the Eighth they were perhaps performed indifcriminately; but Myfteries were probably feldom reprefented after the ftatute 34 and 35 Henry VIII. c. 1. which was made, as the preamble informs us, with a view that the kingdom fhould be purged and cleanfed of all religious plays, interludes, rhymes, ballads, and songs, which are kenny. Thefe Mysteries were exhibited there on the 20th of Auguft, 1553, the day on which Queen Mary was proclaimed, as appears from his own account: "On the xx daye of Auguft was the ladye Marye with us at Kilkennye proclaimed Quene of England, &c.-The yonge men in the forenone played a tragedye of Gods Promifes in the old lawe, at the market-croffe, with organe-plainges and fonges, very aptely. In the afternone agayne they played a comedie of Sant Joban Baptiftes preachinges, of Chriftes baptifynge, and of his temptacion in the wilderneffe; to the fmall contentacion of the preftes and other papiftes there." The Vocacyon of Joban Bale, &c. 16mo. no date, fign. C 8. The only theatre in Dublin in the reign of queen Elizabeth was a booth (if it may be called a theatre) erected in Hoggin Green, now College Green, where Mysteries and Moralities were occafionally performed. It is ftrange, that fo lately as in the year 1600, at a time when many of Shakspeare's plays had been exhibited in England, and lord Montjoy, the intimate friend of his patrons, lord Effex and lord Southampton, was Deputy of Ireland, the old play of Gorboduck, written in the infancy of the stage, (for this piece had been originally prefented in 1562, under the name of Ferrex and Perrex,) fhould have been performed at the Caftle of Dublin: but such is the fact, if we may believe Chetwood the prompter, who mentions that old Mr. Afhbury had feen a bill dated the 7th of September 1601, (queen Elizabeth's birth-day,) "for wax tapers for the play of Gorboduck done at the Caftle, one and twenty fillings and two groats." Whether any plays were reprefented in Dublin in the reign of James the First, I am unable to afcertain. Barnaby Riche, who has given a curious account of Dublin in the year 1610, makes no mention of any theatrical exhibition. In 1635, when lord Strafford was Lord Lieutenant, a theatre, probably under his patronage, was built in Werburgh-ftreet; which, under the conduct of the well known John Ogilby, Mafter of the Revels in Ireland, continued open till October 1641, when it was shut up by order of the Lords Juftices. At this theatre Shirley's Royal Mafter was originally reprefented in 1639, and Burnel's Landgartha in 1641. In 1662 Ogilby was restored to his office, and a new theatre was erected in Orange-ftreet, (fince called Smock-Alley) part of which fell down in the year 1671. Agrippa, King of Alba, a tragedy tranflated from the French of Quinault, was acted there before the duke of Ormond, in 1675; and it continued open, I believe, till the death of king Charles the Second. The disturbances which followed in Ireland put an end for a time to all theatrical entertainments. equally equally peftiferous and noyfome to the commonweal. At this time both Moralities and Myfteries were made the vehicle of religious controverfy; Bale's Comedy of the three Laws of Nature, printed in 1538, (which in fact is a Mystery,) being a disguised fatire against popery; as the Morality of Lufty Juventus was written expressly with the fame view in the reign of king Edward the Sixth 3. In that of his fucceffor queen Mary, Mysteries were again revived, as appendages to the papiftical worfhip. In the year 1556," fays Mr. Warton," a goodly Stage-play of the Paffion of Chrift was prefented at the Grey-friars in London, on Corpus-Chrifti day, before the Lord-Mayor, the Privy-council, and many great eftates of the realm. Strype alfo mentions, under the year 1557, a stage-play at the Grey-friers, of the Paffion of Chrift, on the the day that war was proclaimed in London against France, and in honour of that occafion. On Saint Olave's day in the fame year, the holiday of the church in Silver-ftreet which is dedicated to that faint, was kept with much folemnity. At eight of the clock at night, began a ftage-play of goodly matter, being the miraculous hiftory of the life of that faint, which continued four hours, and concluded with many religious fongs+." No Myfteries, I believe, were reprefented during the reign of Elizabeth, except fuch as occafionally performed by thofe who were favourers of the popish religions, and thofe already mentioned, known were 3 This mode of attack" (as Mr. Warton has obferved) "was feldom returned by the oppofite party: the catholick worship founded on fenfible representations afforded a much better hold for ridicule, than the religion of fome of the fects of the reformers, which was of a more fimple and fpiritual nature." HIST. OF E. P. Vol. II. p. 378, n. The interlude, however, called Every Man, which was written in defence of the church of Rome, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, is an exception. It appears alfo from a proclamation promulgated early in the reign of his fon, of which mention will be made hereafter, that the favourers of popery about that time had levelled several dramatick invectives against Archbishop Cranmer, and the doctrines of the reformers. 4 HIST. OF E. P. Vol. III. p. 326. 