The various circumftances which I have ftated, and the accounts of the contemporary writers, furnish us, in my 2 All the writers on the ancient English ftage that I have met with, concur with those quoted in the text on this fubject: "Now for the difference betwixt our theatres and thofe of former times," (fays Fleckno, who lived near enough the time to be accurately informed,) "they were but plain and fimple, with no other fcenes nor decorations of the fage, but only old tapestry, and the ftage ftrewed with rufhes; with their habits accordingly." Short Difcourfe of the English Stage, 1664. In a fubfequent paffage indeed he adds, "For fcenes and machines, they are no new invention; our mafques, and fome of our playes, in former times, (though not fo ordinary,) having had as good or rather better, than any we have now."-To reconcile this paffage with the foregoing, the author must be supposed to speak here, not of the exhibitions at the publick theatres, but of mafques and private plays, performed either at court or at noblemen's houfes. He does not fay, fome of our theatres,"-but, "our mafques, and fome of our playes having had," &c. We have already feen that Love's Mistress or the Queen's Mafque was exhibited with fcenes at Denmark-houfe in 1636. In the reign of king Charles I. the performance of plays at court, and at private houses, feems to have been very common; and gentlemen went to great expence in thefe exhibitions. See a letter from Mr. Garrard to lord Strafford, dated Feb. 7, 1637; Strafford's Letters, Vol. II. p. 150: "Two of the king's fervants, privy-chamber men both, have writ each of them a play, Sir John Sutlin [Suckling] and Will. Barclay, which have been acted in court, and at the Black-friars, with much applaufe. Sutlin's play cost three or four hundred pounds setting out; eight or ten fuits of new cloaths he gave the players; an unheard-of prodigality." The play on which Sir John Suckling expended this large fum, was Aglaura. To the authority of Fleckno may be added that of Edward Phillips, who, in his Theatrum Poctarum, 1674, [article, D'Avenant,] praifes that poet for the great fluency of his wit and fancy, especially for what he wrote for the English ftage, of which, having laid the foundation before by his mufical dramas, when the ufual plays were not fuffered to be acted, be was the first reviver and improver, by painted fcenes." Wright alfo, who was well acquainted with the hiftory of our ancient ftage, and had certainly converfed with many perfons who had feen theatrical performances before the civil wars, exprefsly fays, as I have obferved above, that "fcenes were first introduced by Sir William D'Avenant, on the publick stage, at the Duke's old theatre in Lincoln's-Innfields." "Prefently after the Reftoration, "this writer informs us," the king's players acted publickly at the Red Bull for fome time, and then removed to a new-built playhouse in Vere-ftreet, by Clare-market. There they continued for a year or two, and then removed to the theatre-royal in Drury-lane, where they first made ufe of SCENES, which bad been a little before intro duced my apprehenfion, with decifive and incontrovertible proofs, that the ftage of Shakspeare was not furnished with duced UPON THE PUBLICK STAGE by Sir W. D'Avenant at the Duke's old theatre in Lincoln's-Innfields, but afterwards very much improved, with the addition of curious machines, by Mr. Betterton, at the new theatre in Dorset Gardens, to the great expence and continual charge of the players." Hiftoria Hiftrionica, 8vo. 1699, p. 10. Wright calls it the Duke's old theatre in Lincoln's Inn fields, though in fact in 1663 it was a new building, because when he wrote, it had become old, and a new theatre had been built in Lincoln's Inn fields in 1695. He is here fpeaking of plays and players, and therefore makes no account of the mufical entertainments exhibited by D'Avenant a few years before at Rutland House, and at the Cock-pit in Drury-lane, in which a little attempt at fcenery had been made. In thofe pieces, I believe, no ftage-player performed. 