ufual at the performance of a play. Yet he may fometimes order English plays; fuch, at least, as are fmart and witty. In the year 1538, Ralph Radcliffe, a polite fcholar, and a lover of graceful elocution, opening a fchool at Hitchin in Hertfordshire, obtained a grant of the diffolved friery of the Carmelites in that town: and converting the refectory into a theatre, wrote feveral plays, both in Latin and English, which were exhibited by his pupils. Among his comedies were Dives and Lazarus, Boccacio's Patient Grifilde, Titus and Gefippus, and Chaucer's Melibeus: his tragedies were, the Delivery of Sufannah, the Burning of John Hufs, Job's Sufferings, the Burning of Sodom, Jonas, and the Fortitude of Judith. These pieces were feen by the biographer Bale in the author's library, but are now loft. It is scarcely neceffary to remind the reader, that this very liberal exercise is yet preserved, and in the fpirit of true claffical purity, at the college of Westminster'. I believe, the frequency of these school-plays fuggefted to Shakespeare the names of Seneca and Plautus as

P See fupr. p. 341.

Bale viii. 98. ATH. OXON. i. 73. I have seen an anonymous comedy, APOLLO SHROVING, compofed by the Mafter of Hadleigh-fchool, in Suffolk, and acted by his fcholars, on Shrove-tuesday, Feb. 7. 1626. printed 1627. 8vo. Published, as it feems, by E. W. Shrove-tuesday, as the day immediately preceding Lent, was always a day of extraordinary fport and feasting. So in the fong of Juftice Silence in Shakespeare, See P. HENRY IV. A. v. S. 4.

Tis merry in hall when beards wag all, And welcome MERRY SHROVETIDE. In the Romish church there was antiently a feaft immediately preceding Lent, which lafted many days, called CARNIS CAPIUM. See Carpentier, in V. SUPPL. LAT. GL. Du Cang. tom. i. p. 831. In fome cities of France an officer was annually chofen, called LE PRINCE D'AMOUREUX, who prefided over the fports of the youth for fix days before Afh-wednesday. Ibid. V. AMORATUS. p. 195. and V. CARDINA

D

LIS. p, 818. alfo V. SPINETUM, tom. iii. p. 848. Some traces of thefe feftivities ftill remain in our univerfities. In the PERCY HOUSHOLD-BOOK, 1512, it ap pears that the clergy and officers of lord Percy's chapel performed a play " before his "lordship upon Shrowftewefday at night." pag. 345.

It appears antiently to have been an exercife for youth, not only to act but to write interludes. Erafmus fays, that fir Thomas More," adolefcens COMOEDI"OLAS et fcripfit et egit." EPISTOL. 447. But fee what I have faid of More's PAGEAUNTS, Obfervat. on Spenf. ii. 47. And we are told, that More, while he lived a Page with archbishop Moreton, as the plays were going on in the palace during the chriftmas holidays, would often ftep upon the ftage without previous notice, and exhibit a part of his own, which gave much more fatisfaction than the whole performance befides. Roper's LIFE AND DEATH OF MORE, p. 27. edit. 1731. 8vo.

dramatic authors; where Hamlet, fpeaking of a variety of theatrical performances, fays, "Seneca cannot be too heavy, "nor Plautus too light'." Jonfon, in his comedy of THE STAPLE OF NEWES, has a fatirical allufion to this practice, yet ironically applied: where CENSURE fays, "For my part, "I beleeve it, and there were no wiser than I, I would have "neer a cunning schoole-mafter in England: I mean a Cunning-man a schoole-master; that is, a conjurour, or a poet, or that had any acquaintance with a poet. They "make all their fchollers Play-boyes! Is't not a fine fight "to fee all our children made Enterluders? Doe we pay our money for this? Wee fend them to learne their grammar and their Terence, and they learne their play"bookes. Well, they talk we fhall have no more parlia

ments, god bleffe us! But an wee have, I hope Zeale of "the Land Buzzy, and my goffip Rabby Trouble-truth, will "start up, and fee we have painfull good ministers to keepe "fchoole, and catechife our youth; and not teach em to fpeake Playes, and act fables of false newes, &c'.

