his cruise in the lake, that he found himself unfitted for the task; upon which he tore off his vizor, and swore that he was none of Arion-no, not he-but only honest Harry Goldingham; "which blunt discovery pleased the queen better than if it had gone through in the right way.' As some of the choicest wits of the age had been employed in contriving the speeches, they exhibited abundance of learning, as well as touches of good poetry. The selection, also, of water for the greater part of the exhibitions was in excellent taste, as reflecting the maritime character of the country, and one of the chief glories of Elizabeth's government, the comparatively high efficiency to which she had raised the national navy. Of this judicious choice the Earl of Hertford was so conscious, that when the queen was about to honour him with a visit, having no natural lake like that of Kenilworth upon his demesnes, he caused a large artificial one to be excavated in his park, that he might regale her with water-pageants.

The Ludi, or court spectacles of former periods,

Sir Walter Scott has made good use of this incident in the tale of Kenilworth.

had now risen in dignity, and might be considered as possessing an intermediate character between the masque and the pantomime. These sports were especially cultivated and improved by Henry VIII. and his favourite Wolsey, who found in them abundant opportunity to display their magnificence and taste. Sometimes, in an exhibition of this kind, a moving rock, or a mountain decorated with trees, flowers, and herbage, slowly entered the hall, and, after remaining stationary for a few moments, opened, and poured from its recesses a gay throng of knights and ladies, or allegorical personages, who danced and sang, or performed some interlude before the noble guests. After the play was ended the actors returned to their place of concealment, the gap closed, and the towering pageant, moving upon its hidden wheels, departed as it had entered. Besides these exhibitions, regular masquerades so early as the time of Henry VII. began to form a court amusement, and in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth were carried to a high state of improvement.*

The present period commences a very important

Stow.-Hall.- Holinshed.

era in the history of the English drama. To the Miracle Plays and Mysteries succeeded a more sober species of dramatic representation called Moralities; in which the dialogues were carried on chiefly by allegorical personages; while, to relieve the dryness of such discussions, the Vice (who was the buffoon of the performance) flourished his dagger of lath, belaboured the actors, and kept the audience in a roar of laughter by his boisterous merriment. The attempts that were made to turn these farcical exhibitions to account in forwarding the cause of the Reformation have been already noticed in the Chapter on the History of Religion; and in the Chapter immediately preceding the present we have sketched the course by which they were gradually refined and elevated into the regular drama. It is sufficient to observe here, that in the space between the beginning of the present period, when the Mystery was still in the ascendant, and its close, when Shakspeare had written many of his imperishable productions, the drama for a time exhibited, as was natural, a blending of the old and the new spirit,-an intermingling of the dim and departing shadows of allegory with the men and the manners of real life that had come to chase them from the stage. Even the plays that both immediately preceded and accompanied those of Shakspeare still continued to blend the shadowy and supernatural with the real and familiar, so that they were frequently nothing but Mysteries and Moralities of a higher class; and it required nothing less than a mind of such gigantic power as his, as well as such an intense love of truth and

nature, to exorcise these phantoms from the drama, and people it with natural events and beings of flesh and blood.

But even after such glorious productions as those of Shakspeare, Ben Jonson, and their illustrious contemporaries, had awakened the public mind to the true feeling of dramatic art, the necessary apparatus by which the play assumes the character of a living reality was miserably inadequate; so that, unlike the ancient productions of Sophocles and Euripides, which were exhibited in magnificent temples, and lavishly embellished in the representation at the public expense, the hap piest dramatic creations of the age of Elizabeth could find no better shelter than a shed. The improvement of the drama that then took place was so rapid that it reached perfection long before the other arts that should have aided it. Parallel, also, with this improvement, a spirit had been growing among a large portion of the people hostile to all dramatic representation. The theatre, therefore, at first, was neither a national, nor yet an intellectual place of resort; it was neither patronised by the government, nor for some time by more than a very small section, and that the least wealthy and influential section, of the public. Nor were the circumstances of the players much improved when they were incorporated into companies, and taken under the protection of some powerful nobleman; for then they only received a livery, and a menial's wages. Thus, the first regular theatres in London were nothing but large wooden booths; the dresses of the actors were neither rich nor yet in keeping

with the characters they represented, being for the most part their every-day attire; and as for scenery, when such could be had, it was of the most beggarly description, so that the shifts to which Bottom and his companions had recourse, in playing Pyramus and Thisbe, were actually the melancholy expedients of many actors of this period. It more frequently happened that scenery there was none whatever; and, to direct the imaginations of the audience, a label was suspended over the front of the stage to tell in what place or country the action was going on. This defect is ridiculed by Sir Philip Sydney, in his Defence of Poesy." "Now," he says, you shall see three ladies walk to gather flowers, and then we must believe the stage to be a garden. By and by we hear news of a shipwreck in the same place; then we are to blame if we accept it not for a rock. Upon the back of that comes out a hideous monster with fire and smoke; then the miserable beholders are bound to take it for a cave. While in the mean time two armies fly in, represented with four swords and two bucklers; and then what hard heart will not receive it for a pitched field?"

