DIPROSE, BATEMAN & Co., Printers, 9 & 10, Sheffield Street, Lincoln's Inn.

THE STAGE

AND

THE PLAYERS.

BY JOHN DIPROSE.

ITHE STAGE!

THE ORIGIN OF THE STAGE.

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HE first religious spectacle was, probably, the
miracle play of St. Catherine, mentioned by
Matthew Paris as having been written by
Geoffrey, a Norman, afterwards Abbot of
St. Albans, and played at Dunstable Abbey in 1110.
In the Description of the Most Noble City of London, by
Fitz Stephen, a monk, about 1174, in treating of the
ordinary diversions of the inhabitants of the metropolis,
says, that, instead of the common interludes belonging to
theatres, they have plays of a more holy subject. The
ancient religious dramas were distinguished by the names