Galathea, Sappho and Phao, Midas, and Endymion ; all of which were represented by the choir-boys of St. Paul's, in their singing school-room, and often acted by them at court before Queen Elizabeth, with great applause. He had, as he himself tells us, been "entertained her Majesty's servant by her gracious favour," and had been taught to hope, that he might have been rewarded with the reversion of the office of Master of the Revels, or with that of Master of the Tents and Toils; but after thirteen years' service and expectation, he found," when he had cast up the inventory of his friends, hopes, promises, and times, that the sum total amounted to just nothing." His complaints on this subject were poured forth in two petitions to the Queen 2, the latter of which, I conjecture, from a circumstance mentioned in it, was presented in 1588; and it may be presumed, that not long afterwards, finding his hopes of preferment disappointed, and the publick taste so vitiated that nothing but folly and vain toyes could succeed on the stage, he retired for some time either to Oxford or to a cottage in his native county. Soon afterwards, the theatre, 2 Catal. Lib. Manuscript. Angliæ, &c. Col. Univers. 152, 13. MS. Harl. 1877. 3 About two years after Lilly appears to have made a temporary retreat from the stage, the choir-boys of St. Paul's were prohibited from playing: and in 1591, or before, their playhouse was shut up, probably on account of the scurrility and licentiousness which had prevailed for two or three preceding years in many of the theatres; and this prohibition, I believe, continued for about ten years. In the preface to Lilly's Endymion, published in 1591, the printer says, "Since the playes in Paules were dissolved, in which his comedies had been represented, was shut up by authority, on account of that licentiousness and ribaldry to which Spenser alludes. The character of Lilly, as a dramatick writer, has been unjustly depreciated in modern times, in consequence, I conceive, of its being supposed that his scenick productions are written in the same faulty there are certain comedies come to my handes, which were presented before her Majestie at severall tymes by the Children of Paules. This is the first," &c. See also Nashe's Have With You to Saffron Walden, 4to. 1596 (signat. G 4. b.), “Troth, I would hee might for mee, (that's all the harme I wish him,) for then we neede never wish the playes at Paules up againe; but if we were wearie with walking, and loth to goe too farre to seeke sport, into the Arches we might step, and heare him [Gabriel Harvey] plead, which would be a merrier comedie than ever was -old Mother Bombie" [one of Lilly's plays]. In 1600, or 1601, this interdiction was taken off, and the children of St. Paul's were again permitted to play. Martin's Antonio and Mellida, Jack Drum's Entertainment, and Dekker's Satiromastix, were performed by them in 1601. Lilly, after having retired for some years, appears to have again resumed the pen; for his Woman in the Moon was entered in the Stationers' register, September 22, 1595, and published in 1597; but the theatre where his former pieces were represented being then shut, it appears to have been acted only at Court, probably by the children of his Majesty's chapel, or the children of the Revels. It may, however, have been presented at a former period. That Lilly was living in 1597, is ascertained by his verses prefixed to a book entitled Christian Passions, by H. Lok, published in that year. The exact time of his death is not known, but it probably happened soon after the year 1600. No particulars of his person, or private life, have come down to us, except that he was married; that he was a little man, and a great taker of tobacco. style with his other works; and that they all abound with perpetual allusions to a kind of fabulous natural history, in which he and some of his contemporaries frequently indulged themselves, and for which he has been justly censured by Drayton and others. But this is not the fact; for though in three of his comedies he has too often fallen into this kind of impropriety, the general tenour of the other three is dif ferent; and, notwithstanding his defects, many of which in his own time were thought beauties, he unquestionably makes a nearer approach to a just delineation of character and life, than any comick poet that preceded Shakspeare. That they are free from quaintness, a too frequent play upon words (which at that time, however, was esteemed genuine wit), and some other faults, cannot be asserted with truth; but these defects are, in some degree, balanced by a livelier dialogue, and a more natural representation than his contemporaries produced. In the greater part of his plays, the division into acts and scenes is critically attended to, and the unities of action, time, and place, are well observed. It may also be remarked, that Lilly has not produced a single tragedy, and that all his comedies are replete with "learning's treasure;" for they not only are founded on classick fables, as the plays performed by the choir-boys of St. Paul's generally were, but abound with allusions to mytho 4 See the passage quoted in note 6, next page, where they are spoken of as "musty fopperies of antiquity." In the History of the English Stage, it will be seen that the following plays, founded on classical subjects, were performed by the children of St. Paul's, between the years 1571 and 1589: logy, and quotations from the Roman poets. If it should be objected, that in this respect he has little preserved that due decorum so much admired by Spenser, his courtiers, peasants, servants, husbandmen, nymphs, and chambermaids, all occasionally speaking Latin, and all equally well, it should be recollected that this practice was not peculiar to him3. A fact also should be remembered, which, I think, has escaped the notice of all our dramatick historians, though some of the passages by which it is ascertained have been quoted for other purposes. The circumstance to which I allude is, that the audience usually assembled in the room behind the Convocation-House of St. Paul's, where all his plays were represented, was of a higher order, and composed of very different persons from those who frequented common theatres ; for it should seem to have principally consisted of gentlemen and scholars, without any intermixture 1571, Iphigenia. 1573-4, Alcmeon. Timoclea at the Siege of Thebes. Perseus and Andromeda. 1576, History of Errour (doubtless from Plautus). Before 1579, Cupid and Psyche. 1579, Scipio Africanus. 1580, Pompey. 1584, Alexander and Campaspe. Sappho and Phaon. Galathea. Between 1585 and 1589, Endymion, Midas. s Latin quotations are frequently found in the plays produced at the period here spoken of, particularly in those which were represented by the choristers of St. Paul's. This appears from the following passages in an old play, of females; and appears to have borne some resemblance to the audiences now annually collected to entitled "Jack Drum's Entertainment, or the Comedy of Pasquil and Katherine, 4to. 1601, which was acted by the Children of St. Paul's. In the Introduction, in answer to the Tyreman, who complains that the Author had snatched the play-book from him, and with violence kept the boys from entering on the stage, one of the children says, "You much mistake the action, Tyerman ; "His violence proceeds not from a mind "That grudgeth pleasure to this generous presence, "Unto this choice selected audience." Again, in the fifth Act: "Sir Edw. Now by my troth, and [if] I had thought on't, too "I would have had a play; i' faith, I would. "I saw the Children of Pauls last night, "And troth they pleas'd me pretty pretty well; "The apes in time will do it handsomely. "Pla. I' faith, "I like the audience that frequenteth there "With much applause. A man shall not be choked "With the stench of garlick, nor be pasted to "The barmy jacket of a beer-brewer. “Brah. Jun. Tis a good gentle Audience; and I hope the boys "Will come one day into the Court of Requests." [This, I believe, is nothing more than a poor pun: 'I hope they will one day be in request.'] "Brah. Sen. Ay, and [if] they had good plays; but they produce "Such musty fopperies of antiquity, "And do not suit the humorous age's back "With cloaths in fashion." See also the Prologue to Antonio and Mellda, 1601, acted by the children of St. Paul's: VOL. II. |