in design-
ing the features of the one side, Inigo Jones sufficingly
indicated both. Front curtains were used in all the Stuart
masques of the middle and final periods, but as they were
only brought into service at the opening and the close, all
the scenic changes had to be made with neatness and dis-
patch in full sight of the audience. No human agency was
apparent, and the various mechanical transformations had
their element of charm and surprise. Much on this score
can be learned from a painstaking study of Inigo Jones's
ground plan and sectional elevation for the scenery in
D'Avenant's Salmacida Spolia^ which, with other plans of
the sort, are now preserved among the Lansdowne MSS.
in the British Museum.^ Jones's wings and flats, charac-
teristically called " shutters", were all arranged in sets of
four or ^VQ^ and worked in grooves top and bottom. That
is to say, there would be four double rows of wings, each
provided with the component parts for four or five changes,
and with the whole closed in behind by a corresponding
sequence of closely grouped flats. At a considerably earlier
period (notably at Oxford in 1605, when he mounted the
tragedy of Ajax Flagellifer\ Jones had adopted another

^ For an account of one of these, with contemporary illustrations (Florence, 1608),
see my article "A Primitive Italian Opera," in The Connoisseur, xv. (1906), p. 235.

2 No. 1 171. The student should be warned that the plans are not arranged in
chronological order, particularly as one of them (which has been bound in upside down !)
is uninscribed.

m^-^

■%' '■ ■■ >-

^''mm^i

-v.^ f

'^- 'f'-^ iM m

¥tik) ■

\4f ]

UNINSCRIBED SKETCH BY INIGO JONES FOR A MASQUE-SCENE. [To face p.

The Mounting of the Carolan Masques 107

Italian system of quick changing, that on which all the
scenery was placed on perpendicular revolving triangular
frames, worked from below. But owing to the fact that
this system called for more stage space than could always
be devoted to it, and from the more serious drawback that
it only admitted of three changes, it had ultimately to be
abandoned. In the Carolan masques Inigo Jones's scenery
was all ranged along the two sides of an equilateral triangle,
of which the base formed the proscenium opening and the
apex the vanishing point, placed in the centre of the
horizontal line. In accordance with this arrangement, the
wings jutted out more and more in strict proportion as they
receded. Not only this, but the farther they went back, the
shorter they became. Each row of wings was provided
with a sky-border, and as the wings grew shorter, so the
borders came lower down, concealing the upper grooves.
Owing to this encroachment of the top and sides upon the
visual area, very little of the back flat could be seen ; in
normal cases only a space of about half the measurement
of the proscenium opening. Widely different, too, from
latter-day principles was the equipment of the borders.
These were arranged in two parts, so that they might be
pulled ofFlaterally at either end when it was desired to show
one ofthose descending clouds, freighted with classic divini-
ties, which were popular features of all the European court
entertainments of the seventeenth century. Trivial as these
points may appear, they are not without some measure of
historical importance. One finds no reason to doubt that all
the early Continental theatres of the public order, begin-
ning with the Teatro di San Cassiano of Venice in 1 639, for
long adopted the scenic and mechanical principles which
had obtained privately for at least a quarter of a century
previously.^

It will, of course, appear incongruous to many a modern
inquirer, as it did of old to Steevens, that the Jacobean

1 Cf. Georges Moynet, Trues et Decon, Chap, ii, "Gloires, vols et apotheoses."

io8 The Mounting of the Carolan Masques

stage should have lacked the illusions of painted scenery
at a time when masques were mounted with decorative
profusion and great mechanical ingenuity. But without
the purse of Fortunatus the players could not hope to emu-
late the costly glories of the court. Happy was it for the
well-being of English drama that the physical conditions
of the stage had long been determined upon and accepted
before the masque assumed new graces by the acquire-
ment of movable scenery; happy, too, that both player and
dramatist should have been tenacious in maintaining those
elemental principles of dramatic construction which stimu-
lated the imagination without glutting the eye. All lovers of
literature have reason to be thankful for this truly English
resoluteness, and to rejoice over the classic austerity of the
old rush-strewn, tapestry-hung stage.

The Story of a Peculiar Stage Curtain

So scanty and perplexing is the evidence in favour of the
employment of a front curtain in the ancient Greek theatre
that careful inquirers are loath to make a definite pronounce-
ment on the subject. In Greece^ the usages of the curta,in,
if any, are purely conjectural,T)ased on inferences and analo-
gies. In the fifth century, when the theatre at Athens had
no raised stage, and the "skene" behind the orchestra was
little better than a hut or "tiring-house" for the players,
material aids to the imagination were so few that a front
curtain was no more requisite than in the English theatre
in Elizabethan times. On the other hand, we find ourselves
confronted by the circumstance that certain of the plays
of Euripides, Sophocles and Aristophanes open with a
scene crowded with already assembled personages. This, to
Dorpfeld-Reisch, implies the sudden removal of a front
curtain; but if such were employed, it is strange that in the
comedies of Aristophanes changes of scene were effected
while the characters remained in full view of the audience. ^

Nothing more definite is known about the methods of
the fourth century beyond the fact that the arrangements of
the Greek Theatre at that period were better adapted for
the use of a front curtain. The stone "skene" then adopted
was furnished with "paraskenia," or projecting wings, bor-
dering a space that could readily have been shrouded by a
curtain.

When we arrive at the Hellenistic era, the well-defined
usages of the early Roman theatre supply one or two illumi-
nating analogues. It would appear that in taking over the
Greek aulaia^ the Romans merely Latinised the name by
which it had been known. Still, in the Attic Theatre in its

* Awkward as was this system, it was frequently followed on the Elizabethan
stage, where it was doubtless a relic of a primitive convention. For examples, see
G. F. Reynolds' Some Principles of Elizabethan Staging (1905), Pt. ii. pp. 6-1 1.

1 12 'The Story of a Peculiar Stage Curtain

final form — what with resort to revolving scenery and the
absence of act divisions — there could have been little neces-
sity for a front curtain.

In dealing with the early Roman theatre we find ourselves
on much firmer ground. We are at least safe in dating from
about 55 B.C. (the period of the erection of the first perfect
Roman theatre of stone), the employment of a truly remark-
able stage curtain,^ remarkable not only from the peculiarity
of its method of working but from the fact that it long sur-
vived the downfall of the Empire. It differed essentially
from the normal theatre curtain of to-day, inasmuch as it
descended beneath the stage at the opening of the play and
arose when it was necessary to obscure the scene. As to the
mechanism employed authorities disagree. Donaldson
(who may be taken as exemplar of the old school) argues
that the device was a simple curtain, drawn down through
a narrow slit in the boards of the flooring, and wound up on
a cylinder beneath the stage. In proof of this he gives an
illustration of the small theatre at Pompeii, showing the
receptacle for the curtain and its roller.^

To the broad theory of the reverse roller curtain an emi-
nent theatrical architect takes serious exception. Unaware
that the auUum had been revived in modern times, Charles
Garnier scouts the idea as utterly impracticable. Unless the
cross-bar that supported the curtain was placed, he argues,
at an extreme altitude, its presence would obstruct the view
of the spectators on the upper seats and prove an eyesore
to everybody. No matter what the altitude of the cross-
bar, the great width of the stage would have necessitated
five or six connecting cords between it and the curtain, so
that the latter might be properly drawn up when required.
With the curtain down and the action going on, these cords
would divide the scene vertically, and destroy even the
modicum* of scenic illusion then procurable.^

* Besides this aulaum, or front curtain, there was also in the Roman theatres a
siparium, or light inner curtain, screening only part of the stage, which could be drawn
aside. Its description recalls to mind the traverses of the Elizabethan stage, and the
uses of the two may have been analogous.

2 Theatre of the Greeks (1875), P* 273-

3 Charles Garnier, Le Tbi&trey (1871), p. 233 et seq.

The Story of a Peculiar Stage Curtain 113

Mindful of these sound objections, latter-day French
archaeologists incline to the opinion that the auUum was
not so much a curtain as a screen, and that it was concealed
in the double wall dividing the basement from the orchestra.
According to this theory, it was at best but a makeshift, as
when raised between the acts it merely served to obscure the
stage from the patricians in the lower seats. The plebeians
above could see over it. Recent minute examination of the
two theatres ofPompeii tends to confirm the accuracy of this
concept without making clear what was the precise system
of working employed. In discussing the later investigations
in the large theatre Herr Mau writes :

The room underneath the stage was divided into several parts.
Betvi^een the front wall and that just back of it was the place for
the curtain, which, as in Roman theatres, was let down at the
beginning of the play, and raised at the end. The space between
the parallel walls must have been covered, leaving only a narrow
slit for the curtain ; otherwise it would not have been easy to go
upon the stage from the steps in the orchestra. Underneath the
place for the curtain is a low passage, on the vaulted roof of which
are two rows of holes, cut in blocks of basalt, and evidently designed
to hold upright timbers. The passage has in recent years been entirely
cleared. In the floor directly under the openings in the vaulted roof
and corresponding with them were square holes. In those nearer the
front of the stage were remains of timbers and of square pieces of
iron fitted to the ends of these, a larger and a smaller piece for each
hole. It seems likely that, as Mazois suggested, hollow upright
beams were set in the holes, and in them smaller hollow beams were
placed, in which were still smaller poles or iron rods ; by the sliding
of these up and down, the long horizontal pole on which the curtain
was hung could be raised or lowered. The use of the inner row of
poles has not been satisfactorily explained.^

Some allusions in the old poets and satirists enable us to
arrive roughly at the characteristics of the Roman auUum,
Thanks to the clue as to its pictorial nature provided in
Virgil's Georgics (iii. 25), we are in a position to read the
riddle set in Ovid's Metamorphoses (iii. 1 1 1-4) :

^ August Mau, Pompeii, Its Life and Art (1902), p. 140.

1 14 ^he Story of a Peculiar Stage Curtain

Sic, ubi tolluntur festis aulaea theatris,
Surgere signa solent, primumque ostendere vultus,
Cetera paullatim, placidoque educta tenore
Tota patent, imoque pedes in margine ponunt.

The reference here is to the raising of the curtain at the
close of an act, when the figures embroidered upon it would
gradually come into view, as if springing up from the earth.

Conversely, Horace (in whose time, by the way, act-divi-
sions first came into vogue) has an allusion ^ to the auUuin
being down while the performance is going on :

Quattuor aut plures aulaea premuntur in horas,
Dum fugiunt equitum turmae peditumque catervae.

Hitherto it has been generally assumed that the only kind
of front curtain employed on the modern stage before the
introduction of the upper-working roller curtain (c. 1620),
was of the double order, draperies pulling up or drawing
away on either side. Undoubtedly, from the simplicity of
their working, these were the curtains employed on all
primitive European stages, where curtains were employed
at all. /But the fact has been lost sight of that, owing to the
tidal wave of classic influence which swept over Renaissant
Italy, the auUum was revived on the academic stage,- and,
travelling far, held its place for upwards of a century. It was
not deemed sufficient to restore Plautus and Terence to the
stage, and to constitute them models of form and style ;
some approximation to the physical conditions of the old
Roman theatre had to be made as well.

The earliest clue to the employment of the aulaum on
the modern stage is afforded in the Orlando Furioso of
Ariosto, the first forty cantos of which were published in
1 5 1 5. In the description of the reception given to Melissa
at the castle of Tristano, ^ the poet writes :

Quale al cader de la cortine suole
Parer, fra mille lampade, la scena,
D'archi, et di piu d'una superba mole
D'oro, e di statue e di pitture piena.

» 2 Epist. i. 189.

2 Canto xxxii. stanza 80.

The Story of a Peculiar Stage Curtain 115

Seeing that the first forty cantos of the poem were written

at Ferrara, where Ariosto had been for some years court

dramatist, and that the stanza cited crystallizes the charac-

j teristics of Renaissance stage mounting, one is safe in

' assuming that the falling curtain therein referred to had been

for some time employed in the theatrical performances at the

! Ferrarese court. All doubt on this score is removed when,

within the space of a few years, we find the aulaum in use in

other Italian States.

It is curious what stumbling blocks these allusions to the
old reverse curtain in ancient and modern poets have proved
to the translators. Out of the difficulty presented by the pas-
sage in Ovid, Addison only extricated himself by a para-
phrase based on a popular analogy. To the translators of
Ariosto's stanza no such expedient was possible, and the
result was that Harlngton, Hugglns, and Hoole all stum-
bled over this falling curtain. Among English renderings
of the quatrain, the following, in point of neatness and
finish, easily ranks first :

Thus, at the curtain's gradual fall we spy,
Amidst a thousand lamps, a prospect fair.
Triumphal arcs, proud piles that threat the sky,
Statues, and fretted gold and pictures rare.

About four years after the first instalment of Orlando
Furioso was written, or on March 6, 1 5 1 9 (being the Sunday
of the Carnival), / Suppositi^ one of Ariosto's Ferrarese
comedies, was presented In Rome before Leo X in the
apostolic palace of Cardinal Innocenzo Cibo, the Pope's
nephew. An interesting account of the performance has
been preserved in a letter written two days later to the Duke
of Ferrara by his envoy, Alfonso Paolucci.^ His Holiness
stationed himself at the door to regulate the admission of
the guests, giving his benediction to those whom he se-
lected— about two thousand in all. The auditorium was
arranged amphitheatrically, and the Pope's throne was
placed in the middle of the fifth step from the floor. The

^ Cf. Campori, Notizie inedite di Raffaello da Urbino, pp. 126-129.

Ii6 The Story of a Peculiar Stage Curtain

pictorial curtain and the scenery had been provided by the
divine Rafael. On the curtain was depicted a quaint conceit :
Fra Mariano, the Pope's Dominican Jester, engaged in
frolic, with a weird assembly of demons. Above was the
legend Questi sono li capricci di Fra Mariano, When all had
assembled, the curtain descended to the music of the pipers,
revealing a striking scene of the city of Ferrara, which the
Pope minutely examined through his spy-glass, marvelling
meanwhile over its beauties.

In celebration of the marriage of Dom Francesco di Medici
to Joan of Austria in i^6^,La Co/««^n/^, a new comedy, with
intermedii,from the pen of GioBattista Ciniwas performed
amidst gorgeous surroundings in the Great Hall of the
Ducal Palace at Florence on St. Stephen's Day. Vasari who
superintended the production, afterwards wrote a pamphlet
detailing its main features.^ The stage was adorned with an
aulteum, 1 6 braccia in height and 20 braccia wide, on which
Federigo Zucchero had painted a fine hunting scene. Ac-
cording to Vasari ^ this fell at the beginning, revealing to
the gaze of the astounded audience a view of Paradise, with
angels seated on clouds, and indulging in vocal and instru-
mental harmony.^

Of the persistence in Italy of the auUum until at least
the second decade of the seventeenth century, we have clear
evidence in Lodovico's pastoral Deir Origine di Vicenza^ as
performed at Vicenza on March 5, 1612^ and printed there
later in the year. In the description of the prologue we read,
"al cader della Cortina si discoperse la scena ornata ed
illuminata con bellissimo artificio : dalla parte destra vi si
vedeva il Monte Berico : dalla sinistra alcune selve om-
brose." By this period force of Italian example had carried
the aul^um to France and England, where, as in Italy, its

^ Descrizione delf apparato della Comedia et Intermedii d'essa recitata in Firenze il
giorno di S. Stefano I'anno 1565, etc., etc. (/« FiorenzOy MDLXVI), See Brit. Museum,
press mark " 604 b 20 " or " 143 a 27."

^ John Addington Symonds fails to grasp the significance of Vasari's " al cascar
della tela," and states that the curtain rose at the beginning of the performance
{Sbakspere's Predecessors^ 1884, p. 327).

^ For another example of the employment of the aulaum in Florence at this period,
see La Gelosia, comedy, by A. F. Grazini (Florence, Giunti, 1568, p. 11).

'The Story of a Peculiar Stage Curtain 1 17

use was restricted to court, or private performances. One
doubts, indeed, if the principle of the reverse roller curtain
was ever put into practice in any modern public theatre. In
England trace of it begins with Ben Jonson's Masque of
Blackness^ as given at Whitehall on Twelfth Night, 1605.
In the first printed copy of three years later we read: " First
for the scene ^ was drawn a landtschap consisting of small
woods, and here and there a void place filled with huntings ;
which falling, an artificial sea was seen to shoot forth as if it
flowed to the land," &c.

As Inigo Jones was scenic artificer of this masque, the
chances are that he brought the principle of the aulaum
straight from Italy and now utilised it in England for the
first time. It is noteworthy that a copy of the masque in the
calligraphy of its author, differing essentially in minor detail
from the quarto, now forms one of the literary treasures of
the British Museum.^ Since it bears no distinguishing title,
this was evidently a first draft of the entertainment. In it the
analogous description to the one quoted reads :

In the end of the designd place, there is drawne uppon a downe
right cloth, straynd for the scene, a devise of landtscope, W^^ open-
inge in manner of a curtine, an artificiall sea is seene to shoote foorth
it self abroade the roome, as if it flowed to ye land.^

Two years later one has indication of the employment of
an auUum in Marston*s unnamed masque as presented by
Lord and Lady Huntingdon at Castle Ashby in honour of
the visit of the Countess of Derby. ^ In the description it
figures merely as a traverse, and, according to my reading of
the following passages, must have been drawn down and up
at least twice :

^ Scene = front curtain in early masque descriptions. Cf. The Masque of Hymen
(1606), "The scene being drawn, there was frst discovered an altar," &c.

2 Printed by the Shakespeare Society, under title The Tivelvth Night's Re'vellsy in
its volume on Inigo Jones^ issued in 1848 (pp. 99-107).

3 Since the present tense is used in the MS. in all the descriptions and the past
tense in the quarto, it would appear that the MS. was prepared for presentation to the
King immediately before the performance. For allusions to this practice, see No tVity
No Help like a fFomarCs^ scene of the introduced Masque of the Elements ; The Constant
Maidy iv. 3, and The Lover's Melancholy, iii. 3.

* First printed in 1801 in the fifth vol. of Todd's Milton. Cf. Nichols' Progresses
of King James the First, ii. 145.

1 1 8 'The Story of a Peculiar Stage Curtain

At the approach of the Countcsse into the great Chamber, the
hoboyes played untill the room was marshaled, which once ordered,
a travers slyded away ; presently a cloud was seen move up and
downe almost to the topp of the great chamber, upon which

Cynthia was discovered ryding Suddenly, upon this

Songe, the cornets were winded, and the travers that was drawn
before the Masquers sanke downe. The whole shewe presently
appeereth, which presented itself in this figure ; the whole body of
it seemed to be the syde of a steepely assending wood, on the top
of which, in a fayre oak, sat a goulden eagle, under whose wings
satt in eight severall thrones the eight Masquers.

As late as 1618, when Jonson's Pleasure Reconciled to
Virtue was given once or twice at Whitehall, the aulceum^ in
its modern conception, was still in existence at the English
court. In a vivid account of the second performance of the
masque, given by Orazio Busino, chaplain to the Venetian
Ambassador, we read, after a description of the Banquetting
Hall and of the assembling of the spectators :

In an instant a large curtain dropped, painted to represent a tent
of gold cloth with a broad fringe ; the background was of canvas
painted blue, powdered all over with golden stars. This became
[? was] the front arch of the stage, forming a drop scene, and on
its being removed there appeared first of all Mount Atlas, whose
enormous head was alone visible up aloft under the very roof of the
theatre ; it rolled up its eyes and moved its head very cleverly. ^

In mounting the Carolanmasquesinigo Jones abandoned
the old auldeum in favour of a curtain that rose at the begin-
ning and fell at the close. This reads as if he had then
introduced the normal roller curtain of later times — a prin-
ciple which, as we shall presently see, was already known of
and practised in Italy, As a matter of fact, although Malone^
long ago credited him with that innovation, we have as yet
no conclusive evidence on the subject. All we know for
certain is that in Shirley's 'Triumph ofPeace{i6i^^\ Carew's
Coelum Britannicum (1634) and D' Avenant's Salmacida Spolia

^ Cal. State Papers^ Fenetiany xv. (1617-9), P« i^o. I suspect the accuracy of this
translation. Clearly the curtain could not have become the front arch after it fell.
Note also the mis-identification of the masque as Tie Vision of Delight,

2 Malone's Shakespeare, (Dublin, 1794), ii. 55.

ne Story of a Peculiar Stage Curtain 119

( 1 640), as well as in the pastoral oiFlorimene (1635) and other
court entertainments, the curtain, at the beginning, "flew
up on the sudden " or was "suddenly drawne up." ^ If the
curtain employed was the Italian roller curtain of the period,
working with pulleys or counterweights, it is curious that in
Inigo Jones' designs for the staging q{ Florimene and Salma-
cida Spo/ia, preserved in the Lansdowne MSS. in the British
Museum, no indications are given as to the method of
operation. When one finds that only a meagre space of 1 8
inches intervened between the proscenium arch and the first
pair of wings, one suspects that here at any rate the curtain
was not situated behind the proscenium . Curiously enough,
in the opening descriptions of one or two masques mention
is made of the drawing of the curtain before the proscenium
came into sight, showing that in these cases it was situated
in front, and probably of the double, or tableau, order. Thus
in Kynaston's Corona Minerva (1636) we read :

A Curtaine being drawne, there is discovered a Frontispiece,
wheron the Image of Minerva is seene sitting upon a stone, placed
betweene two returns of a broken arch, supported by two brass
statues of Mars and Mercury, standing in neeches of Corinthian
worke; under, within a prospective is seen, a pav'd gallery invironed
on either side, and terminated with Doricke columnes, v^^hich flying
away, Minerva presents herselfe attired in her proper habit. Over
the entrance, in a square, was written corona minervae.^

Even at this period employment of the aulaum had not
been wholly abandoned. On June 15, 1 633, when Charles I
made his state entry into Edinburgh, his advent was signal-
ised by sundry open-air spectacles of an allegorical nature,
given on stationary stages, each with its triumphal arch.
When the royal cavalcade reached one particular scaffold,

' These frequent references in the Carolan masques to the curtain " flying up "
seemingly indicate that it was of the double order. Grobert dwells upon the rapidity of
the tableaux curtains, it being evident that if the height is equal to the breadth of the
proscenium opening, " la toile qui parcourt la moitie de I'espace pour disparoitre fait une
depense de temps, moindre de moitie, que celle qui s'eleve sur la totality de la hauteur."
{De V Execution Dramatique, Considere'e dans ses rapports avec le materiel de la Salle et de la
Scene, 1809, p. 100.)

■^ Cf. the Tethys' Festival o{ Daniel (1610). On tls* other hand, the elaborate opening
description in Albion's Triumph (1^32), clearly hidicates that the frontispiece was in
view before the curtain was " suddenly drawne up."

120 The Story of a Peculiar Stage Curtain

"a courten falling, the theatre discovered a lady attired in
tissue, her haire was dressed like a cornucopia," &c., &c. ^

Although France doubtless employed the auUum at least
as early as England, our first trace of it there is in 1617 in
the court ballet. La Delivrance de Renaud^ as given in the
hall of the Petit-Bourbon. A painted curtain representing
a palace in perspective fell at the beginning, revealing a
mountain top.^

Whatever may have been the mechanical difficulties pre-
sented in the working of the auUum in ancient times, no
such difficulties had to be surmounted at the period of the
Renaissance. The conditions were entirely reversed, for
whereas the stage in the old Roman theatres was charac-
terised by its extreme width, in the primitive court theatres
it was remarkable for its narrowness. Some details as to the
modus operandi of the auldeum in the final period of its history
are given in Sabattini's curious treatise on scenery and stage
mechanism, published at Ravenna in 1638.^ According to
this sound authority, three kinds of curtains were then
employed in Italy. There was the primitive kind, for which
he had little liking, the double curtain pulling up in loops
on either side. Then there were the curtain which rolled
up above and the curtain which rolled up below. Between
these there was not much to choose, but in working the
latter care had to be taken that the curtain did not fall upon
the actors or the flambeaux (? footlights), contingencies
that were apt to create panic and disorder. The curtain
which rolled up was somewhat of a novelty in Sabattini's
day, but seeing that it was little liable to accident, he is
inclined to give it the preference. In that he foreshadows the
practice of later times. But whether the seventeenth century
roller curtain was of the upper or lower order, the mechan-
ism was much the same. It consisted of a roller connected
with two lateral pulleys, and worked by a rope passing over
a third pulley which turned it either way. Sometimes the

^ Jackson's History of the Scottish Stage (Edinburgh, 1793), Appendix i. p. 5.
2 Cf. Ludovic Celler, Les Decors^ les Costumes^ et la Mise en Seine au Dix-Septiknte
Sikcle, p. 7.

' Pratica di fabricar scene e Machine «c' Teatri (1638). Bk. I. Chap. 37.

The Story of a Peculiar Stage Curtain 121

third pulley was above, sometimes below, accordingly as it
was desired to raise or pull down the curtain.

At what period the normal ascending curtain of to-day
first came into use in the English theatre it would be diffi-
cult to say. Before one has examined all the pros and cons
one is inclined to jump to the conclusion that the period
synchronised with the introduction and regular employment
of scenery, say somewhere about 1664. But the cautious
investigator, confronted by disturbing data, will hesitate to
advance an opinion. There is some reason to believe that
the double curtains, pulling up on either side, were the first
employed in the English scenic theatre and that the principle
obtained until at least the second decade of the eighteenth
century. In Mrs. Centlivre's first play, the tragedy of ne
Perjurd Husband^ as performed at Drury Lane in 1 700, the
opening direction reads, "The Curtains fly up, and discover
a Mask in Pizalto's house". One recalls also that in the
description given by "Charles Easy" in The Spectator o^
December 5, 171 1 (No. 240), of the beau who aired his
figure on the stage, it is told how he went " behind the
curtain and obliged us with several views of his person
from every opening."

Early French Players in England

Viewing the fact that England had experienced consider-
ably over four centuries of French acting before hostility
to the foreign player finally exhausted itself in the famous
"Monte Christo" riot of 1848, the stage historian might
at first sight be disposed to think that a clue to the per- '
sistency of racial antipathies on the part of audiences from
Garrick's early time onwards could possibly be found by
sedulous seeking in the sociological records of remoter
ages. Indeed, one has only to dwell upon the characteristic
stubbornness of the British mind in maintaining a preju-
dice, its inborn capacity for what Matthew Arnold called
provinciality of thought, to lend colour to a specious solu-
tion. This would lie in the abortive attempts made in the
twelfth century to impose upon the conquered Anglo-
Saxon populace the Norman-French miracle-plays. But
one should consider much too curiously to consider so.
No unbroken tradition of hostility on the part of the com-
monalty can be traced from the Norman period onwards.
For long the grudge, if it existed, had nothing to feed
upon. No appeal was made in the beginning by foreign
players to the people at large. The story of French acting
in England in the first two centuries of its course is well-
nigh inextricably associated with the intrigues of the crown
and the traffic of the court. Riotous demonstrations in the
mid-eighteenth century over the visits of foreign players,
although primarily conditioned by transient national feel-
ing, were largely due to the fact that the fight in the open
for a free hearing had been too long delayed.

As indicated there was a curious intermingling of the
fortunes of the Early French players in England with the
vicissitudes of the British crown, and the rise and fall of
dynasties. The exile of a Tudor and a Stuart had much

126 Early French Players in England

to do with the fostering of a taste for foreign acting
among the English nobles. To the politic lingering in
Brittany and France of King Henry VII, when Earl of
Richmond, was due the first recordedjourney of a French
troupe across the channel. During his prolonged sojourn
in Paris in 1483, the coming king had ample oppor-
tunity, in the full flush of his young manhood, to revel
in the pungent soties and farces of the Clercs de la Basoche
and the Enfants sans Souci. It may be, indeed, that it was
one or other of these famed organisations that pioneered
the way for the French player in England. What more
likely than that desire on the part of the play-loving Tudor
to renew some of the delights of his Parisian experience led
to negotiations for the bringing over of one or both com-
panies ? On that point, however, records are silent. It is
impossible to determine the identity of these first French
visitants, or what they acted. But of their coming to the
English court we are fully assured through the following
important entries in the two extant account books showing
Henry the Seventh's daily expenses from 1492 to 1509 :

8 Henry VII, January 6. To the Frenche Pleyers for a

rewarde. ;£ i. o. o.

9 Henry VII, January 4. To the Frenche Pleyers in rewarde
£2 0.0.^

One must confess one's inability to believe that a troupe
of French players remained for a whole year at the English
court, if even the nature of the entries did not tend to dis-
prove any such supposition. It may be taken with safety
that these payments indicate two successive visits, and
possibly of two separate companies, in the years 1494 and
1495. It is distinctly unfortunate that the early account
books of the court have not come down to us, as there is
some reason to believe that a body of French players visited
England in 1489. The following citation from the Scottish

* Collier, Hht. Eng. Dram. Poetry^ i. 49. No suspicion can be entertained as to the
genuineness of the entries. Malone had known of them previously, and cites one under
a wrong date.

Early French Flayers in England 127

Exchequer Rolls, proving a performance before King
James IV at Dundee in 1490, is apposite :

Iteyn^ on Fryda the xxiij Julij in Dundc to the king to gif the
Franschemen that playt . . . . xx unicornis xviij li. ^

Although positive evidence as to the pieces performed
at the English court in 1494 and 1495 is wholly lacking,
grounds exist for sensible conjecture. Apart altogether
from its perennial popularity, there is reason to believe
that the epoch-marking farce of Maistre Pierre Patelin
figured among the selections from the French repertory
acted before the King. Attention has already been drawn
to the fact that it was not through Rabelais the play began
its influence on English literature.^ The story of "hym
that payde his dette with crienge bea '* had appeared in
an English collection of Merry 'Tales at least as early as
1 535, and possibly in 1 525. Holbrook hazards the conjec-
ture that "one or more of the many editions of Maistre
Pierre Patelin printed in France had crossed the Channel
before 1 500 ". It may be, however, that England made
its first acquaintance with the immortal farce in acted form,
at the hands of the French comedians. An important side
issue attaches itself to this surmise. The construction of
Maistre Pierre Patelin demanded a setting of the multiple
order — what is known in France as a decor simultanL To
show that it had been acted before Henry VII at this perod
would be to afford the investigator a terminus a quo from
which to date that peculiar system of court dramaturgy
which flourished in the time of Lyly and was not without
its ultimate influence upon the popular drama. ^

^ Dibdin, Annals of the Edinburgh Stage^ p. 15.

2 Richard Holbrook, The Farce of Master Pierre Patelin (Boston, 1905), p. 109.

^ I am not unmindful of the great service rendered by Chambers in showing (what
Collier and others have so long obscured) that the primitive English miracle play was
stationary, with a multiple setting, and that the processional play was a later variant.
(Cf. The Medice-val Stage^ ii. 134). But assuming that the remoter court dramatists
derived the the principle of the simultaneous scene from the miracle-play, what is the
earliest court play in which the principle was followed ? Could it have preceded the
first visit of the French comedians ? My earliest trace of a secular play with multiple
setting is Lyndsay's Satyre of the Three Estaitis, performed in the open at Cupar in 1535
and at Edinburgh in 1540. It is significant that this play was derived from a French

128 Early French Players in England

Unless an entry in a later account book can be very
liberally interpreted, no further visits of the French players
can be traced for over one hundred and thirty years. In
"The Kyngs boke of paymentis, begynnyng primo dieOcti
A" 2 1 Regis Henrici VII°»» " occurs the following entry :

23 Henry VII Oct. 4. To 6 MynstrellsofFraunce that played
afFore the kings grace at Habyndon ;^ 2. o. o. ^

"Five straunge Mynstrells " had also "played afore the
King " a little better than two years previously, but viewing
the interpretation put on the word " minstrell " in the legis-
lative enactments of the period, ^ one is not disposed to
believe that either troupe performed plays. On the other
hand, it seems highly improbable that no further visit of
the French comedians took place before 1629. Apart from
Henry the Eighth's predilection for foreign artists and
musicians there is reason to infer the occasional presence
of French players at his court. Visits of the sort would
account for the inspiration undoubtedly derived by John
Heywood from Gallic sotie and farce. ^ The Dyalogue du
fol et du Sage and the farces Uun pardonner^ d'un tria-
cleur^ et d'une taverniere and of Fernet qui va au vin — all
pressed more or less into English service by Heywood —
might have pleased the burly King so well in their original
form as to create a desire on his part to have them ready to
hand in the native repertory. And in this connection one
must remember that John Heywood, as player of the
virginals, was a servant of the King's household.

