with me; having ftill Health, and Strength enough, to have been as ufeful on the Stage, as ever, I was under no vifible Neceffity of quitting it: But fo it happen'd, that our furviving Fraternity having got fome chimerical, and as I thought, unjuft Notions into their Heads, which though I knew they were without much Difficulty to be furmounted; I chose not, at my time of Day, to enter into new Contentions; and, as I found an Inclination in fome of them, to purchase the whole Power of the Patent into their own Hands; I did my best, while I ftaid with them, to make it worth their while to come up to my Price; and then patiently fold out my Share, to the first Bidder, wishing the Crew, I had left in the Veffel, a good Voyage. What Commotions the Stage fell into, the Year following, or from what Provocations, the greatest Part of the Actors revolted, and fet up for themselves, in the little House, in the Hay-Market, lies not within the Promise of my Title Page to relate: Or as it might fet fome Perfons living, in a Light, they poffibly might not chufe to be feen in, I will rather be thankful, for the involuntary Favour they have done me, than trouble the Publick, with private Complaints of fancied, or real Injuries. THE THE RISE and PROGRESS OF THE English THEATRE, FROM Its earliest Beginning, to the Death of King CHARLES the Firft. Extracted from the Preface to the Collection of Old Plays, in 12 vols. B EFORE I proceed to my principal Design, it may not be unentertaining to the Reader juft to take a View of the great Similarity that appears in the Rife and Progress of the modern Stage, Stage, in all the principal Countries Italian of Europe. The Italian is perhaps Theatre. the earliest of the modern Theatres * nay, they pretend it was never intirely filent from the Imperial Times. But tho' there might be fome infipid Buffooneries performed by idle People ftrolling about from Town to Town, and acting in open and publick Places to the Mob they gather'd round them; yet they had no Poetry till the Time of the Provençals, nor any Thing like a Theatre, till they began to exhibit the Mysteries of Religion. And thefe, as is affirmed by Octavio Pancirolli, in his Teforo Nafcafto di Roma, begun but with the Establishment of the Fraternity del Gonfalone in the Year 1264: From the Statutes of which Company he quotes the the following Paragraph. The principal • Design of our Fraternity, being to represent < the Bouche, in his Hiftory of Provence, fays, the Provençal Poets began to be efteemed throughout Europe in the twelfth Century, and were at the Height of their Credit about the middle of the fourteenth. Their Poetry confifted of paftoral Songs, Sonnets, Serventes and Tenfons, i. e. Satires and Love-Difputes. And in the Lift of their Poets are found Perfons of the first Dignity. In particular the Emperor Frederick the First, and our King Richard, firnamed Cœur de Lion. This Poetry receiv'd its fatal Stroke in the Death of Joan the First, Queen of Naples, and Countess of Provence; for neither Lewis the First, her adopted Son, nor Lewis the Second. his Succeffor, fhew'd any Regard to it. Le fin de cette Poefie fut le Commencement celle des Italiens; for all there before Danté were rather Rhimers than Poets: He and Petrarch were les deux vrayes Fontaines de la Poëfie Itallienne ; mais Fontaines, qui pierent leurs fources dans la Poëfie Provençale. PASQUIER RECH. 605 the Paffion of Jefus Chrift; we ordain, that when the Myfteries of the faid Paffion are reprefented, our antient Orders be ever obferv'd; together with what shall be prescrib'd by the general Congregation.' But Crefembini, in his Hiftory of Poetry, fays, the first Piece of this Nature was written by Francis Beliari on the Story of Abraham and Ifaac; and acted at Florence, in the Church of St. Mary Magdalen, about 1449: And that about the fame time, or foon after, the History of Chrift's Paffion was first represented in the Collifeum at Rome. Thefe two Accounts I will leave to be adjusted by the Criticks. Spanish The Spanish Theatre boafts great Antiquity; but it is difficult to fix its precife Era. Their firft theatrical Pieces were fmall Farces of one Act, call'd Entermifes, or Jordanas, which they perform'd in Thorough-Fares, or the most publick Places of the Towns. The Action of the Piece turn'd upon fome Subject of ridiculous and low Life; which being heighten'd with Strokes of Wit and Satire, and perform'd with antic Gestures, made an Entertainment not much unlike the Latin Mimes. To these fucceeded what they call'd the Autos Sacramentales; being indeed Myfteries, but more artificial than those of the rest of Europe, which were fimple Representations, while these were always allegorical. There are prodigious Numbers of them in Spain, but thofe of Calderon are reckon'd the best. The The French pretend to draw the French Original of their Drama from the Provençal Poets in the thirteenth Theatre Century. I fuppofe because one Nouez, who died in the Year 1220, is men-' tion'd by Noftradamus as a good Actor. This Man by going about to the Houfes of the Nobility, finging, dancing, and making Faces, gain'd not only a good Livelihood, but much Applaufe.. He had, they tell us, the Art of fpeaking either in a Man's or Woman's Key, and by changing his Accent, Gesture, and Countenance at pleasure, could himself personate two Actors. Thefe kinds of extempore Farces, or Dialogues, continued till they were difplaced by the Exhibition of the Mysteries. The firft, of which we have any Account, was the Mystery of the Paffion, represented at St. Maur's in 1398. But the French Theatre, tho' it got as early rid of thefe Barbarities as any other, yet continued long very rude and imperfect, and deftitute of all good Comedy 'till the Time of Corneille and Moliere ; the former born in 1606, the latter in 1621. The Dutch Theatre had its OriDutch ginal from what they call in that Theatre. Country Reden Rychkers Kameran, that is, Companies or Societies of Rhetoricians and Poets, not unlike the Academies in Italy. The Members of these Societies were the Wits of the Place, who, when any one was married, buried, prefer'd to an Office, &c. were applied to for Epithalami ums, |