I have before observed, that the frequent and public exhibition of personifications in the PAGEAUNTS, which antiently accompanied every high festivity, greatly contributed to cherish the spirit of allegorical poetry, and even to enrich the imagination of Spenser1. The MORALITIES, which now began to acquire new celebrity, and in which the same groupes of the impersonated vices and virtues appeared, must have concurred in producing this effect. And hence, at the same time, we are led to account for the national relish for allego PR. "O what a gret welth and." Also, "A new Commodyte in Englysh in maner of an ENTERLUDE ryght elygant and full of craft of rhetoryck: wherein is shewed and dyscrybyd, as well the beute of good propertes of women, as theyr vyces and evyll condicions, with a morall conclusion and exhortation to vertew. J. Rastall me imprimi fecit." In folio, without date. This is in English verse, and contains twelve leaves. PR. "Melebea," &c. He reduced a dialogue of Lucian into English verse, much after the manner of an interlude, viz. "NECROMANTIA. A Dialogue of Lucyan for his fantasy fayned for a mery pastyme, &c. -J. Rastall me fieri fecit. It is translated from the Latin, and has Latin notes in the margin. It may be doubted, whether Rastall was not the printer only of these pieces. If the printer only, they might come from the festive genius of his brother sir Thomas More. But Rastall appears to have been a scholar. He was educated at Oxford; and took up the employment of printing as a profession at that time esteemed liberal, and not unsuitable to the character of a learned and ingenious man. An English translation of Terence, called TERENS in ENGLISH, with a prologue in stanzas, beginning "The famous renown through the worlde is spronge," is believed, at least from similarity of type, to be by Rastall. In quarto, without date. He published, in 1525, The MERY GESTYS of one callyd EDYTH the lyeng wydow. This is a description, in English rhymes, of the frauds practised by a female sharper in the neighbourhood of London: the scene of one of her impostures is laid in sir Thomas More's house at Chelsea. The author, one of her dupes, is Walter Smyth. Emprynted at London at the sygne of the Meremayde at Pollis gate next to Chepesyde by J. Rastall. fol. It will be sufficient to have given this short incidental notice of a piece which hardly deserves to be named. Rastall wrote and printed many other pieces, which I do not mention, as unconnected with the history of our poetry. I shall only observe further, in general, that he was eminently skilled in mathematics, cosmography, history, our municipal law, and theology. He died 1536. h And of Shakespeare. There is a passage in ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, where the metaphor is exceedingly beautiful; but where the beauty both of the expression and the allusion is lost, unless we recollect the frequency and the nature of these shews in Shakespeare's age. Acr iv. Sc. xi. I must cite the whole of the context, for the sake of the last hemistich. Sometime we see a cloud that's dra- A vapour sometime, like a bear or lion; rical poetry, which so long prevailed among our ancestors. By means of these spectacles, ideal beings became common and popular objects: and emblematic imagery, which at present is only contemplated by a few retired readers in the obsolete pages of our elder poets, grew familiar to the general eye. SECTION XXXIV. IN a work of this general and comprehensive nature, in which the fluctuations of genius are surveyed, and the dawnings or declensions of taste must alike be noticed, it is impossible that every part of the subject can prove equally splendid and interesting. We have, I fear, been toiling for some time through materials, not perhaps of the most agreeable and edifying nature. But as the mention of that very rude species of our drama, called the MORALITY, has incidentally diverted our attention to the early state of the English stage, I cannot omit so fortunate and seasonable an opportunity of endeavouring to relieve the weariness of my reader, by introducing an obvious digression on the probable causes of the rise of the MYSTERIES, which, as I have before remarked, preceded, and at length produced, these allegorical fables. In this respect I shall imitate those map-makers mentioned by Swift, who O'er inhospitable downs, Place elephants for want of towns. Nor shall I perhaps fail of being pardoned by my reader, if, on the same principle, I should attempt to throw new light on the history of our theatre, by pursuing this enquiry through those deductions which it will naturally and more immediately suggest. About the eighth century, trade was principally carried on by means of fairs, which lasted several days. Charlemagne established many great marts of this sort in France; as did William the Conqueror, and his Norman successors, in En gland. The merchants, who frequented these fairs in numerous caravans or companies, employed every art to draw the people together. They were therefore accompanied by juglers, minstrels, and buffoons; who were no less interested in giving their attendance, and exerting all their skill, on these occasions. As now but few large towns existed, no public spectacles or popular amusements were established; and as the sedentary pleasures of