Strive as we may to fill up this mysterious and perplex-
ing gap, conjecture can only be taken for what it is worth.
The fact remains that no further visit of the French come-
dians is recorded until 1629, when the arrival of a luckless
and utterly unfriended troupe was marked by two distinct

» Collier, i. 47-8.

^ Ibid, i. 60 note.

^ Cf. K. Young, " The Influence of French Farce upon the Plays of John Hey-
wood ", in Modern Philology^ June, 1904. — The Enfants Sans Souci were in disgrace in
1 5 16, and acted for a time in the provinces. They might possibly have revisited
England at this period. See also Sir Sidney Lee's The French Renaissance in England^ pp.
372-4-

Early French Players in England 129

innovations. So far as we know, the newcomers were the
first of their kind to bring with them women players, and
the first to make appeal to the ordinary playgoer. Expelled
from their native country for reasons not apparent, they
were frowned upon by the court an^ left to the tender
mercies of the British philistine.

It is a moot point whether this unhappy visit marks
the first appearance of an actress in the English theatre.
Although one feels assured that no very serious attempt
had previously been made to break in upon the time-
honoured custom of allotting female parts to boys, the fact
cannot be overlooked that Coryat, in discussing the charac-
teristics of the Venetian theatre, says, " Here I observed
certaine things that I never saw before, for I saw women
act, a thing that I never saw before, though I have heard
that it hath been some times used in London ; and they
performed it with as good a grace, action, gesture and
whatsoever convenient for a player, as ever I saw any
masculine actor". ^ Possibly Coryat's allusion may have
been to the appearance of ladies in masques at court ; at
any rate, no record of the employment of women players in
the English theatres of his time has come down to us. ^

The precise period of the arrival oi'this ill-treated French
company is determined by an entry in the Office Book of
Sir Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels :

For the AUowinge of a French Company to play a farse at Black-
fryers, this 4 of November, 1629, • • • • • ;^ 2. O. o.

Prynne's evidence as to the reception accorded to the
foreign players is very contradictory. It might readily mis-
lead us as it misled Malone, had we not other and sounder
data to go upon. In discussing the question of women on
the stage, Prynne first says, "they had such Frenchwomen
actors in a play, not long since personated in Blackfriars
playhouse, to which there was great resort." ^ This savours

^ Coryat' s Crudities (1611), p. 247.

2 Cf. Thomas Jordan's lines headed " A Prologue to introduce the first woman that
came to act on the stage, in the tragedy called The Moor of Venice ", first printed in
A Royal Arhour of Loyal Poesie^ c. 1662.

^ Histriomastix (1633), p. 215.

130 Early French Players in England

of approval of the innovation on the part of the public,
but a couple of hundred pages farther on one comes
across a marginal note to the effect that "some French-
women, or monsters rather, in Michaelmas term 1629,
attempted to act a French play at the playhouse in Black-
friars, an impudent, shameful, unwomanish, gracelesse, yf
not more than whorishe attempt." ^ This " attempted to
act" seriously qualifies the earlier statement "to which there
was great resort ". The new complexion thus put upon the
matter gains confirmation from a passage in a private letter
sent by one Thomas Brande to some person unknown, and
bearing date (apparently without year) "the 8th Nov." :^

Furthermore you should know, that laste daye certaine vagrant
French players, who had been expelled from their owne contrey,
and those women, did attempt, thereby giving just offence to all
vertuous and well-disposed persons in this town, to act a certain
lascivious and unchaste comedye, in the French tonge at the
Blackfryers. Glad I am to saye they were hissed, hooted, and pippin-
pelted from the stage, so as I do not thinke they will soone be ready
to trie the same againe. — Whether they had license for so doing I
know not, but I do know that if they had license, it were fit that
the Master ^ be called to account for the same.

Apparently no one in authority thought fit to challenge
Sir Henry Herbert for the course he had taken in the
matter. A little over a fortnight later he permitted the un-
fortunate exiles to give another performance, this time at a
public theatre. The entry in his own handwriting recording
this omits mention of the fee, but £,2 is understood :

For allowinge the Frenche att the Red Bull for a daye, 22 Nov.
1629.

Another three weeks elapse, and then we learn of the
wretched foreigners at a third house, again for a single day
only, and with very ill success :

1 Ibid, p. 414.

2 Discovered by Collier in the Archives of the Archbishop of Canterbury at
Lambeth, and printed by him in Annals, ii. 23. He conjectures that the letter was sent
to Laud when Bishop of London. As no axe is ground with the details one has no

reason to suspect forgery.

3 "Of the Revels" interpolated by Collier within brackets.

Early French Players in England 131

For allowinge of a Frenche companie att the Fortune to play
one afternoone, this 14 of Dec. 1629 . . . . ;^ i. o. o.

Appended is the note — showing that for all his rapacity-
Herbert was not without generous impulses : " I should
have had another peece, but in respect of their ill fortune,
I was content to bestow a peece back."

Basing evidently on Prynne, who was a prejudiced
witness (not only because of his whole attitude towards the
stage but from his especial abhorrence of women players),
Collier thinks the ill-reception of the French was due to the
presence of actresses in the company.^ He makes no allow-
ances for their possible raggedness nor for the bias created
by their unprotected state. Jealousy on the part of the
native players might easily have aroused a certain amount
of organised opposition. Brande's communication has the
air of having been inspired from some such source, and his
charge of obscenity was clearly a subterfuge, calculated to
stir into action some powerful ecclesiastic. One has no
belief in an early seventeenth-century audience expressing
vigorous disapprobation solely as censor of morals. Inde-
cency, thick and slab, had been indulged in with complacency
by the Elizabethan dramatists.

Collier's conclusions on this point, allied with an imper-
fect knowledge of the contemporary French stage, led to his
hazarding of an absurd conjecture in connection with the
more important French visit of i ^^S* Overlooking the fact
that the later company was of a superior order and enjoyed
the protection of the Queen, he takes leave to think they
met with little opposition because they had the good sense
to profit by the experience of their predecessors, and leave
their actresses behind them. This contention is easily re-
futed. The French players of the time were not habituated
like the English to the casting of female parts to boys.^ Not
only that, but the pieces presented by the later company
called for careful acting on the spindle side.

1 Annah, ii. 66. This view has been adopted by Prof. A. W. Ward, in English
Dramatic Literature, i. 418.

^ This refers only to youthful characters. Elderly women were mostly represented
by men. For fuller details see Eugene Rigal, Le Theatre Frangais a-vant la Periode
Classique, pp. 172-81.

132 Early French Players in England

Whether or not the newcomers were brought over directly
at the instance of the Queen, they signalised their arrival by
performing before her in private on February 15, 1634-5.
A favourable impression was created, and her Majesty at
once induced the King to take the company under his
patronage. Two days later the French players appeared
before the court at the Cockpit in Whitehall, giving a per-
formance of La Melise, on les Princes Reconnus^ a comic
pastoral of Durocher, "with good approbation".^ The
King was so gratified that he not only gave the company
a reward of ten pounds, but immediately granted them a
remarkable concession. On February 20th following, Her-
bert records :

This day being Friday, and the 20 of the same monthe, the kinge
tould mee his pleasure, and commanded mee to give order that this
Frenche company should playe the too sermon daies in the weeke,
during their time of playing in Lent, and in the house of Drury-lane,
where the queenes players usually playe.

The king's pleasure I signified to Mr. Beeston, the same day,
who obeyd readily.

The house-keepers are to give them by promise the benefit of
their interest for the too days of the first weeke."^

Collier points out that this unexampled concession was
in nowise injurious to Beeston 's Cockpit company as the
Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent, on which the French
were permitted to play, were tabooed to the English. The
Cockpit in Drury Lane (not to be confounded with the
Cockpit in Whitehall) was a private theatre with a select
audience, one eminently well disposed to take its cue from
the royal lead. That it did so in this instance is shown by
Herbert's statement to the effect that the French players

* Cf. The Athenaeunty No. 3326, where a wrong date for the performance is given.
Mr. Swinburne here expresses the opinion that the piece might have been the MelitCy
ou Les Fausses Lettres of Pierre Corneille, first acted in 1629, but printed four years
earlier. There is really, however, no valid reason to dispute Herbert's statement.
Durocher's was the newer piece, having been produced in 1633.

2 Malone's Shakespeare by Bosivell (1821), iii. 121. The French players were to
have the entire profits of the first two performances, but subsequently were to fall in
line with English theatrical custom and share the receipts with the house-keepers.

Early French Flayers in England 13 J

while there "got two hundred pounds at least, besides
many rich clothes were given them ".^ To Herbert as
Master of the Revels the visitors made proffer of a fee of
£^ I o, but so high was their standing at court that he thought
it politic to refuse, jotting down as his reason that " he
wished to render the Queen, his mistress, an acceptable
service". Having momentarily conquered his greed, he did
not stop there but made it his business to obtain permission
from the King for the French to continue performing at
the Cockpit during Passion week, a concession which must
have occasioned much jealousy and heart-burning. ^ No
English company had ever been allowed to give representa-
tions during that solemn period.

With the arrival of Easter, Beeston's players resumed
full control of the private house in Drury Lane. On Easter
Monday, April 4, the French company appeared before the
court at Whitehall in he Trompeur Puni, ou Histoire Sep-
tentrionale. Unless one misinterprets Herbert's somewhat
ambiguous entry,^ Scuderi's tragi-comedy was better liked
than the earlier pastoral. It had then been about four years
on the acting list. A still newer tragi-comedy, the Alcimedon
of Duryer, was given at Whitehall " with good approba-
tion'' on the 1 6th of the month.

Dilatory as Charles I. was in paying his English players,
he lost no great time in rewarding the French for their three
performances at court. On May loth following, a warrant
was issued directing ^£30 to be paid " unto Mons. Josias
Floridor, for himself and the rest of the French players, for
three plays acted by them at the Cockpit". ^

These details indirectly reveal that the French sojourners
were no important company direct from Paris but merely a
troupe of strollers. Josias de Soulas,^ who, under his stage
name of Floridor, was to become a favourite at the Theatre

1 Videop.cit. 2 Ibid. 3 jbid.

* i. e. at Whitehall. Cf. Chalmers, Apology, p. 508.

* After due consideration I adopt the routine opinion, as expressed by Hawkins,
Annals of the French Stage from its Origin to the Death ofRacine^ i. 148. But there is some
reason to believe from an entry in Sir Henry Herbert's Office Book (vide infra), that
Floridor's real name was Josias d'Aunay.

134 Early French 'Players in England

du Marals, as " orator " in 1 643, and to proceed thence to
the Hotel de Bourgogne, had not yet made his debut in
Paris. The well-nurtured son of a German father and a
French mother, he began life in the army but speedily
turned stroller, and was manager of his own troupe before
thirty. Although London saw him in the first flush of his
career, he had already added to his natural powers and graces
considerable artistic judgment, so that his success at White-
hall is not to be marvelled at. Stage history cherishes his
memory as the first French tragedian who departed from
convention, and spoke, instead of chanting.

One favour followed another at the hands of the King
until the lucky visitors were finally allowed to set up a
theatre of their own. The authority for this is again Sir
Henry Herbert :

A warrant granted to Josias d'Aunay, Hurfries de Lau, and
others, for to act playes at a new house in Drury-lane, during
pleasure, ye 5 may 1635.

The king was pleased to commande my Lord Chamberlain to
direct his warrant to Monsieur Le Fevure, to give him a power
to contract with the Frenchmen for to builde a playhouse in the
manage house, which was done accordinglye by my advise and
allowance. ^

Herbert adds in a marginal note, " These Frenchmen
were commended unto mee by the queene, and have passed
through my handes,^r^//j ". Later on, however, they gave
Blagrave, Herbert's deputy, "three pounds for his pains".
Acting at the new playhouse probably began early in May.
On April 18, the Lord Chamberlain had recorded in his
Memorandum Book that the King had commanded him
"to signify his royal pleasure that the French comedians
(having agreed with Mons. le Fabure), may erect a stage,
scaffolds and seats, and all other accommodations, which
shall be convenient, and act and present interludes and
stage plays, at his house during his Majesty's pleasure
without any disturbance, hindrance or interruption."^

1 Sbakeipeare by Boswell (1821), iii. 121 fF.

2 Chalmers, Apology^ p. 506.

Early French Players in England 135

No evidence exists to show whether or not the foreign
players made any employment of scenery during their
visit, but on divers counts it hardly seems probable their
performances were given on a bare, or merely tapestried,
stage. The poorest of provincial French companies at this
period were habituated to the use of a modest pictorial
background, and generally carried a scene-painter in their
train. Moreover the court at Whitehall had now grown
accustomed to look for luxurious mounting of the masques
owing to the brilliant catering of Inigo Jones, and it is
doubtful whether the King would have tolerated a theatrical
representation given with the Spartan simplicity of Elizabe-
than times. Assuming, however, that the French players
used scenery, the next difficulty that arises is to determine
what kind. On the one hand we know that in the court
masques Inigo Jones had long adopted the principle of
successive backgrounds, employing scenery that changed
rapidly, in full sight of the audience ; on the other, it is
equally certain that French strollers were still following
the quaint old system of the decor simultane. In Paris, the
public theatres were only just abandoning the multiple set-
ting, and it may be taken (although the fact has never been
demonstrated) that the production of Le Prince Deguise of
Scuderi marks the regular introduction to the French stage
of successive scenery.

No clue presents itself as to the repertory of Floridor's
company at the new house in Drury Lane. Little more can
be gleaned about their doings, save that they seem to have
acted there, on and off, until the close of the year. Malone
cites an entry from the Office Book of the Lord Chamber-
lain, showing that in 1636 a warrant was issued for £iOy
payable to " Josias Floridor, for himself and the rest of the
French players, for a tragedy by them acted before his
Majesty in December last."^

' Shakespeare by Bos-welly iii. 1 22. On December 23, 1 63 5, a troupe of Spanish players
under John Novarro performed before the King and were granted ;^io in reward. There
had been several earlier visits by Italian players, but no previous Spanish company is
recorded, and none probably was seen again for a couple of centuries.

136 Early French Players in England

French acting was now so much in the air at Whitehall
that the Maids of Honour must needs indulge in it.
Herbert's memorandum of the event is written, appropri-
ately enough, in French :

Le Pastorale de Florimene fust represente devant le Roy et la
Royne, le Prince Charles, et le Prince Palatin, le 21 Decern, jour
de St. Thomas, par les filles Fran^oise de la Royne, et firent tres
bien, dans la grande sale de Whitehall, aux depens de la Royne.'

It is difficult to determine whether the pastoral o^ Flori-
mene was some old piece, already performed in France, or
whether it had been specially written by some courtier for
the occasion. No play so called can be traced on the French
stage of the early seventeenth century. Florimene was pre-
sented at Whitehall with scenery by Inigo Jones, ^ and,
according to a synopsis of the entertainment printed at the
time in English, was arranged in five acts, with intermezzi
of the Four Seasons. Seeing that the antimasques at court
were invariably performed by professional players,^ it is not
improbable that the grotesque characters in the interludes
were sustained by members of Floridor's company. That
the dancing between the acts took place, not on the raised
stage where the pastoral was represented, but on the floor of
the hall, can readily be seen by examination of Inigo Jones's
ground-plot for the stage and its attendant auditorium. The
characters in the interludes came on at first within strictly
scenic regions, descending to the floor of the hall by stairs
placed at the two ends of the proscenium front.

The native player folk would have been considerably
more than human and very uncharacteristic of their class

^ Not the first time, apparently, that a French play had been acted by the ladies of
the Court. In Cal. State Papers^Dom.Ser.xW. (1625-6), 4, one finds a letter of Sir Benjamin
Rudyerd to Sir Francis Nethersole informing him that the Christmas of 1625 was to be
spent at Hampton Court, with plays. "The demoiselles mean to present a French
pastoral wherein the Queen is a principal actress." But on December 3 1 he writes again
from Hampton Court to say "the Court removes on Tuesday next and keeps the end
of Christmas at Whitehall. The Queen intends to act her pastoral at Denmark House."

2 The original ground-plot for the scenery, &c., is preserved in the Lansdowne MSS.
in the British Museum, and the design for the special proscenium in the Duke of
Devonshire's collection of Inigo Jones's drawings at Chatsworth.

^ Cf. Dekker, Epistle Dedicatorie to Endymion Porter in Dekker his Dreame (1620) :
" Besides, I herein imitate the most courtly Revellings ; for if Lords be in the Grand
Masque, in the Antimasque are players."

Early French Flayers in England 137

had they not experienced some heart-pangs over the favour
shown to their foreign rivals in high Quarters. If ^nvy
existed it was all the more excruciating from having to be
cloaked. There could be no stirring up of popular preju-
dices against those whom the Queen had taken under her
protection, and for once the pippin-pelters were impotent.
All the native players could do was to take a poor revenge
by mimicking the fervid delivery and profuse gesticulation
of the strangers within the gate. Precisely at what juncture
this mild retaliation was attempted one cannot say, probably
at the close of 1635. All that is known for certain is that
somewhere about that period the Cockpit company brought
out a comedy by Henry Glapthorne called ne Ladies Privi-
ledge ^ in which the whole point of a scene in the second act
depended upon the skill with which the actor of Adorni
burlesqued the characteristics of the French players. Pos-
sibly there was no venom in the caricature: one notes on the
imprint of the comedy that it had been twice performed
before the King at Whitehall. But, as will be remarked
on reading the following citation of the salient portion of
the scene, the mimicry in question was a matter of sheer
improvisation, and its nature and intensity may have varied
with the place of performance :

La(ctantio). But Adorni,

What thinke you of the French ?

Ad(orni). Very ayry people, who participate
More free than earth ; yet generally good
And nobly disposition^, something inclining

Ent. Corim{bd).

To overweening fancy — This Lady
Tells my remembrance of a Comick scene,
I once saw in their Theatre.

Bon(ivet). Add it to

Your former courtesies, and expresse it.

Ador. Your entreaty

Is a command, if this grave Lady please,
To act the Lady I must court.

^ First printed in 1640.

138 Early French Players in England

Cor. Why doe you tliinke I cannot play the woman ? I
have plaid a womans part about twenty, twenty years agoe in
a Court Masque, and tho' I say't as well as some o' them, and
have bin courted too. But it is truth, I have a foolish quality,
as many more women are guilty of besides myselfe, I alwayes
love them best, which slight me most, and scorne those that
doe court mee : look you Signior, if 't be a lovers part you are
to act :

Take a black spot or two, I can furnish you.
'Twill make your face more amorous, and appeare
More gracious in your Mistris eyes.

Ador. Stande faire Lady,

Cor. Tis your part to stande faire sir; doubt not my car-
riage—

0 most rare man : sincerely, I shall love the French
The better while I live for this.

Ador, Acts furiously.

Nay pray sir, gentlemen entreat the man
To pacific his wrath, tell him He love him,
Rather than see him rage thus.

Bon. He would have just reason to be mad indeed then,
but now
The Mood is alter'd.

Ador. acts ut antea.

Cor. Excellently ravishing : this of force
To make the hardest hearted Lady love him :
Can I intreat him but to teach my Cosen
Some of his French, he will for ever be engallanted.

Enter Eurione and Frangipan.

Bon. Beautious Cosen,

Y' ave mist the quaintest sport; honest Adorni
You would endeare this Lady to you, would you
Please to react it.

Ador. Nay, if you make me common once, farewell ;

1 am not for your company.

As Adorni presently undertakes to teach Frangipan
French, we may conclude that \n his "acting" he babbles
French, or something supposed to represent it.

Early French Players in England 139

Viewed from our present standpoint, the exile of
Charles II proved much more far-reaching in its ultimate
results than the exile of the Earl of Richmond (afterwards
Henry VII). In literature and the arts French exemplars
were servilely followed throughout the easy-going Stuart's
reign. One traces their domination in the new heroic drama,
in the recurrence of the theatrical couplet, in Restoration
music, and in the florid accessories of the new scenically
adorned stage. The King brought back with him a Gallic
hedonism that debased the moral currency. French para-
sites of all sorts and conditions swarmed at Whitehall, and
French (or French-Italian) comedians were seldom long
absent from England. The King had hardly settled himself
on his throne before the first French troupe came over. It
occupied for a time the old Cockpit in Drury Lane, the
scene of Floridor's early triumphs. Pepys, who seldom
missed any sight that was going, from an Italian puppet
show to a bearded woman, took his long-suffering wife to
see the French players on August 30, 1661. But the im-
pression gained was far from favourable, constraining him
to jot down in his diary, "to the French comedy, which
was so ill-done, and the scenes and company and everything
else so nasty and out of order and poor, that I was sick all
the while in my mind to be there." A rare pamphlet in the
Malone collection in the Bodleian library apparently reveals
to us full details of the play seen by Pepys on this occasion.
It consists of eighteen pages in English and French, and
the imprint runs :

The piece in question was probably Le Mariage d'Orpbee
et d'Eurydice of Chapoton, the scene of the fourth act in
which is laid in the infernal regions. It dates from 1648,
but, curiously enough, was revived in Paris in 1662. One

140 Early French Players in England

can only account for Pepys' depreciation of the perform-
ance by the supposition that the small stage of the Cockpit
was ill-adapted for the elaborate scenic effects required.
That the company was not altogether so despicable as the
diarist indicates is shown by the fact that it made frequent
appearances before the King at Whitehall. Evelyn records
the performance of a French comedy at court on December
16, 1661 ; and exactly six days earlier a warrant had been
issued " to pay to John Chemnoveau 300 1. as the King's
bounty to be distributed to the French comedians ".^

It is noteworthy that once the foreign players became
assured of the Merry Monarch's countenance, they made
careful preparation for their visits, bringing with them all
the necessary accessories. We have no evidence of any
such course being followed in earlier Stuart times. Among
the State Papers preserved in the Record Office is a copy
of a Permit dated August 25,1663, authorising "the French
comedians to bring over their scenes, stage decorations,"
&c. Some historical value attaches itself to this document
inasmuch as we have no other record of the visit implied.
But the coming of the French players to England was now
of sufficient frequency to justify Sir William D'Avenant
in the mild fun he poked at them. This was heard in his
composite piece, A Playhouse to he Let^ produced at the
Duke's theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in the Long Vaca-
tion of 1 663. ^ In the first act, which in earlier days would
have been called an induction, a whimsical picture is drawn
of the dire straits of the native players in their offseason.
As the theatre is to be let, there are several applicants for
temporary lesseeship, and the remaining four acts show
the performances (or rehearsals) given under their auspices.
One of the aspirants is a Frenchman who has crossed the
Channel with a troupe, and who is anxious to perform a
farce in broken English. This affords the raison d'etre for

^ Jusserand, Shakespeare in France, p. 1 3 i . In Cal. of State Papers, Dom. Series,
Charles II, the name is given as "Channoveau".

2 Dr. Edward Browne includes the play in the list of pieces seen by him at that
house in 1662-3 (cf. Mem. Book in Sloane MS., 1900) ; and the epilogue to the piece
makes allusion to the fact that the sterner critics were out of town.

Early French Flayers in England 141

the version given in the second act of Moli^re's Sganarelle^
ou le Cocu Imaginaire, a comedy which, it will be remembered,
had originally been produced at the Petit Bourbon in May,
1660.

D'Avenant in his proem makes no bones about pander-
ing to the blunt prejudices of an English audience. Says
the Player to the French manager :

Your farces are a kind of mongrel plays,
But sir, I believe all French farces are
Prohibited commodities and will
Not pass current in England.

And then the Tirewoman is made the mouthpiece of British
sentiment.

I like not that these French pardonney moys
Should make bold with old England.

Doubtless it would be idle to infer that the ridicule of
D'Avenant had any serious influence, but the fact remains
that at this juncture there is a considerable break in our
records. Beyond Pepys' reference to the magnificent sing-
ing of a French eunuch in The Faithful Shepherdess at the
Theatre Royal, in October, 1668, we have no further note
of the French in London for a period of nine years. Mean-
while, however, there had been some exchange of compli-
ments, artistically speaking, between the two countries. The
facetious Joe Haines had been sent over to amuse the
French court, and abundantly fulfilled his mission. Perwich
writes from Paris to Sir Joseph Williamson on October
25, 1679:

I think I told you something of Jo. Haines ; now I can add that
he behaved himselfe there ^ to everybody's wonder, and diverted
the King by severall English dances, to his great satisfaction and
that of all the court. I believe he will have a present made him.
If you should think it convenient, it would do him a great kind-
nesse in England to mention him in the Gazette among the King's
divertisements at Chambort, where, whilst the Balets were preparing,
he hunted the wild bore and pheasants. By the enclosed you see

' Evidently St. Germain in Laye from the context.

142 Early French Players in England

the severall entries and manner of the Balet ; between every one
Haines had order to dance by himselfe, and notwithstanding the
confronting of the best dancers, carried it off to admiration, and
was ordred to dance some things twice over. ^

Of the visit paid to London by some French players
early in 1672 little is known save what can be gathered
from an allusion in one of Dryden's prologues. It would
appear, however, that they performed at one of the regular
playhouses — possibly in that old haunt, the Cockpit in Drury
Lane — and were responsible for two striking theatrical in-
novations. There was no such thing as numbered seats or
advance booking in those days, and playgoers, irrespective
of rank, had to make early resort to the theatre to secure
good places. The visitors introduced the French custom of
sending footmen to purchase and occupy seats until claimed
by their actual owners, a custom that eventually gave rise
to much disturbance in the house, but remained in vogue
for over a century. ^ The other novelty lay in the employ-
ment of coloured daybills to allure audiences, a device that
had never struck the tradition-ridden English manager.

On January 2 5, 1 67 1 -2, or about the period of the arrival
of the innovators. The Theatre Royal in Bridges Street was
burnt down. During the process of rebuilding, the King's
players had to content themselves with the small, ill-
equipped theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Stripped bare
by misfortune, they were unduly sensitive to the lash of
competition. Dryden makes bitter reference to their state
in the prologue to Arviragus and Philicia^ first spoken in
the following March or April :

A brisk French troop is grown your dear deh'ght;
Who with broad bloody bills ^ call you each day
To laugh and break your buttons at the play ;

* Dispatches of JVilliam Perivich (Camden Society, 1905), p. 116. — Haines was
evidently associated with the first performance of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme at Cham-
bord on October 14, 1670.

' Cf. Robert W. Lowe, Thomas Betterton, p. i8. For the trouble which ensued and
the duration of the custom, see John Fyvie, Comedy Queens of the Georgian Era, p. 14.

^ In Paris at this period each theatre used differently coloured daybills. Red bills
were the prerogative of the Hotel de Bourgogne. See V. Fournel, Curiosites Theatrales
(1878), p. 126.

Early French Players in England 143

Or see some serious piece which we presume
Is fallen from some incomparable plume ;

We dare not on your privilege entrench
Or ask you why you like 'em ? They are French.
Therefore some go with courtesy exceeding,
Neither to hear nor see, but show their breeding.
Each lady striving to outlaugh the rest ;
To make it seem they understand the jest.
Their countrymen come in, and nothing pay,
To teach us English where to clap the play.

A trifle over a year later another French company came
to London for a spell. Their visit is referred to in the epi-
logue written byDry den for delivery at Oxford by the Ki ng's
players in the Long Vacation of 1673 :

Heaven for our sins this summer has thought fit

To visit us with all the plagues of wit.

A French troop first swept all things in its way.

But these hot Monsieurs were too quick to stay ;

Yet to our cost in that short time we find,

They left their itch of novelty behind.

The Italian Merry-Andrews took their place.

And quite debauched the stage with lewd grimace.

The Italian comedians from Paris, under Tiberio Fiorelli
(better known as Scaramuccio, from his favourite character),
came to England in May, 1673, and acted at Whitehall till
the second week in September. On the 22nd August, James
Vernon wrote a gossiping letter from court to Sir Joseph
Williamson, telling him incidentally that

Senior Scaramouchio and his band have begged his Majesty's
leave to returne, their affaires requiring their presence att home. It
seemes Baptiste hath a grant of the Palais Royal to play the operas
in it, and these gentlemen are to remoove to Sourdiacs Theatre
in the Faunbourg St. Germains; and now I am among players I
ought not to omitt to acquaint your Excellency that the Duke's
house are preparing an Opera and great machines. They will have
dansers out of France, and St. Andr^ comes over with them, who

144 Early French Flayers in England

is to have a pension of the King, and a patent of master of the
compositions for ballets, etc.^

The opera here referred to as in preparation was un-
doubtedly Shadwell's version of Psyche^ which I take to
have been brought out at the Duke's (notwithstanding old
Downes' somewhat later dating^) about Christmas, 1673.
One cannot well see to what other production Evelyn's
record of January 5, 1673-4, could have applied. "I saw
an Italian opera in music ", he writes in his Diary, "the first
that had been in England of this kind." That Psyche^ after
being "long expected", as Downes tells us, was eventually
brought out about this period is indicated by the following
allusion in Dryden's prologue for the opening of the New
Theatre Royal, as spoken there on March 26, 1673-4:
Whilst scenes, machines, and empty operas reign.
And for the pencil you the pen disdain,
While troops of famished Frenchmen hither drive.
And laugh at those upon whose alms they thrive.
The particular sort of rivalry which the King's players had
now to combat was soon to be experienced within the walls
of their new house, where the newly-constituted Academy
of Music had arranged to produce, for the first time in
England, genuine French Opera. The approximate period
of the operatic season at the Theatre Royal can be arrived
at by two entries in the Lord Chamberlain's Accounts :

1674, March 27. Warrant to deliver to Monsieur Grabu, or to
such as he shall appoynt, such of the scenes remayning in the theatre
at Whitehall, as shall be useful for the French Opera at the theatre
in Bridges street ^ and the said Monsieur Grabu to return them again
safely after 14 days' tyme to the theatre at Whitehall.

1674, April 27. Warrant to deliver to Sir Christopher Wren,
His Majesty's surveyor generall of the works, the scenes belonging to

^ Letters to Sir Joseph fVilliamson at Cologne (Camden Society), i. 179. Andr6 cer-
tainly came over subsequently ; there are abounding references to him in contemporary
squibs. See Dryden's epilogue to Lec^s MithridateSy King ofPontus (1678).

2 See his Roscius Anglicanus, where the date given is February, 1673-4. Psyche was
published before February 15, 1674-5 (when it is announced in the Term Catalogue) and
Shadwell in his preface speaks of it as having been written sixteen months previously,
or c. September, 1673.

3 Such was the usual contemporary description of the new theatre, which, however,
is generally referred to by historians as the second Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Early French Players in England I45

His Majesty's Theatre at Whitehall, which were formerly delivered
to Mr. Grabu for the use of the French Opera in Bridges Street.^

Although possibly others were produced, only one piece
is on record as having been brought out at the Theatre Royal
during the French operatic season. This was a musically
re-composed version of Perrin's opera, Ariane^ on le Man-
age de Bacchus^ as originally performed in Paris (after many
delays) in 1669. Cambert, the original composer, is said
to have superintended the English production. He had
certainly left France for England in the August or Septem-
ber previous, ^ but the statement otherwise admits of no
confirmation, and runs counter to the definite details on the
title-page of the book.^ Tradition also maintains that
sometime before his mysterious death in March, 1677,
Cambert's opera, Pomone^ originally produced in Paris in
1671, was performed at the English court. Of this one
finds no trace, but it may be that Pomone formed one of the
productions of the French operatic season at the Theatre
Royal. If the season lasted a fortnight or three weeks, as
the entries in the Lord Chamberlain's Accounts indicate,
more than one opera must have been performed.

In all probability the visits of the French players to White-
hall would have been much more frequent had it not been
for the fact that the easy-going King was very dilatory in his
payments. It was seemingly by way of compensation for un-
discharged liabilities that he permitted Scaramouch and his
fellows to establish, on their return to England in 1675,

^ H. C. de Lafontaine, The King's Musicky pp. 269-70.

2 Cf. Nuittcr et Thoinan, Les Origines de U Opera Frangais (1886), pp. 303 fF.
These authorities err in stating that Ariane was sung at the Theatre Royal in English.
In July, 1674, Cambert was superintending the King's Music at Windsor. (Cf. H. C.
de Lafontaine, op. cit. pp. 273 and 280).

