Page:An apology for the life of Mr. Colley Cibber - Lowe 1889 - Volume 1.djvu/56

xlviii observed. It was acted at Christ Colledge in Cambridge; there not being as yet any settled and publick Theaters.

I observe, Truman, from what you have said, that Plays in England had a beginning much like those of Greece, the Monologues and the Pageants drawn from place to place on Wheels, answer exactly to the Cart of Thespis, and the Improvements have been by such little steps and degrees as among the Ancients, till at last, to use the Words of Sir George Buck (in his Third University of England) Dramatick Poesy is so lively exprest and represented upon the publick Stages and Theatres of this City, as Rome in the Auge (the highest pitch) of her Pomp and Glory, never saw it better perform d, I mean (says he) in respect of the Action and Art, and not of the Cost and Sumptiousness. This he writ about the Year 1631. But can you inform me Truman, when publick Theaters were first erected for this purpose in London?

Not certainly; but I presume about the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign. For Stow in his Survey of London (which Book was first printed in the Year 1598) says, Of late Years, in place of these Stage-plays (i. e. those of Religious Matters) ''have been used Comedies, Tragedies, Interludes, and Histories, both true and feigned; for the acting whereof certain publick Places, as the Theatre, the Curtine, &c. have been erected''. And the continuator of Stows Annals, p. 1004, says, That in Sixty Years