In tracing the hiftory of our stage, this early practice of performing plays in schools and univerfities has never been confidered, as a circumftance inftrumental to the growth and improvement of the drama. While the people were amused with Skelton's TRIAL OF SIMONY, Bale's GOD'S PROMISES, and CHRIST'S DESCENT INTO HELL, the fcholars of the times were composing and acting plays on historical subjects, and in imitation of Plautus and Terence. Hence ideas of a legitimate fable must have been imperceptibly derived to the popular and vernacular drama. And we may add, while no fettled or public theatres were known, and plays were chiefly acted by itinerant minstrels in the halls of the nobility at Christmas, thefe literary focieties fupported some idea of a

ACT ii. Sc. 7.

Acr iii. p. 50. edit. fol. 1631. This play was first acted in the year 1625.

stage:

ftage: they afforded the best accommodations for theatrical exhibition, and were almoft the only, certainly the most rational, companies of players that existed.

But I mean yet to trespass on my reader's patience, by purfuing this inquiry ftill further; which, for the fake of comprehenfion and connection, has already exceeded the limits of a digreffion.

It is perhaps on this principle, that we are to account for plays being acted by finging-boys: although they perhaps acquired a turn for theatrical representation and the spectacular arts, from their annual exhibition of the ceremonies of the boy-bishop; which seem to have been common in almost every religious community that was capable of supporting a choir". I have before given an instance of the finging-boys of Hyde abbey and faint Swithin's priory at

"In a fmall college, for only one provost, five fellows, and fix chorifters, founded by archbishop Rotheram in 1481, in the obfcure village of Rotheram in Yorkshire, this piece of mummery was not omitted. The founder leaves by will, among other bequefts to the college, "A Myter for the "barne-bishop of cloth of gold, with two "knopps of filver, gilt and enamelled."

Hearne's LIB. NIG. SCACC. APPEND. p. 674. 686. This eftablishme t, but with a far greater degree of buffoonery, was common in the collegiate churches of France. See Dom. Marlot, HISTOIRE de la Metropole de Rheims, tom. ii. p. 769. A part of the ceremony in the church of Noyon was, that the children of the choir fhould celebrate the whole fervice on Innocent's day. Brillon, DICTIONAIRE DES ARRETS, Artic. NoYON. edit. de 1727. This privilege, as I have before obferved, is permitted to the children of the choir of Winchefter college, on that feftival, by the founder's ftatutes, given in 1380. [See fupr. vol. i. 248.] Yet in the ftatutes of Eton college, given in 1441, and altogether tranfcribed from those of Winchefter, the chorifter-bishop of the chapel is permitted to celebrate the holy

1

offices on the feaft of faint Nicholas, but by no means on that of the INNOCENTS."In fefto fancti Nicolai, in quo et NULLATENUS in fefto fanctorum INNOCENTIUM, divina officia (prætur Miffe "Secreta) exequi et dici permittimus per

66

66

Epifcopum Puerorum, ad hoc, de eifdem "[pueris choriftis] annis fingulis eligen"dum." STATUT. Coll. Etonenf. Cap. xxxi. The fame claufe is in the ftatutes of King's college at Cambridge. Cap. xlii. The parade of the mock-bishop is evidently akin to the Fete des Foux, in which they had a bishop, an abbot, and a precentor, of the fools. One of the pieces of humour in this laft-mentioned fhew, was to fhave the precentor in public, on a stage erected at the weft door of the church. M. Tilliot, MEM. de la Fete des Foux, ut fupr. p. 13. In the Council of Sens, A. D, 1485, we have this prohibition. "Turper "etiam illam abufum in quibufdam fre"quentatum ecclefiis, quo, certis annis, "nonnulli cum mitra, baculo, ac veftibus "pontificalibus, more epifcoporum benedi "cunt; alii ut reges et duces induti, quod "Feftum FATUORUM, vel INNOCEN TIUM, feu RUERORUM, in quibufdam regionibus nuncupatur, &c." CONCIL..

46

་་

Winchester, performing a MORALITY before king Henry the feventh at Winchester caftle, on a Sunday, in the year 1487. In the accompts of Maxtoke priory near Coventry, in the year 1430, it appears, that the eleemofinary boys, or chorifters, of that monaftery, acted a play, perhaps every year, on the feaft of the Purification, in the hall of the neighbouring castle belonging to lord Clinton: and it is specified, that the cellarer took no money for their attendance, because his lordship's minstrels had often affifted this year at several festivals in the refectory of the convent, and in the hall of the prior, without fee or gratuity. I will give the article,