^ Two books of the Opera, one in French and one in English, were published
simultaneously at the period of production. Both versions have an engraved frontis-
piece giving a view of London with the Thames in the background, the scene of the
specially localised prelude. In the English copy the imprint reads : "Ariadne, or
the Marriage of Bacchus, an Opera, or a Vocal Representation ; first compos'd by
Monsieur P. P. Now put into Musick by Monsieur Grabut, Master of his Majesties
Musick. And acted by the Royal Academy of Musick at the Theatre Royal in Covent
Garden . . ." It should be noted that the new house in Bridges Street was sometimes
spoken of as "the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden", thus taking its description from
the parish in which it was situated. No Covent Garden Theatre, in the latter-day sense
of the term, then existed, Nuitter and Thoinan blunder sadly over this (op. cit.) p. 304.

146 Early French 'Players in England

what was virtually a public theatre in Inigo Jones's great
Banquetting House. There was much whispering about
town over this reprehensible concession. Andrew Marvell,
writing to his friend William Ramsden on July 24, 1675,
says inter alia^ " Scaramuccio acting daily in the hall of
Whitehall, and all sorts of people flocking thither and pay-
ing their money as at a common playhouse ; nay even a
twelve penny gallery is builded for the convenience of his
Majesty's poor subjects." Two months later Evelyn went
to see the Italians, and was shocked to find entrance money
being charged, "which was very scandalous and never so
before at court diversions ". ^

It would appear that the King, indisposed to remain for
long without exotic entertainment and unable to recompense
the foreign players with the necessary promptitude, had de-
termined upon making the public pay at first hand for his
pleasures. Both the French and the Italians would be more
disposed to return to Whitehall when they knew they had
the right to charge for admission. One consequence of this
was that the English players grew to look upon the court
theatre as a serious opposition. The doings there, so far from
being sacro-sanct, were viewed as fair game by the native
dramatist. One finds some French company which happened
to be acting at Whitehall early in 1677 held up to ridicule at
Dorset Gardens in the epilogue to The French Conjuror.^ The
speaker, in the character of a Frenchman, is made to say :

All my French blood be in a rage,
Damn'd English Acteur, English Teatre,
Dere's no such thing as Wit nor Acting dere.
De Wit, de Sense, de Fame, and de Renown
Be in the French troop at toder end o' Town. ^
Dere Player be brisk aery spark, here Dog
Of Actor, more like heavie English Log.

^ These details upset the contention of Wheatley, who maintains in his recension
of Pepys that admission to court performances was obtainable by payment from the
dawn of the Restoration.

^ A precise date for Porter's comedy cannot be determined, but the play was
licensed for publication on August 2, 1677, and was probably brought out a month or
two earlier.

' Undoubtedly a reference to Whitehall.

Early French Players in England 147

Writing to a relative on May 31,1677, John Verney says :

On Wednesday, his Majesty's birth night, was some gallantry at
Whitehall, where was acted a French opera, but most pitifully done,
so ill that the king was aweary on't, and some say it was not well
contrived to entertain the English gentry, who came that night in
honour to their King, with a lamentable ill-acted French play, when
our English actors so much surpass ; however the dances and voices
were pretty well performed. ^

Unless some postponement of the performance took
place Verney must have written " Wednesday " in mistake.
The King's birthday (May 29) fell this year on a Tuesday.
As to the despised French opera presented on the occasion,
we have a clue to its identity in the entry in the Lord
Chamberlain's Accounts made under date May 22, 1677 :

Order to Mr. Staggins, Master of his Majesty's Musick, and in
his absence to Mr. Lock who officiates for him : — That all His
Majesty's musitians doe attend to practise in the theatre at White-
hall at such tymes as Madam Le Roch and Mr. Paisible shall appoint
for the practising of such musick as is to be in the French comedy to
be acted before His Majesty on the 29 May instant. ^

The opera in question was an entirely new production, in
a prologue and three acts, written in the French court style
by one Madame La Roche-Guilhen, and composed by James
Paisible. When published a few months afterwards it bore
the following title :

Rare en Tout. Comedie Meslee di Musique Et de Balets Repre-
sentee devant Sa Majeste Sur le Theatre Royal de Whitehall. A
Londres. Chez Jacques Magnes, & Richard Bentley, a la Poste
de Russel-street, au Covent Garden, 1677. ^

At least two French troupes visited London in 1677.
Care must be taken not to confound the troupe referred to
in Porter's epilogue (which may possibly have taken part in
the representation of Rare en Tout) with the troupe per-
forming at Whitehall at the close of the year. Of the

* Verney Papen^ Hist. MSS. Comm., Appendix to 7th Report, p. 469,

3 Tbe King's Mustek^ p. 318.

^ Cf. The Musical Antiquary for Oct., 1910, p. 57.

14B Early French Players in England

latter we glean some curious details in a letter from Henry
Saville to Lord Rochester. Writing from Whitehall on
December 17, 1677, the coming Vice-Chamberlain con-
veys the intelligence that Mrs. Barry the actress had just
borne the libertine lord a daughter. This prelude strikes
the keynote of the communication :

I had allmost forgott for another argument to bring you to
towne (continues Saville) that a French troop of Comaedians bound
for Nimeguen were by adverse winds cast into this hospitable port,
and doe act at Whitehall' soe very well that is a thousand pittyes
they should not stay, especially a young wench of fifteen who has
more beauty and sweetnesse than ever was seen upon the stage
since a friend of ours left it. In good earnest you would bee de-
lighted above all things with her, and it were a shame to the nation
shee should carry away a mayden head shee pretends to have brought,
and that noe body heer has either witt or addresse or money enough
to goe the price of. The King sighes and despaires and sais noebody
but Sir George Downing or my Lord Ranelagh can possibly purchase
her. 1

One would say from the tenor of this quaint epistle that
the troupe which had been accidentally cast into the port of
London had not more than a month arrived. It may be
deemed a happy circumstance that the identity of the
charming young actress whose virtue proved so unassailable
at the hands of Comus and his rabble rout can be readily
determined-. She was none other than Mile. Pitel, better
know to theatrical fame as Mile. Raisin. Long before the
publication of Saville's letter, records had been unearthed
in France showing that at about this period Henri Pitel,
Sieur de Longchamp, a not undistinguished theatrical
manager, came to England, bringing with him his daughter
Fran^oise (the future Mile Raisin), his wife, and her eldest
daughter Anne, the last of whom was married to a member
of the troupe called Durieu. ^ Pitel's company is said to

1 Hist. MSS. Comm., Calendar o/MSS. of the Marquis of Bath at Longleat, Wilt-
shire, ii, 1 60.

* Charton, La Troupe du Roman Comique (1876), p. 98. Durieu was a nephew of
Mile. Beauval. He was received, together with his wife, at the Comddie Franjaise in
1685.

Early French Players in England 149

have remained at the English court some fifteen or eighteen
months, but this is probably an exaggeration.

In the spring of 1683, Charles II entered into negotia-
tions through his envoy, Lord Preston, for the return of the
Franco-Italian comedians to England, but Fiorelli proved
impossible to persuade. And little wonder : the King was
still in arrears to him over his last visit. Baffled in his hopes
in this direction, " Old Rowley '*, in the following August,
dispatched Betterton the tragedian to Paris to make arrange-
ments for the performance of French opera at Whitehall.
On September 22, 1683, we find Lord Preston writing
from Paris to the Duke of York :

I should not have presumed to give your Highness the trouble of
this if something of charity had not induced me to it. I do it at the
instance of a poor servant of his Majesty's, who some time since
was obliged by a misfortune to leave England. It is Mr.Grahme,Sir,
whom perhapsyour Highness may remember. Mr. Betterton coming
hither some weeks since by his Majesty's command, to endeavour
to carry over the Opera, and finding that impracticable, did treat
with Monsr. Grahme to go over with him to endeavour to repre-
sent something at least like an Opera in England for his Majesty's
diversion. He hath also assured him of a pension from the House,
and finds him very willing and ready to go over. He only desireth
his Majesty's protection when he is there, and what encouragement
his Majesty shall be pleased to give him if he finds that he deserves
it, etc. ^

In the above extract, given exactly as cited in the His-
torical MSS. Commission Report, it seems to me that the
name " Grahme " is a pardonable misreading^ of" Grabut "
or "Grabue" (as the name of the mediocre French composer
was often phonetically rendered). It is necessary here to
recall that Louis Grabut, after having been master of the
King's Music from 1667, was cashiered late in 1674 in
favour of Nicholas Staggins. His salary at that period was
seriously in arrears, but, though he suffered much from want,

* Hist. MSS. Comm., 7th Report, Part i, p. 290.

^ Doubly pardonable for the reason that there were several Grahmes at this period
at the English Court. Cf. Tbe Secret Service Papers of Charles 11 (Camden Society),
wherein payments arc recorded in 1686 to James and Richard Grahme. In The Ellis
Correspondence mention is made of " Rene Grahme and other officers."

150 Early French Players in England

it was not until three years later that, after many importun-
ingSj he received payment of the large sum (over ;^6oo)
due to him. Being a Catholic and timorous, he fled from
London towards the close of 1678, and settled miserably
in Paris, where Betterton apparently found him in 1683. ^
Lord Preston's application to the Duke of York evidently
led at once to the extension of Charles IPs protection to his
old servant. Within three or four months Grabut must
have returned to London. Did he not supply the music for
the songs in Southerners comedy of The T>is appointment^ or
the Mother in Fashion^ as produced at the Theatre Royal,
c. February, 1684.'' About the same period he entered into
collaboration with Dryden in the composition of an opera
intended for performance at Whitehall. The death of the
King on the verge of its production upset all their arrange-
ments ; but, under the title oi Albion and Alhanius^ the opera
was eventually brought out at Dorset Gardens on June 3,
1685.

Beyond the return of Louis Grabut, and certain im-
provements in the working of English stage mechanism,
Betterton's visit to Paris had no immediate outcome. Not
to be baulked in his desire for some sort of exotic enter-
tainment, Charles II bethought himself to ask William,
Prince of Orange, for the loan of his French court players.
The sequel to the request, is indicated in a letter written
from London on June 10, 1684, by B. Grenville to W.
Leveson Gower :

The Dutch letters bring that Sir Thomas Armstrong

was seized and secured at Leyden in Holland by the King's minister,
Mr. Chudley, and was immediately put on board one of his
Majesty's yaughts that was attending the transportation of the
Prince's French players, expected with the prisoner this night. ^

The Prince of Orange's players under the directorship
of one Francis Duperier, remained in England for close on
five months, and performed before the King both in town and

^ These details concerning Grabut are largely based on the records published in
The King's Mustek.

» Hist. MSS. Coram., 5th Report, Part i (1876), p. 186.

Early French Players in England 151

country. On October 29th a payment of ;^45 bounty was
ordered "to Francis Duperier for the charge of ye French
players attending his Majestic at Windsor and Winchester
and returning to London ". ^

King Charles's predilections for exotic amusements were
shared to the full by his ill-fated brother. French opera was
given at James the Second's court in the spring of 1686.
Writing to the Duchess of Rutland on January 23, 1685-6,
Peregrine Bertie says,"next week begins the French Opera".
But a postponement took place, and on the 28th following
he writes again to Her Grace conveying the news that "last
night was acted The Chances at Whitehall" and that "the
French opera will begin the weeke after the next". On Feb-
ruary nth he hastened to inform her, "to-day was the
French opera. The King and Queen were there, the musicke
was indeed very fine, but all the dresses the most wretched
I ever saw ; 'twas acted by none but French. A Saturday
the court goes to another play, to take their leaves of those
vanitys till after Lent".^ It seems not unlikely that Jacques
Rousseau, formerly operatic scene-painter in Paris, pro-
vided the mounting for these court performances. We
know that he came to England on the revocation of the
edict of Nantes, and remained there till his death in 1693.

Between a period of two and three years later occurs the
last recorded direct visit of a troupe of French players to
the English court. Among the secret service accounts of
James II passed for payment in October, 1688, one finds an
entry of ;^2oo "to John de Sureis for himself and the rest
of the French players, being 12 in number, bounty".^

The waning of the century saw a temporary disappear-
ance of all prejudice against foreigners in the English
theatre. Thanks largely to the initiative of Betterton, at his
wits' end to know how to draw audiences, French dancing
came to be looked upon as a boon and a blessing. But the

1 Secret Service Accounts of Charles II and James II (Camden Society, 1851), p. 93.

^ Hist, MSS. Comm., Rutland Papers^ 11. (1889), pp. 102 at seq. For an allusion
to the French Opera, see the prologue to Jevons' play. The Devil of a Wife, or a Com-
ical Transformation, spoken at Dorset Gardens on March 4, 1685-6.

^ Secret Service Papers, p. 209.

152 Early French Players in England

tastes catered for were rather those of the classes than of
the masses. Downes, writing in 1708, says :

In the space of Ten years past, Mr. Betterton to gratify the
Desires and Fancies of the Nobih'ty and Gentry ; procur'd from
Abroad the best dancers and Singers, as Monsieur L'Abbe, Madam
Subh'ni, Monsieur Balon, Margarita Delpine, Maria Gallia, and
divers others ; who being Exhorbitantly Expensive, produc'd small
Profit to him and his company, but vast Gain to themselves.

Nine years earlier, Wright in his Historia Histrionica had
made his puppet Trueman say with a sigh for the good old
days that formerly the players

could support themselves merely from their own merit, the
weight of the matter and goodness of the action, without scenes and
machines; whereas the present plays with all that show can hardly
draw an audience, unless there by the additional invitation of a
Signor Fideli, a Monsieur TAbbe, or some such foreign regale ex-
press'd in the bottom of the bill.

Three years later, or in 1 702, Gildon, in his Comparison of
the Two Stage s^\Q?idiS his interlocutors to discuss this matter :

Rambler : At six I'll meet you at Lincoln's Inn Playhouse.

Sullen : I wonder what Play is it ?

Rarnb, : The Way of the Worlds with the new dancer,
Madam d'Subligny.

Critic : There's another toy now, God ! There's not a
year but some surprising monster lands ; I wonder they don't
first show her at Fleet Bridge with an old drum and a cracked
trumpet. — "Walk in and take your places; just going to
show."

Ramb, : Let's meet there ; methinks I long to be ogling
madam's feet.

SulL: . . . No, I'm not for meeting there; The Generous
Conqueror is acted at the other house, ^ and lest it should never
be acted again, let's go see it to-night.

SuU. : ... It was otherwise lately with Balon ; ^ the town
ran mad to him, and the prices were raised to an extravagant
degree to bear the extravagant rate they allowed him.

^ Drury Lane. The foreign singers and dancers were mostly engaged at Lincoln's
Inn Fields.

2 Cf. The Post Man of April 6, 1699 • "^"^ Easter Monday at the New Theatre
in Little Lincoln's Inn Fields will be an entertainment of Dancing, performed by
Monsieur Balon, newly arrived from Paris."

Early French Players in England 153

Gildon, we take it, was a typical British playgoer, and
in the voice that speaks for his puppets we hear the first
faint mutterings of the storm which was to burst forty years
later, and to recur again and again. For full arousal of these
bitter passions it only needed the upspringing of grave
foreign complications and the resultant fostering of a spirit
of Gallophobia. The whirligig of Time brought all these
revenges. Not so soon, however, as the summer of 171 8,
when a French company, exiled from Paris by the suppres-
sion of the Theatres de la Foire, came to Lincoln*s Inn Fields
and played Tartuffe^ Le Foire de Saint Germains and LesDeux
Arlequiyis unmolested. Nor can it be traced that any sple-
netic feeling was evinced towards the visitors styling them-
selves " the French Comedians of his Grace the Duke of
Montague ", who opened the New Theatre in the Hay-
market on December 29, 1720, with La Fille a la Mode^ ou
le Badaud de Paris, and remained there until early in the
following May.^ If they suffered, it was from the apathy of
the beau monde, which took so mild an interest in their en-
terprise that the weekly nights of acting had to be reduced
from four to two and the prices of admission lowered.
Only one member of the company, Mile, de Livri, Voltaire's
erstwhile mistress, had any reason to look back upon the visit
with satisfaction. On the closing of the theatre she took a
situation in a French cafe off the Strand, and there so infatu-
ated one of its frequenters, the Marquis de Gouvernet,as to
receive from him an offer of marriage. Overawed by his
station, she gave her suitor a point-blank refusal. But the
Marquis was no believer in a woman's "No", and by a
clever device, eventually induced her to change her mind.
Having first presented her with a lottery ticket, he made
her believe later on that she had won a large prize. He had
loved her when she was poor, would she not marry him now
she was rich ? The charming young actress swallowed the
bait and returned to Paris Madame la Marquise. ^

^ Cf. H. Barton Baker's The London Stage (1889), i. 173-4. The opening piece
was a prose comedy in three acts by M. Barbier, an advocate of Lyons, where it had
originally been produced in 1707.

2 Frederick Hawkins, The French Stage in the Eighteenth Century, i. 174-6.

154 Early French Players in England

In 1738 the storm-cloud burst, racial antipathies having
been excited by a curious concatenation of circumstances.
In October, shortly after the Haymarket had been closed
under the terms of Walpole's new Licensing Act, it was
announced that the theatre, whence the English players
had been banished, was to be re-opened, "by authority,"
by a company of French players. Aroused by the sense of
injustice John Bull rose to the occasion. There was an
organised opposition, and the opening night proved the
closing one. Here is the account of the riot, written by an
eye-witness :

People went eady to the Theatre, as a crouded house was
certain. I was there in the centre of the Pit ; where I soon perceived
that we were visited by two Westminster Justices, Deveil and
Manning. The Leaders, that had the Conduct of the Opposition,
were known to be there ; one of whom called aloud for the song
in Praise of English Roast Beef, which was accordingly sung in the
Gallery by a Person prepared for that Purpose ; and the whole House,
beside Joining in the Chorus, saluted the Close with three Huzzas !
This, Justice Deveil was pleased to say, was a Riot ; upon which
Disputes commenced directly, which were carried on with some
degree of Decency on both Sides. The Justice at first informed us,
" that he was come there as a Magistrate to maintain the King's
Authority ; that Colonel Pulteney, with a full Company of the
Guards, were without, to support him in the execution of his office;
that it was the King's Command the Play should be acted ; and
that the obstructing it was opposing the King's Authority ;
and if that was done he must read the Proclamation ; after which
all Offenders would be secured directly by the Guards in waiting."
To all thesemostarbitraryThreatnings, this abuse of his Majesty's
Name, the Reply was to the following Effect : — " That the Audience
had a legal Right to shew their Dislike to any Play or Actor ; that
the common Laws of the Land were nothing but common Custom,
and the antient Usage of the People ; that the Judicature of the Pit
had been acknowledged and acquiesced to. Time immemorial ; and
as the present Set of Actors were to take their fate from the Public,
they were free to receive them as they pleased."

By this time the hour of six drew near; and the French and
Spanish Embassadors, with their Ladies; the late Lord and Lady
Gage; and Sir T[homas] R[obinson], a Commissioner of the

Early French Flayers in England 155

Excise, all appeared in the Stage Box together ! At that instant the
Curtain drew up, and discovered the actors standing between two
Files of Grenadiers, with their bayonets fixed, and resting on their
Firelocks. There was a sight! enough to animate the coldest Briton,
At this the whole Pit rose, and unanimously turned to the Justices,
who sat in the Middle of it, to demand the Reason of such arbitrary
Proceedings? The Justices either knew nothing of the Soldiers being
placed there, or thought it safest to declare so. At that Declaration,
they demanded of Justice Deveil (who had owned himself the com-
manding officer in the affair) to order them oflFthe Stage. He did so
immediately, and they disappeared. Then began the Serenade ; not
only Catcalls, but all the various portable Instruments, that could
make a disagreeable Noise, were brought on this occasion, which
were continually tuning in all parts of the House; and as an attempt
to speaking was ridiculous, the Actors retired, and they opened with
a srand dance of twelve Men and twelve Women : but even that was
prepared for, and they were directly saluted with a Bushel or two
of Peas, which made their Capering very unsafe. After this they
attempted to open the Comedy ; but had the Actor the Voice of
Thunder, it would have been lost in the confused Sounds from
a thousand various Instruments. Here, at the waving Deveil's
Hand, all was silent, and (standing up on his seat) he made a Pro-
posal to the House to this effect : — " That if they persisted in the
opposition, he must read the Proclamation ; that if they would
permit the play to go on, and to be acted through that Night, he
would promise (on his Honour) to lay their Dislikes, and Resent-
ment to the Actors, before the King, and he doubted not but a Speedy
End would be put to their acting." The Answer to this Proposal was
very short, and very expressive. "No Treaties, No Treaties ! "
At this the Justice called for Candles to read the Proclamation, and
ordered the Guards to be in Readiness; but a gentleman, seizing Mr.
Deveil's Hand, stretched out for the Candle, begged of him to con-
sider what he was going to do, for his own Sake, for ours, for the
King's ! that he saw the unanimous Resolution of the House ; and
that the appearance of soldiers in the Pit would throw us all into a
Tumult, which must end with the Lives of many. This earnest
Remonstrance made the Justice turn pale and passive. At this Pause
the Actors made a second Attempt to go on, and the Uproar revived ;
which continuing some Time, the Embassadors and their Ladies left
their Box, which occasioned a universal Huzza from the whole
House ! and after calling out some Time for the Falling of the

156 Early French Flayers in England

Curtain, down it fell. I will venture to say, that at no Battle gained
over the French by the immortal Marlborough, the Shoutings could
be more Joyous than on this Occasion. What greatly added to my
pleasure was, to see the two Justices join in this grand Huzza, by
waving their Hats over their Heads, and at the same Time wore
faces more like the conquered than Conquerors. ^

There was a series of disturbances of a similar order at
the same theatre in November, 1749, when Jean Monnet
brought his company over and got quite innocently em-
broiled in the rivalries of a fierce electioneering contest
through gaining the ardent patronage of my LordTrentham,
one of the candidates. From the violent prejudices with
which the town now became obsessed it took it a whole
century to recover. The very suspicion of a French dancer
in the theatre sufficed to cause its destruction. Drury Lane
was wrecked on this score in 1755, although Garrick's sole
offence had been the bringing over ofNoverre and a number
of Swiss executants to dance in T^he Chinese Festival,

^ Benjamin Victor's History of the Theatres of London and Dublin (1761), i. pp. 53 ff.
According to an epigram in The London Magazine for Oct. 1738, (p. 514), the comedy
intended to be acted on the opening night was U Embarras des Richesses.

Proscenium Doors : an Elizabethan Heritage

Although the terms "platform stage" and "picture
stage "j^ as applied to the non-scenic and the scenic theatre,
are very convenient and come ready to the pen, they prove
on examination to be arbitrary, unscientific and, worst of
all, misleading. The popular idea of an abrupt transition
from the platform stage to the picture stage at the period
of the Restoration is wholly astray. Then, and for two
hundred years after, the two principles overlapped. The
picture stage, as we now know it, i.e., with the picture en-
tirely within the frame, only dates back a matter of half
a century.

When acting was first renewed after the blank period of
the Civil War and the Commonwealth, it was strictly
on Elizabethan principles. Three of the old dismantled
theatres, Salisbury Court, the Cockpit and the Red Bull,
were hastily restored in 1660 to their original condition,
or a sound approximation thereto. Not only that but the
first wholly new theatre of the Restoratian era, the house
erected in a tennis court in Vere Street in the same year,
was based on the old formula. There was an immediate
revival of Elizabethan conventionalism, which, despite
the altered conditions of a lustrum later, permeated and
informed the technique of the Restoration and the Post-
Restoration dramatist.

In England the picture stage in its crudity began with the
opening of the new Duke's Theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields
in June, 1 66 1, with D'Avenant's opera, T^he Siege of Rhodes,
Even then the pristine platform stage was not wholly aban-
doned, for the King's players remained at Vere Street until
the opening of their scenically-equipped house, the Theatre
Royal in Bridges Street, on May 7, i d^'^. The influence of

^ Due, I think, to the inventive resource of Mr. A. B. Walkley. See his anony-
mous theatrical article in The Edinburgh Revieiv for July, 1 902.

1 60 Proscenium Doors : an Elizabethan Heritage

continental models on our first two theatres of the picture
stage order was much slighter than has been popularly sup-
posed. From first to last the English theatre has preserved
a certain individuality. We may concede that the prime
characteristics of the picture stage, viz., the proscenium arch
and the front curtain, together with movable scenery and
its attendant mechanism had been derived from the French
or Italian theatres, although as a matter of fact all had been
seen years before in the Carolan court masques. But here at
best all resemblance ends, and there were many differenti-
ating factors. French models could have had little influence,
for the French theatre of the latter half of the seventeenth
century preserved the standing pit. In the Restoration
scenic theatres, the auditorium was, sui generis^ based on
the latest development of the Elizabethan private theatre.
The benches of the pit rose in gradually ascending tiers
until checked by the front partition of the boxes. Where
the one ended and the other began the difference in eleva-
tion between the two was inconsiderable, probably only
three or four feet. ^

In adopting the Italian principle of a changing pictorial
background, the Restoration players apparently had their
doubts concerning the efficiency of the new medium as a
satisfactory substitute for the old physical conditions, espe-
cially in its application to the old plays which still formed the
major portion of their repertory. The result was that they
decided to combine the prime characteristics of the obso-.
lescent platform stage with the essentials of the new picture
stage. How to do this was the puzzle, seeing that the various
features of the tiring-house front could no longer be pre-
served at the back of the stage. Finally, they resolved to
bring them forward and place them in or about the prosce-
nium. The result was that the two main entering doors
with the superincumbent balconies were embedded in either
side of the proscenium arch, and the music-room placed
above it. As the arch was to serve many of the purposes
of the old tiring-house fa9ade, it was vital that some

^ Cf. R. W. Lowe, Thomas Betterion, p. 34.

Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage i6i

considerable stage room should be left in front of it. Hence
the origin, so far as the English stage is concerned, of the
longevous principle of "the apron." ^ Inartistic as we should
now reckon it, the result proved wholly grateful. Since the
proscenium doors formed the normal mode of entry and
exit, action mostly took place on the apron, thus making for
the better hearing and (at a time of indifferent lighting)
sight of the spectator.

Since I have argued that the distinctive arrangement of
the Restoration proscenium was based on the conventions
of the Elizabethan stage, it may be as well, before proceed-
ing to a lengthened consideration of the usages and literary
influence of the doors and balconies, to prove the analogy
by demonstrating the hitherto unsuspected position of the
early picture stage music-rooms. We know that in practi-
cally all the Elizabethan theatres the musicians occupied an
elevated position at the back,^ and we have solid reasons
for believing that, despite some attempts to place the
musicians in front of the stage, a similarly elevated posi-
tion was allotted to them in the Restoration houses of the
new order.

Let us first look at the evidence for the Duke's Theatre
in Lincoln's Inn Fields, the earliest of our picture stage
theatres. On November 7, 1667, when Pepys repaired
thither to see ^e Tempest^ he found the house crowded
owing to the lateness of his arrival, and had perforce "to sit
in the side balcony over against the musique-room." From
this it would appear that the music-room at the Duke's was
situate above the proscenium. It might be argued, of course,
on the strength of French analogy^ that the musicians were
placed beyond stage regions, somewhere in the auditorium

^ The apron already existed in some of the larger Italian opera-houses, where it
had originated through the necessity to throw the voice of the singer well forward. (Cf.
Count Algarotti's Essay on the Opera, 1767, pp. 96-7). On the other hand, proscenium
entering doors were utterly unknown on the continent ; so we are safe in assuming
that the English apron was not derivative.

^ Vide ante pp. 90-2

' Cf. Chappuzeau, Le Theatre Frangois, p. 240, where reference is made to the fact
that the French musicians then occupied a box at the back of the auditorium, and were
so little in touch with the traffic of the scene that people had to cry out to them to
play when music was necessary.

1 62 Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage

proper. But a little reflection shows this to have been impos-
sible. The old Elizabethan necessity for the musicians to
occupy a position allowing of ready access to the stage still
held good. Many scenes in the works of contemporary
dramatists called for their presence on the boards. ^

With the opening of the new Theatre Royal in Bridges
Street in 1 663 an attempt was made to introduce the Italian
principle of the orchestra as practised to-day. Pepys went
there on the second day of acting (May 8), and records
" the musique being below, and most of it sounding under
the very stage, there is no hearing of the basses at all, nor
very well of the trebles, which sure must be mended." It
would appear that, because of these defects, the musicians
were transferred later on to an elevated position, probably, as
in the Duke's, to a room over the proscenium arch. In a
curious old ballad ^ relating the destruction by fire of the
Theatre Royal on January 25, 167 1-2, we read :

But on a sudden a Fierce Fire 'gan rage,

In several scenes, and overspread the stage

The " Horrors " waiting on the dismal sight

Soon taught th' players to th' life to act a Fright.

The Boxes wherre splendors us 'd to surprise

From constellations of bright ladies' eyes,

A different blazing lustre now is found

And th' music-room with whistle flames doth sound.

Then catching hold o' th' roof it does display,

Consuming fiery trophies every way.

From the progressive nature of this description, begin-
ning at the stage and gradually working upwards, it is plain
to be seen that the music-room in the King's playhouse was
situated not very far from the roof. One notes also that, when
the house was rebuilt, no orchestra, in our latter-day sense of
the term, was provided. The view of the stage given in the
frontispiece to the opera oi Ariane^ ou le Manage de Bacchus
(as performed at the new Theatre Royal in April, 1674)

^ Cf. Dryden's An Evening's Love (1671), Act ii ; also his Troilus and Cressida
(1679), in. 2.

* Percy Fitzgerald's Neiu History of the English Stagey i. 137.

Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage 163

shows a projecting semi-oval front with an ornamented
base, and no enclosure.

For the second Duke's Theatre, as built in Dorset
Gardens and opened on November 9, 1 671, we have both
pictorial and textual evidence, the two being apparently
in conflict. It is possible, however, to reconcile these con-
tradictions. In Settle's tragedy, The Empress of Morocco^ as
acted at this house and published in October, 1 673, several
illustrations of the scenes are given, each with an elaborate
(but not wholly complete) view of the proscenium and its
immediate surroundings. ^ In examining these one notes
that the top of the proscenium arch projects over the apron
by way of soffit, or sounding-board,^ and that it bears upon
it a large room with three curtained openings, one in front
and two at the sides. As no spectator could have seen the
inner stage and scenery from this position, and as the whole
arrangement was too elaborate to be merely ornamental,
one takes it that this was the position normally occupied
by the musicians, that is to say at periods when their duties
almost wholly consisted of the playing of preludes and act-
tunes. ^ It would appear, however, that on special operatic
occasions, when the violins were increased from twelve to
twenty-four, the musicians generally sat at the front of the
stage. This would explain the apparent contradiction pre-
sented by the initial instruction in Shadwell's anonymously
published opera of The Tempest : *

The front of the stage is open'd and the Band of 24 Violins with
the Harpsicals and Theorbos, which accompany the voices, are
plac'd between the Pit and the Stage. While the Overture is
playing the Curtain rises and discovers a new Frontispiece Joyn'd
to the great Pylasters, on each side of the Stage.

^ One of these is badly reproduced in Mr. Albright's The Shakesperian Stage, p. 46 ;
for another and better example, see The Pall Mall Magazine for Sept. 1894, p. 89 (Mr.
E. Manson's article on "Nell Gwyn").

2 Thus bearing a superficial resemblance to "the heavens" of the Elizabethan
theatres.

' Those who feel inclined to dub this line of argument preposterous should bear
in mind that once or twice within living memory the musicians have been placed over
the proscenium in a box similarly arranged. See the illustration of the Madison Square
Theatre, New York, in The Scientific American for April 5, 1884 (Vol L. No. 14).

* Quarto, 1674, as acted at Dorset Gardens in April or May of that year.

164 Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage

It is plain to be seen that this was a special arrangement ;
had it been otherwise the description would have been
superfluous. With the increasing popularity of opera (or
what passed as such in Post-Restoration times), the orches-
tra, as we now know it, was more and more resorted to, until,
finally by the end of the century, it had become the normal
position of the musicians. Some relics, however, of the old
elevated music-room still lingered. Dunton, the itinerant
bookseller, who visited Ireland in 1698, writes, in The
Dublin Scuffle^ of a visit paid to the Smock Alley Theatre
at that period. He found

the Dublin playhouse to be a place very contrary to its owners ;
for they on their outsides make the best show; but this is very
ordinary in its outw^ard appearance, but looks much better inside
with its stage, pit, two galleries, lattices ^ and music loft, &c.

