tated to this spiritual brotherhood the representation of plays, especially those of the scriptural kind: and their constant practice in shews, processions, and vocal music, easily accounts for their address in detaining the best company which England afforded in the fourteenth century, at a religious farce, for more than a week. Before I conclude this inquiry, a great part of which has been taken up in endeavouring to shew the connection between places of education and the stage, it ought to be remarked, that the antient fashion of acting plays in the inns of court, which may be ranked among seminaries of instruction, although for a separate profession, is deducible from this source. The first representation of this sort which occurs on record, and is mentioned with any particular circumstances, was at Gray'sinn. John Roos, or Roo, student at Gray's-inn, and created a serjeant at law in the year 1511, wrote a comedy which was acted at Christmas in the hall of that society, in the year 1527. This piece, which probably contained some free reflections on the pomp of the clergy, gave such offence to cardinal Wolsey, that the author was degraded and imprisoned". In the year 1550, under the reign of Edward the Sixth, an order was made in the same society, that no comedies, commonly called Interludes, should be acted in the refectory in the intervals of vacation, except at the celebration of Christmas: and that then, the whole body of students should jointly contribute towards the dresses, scenes, and decorations". In the year 1561, Sackville's and Norton's tragedy of FErrex and PorreX was presented before queen Elizabeth at Whitehall, by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple P. In the year 1566, the SUPPOSES, a comedy, was acted at Gray's-inn, written by Gascoigne, one of the students. Decker, in his satire against Jonson above cited, accuses Jonson for having stolen some jokes from the Christmas plays of the lawyers. "You shall sweare not to bumbast out a new play with the old lyning of jestes stolne from the Temple-revells." In the year 1632 it was ordered, in the Inner Temple, that no play should be continued after twelve at night, not even on Christmas-eve". But these societies seem to have shone most in the representation of Masques, a branch of the old drama. So early as the year 1431, it was ordered, that the society of Lincoln's inn should celebrate four revels, on four grand festivals, every year, which I conceive to have consisted in great measure of this species of impersonation. In the year 1613, they presented at Whitehall a masque before king James the First, in honour of the marriage of his daughter the princess Elizabeth with the prince Elector Palatine of the Rhine, at the cost of more than one thousand and eighty pounds. The poetry was by Chapman, and the machinery by Jones". splendid and sumptuous performance of this 4 SATIROMASTIX, edit. 1602. ut supr SIGNAT. M. 'Dugd. ut supr. cap. 57. p. 140. seq. also c. 61. 205. It is not, however, exactly known whether these revels were not simply DANCES: for Dugdale says, that the students of this inn "anciently had DANCINGS for their recreation and delight." IBID. And he adds, that in the year 1610, the under barristers, for example's sake, were put out of commons by decimation, because they offended in not DANCING on Candlemas-day, when the JUDGES were present, according to an antient order of the society. Ibid. col. 2. In an old comedy, called CUPID'S WHIRLIGIG, acted in the year 1616, by the children of his majesty's revels, a lawstudent is one of the persons of the drama, who says to a lady, "Faith, lady, I remember the first time I saw you was in quadragessimo-sexto of the queene, in a michaelmas tearme, and I think it was the morrow upon mense Michaelis, or crastino Animarum, I cannot tell But the most kind, plaid by which. And the next time I saw you Dugdale IBID. p. 246. The other societies seem to have joined. IBID. cap. 67. p. 286. See also Finett's PHILOXENIS, p. 8. 