domestic life and private society were yet unknown, the fair-time was the season for diversion. In proportion as these shews were attended and encouraged, they began to be set off with new decorations and improvements: and the arts of buffoonery, being rendered still more attractive by extending their circle of exhibition, acquired an importance in the eyes of the people. By degrees the clergy, observing that the entertainments of dancing, music, and mimicry, exhibited at these protracted annual celebrities, made the people less religious, by promoting idleness and a love of festivity, proscribed these sports, and excommunicated the performers. But finding that no regard was paid to their censures, they changed their plan, and determined to take these recreations into their own hands. They turned actors; and instead of profane mummeries, presented stories taken from legends or the bible. This was the origin of sacred comedy. The death of saint Catharine, acted by the monks of saint Dennis, rivalled the popularity of the professed players. Music was admitted into the churches, which served as theatres for the représentation of holy farces. The festivals among the French, called LA FETE DE FOUX, DE L'ANE', and DES INNOCENS, at length h See supr. vol. ii. p. 115. i For a most full and comprehensive account of these feasts, see "Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de la FETE DE Foux, qui se faisoit autrefois dans plu. sieurs eglises. Par M. du TILLIOT, gentilhomme ordinaire de son Altesse royale Monseigneur le duc de BERRY. A LAUSANNE et a GENEVE, 1741." 4to. Grosthead, bishop of Lincoln in the eleventh century, orders his dean and chapter to became greater favorites, as they certainly were more capricious and absurd, than the interludes of the buffoons at the fairs. These are the ideas of a judicious French writer, now living, who has investigated the history of human manners with great comprehension and sagacity. Voltaire's theory on this subject is also very ingenious, and quite new. Religious plays, he supposes, came originally from Constantinople; where the old Grecian stage continued to flourish in some degree, and the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides were represented, till the fourth century. Ibid. Epistol. xxii. p. 314. [See supr. vol. ii. p. 82.] See in the MERCURE FRANCOIS for September, 1742, an account of a mummery celebrated in the city of Besançon in France, by the canons of the cathedral, consisting of dancing, singing, eating and drinking, in the cloisters and church, on Easterday, called BERGERETTA, or the SONG OF THE SHEPHERDS; which remained unabolished till the year 1738. From the RITUAL of the church, pag. 1930, ad ann. 1582. See Carpentier, SUPPL. Du Cang. LAT. GLOSS. tom. i. p. 523. in V. And ibid. V. BOCLARE, p. 570. * About prohibited female Christian proselytes from appearing upon the stage; who were thus allowed to resume their profession, without the fear of spiritual cen sure. (Mimas diversis adnotationibus liberatas ad proprium officium summâ instantiâ revocari decernimus. L. xv. Cod. Th. Tit. 7. L. 13.) The capture of Carthage (439) was effected by Genseric, whilst the inhabitants were engaged at the theatre; and the language of Theodoret upon this occasion, unless we are to accept it as a mere rhetorical flourish, might be strained to imply, that the dramas of Eschylus and Sophocles were still exhibited in the Empire, or at least that they were generally known. An edict of Justinian, only forbids deacons, priests, and bishops, from attending any species of scenic representation; and under the same emperor (588), Gregory bishop of Antioch was publicly defamed by the spectators at the theatre, and ridiculed by the actors on the stage. In the year 692 the council of Trullo prohibited all christians, both clergy and laity, under pain of suspension or excommunication, from following the occupation of a player, and from frequenting the games of the circus and the theatre. (Can.51.) And lastly, the canons of Nicephorus, and of Photius, both framed in the ninth century, only re-echo the edict of Theodosius, that the theatre ought to be closed upon Sundays and days of solemn festival.-The history of the West will afford us nearly similar notices. The theatres of France and Italy, especially those of Rome and Marseilles, continued in high celebrity long * [The profane drama, however degenerated, maintained its footing both in the East and West, much later than the æra assumed in the text. It may be worth while to offer a few illustrations of this position. The Imperial edict of 399, which abolished the feast of Majuma, gave free permission for the continuance of all other public entertainments; and among these the theatre was of course included. The petition of the African bishops, drawn up in the same year according to Godefroy, or in 401 according to Baronius, merely solicits the suppression of plays upon Sundays, and other days observed as festivals in the Christian church; and begs an exemption for all Christians from being compelled to attend them. Nor was it till the year 425, that the prayer of this petition was confirmed by Theodosius the younger; and then restricted to the most important feasts in the calendar. Four years after, the same emperor found it necessary to rescind the law, which |