Before proceeding to an exhaustive consideration of the
history and usages of the proscenium doors and balconies,
it will be necessary to prove that — whatever other doors or
ways of entrance might have been used, as occasion required,
in the scene — there were only two permanent, conventional
doors, and that these formed the regular, but not sole,
method of entrance and exit. It is imperative this should
be thrashed out first, seeing that Lowe, in his careful
study of the period, has made out a plausible case for four
permanent doors, situated in or near the proscenium.^ Had
he exercised his sound sense of the theatre, instead of speak-
ing strictly from his brief, it would have dawned upon him
that two such doors on both sides of the proscenium would
have been in excess of all requirements.

Lowe's first item of evidence is derived from Etherege's
She Would If She Could^ ii. i., as performed at the Duke's
Theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1668. The scene is the
Mulberry Garden, whither come Ariana and Gatty, in
masks, to meet their gallants. They pass briskly over the

^ i. e. side boxes in the middle gallery. The term was apparently peculiar to Dublin
and lingered there until the last century.
' Thomas Better ton^ pp. 49-52.

Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage 165

stage, and Freeman and Courtal, having espied them, go
off in ardent pursuit. Then the scene proceeds as follows :
Enter Women again^ and cross the Stage.
Ariana. Now if these should prove two Men of War,
That are Cruising here, to watch for Prizes.

Gatty. WouM they had Courage enough to set upon us.
I long to be engag'd.

Ariana. Look, look yonder, I protest they chase us.
Gat. Let us bear away then : if they be truly Valiant
they'll quickly make more sail and board us.

\The Women go out^ and go about behind the Scenes to the
other Door.

Enter Courtal and Freeman.

Free. 'Sdeath, how fleet they are ! whatsoever Faults they
have, they cannot be broken-winded.

Court. Sure, by that little mincing step they shou'd be
Country Fillies that have been breath 'd a Course at Park,
and Barly-break : we shall never reach 'em.

Free. I'll follow directly, do thou turn the cross walk and
meet 'em.

Enter the Women^ and after ''em Courtal at the lower door^
and Freeman at the upper on the contrary side.

It is these references to upper and lower doors that in-
duced Lowe to believe there were four permanent entering
doors in or about the proscenium. But it is clear that the
upper door spoken of must have been a door (or entrance-
way) in the actual scene itself, the scene of the Mulberry
Garden. Otherwise there would be no sense in the previous
direction, where reference is made to "the other [permanent]
door ". What confirmed Lowe in the belief that there were
ordinarily four entering doors was the finding of a passage
in Colley Gibber's Apology referring to the "lower doors".
In dealing with the alterations made in Drury Lane Theatre ^
by Christopher Rich c. 1 696, with the view of enlarging the
pit, Gibber writes in his twelfth chapter :

It must be observ'd then that the Area or Platform of the old
Stage projected about four Foot forwarder, in a Semi-oval figure,

^ Originally opened, as we have seen, in March, 1674.

1 66 Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage

parallel to the Benches of the Pit ; and that the former lower
Doors of Entrance for the Actors were brought down between the
two foremost (and then only) Pilasters, in the place of which Doors
now the two Stage Boxes are fixt. That where the Doors of En-
trance now are, there formerly stood two additional Side Wings,
in front to a full Set of Scenes, which had then almost a double
Effect in their Loftiness and Magnificence.

By this Original form the usual Station of the Actors, in almost
every Scene, was advanced at least ten Foot nearer to the Audience
than they now can be, because, not only from the Stage's being
shorten'd in front, but likewise from the additional Interposition of
those Stage Boxes, the Actors (in respect to the Spectators that
filled them) are kept so much more backward from the main audi-
ence than they us'd to be ; but when the Actors were in possession
of that forwarder Space to advance upon, the Voice was then more
in the Centre of the House, so that the most distant Ear had scarce
the least Doubt or Difficulty in hearing what fell from the weakest
Utterance; All Objects were thus drawn nearer to the Sense; every
painted Scene was stronger, every grand Scene and Dance more
extended ; every rich or fine-coloured Habit had a more lively
Lustre; nor was the minutest Motion of a Feature (properly
changing with the Passion or Humour it suited) ever lost, as they
frequently must be in the Obscurity of too great a Distance : and
how valuable an advantage the facility of hearing distinctly is to
every well-acted scene, every common spectator is a Judge.

Basing on these two items of evidence Lowe argues that
our early picture stage theatres had four permanent enter-
ing doors, that, up to the year 1 700, the whole four were in
front of the curtain, and that subsequently two were in front
of, and two behind, the proscenium. But in assuming that
because Gibber speaks of " the former lower doors of en-
trance" he infers the presence of upper doors, Lowe is clearly
wrong. Gibber merely uses the word "lower" the better to
indicate to the ordinary reader the precise locality of the
doors. The truth is, if we are to base wholly on evidence
of this sort, there is no reason why we should stop at four
entering doors. Why not six } In Lacy's comedy, ne Old
'Troops Act ii, as acted at the Theatre Royal c. 1 665, we have
the direction " Enter Twelve Troopers at six doors : two at
a door." If we reckon upon two permanent proscenium

Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage 167

doors this would imply the presence of four doors (or en-
trance-ways) in theactualscene. Curiously enough, Flecknoe
in his unacted comedy, Damoiselles a la Mode {166^)^ writes
of his piece, "the scaenes and cloaths being the least consider-
able in it; ^ny Italian scaenes with four doors serving for the
one, and for the other any French cloaths a la mode." The
"chambre a quatre portes" was a common feature at this
period of the French stage, where it was utilised as the sole
setting of a play to preserve (fallaciously, or at the expense
of all illusion) the Unity of Place. Such was the nature of
the setting employed for the revival of Le Cid in 1673.^
Apart from all this, we must bear in mind that not in all
cases where the Restoration dramatist mentions doors does
he mean doors. It is easy to show that the word was often
used in a loose sense. In Dryden's AnEvening s Love^Kct v.
Bellamy says, " Maskall, open the door." Maskall goes to
the side scene which draws and shows a tableau of seven
figures. Later on the scene shuts when Maskall is told to
close the door. Again in Crowne's Sir Courtly Nice^ Act i, on
Leonora calling for the door to be opened, the scene draws
and reveals her aunt and a company of friends at breakfast.^

Opposite Lowe's misleading items of evidence for four
doors can be placed scores of stage directions proving that
all our picture stage theatres of the seventeenth century had
but two permanent doors of entrance. A few examples may
be cited :

Duke's Theatre, Lincoln's Inn Fields (1662-74).

Orrery's tragedy, Mustapha the Son of So ly man the Magnificent
(4to 1669. Acted in April, 1665), v. "Exeunt Queen and Haly.
Enter Zarma at the other door."

Orrery's comedy, Gttzw^w (4to 1693. SeenbyPepyson April 16,
1669), ^^^* 4* "They go out hastily at one Door, and Ovie. and
Pirac pass out at the other."

The Theatre Royal in Bridges Street (1663-72).
Dryden's The Wild Gallant (4to 1669 as acted in 1667), v. 3.
" Enter at one door, Trice drunk with the Watch : Bibber and

' Cf. M. Eugene Ri^al, Le Theatre Frangaii avant la Periode Classique^ 291 note I.
* See the final scene of the play for another example j also Love for Love^ iv. i.

1 68 Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage

Frances following ; at the other, Nonsuch and Servants, and
Failer."

Duke's Theatre, Dorset Gardens (1671-1709).

Otway's Friendship in Fashion (1678), iv. I. Night Garden.
" Enter Goodvile at one Door, Mrs. Goodville and Lettice
following her at the other."

Dryden's Troilus and Cressida (1679), v. 2. "Clattering of
swords at both Doors ; he runs each way and meets the noise."

Dryden's King Arthur (1691), iii. ("A Deep Wood.")
" Exeunt Arthur and Merlin at one door. Enter Osmond at the
other door."

Second Theatre Royal in Bridges Street (1674-1789).

Dryden's All for Love ; or The World Well Lost (acted 1677),
iii. I. "At one Door enter Cleopatra, Charmion, Iras, and Alexas,
a train of ^Egyptians ; at the other Antony and Romans. The
entrance on both sides is prepar'd by musick."

Dryden's Don Sebastian King of Portugal (1689) iii. "She runs
off, he follows her to the door ; then comes back again and goes
out at the other."

Theatre in Little Lincoln's Inn Fields
(opened April 30, 1695).

Lord Lansdowne's comedy. The She Gallants (1695), v. "Enter
Angelica in Women's apparel, and masked at one door ; and
Bellamour at the other." ^

When we come to look for evidence as to the precise
number and disposition of the doors and balconies in con-
temporary illustrations of the seventeenth-century picture
stage theatres the result is unsatisfactory. Only three views
of the kind are known, the plates in Settle's Empress of
Morocco showing the Dorset Gardens' stage, the frontispiece
to Ariane (1674) dealing with the second Theatre Royal in
Bridges Street (afterwards known as DruryLane), and a
later view of the same house showing Joe Haines speaking
an epilogue riding on an ass (1697).^ In Settle's plates

^ Many of the directions of the Post-Restoration period read " one door ....
another door." These evidently imply two doors only, otherwise they would render the
more precise directions unmeaning.

^ The only exemplar I know of the Haines' print is preserved in the British
Museum in Smith's Compiled History of the Stage (press-mark "11826 r") Vol. iv.
(unpaged). It is inscribed in writing, " Joe Haines, mounted upon an Ass, speaking the
Epilogue to Unhappy Kindness" (a play by Thos. Scott, acted at Drury Lane in 1697.)

< ^

X "

< ^

>^ o

Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage 169

we get only a partial view of the immediate front of the
proscenium, and although entrance-ways, surmounted by
balconies, are clearly indicated, the entrances appear to be
large, open arches rather than actual doors. In the frontis-
piece to Ariane no indication of doors or balconies occurs,
but we see the projecting semi-circular stage. As the apron
in the Haines' prints shows the right-hand corner of a
rectilinear apron, the print evidently deals with Drury Lane
after the alterations made by Christopher Rich. In it a door
is depicted, not set obliquely, as we should anticipate from
a knowledge of later theatres, but built into a brick wall and
running parallel to the front of the stage. No overhanging
balcony is indicated. These details require to be recorded,
but the truth is old theatrical prints are seldom scrupulously
accurate, and no dependence can be placed on their evidence.
If the original proscenium entrances were based, as I main-
tain, on Elizabethan conventions they must have been, as
Restoration stage directions imply, solid wooden doors,
and not mere apertures. Had our first picture stage theatres
employed open archways it is hardly likely that doors would
have been substituted in the eighteenth century, a period
in which we have abundant evidence of their employ-
ment.^

There is no room to doubt that the proscenium doors
of our first picture stage theatres were suggested by the
tiring-house entering doors of the old platform stage and,
subject to some modifications due to the employment of
scenery, carried on their conventional usages. In the Eliza-
bethan playhouses the doors were provided with knockers ^
and with locks and keys,^ so as to assist the illusion of the
scene as occasion demanded. We have no direct evidence of
a similar provision in connection with the first proscenium

1 It should be noted, however, that in Vander Gucht's emblematic frontispiece
to the third edition of Harlequin Horace^ or the Art of Modern Poetry (1735), the pro-
scenium entrances bear a marked resemblance to the arch-ways indicated in the illustra-
tions to The Empress of Morocco. Over them are balconies occupied (as customary at
that period) by spectators. From 1735 onwards, for close on a century, all genuine
English theatre views depict unmistakable doors.

' InMiddleton's comedy ThePboenix{c.\6o^\\.ht use of a ring knocker is indicated.

' Cf. Massinger's The Renegado, ii. 5 ; Webster's De-vil's Laiv Case, v. 4.

lyo Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage

doors, but it seems not unlikely that in scenes where the
knocking and locking and breaking open of doors took
place on the early picture stages, it was these doors that
were utilised. If it can be assumed that the later disposition
of the doors and balconies was largely traditional, and I
think it can, then it is important for us to note that the
proscenium doors of the early nineteenth century were all
provided with knockers.^

On the early picture stages entrance and exit by the pro-
scenium doors were not imperative, but, as action took place
mostly on the apron, the doors were used in the generality
of cases. Characters could be discovered by the rising of the
curtain or the drawing of a scene and they could be closed
in by the running on of a pair of flats. But at first little use
was made of the new medium, and in many early Restoration
plays the characters enter with the opening of the scene.^ In
dramatic construction and stage arrangements there was a
curious persistence of Elizabethan conventions. Tableaux
endings of acts were slow in arriving. Down to the close of
the century the termination of the act was marked by a clear
stage. Lest it should be argued that "exeunt" simply meant
" curtain ", cases may be cited where this would not apply.
In An Evenings Love^ end of act iv, we have " Exeunt, the
Men leading the Women." Sometimes the characters depart
one after the other, leaving a clear stage, as in Otway's Don
Carlos^ Prince of Spain^ acts iii and iv.^ This system was
I apparently an unnecessary perpetuation of the Elizabethan
I convention. The conclusion would be that, as in the con-
/ temporary French theatre, the curtain did not fall in the
/ inter-acts, and, as a matter of fact, it has yet to be proved
' that it did so fall. All we know for certain is that the curtain
rose at the beginning and fell at the close. The usual direc-
tion at the opening of intermediate acts in the Restoration

^ See Cruikshank's illustrations to Boz's Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi. Some also
had street bells — a latter-day addition.

' e.g. Etherege's The Comical Revenge (1664). A decennium later, Dryden made
frequent use of discoveries.

3 In The Careless Husband of CoUey Gibber (1704), one notes two rapid separate
exits at the close of Act iv.

Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage 171

and Post-Restoration drama is either " the scene opens "
or " the scene draws." ^ The difficulty is to know whether
these directions have a literal meaning or merely imply the
rising of the curtain. If they mean what they say, then we
can only assume that the scene with which the previous act
terminated remained in full view of the audience while the
inter-act music was being played, and that the drawing of the
scene marked the beginning of the succeeding act. In that
case the few definite examples we possess of the curtain fall-
ing between the acts would be the exceptions proving the
rule.^ The point is a very puzzling one to determine, but
from the tenor of the following extract from Gibber's pro-
logue to She JVoud and She Won d Not {I'-jO'^^ referring to
the attempt to preserve the Unity of Place, I am inclined to
believe that from the Restoration to at least the reign of
Queen Anne the curtain usually remained up until the close
of the play :

His action 's in the Time of Acting done,
No more than from the Curtain up and down.
While the first Musick plays he moves his Scene,
A little space, but never shifts again.

Returning to our consideration of the usages of the pro-
scenium doors, it is noteworthy that one particular mode
of separate entrance at the back of the scene, so far from run-
ning counter to Elizabethan tradition, clearly perpetuated
it. On the platform stage eavesdroppers never entered
through either of the two doors but invariably came on
through the inner stage to peep through the traverses in
front. " Enter behind " was the conventional instruction in
these cases, and where one comes across that direction one
may be always prepared for a scene of eavesdropping. ^

* Cf. Howard and Dryden's The Indian Queen (1664), Acts iv and v; Lee's The
Massacre of Paris (1690), iv ; Settle's Empress of Morocco (1672), ii ; Motteux's The
Island Princess (1699), iv.

2 The curtain drew up on Act iv of Orrery's Henry V zt the Duke's in 1664 ; and
in the same author's tragedy of The Black Prince (1667), the curtain fell on Act i and
was drawn up again before Act ii.

^ Cf. The Phoenix J v. I ; The Roaring Girly iv. I ; Hyde Parky iii. i. Sometimes
the direction reads "enter privately", as in The Prophetess^ iv. 6, and The Little French
Lazvyery iii. i. But the variant seems peculiar to Beaumont and Fletcher.

172 Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage

In the drama of the early picture stage era the same thing
applies. Listeners always came on at the back. ^ Where
characters were not closed in by the running on of a front
scene, exits were generally made by the proscenium doors.
Now and again, however, the stage arrangements called for
departure at the back, as in ne Plain Dealer^ iii. i, where
Manly leaves Fidelia, and goes out "at the end of the stage."

For long the technique of dramatic construction was not
materially altered by the introduction of scenery. The
Restoration dramatist wrote as if he still had the old plat-
form stage in his mind's eye, and, regardless of the worries
of stage mechanists and managers, continued to shift his
scene with almost breathless rapidity. The consequence was
that, to admit of ready handling, the scenery had to be of the
lightest framework. With a rapidly changing stage elaborate
built-up backgrounds were wholly out of the question.
Under these conditions the presence of the proscenium
doors and their attendant balconies proved extremely grate-
ful. They admitted of the reahsing of many situations and
incidents that otherwise could not have been dealt with.
All the action that usually took place "above" on the plat-
form stage was transferred to the proscenium balconies.
Hence the persistence of the old stage direction.^ One great
advantage of the two sets of doors and balconies was that
they could be used either singly or in combination. To
the variety of situation thus admitted of was largely due the
vogue at the Restoration period of the comedy of intrigue,
and drama of the cape and sword order. Serenade scenes
abounded, and plays seem almost to have been written to
exploit the possibilities of the doors and balconies. Once
more the physical conditions of the theatre were exercising
a potent influence upon dramaturgy.

Of the simple, as contrasted with the complex, use of the
balconies we have a good illustration in ne Comical Revenge^

1 Of. The Wild Gallant, iv. i, "Enter Loveby behind" ; The Country Wit, ii. i ;
All for Love, iv. i. Occasionally characters not eavesdropping entered at the back, as
in Mrs. Behn's The Rover, Part i, i. 2.

2 Cf. St. Serfe's Tarugo's Wiles; or The Coffee House (x668), v. i, "enter Liviana
above" 5 All for Love, iv. i 5 CEdipus, v, at close ; and An Evening^ s Love, Act ii.

Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage 173

iii. 2 (as in 1 664 at the Duke*s), where the chambermaid
and her mistress come successively to " the window " and
speak down. To avoid confusion it is necessary here to
point out that there was no separate permanent window on
the picture-stages of the seventeenth century, and that the
terms "window", "balcony" and "above" were all inter-
changeable. It is difficult from the stage directions to arrive
at the exact disposition of the early balconies but, in keeping
with their recognition as windows, it is significant that in
the early nineteenth century they were invariably provided
with lace curtains. In George Digby, Earl of Bristol's
comedy Elvira^ or the Worst Not always True^ ii. 7-8 (as
probably acted at the Duke's in 1666), we read of a balcony
door capable of being locked. At first one is inclined to
think this was merely the entering door below until one
is given pause by the following stage directions in Orrery's
Guzman^ as acted at the same theatre three years later :
" A balcony opens, in which Antonio appears drest in Pink

Colour, &c Pastr. and Anto. shut the balcony

and retire." In Mrs. Behn's The Amorous Prince^ or the
Curious Husband^ iv. 4 (as played at the same house in 1 67 1 ),
an interesting situation occurs. Lorenzo descends from the
balcony by means of sheets, taken from a bed by Isabella and
knotted together. A variant of this "business" is to be found
in the second part of The Rover ^ by the same author, as acted
at Dorset Gardens in 1 675. In Act iv. 5, we read : " Scene
the Street, a Sheet ty'd to the Balcony, and Feth. sitting
across to slide down." Fetherfoot subsequently "goes half

down and stops The Door opens, Beau, goes

up to it ; Will, puts him by, and offers to go in, he pulls
him back." A quarrel ensues; "strikes him, they fight, and
blows light on Fetherfoot who hangs down." The indi-
cation in these two plays of the distance to be traversed
between balcony and stage shows that when the King
in CEdipus (1679) throws himself from the window, it is a
dummy figure that falls, as evidenced by the fact that to mask
the deception " the Thebans gather about his body." No
dramatist of the time had a better sense of the theatre than

174 Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage

Mrs. Behn and none made more adroit employment of the
balconies. In proof of this take The Rover ^ Part i. Act ii. i,
as performed at Dorset Gardens in 1677. The scene is the
exterior of the house of Angellica the courtesan. "Enter two
Bravos, and hang up a great picture of Angellica's against
the Balcony, and two little ones at each side of the Door."
Blunt and his companions comment on the portraits and
speak of the rapacity of the fair original. Then " enter
Angellica and Moretta in the Balcony, and draw a silk
Curtain." They listen to what is going on below, and talk.
"Enter at one Door Don Pedro, Stephano ; Don Antonio
and Diego at the other Door," &c. Later on " Angellica
throws open the curtains, and bows to Antonio, who pulls
off his vizard and bows, and blows up kisses."

The complex use of the doors and balconies admitted of
many situations of considerable ingenuity and uncommon
illusion. Probably the best example is that capital scene in the
fifth act of Sir Martin Mar- All (as given in 1668 at the
Duke's), where the thick-witted Knight makes pretence of
serenading his lady-love, and exposes his own trick by con-
tinuing to finger on the lute and to make mouths as if singing,
long after his concealed substitute has ceased. The stage
directions run : "Enter Mrs. Millisent, and Rose, with a
Candle by 'em above. ... Sir Martin appears at the adverse
Window, a tune play'd." In the Second Part of The Rover^
Act ii, spectators come on at both balconies to view the tricks
of the mountebank on his temporary stage. In Crowne's The
Country Wit^ as acted in 1675 at Dorset Gardens, Act ii
occurs in "The Street" and Lady Faddle and Bridget appear
at the opening on the balcony. Considerably after they
have retired, "Lord Drybone, Betty Frisque and Cis, come
to the Window " and talk while Ramble and Merry below
listen. Here the window was doubtless the adverse balcony.

While it seems to have been unusual on the early picture
stages for the curtain to be let down between the acts, ^

* In Mrs. Behn's tragi-comedy The Young King, or The Mistake (as at Dorset
Gardens in 1679), ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ opening of Act iii : "The Curtain is let down — being
drawn up, discovers Orsames seated on a Throne asleep . . . Above is discovered the

Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage 175

instances occur, curiously enough, where it was lowered in
the middle of an act, and that, too, without serious break
in the action. About the earliest example of this occurs in
the last act of Orrery's Henry V^ as given at Lincoln's Inn
Fields in 1664. The curtain having been let down, two
Heralds appear " opposite to each other in the balconies
near the stage." A proclamation is made and the curtain
again rises. A similar expedient was resorted to at the same
house two years later when Caryl's play, ^e English Princess^
or the Death of Richard HI was produced there. This was
probably due to the many changes of scene in Act iv, the
act in which it was employed. Scene viii begins with the
premature announcement "The Scene is changed to the
King's Lodging," premature because the scene really repre-
sents the ante-chamber to the King's Lodging, which forms
scene ix. Then comes the following sequence of directions :
" [The Curtain is let down.] . . . Enter Catesby and
RatclifFe at one of the Doors before the Curtain." . . .
Some dialogue ensues revealing that the two are in the
King's ante-chamber. . . . " Enter Lovel at the other Door
before the Curtain . . . Sc. ix. The Curtain is opened".
Here we have evidence of the presence and employment
of the apron in the first English scenic theatre. 1 have
already said that scene viii was probably played before the
curtain because of the great amount of scene-shifting that
had preceded. That explanation, however, would not apply
to a much later representation of an ante-room, where a
similar arrangement was followed. This was in Southerne's
comedy, The Wives' Excuse^ as produced at Drury Lane in
1 692, a year or two before Rich reduced the dimensions of
the apron. The opening scene of the piece was played in
front before the rising of the curtain. It represented " the
Outward Room to the Musick-meeting" and showed a
number of servants in attendance, exchanging confidences ;
after which " the curtain drawn up shews the company at
the Musick-meeting."

Queen Olympia, and Women." This would surely indicate that it was not then usual
to drop the curtain at the end of an act.

176 Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage

Scenes of this peculiar order were of no great frequency
but one finds them persisting for over a century in rehearsal
plays. ^ In that famous exemplar, ne Rehearsal^ as origi-
nally produced at the Theatre Royal in December, 1671,
portions of the piece were certainly played on the apron
with the curtain down, but exactly how many it would
now be difficult to say. At the end of the fourth act, Bayes,
after clearing the stage, says "let down the curtain" and
goes off with the others. The fifth act opens on the apron
to which Bayes and the two gentlemen enter through one of
the proscenium doors. Evidently this is the position they
occupy during the ensuing rehearsal, which begins with
the direction " the curtain is drawn up, the two usurping
Kings appear in state, with the four Cardinals," &c., &c.
The precedent thus established was followed for long in
most pieces of a similar order. Curtain scenes were em-
ployed by Fielding in no fewer than three of his Haymarket
travesties. The Author s Farce (1729), Tumble Down Dick ; or
Phaeton in the Suds (1736), and The Historical Register for
1736 (1737). If it can be taken that Hogarth's "Pasquin"
plate represents the Haymarket stage (on which Fielding's
Pasquin was first produced in 1736), then it is worthy of
note that the plate shows a deep apron, flanked by prosce-
nium doors and balconies. Foote adopted the Duke of
Buckingham's old device in writing his Occasional Epilogue
for the opening of the Haymarket in 1767.^ The first part
of this represented the street, the second the stage of the
theatre, and the rising of the curtain in the middle indicated
the change of locality. From an incidental remark one notes
that the Haymarket proscenium at this period was adorned
with statues typifying Ancient and Modern Comedy.^
Finally, Sheridan, in writing The Critic for production at

1 See also Dennis's comedy Plot and ISlo Plot, as acted at Drury Lane in 1697 and
revived at Covent Garden in April, 1 746. The second act is laid in " The Playhouse
before the Curtain," and the characters speak from the stage, the stage box and the side
boxes. Genest thinks Foote derived his device in The Orators (1762) from this arrange-
ment.

2 For which, see The Monthly Mirror of January 1 804.

3 Similar statuesadornedmostof the early eighteenth century London theatres. For
Drury Lane at an earlier period see Hogarth's print, A Just View of the British Stage.

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Proscenium entrances and balconies.

[To face f>. 177.

Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage 177

Drury Lane in 1779, followed the lead of Buckingham and
Fielding, in staging portions of the second and third acts on
the apron with the curtain down.

At what exact period spectators were first allowed to sit
in the proscenium balconies it would be difficult to say.
Writing of earlier times in the Memoirs of his Own Ltfe
(1790), Tate Wilkinson says :

Whenever a Don Choleric in The Fop's Fortune^ or Sir Amorous
Vainwit in A Woman 5 a Riddle^ or Charles in The Busybody^ tried
to find out secrets, or plot an escape from a balcony, they always
bowed and thrust themselves into the boxes over the stage door,
amidst the company, who were greatly disturbed, and obliged to
give up their seats.

Some reason exists to believe that the custom of specta-
tors sitting in the proscenium balconies originated almost
at the very outset. In D'Avenant's ballad epilogue to The
Mans the Master^ as acted at the Duke's in March, 1668,
we read :

Nay, often, you swear, when places are shewn ye

That your hearing is thick

And so by a love-trick,

You pass through our scenes up to the balcony.

Lowe ^ assumes that the balcony here referred to was
simply the boxes in the auditorium, but the whole passage,
and especially the allusion to assumed deafness, seems to
indicate that the proscenium balcony was in the writer's
mind. The problem could be readily solved if one could
determine the position of " the side balcone over against
the musique room " to which Pepys made unwilling resort
at the same house on November 7, 1667. That the custom
of spectators sitting in the proscenium balconies was prac-
tised throughout the greater part of the eighteenth century
old theatrical prints clearly show.^ At one theatre at least the

^ op. cit. p. 21-2.

2 See the frontispiece to the third edition (only) oi Harlequin Horace (1735) already
referred to ; also the broadside "Fitzgiggo", showing a view of Covent Garden stage in
1763 (reproduced in Mr. Henry Saxe Wyndham's Annals of Covent Garden Theatre,
i. 154).

lyS Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage

price of admission there was duly advertised. At Good-
man's Fields in 1 734 the cost was ^yq, shillings, or a shilling
more than to the boxes.

Acting at this period still remained a rhetorical art. Not-
withstanding the long habituation to pictorial backgrounds
little progress had been made towards scenic illusion or stage
realism. Not only were spectators allowed to sit in stage boxes
and proscenium balconies, but they also occupied benches
running on the sides of the stage from the orchestra half-
way to the back scene, and railed in with heavy balustrades,
or draped enclosures.^ Owing to the frequency of disturb-
ances behind the the scenes it was decreed in 1721 that a
guard of soldiers should be sent nightly to the principal
theatres, and from this period onwards for half a century two
grenadiers kept watch and ward at each performance beside
the proscenium doors. We find a reference to their presence
in the first number of The Centinel^ a weekly Journal, pub-
lished in London on January 6, 1757 :

The Centinel has likewise engaged in his service those tall gen-
tlemen of the cloth, who at our theatres appear upon the stage in
clean spatter-dashes, nodding-caps and burnished arms, seeming to
support the wooden ornaments of the Proscenium, and adding a
terrific grandeur to the drama. They are instructed to superintend
the representation with a critical eye; to make a faithful report of
the excellencies and demerits of each performer ; &c., &c.

In Dublin, where the proscenium doors had been a
regular stage feature from late in the seventeenth century,^
the custom of having a military guard in front was soon
followed. In connection with her engagement at the Smock
Alley Theatre in 1 746-7, Mrs. Bellamy writes :

Mr. Sheridan, in consequence of the insult I had received from
Mr. St. Leger, as before related, and on account of the inconveni-
ences arising from the custom, had given a general order at the

* See the reproduction of Hogarth's painting of "The Beggar's Opera" in The
Magazine of Art for August, 1895, p. 386 (article on "Stage Scenery in the Eighteenth
Century").

' In Charles Shadwell's The Hasty Weddings ii. 4, as acted at Smock Alley c. 171 8
and first printed in Shadwell's collected works in 1720, wc have the direction, "Exit,
Enter, at the other door, Herriot."

Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage 179

doors of the theatre, and notice in all the public papers, that no
gentleman was, on any account, to be admitted behind the scenes.
It happened one night, just as I was so far recovered as to venture
to the house, but not to perform ; that an officer who had more
wine in his head than humanity in his heart, insisted on passing
the centry placed at the [proscenium] stage-door. The poor fellow
persisting in his refusal of admittance, the officer drew his sword
and stabbed him in the thigh, with so much violence that the
weapon broke, and left a piece in the most dangerous part. Hear-
ing a riot on the stage, I ran from the box in which I sat, and flew
in my fright to the next centinel for protection. This happening
to be the man who had been wounded, I found myself in a moment
encompassed by numbers, and was obliged to be a witness to the
broken steel being taken out.^

Ireland by no means formed the western limit of the
travels of the proscenium doors and balconies. By 1767 the
conventional disposition had been adopted in New York, to
remain in vogue in all the leading American theatres for
half a century. ^

After the abolition of the custom of spectators sitting on
the stage managers sought to make up for their consequent
loss of revenue by increasing the number of stage boxes.
Eventually the tendency in this direction operated against
the preservation of the proscenium doors. In a rare engrav-
ing of the Screen scene in 'T^he School for Scandal^ issued in
October, 1778, showing the stage front of Drury Lane, one
notes no fewer than twelve stage boxes on the two sides in
four vertical rows. Probably only eight of these were for
actual use, as the uppermost pair on either side are shown
empty, and were doubtless added to be in harmony with the
general architectural scheme of the auditorium. Beyond the
stage boxes were the two entering doors with their small
balconies, and finally, in the distance, the proscenium arch.^

^ An Apology for the Life of George Anne Bellamy (Dublin, 1785), i. 94.

2 A quaint old view of the primitive John Street Theatre, New York, c. 1767,
shows the doors and balconies but gives no indication of the apron. For the doors at
Philadelphia in 181 1, see Dunlap's Memoirs of Geo. Fredk. Cooke^ ii. 286.