11. edit. 1656. and Ibid. these societies, was the masque which they exhibited at Candlemas-day, in the year 1633, at the expence of two thousand pounds, before king Charles the First; which so pleased the king, and probably the queen, that he invited one hundred and twenty gentlemen of the law to a similar entertainment at Whitehall on Shrove Tuesday following". It was called the TRIUMPH OF PEACE, and written by Shirley, then a student of Gray's-inn. The scenery was the invention of Jones, and the music was composed by William Lawes and Simon Ives*. Some curious anecdotes of this exhibition are preserved by a cotemporary, a diligent and critical observer of those seemingly insignificant occurrences, which acquire importance in the eyes of posterity, and are often of more value than events of greater dignity. "On Monday after Candlemas-day, the gentlemen of the inns of court performed their MASQUE at Court. They were sixteen in number, who rode through the streets!, in four chariots, and two others to carry their pages and musicians; attended by an hundred gentlemen on great horses, as well clad as ever I saw any. They far exceeded in bravery [splendor] any Masque that had formerly been presented by those societies, and performed the dancing part with much applause. In their company was one Mr. Read of Gray'sinn; whom all the women, and some men, cried up for as hand Dugd. ibid. p. 346. x It was printed, Lond. 1633. 4to. The author says, that it exceeded in variety and richness of decoration, any thing ever exhibited at Whitehall. There is a little piece called THE INNS OF COURT ANAGRAMMATIST, Or The Masquers Masqued in Anagrams, written by Francis Lenton, the queen's poet, Lond. 1634. 4to. In this piece, the names, and respective houses, of each masquer are specified; and in commendation of each there is an epigram. The masque with which his inajesty returned this compliment on the Shrove-tuesday following at Whitehall, was, I think, Carew's COLUM BRITANNICUM, written by the king's command, and played by his majesty, with many of the nobility and their sons who were boys. The VOL. III. some a man as the duke of Buckingham. They were well used at court by the king and queen. No disgust given them, only this one accident fell: Mr. May, of Gray's-inn, a fine poet, he who translated Lucan, came athwart my lord chamberlain in the banquetting-house", and he broke his staff over his shoulders, not knowing who he was; the king was present, who knew him, for he calls him HIS POET, and told the chamberlain of it, who sent for him the next morning, and fairly excused himself to him, and gave him fifty pounds in pieces.— This riding-shew took so well, that both king and queen desired to see it again, so that they invited themselves to supper to my lord mayor's within a week after; and the Masquers came in a more glorious show with all the riders, which were increased twenty, to Merchant-taylor's Hall, and there performed again." But it was not only by the parade of processions, and the decorations of scenery, that these spectacles at Whitehall. In king and the young noblesse do make; a STRAFFORDE'S LETTERS, Garrard to the other at Shrovetide, which the queen the Lord Deputy, dat. Feb. 27. 1633. and her ladies do present to the king. vol. i. p. 207. It is added, "On A great room is now building only for Shrove Tuesday at night, the king and this use betwixt the guard chamber and the lords performed their Masque. The the banquetting-house, and of fir," &c. templars were all invited, and well pleas- Ibid. vol. ii. p. 130. See also p. 140. ed," &c. See also p. 177. And Fr. And Finett's PHILOXENIS, "There beOsborn's TRADIT. MEM. vol. ii. p. 134. ing a maske in practice of the queen in WORKS, edit. 1722. 8vo. It seems the person, with other great ladies," &c. queen and her ladics were experienced p. 198. See Whitelock, sub an. 1632. actresses: for the same writer says, She was [also] an actress in Davenant's Jan. 9. 1633. "I never knew a duller masque of the TEMPLE OF LOVE, with Christmas than we had at Court this many of the nobility of both sexes. year; but one play all the time at White- Jonson's CLORIDIA at Shrovetide, 1630. hall!-The queen bad some little in--In Jonson's Masque called Love firmity, which made her keep in: only on Twelfth-night, she feasted the king at Somerset-house, and presented him with a play, newly studied, long since printed, the FAITHFUL SHEPERDESS [of Fletcher] which the king's players acted in the robes she and her ladies acted their PASTORAL in the last year." Ibid. p. 177. Again, Jan. 11. 1634. There is some resolution for a Maske at Shrovetide: the queen, and fifteen ladies, are to perform," &c. Ibid. p. 360. And, Nov. 9. 