Most of the authors of the period of which we are speaking were actors also, and it is not easy to find more than a few decided exceptions to the rule. Even Robert Greene, who had perhaps been in holy orders, appears to have performed the part of the Pinner in his own play of George-a-Green. John Lyly, who was a writer for the stage prior to 1584, is one of the very small number who does not seem to have been otherwise connected with it. George Peele, who came out at about the same date, there is every reason to suppose, was a player as well as a poet; and the same remark may apply to Christopher Marlow, regarding whom, however, the evidence is not so distinct, Anthony Munday and Henry Chettle, both notorious before 1593 (and who wrote pieces in conjunction), most likely belonged to the same company. Thomas Lodge was probably himself an actor when he wrote his Defence of Plays about 1580: and though we have no proof that Thomas Kyd or Thomas Nash were players as well as poets, the inference for the affirmative is strong, especially in the case of the former. These and more were the predecessors, and some of them the contemporaries of Annals of the Stage, in the reign of James I, but which seems also to have prevailed at a much earlier date. 'Now', says Heywood, in his Apology for Actors, 1612, 'to speak of some abuse lately crept into the quality, as an inveighing against the State, the Court, the Law, the City, and their governments, with the particularising of private men's humour, yet alive, noblemen, and others. I know it distastes many; neither do I any way approve it, nor dare I by any means excuse it-the liberty which some arrogate to themselves, committing their bitterness and liberal invectives against all estates to the mouths of children, supposing their juniority to be a privilege for any railing, be it never so violent. I could advise all such to curbe and limit this presumed liberty within the bands of discretion and government.' It has been seen, that about the year 1590, the children of St. Paul's were silenced for meddling with a matter of government and religion, in which ridicule was attempted to be cast upon certain leaders among the Puritans. 350 THE HISTORY OF DRAMATIC POETRY. Shakespeare, who, possibly, began his own career as a juvenile performer in his native town. Afterwards the instances became more numerous, and the proofs are more positive-Peele, Ben Jonson, Heywood, Field, Rowley, and many more, were actors as well as dramatic authors: if they were not, it was, we believe, rather the exception than the rule. TRAGEDY AND COMEDY, THEIR RISE AND PROGRESS IN ENGLAND, RALPH ROISTER DOISTER.—GAMMER GURTON'S NEEDLE.- THOSE who have hitherto touched upon the origin and pro- Warton states in one place that Gammer Gurton's Needle was printed in 1551, and in another that it was not written until 1552.1 He seems to have had no other evidence than the opinion of Wright, who observes, 'it was writ, I think, in the reign of King Edward VI': it could not, however, have been produced so early, because John Still (afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells), the author of it, was not born until 1543, and consequently, in 1552, taking Warton's latest date, would only have been nine years old. So far we arrive at certainty, but it is impossible to settle the date of the first appearance of Gammer Gurton's Needle with accuracy. Malone was of opinion, and with reason, that it was acted at Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1566, when Still was in his twenty-third year. A play has recently been discovered which undoubtedly takes precedence of Gammer Gurton's Needle by many years, and which possesses even stronger claims to the designation of a 'regular' comedy. We allude to Ralph Roister Doister, which was written by Nicholas Udall; and on the same authority which supplies his name, we know, beyond the possibility of doubt, that the play was in existence in 1551.1 Udall died in 1565, having first been Master of Eton, and afterwards of Westminster schools,2 and it is most likely that Ralph Roister Doister was the production of comparative youth: if so, the date when it was written might be carried back to the reign of Henry VIII; and in 1532, Udall was engaged, in conjunction with Leland, in penning a sort of dramatic pageant to celebrate the entrance of Anne Boleyn ' Thos. Wilson's Rule of Reason was first printed by R. Grafton in 1551, and in it a letter of Ralph Roister Doister to his mistress is quoted as 'an example of such doubtful writing, which by reason of pointing may have a double sense and contrary meaning, taken out of an interlude made by Nicholas Udall.' 2 Warton (H. E. P., iii, 213, 8vo.) thus speaks of Udall. 'Among the writings of Udall, a celebrated master of Eton about the year 1540, are recited plures Comediæ, and a tragedy de Papatu, on the papacy, written probably to be acted by his scholars. An extract from one of his Comedies may be seen in Wilson's Logike. In the ancient Consuetudinary, as it is called, of Eton School, the following passage occurs :-Circa festum divi Andreæ ludimagister eligere solet, pro suo arbitrio, scenicas fabulas optimas et accommodatissimas, quas pueri feriis natalitiis subsequentibus, non sinè ludorum elegantia, populo spectante, publicè aliquando peragant. Interdum etiam exhibet Anglico sermone contextas fabulas, si que habeant acumen et leporem. That is about the feast of St. Andrew, the thirtieth day of November, the master is accustomed to chuse, according to his own discretion, such Latin stage-plays as are most excellent and convenient, which the boys are to act in the following Christmas holidays before a public audience, and with the elegance of scenery and ornaments usual at the performance of a play. Yet he may sometimes order English plays; such at least as are smart and witty.' into London, after her marriage.1 Something like a proof of its early date is contained in the two following lines from the In the Royal MS., 18 A, lxiv, it is thus entitled:-' Here after ensuethe a copie of divers and sundry verses, aswell in Latin as in Englishe, devised and made partely by Ihon Leland, and partely by Nicholas Vuedale: whereof sum were sette up, and some other were spoken and pronounced unto the most highe and excellente Queene the ladie Anne, wif unto our Soverain lorde King Henry the eight, in many goodly and costely pageauntes, exhibited and shewed by the Mayre and citizens of the famous citie of London.' As a specimen of Udall's part of the performance, the following extravagantly complimentary dialogue may be taken. 'At the litle counduite in Chepe side was exhibited the Jugemente of Paris, in maner and fourme folowing : Mercurie.-Juppiter this aple unto the hath sent, Commaunding in this cause to geve true jugement. To juge whiche is fairest of these ladies three. I shall geve incomparable wisedome. Whiche ar but sundrie qualities in you three; But for hir worthynes this aple of gold Is to symple a rewarde a thousand fold.' The same obvious point occurs as a compliment to Queen Elizabeth in 1566, in ‘an oration made and pronounced by Mr. Pownd of Lincolnes Inne, in VOL. II. A A |