When a regular theatre had thus been established, plays at first were acted only on Sundays; but Gosson, in his School of Abuse,' complains that the actors generally contrived to make at least four or five Sundays every week. A rule was subsequently made to close the theatres on the Wednesdays, that the sport of bull-baiting might not be interrupted. The hour at which the play commenced was one o'clock; and, to mark the time, a flag was hoisted on the top of the building, where it remained till the close of the entertainment,

which continued about two hours. The play of each day was previously announced by a placard set up on posts in the public places. The price of admission on common occasions was very trifling; but it was raised when a new piece was performed. Instead of doors on the stage, by which the actors might make their entrances and exits, there were stripes of a curtain, over each of which was the name of the character whose porch it was meant to represent; and the actor during the play was to keep wholly to the use of his own stripe, unless the performance required him to enter the house of another. The stage was strewn with rushes; a cresset like that by which churches were lighted was suspended over it, and, if it happened to be enriched by a piece of scenery, this remained stationary during the whole performance. At the back of the stage was a gallery eight or ten feet high, into which those performers retired who were required by the stage directions to overlook the characters below. At this time dress-boxes or even galleries were out of the question: the more fashionable part of the audience sate upon the stage, and paid sixpence for the stools with which they were accommodated, while their pages waited behind and supplied them with pipes and tobacco; and the common people were crowded in the "great wooden O, the pit," where, before the play commenced, and during its intervals, they amused themselves with reading, criticism, playing at cards, drinking ale, and smoking. The piece was usually prefaced by a prologue; and the actor who spoke it was habited in a long black velvet

Fruits according to the season, and also ale and wine, were gene

rally sold in the English theatres.-Hentzner.

cloak, and introduced with a flourish of trumpets. The performers played in masks and perukes, and the parts of women were given to young men and boys. As one play only was exhibited during the day, while the tastes of all had to be equally gratified, the deepest tragedies required to be mixed with mirthful matter, and the clown was often as important a personage as the hero.* It appears also that a new play, in those early days, had to pass through the fiery furnace of public criticism just as it does in the present; and in condemning an unfortunate piece by caterwauling, and other hideous sounds, our ancestors of the Elizabethan age were as clever, and perhaps as capricious, as their descendants.

The influx of wealth, and the progress of civilization, effected great changes during this period in the domestic life of the English. In the reigns of Henry VII. and VIII., unwieldly pomp and external glitter were still prized beyond domestic comfort; and though the latter monarch indulged in so prodigal an expenditure on attire and ornaments, the inventory of his furniture would scarcely excite the envy of a modern tradesman. His bedchamber contained nothing but a couple of joint cupboards, a joint-stool, two handirons, a fire-fork, a pair of tongs, a fire-pan, and a steel mirror covered with yellow velvet;† and notwithstanding the mountains of cloth of gold

As the jests of the devil and the buffooneries of the Vice had been indispensable in the most sacred parts of the Mystery and Morality, a similar gratification was demanded by the popular taste in the most pathetic parts of tragedy. Thus the clowns of Shakspeare were not adopted by him, but forced upon him; and all that he could do (and which he has certainly done) was to make the most of them.

+ Harl. MS., quoted by Strutt

and brocade that figure in the confiscation of Wolsey's effects, the furniture of his palaces also was neither plentiful nor costly-most of the tables being made of wainscot or fir, and only one or two being of cypress wood. The chief domestic luxury of the English at this time was a good, soft bed-noblemen and other persons of wealth now courting repose upon down, covered with blankets of woollen, and sheets of fine Holland; and it is interesting to mark how rapidly this earliest of our modern luxuries increased in warmth, softness, ornament, and expense, proclaiming that the age of sedentary men had now fairly commenced. Some of these throne-like beds were distinguished by sounding titles, to mark their consequence; Wolsey had one called the Infantelege, and another called the Sun. In travelling also, the wealthy were no longer contented with the floor or a hard bench, when they rested on their journey, but generally carried portable beds trussed into leather cases along with them on horseback. A good bed naturally suggested other comforts; and, accordingly, during the reign of Henry VIII., we find Turkey carpets coming into use. Before the end of the period, although a litter of rushes was still used at court, and in the theatres and other places of public resort, the dwellings of the wealthier classes abounded in Turkey carpets, and cloth of arras and silk; the apartments were stored with rich and comfortable articles of furniture; and they frequently exhibited plate upon their sideboards to the value of five or six hundred pounds.†

While such was the improvement in the domestic comforts of the higher orders, the progress + Harrison

• Ellis's Collection.