^ For an exemplar of the engraving (the only one I know of), see the Grangerised
copy of George Daniel's Garrick ir. tbc Green Room (1829), in the British Museum (press-
mark "1871 b").

i8o Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage

As acting still took place well to the front, the players were
flanked on both sides by tiers of spectators. Liberal as this
supply of stage boxes at old Drury now appears, it apparently
did not suffice to meet the demands ; in September, 1780,
the entering doors were taken away and extra boxes put in
their place. ^ We know that these doors were subsequently
restored, in deference probably to the wishes of the tradition-
ridden players, but the exact period ofrestoration is difficult
to determine. The only definite evidence that can be un-
earthed points to the year 1794, but two items of no great
cogency suggest a much earlier date. Boaden in writing,
longo intervallo^ of Mrs. Siddons's acting as Jane Shore at
Drury Lane in 1782, apparently from personal recollec-
tions, says :

There was in my early days such a permanent property as a
stage-door in our theatres, and the proscenium beyond it; so that
when Shore was pushed from the door, she was turned round and
staggered till supported by the firm projection behind her. Here
was a terrific picture full in the eye of the pit, and this most pic-
turesqe of women knew the amazing value of it.^

It may be, of course, that in writing a quarter of a century
after the event, Boaden fell a victim to a confused memory.
On the other hand there is some slender evidence to hand
which tends to prove the accuracy of his statement. In a
collection of Drury Lane ana preserved in an old scrapbook
in the British Museum is a cutting ^ dated "1785", without
mention of the source, which runs :

We wish to point out to the managers of old Drury a little
circumstance to which we hope they will pay immediate and strict
attention. We mean the eternal jar of the stage-doors. The ladies
of this Theatre are most of them, we must confess, very pretty
women, and well frized, well feathered, well-rouged, and well-
dressed ; we never see them without pleasure. We should be happy
therefore to be spared the mortification of such unseasonable peeps

1 See the account of the opening of Drury Lane for the season in Walker' % Hiber-
nian Magazine for October, 1780.

2 Memoirs of Mrs. Siddons (1827), Chap. x.

3 Copied by me some years ago. Unfortunately I omitted to note the press-mark
of the volume.

Proscenium Doors : an Elizabethan Heritage 1 8 1

at the dear creatures in their dishabille, with their unpowdered
locks about their ears, or tucked under a black bonnet, and their
sweet persons disguised in long cloaks, and loose-bodied coats. ^

Whether or not the doors at old Drury were soon re-
stored, one notes that in September, 1782, Covent Garden
made a faint attempt to follow the lead given. Extra boxes
were placed on the stage and the entering doors removed
behind the curtain. ^ Boaden explains why the alteration
created general discontent among the players :

I well remember the effect of its additional boxes in the situa-
tion of the old stage doors, and that these essential things in the
new structure were behind the curtain. The actors seemed to feel
embarrassed by the more extended area of the stage. There was
no springing off with the established glance at the pit and projected
right arm. The actor was obliged to edge away in his retreat to-
wards the far distant wings with somewhat of the tedium, but not
all the awkwardness, which is observed in the exits at the Italian
Opera. ^

The result was that, when Covent Garden was recon-
structed in 1792, the stage was provided with a deeper
apron, the extra boxes were removed, and the doors brought
back to their old position. That is to say, they were en-
sconced between the Corinthian pilasters and columns of
the proscenium, and adorned attractively with white and
gold. Boaden's contemptuous reference to the Italian Opera
is amusing, seeing that the absence of proscenium doors and
cumbersome stage boxes at the King's Theatre in the Hay-
market had led there to a forestalment of the latter-day
triumphs of scenic illusion. In a notice^ of the Don Giovanni
of Mozart at that house in 1 8 1 7, we read :

We have never seen upon any stage so perfect an exhibition ot
moonlight as that at the King's Theatre in the new opera of Don

^ It was customary for players and others in those days to linger (and sometimes
sit) behind the proscenium doors. See an anecdote of Tom King in Dublin in 1794 in
Michael Kelly's Reminiscences (1826, second edition), ii. 49.

2 Walker's Hibernian Magazine {OctoheVf 1782), p. 508.

^ op. cit. Chap. viii.

* Quoted from some London paper, unspecified, in Tbe Freeman's Journal of Dublin
for April 23, 1 8 1 7. The King's Theatre was built in 1 790 from designs by Novosielski.

1 82 Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage

Juan ; it is produced also by the simplest means. The blue trans-
parent veil through which the light falls on the statue is a perfect
imitation of nature ; and we see in this instance how preferable for
dramatic effect is the form of stage in the front of which there is
no projection, either by side wings, doors, pillars, or picture frames.
Here the scene and the hall (i.e. the part allotted to spectators) run
into one another, without a break or interruption — and the spec-
tators actually sit in the moonlight, so perfect is the illusion.

For some considerable time before this the Italian opera-
houses had been enabled to give a series of object-lessons in
scenic realism to the London theatres owing to their freedom
from the conventional doors. Foreign singers, accustomed
to enter by the wing, set their faces resolutely against all
attempts to introduce the English principle. A view of the
Pantheon, published in 1 8 1 5 by Robert Wilkinson, shows
the opera house as it was after its reconstruction four years
previously on the model of the great theatre at Milan. The
position within the proscenium arch on either side, normally
occupied at the patent theatres by the entering doors and
balconies, was filled up from the boards to the proscenium
border with boxes, eight in all, in vertical sets of four.
Although a capacious apron, flanked by other rows of boxes,
was provided the singers were prevented from coming out
beyond the proscenium by a series of formidable footlights
ranged in line with the front pilasters.

If the entering doors were restored to their old position
at Drury Lane about 178 1, it is curious to find, when the
house was rebuilt in 1793, that the extra stage boxes still
held their pride of place and that no entering doors were
to be seen. One would be inclined to think fi-om this that
they had never been replaced. At best the whole story of the
choppings and changings at this house reveal woeful inde-
cision on the part of its proprietors. In September, 1797,
the doors were once more restored to their old position.
Concerning the alteration we read in The Monthly Mirror :

There is a stage door on each side, forming a segment of a circle,
and over these doors are two tiers of boxes. The effect of this addi-
tion is a contraction of the width of the stage, and an additional

Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage 183

space behind the scenes, which gives more facility to the move-
ment of the scenery. ^

The difficulty experienced from this onward in insti-
tuting a wholesale reform was due to the fact that the
London stage of the early nineteenth century was mostly
recruited from the ranks of country players, and that in the
country the convention of the proscenium doors died ex-
ceedingly hard. Players, as a rule, are more concerned for
the effect of their own individual acting than for the general
artistic result, and they fight stubbornly for anything that
panders to their own selfish instincts. It is this attitude that
still preserves the footlights in spite of the century-long
clamouring of the reformers.

Owing to the prolonged employment of the proscenium
doors England had failed to keep step with other nations
in the steady march towards scenic realism. This point was
soundly driven home by an acute observer in 1 807 :

In England there is hardly ever a central door contrived in the
flat which closes the scene. Whatever be the performance, and
whosoever be the personages, they either all walk in and out at the
permanent doors, which form part of the proscenium, or they slide
in and out between the intervals of the wings, which are generally
intended to represent a solid cohering wall ; so that, were the laws
of perspective so sufficiently attended to in the painting of the
scenes, and they were made, as they should be made, to look like
an uninterrupted mass of masonry, the entrance and exit of each
personage through the solid wall would every time appear to be
effected by downright witchcraft.^

In France at this period, the writer goes on to say, things
were differently ordered. If a room were represented it
bore the normal aspect of a room and had appropriate fold-
ing doors. Or, if the business of the scene required that the
room should lead into several others, then two or three

• In a view of Drury Lane in May, iSoo, preserved in Smith's Compiled History
of the English Stage, Vol. xvii (in the British Museum), showing George III standing in
the left hand stage box after being shot at by Hatfield, a proscenium door on that side
of the modest apron is clearly indicated. For interior views of Drury Lane, Covent
Garden and the Haymarket in 1808, see Thomas Gilliland's Tbe Dramatic Mirror^
Vol. I. All three show the doors.

- Cited by Dutton Cook in On the StagCj i. 190, without mention of the source.

184 Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage

doors were provided. Illusion by this means was heightened,
and the story of the play made more comprehensible, " not
to speak of the infinitely more striking effect which is pro-
duced by a performer of commanding mien, invested with
a dignified character, entering the scene in the centre, and,
from his very first appearance, presenting himself in front
to the spectators, instead of being obliged to slide edge-
ways on and oiFthe boards through an interstice in the side
scenes."

Reform in this direction was snail-paced; it was not until
the period of the Bancroft management at the Prince of
Wales' Theatre sixty years later that anything material was
effected.^ But in 1 8 1 2 Drury Lane again essayed to pioneer
the way. When the house was rebuilt after the disastrous
fire, several improvements, suggested by Samuel Whit-
bread, the brewer, one of the managing committee, were
carried out. Once more the permanent doors were taken
away. For the old-fashioned proscenium arch was substi-
tuted a gilded picture frame, remote from the footlights,
over which the actors were forbidden to step.^ Grumblings
both loud and deep were heard among the players over their
various deprivations, and finally old Dowton, pluckier than
the rest, broke into open rebellion. "Don't tell me of frames
and pictures ! " he exclaimed, with choler, " if I can't be
heard by the audience in the frame, I'll walk out of it." And
out of it he came. The absurdity, of course, was in pre-
serving a useless apron before the frame. To the removal
of the proscenium doors mordant allusion was made in one
of "The Rejected Addresses ", wherein the ghost of Dr.
Johnson, after rising through a trap, indulges in a disquisi-
tion from which the following is extracted :

Permanent stage doors we have none. That which is permanent
cannot be removed ; for, if removed, it soon ceases to be perma-

1 Cf. Mr. William Archer's The Theatrical World o/'iSg;, pp. 180-1, article on
"The Drama of the Reign."

2 When a similar device was adopted at the Queen's Theatre, Manchester, in
March, 1846, a local journal characterised the innovation "an outrage upon the best
principles of theatrical usage." The proscenium picture frame, with hidden footlights,
was finally established by the Bancrofts at the Haymarket in 1879.

ItRBrRMI.N'S XEW StMJE FUONT or Tiu: TllEATa*: KOYAL . t in EXT C;vMllh:.>

COVENT GARDEN THEATRE, 1821
(Model for a Toy Theatre.)

[7*0 face p. 184.

Proscenium Doom's: an Elizabethan Heritage 185

nent. What stationary absurdity can vie with that h'gneous barri-
cade which, decorated with frappant and tintinnabulant appendages,
now serves as the entrance of the lowly cottage, and now as the
exit of a lady's chamber: at one time insinuating plastic harlequin
into a butcher's shop, and at another yawning as a floodgate, to
precipitate the Cyprians of St. Giles's into the embraces of Macbeth.
To elude this glaring absurdity, to give to each respective mansion
the door which the carpenter would doubtless have given, we vary
our portal with the varying scene, passing from deal to mahogany,
and from mahogany to oak, as the opposite claims of cottage, palace,
or castle may appear to require.

Amid the general hum of gratulation which flatters us in front,
it is fit that some regard should be paid to the murmurs of despon-
dence that assail us in the rear. They, as I have elsewhere expressed
it, "wholive to please," should not have their own pleasures entirely
overlooked. The children of Thespis are general in their censures
of the architect in having placed the locality of exit at such a distance
from the oily radiators which now dazzle the eyes of him whoaddresses
you. I am, cries the Queen of Terrors, robbed of my fair propor-
tions. When the King-killing thane hints to the breathless auditory
the murders he means to perpetrate in the castle of Macduff " ere
my purpose cool," so vast is the interval he has to travel before he
can escape from the stagej that his purpose has even time to freeze.
Your condition cries the Muse of Smiles, is hard, but it is cygnet's
down in comparison with mine. The peerless peer of capers and
congees has laid it down as a rule, that the best good thing uttered
by the morning visitor should conduct him rapidly to the doorway,
last impression vying in durability with first. But when on this
boarded elongation it falls to my lot to say a good thing, to ejacu-
late, "keep moving," or to chaunt, "hie hoc horum genitivo,"
many are the moments that must elapse ere I can hide myself from
public vision in the recesses of O.P. or P.S.

Irritated beyond endurance by the complaints of the
players, the Drury Lane management restored the doors
for the last time in the course of a year or two. As if to
prove they still had their utility, they were pressed effec-
tively into service in an amusing epilogue about an epilogue
spoken after the new comedy o^ Lost Life ^on November 13,
1 82 1. No sooner had the curtain fallen than Mrs. Edwin
and the prompter came on through the P.S. door to wrangle

1 86 Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage

over the lines that should be delivered. In her distress, after
the departure of the prompter, the actress goes to the door
and rings up the curtain. Then the players are discovered
on the stage in confusion. Willing as they are to help, they
finally decree that no epilogue shall be spoken — and, in so
expressing themselves in rhyme, speak it I ^ This, however,
was but an expiring flicker ; within a year the doors were
banished from Drury Lane for ever. When the house re-
opened for the season on October i6, 1822, Terry spoke
an address by George Colman in which incidental reference
was made to the change :

Thus, then : — our Manager, who scouts the fears
Of pulling on old house about his ears,
Has spared of our late edifice's pride.
The outward walls, and little else beside :

Look round and judge ; his efforts are all waste
Unless you stamp them as a work of taste ;
Nor blame him for transporting from the floors
Those old offenders here — the two stage doors ;
Doors which have oft with burnish'd pannels stood
And golden knockers glittering in a wood,
Which on their posts, througii every change remain'd
Fast as Bray's Vicar, whosoever reign'd ;
That served for palace, cottage, street or hall.
Used for each place, and out of place in all ;
Station'd, like watchmen who in lamplight sit.
For all their business of the night unfit. ^

Exactly a year later Covent Garden fell in line. A report
of the re-opening of that house in October, 1823, tells us
"the stage doors have been removed, and superb boxes put
in their places."^ But as yet only half the battle had been
won. Neither in town nor country was the example of
the two great patent theatres immediately followed. ^ Li
1828-30, when the French players occupied the Lyceum

^ Given in externa in The Drama ; or Theatrical Pocket Magai^iine (1821), i. 354.
- The Drama; or Theatrical Pocket Magazine, iii. 228.
^ The Drama f v. 128.

* For a view of the Olympic in 1826, showing the doors, see The Era Almanack
(1891), p. 21. A reform took place there in 1831.

Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage 187

theatre, the doors were still in situ but were hidden during
their tenancy by draperies. ^ It was probably owing to the
contempt with which they were treated by the visitors that
they were removed within the next year or two. Most of the
outlying theatres, however, continued to cling stubbornly
to the outworn convention. In 1853 the doors were actually
restored at the Royal Standard Theatre after a long banish-
ment. ^ In 1 865 they were still in existence at the Surrey at
the period of the fire there. ^ When the house was rebuilt
the apron was again to be seen, but the doors were not re-
placed. So far as the metropolis was concerned, the old
doors lingered longest at Sadlers Wells, where they sur-
vived the theatrical glories of Islington, remaining in situ,
as silent testimonies to a creed outworn, until about the
year 1879. Writing of his juvenile experiences at that
historic house in the early fifties, Clement Scott says :

Two tilings were impressed on my young mind in the arrange-
ment of the theatre soon after Grimaldi had quitted the stage of
life for ever. One was the orthodoxy of the proscenium, as may
be seen from the pictures by George Cruikshank, . . . and the
second was the solemn custom of never playing tragedy at any
theatre save on a green baize carpet. The proscenium was to all
intents a little house, and it was fascinating to a child to see on
either side of the stage proper a little green door with brass knockers
and handles, and over each door a window with lace curtains
and a balcony with flovi^er pots on it. These proscenium doors
were never used, except occasionally in pantomime for the pur-
poses of the play ; but no one dreamed of taking a call or of coming
on to make a managerial speech except through these little doors,
a survival, no doubt, of the Theatre of the Greeks, as you will see
in Donaldson's remarkable book.^

' Cf. Austin Brereton's The Lyceum and Henry Ir'ving (1903), p. 53, for a view of the
Lyceum at this period. Above the draperies are to be seen the proscenium boxes shown
above the doors in the cut of the Lyceum in 1817, given at p. 42.

2 Cf. The Theatrical Journal^ xiv. No. 712, p. 238.

* See the view of the theatre on fire in VoL i of W. C. Streatfeild's Theatrical
Notices from Newspapers, in the British Museum (press-mark "314 b").

* English Illustrated Magazine (Christmas, 1898), p. 271, article on "The King of
Clownland". For the reference to Donaldson, see The Theatre of the Greeks (eighth edition,
1875), p. 262 et seq. But the suggested origin (as applied to the Elizabethan doors)
would be difficult to prove.

1 88 Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage

One may be pardoned here for going off at a tangent to
discuss an interesting point suggested by the above extract,
a point too trivial to admit of separate consideration. It
would appear that the custom of covering the stage with
a green cloth when a tragedy was to be performed was of
some little antiquity. (Tragedy and it, by the way, died
together fifty years ago). In Garrick's epilogue to Home*s
tragedy, Alfred^ as spoken at Covent Garden by Mrs. Barry
in 1778, we read :

If this green cloth could speak, would it not tell,

Upon its well-worn nap how oft I fell ?

To death in various forms deliver'd up

Steel kills me one night, and the next the cup.

Some slight evidence exists to show that even when these
lines were spoken the custom was old. In a slipshod trans-
lation of Sorbieres' " Relation d'un voyage en Angleterre
ou sont touchees plusieurs choses qui regardent Festat
des sciences et de la religion et autres matieres curieuses ",^
issued in London in 1 709, under title A Voyage to England^
we find, at p. 69, the following passage :

The Playhouse is much more Diverting and Commodious : the
best places are in the Pit, where Men and Women promiscuously
sit, every Body with their Company. The Stage is very handsome,
being covered with green cloth, and the Scenes often change, and
you are regaled with new Perspectives.

In this last sentence are both an omission and a mistrans-
lation. Insert the one and you prove the other. What
Sorbieres wrote ^ was : "Le Theatre est fort beau, couvert
d'un Tapis verd, et en scene y est toute libre, avec beaucoup
de changemens, et des perspectives." The word "theatre "
here refers to the auditorium, not to the stage, which was
free (not encumbered, as in Paris, with spectators) ; and
it was the benches of the pit that were "couvert d'un Tapis
verd." But the fact that the translator made a palpable mis-
reading proves that the custom of placing a green cloth
on the stage for tragedies was known early in the reign of

' Paris, 1664. 2 p. 166.

Proscenium Doors: an Elizabethan Heritage 189

Queen Anne. What Sorbieres meant to convey is indicated
in the following passage from the Journal des Voyages de
Monsieur de Monconys^ describing a visit paid to the Theatre
Royal in Bridges Street on May 22, 1663 :

L' apres-dinde nous fusmes chez le Milord de S. Alban, et de la
h. la Comedie dans la loge du Roy. Le Theatre est le plus propre
et le plus beau que j'aye Jamais veu, tout tapiss^ par le has de
bayette verte; aussi bien que toutes les loges qui en sont tapisste
avec des bandes de cuir dore. Tous le bancs du parterre ou toutes les
personnes de condition se mettent aussi, sont rangez en amphithea-
tre, les uns plus hauts que les autres.

It needs to be said that this demonstration of the trans-
lator's mistake is made "without prejudice'*. The custom
of placing a green cloth on the stage for tragedies may have
existed in Restoration days. We have no record of it earlier.

Returning to our main theqje one may say, in concluding,
that the "last scene of all " ending our " strange, eventful
history " is laid in what is quaintly known in theatrical
argot as "the provinces." Driven from London, the con-
vention of the proscenium entering doors made its last stand
in the country playhouses, and was "an unconscionable long
time a-dying." Here and there in the backwaters of life
some memorials of its former rule remain. No need, how-
ever, to depart from the main stream in seeking for examples.
Down to the period when it ceased to be used for dramatic
purposes, or about six years ago, the old Adelphi in Liver-
pool continued to preserve its time-honoured proscenium
doors, with their over-hanging balconies traditionally
arrayed in white lace curtains. The theatre is now used
for cinematograph exhibitions, but the stage is untouched
and the doors still remain.

^ Lyon, 1666, Part ii, p. 25.

Did Thomas Shadwell write an Opera on
" The Tempest " ?

Did Thomas Shadwell write an Opera on
"The Tempest " ?

The sole authority for the ascription of an opera on ne
Tempest to Thomas Shadwell is the Roscius Anglicanus of
John Downes, a rambling stage record published in 1708,
when the quondam prompter who penned it was in the
decline of his years and his intellect. Having little or no
documentary evidence to rely upon, and fully conscious
of the defectiveness of his memory, Downes takes shelter
behind the hope that "he is not very erroneous in his
relation." In the face of this warning, and owing to the
difficulty of obtaining testing data, later historians have
taken his statements largely on trust, and thereby perpetu-
ated many a falsity. It cannot be too strongly emphasised
that through slovenliness of arrangement the Roscius
Anglicanus is positively honeycombed with error. It is
the perspective of the thing that is wholly wrong. In other
words, the events related mostly took place, but seldom in
the sequence indicated. It is the old story of a senile
memory with nothing to check its vagaries. One takes it
that Downes is least likely to have erred in dealing with
matters which came directly under his own notice, when he
was prompter at the old Duke's theatre in Dorset Gardens.
In accordance with that view, the present inquiry has been
undertaken with the hope of demonstrating the accuracy
of his statement concerning Shadwell's provision of an
operatic version ofTbe Tempest for that house, and of arriv-
ing at some approximation to the date of its production.
The discussion is not profitless, for one cannot solve the
problem without clearing up on the way one or two minor
mysteries of Post-Restoration stage history.

When we come at the outset to look for explicit corrobo-
ration of Downes' statement all historical resources fail.
No version ofTbe Tempest, bearing Shadwell's name on the

194 ^^^ Thomas Shadwell write

title-page, was ever printed. Winstanley, in dealing with
his friend's career in his Lives of the Famous English Poets
(1687), is careful to mention his Psyche^ although it was
little better than a bald translation, but is silent regarding
The Tempest. A few years later Langbaine and Gildon,
in similar works, are equally ill-informed. One says ill-
informed advisedly, because the silence of all three on the
point indicates, not the possible blundering of Downes, but
that the secret of Shadwell's association with the opera had,
for some reason, been carefully preserved.

Let us now minutely consider what Downes says on the
subject. Treating of what appears to have been the original
production of Aphra Behn's maiden effort. The Forced
Marriage ; or The Jealous Bridegroom^ he implies that the
play was brought out at Dorset Gardens in 1672. We are
directly informed that it held its place in the bills for six
nights, and that in it Otway, as the King, made his first and
last appearance on the stage, his failure being so pronounced
that he abandoned all hope of following acting as a profes-
sion. Continuing, Downes writes :

The year after, in 1673, The Tempest^ or the Inchanted Island^
made into an opera by Mr. Shadwell, having all new in it ; as
Scenes, Machines ; particularly one Scene painted with myriads
of Ariel (sic) Spirits ; ^ and another flying away, with a Table
Furnisht out with Fruits, Sweetmeats and all sorts of Viands ; just
when Duke Trinculo and his companions were going to Dinner ;
all was things perform'd in it so admirably well, that not any suc-
ceeding opera got more money.

Now, to begin with, unless Downes is referring to a
revival of Mrs. Behn's tragi-comedy, which is extremely
unlikely, his implied date for The Forced Marriage is wrong.
Not only that, but he has assigned the production to a wrong

* At this period, and for half a century later, it was customary, in scenes of a silent
multitude, to paint the figures on the canvas, and not to bring on a host of supernumera-
ries. This was the cheaper, but hardly the more illusive method. For a later example,
see Chetwood's General History of the Stage (London, 1749), p. 154. The custom had
been introduced by D'Avenant in his Commonwealth operas and was doubtless derived
from the French stage. Cf. La Mortde Cyrus, tragi-comedy of M. Rozidor (1659). Also
Eugene Rigal, Le Theatre Frangais avant la Periode Classique, p. 255 (reference to the
tragedy oi La Pucelle d' Orleans c. 1642).

An Opera on ^^The I'empest'' ? 195

theatre. It Is necessary to recall that the Duke's Theatre in
Dorset Gardens, as first opened on November 9, 1 67 1 , suc-
ceeded to the title of an earlier theatre in Lincoln's Inn
Fields. It was certainly at the latter house that The Forced
MarriagewRs produced, and the period must have been about
the close of the year 1670, for the play was printed in Jan-
uary or February, 1 67 1, "as acted at the Duke's Theatre".^
In the cast of characters prefixed, the name of Westwood is
placed opposite the King. If Otwaythe poet made his d^but
as an actor in the original production of the play and never
appeared afterwards, then Westwood cannot be taken as his
nom de guerre^ for West wood's name crops up again in the
cast of Crowne's Juliana^ a tragi-comedy acted at Lincoln's
Inn Fields in the summer of 167 1. From what Downes says
it seems probable that Otway broke down during the first
performance o^'Tbe Forced MarriageyZndm that case he may
have been at once succeeded by Westwood in the part of the
King. 2

Here one must cry a halt to discuss the earlier stage
history of Tbe 'Tempest. By a curious regulation, made in
December, i66c, D'Avenant's company — the company
which afterwards occupied the two Duke's theatres in suc-
cession— were given the monopoly of nine of Shakespeare's
plays, The Tempest among the number. ^ The result was
most injurious to the poet. After long delay, a brutally
augmented version oiThe Tempest^thc work of Dryden and
D'Avenant, was brought out, as a comedy, at the Duke's
in Lincoln's Inn Fields on November 7, 1 667. In this pain-
ful, long-lived sophistication Miranda was provided with a
sister, Dorinda, and, by way of balancing the sexual equili-
brium, a youth, Hypolito, was introduced, who had never
seen a woman. It is generally, perhaps justly, considered

^ It is announced in the Term Catalogue issued on Feb. 13, 1671.

* Most authorities render confusion worse confounded in dealing with this matter.
The Diet. Nat. Biog.y sub nomine "Otway", bases on Downes and manipulates the facts
accordingly. Cf. Mr. Edmund Gosse's Se'venteenth Century Studies, p. 273, where we are
told, after some discussion of Downes' blunder, that Otway went to Christ Church in
1669, appeared at Lincoln's Inn Fields in the Long Vacation of 167 i, and returned to
Oxford, where he remained till 1674.

3 Cf. R. W. Lowe's Thomas Bcticrton, p. 75.

196 Did 'Thomas Shadwell write

that the discredit of these additions must mainly fall upon
Sir William D'Avenant. Be that as it may, the play, after
his death, remained the property of his widow, who, in
conjunction with her son, at once assumed control of the
Duke's Theatre. As first printed in quarto (Quarto i) by
Henry Herringman early in 1670, this maltreatment of
The Tempest had a signed preface by Dryden, written in
1669. Now comes the important point. In 1674 the same
publisher issued a piece entitled " The Tempest^ or The
Enchanted Island^ a Comedy, as it is now acted at his
Highness the Duke of York's Theatre " (Quarto 2). ^
It will be remarked that nothing is here said as to the
authorship, but seeing that the quarto not only in-
cludes Dryden's earlier preface but the prologue and
epilogue of 1667 as well, the unwary student is apt to
jump to the conclusion that the whole is merely a reprint, or
corrected impression, oftheDryden-D'Avenant play. Into
the trap thus laid by a stupid publisher all the editors of
Dryden and of D'Avenant carelessly fell. ^ It never dawned
upon them (what remains to be demonstrated) that in
Quarto 2 they had the book of Shadwell's opera. It is far
from easy to divine why Herringman should have re-
printed the old preface and rhymed addresses where they
had absolutely no relevancy. The senselessness of this course
is all the more remarkable from the fact that the opera, as will
shortly be seen, had a special prologue and epilogue of its
own. It may be, however, there was method (of a kind) in
Herringman's madness, for he had previously been guilty
of at least one act of similar stupidity. When he reprinted
The Siege of Rhodes in 1659, immediately after its revival at
the Cockpit theatre, he reproduced D'Avenant's original

* Announced in the Term Catalogue of Nov. 25, 1674.

2 Scott, in editing Dryden's Dramatic Works in 1808, gave the text of Quarto 2
as that of the Dryden-D'Avenant comedy. Cf. Furness, Variorum Shakespeare^ ix, pp.
389 ff., where the error is repeated. Credit is due to Prof. Saintsbury for having
been the first to draw attention to the discrepancies between the two quartos. (See his
recension of Scott's Dryden^ 1883, iii. 104). Unfortunately, instead of recognising that
they represent two different versions of the altered play, the one a comedy and the other
an opera, he assumes Quarto 2 to be a mere corrected copy of Quarto i, and takes great
pains to indicate the variations in his footnotes. In connection with Dryden this is
labour wholly mis-spent.

An Opera on ^^The Tempest'' ? 197

preface of 1656, with all its inapposite references to the
restricted space of" the room " in Rutland House, where
the opera had been first performed.

Next to the reprinting in Quarto 2 of the Dryden preface,
prologue and epilogue of Quarto i, the one thing that has
long obscured the truth concerning Quarto 2 is the descrip-
tion, " a Comedy ", on the title-page. This, too, helped to
lead up to the erroneous conclusion arrived at by the various
editors of Dryden and D'Avenant. But as evidence it really
is of no value. Downes refers to the D'Avenant M^c^^/^ and
to Circe as operas, although in the quartos of both they are
styled tragedies. It may be that the mis-description of
The Tempest was Downes's and that Shadwell's version was
not actually announced as an opera. The piece does not
come fully within the meaning of the term as interpreted by
Dryden. " An opera^'' he writes, " is a Poetical Tale, or
Fiction, represented by Vocal and Instrumental Musick,
adorned with Scenes, Machines, and Dancing." Elsewhere,
in the same essay, he points out that the story in an opera
must be wholly sung, and shows that he looked upon the
Shadwell 7l?w/>d?j/as a comedy "mixed with operator ?i Drama
written in Blank verse, adorned with Scenes, Machines,
Songs, and Dances." ^ Downes, who was not given to nice
distinctions, calls the Shadwell Tempest an opera because it
had pronounced operatic features. New instrumental music
had been provided by Matthew Lock, particularly the First,
Second and Third Music (the third distinctively known as
the " Curtain Tune "), which, after the Restoration custom,
preceded the rising of the curtain, no matter what the nature
of the performance.^ Some ofthe vocal music to the genuine
Shakespearean songs was old, written, it would appear,
by Banister and Pelham Humphreys for the Dryden-
D'Avenant comedy of 1667 ; but some new vocal music

' Preface to Albion and Albanius (1685). North, in his Memoirs o/MusiCf calls the
ornate musical productions ofthe period "semi-operas".

' A selection of Lock's Tempest music was published in 1675, together with his
music for Psyche. Cf. Quart. Mag. ofthe International Society of Music, Year v, Part iv.
1904, p. 552, article by Mr. W. Barclay Squire on "Purcell's Dramatic Music", wherein
the matter is fully discussed.

198 Did Tihomas Shadwell write

Vv^as also provided by Pietro Reggio and J. Hart. Apart,
however, from these extrinsic items of evidence, the
operatic nature of the piece is indicated by the prelimi-
nary description in Quarto 2 :

The front of the stage is opened and the Band of 24 violins with
the Harpsicals and Theorbos, which accompany the voices, are
placed between the Pit and the Stage. ^ While the Overture ^ is
playing the Curtain rises, and discovers a new Frontispiece, joyn'd
to the great Pylasters, on each side of the Stage. This frontispiece
is a noble Arch, supported by large wreathed columns of the Corin-
thian Order ; the wreathings of the columns are beautified with
Roses round them, and several Cupids flying about them. On the
Cornice, just over the Capitals, sits on either side a Figure, vf'xth
a Trumpet in one hand, and a Palm in the other, representing
Fame. A little farther on the same Cornice, on each side of a Com-
pass-pediment, lie a Lion and a Unicorn, on each side of a Royal
Arms of England. In the middle of the Arch are several Angels
holding the King's Arms, as if they were placing them in the midst
of that Compass-pediment. Behind this is the Scene, which repre-
sents a thick. Cloudy sky, and very Rocky Coast, and a Tempes-
tuous Sea in perpetual agitation.

Here, at the outset, we have proof, partly in the increased
orchestra and partly in the provision of a special frontis-
piece, or secondary proscenium, of the operatic nature of
the production. All the operas of the latter half of the
seventeenth century, from The Siege of Rhodes to Albion and
Alhanius were adorned with these individual proscenia. As an
interesting side issue, it may be noted that the main charac-
teristics of the frontispiece to 'The TV^/^/^d-j/ suggest that Shad-
well's version was prepared by command of Charles 11 and
enjoyed his patronage. Confirmation of this is lent by the

1 Malone, Collier and Karl Elze have all gravely confused the issue by attributing
this description to Quarto i, in which, of course, it has no place. Their conclusion that
it affords positive proof that the musicians had begun to occupy what wc now consider
their normal position, c. 1667, must fall to the ground. Note we have here mention
of 24 violins ; the ordinary theatre band of the period had only twelve.

