William III., being at that time at Newmarket, fifteen masters of the noble science of defence went there from London expressly to cut themselves for his amusement; and it appears from an article in a newspaper, that there was a wrestlingring in Leicester fields, where a young man received so severe a fall as to break his neck.

The theatre in Dorset Gardens was let to a person styled the modern Sampson in November 1699, who proposed to exhibit his muscular abilities there, twice a week, by lifting of great weights, breaking ropes, and drawing against a horse, for the moderate admission of one shilling each spectator.

SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE.

When we recollect the astonishing number of ecclesiastical buildings which are to be found entire or in ruins throughout England, it cannot be a matter of surprize, that the gravity and superstition of the people demanded the establishment of a kind of religious stage, which might operate in a certain degree to amuse as well as instruct, in preference to the mere fancies of dramatists, who had to encounter innumerable difficulties during the interval which occurred between the subversion of the Roman power in

England

England and the firm establishment of Christianity.

The miracles or mysteries, founded on the legends of saints, and those parts of the Scriptures best suited to the latter term, most probably succeeded the exhibitions of the Circus, within the compass of time which was required to reflect on the best means of promoting the ends the preachers of our faith had in view; and, however we might pronounce upon the propriety of such exhibitions if offered at present, it must be acknowledged, a better expedient could not have been devised to answer their purpose.

Eminent antiquaries, who had made the history of the English stage their study, have discovered, that a miracle dramatised was performed in the abbey of St. Alban's in the year 1110: whether Geoffry, a learned Norman, the composer of this religious drama, then first introduced the custom, is by no means certain.

Fitz Stephen the monk, who wrote about 1174, says, London had plays representing the working of miracles and the sufferings of martyrs; that they were well attended we cannot doubt for a moment, as there was a double inducement, compounded of curiosity and devotion. Piers Plowman and Chaucer both confirm the fact of the general approbation with which they were received.

Mr.

Mr. Warton seemed to think these dramas originated from the low buffooneries of fairs; which, he supposes, were co-eval with their establishment, in the time of William of Normandy. As those became the principal marts for trade, and lasted several days, methods were adopted by individuals to excite attention and custom, which some particular circumstance deprived them of by the usual means. Others, perceiving the balance turned against them, found it necessary to exceed their neighbours in attraction; and thus, by degrees, fairs became places of amusement, as well as of traffick, where the idle and the dissipated mixed with the industrious.

"The Clergy observing," says Mr. W. " that the entertainments of dancing, musick, and mimickry, exhibited at these protracted annual celebrities, made the people less religious, by promoting idleness and a love of festivity, proscribed these sports, and excommunicated the performers. But, finding that no regard was paid to their censures, they changed their plan, and determined to take these recreations in their own hands. They turned actors; and, instead of profane mummeries, presented stories taken from legends or the Bible."

It would be folly to dispute the probability of this custom having been derived from the Continent; and yet I am inclined to give the merit of

its invention to a nobler cause than that Mr. W. ascribes it to, as I have already intimated. It may be well for us who are Protestants to say, that mountebanks, minstrels, and jugglers were proscribed and excommunicated by the Clergy," and that no regard was paid to their censure;" had Mr. W., however, reflected an instant on what he asserted, he must have been convinced of his error in making that assertion:- Excommunication was too serious a matter in the Roman Catholic communion to contend with; and argument is not necessary to convince the reader, that no man dared make his appearance in publick who had excited the vengeance of the Church.

His theory, therefore, naturally falls to the ground, and my own will remain in some degree established.

It requires very little sagacity to imagine the nature of these representations, which were destitute of almost every modern requisite to make them tolerable. The characters were probably habited not altogether incorrectly, as we know that our first parents were exhibited naked in one part of a mystery, and clothed with the leaf in another; and why should we suppose our ancestors were less particular with the descendants of Adam and Eve, and their brethren?

The Harleian MS. 2013, &c. contains an ample detail of the sacred dramas performed at Chester

in 1327 by the trading companies of the city; amongst which was the Creation by the drapers, the Deluge by the tanners, &c. &c. In composing them, the authors had the impiety and presumption to introduce the Divinity; though, in common justice it must be allowed, they thought of nothing less than impiety on these occasions.

It would be assuming more authority as criticks than our information warrants to condemn the mysteries further, as we cannot possibly ascertain whether any machinery was used at the earliest periods of their invention, which, we know, was adopted near their decline; indeed, we even have a list of some of the properties of the Mystery of Tobit, exhibited at Lincoln in 1563, in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1787: an item from this will be sufficient. "First, Hell-mouth, with a nethor chap." As an illustration of this entrance to the place of punishment, Harsenet says, in his Declaration of Popish Impostures, 1603,

"It was a pretty part in the old church plays, when the nimble Vice would skip up nimbly like a Jackanapes into the Devil's neck, and ride the Devil a course, and belabour him with his wooden dagger till he made him roar, whereat the people would laugh to see the Devil so vice-haunted."

According to Mr. Malone, and the authorities he cites, Moralities were the next gradation towards the present mode of dramatic exhibition;

and