was still greater among the commons. During the reign of Henry VII., indeed, we find no perceptible change in their condition from that of carlier times; and even for some time after matters were not improved; for our fathers," says Harrison, " yea, and we ourselves have lain full oft upon straw pallets, on rough mats, covered only with a sheet, under coverlets made of dogs'wayne or hop-harlot, and a good round log laid under their heads, instead of a bolster or pillow. And if the good man of the house within seven years after his marriage purchased a mattress or a flock-bed, and thereto a sack of chaff to rest his head on, he thought himself as well lodged as the lord of the town." But the change that had taken place by the time of Queen Elizabeth may be gathered from the fact, which we have on the same authority, that farmers and even mechanics were then able "to garnish their cupboards with plate, their beds with tapestry and silk hangings, and their tables with fine napery." In regard to personal comfort, too, their ideas had become proportionably refined; "For," says Stubbs, indignantly, "the meanest shirt that commonly is worn of any doth cost a crown or a noble at the least, and yet this is scarcely thought fine enough for the simplest person that is." It may be confidently affirmed that the household furniture and domestic comforts of burgesses and substantial yeomen were now greatly superior in many respects to what they had been among the nobility only a century previous.

In the article of diet as important a change took place as in household accommodations; and we now hear little of those gross hecatombs in the shape of feasts which were formerly usual. Still, indeed, fantastic subtleties, and other quaint devices of cookery were exhibited at state banquets, but they were now accompanied by an elegance that marked the advance of the age. Wolsey, the great master of luxurious living in his day, gave public feasts that, in refinement as well as abundance, might have graced the noblest tables of the nineteenth century. At one of these which he gave to the French ambassadors at Hampton Court, the halls were lighted with torches of wax in massive silver sconces; arras and cloths of state ornamented the different rooms, and cupboards appeared everywhere loaded with plate that blazed with precious stones, while the guests were ushered to table with a flourish of trumpets, and 66 a pleasant noise of musical instruments" continued during the time of the repast. The feast itself must have been a truly magnificent regale, according to the account of the chronicler; for, after labouring to describe the successive courses of everything that was rich and rare, until his language sinks under the weight of his subject, he thus concludes in absolute despair: "To describe to you the order, the dishes, the subtleties, and strange devices of the same, I lack both a head of fine wit, and also cunning in my bowels to declare these wonderful devices."*

VOL. II.

• Stow.

The improvement, however, that had taken place by this time in English eating, although great compared with the former grossness, was still left far behind by the refinements of France and Italy. We find, therefore, from the account of the Venetian ambassador who visited England during the reign of Queen Mary, that foreigners were astonished at the immense quantity of provisions consumed by the English court; but he adds, that it was only a fourth part of what had been used during the preceding reigns.

The hours for meals among the upper classes were still, as formerly, eight o'clock for breakfast, twelve for dinner, and six for supper; but so late as the reign of Henry VIII. a slight meal, called an afternoon, occurred between dinner and supper, and another, called an after-supper, before retiring to bed. All these meals, except the chief one at noon, exhibited little variety,* consisting generally of chines of beef or mutton either roasted or boiled, and bread, with copious draughts of ale, wine being used chiefly at the after-supper. Thus the delicate ladies of the court, as well as hungry citizens and robust squires, commenced and concluded the day with broiled steaks or mighty surloins, and flagons of brown ale, even to the end of this period. During the reign of Elizabeth, however, moderation in the number of meals had become pretty general; the afternoon wholly disappeared; and, as for the after-supper, when indulged in at all, it was generally a very slight refection. Thus, even the gluttonous Falstaff himself is furnished by Shakspeare with nothing more substantial after supper than sack and anchovies.

A dinner now afforded a striking display both of the wealth and improved manners of the period. The nobility had discarded entirely their huge joints of salted beef, and platters of wood and pewter, together with the swarms of jesters, tumblers, and harpers, that formerly had been indispensable to the banquet-room; a stately ceremonial and solemn silence were considered to be the indications of true politeness; and the table was daily set out with a large variety of dishes consisting of beef, mutton, veal, lamb, pork, kid, coney, capon, pig, or so many of these as the season afforded, with store of red and fallow deer, and varieties of fish and fowl.† All kinds of fruits, pastries, and confections followed, along with an equally extensive variety of wines and liqueurs. The guests washed before they dined, rose-water and perfumery being abundantly ministered on the occasion; and they were ushered in dignified order to the table, according to their several ranks. It would appear that the hat was generally worn during the banquet; and this enabled the wearer more gracefully to pledge a health, or acknowledge

Even hares and quails had to be imported alive from the continent during the reigns of Henry VII. and VIII., as there were too few in England to meet the demand.-Talbot Papers.

In the article of poultry, we find that swans, cygnets, cranes, and storks, were among the choicest dainties, from the high prices at which they are charged in the account-books of this period. 5 U