3 I fubjoin the fentiments of Mr. Steevens, who differs with me in opinion on this fubject; obferving only that in general the paffages to which he alludes, prove only that our author's plays were not exhibited without the aid of machinery, which is not denied; and that not a fingle paffage is quoted, which proves that a moveable painted scene was employed in any of his plays in his theatre. The lines quoted from The Staple of News, at the bottom of p. 88, must have been tranfcribed from fome incorrect edition, for the original copy printed in 1631, reads SCENE, not SCENES; a variation of fome importance. The words "the various shifting of their SCENE," denote, in my apprehenfion, nothing more than frequent change of place in the progrefs of the drama: and even if that were not the cafe, and thefe words were used in the modern fenfe, they would not prove that icenes were employed on the ftage in Shakspeare's time, for The Staple of News was not exhibited till March, 1625-6. "It must be acknowledged," fays Mr Steevens, "that little more is advanced on this occafion, than is fairly supported by the testimony of contemporary writers. "Were we, however, to reafon on fuch a part of the fubject as is now before us, fome fufpicions might arife, that where machinery was difcovered, the less complicated adjunct of scenes was scarcely wanting. When the column is found ftanding, no one will suppose but that it was once accompanied by its ufual entablature. If this inference be natural, little impropriety can be complained of in one of the stagedirections above mentioned. Where the bed is introduced, the scene of a bed-chamber (a thing too common to deferve description) would of course be at hand. Neither should any great ftrefs be laid on the words of Sir Philip Sidney. Are we not till obliged to receive the stage alternately as a garden, as an ocean, as a range of rocks, or as a cavern? With all our modern advantages, fo much of vraisemblance is wanting in a theatre, that the apologies which Shakspeare offers for fcenical deficiency, G 3 with moveable painted fcenes, but merely decorated with curtains, and arras or tapestry hangings, which, when decayed, deficiency, are still in fome degree needful; and be it always remembered that Sir Philip Sidney has not pofitively declared that no painted scenes were in ufe. Who that mentions the prefent flage, would think it neceffary to dwell on the article of fcenery, unless it were peculiarly striking and magnificent? Sir Philip has not spoken of stage-habits, and are we therefore to suppose that none were worn? Befides, between the time when Sir Philip wrote his Defence of Poely, and the period at which the plays of Shakspeare were prefented, the ftage in all probability had received much additional embellishment. Let me repeat, that if in 1529 (the date of Acolaftus) machinery is known to have existed, in 1592 (when Shakspeare commenced a play-wright) a greater number of ornaments might naturally be expected, as it is ufual for one improvement to be foon followed by another. That the plays of Shakfpeare were exhibited with the aid of machinery, the following stagedirections, copied from the folio 1623, will abundantly prove. In The Tempeft, Ariel is faid to enter "like a harpey, claps his wings on the table, and with a quaint device the banquet vanishes." In a fubfequent fcene of the fame play, Juno" defcends ;" and in Cymbeline, Jupiter defcends likewife, in thunder and lightning, fitting upon an eagle." In Macbeth," the cauldron finks, and the apparitions rife." It may be added that the dialogue of Shakspeare has fuch perpetual reference to objects fuppofed vifible to the audience, that the want of fcenery could not have failed to render many of the defcriptions uttered by his speakers abfurd and laughable.-Macduff examines the outfide of Inverness caftle with fuch minuteness, that he diftinguishes even the nefts which the martins had built under the projecting parts of its roof.-Romeo, ftanding in a garden, points to the tops of fruit-trees gilded by the moon. -The prologue-speaker to the second part of K. Henry IV. expressly thews the fpectators "this worm-eaten hold of ragged ftone," in which Northumberland was lodged. Jachimo takes the most exact inventory of every article in Imogen's bed-chamber, from the filk and filver of of which her tapestry was wrought, down to the Cupids that fupport her andirons. Had not the infide of this apartment, with its proper furniture, been reprefented, how ridiculous muft the action of Jachimo have appeared! He must have stood looking out of the room for the particulars supposed to be visible within it. In one of the parts of K. Hen. VI. a cannon What happy deceptions could be produced by the aid of framework and painted canvas, we may learn from Holinfhed, and yet more ancient hiftorians. The pageants and tournaments at the beginning of Henry VIIIth's reign very frequently required that the caftles of imaginary beings should be exhibited. Of fuch contrivances fome defcriptions remain. Thefe extempore buildings afforded a natural introduction to fcenery on the stage. decayed, appear to have been fometimes ornamented with a cannon is discharged against a tower; and conversations are held in almost every scene from different walls, turrets, and battlements. Nor is my belief in ancient fcenery entirely founded on conjecture. In the folio editions of Shakspeare's plays, 1623, the following traces of it are preferved. In King Jobn: "Enter, before Angiers, Philip king of France," &c. Enter a citizen upon the walls."