demand, answered, that he might see what play was plaied on every poste. I cry your mercy, said the gentleman, I took you for a poste, you rode so fast."

It may naturally be inferred, that the emoluments of itinerant players could not afford the convenience of a printed bill, and hence from necessity arose the practice of announcing the play by beat of drum, Will. Slye, who attended Kempe in the provincial enactment of his "Nine Men of Gotham," is figured with a drum. Parolles, in Shakspeare's "All's Well that ends Well," alludes to this occupation of some of Will. Slye's fellows, "Faith, sir, he has led the drum before the English come dians."

The long detailed titles of some of the early quarto plays induce a supposition, that the play-bills which introduced them to public notice were similarly extended. The "pleasant conceited Comedy," and "the Bloody Tragedy," were equally calculated to attract idling gazers on the bookstalls, or or the "walks at St. Paul's," and to draw gaping crowds about some vociferous Autolycus, who was probably an underling belonging to the company, or a servant to one of the players; for, as they ranked as gentlemen, each forsooth had his man. A carping satirical writer, who wrote anonymously "Notes from Black friers," 1617, presents some traces of a play-bill crier of that period.

-"Prithee, what's the play? The first I visited this twelvemonth day. They say-' A new invented boy of purle, That jeoparded his neck to steale a girl Of twelve, and lying fast impounded for't, Has hither sent his bearde to act his part, Against all those in open malice bent, That would not freely to the theft consent: Faines all to 's wish, and in the epilogue Goes out applauded for a famous-rogue.' -Now hang me if I did not look at first, For some such stuff, by the fond-people's thrust." In 1642, the players, who till the subversion of the kingly prerogative in the preceding year, basked in the sunshine of court favour, and publicly acknowledged the patronage of royalty, provoked, by their loyalty, the vengeance of the stern unyielding men in power. The lords and commons, assembled on the second day of September in the former year, suppressed stage plays, during these calamitous times, by the following

Ordinance.

"Whereas the distressed estate of Ireland, steeped in her own blood, and the

distracted estate of England, threatened with a cloud of blood, by a Civill Warre; call for all possible meanes to appease and avert the wrath of God, appearing in these judgments; amongst which, fasting and prayer having been often tried to be very effectuall, have bin lately, and are still enjoyned: And whereas public sports doe not well agree with public calamities, nor publike Stage Playes with the seasons of humiliation, this being an exercise of sad and pious solemnity, and the other spectacles of pleasure, too commonly expressing lascivious mirth and levitie: It is therefore thought fit, and ordeined by the Lords and Commons in this Parliament assembled, that while these sad causes, and set times of humiliation doe continue, publike Stage Playes shall cease, and bee forborne. Instead of which, are recommended to the people of this land, the profitable and seasonable considerations of repentance, reconciliation, and peace with God, which probably may produce outward peace and prosperity, and bring againe times of joy and gladnesse to these nations."

The tenour of this ordinance was strictly enforced; many young and vigorous actors joined the king's army, in which for the most part they obtained commissions, and others retired on the scanty pittances they had earned, till on the restoration, the theatre burst forth with new effulgence. The play-bill that announced the opening of the new theatre, in Drury-lane, April 8, 1663, has been already printed in the Every-Day Book. The actors' names were then, for the first time, affixed to the characters they represented; and, to evince their loyalty, "Vivat Rex et Regina," was appended at the foot of the bills, as it continues to this day.

In the reign of the licentious Charles II., wherein monopolies of all kinds were granted to court favourites, licenses were obtained for the sole printing of play-bills. There is evidence in Bagford's Collections, Harl. MSS. No. 5910, vol. ii., that in August, 1663, Roger L'Estrange, as surveyor of the imprimery and printing presses, had the "sole license and grant of printing and publishing all ballads, plays, &c. not previously printed, play-bills, &c." These privileges he sold to operative printWhen that license ceased, I have yet

ers.

to learn.

