DUMB SHOWS.

In the preceding rapid sketch of the dramatic amusements of our ancestors we have endeavored to give a general idea of these entertainments in their complete and normal form; that is, when the action selected for the subject of the piece was illustrated with dialogue, and the exhibitor addressed himself to the ears as well as to the eyes of his audience. It must not be forgotten that both the subjects of the Mysteries and those of the Moralities were sometimes exhibited in dumb show. A scene of Holy Writ or some event in the life of a saint was represented in a

kind of tableau vivant by disguised and costumed personages, and this representation was often placed on a sort of wheeled platform and exhibited continually during those long processions which formed the principal features of the festivities of an

cient times.

These tableaux vivants were also introduced into the great halls

welcomed the royal stranger in the thirteenth century with barbarous Latin hymns, were gradually supplanted by the Virtues and allegorical qualities; and these in their turn, when the Renaissance had disseminated a universal passion for classical imagery, made way for the Cupids, the Muses, and other classical personages whose influence has continued almost to the literature of our own time.

LATIN PLAYS.

Such spectacles as we have just been alluding to, which were so common that the chronicles of every European nation are filled with records of them, were of course frequently exhibited at the Universities: but in the hands of these bodies the shows naturally acquired a more learned character than they had elsewhere. It was almost universal in those times that the students should employ Latin on all official occasions: this was necessary, partly from the multitude of nations composing the body of the students, and who required some common language which they could all understand. A large number of pieces, generally written upon the models of Terence and Seneca, were produced and represented at this time. The times of Elizabeth and James were peculiarily fertile in Latin dramas composed at the Universities; and these sovereignsthe first of whom was remarkably learned in an age of general diffusion of classical studies, while in the second erudition had degenerated into pedantrywere entertained by the students of Oxford and Cambridge with Latin plays.

during the elaborate banquets which were the triumphs of ancient magnificence; and thus this species of entertainment is inseparably connected with those pageants so often employed to gratify the vanity of citizens or to compliment an illustrious visitor. These pageants, whether simply consisting of the exhibition, on some lofty platform, in the porch or churchyard of a cathedral, in the town hall, or over the city gate, of a number of figures suitably dressed, or accompanying their action with poetical declamation and music, necessarily partook of all the changes of taste which characterized the age: the Prophets and Saints who

English language were remarkable for the gravity and elevation of their language, the dignity of their sentiments, and the dryness and morality of their style. They are, it is true, extremely crowded with bloody and dolorous events, rebellions, treasons, murders, and regicides; but there is very little attempt to delineate character, and certainly not the slightest trace of that admixture of comic action and dialogue which is so characteristic of the later theater of England, in which the scene struggled to imitate the irregularity and the vastness of human life.

A good example of these early plays is the Tragedy of Gorboduc or Ferrex and Porrex, written by Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst (the principal writer in the "Mirrour

for Magistrates"), and Thomas Norton, and acted in 1562 for the entertainment of Queen Elizabeth, by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple. The subject of this play is borrowed from the old halfmythological Chronicles of Britain, and the principal event is similar to the story of Eteocles and Polynices, a legend which has furnished the materials not only to the genius of Eschylus, but to that of Racine and Schiller. But

heavy; for no weight and depth of moral and political apothegm, with which the work abounds, can compensate for the total want of life, of sentiment, and passion. Another work of a similar character is Damon and Pythias, acted before the Queen at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1566. This play, which is in rhyme, is a mixture of tragedy and comedy. Its author was Richard Edwards, the compiler of the miscellany called The Paradise of Dainty Devices. He also wrote Palamon and Arcite, the beautiful story so inimitably treated by Chaucer in The Knight's Tale, and afterward in Beaumont and Fletcher's romantic play The Two Noble Kinsmen. In 1578 was acted Promos and Cassandra, by George Whetstone, chiefly curious

though the subject of this piece is derived from the national records, whether authentic or mythical, the treatment exhibits strong marks of classic imitation, though rather after the manner of Seneca than of Æschylus or Sophocles. Seneca enjoyed a most surprising reputation at the revival of letters. The dialogue of Gorboduc is in blank verse, which is regular and carefully constructed; but it is totally destitute of variety of pause, and consequently is a most insufficient vehicle for dramatic dialogue. The sentence almost invariably terminates with the line, and the effect of the whole is insufferably formal and

* Blank verse was first introduced by Lord Surrey in his translation of the Eneid. It was next used by Grimold, who, according to Warton, gave it "new strength, elegance and modulation." Sackville was the third writer who employed it.

as having furnished the subject of Shakspeare's Measure for Measure. All these plays are marked by a general similarity of style and treatment, and belong to about the same period.

EARLY COMEDIES.

In the department of Comedy the first English works which made their

appearance, very little anterior to the above pieces, offer a most striking contrast in their tone and treatment. It would almost seem as if the national genius, destined to stand unrivaled in the peculiar vein of humor, was to prove that while in tragic and sublime delineations it might encounter, not indeed superiors, but rivals,-in the grotesque, the odd, the laughable, it was to stand alone. The earliest comedy in the language was Ralph Royster Doyster, acted in 1551, and written by Nicholas Udall, who for a time executed the duties of Master of Eton College. This was followed, about fourteen years later, by Gammer Gurton's Needle, composed by John Still, afterward Bishop of Bath and Wells, and who had previously been Master of St. John's and Trinity Colleges in Cambridge. This piece was probably acted by the students of the society over which the author presided, and was long considered to have been the

