tacle for the bodies of thofe that died of the plague. The Mount in the Curtain Road has, many years fince, been removed, and manufactories and houfes built upon its fite; but as an inftance of its height, I have been credibly informed, that when the fire-works were exhibited in the Green Park in the year 1748, a very great number of perfons affembled upon it, and, if they had not fo good a view of the spectacle as fome who, in more ways than one, ventured their lives for the fatisfaction of their curiofity, they certainly were in a fituation in which no danger could be apprehended. On this hill there was a fingle houfe, the laft tenant of which used to attend fairs with fhews, &c. In this road, as has been obferved, once ftood the Curtain Theatre, a place rendered of fome importance both with respect to its antiquity, and its effects on the morals of the times, by having been mentioned in Stockwood's Sermon at Paul's, preached August 24, 1578, and in Northbrook's .Treatife against Idleness, vain Plays, and Enterludes, by way of Dialogue, in the quaint manner of that period, which may be termed the dawn of Puritanism, in which the prolocutors are Youth and Age. The Theatres in general, of which there are faid to have been once feventeen, had, before this time, attracted the attention of the Magistracy, for a misconduct which could hardly be fufficiently reprobated. Accordingly we find, that in the year 1574, during the mayoralty of Sir John Hawes, performances of this kind on Sunday were prohibited by an order of the Common Council; though it does not appear to have had fufficient influence to have fuppreffed this practice for any confiderable length of time *. It appears, alfo, from an order of the Privy Council, dated June the 22d, 1600, of which the object is the restriction of the number of playhouses, that the Curtain was ordered to be ruined and plucked down, and put to fome other good ufe; yet ftills it seems to have furvived this fhock, for Mr. Malone informs us, that in 1610 it is mentioned in Heath's epigrams as being then open. Hector of Germany (the Hero of the North) was performed in it in 1615 by a company of young men; and Stow faith, of later time, instead of Stage Plays †, have been used, Comedies, Tragedies, Interludes, and Hiftories, cafe of this and Holywell-mount, the rubbish might, from a motive of guarding the respective vicinities against the fatal confequences of fuch a vaft number of putrifying bodies as had been recently buried there, have been laid upon both those cemeteries. In the course of laft fummer, when part of the rubbish of the former had juft been removed, I had the curiofity to inspect the place, and obferved in the different ftrata a great number of human bones, together with thofe, apparently, of different animals, oxen, or cows, and sheep's horns, bricks, tiles, &c. The bones and other exuvia of animals were in many places, especially towards the bottom, bedded in a stiff, vifcid earth, of the blueish colour and confiftence of potter's clay, which was unquestionably the original ground, thrown into different directions, as different interments operated upon its surface. Of Sunday plays it must be noted, that Sir Thomas Noe, merchant, having caufed to be enclosed in a wall of brick about an acre of ground, being part of the Hofpital of Bethlem, on the Bank of Deep Ditch, fo called, parting the wall from Moorfields. This he did for the ease of such parishes as had not ground sufficient to bury within their limits. This was called the New Church-yard, where, upon Whit-Sunday, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen used to refort to hear a Sermon. This was practifed anno 1584, when, according to a letter from the Recorder Fleetwood to the Lord Treasurer," a very good fermon was preached at the New Church-yard before the Lord Mayor, Sir Edward Ofborn, and his brethren, and, by reason that no plays were the fame day (Whitfunday), all the City was quiet." + Stage plays, i. e. a kind of dramatic interludes, written (or, it is molt probably, traditionally delivered) upon popular fubjects, have been performed in the country, particularly in Wales, within thefe forty years. They were generally enacted upon itages like thofe of mountebanks, erected at the doors of inns or public-houses, by young men of the town, whofe manner, which it did not appear was much improved, has been admirably reprefented in the Midfummer Night's Dream. St. George for England, and Crifpin and Crifpianus, were among thele Dramas, which probably rofe upon the Iii VOL. XLIII. JUNE 1803. ruins Hiftories, both true and feigned, for the acting whereof certain public places, fuch as the Theatre, the Curtain†, &c. were erected. They played alfo at inns, as the Cross Keys, the Bull, and the City Globe t. Therefore I am inclined to believe, that the petitions of the Londoners to Queen Elizabeth, the firft of which was faid to be in 1580, only operated upon those Playhouses within the City, where the ficknefs, as it was termed, was the object dreaded, from having large affemblies of the people in clofe fituations; while thofe in the fuburbs were encou raged, and indeed fuffered to ftand, till the folemnity of one age, for a time, entirely fuppreffed, and the gaiety of another removed them into more eligible fituations. When these performances totally ceafed at the Curtain Theatre it is impoffible to say. From its being mentioned in many records, it probably maintained a confiderable rank among