-"Enter the herald of France with trumpets to the gates."" Enter Arthur on the walls." In K. Hen. V. "Enter the king, &c. with fealing ladders at Harfleur."-"Enter the king with all his train before the gates." InK. Hen. VI. "Enter to the protector at the Tower gates," &c.-" Enter Salisbury and Talbot on the walls."'-"The French leap over the walls in their fhirts."-"Enter Pucelle on the top of the tower, thrusting out a torch burning."-" Enter lord Scales upon the tower walking. Then enter two or three citizens below.""-" Enter king and queen and Somerset on the terrace."-"Enter three watchmen to guard the king's tent." In Coriolanus: "Marcius follows them to the gates, and is fout in." In Timon: "Enter Timon in the woods *."-" Enter Timon from bis cave.' In Julius Cæfar: "Enter Brutus in his orchard,'' &c. &c.-In fhort, without characteristick difcriminations of place, the historical dramas of Shakspeare in particular, would have been wrapped in tenfold confufion and obscurity; nor could the spectator have felt the poet's power, or accompanied his rapid tranfitions from one fituation to another, without fuch guides as painted canvas only could fupply. The audience would with difficulty have received the cataftrophe of Romeo and Juliet as natural and affecting, unless the deception was confirmed to them by the appearance of a tomb. The managers who could raise ghofts, bid the cauldron fink into the earth, and then exhibit a train of royal phantoms in Macbeth, could with lefs difficulty fupply the flat paintings of a cavern or a grove. The artists who can put the dragons of Medea in motion, can more easily reprefent the clouds through which they are to pafs. But for thefe, or fuch affiftances, the fpectator, like Hamlet's mother, muft have bent his gaze on mortifying vacancy; and with the guest invited by the Barmecide, Apemantus must have pointed to the scenes as he spoke the following lines: fhame not these woods, will thefe moift trees "That have outliv'd the eagle," &c. A piece of old tapestry must have been regarded as a poor substitute for these towering thades. GA with pictures and fome paffages in our old dramas in : cline cide, in the Arabian tale, must have furnished from his own imagination the entertainment of which his eyes were folicited to partake. "It should likewise be remembered, that the intervention of civil war would eafily occafion many cuftoms of our early theatres to be filently forgotten. The times when Wright and Downes produced their respective narratives, were by no means times of exactnefs or curiofity. What they heard, might have been heard imperfectly; it might have been unfkilfully related; or their own memories might have deceived them: "Ad nos vix tenuis fama perlabitur aura." "One affertion made by the latter of these writers, is chronologically difproved. We may remark likewife, that in private theatres, a part of the audience was admitted on the stage, but that this licence was refufed in the publick play-houses. To what circumftance fhall we impute this difference between the customs of the one and the other? Perhaps the private theatres had no fcenes, the publick had; and a crowded ftage would prevent them from being commodiously beheld, or conveniently shifted *. The fresh pictures mentioned by Ben Jonfon in the induction to his Cynthia's Revels might be properly introduced to cover old tapestry; for to hang picturers over faded arras, was then and is ftill fufficiently common in antiquated manfions, fuch as thofe in which the scenes of dramatic writers are often laid. That Shakspeare himself was no ftranger to the magick of theatrical ornaments, may be inferred from a paflage in which he alludes to the fcenery of pageants, the fashionable fhews of his time: "Sometimes we fee a cloud that's dragonish, "A vapour fometimes like a lion, a bear, "A forked mountain, or blue promontory "With trees upon't, that nod unto the world, "And To fhift a fcene is at least a phrafe employed by Shakspeare himfelf in K. Henry V. "Unto Southampton do we shift our scene." and by Ben Jonfon, yet more appofitely, in The Staple of News: "Lic. Have you no news o' the stage? "Tho. O yes; "There is a legacy left to the king's players, "Both for their various shifting of their scenes, "And dextrous change of their perfons to all fhapes |