SENON. cap. iii. Harduin. Acr. CONCIL. Parif. 1714. tom. ix. p. 1525. E. See alfo ibid. CONCIL. BASIL. Seff. xxi. p. 1122. E. And 1296. D. p. 1344. A. It is furprifing that Colet, dean of faint Paul's, a friend to the purity of religion, and who had the good fenfe and refolution to cenfure the fuperftitions and fopperies of popery in his public fermons, fhould countenance this idle farce of the boy-bishop, in the ftatutes of his school at faint Paul's; which he founded with a view of eftablishing the education of youth on a more rational and liberal plan than had yet been known, in the year 1512. He exprefsly orders that his fcholars, "fhall every Childermas [In "nocents] daye come to Paulis churche, "and hear the CHILDE-BYSHOP's [of S. "Paul's cathedral] fermon. And after, "be at the hygh masse; and each of them "offer a penny to the CHILDE-BYSHOP, "and with them the maifters and furveyors "of the fcole." Knight's LIFE OF COLET, (MISCELL. Num. V. APPEND.) p. 362. I take this opportunity of obferving, that the anniversary cuftom at Eton of going ad Montem, originated from the antient and popular practice of these theatrical proceffions in collegiate bodies.

In the ftatutes of New college in Oxford, founded about the year 1380, there is the following remarkable paffage." Ac etiam "illum LUDUM viliffimum et horribilem "RADENDI BARBAS, qui fieri folet in

"nocte præcedente Inceptionis Magiftra"dorum in Artibus, infra collegium nof"trum prædictum, vel alibi in Univerfi"tate prædicta, ubicunque, ipfis [fociis

66

et fcolaribus] penitus interdicimus, ac "etiam prohibemus expreffe." RUBR. XXV. Hearne endeavours to explain this injunction, by fuppofing that it was made in oppofition to the Wiccliffites, who difregarded the laws of fcripture; and, in this particular inftance, violated the fol lowing text in LEVITICUS, where this cuftom is exprefsly forbidden. xix. 27. “Nei"ther fhalt thou mar the corners of thy "beard." NOT. ad Joh. Trokelowe. p. 393Nothing can be more unfortunate than this elucidation of our antiquary. The direct contrary was the cafe: for the Wickliffites entirely grounded their ideas of reformation both in morals and doctrine on fcriptural proofs, and often committed abfurdities' in too precife and literal an acceptation of texts. And, to fay no more, the custom, from the words of the ftatute, feems to have been long preferved in the university, as a mock-ceremony on the night preceding the folemn A&t of Magiftration. It is ftyled LUDUS, a Play and I am of opinion, that it is to be ranked among the other ecclefiaftic mummeries of that age; and that it has fome connection with the exhibition mentioned above of fhaving the Precentor in public.

:

"

which is very circumftantial, at length, « Pro jentaculis puerorum eleemofyna exeuntium ad aulam in caftro ut ibi LUDUM peragerent in die Purificationis, xivd. Unde nihil a domini [Clinton] thefaurario, quia fæpius boc anno miniftralli caftri fecerunt miniftralfiam in aula conventus et Prioris ad festa plu"rima fine ullo regardo' That is, For the extraordinary breakfast of the children of the almonry, or finging-boys of the convent, when they went to the hall in the castle, to perform the PLAY on the feaft of the Purification, fourteenpence. In confideration of which performance, we received nothing in return from the treasurer of the lord Clinton, because the minstrels of the caftle had often this year plaid at many festivals, both in the hall of the convent and in the prior's hall, without reward. So early as the year 1378, the scholars, or chorifters, of faint Paul's cathedral in London, presented a petition to king Richard the second, that his majesty would prohibit fome ignorant and unexperienced persons from acting the HISTORY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, to the great prejudice of the clergy of the church, who had expended confiderable fums for preparing a public presentation of that play at the enfuing Christmas . From MYSTERIES this young fraternity proceeded to more regular dramas; and at the commencement of a theatre, were the best and almoft only comedians. They became at length fo favorite a fet of players, as often to act at court: and, on particular occafions of feftivity, were frequently removed from London, for this purpose only, to the royal houses at fome distance from town. This is a circumftance in their dramatic hiftory, not commonly known. In the year 1554, while the princess Elizabeth refided at Hatfield-house in Hertfordshire, under the custody of fir Thomas Pope, fhe was vifited by queen Mary. The next morning, after mass, they were entertained with a grand exhibition of bear-baiting, with

* Penes me. fupr. citat. * See RISE AND PROGRESS, &C. CIBB. L. vol. ii. p. 118.