earliest regular comedy in the English language: but it was afterward established that the work of Udall preceded it by a short interval. Both these works are highly curious and interesting, not only as being the oldest specimens of the class of literature to which they belong, but in some measure from their intrinsic merit. There can be no question that the former comedy is far superior to the second: it is altogether of a higher order, both in conception and execution. The action takes place in London, and the principal characters are a rich and pretty widow, her lover, and several

of her suitors, the chief of whom is the foolish personage who gives the title to the play. This ridiculous pretender to gayety and love, a young heir just put into possession of his fortune, is sur

rounded by a number of in

triguers and flatterers who

pretend to be his friends, and

who lead their dupe into all sorts of absurd and humiliating scrapes; and the piece ends with the return of the favored lover from a voyage which he had undertaken in a momentary pique. The manners represented are those of the middle class of the period, and the picture given of London citizen life in the middle of the sixteenth century is curious, animated and natural. The language is lively, and the dialogue is

loss comparatively serious, when needles were rare and costly. The whole intrigue consists in the search instituted after this unfortunate little implement, which is at last discovered by Hodge himself, on suddenly sitting down, sticking in the garment which Gammer Gurton had been repairing.

A comparison between these early comedies, and Gammer Gurton in particular, and that curious and interesting piece Maistre Pierre Pathelin, which is regarded as the first specimen of the French comic stage, would not be uninstructive. In both the

transition from the sottie or farce to regular comedy is plainly perceptible; and it must be confessed that in the humorous delineation of character, as well as in probability and variety of incident, the French piece has decidedly the advantage. The form of the dialogue, being in both cases a sort of easy doggerel verse, little removed from the real language of the classes represented, has great similarity; though the French comedy is, as far as its diction is concerned, far more archaic and difficult to a modern French reader than the English of Gammer Gurton to an English one. This indeed may be generally remarked, that our language has undergone. less radical changes in the space of time which has elapsed from the first appearance of literary productions among us than any of the other cultivated dialects of Europe.

STROLLING PLAYERS.

It will be inferred from what has been said respecting the custom of acting plays at Court, in the mansions of great lords, in the Universities, and in the Inns of Law, that regular public theaters were not yet in existence. The actors were to a certain degree amateurs, and were frequently literally the

domestics of the sovereign and the nobles, wearing their badges and liveries, and protected by their patronage. The line of demarkation between musical performers, singers, jugglers, tumblers, and actors was for a long period very faintly traced. The Court plays were frequently represented by the children of the royal chapel, and placed, as the dramatic profession in general was for a long time, under the peculiar supervision of the Office of the Revels, which was obliged also to exercise the duties. of a dramatic censor. These bodies of actors, singers, tumblers, etc., were frequently in the habit of wandering about the country, performing wherever they could find an audience, sometimes in the mansions of rural grandees, sometimes in the town halls of provincial municipalities, sometimes in the courtyards of inns. Protected by the letters-patent and the livery of their master against the severe laws which qualified strollers as vagabonds, they generally began their proceedings by begging the countenance and protection of the authorities; and the accounts of the ancient municipal bodies, and the household registers of the great families of former times, abound in entries of permissions given to such strolling parties of actors, tumblers, and musicians, and of sums granted to them in recompense of their exertions. It is curious to remark that the amount of such sums seems to have been calculated less in reference to the talent displayed in the representation, than to the degree of respect which the grantors wished to show to the patron under whose protection the troop happened to be.

This state of things, however, had existed long before; for in the accounts of the ancient monasteries we frequently meet with entries of gratuities given, not only to traveling preachers from other religious bodies, but even to minstrels, jugglers, and other professors of the arts of entertainment. Nothing was more easy than to transform the ancient hall of a college, palace, or nobleman's mansion into a theater sufficiently convenient in the then primitive stage of dramatic representation. The dais or elevated platform at the upper extremity was a stage ready made; it was only necessary to hang up a curtain, and to establish a few screens covered with tapestry, to produce a scene sufficient for the purpose. When the performance took place in an inn, which was very common, the stage was established on a platform in the center of the yard; the lower

classes of spectators stood upon the ground in front of it, which custom is preserved in the designation parterre, still given by the French to the pit. The latter denomination is a record of the circumstance that in England theatrical representations often took place in cockpits. Indeed, there at one time existed in London a theater called the Cockpit, from the circumstance of its having been originally an arena for that sport. The ancient inns, as may be seen by many specimens still in existence, were built round an open court-yard, and along each story internally ran an open gallery, upon which opened the doors and windows of the small chambers occupied by the guests. In order to witness the performance the inmates had only to come out into the gallery in front of their rooms; and the convenience of this arrangement unquestionably suggested the principal features of construction when buildings were first specifically destined for scenic performances. The galleries of the old inns were the prototypes of the circles of boxes in our modern theaters.

THE OLD ENGLISH THEATERS.

But the taste for dramatic entertainment grew rapidly more general and ardent; and in the course of time in many places, particularly in London, not only did special societies of professional actors begin to come into existence, but special edifices were constructed for their exhibitions. Indeed, at one period, it is supposed that at London and its suburbs contained at least twelve different theaters, of various degrees of size and convenience. We are informed by Collier that between 1570 and 1600 there had been built the Theater, 1570; the Curtain, 1580; the Blackfriars, 1576; the Rose, 1585; the Hope, 1585; Paris Garden, 1588; the Globe, 1594; the Swan, 1595; and the Fortune, 1599. In 1600, an order from the Privy Council restricted the number of playhouses to two, viz. the Globe and the Fortune.

The most celebrated of these was the Globe, for at that time each playhouse had its sign, and the company which performed in it were also the proprietors of a smaller house on the opposite, or London side of the Thames, called the Blackfriars, situated very nearly on the spot now occupied by the gigantic establishment of the Times newspaper. The great majority of the London theaters were

on the