with his truncheon, and laid him dead on the fpot. Polus, another Actor of eminence, brought the urn of his beloved child on the Stage, inftead of the fuppofed one of Oreftes. This filled him with fuch real grief, as was foon fympathetically felt by his audience. And thus we see no expedient was neglected, which could give the performance the greater appearance of reality.

CHAP. VI.

Of the first rife of the modern Theatre, particularly the British.

WHE

HEN the Roman empire was overwhelmed by the invafions of the northern nations, when Gothic barbarity and monkish ignorance darkened the world, the Stage declined, the Mufes withdrew, and polite literature was no more. Then monftrous fictions of giants, champions, and diftreffed damfels, were fpun out in monafteries by dreaming monks; and, to the destruction. of reafon and common fenfe became the most favourite amusements of the people.

The

The Mimi of the Romans were the laft who quitted the Stage; and these became fo low and degenerate, as to ftrole from town to town, representing the most contemptible, and low buffooneries; other nations adopted them, and they were well known all over Europe, about the eleventh or twelfth centuries. Moft of their exhibitions were extempore; and from their talents at ridicule and burlesque, the words Mimic and Mimicry have been appropriated to all characters of this kind.

In this country they were called Mummers, a small change of the word Mimi or Mimics; they wore masks, and were otherways disguised, which gave them an opportunity of committing many outrages with impunity; fo that in the time of Edw. III. they were fuppreffed by authority. Much about this time we may date the introduction of the facred myfteries prefented by way of interludes. These were fubjects borrowed from the fcripture, and were the prevailing tafte of Europe, at that time.

They

They were in the highest reputation here in the reign of Richard II. Henry IV. and even down to the reign of Henry VIII. In Richard the second's time, the scholars of St. Paul's prefented them at a very great expence at Christmas; the parish-clerks did the fame at Skinner's Well in 1390; and in 1409 at Clerkenwell, which place obtained its name from their custom of performing there. It is not improbable that these representations were almost as early as the Conqueft, but interlarded at intervals with the loweft buffoonery, to amuse the populace.

The fubjects of thofe Plays were not always taken from the fcriptures, but also from the miracles fuppofed to be wrought by faints, confeffors, and martyrs, in those days of darkness and superstition. They were acted, both in private houses, and on public Stages. When one of these miracles was to be reprefented, an amphitheatre used to be erected in an open field; into which devils, fools, &c. were introduced much like the antient Satyre, and thefe unaccountable medleys were the enter tainments of the country-people, who reforted thither from all parts.

The

The stupidity, as well as profanity, of those religious representations, was the occafion of their fuppreffion; to these fucceeded Mysteries, which had fomething of a more regular form and meaning. They were allegorical reprefentations of the virtues and vices. of the mind, and with them common fenfe and Poetry began to dawn upon the world. The Provençal Poets were the first refiners of the French language, and gave the first hints of reformation to the Drama. The French, Spaniards, and other nations, had Poets of the like kind, who celebrated their national heroes in their paftoral fonnets, and perhaps compofed the Poetry of thofe myfteries. They were not abolished in Europe till about the fixteenth century; at which time learning and the polite arts were revived in Italy, under the culture and influence of the family of the Medicis, whose polite tafte directed that of the public to whatever was beautiful.

At the time of the Reformation there were cartain dramatic moral reprefentations fo contrived, as to influence and coincide with the prevailing opinions of the times; this might have been the occafion of a law enact

ed

ed in Henry the eighth's time, to restrain the liberties they took in striking at the newly received doctrine. The performers of those pieces had no regular establishment; they reforted to noblemen's palaces, and private houfes, and the pieces themselves were fo difpofed, as that five or fix perfons could repre fent a great variety of characters; they were in vogue even in the days of Queen Elizabeth, and Shakespear has made several fatyrical allufions to them in his Plays.

Thus, the British Stage, like the antient, had almoft the fame rude beginnings, and it continued in a state of imperfection till the glorious reign of Queen Elizabeth, when Shakespear and Jonfon arofe, the glories of their age and nation. The first by the force of heaven-born genius, and the other with the most confummate learning and art, almost all at once raifed the Stage to fuch dig nity and perfection as has never fince been out-done.

Under the influence of this excellent princefs, learning and the polite arts flourished along with the Stage.