were often very low. Some houses had penny-benches.* The "two-penny gallery" is mentioned in the prologue to Beaumont and Fletcher's Woman-hater.+ And seats of three-pence and a groat seem to be intended in the passage of Prynne above referred to. Yet different houses varied in their prices: That playhouse called the Hope had seats of five several rates from six-pence to half-a-crown. But a shilling seems to have been the usual price § of what is now called the Pit, which probably had its name from one of the playhouses having been a Cock-pit. ||

The day originally set apart for theatrical exhibition appears to have been Sunday; probably because the first dramatic pieces were of a religious cast. During a great part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the playhouses were only licensed to be opened on that day. But

*So a MS. of Oldys, from Tom Nash, an old pamphlet-writer. And this is confirmed by Taylor the Water-poet, in his Praise of Beggerie, p. 99.

"Yet have I seen a begger with his many, [sc. vermin.]
Come at a Play-house, all in for one penny."

So in the Belman's Night-Walks" by Decker, 1616, 4to. "Pay thy Two-pence to a Player, in this gallery thou mayest sit by a harlot."

Induct. to Ben. Jonson's Bartholomew-fair. An ancient satirical piece, called, "The Blacke Book," Lond. 1604, 4to. talks of "The Six-penny Roomes in Playhouses;" and leaves a legacy to one whom he calls "Arch-tobacco-taker of England, in ordinaries, upon stages both common and private."

§ Shakesp. Prol. to "Hen. viij.”—Beaum. and Fletch. Prol. to "the Captain," and to "the Mad-lover."

This etymology hath been objected to by a very ingenious writer (see Malone's Shakesp. Vol. i. P. ii. p. 59.), who thinks it questionable, because, in St. Mary's church at Cambridge, the area that is under the pulpit, and surrounded by the galleries, is (now) called the Pit; which, he says, no one can suspect to have been a Cock-pit, or that a play-house phrase could be applied to a church. But whoever is acquainted with the licentiousness of boys, will not think it impossible that they should thus apply a name so peculiarly expressive of its situation: which from frequent use might at length prevail among the senior members of the University; especially when those young men became seniors themselves. The name of Pit, so applied at Cambridge, must be deemed to have been a cant phrase, until it can be shewn that the area in other churches was usually so called.

So Ste. Gosson, in his "Schoole of Abuse," 1579, 12mo. speak

before the end of her reign, or soon after, this abuse was probably removed.

The usual time of acting was early in the afternoon, plays being generally performed by day-light.† All female parts were performed by men, no English actress being ever seen on the public stage before the civil wars.

Lastly, with regard to the playhouse Furniture and

....

ing of the Players, says, "These, because they are allowed to play every Sunday, make iiii. or v. Sundayes every week," fol. 24.So the author of "A Second and Third Blast of Retrait from Plaies," 1580, 12mo. "Let the magistrate but repel them from the libertie of plaeing on the Sabboth-daie. To plaie on the Sabboth is but a priviledge of sufferance, and might with ease be repelled, were it thoroughly followed." pag. 61. 62. So again, "Is not the Sabboth of all other daies the most abused? Wherefore abuse not so the Sabboth-daie, my brethren; leave not the temple of the Lord."..... "Those unsaverie morsels of unseemelie sentences passing out of the mouth of a ruffenlie plaier, doth more content the hungrie humors of the rude multitude, and carrieth better rellish in their mouthes, than the bread of the worde," &c. Vid. pag. 63, 65, 69, &c. I do not recollect that exclamations of this kind occur in Prynne, whence I conclude that this enormity no longer subsisted in his time.

It should also seem, from the author of the Third Blast abovequoted, that the Churches still continued to be used occasionally for theatres. Thus, in p. 77, he says, that the Players, (who, as hath been observed,) were servants of the nobility, "under the title of their maisters, or as reteiners, are priviledged to roave abroad, and permitted to publish their mametree in everie temple of God, and that throughout England, unto the horrible contempt of praier."

"He entertaines us" (says Overbury in his character of an Actor) "in the best leasure of our life, that is, betweene meales; the most unfit time either for study, or bodily exercise."-Even so late as in the reign of Cha. II. Plays generally began at 3 in the afternoon.

† See Biogr. Brit. i. 117, n. D.

+ I say "no English Actress-on the Public Stage," because Prynne speaks of it as an unusual enormity, that "they had French-women actors in a play not long since personated in Blackfriars Playhouse." This was in 1629, vid. p. 215. And tho' female parts were performed by men or boys on the public stage, yet in Masques at Court, the Queen and her ladies made no scruple to perform the principal parts, especially in the reigns of James I. and Charles I.

Sir William Davenant, after the restoration, introduced Women, Scenery, and higher Prices. See Cibber's Apology for his own Life.

Ornaments, a writer of King Charles IId's time,* who well remembered the preceding age, assures us, that in general "they had no other scenes nor decorations of the stage, but only old tapestry and the stage strewed with rushes, with habits accordingly."+

Yet Coryate thought our theatrical exhibitions, &c. splendid, when compared with what he saw abroad: Speaking of the Theatre for Comedies at Venice, he says, "The house is very beggarly and base in comparison of our stately Playhouses in England: neyther can their actors compare with ours for Apparrell, Shewes, and Musicke. Here I observed certaine things that I never saw before: For, I saw Women act, a thing that I never saw before, though I have heard that it hath been sometimes used in London; and they performed it with as good a grace, action, gesture, and whatsoever convenient for a Player, as ever I saw any masculine Actor."+

It ought however to be observed, that, amid such a multitude of Playhouses as subsisted in the Metropolis before the Civil Wars, there must have been a great difference between their several accommodations, ornaments, and prices; and that some would be much more shewy than others, though probably all were much inferior in splendor to the two great Theatres after the Restoration.

