at the upper end; and the players came forward from under a curtain, which was also at the back part of the stage. There was no scenery, such as is now used:-instead of this, some property,—a piece of furniture, or a movable, representing some natural object,-was thrust forward on the stage to give a cue to the imagination, and call upon it to supply the rest. But the wardrobe was expensive, and each dress was suited to the character. Of the ability of the players we can now have no proof but the testimony of contemporary writers; and these give us reason to think that many of them possessed the requisites of their art in the highest perfection. FIRST SERIES. READINGS ILLUSTRATING ENGLISH AND ROMAN HISTORY. Jumping o'er times; Turning the accomplishment of many years SECTION 1. ENGLISH HISTORY ILLUSTRATED BY READINGS FROM THE CHRONICLE PLAYS. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. To attract auditors by the promise of representing portions of English history was a project that readily suggested itself to the players in the days of Elizabeth. The people were rising in intelligence, and in the estimation of their own greatness as a nation; and their curiosity respecting the events of past reigns was sharpened by the glories of that under which they lived; while they were in a great measure precluded from easy access to historical information by such means as we enjoy, because their habits were not literary, and books were scantily diffused. In days still earlier, the miracleplays or mysteries had been employed to teach the laity the events of sacred history; and the players had these obvious models before their eyes, when they proposed to represent the chronicled events of English history for the information and amusement of the populace. The first representations were, no doubt, as rude in contrivance and execution as the miracle-plays had been; depending, for their interest, solely on the belief of the spectators in the truth of the actions mimicked on the stage; and having no connection of scene with scene but the credited order of the original events. After a time, the interest, from these sources, flagged; and the players, finding that something more than the bald facts of history, and still balder dialogue, was necessary to make plays of this kind permanently interesting, employed men of genius to work up the scenes; and, among others, they employed SHAKSPEARE. It is unnecessary to describe in what this working up consisted, since examples of it follow it is sufficient to say that it did not consist in reconstructing which another began, or that, having begun, some following hand has marred his work. It seems proper to call attention, also, to this phenomenon in the dramatic works of Shakspeare,-that from none of them do we learn anything of the writer himself:-we cannot gather from one single circumstance, or one single hint, what was his own character, what were his prevailing habits of thought,-what were his principles, religious, moral, or political,-what was his disposition, or what were his habits of life. No writer so completely forgets himself, or is so little of an egotist. To transcend the limits of that little world of thought and feeling which constitutes his own being, is an ability that scarcely any other writer possesses; certainly none in that degree in which Shakspeare enjoyed it: and with regard to the generality even of dramatic poets, what do we find in the different persons of their dramas, but different shades of the same single mind, from which single mind all that is said is felt to flow, however it may be assigned sometimes to one name, and sometimes to another of the persons of the drama? If, according to the etymology of the word, poetical power is creative power, and he is the greatest poet who can give existence to what is at the same time natural, and distinct in nature from himself, Shakspeare must be allowed that proud claim without danger of a competitor; or, if he has to dispute it with any other poet, it is with Homer alone. : What little more is certainly known of Shakspeare himself than has already been stated, is easily said. His popularity, even in his own day, though equally shared by others, appears to have been considerable it won for him some notice from Queen Elizabeth, and the especial patronage of the Earl of Southampton; and his profits as a writer, and a shareholder in the Globe theatre in Southwark, where all his plays were produced, procured him a competence, with which he purchased a small estate in his native town of Stratfordupon-Avon: and here he spent the last years of his life. He appears to have had all the personal qualities that make a man agreeable to others-" a pleasurable wit and good nature;" and his contemporary, Ben Jonson, writing of him after his death, says, that "he loved the man, and honoured his memory on this side idolatry as much as any. He was indeed honest; of an open and free nature; had an excellent fancy, brave notions, and gentle expressions." Thus much for his personal worth. He died at Stratford on his birth-day in 1616, aged fifty-three, leaving two daughters, who also had children: but his posterity became extinct in his granddaughter Elizabeth, the wife of Sir John Barnard of Abingdon. Her death happened in 1669. Before concluding this general preface to our Readings, it may be remarked, that the play-houses in Shakspeare's day were circular wooden buildings, open at the top to the sky, and the plays were acted by day-light. The inferior place of the theatre was the ground, or, as we now call it, the pit: the best places, or, as we now call them, the boxes, were then named rooms, and they were fenced from the weather by a partial roof. The stage had a sort of balcony at the upper end; and the players came forward from under a curtain, which was also at the back part of the stage. There was no scenery, such as is now used:-instead of this, some property,-a piece of furniture, or a movable, representing some natural object,-was thrust forward on the stage to give a cue to the imagination, and call upon it to supply the rest. But the wardrobe was expensive, and each dress was suited to the character. Of the ability of the players we can now have no proof but the testimony of contemporary writers; and these give us reason to think that many of them possessed the requisites of their art in the highest perfection. FIRST SERIES. READINGS ILLUSTRATING ENGLISH AND ROMAN HISTORY. Jumping o'er times; Turning the accomplishment of many years SECTION 1. ENGLISH HISTORY ILLUSTRATED BY READINGS FROM THE CHRONICLE PLAYS. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. To attract auditors by the promise of representing portions of English history was a project that readily suggested itself to the players in the days of Elizabeth. The people were rising in intelligence, and in the estimation of their own greatness as a nation; and their curiosity respecting the events of past reigns was sharpened by the glories of that under which they lived; while they were in a great measure precluded from easy access to historical information by such means as we enjoy, because their habits were not literary, and books were scantily diffused. In days still earlier, the miracleplays or mysteries had been employed to teach the laity the events of sacred history; and the players had these obvious models before their eyes, when they proposed to represent the chronicled events of English history for the information and amusement of the populace. The first representations were, no doubt, as rude in contrivance and execution as the miracle-plays had been; depending, for their interest, solely on the belief of the spectators in the truth of the actions mimicked on the stage; and having no connection of scene with scene but the credited order of the original events. After a time, the interest, from these sources, flagged; and the players, finding that something more than the bald facts of history, and still balder dialogue, was necessary to make plays of this kind permanently interesting, employed men of genius to work up the scenes; and, among others, they employed SHAKSPEARE. It is unnecessary to describe in what this working up consisted, since examples of it follow: it is sufficient to say that it did not consist in reconstructing We are to imagine a meeting between the following personages, each party numerously attended, and followed by armed forces: On the one side, Philip Augustus, king of France; Lewis the dauphin; the Lady Constance; and prince Arthur: On the other side, the Archduke of Austria. In the course of the scene, Chatillon enters with his suite, as returning from an embassy to England: And subsequently, King John makes his appearance and enters, with a large armed force, accompanied by his mother Eleanor, his niece Blanche of Castile, and Faulconbridge, whom he has placed near himself as commander of the forces. The first speakers are Philip, Arthur, Austria, and Constance. [Philip.] Before Angiers well met, brave Austria.— To spread his colours, boy, in thy behalf, Of thy unnatural uncle, English John : [Arthur.] Heaven shall forgive you Coeur-de-lion's death [Austria.] A noble boy! Who would not do thee right? Till Angiers, and the right thou hast in France, Salute thee for her king: till then, fair boy, [Cons'ance.] O, take his mother's thanks, a widow's thanks, Yet unadvis'd stain not your swords with blood. [Philip.] Who is 't approaches? Lo! upon thy wish, Our messenger Chatillon is arriv'd. [a pause.] What England says, say briefly, gentle lord. Chatillon advances and speaks. [Chatillon.] Turn not your forces to this paltry town, With him, along is come the mother-queen, |