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THE ECONOMY AND USAGES OF OUR ANCIENT THEATRES.

THE drama before the time of Shakspeare was

fo little cultivated, or fo ill understood, that to many it may appear unneceffary to carry our theatrical researches higher than that period. Dryden has truly observed, that he "found not, but created firft the ftage;" of which no one can doubt, who confiders, that of all the plays issued from the prefs antecedent to the year 1592. when there is reafon to believe he commenced a dramatick writer, the titles are fcarcely known, except to antiquaries; nor is there one of them that will bear a fecond perusal. Yet thefe, contemptible and few as they are, we may fuppofe to have been the most popular productions of the time, and the best that had been exhibited before the appearance of Shakfpeare.'

There are but thirty-eight plays, (exclufive of myfteries, VOL. III.

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A minute investigation, therefore, of the origin and progrefs of the drama in England, will scarcely repay the labour of the inquiry. However, as the beft introduction to an account of the internal economy and ufages of the English theatres in the time of Shakspeare, (the principal object of this differtation,) I fhall take a cursory view of our most ancient dramatick exhibitions, though I fear I can add but little to the researches which have already been made on that fubject.

Mr. Warton in his elegant and ingenious Hiftory of English Poetry has given so accurate an account of

moralities, interludes, and tranflated pieces,) now extant, written antecedent to, or in, the year 1592. Their titles are as follows:

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our earliest dramatick. performances, that I fhall make no apology for extracting from various parts of his valuabe work, fuch particulars as fuit my prefent purpose.

The earliest dramatick entertainments exhibited in England, as well as every other part of Europe, were of a religious kind. So early as in the beginning of the twelfth century, it was cuftomary in England on holy festivals to reprefent, in or near the churches, either the lives and miracles of faints, or the moft. important ftories of Scripture. From the fubject of these spectacles, which, as has been obferved, were either the miracles of faints, or the more mysterious parts of holy writ, fuch as the incarna

Between the years 1592 and 1600. the following plays were printed or exhibited; the greater part of which, probably, were written before our author commenced playwright. Cleopatra Edward I.

Battle of Alcazar
Wounds of Civil War
Selymus, Emperor of the
Turks
Cornelia

Mother Bombie

The Cobler's Prophecy
The Wars of Cyrus
King Leir
Taming of a Shrew

An old Wives Tale
Maid's Metamorphofes
Love's Metamorphofes
Pedler's Prophecy
Antonius

Edward III.
Wily Beguiled

} 1593

Woman in the Moon
Mucedorus

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1597

The virtuous Octavia
Blind Beggar of Alex- 1598
andria

Every Man in his Humour
Pinner of Wakefield
Warning for fair Women
1594 David and Bethfabe
Two angry Women of
Abingdon

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1595

The Cafe is altered
Every Man out of his

Humour

The Trial of Chevalry
Humourous Day's Mirth
Summer's laft Will and
Teftament

1599

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tion, paffion, and refurrection of Chrift, thefe fcriptural plays were denominated Miracles, or Myfteries. At what period of time they were first exhibited in this country, I am unable to ascertain. Undoubtedly, however, they are of very great antiquity; and Riccoboni, who has contended that the Italian theatre is the moft ancient in Europe, has claimed for his country an honour to which it is not entitled. The era of the earliest representation in Italy, founded on holy writ, he has placed in the year 1264. when the fraternity del Gonfalone was established; but we had fimilar exhibitions in England above 150 before that time. In the year 1110. as Dr. Percy and Mr. Warton have observed, the Miracle-play of Saint Catharine, written by Geoffrey, a learned Norman, (afterwards Abbot of St. Alban's,) was acted, probably by his scholars, in the abbey of Dunftable; perhaps the first spectacle of this kind exhibited in England. William Fitz-Stephen, a monk of Canterbury, who according to the best accounts compofed his very curious work in 1174. about four years after the murder. of his patron Archbishop Becket, and in the twenty-firft year of the reign of King Henry the Second, mentions, that London, for its theatrical exhibitions, has

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a The French theatre cannot be traced higher than the year 1398. when the Mystery of the Paffion was represented at St. Maur.

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3 "Apud Duneftapliam quendam ludum de fancta Katerina (quem MIRACULA vulgariter appellamus) fecit. Ad quæ decoranda, petiit a facrifta fancti Albani, ut fibi cape chorales accommodarentur, & obtinuit." Vitæ Abbat. ad cale. Hift. Mat. Paris, folio, 1639. p. 56.

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