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VOL: I. that age. The epilogue was not always spoken by one of PROLEGO- the performers in the piece, for that fubjoined to The Second Part of King Henry IV. appears to have been delivered by a dancer.

ΜΕΝΑ.

The performers of male characters generally wore periwigs, which in the age of Shakspeare were not in common ufe. It appears from a paffage in Puttenham's Art of English Poefy, 1589, that vizards were on fome occafions used by the actors of thofe days; and it may be inferred from a fcene in one of our author's comedies, that they were sometimes worn in his time, by thofe who performed female characters". But this, I imagine, was very rare. Some of the female part of the audience likewife appeared in masks ". The

NOTES.

See Hamlet, act III. fc. ii. " O it offends me to the foul to hear a robuftious periwig-pated fellow, tear a paffion to tatters." So, in Every Woman in her Humour, 1609: "As none wear hoods but monks and ladies,-and feathers but fore-horses, &c. none periwigs but players and pictures."

t 66

partly (fays he) to fupply the want of players, when there were more parts than there were perfons."

"In The Midfummer Night's Dream, Flute objects to his playing a woman's part, because he has " a beard a coming." But his friend Quince tells him, "that's all one; you shall play it in a mask, and you may fpeak as finall as you will."

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"In our affemblies at playes in London (fays Goffon, in his Schoole of Abufe, 1579, Sig. C.) you fhall fee fuch heaving and fhoving, fuch ytching and fhouldring to fitte by women, fuch care for their garments that they be not trode on; fuch eyes to their lappes that no chippes light in them; fuch pillows to their backes that they take no hurte; fuch masking in their ears, I know not what; fuch giving them pippins to pafs the time; fuch playing at foot-faunte without cardes; fuch licking, fuch toying, fuch fmiling, fuch winking, fuch manning them home when the fports are ended, that it is a right comedie to mark their behaviour."

So alfo the prologue to Marston's Fawne, 1606:
nor doth he hope to win

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"Your laud or hand with that most common fin
"Of vulgar pens, rank bawdry, that smells
"Even through your masks, ufque ad naufeam."

So, in our author's Romeo and Juliet:

"Thefe happy mafts that hide fair ladies' brows."

Again, in Meafure for Mcafure:

The ftage-dreffes, it is reasonable to fuppofe, were much VOL. I. more coftly at fome theatres than others. Yet the wardrobe PROLEGO. of even the king's fervants at the Globe and Black-friars, was, MENA. we find, but fcantily furnished; and our author's dramas derived very little aid from the fplendor of exhibition *.

It is well known, that in the time of Shakspeare, and for many years afterwards, female characters were reprefented by boys or young men. Sir William D'Avenant, in imitation of the foreign theatres, first introduced females in the fcene, and Mrs. Betterton is faid to have been the first woman that appeared on the English ftage. Andrew Pennycuicke played the part of Matilda, in a tragedy of Davenport's, in 1655; and Mr. Kynafton acted feveral female

NOTES.

as thefe black masks

"Proclaim an enfhield beauty ten times louder
"Than beauty could difplay'd."

Again, in B. Jonfon's verfes, addreffed to Fletcher on his
Faithful Shepherdess:

"The wife and many-headed bench that fits

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Upon the life and death of plays and wits,

Compos'd of gamefter, captain, knight, knight's man,

"Lady or pufil, that wears make or fan,

"Velvet or taffata cap, rank'd in the dark

"With the fhop's foreman, or fome fuch brave sparke,
"(That may judge for his fixpence) had, before
"They faw it half, damn'd thy whole play."

After the Restoration, mafks, I believe, were chiefly worn in the theatre, by women of the town. Wright complains of the great number of masks in his time: "Of late the play-houses are fo extremely pestered with vizard masks and their trade, (occafioning continual quarrels and abufes) that many of the more civilized part of the town are uneafy in the company, and fhun the theatre as they would a house of scandal." Hift. Hiftrion. 1699.

Ladies of unblemished character, however, wore masks in the boxes, in the time of Congreve.

* See the induction to Ben Jonfon's Staple of News, acted by the king's fervants, in 1625:

"O Curiofity, you come to fee who wears the new fuit today; whofe cloaths are beft pen'd, whatever the part be; which actor has the best leg and foot; what king plays without cuffs, and bis queen without gloves: who rides poft in stockings, and dances in boots."

parts

VOL. I.

PROLEGO
MENA.

parts after the Restoration. Downes, a contemporary of his,
affures us,
"that being then very young, he made a com-
plete ftage beauty, performing his parts fo well, (particu-
larly Arthiope and Aglaura) that it has fince been difputable
among the judicious, whether any woman that fucceeded
him, touched the audience fo fenfibly as he "."

Both the prompter, or book-holder, as he was fometimes called, and the property-man, appear to have been regular appendages of our ancient theatresz.

No writer that I have met with, intimates that, in the time of Shakspeare, it was customary to exhibit more than a fingle dramatick piece on one day.

The Yorkshire Tragedy, or Ail's one, indeed, appears to have been one of four pieces that were reprefented on the fame day; and Fletcher has also a piece called Four Plays in One; but probably, these were either exhibited on fome particular occafion, or were ineffectual efforts to introduce a new species of amufement; for we do not find any other inftances of the fame kind. Had any fhorter pieces been exhibited after the principal performance, fome of them probably would have been printed: but there are none extant of an earlier date than the time of the Restoration. The practice therefore of exhibiting two dramas fucceffively in the fame evening, we may be af fured, was not established before that period. But though the audiences in the time of our author, were not gratified by the reprefentation of more than one drama in the fame.