2 For the music of Lock's "Curtain Tune for The Tempest", see Stafford Smith's
Musica Antiquay i. 68, where also a Lilk from the same piece is given. Cf. The Oxford
History of Music, iii. 288, where the term "curtain tune" is misinterpreted. It was
never applied to inter-act music.

An Opera on ^^The Tempest''? 199

fact (shortly to be demonstrated) that the men and boys of
the Chapel Royal were allowed to sing in the production.

Based on the Dryden-D'Avenant comedy of 1667, and
comprising all its features, Shadwell's opera has several
distinguishing characteristics. As these have been fully
noted by Prof. Saintsbury, ^ one finds no need to discuss
them in detail now. It will suffice to say that the main
differentiation of the operatic version lies in the terminal
Masque of Neptune and Amphitrite, But it is vital for us
to note that in Act ii. 4 of Quarto 2 occurs a new song,
"Arise ye subterranean winds," the music for which was
published in 1680, in Part ii. of Pietro Reggio's Songs,
under title " A Song in the Tempest. The Words by Mr.
Shadwell." Here we have ample corroboration of Downes'
statement regarding the authorship, as well as proof that
Quarto 2 represents the book of Shadwell's opera. Other
proof is afforded by the book itself. Downes' reference to
the "scene painted with myriads of Ariel spirits" tallies with
the description at the end of the fifth act, where the " Scene
changes to the Rising Sun, and a number of Aerial Spirits in
the air, Ariel flying from the sun advances towards the pit."
Downes' other reference to the " flying away, with a Table
Furnisht with Fruits, Sweetmeats and all sorts of Viands,"
deals with the incidents in Act iii. 3 : "Dance of fantastick
Spirits, after the dance, a Table furnish'd with Meat and

Fruits is brought in by two Spirits Two Spirits

descend and flie away with the Table."

Our next task is to determine the period when the opera
was produced. An important clue is afforded by an unpub-
lished "Prologue and Epilogue to the Tempest "preserved
in the Egerton MSS. in the British Museum. ^ These two
addresses, now reproduced, were undoubtedly written by
Shadwell for his own opera. They are marked by that
"shambling doggerel," to quote Prof. Saintsbury, for which
the nascent poet laureate was noted :

* Vide iupra p. 196 note 2. ^ jyjo. 2,623.

^oo Did Thomas Shadwell write

Prologue

Wee, as the fFathers of the stage have said,

To treat you here, a vast expense have made ;

What they have gott from you in chests is laid.

Or is for purchas'd Lands, or houses paid.

You, in this house, all our estate may find,

Wch for your pleasures wholly are designed.

'Twas foolish, for we might, we must confesse.

Value ourselves much more, and you much lesse ;

And like those reverend men, we might have sparM

And never for our Benefactors car'd : lO

Still made your Treatment, as they do, more Coarse,

As if you did, as fast as they, grow worse :

But we young men, are apt to slight advice.

One day, we may decrepid grow and wise :

Then, hoping not to time to get much more,

We'll Save our money, and cry out wee'r poore.

Wee're young, and look yet many yeares to live.

And by your future Bounty hope to thrive ;

Then let us laugh, for now no cost wee'l spare

And never think we're poor, while we your favours share, 20

Without the good old Playes we did advance.

And all ye stages ornament enhance ;

To splendid things they follow in, but late :

They ne're invent, but they can imitate :

Had we not, for yr. pleasure found new wayes

You still had rusty arras had, and thred-bare playes;

Nor scenes nor Woomen, had they had their will.

But some some with grizl'd Beards had acted Woomen still. ^

Some restive horses, spight of Switch and spurre.

Till others strain against 'em, will not stir. 30

Envying our Splendid house, and prosp'rous playes,

They scofFat us, and Libell the high wayes.

Tis fitt we, for our faults, rebukes shou'd meet.

The Citty ought to mend those of ye street.

With the best poets' heads our house we grac'd

Wch we in honour to ye Poets plac'd.^

^ Equal to claiming that Sir William D'Avenant had first introduced actresses and
scenery on the English Stage.

2 Cf. Tom D'Urfey's Collin s Walk Through London (1690), Canto iv, where the
peripatetic, on visiting Dorset Gardens,

An Opera on ^^The 'Tempest? 20i

Too much of the old witt They have, tis true:
But they must look for little of ye new.

Epilogue

When feeble Lovers' appetites decay

They, to provoke, and keep themselves in play.

Must, to their Cost, make ye gay Damsells shine ;

If Beauty can't provoke, they'l do't by being fine ;

That pow'rfull charme, vv^ch cannot be withstood.

Puts ofFe bad faces, and adornes ye good.

Oft an embroider'd Damsel have we seen '\

Ugly as Bawd, and finer than a Queen, >■

Who by that splendor has victorious been. j

She, whose weake Eyes had nere one Victory gott lO

May conquer with a flaming petticoat ;

Witt is a Mistresse you have long enjoy'd.

Her beauty's not impair'd but you are cloy'd !

And Since 'tis not Witt's fault that you decay.

You, for yo^ want of appetite must pay.

You to provoke yo^ Selves must keep her fine,

And she must now at double charges shine. ^

Old Sinners thus

When they feel Age and Impotence approach,

Double the charge of furniture and Coach ; 20

When you of witt and sence were weary growne,

Romantick, riming, fustian Playes were showne,

We then to flying Witches did advance,^

And for your pleasures traflSc'd into ffrance.

From thence new acts to please you, we have sought "j

We have machines to some perfection brought, >-

And above 30 Warbling voyces gott.^ )

** . . . saw each box with beauty crown'd
And pictures deck the structure round,
Ben, Shakespear, and the learned rout.
With noses some and some without."

These portraits remained in situ until the demolition of the theatre in 1 709.

^ Prices of admission were advanced during the run of new operas, owing to the
expense of mounting. Duffet girds at the practice in the prologue to his Psyche Debauched
(1678).

^ Referring to a revival of the D'Avenant Macbeth at Dorset Gardens early in 1 673.

' Mostly the boys and men of the Chapel Royal. Vide postea p. 203.

202 Did Thomas Shadwell write

Many a God and Goddesse you will heare "j

And we have Singing, Dancing, Devils here >-

Such Devils, and such gods, are very Deare.^ ) 30

We, in all ornaments, are lavish growne,

And like Improvident Damsells of ye Towne,

For present bravery, all your wealth lay downe,

As if our keepers ever wou'd be kind, '\

The Thought of future wants we never mind, !■

No pittance is for your Old age design'd. )

Alone, we on yo^ Constancy depend,

And hope yo^ Love to th' stage will never end.

To please you, we no Art, or cost will spare

To make yr. Mrs. look still young, still faire. 40

Shadwell's prologue practically dates itself. It is nothing
more than a lumbering rejoinder to Dryden's prologue and
epilogue for the opening of the new Theatre Royal on
March 26, 1 674. It will be readily recalled that the King's
company suffered severe loss by the fire which destroyed
their first house in January, 1 672, and that during the period
of rebuilding they removed temporarily to the old Duke's
in Lincoln's Inn Fields. The first twenty lines of the MS.
prologue make sneering reply to Dryden's modest appeal
for the King's players :

They, who are by your favours wealthy made,

With mighty sums may carry on the trade ;

We, broken banquiers, half destroyed by fire, *

With our small stock to humble roofs retire ;

Pity our loss, while we no longer strive;

We yield in both, and only beg to live ;

Lines 32-4 form a lame rej oinder to the sting administered
in Dryden's epilogue for the opening of the new Theatre
Royal :

Our house relieves the ladies from the frights
Of ill-paved streets, and long dark winter nights ;
The Flanders horses from a cold bleak road
Where bears in furs dare scarcely look abroad.

^ For the "dancing devils" see The Tempett (Quarto 2), ii. 4, and for "the gods"
the terminal masque of Neptune and Amphitrite»

An Opera on ^^The Tempest'' ? 203

Similarly, lines 35-8 deal impotently with Dryden's
neat point in the same address :

Though in their house the poets' heads appear,
We hope we may presume their wits are here.

While discussing these matters it will not be inoppor-
tune to recall that Dryden has an allusion — which has been
sadly misinterpreted^ — to Dorset Gardens in his prologue
for the opening of the new house. His concluding couplet
gives humorous expression to the mock fear —

That, as a fire the former house overthrew.
Machines and tempests will destroy the new.

The allusion here is not, as has been inferred, to the
opera of The Tempest (which, like the British Fleet in The
Critic^vi'di^ not yet In sight), but to the superfluity of thunder
and lightning and flying efl^ects in D'Avenant's Macbeth?

But enough of these addresses. Since, then, Shadwell's
prologue is merely an IneiFectlve reply to Dryden's prologue
as spoken at the new King's Playhouse on March 26, 1 674,
it follows that, to have been by any means apposite. It must
have been delivered at Dorset Gardens within a month or
six weeks after. Prologues and epilogues In those days were
frequently repeated and often printed and vended In the
streets as broadsides. This would fix the date of production
of the Shadwell Tempest at circa April 'y^o^ 1674, probably
a sound approximation. That the opera was In the first
flush of its success a fortnight later Is clearly shown by the
following entry in the Lord Chamberlain's Accounts :

1674, May 16. It is his Majesty's pleasure that Mr. Turner
and Mr. Hart, ^ or any other men or boys belonging to his Majesty's
Chappell Royall that sing in ye Tempest at his Royall Highnesse
Theatre, doe remaine in towne all the week (dureing his Majesty's

* Genest, I think, was the original offender, but others have since fallen in line.
' Cf. the epilogue to Ravenscroft's The Careless Lovers (1673) :

"Gallants tis fear'd, after our last loud play.

You will be deaf to all Low Wit can say.

Lightning, Machine and Noise your favourites are

These Murdering Playes, the stage's Men of War," &c.
^ Query, the J. Hart, who wrote the music for Dorinda's Song, "Adieu to the
pleasures" in Shadwell's opera?

204 Did Thomas Shadwell write

absence from Whitehall) to perform that service, onely Saturdayes
to repaire to Windsor, and to returne to London on Mundayes if
there be occasion for them.

And that they also performe ye like service in ye opera in ye
said Theatre or any other thing in ye like nature w^here their helpe
may be desired upon notice given them thereof. ^

It was doubtless in the following winter that DufFet's gross
travesty of Shadwell's opera, entitled The Mock Tempest^ or
The Enchanted Castle was produced at the King's Theatre.
The announcement of its publication occurs in the Term
C^/<^/(?^«f of February 15, 1 675. Bakerrelates that "although
it met with some little success at first, it presently fell to
the ground ; and when it came to be presented in Dublin,
several ladies and persons of the first quality testified their
dislike of such low and indecent stuff by quitting the house
before the performance was half over." ^

And now something requires to be said about the subse-
quent history of Shadwell's opera, both from a theatrical
and a bibliographical standpoint. The two considerations
really go hand-in-hand, for, in the Post-Restoration period,
reprints of old plays invariably indicate recent revivals, and
may be taken as evidence of revival when no other evidence
exists. After Quarto 2 all succeeding issues of The Tempest
published by Herringman (save the quarto of 1691 which
1 have not seen) reproduce the text of the Shadwell opera,
but the misleading Dryden preface and prologue and epi-
logue continue to appear. Owing to this fatuous iteration
an idea became current towards the close of the century that
Dryden himself had written the opera, and before long this
crystallised into a tradition. It cannot be too strongly empha-
sised that Dryden was nothing more than Shadwell's
involuntary collaborator in the matter. He has enough of
his own sins to answer for.

Not content with misleading future generations by the
senseless repetition] ust referred to, Herringman must needs
crown his career by setting the unborn bibliographer the

* H. C. de Lafontaine, The King's Musick^ p. 271.
2 Biog. Dram. (1782), ii. 239. No. 204.

An Opera on " The Temp est'' ? 205

deepest of riddles. In 1676 he issued two quartos of The
Tempest^ both textually identical, but set up in different
founts of type, and the one with typographical errors not
in the other. ^

It is noteworthy that from 1674 onwards the Shadwell
opera completely superseded (possibly because it comprised)
the Dryden-D'Avenant comedy. As for the genuine'play
of Shakespeare, it lay perdu from the outbreak of the Civil
War, until near the middle of the eighteenth century, and
even then very rarely got an innings. On the other hand
revivals of Shadwell's opera were fairly frequent. One notes
that it was one of the three ornate spectacular productions
seen by the Morocco Ambassador at Dorset Gardens early
in 1682.^ Its anonymous book was re-issued by Herring-
man in June, 1690 "as now acted at their Majesty's
Theatre ; and again in October, 1691 ^ " as it is now acted
at their Majesties Theatre in Dorset Gardens.'* Somewhere
about the period of 1690-5, ShadwelFs version, with addi-
tions, was wholly re-set by Henry Purcell. No clue to the
exact date presents itself. All we know for certain is that
about the close of 1695 Dorinda's additional song, "Dear
Pretty Youth" (not to be traced in any of the extant
seventeenth-century quartos), was published in Book iii of
Deliciae Musicae as " A New Song in The Tempest^ sung by
Miss Cross to her Lover who is supposed Dead. Set by
Mr. Henry Purcell."

Half a century later, a malignant fate still pursued the
genuine play of Shakespeare. By an irony of circumstance,

' Both were "printed by J. Macock for Henry Herringman". Exemplars are to '
be seen in the Dyce collection at South Kensington. No announcement of re-issue
occurs in the Term Catalogues for 1676.

2 Cf. The Antiquary^ \i. ^ (April, 1 9 10), p. 133. Mr. W. C. BoUand, in quoting here
a contemporary reference to the Ambassador being " extreamly pleased " at the perform-
ance of The Tempest^ wonders what pleased him, seeing that he was wholly ignorant of
the language, and that the period (in Mr. BoUand's opinion) was not remarkable for its
spectacular brilliancy ! I commend to him a careful study oi Psycbe^ Circe^ and the operas
of Dryden.

' Vide Term Catalogue, Michaelmas, 1691. I have failed to unearth an exemplar
of this edition. Should the text differ materially from Quarto 2 (or present Dorinda's
songj " Dear Pretty Youth") it would serve as evidence to date Purcell's re-setting of
the opera.

2o6 Did Shadwell write an Opera on " The Tempest'' ?

when It came at last to be revived at Drury Lane, with much
flourishing of trumpets, on January, 31, 1746, it was not
deemed strong enough to stand alone, and was bolstered by
ShadwelFs old masque o^ Neptune and Amphitrite for which
Arne had written new music. At the same house on Feb-
ruary II, 1756, was seen Garrick's final sophistication of
the comedy, in which some of Shadwell's old lyrics were
sung to new music by John Christopher Smith. ^ Similarly
John Kemble's version of October, 1789, had, on its literary
side, equal parts of Shakespeare, Dryden, D'Avenant, and
Shadwell, and on its musical side disproportionate parts of
Purcell, Arne and Linley. It was not until the middle of
the nineteenth century that these musty textual accretions
were wholly exterminated.

^ For proof, see Maidmcnt and Logan, 5/V William U Avenanf i Dramatic JVorksy
V. 402.

Who wrote the Famous "Macbeth" Music ?

Who wrote the Famous "Macbeth'* Music?

One of Life's little cynicisms is that while Error meets
with ready acceptance, Truth has to fight its corner. Thus
it is that in the sphere of antiquarianism the capacity to
discover is of little value without the ability to demonstrate.
One may stumble over the truth, call out loudly that it lies
pinned beneath one, and yet only succeed in obscuring it
from the light.

Here, in a nutshell, we have a clue to the mystery
concerning the time-honoured masquerading of Matthew
Lock's memory in the borrowed plumes of Henry Purcell.
For over a century it has been known to experts, more by
divination than by astute reasoning, that Purcell, not Lock,
wrote the famous Macbeth music. Dr. Philip Hayes, of
Oxford, Linley, the editor o^ Shakespeare s Dramatic Songs,
Dr. Arnold, Joseph Warren, the musical antiquary, and Dr.
Rimbault have all given expression to this truth, but none
has possessed the cogency to drive it home. In our own day
the claims of Purcell have had a strenuous and able advocate
in Dr. W. H. Cummings, but even he has spoilt his case
by wrong methods of attack and by irrational deductions.
The result is that what should be recognised as a fact is still
treated by the orthodox musical historian, somewhat con-
temptuously, as pure hypothesis.

From Dr. Cummings' attempt to prove that the Macbeth
music was the work of Purcell's boyhood nothing but harm
has ensued. His proposition has been reduced to absurdity
in the new issue of Grove's Dictionary, wherein it is stated
that " on the theory that the famous Macbeth music is by
Purcell, we are driven to suppose it to have been written in
Purcell's fourteenth year in 1 672 ". ^ This is a delicious nan

* An opinion evidently derived from Mr. J. Fuller Maitland's otherwise sound
article on Purcell in the Diet. Nat, Biog.

2IO Who wrote the Famous ^^ Macbeth'' Music?

sequitur : we are driven to suppose nothing of the kind.
Purcell's claims to the authorship of the Macbeth music do
not rest on Dr. Cummings' contention^ that the score was
the product of his youth. As a matter of fact we shall have
to refute that argument before attempting to make some
approximation to the truth. One of the purposes of the
present paper is to show reason for believing that the music
was of later date than that usually assigned to it. New evi-
dence will also be adduced to prove the existence in theatrical
circles of a tradition associating the score, considerably before
its publication, with PurcelFs name. By this means it will
at last be made clear that Boyce, in giving it to the world in
readily accessible form, had no valid reason for crediting it
to Lock.

Among the stock plays of which the Duke's company
under Sir William D'Avenant (by mutual arrangement
with the King's Players) were allowed a monopoly at the
dawn of the Restoration, were nine of Shakespeare's, in-
cluding Macbeth,'^ In the cartel drawn up on December 1 2,
1660, D'Avenant agreed "to reforme and make iitt for the
Company of Actors appointed under his direction and
command " all the old plays specifically allotted to them.
It was not, however, until three years later that any attempt
was made to revive Macbeth. This is shown by the fact that
in or about November, 1663, Sir Henry Herbert, as testified
by his books, ^ received a fee of ;£ i for licensing the tragedy
as " a revived play ".

Nothing could be wider of the mark than the widely
accepted statement that D'Avenant was the first to mingle
alloy with the pure gold of Shakespeare — unless perhaps
the accompanying fallacy that to him was due the interpola-
tions in Macbeth from Middleton's comedy of The Witch.
That the tragedy had the misfortune to be altered by a
second hand during the period of Shakespeare's retirement,
or shortly after his death, is definitely indicated by the First

1 Cf. The Musical Times (1882), Vol. xxiii, p. 471, art., "Purcell's Music to
Macbeth ", a contribution to which I am under many obligations.

2 Cf. Robert W. Lowe, Thomas Betterton^ p. 75.

3 'M.z\oviii% Shakespeare (Dublin, 1794), ii. 224.

Who wrote the Famous ^^ Macbeth'' Music? 211

Folio, which is, unluckily, our sole authority for the text.^
The sophisticated copy of the play therein given clearly
proves the comparatively early introduction of a song and a
concerted piece from The Witch^ v'yl,^ " Come Away " and
"Black Spirits and White". When D'Avenant came to
revive the tragedy he made divers alterations and additions
but retained these two songs. ^ One has every reason to
believe, without having any positive data to go upon, that
they were sung then to the music originally composed for
them by Robert Johnson. ^ Although no performance of The^
Witch can be traced in the latter half of the seventeenth
century, it is to be noted that between Johnson's somewhat
tenuous setting of" Come Away " and the Macbeth scores
of the Post-Restoration exists a certain similarity of phras-
ing, as if the earlier music had come to be looked upon as
a basis through active preservation in the theatre. Still, if
we concede the inclusion of Johnson's music in D' Avenant's
perversion of the tragedy, it cannot be taken as the only
music heard in the first years of the revival. Into a new scene
in the second act D'Avenant introduced a concerted piece,
" Speak, sister, speak ! is the deed done } " and a song,
" Let's have a dance upon the Heath " ; and (as will shortly
be seen) one has every reason to believe that for these, as
well as for some of the dances, Matthew Lock composed
the music. No one disputes that Lock was associated with
D'Avenant in the early revivals of the tragedy ; what one

^ See Mr. Henry Cuningham's introduction to Macbeth (Arden Shakespeare
series) for a full consideration of this point.

^ No copy of the D'Avenant Macbeth was issued until 1673, early in the spring of
which year W. Cadman published his anonymous quarto (Quarto i). A little better
than a year later, P. Chetwin printed another version, "v/ith all the alterations, amend-
ments, additions and new songs. As it is now acted at the Duke's theatre ". (Quarto 2).
Beyond some transpositions of the scenes and some alterations in the sequence of the
"business". Quarto 2 does not differ very materially from its immediate predecessor.
For the variations see Furness, Variorum Shakespeare^ vii. (1873), introduction. In the
same volume will be found the text of Quarto 2. My impression is that the discrepan-
cies between the two arose from the fact that Cadman, in his haste to take advantage
of the ornate revival at Dorset Gardens in 1673, derived his text from a copy of
D'Avenant's first version of the tragedy, and that Quarto 2 represents the maturer revisal.

3 Of the original music for The Witch only the setting of "Come Away" has been
preserved. It was given by Stafford Smith in his Musica Antiqua^ from a contemporary
manuscript, and reproduced by Rimbault in his Ancient Vocal Music of England. Robert
Johnson lives in memory as the original composer of the songs in The Tempest,

2i2r M^ho wrote the Famous ^^ Macbeth'' Music?

does dispute is that he wrote the famous and longevous
score first published under his name by Boyce in 1750.

D'Avenant's stage monopoly o^ Macbeth passed after his
death to his widow, and extended up to the period of the
union of the two companies in 1682. Consequently all
representations of the tragedy in the twenty years preceding
took place either at the Duke's theatre in Lincoln's Inn
Fields or (after 1671) at the fine new theatre bearing the
same title, situated in Dorset Gardens. ^ Owing to the
uniformly brilliant acting of Betterton and his wife in the
two leading characters, Macbeth was a standing dish with
D'Avenant's company. As presented by them the play had
a perennial variety of appeal for Pepys, who, between 1 664
and 1 669, saw it no fewer than eight times. "A pretty good
play, but admirably acted " is his verdict after having seen
it, apparently for the first time, on November 5, 1 664. His
second visit, on December 28, 1666, elicited the opinion
that it was "a most excellent play for variety ". What he
meant by "variety" can be inferred from two entries in his
Diary concerning further experiences of the tragedy in 1667.
On January 7th it stood well the test of familiarity, and
though seen quite lately, "yet appears a most excellent play
in all respects, but especially in divertisement, though it
be deep tragedy; which is a strange perfection in a tragedy,
it being most proper here, and suitable ". He is more ex-
plicit on April 19th following, when Macbeth had been
played in hot weather to a small house : "which, though
1 have seen it often, yet it is one of the best plays for a
stage, and variety of dancing and musique,that I ever saw".

^ One has only to grasp these facts to become convinced of the manifold absurdi-
ties of Maidment and Logan's bibliographical note on the D'Avenant Macbeth
{jy Avenant^ s Dramatic Works^ v, 294). They begin by giving circumstantial details of
a quarto of 1673, issued by Henry Herringham (? Herringman), "as now acted at the
Theatre Royal ". They have no note of Quarto 2, but go on to speak of a quarto of
1687 as identical with Quarto i. But their own text tallies with Quarto 2, as repro-
duced by Furness, and it is plain they cannot have examined Quarto i, which was issued
by Cadman as acted at the Duke's. No reprint of 1687 can be traced. The date is
evidently a slip for 1689, in which year a quarto was issued by Henry Herringman "as
it is now acted at the Theatre Royal " (Quarto 3). It was probably from this that
Maidment and Logan derived their text, as well as the misleading details for the imprint
of Quarto i.

Who wrote the Famous ''^Macbeth " Music ? 213

Still keeping to 1667, we note that on the i6th October,
Pepys went to the Duke's and was mortified to find Young,
a bad actor, playing Macbeth instead of Betterton, who
was seriously ill. But the D'Avenant sophistication had
other attractions for the diarist (nothing if not musical)
besides the acting, and he and his wife went again to see
it on the 6th of November, liking it immensely " though
mighty short of the content we used to have when Betterton
acted, who is still sick ". Later performances of the tragedy
are recorded by Pepys on August 12th and December 2 ist,
1 668, at the latter of which the King and Court were present,
and finally on January 15, 1669.

One may note here, without desiring to make any deduc-
tion from the fact, that Pepys, from first to last, makes no
mention of Lock's association with the revival, although he
had long enjoyed the composer's acquaintance, and was
accustomed to play his music on the flageolet. The omis-
sion is absolutely of no significance as we know full well
that Lock had written music for D'Avenant's version of
Macbeth either at the period of its first production or very
shortly after. From published sources we can trace a Tune
and a Dance as so written. The tune was given in Musick's
Delight on the Cithren in 1 666. It recurs as " The Dance in
the Play o^ Macbeth " in Apollo's Banquet for the Treble Violin
in 1669. One finds it again in The Pleasant Companion \ or
New Lessons and Instructions for the Flagelet of Thomas Greet-
ing in 1680, this time with the initials" M. L." attached.
Two years later it was given in the key of C, in Playford's
Musick's Recreation on the Viol^ Lyraway^ under the curt title
oi Macbeth.

In Apollo's Banquet{\ 669), occurs an air headed "Witches'
Dance", undoubtedly another item of Lock's early Macbeth
music. It has been satisfactorily identified by Dr. Cummings,
v/ho possesses an old MS., circa 1698, in which a variant of
the tune is to be found, bearing title " Dance of Witches in
Macbeth" } It is of paramount importance to note that none

^ Vide supruy article in The Musical Timesy wherein Lock's early Macbeth music is
reproduced.

2 14 U^ho wrote the Famous ^^ Macbeth'^ Music?

of these recur in the famous score, the so-called Lock's music
published in 1750. This has, indeed, no trace of Lock's
technique, and has been adjudged by a concensus of expert
opinion immeasurably superior to the ruck of his composi-
tions.

With Sir William D'Avenant's death in April, 1668, all
his theatrical rights and privileges passed to his widow, for
whom their son Charles acted. In November, 1671, the
better to compete with their old rivals at Drury Lane, the
Duke's Company removed to a splendid new theatre in
Dorset Gardens, specially designed and equipped for im-
posing spectacular effects. About a year later a gaudy
revival o^ Macbeth was indulged in, ^ chronicled and charac-
terised by Downes in his Roscius Anglicanus thus :

The Tragedy of Macbeth, altered by ^ir William Davenant ;
being dressed in all its finery, as new clothes, new scenes, machines,
as flyings for the witches, with all the singing and dancing in it :
the first composed by Mr. Lock, the other by Mr. Channell and
Mr. Joseph Priest ; It being all excellently performed, being in the
nature of an Opera, it recompensed double the expense : it proves
still a lasting play.

Downes' irritating book is an edged tool that none but
the most skilful of historical workmen can safely handle.
What should have been one of the most important stage
chronicles ever penned has been rendered nugatory by utter
slovenliness of method. In narration of events — especially
those which came under his own notice — Downes is seldom
widely astray. Much truth lies embedded in his book if
one only has the skill and patience to dig it up. His fatal
weakness is lack of chronological sense. One could forgive
his avoidance of dates if only the sequence of his events
could be depended upon. But in the case of a book yield-
ing valuable first-hand information, clumsiness of treatment

1 It is impossible to fix an exact date for this revival. Downes, an indifferent chron-
ologer, gives by implication the year 1672. Judging by the fact that the publication of
Quarto 1, as "acted at the Duke's theatre" is recorded in the Term Catalogue of Easter,
1673 (issued on May 6th), one would be inclined to date the highly spectacular version
from the end of 1672 or beginning of 1673. The allusion in Dryden's epilogue to The
Silent JVoman, as spoken at Oxford in the summer of 1673, shows that the production
cannot have been earlier.

Who wrote the Famous ^^ Macbeth'' Music? 215

cannot be permitted to nullify Its authority. Slips of memory
as well as blunders in arrangement are to be found in the
Roscius Anglicanus^ but it cannot be too strongly emphasised
that errors in narration occur with least frequency in
Downes' account of the Dorset Gardens theatre, where he
had officiated as prompter. But for him we should never have
known — what I have already demonstrated — that Shadwell
provided an operatic version of the Dryden-D'Avenant
tempest for the Duke's house in 1674. While looking
Downes' shortcomings fairly and squarely in the face, I am
not prepared to admit the presence of any flaw in his account
of the spectacular revival o^ Macbeth.

The MS. score from which Dr. Boyce printed the Macbeth
music in 1 750, ascribing it by pure surmise to Lock, is now
in the possession of Dr. Cummings. Upon it an eighteenth-
century musician and musical antiquary of eminence. Dr.
Philip Hayes, of Oxford, has written, "PurcelFs score of ye
music in Macbeth^ also the score from whence it was printed
under Mat. Lock's name". Even if it could be definitely
established that the score was in Purcell's handwriting, the
fact^^rj^ would prove nothing. Some Curious Impertinents
have gone so far has to admit this moot point in order,
as we shall see, the more completely to disallow PurcelFs
authorship. As a matter of fact, acceptance of the truth has
been seriously delayed by a well-meaning endeavour to
establish this contention. Dr. Cummings once submitted
the cherished manuscript to the scrutiny of an expert
graphologist, who saw in it rudimentary indications of
Purcell's maturer hand. On this woefully insecure basis a
tottering structure, all compact of plausibility and false
reasoning, has been raised. Accepting the verdict of the
graphologist. Dr. Cummings gave voice to his opinion as
to the juvenility of the writing, thus leaving himself open
to the powerful rejoinder that young Purcell, in his admira-
tion for his friend Lock's music, had copied it out for
purposes of study.

Once having taken the plunge down this declivitous path.
Dr. Cummings is unable to stop himself. " The MS. score

2i6 Who wrote the Famous ^^ Macbeth''' Music?

o^ Macbeth music ", he avers, " is in Purceirs boyish hand;
and certain passages are grammatically so erroneous that
they could not have been the work of an experienced master
of harmony like Lock, nor would they have been tolerated
by Purcell when he came to years of discretion ".^ Accord-
ingly the music must have been written — this music which
Hogarth rightly styles "a tremendous effort of genius" —
in 1672, when Purcell was a boy of fourteen. In other
words, it was composed for the spectacular revival o^ Mac-
beth at Dorset Gardens, and Downes must have blundered
when he gave the name of Lock in that connection. Well,
one might not be unwilling to admit that the old prompter's
memory had deceived him on this point, if it had so
happened that he had preserved silence as to the genesis
of Purcell's theatrical labours. But this is precisely what he
did not do. Treating of the production of Lee's Theodosius
at Dorset Gardens in 1680, he says, "all the parts in't being
perfectly performed, with several Entertainments of Sing-
ing, compos'd by the famous master, Mr. Henry Purcell,
(being the first he ever compos'd for the stage) made it a
living and gainful play to the Company". At worst, Downes
is not very wide of the mark in his statement, as Purcell is
not known definitely to have written for more than one
earher production, and that only a few months previously.
This was D'Urfey's comedy of The Virtuous Wife ; or Good
Luck at Last^ which was printed, according to the Term
Catalogue^ about November, 1679, and probably produced
a month or two earlier. But it may be that Downes is sub-
stantially correct in his statement, for while we know for cer-

^ Little weight can be attached to the traces of immaturity found by musical experts
in certain of Purcell's compositions. In his excellent History of Music in England Dr.
Ernest Walker speaks of a defectiveness in the overture to Timon of Athens^ somewhat
akin to the blemishes in the Macbeth score. But he dates the Timon music from 1678,
forgetful of the fact that Grabut was the original composer for Shadwell's play. It was
clearly for the revival of 1688 (in July of which year the play was reprinted) that Purcell
wrote. Mr. Barclay Squire's date for Purcell's Timon music is 1694, much too belated.
(Cf. Quart. Mag. International Musical Society Year v., 1904, Pt. 4, p. 556.) Dr. Walker
impales himself on the horns of a dilemma by his several contentions, for he maintains
that the period of 1689-92 was that of Purcell's richest maturity. How then to
account for the deficiencies of 1 688 ? Much, however, may be forgiven to a writer who
accepts the Macbeth music as Purcell's without argument, merely speaking of it as
** formerly attributed to Lock ".

