Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/439

Rh 1579-1660.] ENGLISH LITEEATURE 419 Caller, affinity to the fantastic school, mixed too much in the world, and had too much good taste and good sense, to go very far with them. He is the English song-writer par excellence ; his is the only name which we can think of, when Burns is cited for Scotland and Be ranger for France. His manner was so good and his style so clear that Dryden calls him the &quot; father of English numbers,&quot; and declares that but for him &quot; none of us could write.&quot; Pope allows to Waller smoothness, but ascribes much more to the in fluence of Dryden himself : &quot; Waller was smooth, but Dryden taught to join The varying verse, the full resounding line, The long majestic march, and energy divine.&quot; In the last section we noticed the rise of true comedy an and tragedy, and gave the date of the building of the first ma - regular theatre at the Blackfriars, Returning to the subject, we propose to examine the commencements of the Elizabethan drama in somewhat more detail, treating (1) of the actors, (2) of the plays which they performed, (3) of the stages which they had at their disposal, including under this head their resources of scenery and stage effect. 1. From an early perioil of the reign -we find frequent mention of companies of players travelling from town to town, and performing in the town-balls, under the sanction of, and with remuneration from, the respective corporations, such of the plays which they had brought as might seem suitable to the audience expected. It is noteworthy that every such company announced itself as &quot;the servants &quot; of my lord this, or the earl of that, and indeed were really such ; had they given themselves out for an independent body of players, the stern laws against vagabondage then prevailing would have made them at once amenable to the sharp jurisdiction of the local magistrates. Thus we read of the servants of the Lord Strange, those of the earls of Leicester, Warwick, Derby, ifec. These noblemen en rolled the bands of players among their retainers, and pro bably maintained and gave them wages for a part of the year, but allowed them at other times, under the patronage of their high names and with licences under their hands, to make a living by entertaining the public. It was the servants of the earl of Leicester who in 1574 obtained from the queen a writ under the privy seal, authorizing them to perform &quot;comedies, tragedies, interludes, stage-plays, and such other like as they have already used and studied, or hereafter shall use and study, as well in the city of London as throughout the realm of England.&quot; But when the players prepared to avail themselves of their privilege, a conflict of authorities became apparent. The mayor and corporation of London asserted their right of control over all dramatic performances within the limits of the city, and issued orders providing, amongst other things, that the players whom they might license should contribute half their receipts to charitable purposes. Probably a portion of the corporation was, even at this early period, actuated by Puritan sentiments. The poor players, who under such regulations would have soon found their occupation gone, or at any rate uuremunerative, turned their eye to the vacant space between St Paul s and the river, where stood the ruins of the great convent and church of the Black Friars (Dominicans). On this site, which was outside the jurisdiction of the city, they established the first theatre by converting to their purpose some of the dilapidated buildings. Years passed ; the number of the players increased ; and in 1589, as we learn from a curious memorial which they addressed in that year to the privy council, they were sixteen in number, &quot; all of them sharers in the Blackfriars play-house.&quot; The twelfth name subscribed to this list was that of William Shakespeare ; the ninth that of the dramatist George Peele. These facts show that that &quot;separation of powers,&quot; which, in the drama as in politics, is the fruit of an advanced experience, did not then exist. The offices of lessee, stage-manager, actor, and play-writer were all combined in these early players. They owned the theatre in which they acted, furnished their own stage, chose their own plays, and, to a greater or less extent, wrote them. After having received the royal licence in 1574, this company ceased to bear the name of the earl of Leicester, but described themselves as &quot; Her Majesty s poor players.&quot; The trace of this early connection with the court still remains in the appellation &quot; Theatre Royal,&quot; assumed by several of the older London theatres. 2. With regard to the nature of the dramatic performances, Plays, these included, besides those specified in the licence to the Blackfriars Company, moral plays and histories. Under the general description of moral play we may include those that were written with a controversial purpose, either for or against the Reformation, such as the plays by Bishop Bale, Lusty Juventus, Every Man, $c. Quite a num ber of such pieces were put on the stage by the Catholics after the accession of Elizabeth, with the view of turning the new state services into ridicule ; these drew down a special prohibition from the Government. Many dramas, called sometimes tragedies, sometimes histories, were on classical subjects, such as Catiline s Conspiracies (by Stephen Gosson, who afterwards wrote vehemently against the stage), Cupid and Psyche, Ptohmy, and plays on the lives of Pompey and Csesar. The audience being limited, the companies of players numerous, and the expense of scenery and dresses trifling, novelty in the pieces represented became the predominant source of attraction; hence the extraordinary variety of plays produced at this early period. Scriptural subjects were popular; thus among the earliest printed plays are Nash s Christ s Tears over Jerusalem, and Peele s David and Bethsale. &quot; Histories &quot; dealt often with personages and events of the ancient world. But they also presented in dramatic forms passages from the story of England, many of which, by tradition and continual dis cussion, still lived in the memory, and vividly stirred the feelings of the people ; and it was natural that dramas of this class, as they came to be planned with more art and composed with greater power, should transcend in interest the dramas with classical plots, and appropriate the name of &quot; histories &quot; to themselves. One of the earliest of these, The Famous Victories of Henry V., was acted about 1580 ; Shakespeare founded on it one of his historical plays. The history of Edward II. by Marlowe, Greene s James IV., and Peele s Edward I. all date somewhere about 1590; the older play of King John appeared in 1591 ; and the original plays which, refashioned or retouched by the hand of Shakespeare, come before us as the three parts of Henri/ VI., seem to have been produced between 1590 and 1595. Before the time when Shakespeare began to write for the stage, it may be said that several respectable or even re markable tragedies had appeared, that some good and flowing historical dramas had been written, and that a great variety of interludes, approaching in character to our farces, and not deficient in wit and drollery, had been pro duced. To prove the above assertion as to tragedy, it would be enough to adduce Marlowe s powerful plays, Dr Faustus and Tamburlaine the Great, the first strong to move the tragic passions, the second dazzling and astonish ing us by its soaring rants and gorgeous rhetoric. The clever interludes of John Hey wood would alone sustain what we have stated as to pieces of that description. In comedy, on the other hand, very little had been achieved. Of those that were in prose, like Gascoigne s Supposes and Nash s Pierce Penniless, the rough uncouth language was unrelieved by any wit that could pass muster in a later age. 1 No comedies in verse superior to those of Greene can per-