The play-bills at Bartholomew-fair were in form the same as those used at the regular theatres; but, as they were given among the populace, they were only half the size. One that Dogget published recently, in my

possession, had W. R. in the upper corners, as those printed in the reign of Charles II., had C. R., the royal arms being in the

centre.

The luxurious mode of printing in alternate black and red lines, was adopted in Cibber's time; the bills of Covent-garden theatre were generally printed in that manner. The bills of Drury-lane theatre, with in the last ten years, have issued from a private press, set up in a room below the stage of that theatre. The bills for the royal box, on his majesty's visit to either theatre, are printed on white satin.

Connected with these notices of playbills, are the means by which they were dispersed. A century ago, they were sold in the theatres by young women, called "orange-girls," some of whom, Sally Harris and others, obtained considerable cele brity; these were succeeded by others, who neither coveted nor obtained notoriety. The 66 orange-girls "have gone out, and staid married women, who pay a weekly stipend to the box-lobby fruit-woman, now vend play-bills in the theatre, but derive most of their emolument from the sale of the "book of the play," or "the songs of the evening. The old cry about the streets, Choice fruit, and a bill of the play-Drury-lane or Covent-garden," is almost extinct; the barrow-women are obliged to obtain special permission to remain opposite some friendly shopkeeper's door; and the play-bills are chiefly hawked by little beggarly boys. I am, sir, &c.

March, 1827.

WILL O' THE WISP.

THE LINNET FANCY.

To the Editor of the Table Book.

It is my fantasie to have these things,
For they amuse me in my moody hours:
Their voices waft my soul into the woods;
Where bends th' enamour'd willow o'er the stream,
They make sweet melody.

Of all the earthly things by which the brain of man is twisted and twirled, heated and cooled, fancy is the most powerful. Like a froward wife, she invariably leads him by the nose, and almost every man is in some degree ruled by her. One fancies a horse, another an ass-one a dog, another a rabbit-one's delight is in dress, another's in negligence-one is a lover of flowers, another of insects-one's mind runs on a pigeon, another's on a hawk

one fancies himself sick, the doctor fancies he can cure him: death-that stern realitysettles the matter, by fancying both. One, because he has a little of this life's evil assail him, fancies himself miserable, another, as ragged as a colt, fancies himself happy. One, as ugly as sin, and as hideous as death, fancies himself handsomeanother, a little higher than six-penn'orth of halfpence, fancies himself a second Saul. In short, it would take a monthly part of the Table Book to enumerate the different vagaries of fancy so multifarious are her forms. Leaving this, proceed we to one of the fancies which amuse and divert the mind of man in his leisure and lonely hours-the "Linnet Fancy." "Linnet fancy!" I think I hear some taker-up of the Table Book say, "What's in a linnet?-rubbish

A bird that, when caught, May be had for a groat."

Music! I answer-melody, unrivalled melody-equal to Philomel's, that ever shebird of the poets.-I wish they would call things by their proper names; for, after all, it is a cock-hens never make harmonious sounds. The fancy is possessed but by a few, and those, generally, of the "lower orders "the weavers and cobblers of Whitechapel and Spitalfields, for instance. A good bird has been known to fetch ten sovereigns. I have frequently seen three and four given for one.

Whence the song of the linnet was obtained I cannot tell; but, from what I have heard the tit-lark and sky-lark do, I incline to believe that a good deal of theirs is in the song of the linnet. This song consists of a number of jerks, as they are called, some of which a bird will dwell on, and time with the most beautiful exactness: this is termed a 66 weighed bird." Others rattle through it in a hurried manner, and take to what is termed battling; these are birds often "sung" against others. It is with them as in a party where many are inclined to sing, the loudest and quickest tires them out; or, as the phrase is, "knocks them down." These jerks are as under. Old fanciers remember more, and regret the spoliation and loss of the good old strain. I have heard some of them say, that even larks are not so good as they were forty years ago. The reader must not suppose that the jerks are warbled in the apple-pie order in which he sees them here: the birds put them forth as they please: good birds always finish them.