NOTES.

Rofc. Anglican. p. 19.

"I affure you Sir, we are not fo officioufly befriended by him [the author] as to have his prefence in the tiring-houfe, to prompt us aloud, flamp at the book-holder, fwear for our properties, curfe the poor tireman, rayle the muficke out of tune, &c." Induction to Cynthia's Revels, 1601.

a Soon after the Restoration, Sir William D'Avenant exhibited, I believe, the firft farce that appeared on the English. stage, tranflated from Moliere's Sganarelle ou le Cocu Imaginaire; which, Langbaine fays, ufed to be acted after the tragedy of Pompey, written by Mrs. Katherine Philips. It was afterwards incorporated, by D'Avenant in a piece of five acts, called The Play-boufe to be let, where only it is now to be found. In 1677, The Cheats of Scapin was performed, as a fecond piece, after Titus and Berenice, a play of three acts, in order to furnish out an exhibition of the ufual length; and about the fame time farces were produced by Duffet, Tate, and others.

day

day, the entertainment was diverfified, and the populace VOL. I. diverted, by vaulting, tumbling, flight of hand, and mor- PROLEGOris-dancing; a mixture not much more heterogeneous than MENA. that with which we are daily prefented, a tragedy and a farce.

The amusements of our ancestors, before the commencement of the play, were of various kinds. While fome part of the audience entertained themfelves with reading, or playing at cards, others were employed in lefs refined occupations; in drinking ale, or fmoaking to

NOTES.

"For the eye, beside the beautie of the houses and the frages, he [the devil] fendeth garish apparel, mafques, vaulting, tumbling, dancing of gigges, galiardes, morifcoes. bobby-horfes, fbewing of juggling cafles-nothing forgot, that might ferve to fet out the matter with pompe, or ravish the beholders with variety of pleasure." Goffon's School of Abuse. Sig. G.

So, in Fitz-Jeoffery's Satires, 1617:

"Ye worthy worthies! none elfe, might I chufe,
Doe I defire my poefie perufe,

"For to fave charges ere the play begin,

"Or when the lord of liberty comes in."

Again, in a fatire at the conclufion of The Maftive, or young Whelpe of the old Dogge.-Epigrams and Satires; printed by Thomas Creede:

[The author is fpeaking of those who will probably purchase his book.]

Laft comes my fcoffing friend, of fcowring wit,
"Who thinks his judgment 'bove all arts doth fit.
"He buys the booke, and haftes him to the play,
"Where when he comes and reads, "here's stuff,"
doth fay;

"Because the lookers on may hold him wife,

"He laughs at what he likes, and then will rise,

"And takes tobacco; then about will looke,

"And more diflike the play than of the booke; "At length is vext he should with charge be drawne "For fuch flight fights to lay a fuite to pawne." "Before the play begins, fall to cardes." Gul's Horn book,

1609.

See The Woman-Hater, a comedy, by B. and Fletcher, 1607: "There is no poet acquainted with more fhakings and quakings towards the latter end of his new play, when he's in that cafe that he stands peeping between the curtains, fo fearfully, that a bottle of ale cannot be opened but he thinks fome body hiffes."

bacco :

!

:

VOL. I. bacco with thefe they were furnished by male attendants, PROLEGO- of whofe clamour, a fatirical writer of the time of James I. loudly complains 8.

MENA.

It was a common practice to carry table-books to the theatre, and either from curiofity, or enmity to the author, or fome other motive, to write down paffages of the play that was reprefented: and there is reafon to believe that the imperfect and mutilated copies of fome of Shakipeare's dramas, which are yet extant, were taken down in fhorthand during the exhibition '.

NOTE S.

"Now, Sir, I am one of your gentle auditors that am come in. I have my three forts of tobacco in my pocket; my light by me-and thus I begin." Induction to Cynthia's Revels, 1651.

So, in Bartholomew Fair, by Ben Jonfon: "He looks like a fellow that I have feen accomodate gentlemen with tobacco at our theatres."

Again, in Decker's Gul's Horn-booke: "By fitting on the stage, you may with finall coft purchafe the deare acquaintance of the boyes; have a good flool for fixpence ;-get your matchlighted, &c." Pr'ythee what's the play?

66

"I'll fee it and fit it out whate'er.

"Had Fate fore-read me in a crowd to die,
"Or be made adder-deaf with pippin-cry."

Notes from Black-fryars by H. Fitz-Jeoffery, 1617. See the induction to Mariton's Malecontent, a comedy, 1604: "I am one that hath feen this play often, and can give them [Heminge, Burbage, &c.] intelligence for their action; I have mon of the jefts here in my table-book.”

So, in the prologue to Hannibal and Scipio, 1637:

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Nor fhall he in plush,

"That from the poet's labours, in the pit

"Informs himself, for the exercise of his wit

"At taverns, gather notes.".

Again, in the prologue to The Woman Hater, a comedy, 1607: "If there be any lurking among you in corners, with tablebooks, who have fome hopes to find fit matter to feed his malice on, let them clafp them up, and flink away, or ftay and be con

verted."

Again, in Every man in his Humour :

"But to fuch wherever they fit concealed, let them know, the author defies them and their writing-tables."

Sce vol. VI. p. 647.

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