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HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE.
THE TEMPEST.

THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA,
THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

LONDON: PRINTED BY H. BALDWIN,

For J. Rivington and Sons, L. Davis, B. White and Son, T. Longman,
B. Law, H. S. Woodfall, C. Dilly, J. Robson, J. Johnson, T. Vernor,
G. G. J. and J. Robinson, T. Cadell, J. Murray, R. Baldwin,
H. L. Gardner, J. Sewell, J. Nichols, J. Bew, T. Payne, jun.
S. Hayes, R. Faulder, W. Lowndes, G. and T. Wilkie, Scatcherd
and Whitaker, T.and J. Egerton, C. Stalker, J. Barker, J. Edwards,
Ogilvie and Speare, J. Cuthell, J. Lackington, and E. Newbery.

M DCC XC.

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may appear unneceffary to carry our theatrical researches higher than that period. Dryden has truly observed, that he found not, but created firft the ftage;" of which no one can doubt, who confiders, that of all the plays iffued from the prefs antecedent to the year 1592, when there is reason to believe he commenced a dramatick writer, the titles are fcarcely known, except to antiquaries; nor is there one of them that will bear a fecond perufal. Yet thefe, contemptible and few as they are, we may fuppofe to have been the moft popular productions of the time, and the best that had been exhibited before the appearance of Shakspeare'.

There are but thirty-eight plays, (exclufive of mysteries, moralities, interludes, and tranflated pieces,) now extant, written antecedent to, or in, the year 1592. Their titles are as follows:

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A minute investigation, therefore, of the origin and progrefs of the drama in England, will fcarcely repay the labour of the inquiry. However, as the best introduction to an account of the internal economy and usages of the English theatres in the time of Shakspeare, (the principal object of this differtation,) I shall take a cursory view of our most ancient dramatick exhibitions, though I fear 1 can add but little to the researches which have already been made on that subject.

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Between the years 1592 and 1600, the following plays were printed or exhibited; the greater part of which, probably, were written before our author commenced play-wright.

Cleopatra

Edward I.

Battle of Alcazar
Wounds of Civil War
Selymus, Emperor of the
Turks
Cornelia

Mother Bombie

The Cobler's Prophecy
The Wars of Cyrus
King Leir
Taming of a Sbrezo
An old wires Tale

Maid's Metamorphofes
Love's Metamorphofes
Pedler's Prophecy
Antonius
Edward III.
Wily Beguiled

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Mr. Warton in his elegant and ingenious Hiftory of English Poetry has given fo accurate an account of our earliest dramatick performances, that I fhall make no apology for extracting from various parts of his valuable work, fuch particulars as fuit my prefent purpofe.

The earliest dramatick entertainments exhibited in England, as well as every other part of Europe, were of a religious kind. So early as in the beginning of the twelfth century, it was cuftomary in England on holy feftivals to reprefent, in or near the churches, either the lives and miracles of faints, or the most important ftories of Scripture. From the fubject of thefe fpectacles, which, as has been obferved, were either the miracles of faints, or the more mysterious parts of holy writ, such as the incarnation, paffion, and refurrection of Chrift, thefe fcriptural plays were denominated Miracles, or Myfteries. At what period of time they were first exhibited in this country, I am unable to afcertain. Undoubtedly, however, they are of very great antiquity; and Riccoboni, who has contended that the Italian theatre is the most ancient in Europe, has claimed for his country an honour to which it is not entitled. The era of the earliest representation in Italy 2, founded on holy writ, he has placed in the year 1264, when the fraternity del Gonfalone was established; but we had fimilar exhibitions in England above 150 years before that time. In the year 1110, as Dr. Percy and Mr. Warton have observed, the Miracle-play of Saint Catharine, written by Geoffrey, a learned Norman, (afterwards Abbot of St. Alban's,) was acted, probably by his scholars, in the abbey of Dunftable; perhaps the firit fpectacle of this kind exhibited in England 3. William Fitz-Stephen, a monk of Canterbury, who according

2 The French theatre cannot be traced higher than the year 1398, when the Mystery of the Paffion was reprefented at St. Maur.

3" Apud Duneftapliam-quendam ludum de fancta Katerina (quem MIRACULA vulgariter appellamus) fecit. Ad quæ decoranda, petiit a facrifta fancti Albani, ut fibi cape chorales accommodarentur, et obtinuit." Vita Abbat, ad calc. Hift. Mat, Paris, folio, 1639. p. 56.

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