and they consisted of allegory. Mr. Warton observes, "The Moralities indicate dawnings of the dramatic art: they contain some rudiments of a plot, and even attempt to delineate characters, and to paint manners. From hence, the gradual transition to real historical personages was natural and obvious."

The reader will find some of the uses made of allegory in my history of London, in the pageants exhibited in honour of Henry VI., and many particulars of the performance of dramas in the church-yard of St. Katharine Cree.

The first appearance of Moralities is supposed to have been in the reign of Edward IV.; but these did not immediately banish the mysteries, as that event may be attributed to the statute of 34 and 35 Henry VIII., aimed at all religious plays, which it pronounced pestiferous and noisome to the commonweal.

Polydore Vergil was of opinion, that the lords of misrule, dances, masques, mummeries, plays, &c. &c. were derived from the Roman Saturnalia. The same author asserts, it was customary for the English, in the reign of Henry II., to entertain their friends with scenic amusements and masques of the most magnificent description, at Christmas.

In the reign of Henry IV. an act of Parliament passed, which applied to Wales, and was to the following

VOL. III.

following purport: "To eschew inany diseases and mischiefs which hath happened before this time in the land of Wales, by many wasters, rimours, minstrels, and other vagabonds, it is ordained and established, that no master rhymer, minstrel, nor vagabond, be in any wise sustained in the land of Wales, to make commoithes nor gathering upon the people there."

The changes in the national religion, that occurred in the three following reigns, suppressed and introduced, and again suppressed, this description of dramas; and, according to Prynne, the last mystery offered to public view in England was in the reign of James I., at Ely-house, Holborn, in compliment to Gondomar the Spanish ambassador. Amongst the other blessings introduced by printing may perhaps be included the gradual decay of the Mysteries and Moralities. The diffusion of general knowledge exposed the absurdities with which they abounded, and prepared the public mind for requiring more rational entertainment; besides, by this means the learned were enabled to convey their sentiments on improvement to a soil now fit to receive them.

Dr. Percy mentions an instance which occurred, he supposes, about 1510, when John Rastall, brother-in-law to Sir Thomas More, published "A new Interlude, and a mery, of the nature of the iiij Elements, declaring many proper points

of

of philosophy naturall, and dyvers straunge Landys."

It is well known, that players of some description were entertained by Henry VII.; and Mr. Malone has quoted through Mr. Grose several items from two books kept in the Remembrancer's office in the Exchequer, which furnish the following information: That the Queen-mother had a poet; that there was a Welsh " rhymer" in the household; that the Lord Privy Seal had a fool, the King a tumbler on the ropes, French players, and employed the players of London; that the expences of two plays in the hall was 26s. 8d.; that the players received 57. as a reward; and that some were so poor as to beg by the way, to whom the Monarch gave 6s. 8d.

The persons associated as players at this time were evidently itinerant, and probably acted at any inn where an audience could be collected, and were at all times ready to exhibit at the mansions of the rich.

They had made some further progress in the public estimation in the reign of Edward VI.; but it was not till that of Elizabeth when the established players performed in temporary theatres, erected in the court-yards of Inns; and it is possible the two regular theatres of the Black and White Friars were the consequence of a licence granted by the Queen in 1574 to James Burbage

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Burbage and others, to act during her pleasure in any part of England.

"In the time of Shakespeare," says Mr. Malone, "there were seven principal theatres, three private houses, namely, that in Blackfriars, that in Whitefriars, and the Cockpit or Phoenix in Drury-lane, and four that were called public theatres, viz. the Globe on the Bankside, the Curtain in Shoreditch, the Red Bull at the upper end of St. John street, and the Fortune in White Cross street;" besides those, there were the Swan, the Rose, and the Hope, which were closed through want of success in the succeeding reign.

John Field, who published a Declaration of God's Judgement at Paris Gardens, which the profane part of the community called an accident, mentions, that the Corporation of London applied to Queen Elizabeth, about 1580, to solicit the suppression of "all heathenish plays and interludes" usually acted on the Sunday; "and not long after, many godly citizens and welldisposed gentlemen of London," viewing playhouses and gaming-houses as so many traps to involve youth in future misery, and perceiving the injury and encroachments upon morality that would follow upon forbearance, exclusive of the disgrace and dishonour attached in consequence to the government of the city, waited on those magistrates who were known to be of a pious turn

of

of mind, and, representing the above circumstances, entreated they would take immediate measures to reform the abuses they denounced.

In consequence of the favourable reception of these complainants, the magistrates in question are said to have approached the throne with a request, that the Queen and her council would cause the expulsion of all performers from London, and permit the destruction of every theatre and gaming-house within their jurisdiction, "which accordingly was effected; and the play-houses in Gracious-street, Bishopsgate-street, that nigh Paul's, that on Ludgate-hill, and the White Friers, were quite put down and suppressed by the care of these religious senators."

If we credit the assertion, that Elizabeth was highly pleased with the gross humour and infinite whim of Falstaff, and that she actually caused the writing of the Merry Wives of Windsor, by requesting Shakespeare to compose a comedy, making the facetious knight the hero of the plot, it will not require much penetration to perceive, that her compliance with the wishes of the citizens of London was rather forced than natural; and this conjecture is supported by the fact of the immediate re-establishment of theatres in privileged places without their jurisdiction.

Indeed, the different acts of our Monarchs on this head have in all probability ever been at vari

ance