See a short Discourse on the English Stage, subjoined to Flecknor's" Love's Kingdom," 1674, 12mo.

It appears from an Epigram of Taylor the Water-poet, that one of the principal Theatres in his time, viz. The Globe on the Bankside, Southwark, (which Ben Jonson calls the Glory of the Bank, and Fort of the whole parish,) had been covered with Thatch till it was burnt down in 1613.-(See Taylor's "Sculler," Epig. 22, p. 31. Jonson's "Execration on Vulcan.")

Puttenham tells us they used Vizards in his time, "partly to supply the want of players, when there were more parts than there were persons, or that it was not thought meet to trouble.. princes chambers with too many folkes." [Art of Eng. Poes. 1589, p. 26.] From the last clause, it should seem that they were chiefly used in the Masques at Court.

Coryate's Crudities, 4to. 1611, p. 247

The preceding Essay, although some of the materials are new arranged, hath received no alteration deserving notice, from what it was in the 2d. Edition, 1767, except in Section iv. which in the present impression hath been much enlarged.

This is mentioned, because, since it was first published, the History of the English Stage hath been copiously handled by Mr. Tho. Warton in his "History of English Poetry, 1774," &c. 3 vols. 4to. (wherein is inserted whatever in these Volumes fell in with his subject); and by Edmond Malone, Esq. who, in his "Historical Account of the English Stage," (Shakesp. Vol. i. Part ii. 1790.) hath added greatly to our knowledge of the Economy and Usages of our ancient Theatres.

THE END OF THE ESSAY.

I.

ADAM BELL, CLYM OF THE CLOUGH, AND WILLIAM OF CLOUDESLY,

-were three noted outlaws, whose skill in archery rendered them formerly as famous in the North of England, as Robin Hood and his fellows were in the midland counties. Their place of residence was in the forest of Englewood, not far from Carlisle, (called corruptly in the ballad Englishwood, whereas Engle, or Ingle-wood, signifies Wood for firing.) At what time they lived does not appear. The author of the common ballad on "The pedigree, education, and marriage, of Robin Hood," makes them contemporary with Robin Hood's father, in order to give him the honour of beating them: viz.

"The father of Robin a Forester was,

And he shot in a lusty long-bow

Two north-country miles and an inch at a shot,
As the Pindar of Wakefield does know :

For he brought Adam Bell, and Clim of the Clough,
And William a Clowdéslee

To shoot with our Forester for forty mark;

And our Forester beat them all three."

Collect. of Old Ballads, 1727, 1 vol. p. 67.

This seems to prove that they were commonly thought to have lived before the popular Hero of Sherwood.

Our northern archers were not unknown to their southern countrymen: their excellence at the long-bow is often alluded to by our ancient poets. Shakespeare, in his comedy of "Much ado about nothing," Act i. makes Benedick confirm his resolves of not yielding to love, by this protestation," If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat,* and shoot at me, and he that hits me, let him be clapt on the shoulder, and called Adam: meaning Adam Bell, as Theobald rightly observes, who refers to one or two other passages in our old poets wherein he is mentioned. The Oxford editor has also well conjectured, that, "Abraham Cupid" in Romeo and Juliet, A. ii. sc. 1. should be "Adam Cupid," in allusion to our archer. Ben Jonson has mentioned Clym o' the Clough in his "Alchemist," Act i. sc. 2. And Sir William Davenant, in a mock poem of his, called "The long vacation in London," describes the Attorneys and Proctors, as making matches to meet in Finsbury fields.

"With loynes in canvas bow-case tyde :+
Where arrowes stick with mickle pride;
Like ghosts of Adam Bell and Clymme.
Sol sets for fear they'l shoot at him."

Works, 1673, fol. p 291.

I have only to add further concerning the principal Hero of this Ballad, that the Bells were noted rogues in the North so late as the time of Q. Elizabeth. See in Rymer's Fœdera, a letter from lord William Howard to some of the officers of state, wherein he mentions them.

As for the following stanzas, which will be judged from the style, orthography, and numbers, to be of considerable antiquity, they were here given (corrected in some places by a MS. copy in the editor's old folio) from a black-letter 4to. Imprinted at London in Lothburye by Wyllyam Copland (no date). That old quarto edition seems to be exactly followed in "Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry, &c. Lond. 1791," 8vo. the variations from which, that occur in the following copy, are selected from many others in the folio MS. above-mentioned, and when distinguished by the usual inverted comma,' have been assisted by conjecture.

In the same MS. this Ballad is followed by another, intitled

* Bottles formerly were of leather; though perhaps a wooden bottle might be here meant. It is still a diversion in Scotland to hang up a cat in a small cask or firkin, half filled with soot: and then a parcel of clowns on horseback try to beat out the ends of it, in order to shew their dexterity in escaping before the contents fall upon them.

† i. e. Each with a canvas bow-case tied round his loins.