Before the suppression of the monasteries, Coventry was famous for the pageants that were played there on Corpus Christi day: they were acted with great state and reverence by the Grey Friars, who had theatres for the several scenes, very large and high, placed upon wheels, and drawn to all the principal parts of the city, for the better advantage of the spectators. (Historia Histrionica.)

Hawkins and Dodsley have reprinted some of our earliest dramas. The scriptural and religious plays were called Mysteries, the moral plays were called Moralities.

Malone says, "The time is not exactly fixed at "which Moralities gave way to the introduction of regular Tragedies and Comedies.

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Perhaps this change was not effected on a sudden, but the "audiences were to be gradually weaned from their "accustomed modes of amusement."

Gammer Gurton's Needle used to be considered as our first regular Comedy, but it now appears that Ralph Royster Doyster was written before it.

Malone says, "There are but 34 regular plays "now extant, which were printed before 1592, when "there is good reason to believe Shakspeare had "commenced dramatic writer. Between 1592 and "1600, 24 more plays were published or exhibited, "some of which were probably written before any "of Shakspeare's."

The prologue to Dryden's alteration of Troilus and Cressida was spoken by Betterton, as representing the Ghost of Shakspeare. Dryden makes

him say,

"I found not, but created first the Stage."

Dr. Johnson observes, "The greater part of Shakspeare's excellence was the product of his "own genius. He found the English stage in a "state of the utmost rudeness; neither character "nor dialogue were yet understood. Shakspeare

may be said to have introduced them both among "us, and in some of his happier scenes to have "carried them both to their utmost height."

Dr. Johnson was probably but little acquainted with the plays written before those of Shakspeare. Dryden's assertion is certainly wrong. Shakspeare did not create the stage; he only improved what he found. Some of the 34 plays enumerated by Malone as written before 1592, are as regular plays as those of Shakspeare, whatever difference there may be between them in other points.

Most, if not all, of Shakspeare's plays were performed at the Globe, or the Theatre in Blackfriars. It appears that they both belonged to the same company of comedians, viz. his Majesty's servants; which title they assumed after a license had been granted them by James the 1st in 1603, having been before that time called the servants of the Lord Chamberlain.

The Theatre in Blackfriars was a private house. What were the peculiar and distinguishing marks of a private playhouse it is not easy to ascertain; we only know that it was very small.

The Globe, which was on the southern side of the Thames, was partly open to the weather, and partly covered with reeds: it was a public Theatre, and of a considerable size.

Many of our ancient dramatic pieces were per

formed in the yards of Carriers' Inns, in which, in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the comedians, who then first united themselves into companies, erected an occasional stage. The galleries were, as in our modern theatres, ranged over each other, on three sides of the building. The small rooms, under the lowest of the galleries, answer to our present boxes; and these, even after regular theatres were built, still retained their old name, and are frequently called rooms by our ancient writers. The yard bore a sufficient resemblance to the pit as at present in use; and we may suppose the stage to have been raised in this area, with its back to the gateway of the inn, at which the money for admission was taken. Thus, in fine weather, a playhouse, not incommodious, might have been formed. Hence in the middle of the Globe, and probably in other public theatres in the time of Shakspeare, there was an open yard, or area, where the common people stood to see the exhibition; from which circumstance they are called by Shakspeare, groundlings; and by Ben Jonson, the understanding gentlemen of the ground. In 1646, it appears that there were seats in the pit of the private playhouses.

The galleries, or scaffolds, as they are sometimes called, and that part of the house which in private theatres was named the pit, seem to have been of the same price; and, probably, in houses of reputation, such as the Globe and Blackfriars, the price of admission into those parts of the theatre was sixpence, while in some meaner playhouses it was only a penny, and in others two-pence. The price of admission into the best rooms, or boxes, was seem

ingly, in Shakspeare's time, a shilling, though afterwards it appears to have risen to two shillings and half-a-crown.

Malone supposes that the Globe was capable of containing as many persons as would produce somewhat more than £35; but that £20 was probably esteemed a considerable receipt, as the whole company received but half that sum for the exhibition of a play at Court.

From several passages in our old plays, we learn that spectators were admitted on the stage, and that the critics and wits of the time usually sat there; some were placed on the ground, others sat on stools, the price of which was either sixpence or a shilling, probably according to the commodiousness of the situation; and they were attended by pages with pipes and tobacco, which was smoked here as well as in other parts of the house. Yet it should seem that persons were suffered to sit on the stage only in private playhouses, (such as Blackfriars, &c.) where the audience was more select, and of a higher class; and that at the Globe, and other public theatres, no such licence was permitted.

This custom of sitting and lying on the stage accounts for Shakspeare's placing Hamlet at Ophelia's feet during the representation of the play. What some did from œconomy, others might choose from gallantry. The stage was strewed with rushes, which, at that time, was the usual covering of floors in England. The curtain was not drawn up by lines and pullies, but opened in the middle, and was drawn backward and forward on an iron rod. (Malone.)

It has been doubted whether, in our ancient

theatres, there were side and other scenes. Steevens is of opinion that they were not unfurnished with scenes, and assigns his reasons for so thinking; but Gifford wonders how he could so strenuously contend for a most hopeless cause. Malone is inclined to believe that the mechanism of the ancient stage seldom went beyond a painted chair or a trap-door; that few, if any, theatres had any moveable scenes; and that, in general, they were only furnished with curtains, and a single scene composed of tapestry. In the early part of dramatic exhibitions, the want of scenery seems to have been supplied by the simple expedient of writing the names of the different places where the scene was laid in the progress of the play, which were disposed in such a manner as to be visible to the audience.

How little the imagination of the spectators was assisted by scenical deception, and how much necessity Shakspeare had to call on them to " piece "out imperfections with their thoughts," may be collected from what Sir Philip Sidney says of the stage in his time. "Now you shall see three ladies "walk to gather flowers, and then we must believe

the stage to be a garden. By and bye we hear "news of a shipwreck in the same place, and then "we are to blame if we accept it not for a rock. "Upon the back of that comes out a hideous mon"ster, with fire and smoke, and then the miserable "beholders are bound to take it for a cave; while, "in the mean time, two armies fly in, represented "with four swords and bucklers, and then what "hard heart will not receive it for a pitched field?” (Malone.)