5 That Myfteries were occafionally reprefented in the early part of queen Elizabeth's reign appears from the affertions of the controver known by the name of the Chefter Mysteries, which had been originally compofed in 1328, were revived in the time of king Henry the Eighth, (1533,) and again performed at Chester in the year 1600. The laft Mystery, I believe, ever represented in England, was that of Chrift's Paffion, in the reign of king James the First, which Prynne tells us was "performed at Elie-House in Holborne, when Gundomar lay there, on Goodfriday at night, at which there were thousands prefent"." In France the reprefentation of Myfteries was forbid in the year 1548, when the fraternity affociated under the name of The Actors of our Saviour's Paffion, who had received letters patent from king Charles the Sixth in 1402, and had for near 150 years exhibited religious plays, built their new theatre on the fite of the duke of Burgundy's houfe; and were authorised by an Arret of parliament to act, on condition that they fhould meddle with none but profane subjects, fuch as are lawful and honeft, and not reprefent any facred Myfteries 7." Reprefentations founded on holy writ continued to be exhibited in Italy till the year 1660, and the Mystery of Chrift's Paffion was reprefented at Vienna fo lately as the early part of the prefent century. Having thus occafionally mentioned foreign theatres, I take this opportunity to obferve, that the ftages of France fo lately as in the beginning of queen Elizabeth's reign were entirely unfurnished with fcenery or any kind of decoration, and that the performers at that time remained on the ftage the whole time of the exhibition; in which mode perhaps our Myfteries in England were reprefented. For this information we are indebted to the elder Scaliger, in whofe Poeticks is the following curious paffage. "Nunc in Gallia ita agunt fabulas, ut fial writers. "They play" (fays one of them,)" and counterfeite the whole Paffion fo trimly, with all the feven forowes of our lady, as though it had been nothing else but a fimple and plain enterlude, to make boyes laugh at, and. a little to recreate forowful harts." Becbive of the Romifhe Churche, 1580, p. 207. See also fupra, p. 19, n. 5. 6 Hiftriomaftix, quarto, 1633, p. 117. n. 7 Riccoboni's Account of the Theatres of Europe, 8vo. 1741, p. 124. 8 omnia in confpectu fint; UNIVERSUS APPARATUS difpofitis fublimibus fedibus. Perfonæ ipfæ nunquam difcedunt: qui filent pro abfentibus habentur. At enimvero perridiculum, ibi fpectatorem videre te audire, et te videre teipfum non audire quæ alius coram te de te loquatur; quafi ibi non fis, ubi es: cum tamen maxima poetæ vis fit, fufpendere animos, atque eos facere femper expectantes. At hic tibi novum fit nihil; ut prius fatietas fubrepat, quam obrepat fames. Itaque recte objecit Æfchylo Euripides apud Ariftophanem in Ranis, quod Niobem et Achillem in fcenam introduxiffet capite co-operto; neque nunquam ullum verbum qui fint loquuti "." That is, "At prefent in France [about the year 1556] plays are reprefented in fuch a manner, that nothing is withdrawn from the view of the fpectator. The whole apparatus of the theatre confifts of fome high feats ranged in proper order. The perfons of the scene never depart during the reprefentation: he who ceafes to speak, is confidered as if he were no longer on the ftage. But in truth it is extremely ridiculous, that the fpectator fhould fee the actor listening, and yet he himself fhould not hear what one of his fellow-actors fays concerning him, though in his own prefence and within his hearing: as if he were abfent, while he is prefent. It is the great object of the dramatick poet to keep the mind in a constant state of fufpence and expectation. But in our theatres, there can be no novelty, no furprife: info 8 Jul. Cæf. Scaligeri Poetices Libri Septem. Folio, 1561. 1. 1. c. 21. Julius Cæfar Scaliger died at Agen, in the province of Guienne in France, on the 21st of October, 1558, in the 75th year of his age. He wrote his Poeticks in that town a few years before his death. Riccoboni gives us the fame account in his Hiftory of the French Theatre. "In the reprefentations of the Mysteries, the theatre reprefented paradife, hell, heaven, and earth, all at once; and though the action varied, there was no change of the decorations. After an actor had performed his part, he did not go off the stage, but retired to a corner of it, and fate there in full view of all the fpectators." Hiftorical and Critical Account of the Theatres in Europe, octavo, 1741, p. 118. We shall presently fee that at a much later period, and long after the Myfteries had ceafed to be exhibited, "though the action changed, there was no change of decoration," either in France or England. much much that the spectator is more likely to be fatiated with what he has already feen, than to have any appetite for what is to come. Upon this ground it was, that Euripides objected to Æfchylus, in The Frogs of Ariftophanes, for having introduced Niobe and Achilles as mutes upon the scene, with a covering which entirely concealed their heads from the fpectators." Another practice, equally extraordinary, is mentioned by Bulenger in his treatife on the Grecian and Roman theatres. In his time, fo late as in the year 1600, all the actors employed in a dramatick piece came on the ftage in a troop, before the play began, and prefented themselves to the fpectators, in order, fays he, to raise the expectation of the audience. "Putem tamen (quod bodieque fit) omnes actores antequam finguli agerent, confeftim et in turba in profcenium prodiiffe, ut fui expectationem commoverent 9." I know not whether this was ever practifed in England. Instead of raifing, it fhould feem more likely to reprefs, expectation. I fuppose, however, this writer conceived the audience would be animated by the number of the characters, and that this display would operate on the gaping fpectators like fome of our modern enormous play-bills; in which the length of the fhow fometimes conftitutes the principal merit of the entertainment. Mr. Warton obferves that Moralities were become fo fashionable a fpectacle about the clofe of the reign of Henry the Seventh, that " John Rastall, a learned typographer, brother-in-law to Sir Thomas More, extended its province, which had been hitherto confined either to moral allegory, or to religion blended with buffoonery, and conceived a defign of making it the vehicle of science and philofophy. With this view he published A new INTERLUDE and a mery, of the nature of the iiij. Elements, declaring many proper points of philofophy naturall, and dyvers fraunge landys, &c. In the cofmographical part of the play, in which the poet profeffes to treat of 9 Bulengeri de Theatro, 8vo. 1600. 1. 1. p. 60. b. dy-vers |