JVho wrote the Famous " Macbeth " Music ? 217

tain that both Farmer and Purcell composed for D'Urfey's
piece, no evidence exists as to the precise period. Careful
study of Purceirs theatrical career reveals the remarkable
circumstance that the bulk of his music was written for
revivals. Stage music in his day was apparently not long-
lived. There was then, as now, a craze for new music rather
than good music, and the theatrical managers were in
a position to gratify it by reason of the cheapness of com-
position. No score enjoyed a fixity of tenure, and a play had
only to be a few years in existence to have all its songs reset.
This peculiarity of the Post-Restoration period must be
borne carefully in mind in considering Purcell's claims to
the authorship of the Macbeth music. Viewing the usages
of the period, one feels assured that Purcell would have had
no more compunction in superseding Lock and Johnson
than he had in blotting out the music of Staggins and Smith,
when he reset the songs in Epsom Wells in 1693.

Admitting, however, for the sake of argument, that
Purcell wrote music for the original production of The
Virtuous JVife^xht earliest authentic record of his association
with the stage would be in 1679. If then Purcell in 1672
was the youthful prodigy Dr. Cummings would have him
to be, if at that period he burst upon the world with his
great Macbeth score, how came it that in those intervening
years he received no further commissions } Of a surety
that long blank pricks the bubble. Ordinarily speaking,
twenty-one seems a more rational age for the beginning of
a career of theatrical composership than fourteen, and one
is safest in dating Purcell from 1679.^

Apply these deductions to the manuscript from which
the Macbeth music of 1750 was printed, and what conclu-
sion must be arrived at } Either that the manuscript, with
its grammatical deficiencies, represents the immature draft-
ing of a score not perfected and performed until many years

^ As against this comes the fact that on September lo, 1677, Purcell had been
appointed " composer in ordinary with fee for the violin to his Majesty, in the place of
Matthew Lock, deceased " (H. C. de Lafontaine, The King's Mustek^ p. 322). There
must have been some demonstration of his creative ability before this, but it cannot be
shown to have been made in the theatre.

2i8 JVho wrote the Famous ^^ Macbeth'' Music?

later, or that it Is not in the handwriting of Henry Purcell.
Personally, I lean towards the latter.

Turn we now aside from the main issue for a while, to
pursue our chronological review of Af^^^^/^ revivals during
the Post-Restoration period. It was in many respects a
memorable presentation of the tragedy, this Dorset Gardens
revival of 1672, for in it (if Downes is to be beheved),
Nat. Lee, the mad poet, made an unsuccessful appearance
on the boards as Duncan. The old prompter is as undoubt-
edly right in this as he is in other respects, for Lee's name
is to be found opposite the character in the cast preserved
in Quarto 2. That particular issueof the play is described
in the Term Catalogue of Trinity, 1674, as containing "all
the alterations, amendments and new songs, as it is now
acted at the Duke's theatre ". This statement testifies to the
extended popularity of the spectacular revival, but affords
little clue, save in the reference to the " new songs ", to the
points of departure fromD'Avenant's sophisticated version
of an earlier date. One has grave doubts whether it differed
very much either textually or musically from the tragedy
which had such fascination for Pepys. In this connection
too much stress must not be laid upon Downes' description
"in the nature of an opera", for throughout his book he
makes woeful misuse of the term "opera", using it in an
even laxer sense than his contemporaries. He speaks, for
example, of the Shadwell Tempest of 1674 as an opera,
although beyond a certain superiority in scenic auxiliaries
and the appendage of a masque, it differed little from the
Dryden-D'Avenant version of 1667, and was published
as a comedy. ^

While it is quite feasible that for the spectacular Macbeth
of 1 672 Lock may have embellished his old score, substitu-
ting, perhaps, some new lyrics in place of the old setting
of Robert Johnson, there is no reason to believe that the
success of the revival depended upon its music. On the

^ In all the quartos of Macbeth issued during the seventeenth century the piece is
described on the imprints as a tragedy, and yet these all deal with the D'Avenant sophis-
tication.

Who wrote the Famous ^^ Macbeth'' Music? 219

contrary, Its vogue was largely due to the inclusion of some
of "those gilt-gauds men-children run to see". Realistic
flying effects, procured by stage machinery specially brought
over from France, were shown in the play. Dorset Gardens
was proud of its enterprise, boasted of it a year later in
the epilogue to Shadwell's 'Tempest :

When you of witt, and sence, were weary growne,

Romantick, riming, fustian playes were showne.

We then to flying witches did advance,

And for your pleasures traffic'd into ffrance.

From thence new arts to please you, we have sought,

We have machines to some perfection brought.

And about thirty warbling voyces gott. ^

Duffet, who, with equal assiduity and scurrilousness,
kept burlesquing the Dorset Gardens spectacles at Drury
Lane, wrote (and printed in 1674) "an Epilogue spoken
by witches, after the Mode o^ Macbeth. Perform'd with new
and costly Machines, which were invented and managed by
the most ingenious operator, Mr. Henry Wright, P. G.Q."^
The whole of this imprint, down to the mystic initials, sounds
like a jeer at some grandiloquent announcement made by
the rival theatre.

No advocate who has held a brief in the interminable case
of Purcell versus Lock seems to have been aware of the
distinctive theatrical usages of the Post-Restoration era.
Latterly all appear to think that Purcell's claim hinges solely
upon the spectacular Macbeth of 1672, that if he cannot
be identified as the composer for that revival. Lock must
remain in peaceful possession of the honours. This is essen-
tially the view of the new Grove based on Dr. Cummings'
anxiety to prove that the famous score was the efflorescence
of immaturity. But all who are conversant with the inner
workings of the period from a theatrico-musical standpoint
must concede that frank and full acceptance of Downes'
statement concerning Lock's authorship of the scoreof 1 672

^ Vide ante p. 201.

2 For an analysis of Duffet's burlesque, see Maidment and Logan, D'A'venant'i
Dramatic JVorks, v. 302.

220 JVho wrote the Famous ^^ Macbeth'' Music?

does not negative Purcell's claim to the published score of
1 750. Rather indeed does it strengthen it. One has only to
prove revivals oi Macbeth at a period of about a decennium
later to bring Purcell into direct touch with the tragedy.
And that can be readily accomplished.

It may be assumed that Lock as theatrical composer was
left in undisputed possession of his M^?rto/2 monopoly till
his death in August, 1677. True, that assumption flies
in the face of the theatrical usages of the period, but in
the absence of positive evidence to the contrary, no other
attitude can be taken. With the steady growth of Purcell's
popularity as a composer from 1679 onwards, it was
clearly open to him to reset the Witch scenes in Macbeth^
especially as the spectacular, sophisticated version of the
tragedy continued to prove attractive at Dorset Gardens.
Such, indeed, was Purcell's vogue, one feels assured that
even if the famous score had already been in existence, the
work, say of his dead friend Lock, not even the dread of
odious comparison would have checked him from trymg his
hand. All through his career he was deliberately measuring
his strength with his predecessors, sturdily resetting what
they had set before, often blotting out their very memory.
It was thus with Circe m 1685, for which Bannister had
originally composed the music twelve years previously ;
and thus with the Shadwell 'Tempest in 1690, for which
Pietro Reggio and Lock had provided the setting in 1 674.
Why then should Macbeth have been taboo ? Under the
circumstances, it was no more audacious for Purcell to
approach the task than it was for his immediate successor,
Eccles. By 1 695 the famous Macbeth score must have been
in existence, whoever the composer, but Eccles in that year
summoned up his courage and drew upon his scholasticism
to reset the Witch scenes for Drury Lane.^

One other revival of Macbeth is recorded, of an earlier
date, before Purcell threw his gauntlet into the theatrical
arena. According to Langbaine, who states he was present

^ For Eccles' Macbeth music see Add. MSS. No. 12,219. It was probably written
for the revival indicated by Quarto 4, as issued in 1695.

}Fho wrote the Famous ^^ Macbeth'" Music? 221

on the occasion, the tragedy was in the bill at Dorset
Gardens on August 28, 1675,^ when the fatal quarrel took
place in the pit between Scroope and Sir Thomas Armstrong.
In view of the fact that Macbeth was a stock play and
afforded Betterton one of his finest characters, the tragedy
must have been frequently performed between 1675 and
1695 (the year of Purcell's untimely death). Owing, how-
ever, to the woeful incompleteness of Post-Restoration
stage annals we know only of two revivals within those two
decades. The first occurred at Dorset Gardens early in 1682,
and was seen by the Morocco ambassador sometime between
January and May in that year. ^ The second we only know
of through Quarto 3, as issued by Herringman in 1689.
It is clear from the statement made on the title-page, "as it
is now acted at the Theatre Royal" that the tragedy had been
recently revived at Drury Lane. ^ One takes leave to think
that this date marks the latest period at which the famous
score could possibly have been written. It is not to be con-
ceived that Eccles reset the witch scenes on the very heels
of Purcell's glorious effort, especially as the interests of the
two companies still remained united in 1695. Apart from
this, the year 1689, roughly indicates the period of Purcell's
greatest activity, and it seems a not improbable date for the
composition of the Macbeth music.

It only remains to see on what authority Dr. Boyce, in
publishing the score in I750,ascribedit toLock. One looks
naturally for some morsel of tangible evidence justifying
such a course, but all search is fruitless. It cannot be too
emphatically enforced that Boyce's attribution was mere
guesswork. We shall see anon that so far from echoing
theatrical tradition, he sets his face stubbornly against it

^ For the date and other details see The Hatton Correspondence (Camden Society,
1878), i. 121.

^ Cf. Gentleman's Magazine (i 8i 3), pp. 220, art. on Dorset Gardens Theatre ; also
LuttreWs Diary (1857), i. 187.

5 Beyond the substitution of " Theatre Royal " for " the Duke's theatre " the
imprint is copied almost word for word from Quarto 2, and the same identity of phrasing
is to be noted in the edition of 1 7 1 o. Seeing that Quarto 3 presents no textual variations
from its predecessor, no stress can be laid upon the iteration in the imprint "with all the
alterations, amendments, additions and new songs ". I mention this to prevent future
error.

222 Who wrote the Famous ^^ Macbeth'' Music?

Not the slightest hint was conveyed by the manuscript
warranting the ascription. Nothing that Lock ever wrote
bears any resemblance to the music or is of quite so fine
a quality. No playhouse announcement oi Macbeth can be
traced in the newspapers before 1 750, holding out as a lure
the performance of Lock's music. That was a feature of the
bills to come later and remain long, thanks to the blunder-
ing of Boyce. In stage (as opposed to musico-antiquarian)
tradition, the memory of Lock had completely died out.
Nothing is left to us but to agree with Dr. Cummings that
Boyce had had the misfortune to fall across Downes' refer-
ence to Lock, in his account of the revival of 1 672, and not
conceiving the possibility of later scorings, had at once
jumped to a conclusion.^ In this absurd fashion was a fallacy
set on foot which none since has been able to arrest.

One has considerable satisfaction in now putting forward
for the first time four important items of evidence justify-
ing the Purcellites of the faith that is them. They go to
prove that, although no Macbeth music of Purcell's was
published in his lifetime, a tradition long existed in theatrical
circles associating his name with the great score. That tradi-
tion died hard, disappearing ultimately through unques-
tioning acceptance of Boyce's ascription.

In Faulkner's 'Dublin Journal of December 6, 1743,^ is
to be found an advertisement announcing the performance
o{ Macbeth at the Smock Alley theatre on the 8th instant,
with Thomas Sheridan for the first time in the great role.
By way of extra attraction, " all the original songs and
Musick by the celebrated Mr. Purcell" are promised. I
hasten to anticipate the objection that misstatements were
of common occurrence in the old playhouse announcements,
and that in this case some error might have been committed.

* The circumstance that Boyce dedicated the music to David Garrick suggests an
alternative solution. Garrick, as a theatrical bibilophile, is likely to have had some
knowledge of Downes' chronicle, and the attribution might have been originally his.
He had himself revived Macbeth at Drury Lane in 1744 (and again in 1748), discarding
most of D'Avcnant's interpolations, but retaining the witch music. Nothing, however,
exists to show that he publicly attributed the score to Lock in either of the years men-
tioned.

2 A file is in Marsh's Library, Dublin.

Who wrote the Famous ^^ Macbeth'' Music? 223

The drafter of the Smock Alley advertisements was not
alone in his opinion, it was shared by Samuel Derrick, who,
under his pen-name of "Thomas Wilkes," gave proof in his
General View of the Stage of a wide acquaintanceship with
stage history and theatrical tradition. Although his book
came out nine years after the publication of the Macbeth
score. Derrick, in speaking of it, ignores Boyce's attribu-
tion. "There is a grandeur in PurceFs music", he writes,
" that is elevating, and will always please ; there is as much
true genius in the Music which he composed for Macbeth^
as in creating the Witches; and his song, Britons strike homey
will immortalize him eternally, because in the mouth of
every Englishman, and equally pleasing to the most refined
taste, and the most vulgar capacity." ^

The third and fourth items of evidence testifying to a
long-lived tradition as to Purcell's authorship of the music
consist of two Dublin advertisements issued at widely
different periods. In an announcement of the performance
o{ Macbeth at Smock Alley on January 12, 1767, when
Mossop played the Thane of Cawdor, one finds appended
m Faulkner s Dublin Journal the statement "with the original
music of the famous Henry Purcel." When Macbeth was
again presented at the same theatre on January 13, 1784,
the same ascription, in almost identical terms, was made
in the advertisement in ne Public Register^ or Freeman s
Journal.

Viewed in association with these four items, the deduc-
tions of musical experts like Hayes and Arnold gain immeas-
urably in credence. No less skilled in technical knowledge.
Dr. Cummings has still further grounds for his lifelong
advocacy of Purcell's claims. In his collection are the
following :

(i) MS. volume, written by Saville of Lichfield Cathedral, and
formerly in the possession of Bartleman. This bears title,
" Purcell's Theatre Music ", and contains (i) " Macbeth",
(2) "The Indian Queen ", (3) "GEdipus", (4) "Bonduca",

^ London, 1759, p. 77. Derrick was born in Dublin in 1724 and lived there till
manhood.

224 ^^0 wrote the Famous ^^ Macbeth'' Music?

(5) "Timon of Athens", (6) "The Libertine ". (No one
has ever disputed the genuineness of the last five items.)

(2) MS. volume, formerly belonging to the Musical Society of

Oxford. Contains music for The Tempest^ King Arthur ^nA
Macbeth^ all attributed therein to Purcell.

(3) Word Book of the Academy of Music, published in 1768,

containing " The Masque in Macbeth (Purcell)".

To sum up. Side by side with the fact that no Macbeth
music attributed to Purcell was published in his lifetime,
we see the existence of a healthy tradition giving him the
honours due to the composer of the great score. Under the
circumstances it would be absurd to imagine that this per-
sistency of idea had any less stable basis than that of truth
and actuality. Avoid confusion of the issue by separating
hypothesis from ascertained fact, discard from the mind
Dr. Cummings' untenable and misleading assumption as to
the alleged juvenility of the work, and the mass of evidence
is clearly in favour of Purcell's claim.

One can admire the beauties of the Macbeth m\xs\c per se^
and fight vigorously in support of the truth, without approv-
ing of the old managerial taste that could so disfigure the
tragedy. Within the memory of the middle-aged the inter-
polation still held its place, but its disappearance a score of
years ago marked the dawn of a truer culture. Only the dawn
indeed, for Shakespeare is still encumbered with many scenic
excrescences. For generations previously Matthew Lock
had enjoyed posthumous honours and suffered posthu-
mous abuse, both equally undeserved. Let us hope that the
one has now cancelled the other. The hour has come to
attach whatever meed of praise is due to the memory of the
right man. The sum total of our musical heritage will be
none the less for this tardy readjustment, and the eternal
cause of truth and justice will have been maintained.

New Facts about the Blackfriars : Monsieur
Feuillerat's Discoveries

One of the prime vexations of Elizabethan research is that
it has absolutely no finality. Since opinions cannot be kept
perpetually in solution where progress has to be made,
earnest workers have to ignore this patent fact or risk
paralysis of their activities. Some take refuge in dogmatism,
only to be brought face to face at the end with the limita-
tions of their horizon. One is moved to these reflections
by the disturbing circumstance that Professor Feuillerat's
modest preliminary announcement ^ of his important dis-
covery of a series of documents in the Loseley MSS.
proving the existence of an earlier and but dimly suspected^
theatre in the Blackfriars, demands an immediate re-adjust-
ment of our historical perspective with regard to the evolu-
tion of the Elizabethan playhouse. Enough has already
been revealed to show that, within a period of two years
from the building of the first public theatre in the fields,
the principle of the private theatre was well established.
What that principle was, ah initio^ I shall strive later on to
determine : it needs first to recapitulate the absorbing story
of the earlier Blackfriars.

In December, 1576, Richard Farrant, master of the
Children of Windsor and deputy-master of the Children
of the Chapel, already favourably known as a playwright
and composer, ^ took a twenty-one years' lease of the old
Blackfriars monastery in the Liberties, and, pulling down

^ See his article, "Shakespeare's Blackfriars," in The Daily C/ironicle of December
22, 1911.

2 Cf. Collier's AnnahVn. 273.

3 For fuller details concerning Farrant, see the Diet. Nat. Biog. and Grove's Diet.
ofMusiCf sub nomine. Various payments for the acting of Farrant's boys at court from
1568 to 1578 are recorded in the acts of the Privy Council. It is noteworthy that on
Twelfth Night, 1576-7, the Children of Windsor and the Children of the Chapel
appeared unitedly before the Queen at Hampton Court in The Hiuorie of Mutius Scevola.

22 8 New Facts about the Blackfriars :

the partitions of its second story, proceeded to construct
on that elevation a small theatre, ostensibly for the rehearsal
of new court plays. In time, under conditions not readily
ascertainable, certain select members of the public were
permitted to be present at these "rehearsals." But the
pretext under which the theatre was first opened about the
close of 1577, with the Children of the Chapel, was that
of a practising-place " for the better trayning them to do
her Majestic service." One has some reason to believe
that the Paul's boys were also acting in the city about this
period, or at least very shortly afterwards. The earliest
recorded court plays whose preliminary performances can
be safely inferred to have been given at the Blackfriars were
The Historie of Loyaltie and Bezvtie and A History of Alucius^
both of which were acted by the Children of the Chapel at
Whitehall, the former on Shrove Monday, 1579, and the
latter on St. John's Day, 1580. ^

After Farrant's death in November, 1580,^ his widow
let the theatre to William Hunnis, master of the Children
of the Chapel, who rendered his period of management
memorable by producing in 158 1-2 the Campaspe and
Sapho and Phao of Lyly. By this time the Blackfriars had
proceeded far beyond the stage of a mere rehearsal-theatre,
for, notwithstandingthat court performances by the Children
were comparatively few, we learn in Gosson's Plays Con-
futed in five Actions'^ of the "great many comedies " that had
recently been acted there. Among other plays given, in all
likelihood, under Hunnis were Peele's The Arraignment of
Paris and a Moral entitled A Ga7ne of the Cards^ the latter
of which was acted at Windsor by the Chapel Children on
St. John's Day, 1582. In 1583 ^ the Chapel Children fell
into disfavour at court and, as a consequence, the popularity

* Cunningham, Revels Accounts, pp. 142 and 154.

2 I base here on Prof. Feuillerat. The Diet. Nat. Biog. givds the date as 1585.

^ Published without date, but entered at Stationers' Hall on April 16, 1582.

^ It is noteworthy that the boys of Merchant Taylors' School, under Richard
Mulcaster, acted A Historie of ArioHantc and Gcnevora before the Queen at Richmond
on Shrove Tuesday, 1582-3. Mulcaster's boys had given court performances as early
as 1574 (Collier, Annals, i, 208-9). Q^^'^'^i "light there not have been a rehearsal-
theatre in the School ?

Monsieur Feuillerat's Discoveries 229

of the Blackfrlars waned. Owing probably to the double loss
sustained (for we must remember that a charge of ;^6 1 35. ^d,
was usually made for each performance before the Queen),
Hunnis made petition in the same year for an extra allow-
ance for the upkeep of the twelve Chapel boys, in supplement
of the annual grant of ;£40. ^ He had already surrendered
the Blackfriars to its owner, the widow Farrant, who let the
house in quick succession to one Newman and to Henry
Evans, "the very man," writes Prof. Feuillerat, "who was
to lease the Blackfriars Theatre started by Burbage in 1597."
At this juncture that "passing singular odd man" Edward,-
the 1 7th earl of Oxford, who had been a patron of the drama
from hisyouth, had a troupe of boy-players which hadalready
acted before the Queen, and which, on and off from 1 580,
had been performing in the country. ^ For their better -
establishment in London, Oxford secured a sub-tenancy of
the Blackfriars from Evans, and housed the children there
under the control of his sometime private secretary, John
Lyly. Seeing that Puttenham in his Art of English Poesy
(1589) praises the earl for his writing of "comedy and inter-
lude ", it may be that most of his lost plays were written for
performance by his Blackfriars boys. But all that can be
arrived at regarding their doings is provokingly slight. In
1584 they gave three performances at court, the last at
Greenwich, on St. John's Day, when The History of Aga-
memnon and Ulysses was presented. ^ In all probability, the
anonymous comedy The Weakest goeth to the Wall^ published
in 1 600, as "acted by the Earl of Oxford, Lord great Cham-
berlain of England, his servants ", belongs to this period.
This play was based on a story in Barnaby Rich's Farewell
to M.iHtary Profession (i 58 1), and in act ii, scene i, allusion
is made to Oxford's players as "pigmies." Another piece
called The True History of George Scanderbage^ entered by

^ Cf. The Athenaeum of March 31, 1900, art. "William Hunnis" by Mrs. C. C.
Slopes.

2 Cf. John Tucker Murray's English Dramatic Companiesj 1558-1642, i. 344 and
ii. 62. Oxford's boys had acted several times at court before June, 1580. When at
Bristol in September, 1581, they were nine in number.

3 Cunningham, Revels Accounts, p. i88.

230 New Facts about the Blackfriars :

Edwarde Aide on the books of the Stationers' Company on
July 3, 1601, " as it was lately played by the Right Hon.
the Earle of Oxenforde his servants " but not published,
cannot be readily associated with the boy-players. ^ After
the closing of the Blackfriars in 1585 under circumstances
presently to be related, Oxford lent his countenance to a
troupe of adult-actors whom we find playing somewhere
in London late in 1586. ^ The boys went at once on tour,
but apparently did not long survive. ^

At the conclusion of his terse account of the rise and
progress of the first Blackfriars, Prof. Feuillerat writes :

But Sir William More [the landlord] was now getting restive
at all these changes of tenancy, and he turned against Ann Farrant
prepared "to take forfeiture against her", the conditions of the
lease not having been fulfilled. She applied for protection to Sir
Francis Walsingham, the Queen's secretary, but his intervention
was ineffectual, for Sir William More, making up a list of his
tenants in the Blackfriars in 1585, did not include Ann Farrant's
name. This date, therefore, can be taken as indicating the moment
when the Blackfriars theatre came to a premature end. The play-
house was again divided into rooms, and it was to be remodelled
into a theatre only in 1597, when Burbage bought the house from
Sir William More.

To speak by implication of Farrant's house as the first
private theatre, as I have already done at the beginning of
this commentary, is, in a sense, to beg the question, seeing
that no positive evidence exists to show that the earlier
Blackfriars was known and recognised by that designation.
The point admits, however, of a posteriori reasoning. Most
of the distinguishing characteristics of the later private

^ Cf. Fleay's Biog. Chron. Eng. Drama^ ii. p. 64, No. 16. Also Marlowe' i Works
(edit. BuUen), introduction, p. Ixv.

2 See the reference to them in the anonymous letter to Walsingham, under date
"25th January, 1586 [7]," cited by Collier {Annals i. 263) under a wrong period.
Fleay {Chron. Hist. 88) conjectures that Oxford's men were at the Curtain in 1586-8,
but Mr. J. Tucker Murray, (op. cit.) effectively traverses this.

2 Early in the summer of 1585 they were acting at Bath, where they had been
about a year earlier. (Cf. Belville S. Penley, The Bath Stage^ p. 12). The later refer-
ences to Oxford's players in the country, traced by Mr. J. Tucker Murray (c. 1589-90)
evidently deal with visits from the adult company.

Monsieur FeiiilleraCs Discoveries 231

theatres can be shown to have existed, or may be rationally
supposed to have existed, in the first Blackfriars. ' The era
of the small roofed theatre, with the seated pit, permanent
stage devoid of" heavens" and with artificial lighting, un-
doubtedly began with that house. Precedent for the copious
interspersion of music, dance and song which individualised
the performances of the second Blackfriars was certainly
established by Farrant's boys, whose master, we must recall,
was primarily organist and composer. ^

Apart from all this, by solving an allied and considerably
more difficult problem, one can readily show that the earlier
Blackfriars was clearly recognised as the first private house.
Time out of mind, antiquaries and commentators have been
much puzzled to determine how the epithet "private" came
to be applied to aplace of performance where admission could
be obtained by anybody having money to burn. Thanks to
Prof. Feuillerat's vital discovery, I am now in a position to
clear up the mystery. In the "Act of Common Council" for
the regulation of acting within the city, passed on December
6, 1 575, the final clause runs :

Provydid allwaie that this Acte (otherwise then touchinge the
publishing of unchaste, sedycious, and vnmete matters) shall not
extend to anie plaies Enterludes Comodies, Tragidies or shewes
to be played or shewed in the pryvate hous, dwellinge, or lodginge
of anie nobleman, citizen, or gentleman, w^^ shall or will then
have the same thear so played or shewed in his presence, for the
festyvitie of anie marriage, assemblye of ffrendes, or otherlyke
cawse, w'^owte publique or comen collection of money of the
auditorie, or behoulders theareof ; referringe alwaie to the Lorde
Maiorand Aldermen for the tyme beinge the Judgement accord-
inge to equitie, what shalbe counted such a playenge or shewing
in a pryvate place, anie thinge in this Acte to the contrarie
notw^'^ standing. ^

^ Much of what has already been said at pp. 16-2 1 of the physical disposition
and conventions of the second Blackfriars applies readily to its predecessor. For the
differentia note what now follows.

3 The evidence is a trifle more definite in the Hunnis period. Three songs were
rendered in Campaspe and four in Sapho and Pbao. In the former there was also dancing
and tumbling.

' Collier, Annals i. 214, sqq.

232 New Facts about the Blackfriars :

There Is not the shadow of a reason for doubting that
Farrant had already determined, when he set about building
his rehearsal -playhouse some twelve months after the
passing of this act, to keep within the spirit of its final

*. clause. He had only to live on the premises ^ and to avoid
the collection of money at the door or " gathering " inside,
to constitute the Blackfriars a "private house" within the
meaning of the act. Publicity, of course, had to be shirked.'
No flag could be raised, no bills posted. ^ Here it is neces-
sary to anticipate the argument that Farrant was under no
necessity to indulge in this subterfuge, seeing that the
Common Council had no jurisdiction in the liberties of
the Blackfriars. In 1577 that was a point of law as yet
unsettled, and Farrant had good reason for entertaining

- doubts. ^ A little better than a year after the opening of
the theatre, the Lord Mayor laid claim to the exercise of
authority within "the precinct of the late dissolved Monas-
tery of the Blackfriars." But the Chief Justices delayed in
giving judgment, and on May 15, 1580, the Privy Council
issued an order that, pending their decree, things should
" remain in statu quoprius^ and that the Lord Mayor should
not intermeddle in any cause within the said Liberties,
saving for the punishment of felons as heretofore he hath
done." ^ This rebuke was practically the last word on the
subject, and dissipated all fears. Hunnls, in succeeding
Farrant as manager a few months later, had consequently

V his standing better assured. From that onwards money could
have been taken at the doors, or gathered inside, instead

^ We have no evidence that Farrant had apartments in the Blackfriars (perhaps
Prof. Feuillerat will inform us on the point later), but Lyly, a few years later, had.

^ Posters were probably issued at a subsequent period, but the flag was never a
characteristic of the private theatre. Malone in this connection cites from Middleton's
A Mad World, My Masters : "The hair about the hat is as good as a flag upon the pole,
at a common playhouse, to waft company."

' The Privy Council, in issuing instructions to the Lord Mayor on December 24,
1578, for permission to be granted to various companies ** to exercise plays within the
city", by way of rehearsing what they had arranged to present at Court at Christmas,
included the Children of the Chapel in the list. (Fleay, Chron. Hist. p. 52). And yet it
must have been about this time that the Children were established at Blackfriars.

^ Cf. C. W.Wallace, The Children of the Chapel at Blackfriars,^. 154 note i. Also
Collier's Annals^ iii. 273 note.

Monsieur Feuillerat's Discoveries 233

of relying upon the subscriptions or uncertain gifts of the
house's patrons. One cannot say exactly when the change
came, but when it did we may take it that the theatre
ceased to be "private" in the old legal sense without losing
its designation. That was to become the inheritance of its
enfranchised successors, much to the mystification, be it
said, of a long line of future antiquaries.

Everything tends to show that the first Blackfriars was
a very simple building and not at all elaborately furnished.
To begin with, Farrant was of little means and without
subsidy. Even if he could have raised the necessary money,
he is not likely to have constructed a sumptuous playhouse
at a time when the Common Council were particularly restive
regarding playing within the city precincts, and when, as we
have seen, the Lord Mayor claimed jurisdiction within the
Liberties of the Blackfriars. So quietly and unostentati-
ously was the house conducted that the inhabitants of
the district scarcely recognised they had a theatre in their
midst. This is shown by the fact that when the residents
in the Blackfriars precinct petitioned the Privy Council in
November, 1596, to restrain Burbage from constructing
" a common playhouse " on this selfsame second floor of
the old monastery, it was urged that the Liberties had
thitherto remained unpolluted, that " there hath not at any
tyme heretofore been used any Common Playhouse within
the same Precinct." ^ This latter statement was, of course,
strictly accurate, the word "common" as applied to theatres
then being used in the sense of "public". But the inhabit-
ants knew very well that Burbage was unable to construct
an ordinary public theatre within the narrow limits of an
upper storey. His intention was merely to reconstitute the
old private playhouse with closer approximation to the public
theatre type of auditorium. The natural inference is that the
earlier Blackfriars was hardly recognised as a theatre at all.

It is on this showing that I am in opposition to Prof.
Feuillerat in his view that " it seems pretty certain that

1 Collier's Annals i. 227-8. See also C. W. Wallace, The Children of the Chapel
at Blackfriars^ pp. 17 and 18, notes 5 and i.

234 New Facts about the Blackfriars :

Farrant erected galleries all round the room, as was generally-
practised when Royal or private halls were temporarily con-
verted into playhouses." Even the latter part of this state-
ment may be seriously queried. My own opinion is that the
auditorium in the first Blackfriars merely consisted of the
area, used as a pit and provided with stools or benches. In
this connection it may not be unprofitable to examine Prof.
Wallace's estimate ^ of the seating capacity of the second
house, seeing that it occupied approximately the same
space as the first. All told, he conjectures that its pit and
three galleries held about 530 spectators. Of this total 96
are allotted to the pit. In Farrant's Blackfriars, however (if
I may proceed on the strength ofmy own hypothesis), the pit
space cut off in Burbage's house by the lowermost gallery
would be at the disposal of the audience. Still basing on
Prof. Wallace's estimate, I calculate this to represent an
addition of 144 to the holding capacity of the first theatre,
or a total of 240 in all. One can readily surmise that when
the house was in the meridian of its prosperity, say in 1 582,
when Gosson speaks of " a great many comedies " being
acted there, the supply of pit-seats would often be consider-
ably less than the demand. Surely we have in this a clue to
the origin of sitting on the stage. It seems reasonably well
assured that that custom began in the private theatre, and
it has already been demonstrated that it was in existence
before the erection of the second Blackfriars. ^ We have,
therefore, fair grounds for assuming that it first came into
force at Farrant's house. If this assumption could be taken
as a certainty, it would of itself prove the absence of galleries
in the earlier Blackfriars, as, most indubitably, it can only
have been under the severest pressure that the custom was
allowed to spring into existence. It will not be difficult to
show that in the beginning it proved a serious obstruction
to the traffic of the stage, and that its persistence led to some
modification of the ruling conventionalities.

' op. cit. p. 50, conjectural plan.

