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 fongs, which are 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 difguifed fatire againft popery; as the Morality of Lufty Juventus was written exprefsly with the fame view in the reign of King Edward the Sixth. In that of his fucceffor Queen Mary, Myfteries were again revived, as appendages to the papiftical worship. "In the year 1556," fays Mr. Warton, "a goodly stage-play of the Passion 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 1577, a ftage-play at the Grey-friers, of the Paffion of Chrift, on 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,

"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." Hifiory 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 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.

the holiday of the church in Silver-ftreet, which is dedicated to that faint, was kept with great 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 Mysteries, I believe, were reprefented during the reign of Elizabeth, except fuch as were occafionally performed by thofe who were favourers of the popith religion, and thofe already mentioned, known by the name of the Chefter Myfteries, which had been originally compofed in 1328, were revived in the time of King Henry the Eighth, (1533,) and again performed at Chefter in the year 1600. The laft Myftery, I believe, ever represented in England, was that of Chrift's Passion, in the reign of King James the Firft, which Prynne tells us was "performed at Elie-Houfe in Holborne, when Gundomar lay there, on Goodfriday at night, at which there were thousands prefent."9

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

7 Hiftory of English Poetry, Vol. III. p. 326.

66

That Myfteries were occafionally reprefented in the early part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, appears from the affertions of the controverfial writers. They play" fays one of them, "and counterfeite the whole Paffion fo trimly, with all the feven forrowes of our lady, as though it had been nothing else but a fimple and plain enterlude, to make boys laugh at, and a little to recreate forowful harts." Beehive of the Romishe Churche, 1580, p. 207. See alfo fupra, p. 24, n. 6.

9 Hiftriomaftix, 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 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 fubjects, fuch as are lawful and honeft, and not reprefent any facred Myfteries." Reprefentations founded on holy writ continued to be exhibited in Italy till the year 1660, and the Mystery of Chrift's Pafsion 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 scenery 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 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. hic tibi novum fit nihil; ut prius fatietas fubrepat, quam obrepat fames. Itaque recte objecit

At

fchylo

P. 124.

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

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 spectator. The whole apparatus of the theatre confifts of fome high feats ranged in proper order. The perfons of the scene never depart during the representation: he who ceases 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 liftening, and yet he himself fhould not hear what one of his fellowactors 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 conftant ftate of fufpence and expectation. But in our theatres, there can be no novelty, no furprise :

:

2 Jul. Cæf. Scaligeri Poetices Libri Septem. Folio, 1561, Lib. I. c. xxi. Julius Cæfar Scaliger died at Agen, in the province of Guienne in France, on the 21ft 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 History of the French Theatre. "In the reprefentations of the Myfteries, 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 ftage, but retired to a corner of it, and fate there in full view of all the fpectators." Hiftorical and Critical Account of the Theatres of Europe, 8vo. 1741, p. 118. We fhall prefently 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.

infomuch that the fpectator 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 fcene, 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 stage in a troop, before the play began, and prefented themfelves to the fpectators, in order, fays he, to raise the expectation of the audience. "Putem tamen (quod hodieque fit) omnes actores antequam finguli agerent, confeftim et in turba in profcenium prodiiffe, ut fui expectationem commoverent."3 I know not whether this was ever practifed in England. Inftead of raifing, it fhould feem more likely to reprefs, expectation. I fuppofe, 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 Raftall, a learned typographer, brother-in-law to Sir Thomas More, extended its province, which had been hitherto confined either to moral allegory, or to re

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