1637. "Here are to be two maskes this winter; one at Christmass, which the FREED FROM IGNORANCE AND FOLLY, printed in 1640.-In W. Montagu's SHEPHEARD'S ORACLE, a Pastoral, printed in 1649.—In the masque of ALBION'S TRIUMPH, the Sunday after Twelfthnight, 1631. Printed 1681.—IN LUMINALIA, or The Festival of Light, a masque, on Shrove-tuesday in 1637. Printed Lond. 1637. 4to.-In SALMACIDA SPCLIA at Whitehall, 1639. Printed Lond. 1639. 4to. The words, I believe, by Davenant; and the music by Lewis Richard, master of her majesty's music. -In TEMPE RESTORED, with fourteen were recommended. Some of them, in point of poetical com-" position, were eminently beautiful and elegant. Among these' may be mentioned a masque on the story of Circe and Ulysses, called the INNER TEMPLE MASQUE, written by William Brown, a student of that society, about the year 1620. From this piece, as a specimen of the temple-masques in this view, I make other ladies, on Shrove-tuesday at Whitehall, 1631. Printed Lond. 1631. 4to. The words by Aurelian Townsend. The king acted in some of these pieces. In the preceding reign, queen Anne had given countenance to this practice; and, I believe, she is the first of our queens that appeared personally in this most elegant and rational amusement of a court. She acted in Daniel's Masque of THE VISION Of the four GoddESSES, with eleven other ladies, at Hamptoncourt, in 1604. Lond. 1624. 4to.-In Jonson's MASQUE OF QUEENS, at Whitehall, in 1609.-In Daniel's TETHYS's FESTIVAL, a Masque, at the creation of prince Henry, Jun. 5. 1610. This was called the QUEEN'S WAKE. See Winwood, iii. 180. Daniel dedicates to this queen a pastoral tragi-comedy, in which she perhaps performed, called HYMEN'S TRIUMPH. It was presented at Somerset-house, where she magnificently entertained the king on occasion of the marriage of lord Roxburgh. Many others, I presume, might be added. Among the ENTERTAINMENTS at RUTLAND-HOUSE, Composed by Davenant in the reign of Charles the First, there is a DECLAMATION, or rather Disputation, with music, concerning Public Entertainment by Moral Representation. The disputants are Diogenes and Aristophanes. I am informed, that among the manuscript papers of the late Mr. Thomas Coxeter, of Trinity college in Oxford, an ingenious and inquisitive gleaner of anecdotes for a biography of English poets, there was a correspondence between sir Fulke Greville and Daniel the poet, concerning improve ments and reformations proposed to be made in these court-interludes. But this subject will be more fully examined, and further pursued, in its proper place. suffered a long eclipse from a Calvinistic usurpation, a feeble effort was made to revive these liberal and elegant amusements at Whitehall. For about the year 1675, queen Catharine ordered Crowne to write a Pastoral called CALISTO, which was acted at court by the ladies Mary and Anne daughters of the duke of York, and the young nobility. About the same time lady Anne, afterwards queen, plaid the part of Semandra, in Lee's MITHRIDATES. The young noblemen were instructed by Betterton, and the princesses by his wife: who perhaps conceived Shakespeare more fully than any female that ever appeared on the stage. In remembrance of her theatrical instructions, Anne, when queen, assigned Mrs. Betterton an annual pension of one hundred pounds. Langb. DRAM. P. p. 92. edit. 1691. Cibber's A POL. p. 134. This was an early practice in France. In 1540, Margaret de Valois, queen of Navarre, wrote Moralities, which she called PASTORALS, to be acted by the ladies of her court. b Printed from a manuscript in Emanuel-college at Cambridge, by Tho. Davies. WORKS of W. Browne, Lond. 1772. vol. iii. p. 121. In the dedication to the Society the author says, "If it degenerate in kinde from those other the society hath produced, blame yourselves for not keeping a happier muse." Wood says that Browne "retiring to the inner temple, became famed there for his poetry.' ATH. OXON. i. p. 492. [From the additional specimens of his talent, retrieved by Sir Egerton Brydges, and elegantly set forth by the Lee press, it appears that Browne is deserving of a more extended reputation than had be fore been his allotment. There is a peaceful delicacy and pure morality in these recovered strains, which surpass those previously collected in his works. -PARKE.] After the Restoration, when the dignity of the old monarchical manners had |