3 cf^ c, R, Baskcrvill, The Custom of Sitting on the Elizabethan Stage {Modern
Philology^ viii. No. 4, 191 1, pp. 581-3).

Monsieur Feuillerat's Discoveries 235

Since the earlier Blackfrlars was primarily a rehearsal
theatre for court plays, and as all the court plays of the
period, excepting pastorals, were provided with scenery of
the multiple order, it follows that to be properly rehearsed
these plays must have been mounted at the Blackfriars in
the same manner as they were to be given before the Queen.
The scenery, costumes and properties required for court
plays given by the Chapel boys were provided in the Revels
office at the expense of the Crown. One can readily surmise
that they would be lent for "rehearsals", but it is not so well
assured that their use could be obtained for such perform-
ances as were given at the theatre after the plays were
produced at court. There must have been many such
performances, as well as performances of new pieces not
intended for presentation before the Queen. The little
theatre could not have been kept going for six months in
the year simply as a court rehearsal-house. Under what
conditions, then, were performances otherwise than "dress-
rehearsals " given there "^ We do not know, and are not
likely ever to be able to determine. It may be that they
were given after the normal manner of the public theatre
and that the earlier Blackfriars was furnished with a tiring-
house fa9ade, with the usual entering doors, and inner and
upper stages. Such a disposition could frequently be turned
to advantage, even when practicable scenery of the multiple
order was utilised.

Excessive demand for seats is most likely to have
occurred during the dress-rehearsals of court plays, the
period when multiple scenery was certainly employed.
Everybody would want to forestall the Queen in her
Christmas enjoyment. .But if sitting on the stage was
permitted at such periods, it must have been within the
zone of action, not at either end of the stage (the arrange-
ment suggested by Prof. Wallace in his conjectural recon-
struction of the later Blackfriars). ^ For the stool-holder

^ op. cit. p. 46. In the absence of definite details as to the disposition of the early
Blackfriars stage, it would be idle to speculate as to whether the Lords' room (in the
tiring-house) was already in existence there.

236 New Facts about the Blackfriars :

to have planted himself outside the"aptehowsesof paynted
canvas " and away from the traffic of the scene, would have
been to lose sight of what was going on. Obviously, once
the innovation grew into a habit drastic changes would
take place. One has only to picture the stool -holders
seated in the middle of the stage — an obstruction to the
players and an eyesore to the audience — to see that, in
time, the practice would lead to the abandonment of the
multiple setting. It may be thought by some that a com-
promise was effected somewhat on the lines indicated by
Percy a score of years later :

Now if it so be that the Properties of any of These, that be out-

/ ward, will not serve the turne by reason of concurse of the People

on the Stage, Then you may omitt the sayd Properties which be

outward and supplye their Places with their Nuncupations onely

in Text Letters. ^

But to this there are divers objections. Apparently the
course proposed was even in 1 600 very exceptional. Had
it been the common practice under such conditions the
instruction would have been superfluous. Moreover, the
play with regard to which the option was given was a
pastoral, and not therefore a strictly multiple (or hetero-
geneous) setting. It is vital to recognise this. Pastorals
by their nature seldom outraged the Unity of Place, and
although given a scenic background at court often arranged
on the multiple principle, all the components of that back-
ground were strictly congruous. Take two court plays of
this order that might possibly have been first performed
at the early Blackfriars, ne Arraignment of Paris and Galla-
thea. The setting required for Peele's play — Diana's bower
in the midst of thickets — could be realised on the stage of
to-day without evoking derision. Lyly's pastoral did not
demand the use of even a single mansion. The scene was
a simple landscape with a large oak tree in the foreground.
y The use of real trees was a marked characteristic of court
plays of this order.

^ Vide %upra p. 60.

Monsieur Feuillerat^s Discoveries 237

It is advisable that the student of Elizabethan drama
should make himself thoroughly conversant with the dis-
tinguishing characteristics of the multiple scene and the
conventionalisms its employment gave rise to, so that he
may readily recognise a play constructed strictly on its
principles, when he comes across it. With the hope of pre-
venting a perpetuation of the painful ignorance displayed
in this connection by certain recent (and otherwise learned)
commentators, I take leave now to expatiate on the subject.
In reading old plays, particularly of the historico-romantic
or narrative order, one may safely infer the employment
of a multiple setting in all cases where frequent changes of
scene take place while the characters remain. Other cor-
roborative signs and tokens may be found by the skilled
worker, but this, I think, is the unfailing test. It must be
noted, however, that solitary instances of this peculiarity
prove nothing. ^ They are merely graftings from the older
convention. By the employment of a strictly limited ^
number of symbolic mansions typifying certain widely
separated localities it was possible to make the characters
perform a journey in full sight of the audience by simply
walking across the stage from one figurative component of
the scene to another. In the French theatre of the early
seventeenth century the maximum number of mansions
utilised was five, but it would appear, from the evidence
of the Revels Accounts and a careful analysis of a variety
of court plays, that the normal number in English court
performances of c. 1 570-1 600 was three. ^ As a rule, only v
one mansion existed for the spectator at any given moment,
the others being suppressed by conventional understanding.
But a few exceptions, confined, I think, to Lyly's plays,
are to be found. One of these occurs in Sapho and Phao^
V. 2, 1. 45, where Venus seated in Vulcan's smithy spies
Cupid in Sapho's chamber on the other side of the stage.

^ e.g., Measure for Measure^ iii. 1-2, where the Duke remains while the change
takes place from the prison to the street.

^ The History of the Four Sons of Fabius (i 580) called for " a Cytie, a Mounte " and
a Prison. (Cunningham, Re-vels Accounts^ pp. 155 and 161). For the History of Serpedon
(1580) "a great citie, a wood, a castell " were provided (ibid p. 156). See also supra
p. 66, The Cuck-Queanes and the Cuckolds Er rants.

238 New Facts about the Blackfriars :

By way of giving pause to the Elizabethan commen-
tator, who is usually obsessed by a mania for minute
localisation, it is vital to point out that in many plays based
on the multiple-scene principle not all the places of action
were materially symbolised. This was due to the limited
number of mansions ^ employed, and the dramatist had to
write his play accordingly. In the printed copies one can
readily distinguish the located (or visualised) scenes from
the unlocated. Some reference to the place of action
generally occurs in the located scenes, as in The fFoman
in the Moone^ iv. i, 1. 292, when Stesias, on entering, says,
" This is Enipeus* banke." In the others no clue whatever
is presented. ^ Inconsistent and absurd as this arrangement
may appear to us now, it created no confusion in the mind
of the spectator when put into practice. This is accounted
for by the fact that no interior scene was ever unlocated,
the unlocated scenes passing in the street, or at any rate
in the open. At these junctures the audience generally
recognised that the place of action was near to the last
located scene. ^ One remarks also that in the typical play
of the multiple-scene order there is not only a conven-
tional compression of space but an equally conventional
compression of time. Admit the premiss and the one is a
logical deduction from the other. Lyly's mind, for example,
became so saturated with this associated principle that it
influenced him even in the writing of pastorals. Hence
Mr. Warwick Bond notes in his excursus on Love's Meta-
morphosis^ that "there is visible an attempt at close con-
tinuity of action irreconcilable with the lapse of time which
the plot requires."^

^ The French term is used by me throughout in a broad technical scene to signify
a component part of the multiple setting. It would comprise a cave, or a wood (as
symbolised by a couple of trees).

2 Thus all the scenes in Endimion placed by Mr. Warwick Bond {Lyly's fVorksy
Vol. III.) in the " Gardens of the Palace " are wholly unlocated. The multiple setting
in this play was arranged in three parts, representing (i) The Lunary Bank, (2) The
Castle in the Desert, (3) The Magic Fountain.

^ For a clue to the origin of the unlocated scene, see C. F. Tucker Brooke, The
Tudor Drama^ p. 30. In the Flay of the Cotfuersion of Sir Jonathan the Jeiv by Miracle of
the Blessed Sacrament (c. 1480), three mansions were employed, the rest of the stage being
" unallotted territory " where the characters could meet to transact business, &c., &c.

■^ Lylfs Works, iii. 298.

Monsieur Feuillerat's Discoveries 239

It is noteworthy that " discoveries " could be made with
the multiple scene almost equally as well as on the ordinary
public stage and by a similar method. This lent illusion to
the action, especially in bed-chamber scenes. Most of the ^
mansions representing interiors such as shops, senate-houses
and caves were provided with double front curtains working
on poles and pulling back on either side. Consequently ^
although all these "apte howsesof paynted canvas " were
in situ before the play began, some of them remained con-
cealed from sight until the action called for the drawing of
the curtains. ^ There can be little doubt that all the records
to be found in the Revels Accounts of provision of material
for curtains in connection with various plays refer to the
curtains employed in front of the mansions. ^ Several years
ago, I was mightily puzzled to know for what these curtains
were used, and was half inclined to think some of them were
placed at the front of the stage, to be drawn away at the
beginning and to be closed at the end. ^ So much for view-
ing the past with a purely modern intelligence. It is time
for us to recognise that no direct evidence exists of the
employment of a front curtain in the court performances
of Elizabeth's reign and that the principle of the multiple
scene precluded the necessity of any such employment. '^
Apparently the front curtain came into vogue at a slightly
later period, with the introduction of the proscenium arch
and movable (i.e., successive) scenery. ,

It is apposite now to consider whether we have any ''
definite evidence of the employment of the <^</corj/w////^«^',
or multiple setting, on the stage of the first Blackfriars.
Without beating about the bush I may say at once that we

^ Cf. Sapbo and PhaOf iii. 3, and iv. 3 ; The Woman in the Moone, Acti. Abundant
analogies can be traced on the later French stage. See Eugene Rigal, op. cit. pp. 252-3.

2 Cunningham's Revels Accounts^ pp. 56, 85, 168.

^ See " Some characteristics of the Elizabethan-Stuart stage " in Englhcbe Studien,
Band 32 (1903), p. 40.

^ Elsewhere, at private entertainments, front curtains were occasionally used. On
January 3, 1593-4, when the Gentlemen of Gray's Inn presented a sort of masque in
their Hall before the Queen, a curtain drew at the beginning, exposing the altar to the
Goddess of Amity, and closed at the end. (Cf. Gesta Grayorum ; or the History of the
High and Mighty Prince Henry^ Prince cf PurpooUy London, 1688, p. 56). In the same
year The Comedy of Errors was acted in the same Hall.

240 New Facts about the Blackfriars :

have. Proof of the performance of Lyly's two court come-
dies, Sapho and Phao and Campaspe^ at the Blackfriars is
afforded us in the printing of the prologues and epilogues
spoken there in the quartos of 1584. ^ By scenic analysis
it will not be difficult to show that both were constructed
on the principle of the compound simultaneous scene and
that one, at least, could not have been acted on any stage
without the use of a multiple setting.

In Sapho and Phao three mansions were evidently em-
ployed, representing ( i ) Sybilla's cave, (2) Sapho's chamber,
(3) Vulcan's forge. According to my reading all the scenes
unassociated with some one of these three mansions were
unlocalised. Act i. takes place in the open, near the ferry.
Act ii. I, Sybilla's cave. At the close Sybilla goes off, leav-
ing Phao to begin Scene 2, in the open ; 3, unlocated ; 4,
in the open near the cave. Phao goes to the cave and
calls and Sybilla answers without entering. Act iii. i, un-
located ; 2, in the open ; 3, Sapho's chamber (with curtains
in front of the mansion). Sapho discovered in bed ^ . . . .
" Shee falleth asleepe. The curtaines drawne." . . . Sub-
sequently the curtains must have been re-opened just
before Sapho's long soliloquy (no direction). Act iv. i,
Sapho's chamber ; 2, the open ; 3, Sapho's chamber.
Seven characters on at the end but no direction for their
exeunt. Quare did they retire into the mansion F Sapho says,
"draw the curteine ". Scene 4, Vulcan's forge (elaborately
arranged : note song while the arrows are being made).
Act V. I, unlocated at the beginning; afterwards Venus
sends off Cupid, and, soliloquising, says she will await
his return at the forge, where she probably seats herself.

^ In both quartos the prologues for the Blackfriars precede the prologues for the
court, a true indication of their correct chronological order. That even the newest of
new plays was almost invariably given in public before being acted at court is shown by
an order from the Privy Council to the Lord Mayor, under date November i8, 1581,
preserved among the City Records. Acting having been prohibited in the city in
the July previous, the Lords of the Council authorise its renewal, so " that the Players
may be in readiness with convenient matters for the Queen's solace at Christmas, which
they cannot be without their usual exercise therein." (Cf. The A thenaeum^ January 23,
1869, p. 132, art. *' Plays and Players," letter 295.)

2 In scenes of this order on the ordinary public stage the bed was usually thrust
out from behind.

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Monsieur Feuillerat's Discoveries 241

Scene 2, Sapho's chamber, into which Venus (who speaks
at line 45 without entering) can see from the forge, as she
says, " I marvel Cupid cometh not all this while. How
now, in Sapho's lap ? " At the close of her speech Sapho
replies. Sapho's chamber at end of scene was probably con-
cealed again by the curtains. Sapho says, " Come, Milela,
shut the door {Exeunt) ". Scene 3, before Sybilla's cave. It
is plain, I think, to be seen from this analysis that the fifth
act could not have been given on any stage, public or
private, without the conjunctive employment of two
mansions. Hence we have reasonable proof of the use of
the multiple setting at the early Blackfriars. As some
doubts may be expressed as to the nature of the curtains
employed in the scenes laid in Sapho's chamber, whether
they were simply bed-curtains draped round a four-poster
or traverses hanging in front of the mansion^ I may say that
I arrived at the latter opinion strictly through French
analogy. At the Hotel de Bourgogne at a slightly later
period it was customary to stage all bed-room scenes, form-
ing part of a decor simultanSy in this way. Two examples will
suffice. They are taken from the property-man's memo-
randa for the staging of the plays. "Au milieu du theatre ",
we read of the Agarite of Durval, " il faut une chambre
garnie d'un superbe lit, le quel se ferme et ouvre quand il
en est besoin." Similarly the instruction regarding ha Folie
^'/j^M/^of Hardy begins "il faut que le theatre soit beau,
et a un des cotes une belle chambre, ou il y ait un beau lit,
des sieges pour s'asseoir. Ladite chambre s'ouvreet se ferme
plusieurs fois. Vous la pouvez mettre au milieu du theatre,
si vous voulez." ^

In his recension of Campaspe^ Mr. Warwick Bond (who
has no suspicion of the existence of the multiple-scene
principle and interprets Lyly's plays by the usages of the
public theatre) places the action in Athens in four distinct
scenes, representing (i) A Suburb, (2) Alexander's Palace,
(3) The Market Place (with Diogenes' Tub), (4) Apelles'
Shop. But according to my reading only three of the locali-

^ Eugene Rigal, op. cit., pp. 248-9.

24^ New Facts about the Blackfriars :

ties were materially symbolised, all the suburban scenes
being unlocated. Hence the scene would be arranged some-
what after the following manner :

Apelles' Shop.

Stage Front.

The Market Place was indicated simply by Diogenes'
tub, which, so far from being thrust up a trap when required
(as Mr. Bond surmises ^) remained on the stage from first
to last. Note that the tub stood on its end (at one juncture
Diogenes pries over it), and that there was some means of
getting into it unseen at the back. Diogenes sometimes
departs from the stage in the ordinary way, only to emerge
later from his tub. Without full conception of the multiple-
setting it is impossible to visualize all the various muta-
tions in the third act. That the action in the opening scene
oscillates rapidly from the inside to the outside of Apelles'
shop is indicated in Psydus' speech. The shop, or studio,
must have been a fairly solid construction with a curtain
in front of it, the necessity for the latter being indicated
by the discovery at the opening of scene 3, as well as by
the situation in act iv. 4, w^here Apelles is found painting
Campaspe. Here the direction " Campaspe alone " does
not signify that Apelles goes off (as Mr. Bond implies),
but that Campaspe emerges into the street and soliloquises.

^ Cf. C. F. Tucker Brooke, The Tudor Drama, pp. 173 and 432. It is painful to
find Mr. Brooke, not only accepting Mr. Bond's view, but going so far as to say that
in Lyly's court plays no efYbrt was made to visualize the scene. How then would he
explain away the strong collateral evidence of the Re-vels Accounti ?

Monsieur Feuillerat's Discoveries 243

Immediately after her departure, the page enters and
addresses Apelles, showing that the artist has been all the
time in his studio. Apart from these denotements, the
transfers of scene while the characters remain prove the
multiple-setting. Unlike Sapbo and Pbao^Campaspe vtould
have admitted, at a pinch, of staging by the ordinary public
theatre method, presuming the addition of a tub to the
conventional resources of the tiring-house fagade. But it
would have been at best a clumsy alternative, and my own
opinion is that both plays were given at the Blackfriars
exactly as they were represented at court.

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Index

INDEX

*#* The small superior figures refer to footnotes.

Academic plays, 58, 82, 1 14 Bond, R.Warwick 59^ 238,

Act-divisions, Origin 114 241-2

Actress, First English 129^ Bowman, Mr 91

Admission, Systems of 10, Boxes, Stage 166, 177, 179,

14, 30, 201^, 232 181, 186

Alternation, Theory of 32, Boyce, Dr. . . 215, 221-2

75 Brande, Thos. . . . 130-1

Antimasques, . . 104, 136 Brooke, C. F. Tucker 238'

Apron, The 91, 161, 165-6, 242^

170, 175 Browne, Dr. Edward 140^

Ariosto, Lodovico . 114-5 Burbage, James i, 10, 15,21

Armstrong, Sir Thos. 150, Burbage, Richard 21, 229

221 Busino,Orazio8i^, 104^, 1 18
Aulaeum, The ...11 1-20

Cambert, Robert ... 145

Baker, G. P. . . . 25^32 Card-playing in theatres, 35

Balconies, Stage 20, 160, Cellarage, Stage .... 19

169^172-7,179,187,189 Chambers, E. K., 55, 127^

Balon, Monsieur ... 152 Chambre a quatre portes.

Balustrades, Stage 18, 22 167

Bancrofts, The .... 184 Channell, Mr 214

Banister, John . 197, 221 Chapoton, 139

Barry, Mrs. . . . 148, 188 Chemnoveau, J. . . . 140

Bath, Players in . . . 230^ Childrenof the Chapel, The

Bedchamber scenes 240-1 15, 80, 88, 227-42

Beeston, Christopher 132 Children of the King's Re-

Behn, Aphra . . 173-4, 194 vels. The .... 16, 83

Bellamy, Mrs 178 Children of Windsor, 228

Bertie, Peregrine ... 151 Cibber, Colley 165, 170^,

Betterton, Thos. . 149-52, 171

213, 221 Cini, G. B 116

Boaden, Jas. .... 180-1 Continuous Performance, ,

Bolland, W.C 205' Theory of 75, 84, 87

26o

Index

^ Conventions, Elizabethan

stage 7, 9, 13^ 59, 159,

169-71, 237

Coryat, Thos 129

Coulisses, Origin of the 57
Court plays, 56-8, 60-1, 10 1,

1 1 5-6, 119-20,127, 132-

i33>i35-7> 140-2, 146-7,

151, 227-42

Cross, Miss 205

Crowds painted on scenery,

194^
Cummings, W. H. 209-24
Curtains, Stage 6, 92, 95-

96, III-2T, 170-1, 174-

1755 237-42
Curtain Tunes, 197, 198^

Dancing, Inter-act . 81-2
Dancing-place, The . 104
Daniel, Samuel .... 99
D'Avenant, Charles . 214
D'Avenant, Sir William 49,
95, 100, 105-6, 118, 140-
141,159. 1773 194', 195,

200\ 206, 210-14

Dekker, Thos. 29, 37, 6^^

Derrick, Samuel . . . 223
Designs for Masques, 106,

Deveil, Justice . . . 154-5
De Witt, Johannes 2, 3, 12,

32, 39
Doors, Stage 6, 19, 1,1,, 6s,

66^, 160, 164-89
Downes, Thos. 144, 194-9,

214-6, 2x8, 222

Dowton, W^illiam . . 184
Dublin, Theatrical customs

in 14, 53, 88, 178, 181'

222-3
Duffet, Thomas 204, 219
Dumb Shows, .... 76-7
Dundee, French players in

127
Dunton the bookseller, 164
Duperier, Francis . 150-1
Duration of performance, '

I3> 83, 85

Durieu, 148

Durocher, 132

Duryer, Pierre .... 133
Dryden, John, 142-3, 150,

168, 170^ 195-7, 202-4,

206, 214^

Eccles, J 220

Edinburgh, Drama in 119,
127^

Edwin, Mrs 185

Elizabeth, Queen 15, 239^
" Enter behind " . . 17 1-2
Evans, Henry . . 15, 229
Evans, H. A. . . 99^ 104^
Evelyn's Diary, 144, 146

Farmer, the composer, 217
Farrant, Richard 227, 234
Ferrara, The drama in 115
Fiurelli, Tiberio 143, 146,

149
Flags on theatres, 8, 13, 19,

25', 50, 232
Florence, Drama in 106^,

116

Index

261

Floridor, Joslas . . 133-6
Foote, Samuel ... 176
Footmen keeping seats, 142

Forestier, A 24^

France, Theatrical customs
of 142, i6i^ 194^ 237,
239^ 241
French Opera, first in Eng-
land, 144

Galleries, . 9, 11, 18, 234
Garrick, David 156, 206,

222^
Gatherers, . 14, 29, 232
Genga, Girolamo . . . 44^
Gildon, C. 152, 153, 194
Glapthorne, Henry . . 137
Godfrey, Walter H. 24, G6^
Gosson, Stephen 11, 228,

234
Gouvernet, Marquis de 1 53

Grabut, Louis 144-5, ^49"
150, 216^

Grahme, Mr 149

Grated stage boxes, . 36^
Green stage cloth for trage-
dies, 187-9

Grimaldi, Joseph . . . 187
Guard, military, in theatres

178-9

Haines, Joe . 141-2, 168
Hart, J. ... 198, 203
Hayes, Dr. Philip 209, 2 1 5
Heavens, The 8, 19, 40,

163^

Hentzner, Paul .... 81
Herbert, Sir Henry 89, 94^,
129-34, 210

Herringman, Henry 196,

204-5, -1 2', 221
Heywood, John ... 128

Holbrook, R 127

Humphreys, Pelham . 197
Hunnis, Wm. 228-9, 232

Inn-yard stages, . 1-5, 10
Intermedii, Italian . . 77
Italian comedians in Eng-
land, 143, 145-6

J igs, Elizabethan 13,21,81,

85-6
Johnson, Robert 211, 218
Jones, Inigo 46, 48, 99-

100, 102-3, i05-^> II7^

1 18-9, 136
Jonson, Ben 2>S~^^ ^^j ^55

86^99, 1 17-8
Jordan, Thos. . 23^ 129^

Kemble, John .... 206
Killigrew, Thos. . . . 93-6

La Roche-Guilhen, Mme.

147
Lattices, 164

Lee, Nat .... 2 1 6, 2 1 8

Leo X, 1 1 5-6

Lighting, artificial 16, 18^,

19, 21, 82, 120
Livri, Mdlle. de ... 153
Lock,Matt. 147,197,198^,

209-24
Lowe, R. W. . 164-7,177
Lyly,John 59, 127, 228-9,

232', 236-42
Lyndsay, Sir David . , ^6

262

Index

Machinery, Elizabethan

stage . 9

Magalotti, Count . . 21^
Maitland, J. Fuller . . 209^
Malone, Edmond 7, 32^,

34'> 9i> 93^ 94'
Marlowe, Chris. . 59, 230^
Marston, John 7 7-9, 86,117
Marvell, Andrew . . 146
Masques, Court 46-8, 69-

70, 88, 99, 117, 239^
Miracle Plays, 54-5, 125,

127^, 238^
Mist effects, .... 21, 86
Monconys, M. de . . 189
Monkemeyer, P. . . 88
Monnet, Jean .... 156
More, Sir William . 230
Mossop, Henry ... 223
Mulcaster, Richard . 228^
Multiple Scene, Principle of

the 55-9, 60-1, 64, 127,

^ZS. 236-43
Music, Preliminary 21^, 80^
Musicians, Position of 7,

90-5, 1 6 1-4
^Mysteries, French 54-5, 1 2 5

Novarro, John .... 135^
Noverre, 156

Opera, English 163-4, 197,

218
Opera, Early Italian io6\

161^
Orchestra, 39,91, 104, 162,

198'
Otway, Thos. . . . 194-5
Oxford, 1 7th Earl of 229-30

Paisible, James .... 147
Pallant, Robert .... 89
Paolucci, Alfonso ...115
Pastorals, Staging of 236
Pepys, Samuel 26, 92, 94^

139, 141, 161-2, 177,

212-3
Percy, Wm. 59, (^G^ 83, 236
Performances orally an-
nounced, 13^

Picturestage, Riseof the 16, '

17^20, 24, 159-60, 184'
Pit, The continental 17^

160; the seated, 17, 160,

188-9, 234

Pitel, Mdlle 148

Pitel, Henry 148

Platform stage. The 159-60 *
Platts, The .... 84, 89
Playbills,49\50,52,i42,232
Playgoers, Elizabethan,

habits of 1 2-4, 2 9-30, 34-

38, 5o\ 88
Preston, Lord . . 149-50
Prices of admission, 9-1 1,

37-8, 52, 201^^
Priest, Joseph .... 214
Private Theatre, Origin of

231-2

Prolss, R 87

Prompt copies, .... 68
Prompter, The . 68-9, 84
Properties, 57, 60-2, 66, 96 *
Proscenia, emblematic 46- »

49,102-3,105,119, 198,

239
Prynne, William 82, loi,

129, 131

Index

263

Purcell, Henry 205, 209-24

Rain effects, 21

Raisin, Mddle 148

Realism, Elizabethan Stage

20-1
Receipts, Division of 10- 11
Red Bull picture. The so-
called 18^, 32, 93
Reggio, Pietro 198-9,220
Rehearsal plays, . . 176-7
Reynolds, G. F. 6*, 43, 6^^^

6s\ 66, 68'
Rich, Christopher . . 165
Rigal, Eugene 55^ 56V 3 1^

167^194^241^
Riots, Theatrical 14^, 130,

154-6
Rochester, Lord . . . 148
Rousseau, Jacques . . 151

Sabattini, Nicolo ... 120
Saint Andre, . * . . 143-4
Saintsbury, Prof. 196^, 199
Saville, Henry .... 148
Scenes, Unlocated . 67-8,

238
Scenery, Revolving . 107
Scenery, successive. Rise of

71, 106, 135, 160, 172
Scenic systems, Italian 1 06-

107, 1 8 1-2
Scotland, early drama in ^6,

127
Scott, Clement .... 187
Scuderi ..... 133, 135
Serllo, Sebastian • • • 39
Settle, Elkanah 163, 168

"Shadow, The" . . 8, 19
Shadwell, Thos. 144, 193-

206, 216^, 218
Shakespeare, Wm. i, 68,

86-7, 205, 210
Sheridan, R. B. ... 176
Sheridan, Thos. . . . 222
Shirley, James ^^, loo-i,

118

Siddons, Mrs 180

Sidney, Sir Philip . 58,63
Siena, The drama In . .46
Singing, Inter-act . . 81-2

Siparium 112*

" Sixpenny Rooms " 36-7
Smith, John Christopher

206
Songs, Terminal . . 82-3
Sorbl^res, Samuel de . 188
Spanish players in England,

Spectators on the Stage, 8,

19-20, 29-30, 178, 188,

234-6
Squire, W. Barclay 197^,

216^
Stage, The Inner . 6, 171 '
Stage, The Projecting 18, •

34, 91, 165, 169
Stage, The Upper 7, 24^, '

32, 93> 95-6
Stages, Removable . 18-9
Stage-Keeper, The . . 69
Staggins, Nicholas 147, 149,

217
Staircases, External 11,24
Statues, Proscenium . 176
Steps, Proscenium . 103-4

264

Index

" Study, The " 6

Sublini, Mme 152

Sureis, John de ... 151
Swinburne, A. C. . 132^
Tableaux endings, . . 170
Theatres, Private, Charac-
teristics of 15-6, 21, 3o\
80-2, 88, 160, 230-1

THEATRES

PLATfORM-STAGE ERA

Blackfriars, The first 227-42

Do. The second 1 1,

15-22,25,67,71,77-80,

94-5> 129-30, 229,233-5

Cockpit, Drury Lane, 16,
18, 26,49,83,94, 132-3,

137, 139-40, i59> 196
Cockpit, Whitehall, 132-3,

144
Curtain, 2-4, 25

Fortune, The first 10, 2 1-3,

25> 34, 38, 11, 79-80
Fortune, The second 11,

26
Globe, The first 10, 21-3,

25, 34, 38, 71, 79, 80
Globe, The second 11, 26
Hope, 20, 24, 26, 38, 85,

87
Newington Butts, ... 25

Paul's, 15-6, 18,25,59-61,

66, 71, 82-3, 86^ 93

Phoenix {see Cockpit, D.L.)

Red Bull, 23, 26, 32, 92,

96, 130, 159

Rose, The 8, 11-12, 17,

25, 84
Salisbury Court, 26, 159
Swan, The 11-2,18,24-5,

32, 38, 91-2
Theater, The 1-4, 8, 10,

25, 227
Vere Street, . . . 26, 159
Whitefriars, 16, 26, 81, 83

PICTURE-STAGE ERA

Covent Garden, 145^ I77^

181, 183', 186
Drury Lane, 94, 121, 144^,

152, 156, 165, 168-9,
179-86, 206, 214, 219-
222

Duke's Theatre (Lincoln's
Inn Fields), 70, 1 42, 1 52^,

153, 159, i6i> 164, 167-
168,173-5,195,202,212

Duke's Theatre (Dorset
Gardens), 143-4, 146,
150, 151-2, 163, 168,
174, 193-205, 211', 212,
214-5, 218-9, 221

Goodman's Fields, . . 178

Haymarket, 154, 176, 183^,
184'

King's Theatre, Haymarket,
1 8 1-2

Lincoln's Inn Fields, (1695-

1733), 168

Lyceum, 186-7

Olympic, 186

Pantheon, 182

Prince of Wales, . . . 184
Royal Standard, ... 187

Index 265

Sadlers Wells, .... 187 Trentham, Lord ... 156

Surrey, .../.... 187 Tunes called for, ... 88

Theatre Royal, Bridges Turret, Elizabethan, Uses

Street, 94, 142, 144-5, of 8-9, 19

159, 162, 167-8, 176, Twelvepenny rooms, 37*,

202-3, 212^ 38-9

PROVINCIAL u^^l^ Nicholas .... 76

Dublin, 53, 164, 178, 222-3 Underhill, Nicholas . . 89

Liverpool, 189

Manchester, .... 184^ Vasari, Giorgio .... 116

Verney, John .... 147

FOREIGN Vicenza, Drama in . . 116

American, . . . 163^, 179 .

French, 134, 141, I42^ 143, wTJ' ^' ^ * * I ' ^t

T^n-T mn OAj Walker, Dr. Ernest 216^

lUU 1, 1 /U, Z4I 11 1 A T> 1

Greek, iii, 187 Wa Ikley, A. B. ... 159^

Italian, .... 9, 107, 129 Wallace, C. W. 15^^, 16^,

Pompeian, .... 112-3 i?? ^^j 21, 30^, 80,

Roman, 111-14 ^,,^32', 233^ 234-5

Walsmgham, Sir Francis
230

Three trumpet blasts. The Wegener, R. . . . 39^ 91

9,80 Westwood (actor), . . 195

Thunder, Stage 9 Whetstone, 85

Tireman, The . 69, 141 Whitbread, Samuel . 184

Tiring-house, The 5-6,19- Whitelock,SirBulstrode 88

. 20, 30, 32, 93, 95, III, Wilkinson, Tate . 33, 177

160 Window Scenes 7, 19, 173-

Tobacco- smoking in thea- 174

tres, 13) 29 Women spectators, . . 13

Tragedy, Draperies for 7 Wren, Sir Christopher 144

\ Traps, Stage . . . . 18, 19 Wright, Henry ... 219
, "Traverses" 6, 92, 95, 1 12^

117-8 Yard, The .... 11, 24^

Trees, Real, used . . 236 Young (actor) .... 213

Lawrence, William John

2589

The Elizabethan play-

house

v.l

cop. 2

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