the places of amusement of those times. Tradition fays, it was kept open till about the year 1640; but I think this muft mean occafionally open for the exhibition of thews of lefs dignity than hiftrionic reprefentations, during the time of a kind of fair which used to be kept near St. Agnes le Cleer, in the Eafter and Whitfun holidays; of which meetings fome veftiges were, within these forty years, ftill to be traced. The fign of the original theatre was a ftriped curtain; but I can hardly think it derived its appellation from this, which, in the rude state of the ftage, was common to almost every playhoufe. We may still obferve by the booths in Bartholomew and other fairs, which were unquestionably formed on the fame model, that there is before each a kind of gallery, where the performers exhibit themfelves in their dreffes, to attract the attention of the public, and alfo a curtain let down, behind which they retire. That this was the state of the Curtain, and other fuburb theatres, there can be no doubt. The name of this, therefore, feems, as has been obferved, to be derived from the fame fource as thofe of the Tenter Ground and Road, i. e. from having been formerly part of some outworks or fortification by which the approach to the City was impeded, and which, if we confider the military turn of the ruins of the Myfteries and Moralities, two of the most favourite. It has been said, that Kat's rebellion, 3d Edward VI. was concerted at, and partly occafioned by, a meeting at a stage-play at Wimonham, where one John Flowerdew encouraged the people to pull down the inclofures, &c.-Holinfhead. By this, I conceive, is meant the Theatre in Black Friars, where feveral of Beaumont and Fletcher's, Middleton's, Ford's, and, indeed, Shakspeare- and Heywood's, plays were performed. Among the Theatres before alluded to, I find there were private houses in Drury-lane and Salisbury-court. The Cock-pit, Drurylane, wherein Heywood's English Traveller was acted in 1633; the Swan, on the Bank-fide; Globe, ditto; the Red Bull; Phœnix, Drury-lane; the Fortune, &c. With refpect to the Hector of Germany, or the Palgrave Prime Elector §, it was written by William Smith: it appears, perhaps from the Poet's well-timed choice of a fubject, to have been a very popular drama; for befides being, as has been stated, exhibited at the Curtain, it was alfo acted at the Red Bull, by a company of young Citizens. It was published in quarto 1615, and dedicated to the Right Honourable Sir John Swinnerton, Lord Mayor of London. This play is not divided into acts. Richard Rawlidge, an author who wrote in the reign of James the First, in a pamphlet called "The Monster lately found out," ftated, that all the Playhouses within the City were pulled down by order of her Majefty (Queen Elizabeth) and Council, viz. one in Gracechurch-street, one in Bishopfgate-street, one near Paul's (A Trick to catch the Old One, and the Phoenix, by Middleton, with many other plays of cotemporary authors, were acted here), one on Ludgate-hill, and one in White Friars. § Few royal marriages have been celebrated with more fplendour than this of the Palgrave and the Princess Elizabeth. Among other fhews, "A Mafque of the Middle Temple and Lincoln's-inn," written by George Chapman, was prefented at Court 1614. The Elector, it appears, was then a very popular character in this country. His portrait was exhibited for a fign to a tavern, on the fite of which Paligrave's Head-court was built. people people of Shoreditch, their being formed into companies of archers, and the vici. nity of this place to Fintbury Fields and the Artillery Ground, is rendered highly probable. RICHARD TARLETON. t A brief notice of this Comedian naturally follows the laft article, because he was one of the company, probably, of the proprietors of the Curtain Theatre. He is faid to have been a native of Condover (Shropshire), and in his time "the fiddle of this part of the metropolis." From what I have been able to gather in the course of a diligent fearch into the works of ancient dramatic authors, I should judge that his line of acting was the fame as that in which, at a later period, Nokes was fo fuccefsful; for although Colley Cibber fays, that the latter" was an actor of a quite different genius from any that he had ever read, heard of, or feen, fince or before his time," we muft, if we reflect a little, confider this as one of those bold affertions which the Laureat was in the habit of hazarding. Had there not been many archetypes of Nokes, how would it have been poffible to have filled the parts of the clown, and other provokingly comic characters of Shakspeare, or have reprefented the fools indeed" of Jonfon. It appears from the induction to Bartholomew Fair, that Ben had the former Comedian in his eye when he wrote the character of Cokes, which, upon the revival of this play, was fo ably fupported by the latter; for he makes the Stage Keeper, fpeaking of the Author, fay, "He will not hear of this: I am an Afs! and yet I kept the stage in Master Tarleton's time, thank my ftars! Ho! had that man lived to have played in Bartholomew Fair, you fhould have feen him come and be cozened in the Cloth quarter fo finely." This allufion was certainly to the character of Cokes, who was, in the courfe of the Drama, repeatedly cozened among the ftands for hobbyhorfes, toys, balla-fingers, &c. to which, even at this period, the Cloth quarter is particularly dedicated. Tarleton, it appears from the