34 and 35 Henry VIII. c. 1, which was made, as the preamble informs us, with a view that the kingdom should be purged and cleansed of all religious plays, interludes, rhymes, ballads, and songs, which are equally pestiferous and noysome to the commonweal. At this time both Moralities and Mysteries were made the vehicle of religious controversy; Bale's Comedy of the three Laws of Nature, printed in 1538, (which in fact is a Mystery,) being a disguised satire against popery; as the Morality of Lusty Juventus was written expressly with the same view in the reign of King Edward the Sixth. In that of his successor Queen Mary, Mysteries were again revived, as appendages to the papistical worship. "In the year 1556," says Mr. Warton," a goodly stage-play of the Passion of Christ was presented at the Grey-friars in London, on Corpus-Christi day, before the Lord-Mayor, the Privy-council, and many great estates of the realm. Strype also mentions, under the year 1577, a stage-play at the Grey-friers, of the Passion of Christ, on the day that war was proclaimed in London against France, and in honour of that occasion. On Saint Olave's day in the same year,

"This mode of attack" (as Mr. Warton has observed) "was seldom returned by the opposite party: the catholick worship founded on sensible representations afforded a much better hold for ridicule, than the religion of some of the sects of the reformers, which was of a more simple and spiritual nature." History of English Poetry, 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 also from a proclamation promulgated early in the reign of his son, 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.

the holiday of the church in Silver-street, which is dedicated to that saint, was kept with great solemnity. At eight of the clock at night, began a stage-play of goodly matter, being the miraculous history of the life of that saint, which continued four hours, and concluded with many religious songs." No Mysteries, I believe, were represented during the reign of Elizabeth, except such as were occasionally performed by those who were favourers of the popish religion, and those already mentioned, known by the name of the Chester Mysteries, which had been originally composed in 1328, were revived in the time of King Henry the Eighth, (1533,) and again performed at Chester in the year 1600. The last Mystery, I believe, ever represented in England, was that of Christ's Passion, 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 present.'

In France the representation of Mysteries was forbid in the year 1548, when the fraternity associated under the name of The Actors of our Saviour's Passion, who had received letters patent from King

"History of English Poetry, Vol. III. p. 326.

That Mysteries were occasionally represented in the early part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, appears from the assertions of the controversial writers. 66 They play" says one of them, "and counterfeite the whole Passion so trimly, with all the seven sorrowes of our lady, as though it had been nothing else but a simple and plain enterlude, to make boys laugh at, and a little to recreate sorowful harts." Beehive of the Romishe Churche, 1580, p. 207. See also supra, p. 24, n. 6.

9 Histriomastix, quarto, 1633, p. 117, n.

Charles the Sixth, in 1402, and had for near 150 years exhibited religious plays, built their new theatre on the site of the Duke of Burgundy's house; and were authorised by an arret of parlia ment to act, on condition that "they should meddle with none but profane subjects, such as are lawful and honest, and not represent any sacred Mysteries." Representations founded on holy writ continued to be exhibited in Italy till the year 1660, and the Mystery of Christ's Passion was represented at Vienna so lately as the early part of the present century.

Having thus occasionally mentioned foreign theatres, I take this opportunity to observe, that the stages of France so lately as in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign were entirely unfurnished with scenery or any kind of decoration, and that the performers at that time remained on the stage the whole time of the exhibition; in which mode perhaps our Mysteries in England were represented. For this information we are indebted to the elder Scaliger, in whose Poeticks is the following curious passage: "Nunc in Gallia ita agunt fabulas, ut omnia in conspectu sint; UNIVERSUS APPARATUS dispositis sublimibus sedibus. Personæ ipsæ nunquam discedunt: qui silent pro absentibus habentur. enimvero perridiculum, ibi spectatorem videre te audire, et te videre teipsum non audire quæ alius coram te de te loquatur; quasi ibi non sis, ubi es: cum tamen maxima poetæ vis sit, suspendere animos, atque eos facere semper expectantes. At hic tibi novum fit nihil; ut prius satietas subrepat, quam obrepat fames. Itaque recte objecit Eschylo

At

'Riccoboni's Account of the Theatres of Europe, 8vo. 1741, p. 124.

Euripides apud Aristophanem in Ranis, quod Niobem et Achillem in scenam introduxisset capite co-operto; neque nunquam ullum verbum qui sint loquuti." That is, "At present in France [about the year 1556] plays are represented in such a manner, that nothing is withdrawn from the view of the spectator. The whole apparatus of the theatre consists of some high seats ranged in proper order. The persons of the scene never depart during the representation: he who ceases to speak, is considered as if he were no longer on the stage. But in truth it is extremely ridiculous, that the spectator should see the actor listening, and yet he himself should not hear what one of his fellowactors says concerning him, though in his own presence and within his hearing as if he were absent, while he is present. It is the great object of the dramatick poet to keep the mind in a constant state of suspence and expectation. But in our theatres, there can be no novelty, no surprise: insomuch that the spectator is more likely to be

Jul. Cæs. Scaligeri Poetices Libri Septem. Folio, 1561, Lib. I. c. xxi. Julius Cæsar 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 same account in his History of the French Theatre. "In the representations of the Mysteries, the theatre represented paradise, heaven, hell, and earth, and 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 sate there in full view of all the spectators." Historical and Critical Account of the Theatres of Europe, 8vo. 1741, p. 118. We shall presently see, that at a much later period, and long after the Mysteries had ceased to be exhibited, "though the action changed, there was no change of decoration," either in France or England

satiated with what he has already seen, than to have any appetite for what is to come. Upon this ground it was, that Euripides objected to Eschylus, in The Frogs of Aristophanes, for having introduced Niobe and Achilles as mutes upon the scene, with a covering which entirely concealed their heads from the spectators."

Another practice, equally extraordinary, is mentioned by Bulenger in his treatise on the Grecian and Roman theatres. In his time, so late as in the year 1600, all the actors employed in a dramatick piece came on the stage in a troop, before the play began, and presented themselves to the spectators, in order, says he, to raise the expectation of the audience. "Putem tamen (quod hodieque fit) omnes actores antequam singuli agerent, confestim et in turba in proscenium prodiisse, ut sui expectationem commoverent."3 I know not whether this was ever practised in England. Instead of raising, it should seem more likely to repress, expectation. I suppose, however, this writer conceived the audience would be animated by the number of the characters, and that this display would operate on the gaping spectators like some of our modern enormous play-bills; in which the length of the show sometimes constitutes the principal merit of the entertainment.

Mr. Warton observes that Moralities were become so fashionable a spectacle about the close 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

3

Bulengeri de Theatro, 8vo. 1600, Lib. I. p. 60, b.