Myfteries were again revived, as appendages to
the papistical worship. "In the year 1556." fays
Mr. Warton," a goodly flage-play of the Paffion of
Christ 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,
the holiday of the church in Silver-ftreet which is
dedicated to that faint, was kept with great fo-
lemnity. 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."6
No Myfteries, I believe, were repre-
fented during the reign of Elizabeth, except fuch
as were occafionally performed by thofe who were
favourers of the popish religion, and thofe already

7

worship founded on fenfible reprefentations 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." Hiftory 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 feveral dramatick invectives againfl Archbishop Cranmer, and the doctrines of the reformers.

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

7 That Myfteries were occafionally reprefented in the early part of Queen Elizabeth's reign appears from the affertions

mentioned, known by the name of the Chester Myfteries, which had been originally compofed in 1328, were revived in the time of King Henry the Eighth, (1533.) and again performed at Chester in the year 1600. The laft Myftery, I believe, ever reprefented in England, was that of Chrift's Paffion, in the reign of King James the Firft, which Prynne tells us was "performed at Elie-House in Holborne, when Gundomar lay there, on Goodfriday at night, at which there were thousands prefent."

8

In France the reprefentation of Myfteries was forbid in the year 1548. when the fraternity affociated under the name of The Actors of our Saviour's Paffion, who had received letters patent from King 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 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 facred Myfteries." 9 Representations founded on holy writ continued to be exhibited in Italy till the year 1660. and the Mystery of Chrift's Paffion was repre

66

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 elfe 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 also fupra, p. 24. n. 4. Hiftriomaftix, quarto, 1633. p. 117. n.

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

fented a Vienna fo lately as the early part of the prefent century.

Having thus occafionally mentioned foreign theatres, I take this opportunity to observe, 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 Mysteries in England were reprefented. For this inforination we are indebted to the elder Scaliger, in whose Poeticks is the following curious paffage: "Nunc in Gallia ita agunt fabulas, ut omnia in confpectu fint; UNIVERSUS APPARATUS difpofitis fublimibus fedibus. Perfona tpfæ nunquam difcedunt: qui filent pro abfentibus habentur. enimvero perridiculum, ibi fpectatorem videre te audire, & 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. At hic tibi novum fit nihil; ut prius fatietas fubrepat, quam obrepat fames. Itaque recte objecit Efchylo Euripides apud Ariftophanem in Ranis, quod Niobem & Achillem in fcenam introduxiffet capite co-operto; neque nunquam ullum verbum qui fint loquuti." That is, "At present in France [about

2

At

Jul. Cæf. Scaligeri Poetioes 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 Hiftory of the French Theatre. "In the reprefentations of the Myfte

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 orden The perfons of the scene never depart during the representation: he who ceafes to fpeak, is confidered as if he were no longer on the stage. 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 : 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 Efchylus, in The Frogs of Ariftophanes, 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 men

ries, the theatre reprefented paradife, hell, heaven, 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, o&tavo, 1741. p. 118. We fhall prefently fee that at a much later period, and long after the Myfteries had ceafed to be exhibited, 66 though the action changed, there was no change of decoration," either in France or England.

tioned 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 ftage 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 & in turba in profcenium prodiiffe, ut fui expectationem commoverent."3 I know not whether this was ever practifed in England. Inftead of raising, 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 show fometimes conftitutes the principal merit of the entertainment.

Mr. Warton obferves that Moralities were become fo 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 to religion blended with buffoonery, and conceived a defign of making it the vehicle of fcience and philofophy. With this view he published A new INTERLUDE and a mery, of the nature of the iiij Elements, declaring many proper points of philofophy naturall, and dyvers firaunge landys, &c. In the cofmographical part of the play, in which the poet

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