Comedy I have quoted, died previous to the 13th of October 1614. He had, while he played at the Curtain, kept an ordinary in Paternofter-row, Spitalfields, which were then, what the name implies, "pleafant fields for the Citizens to walk," and the Row a few houfes, probably, where they fold rofaries, relics, &c. †, ftanding on the edge of a very large burying-ground, and near the old Tabernacle, upon the te of which part of the prefent market is built. Behind these houses there was formerly a large vacant field, extending to Whitechapel one way, and the priory of St. Helen's the other; comprehending that part which is now called the Old Artillery Ground ; Lolefworth Teafel Grounds, which obtained their appellation from the vast quantity of teafels that were grown there for the ufe of the woollen, then the principal manufactory of the diftrict; and the Tenter Ground, part of which still remains. Those ordinaries were not merely eating-houses, but places wherein the civic youths ufed to learn the arts of quarrelling and fmoking tobacco, then deemed very polite accomplishments, and wherein, it is faid, the games of paffage, primero, &c. were allowed; they were confequently frequented by the "Gallants of the Times," to whom, unquestionably, the comic humour of their Spital-fields' hoft must have been very agreeable. This Actor afterwards kept the Tabor Tavern, in Gracechurch-street, which was, probably, one of the playhoufes ordered, by Queen Elizabeth, to be pulled down, and might have derived its name from the mufical trophy with which it was decorated on the outfide, as thefe kind of figns and ornaments, in baffo relievo, were common in that age, which fome remains of them, ftill to be found, may serve to exemplify. Tarleton, it appears, was equally That is, the quarter of the fair formerly occupied by the Clothiers and Drapers. This, it has been fhewn, in the ninth Veftige, was the fpace in the front of the ancient Priory of St. Bartholomew, the end of Cloth-fair and of Long-lane. The paternofter-bead-makers, dealers in relics, and text-writers, were formerly trades of confiderable importance in the metropolis. The Artillery Company removed from this ground to the New, by the Six Windmills, Moorfields, the latter end of the reign of James the First. Iiiz popular popular in Southwark. His portrait, with his favourite inftruments the tabor and pipe, was then exhibited as a fign of an alehouse. Many years fince, I remember to have feen a very ancient print, coarfely engraved, in which an actor was standing upon a ftage, habited like Linco, who was with one hand Jifting up a large curtain, and with the other inviting the auditors, whofe heads appeared around, to fee the performances. This, from the circumstance of the pipe and tabor with which he was painted, appears to have been defigned as a reprefentation of this actor, as the engravings feemed to be of a period when that art was in its infancy, which, as the portrait of Shakspeare † evinces, was the cafe in his time. Camden gives his epitaph as an inhabitant of Shoreditch, which might arise from his refidence in, or connection with, the Curtain Theatre. He was one of the twelve to whom Queen Elizabeth gave wages and live ries, Richard Tarleton, fays Baker, in his Chronicle," for the part called the Clown's part, never had his match, nor never will have." RICHARD BURBAGE. This celebrated Tragedian was alfo an inhabitant of Shoreditch, he is, with Allen, mentioned by Baker (page 422), and probably played Occafionally at the Curtain Theatre. From a reference to the lifts of actors inferted under the dramatis perfonæ of feveral of the ancient plays, and to the dates and notices where acted, it will be feen, that many of the prin cipal actors in them used to take their turn at the different playhouses. This kind of fettled itinerancy, with respect to the favourites of the town, has, in our time, been attempted by a theatrical coalition, but without fuccefs; perhaps the fpectators had then fome political reafon to be out of humour with the world; for they have fince fuffered the managers to divide the rapture which a celebrated finger afforded, and, indeed, to let their friends partake of ecftacies which fhould have been confined to the politer audiences of a theatre, where the motions of the performers are better understood than their language. Of the estimation in which this Player was held by Jonfon, we may be convinced by the compliments he put into the mouth of Cokes, who afks the Mafter of the Motions (Puppet Mover) which of his company were the beft actors, the Burbage and Field of his theatre ? Before I conclude this article, I must quote one paffage more from the play alluded to, because it strongly marks the nature of the amufements of the lower order of the people of that time, and fhews how little they have varied from thofe kind of exhibitions in the prefent age. "Oh the motions that I, Lanthorn Leatherhead, have given light to in my time, fince my mafter Pod § died. Jerufalem was a ítately thing; fo was Ninive, and the City of Norwich and Sodom and Gomorra! But the Gunpowder Plot, there was a getpenny! I have prefented it to an eighteen or twenty penny audience nine times in an afternoon." * Christmas Tale; that is, in Arcadian dress, with a tabor suspended before him, and pipe in his hand. + By Droefhout. Thefe, fays the Chronicler, "were two such actors, as no age must ever look to fee the like." Pod was Mafter of the Motions. This I take to be a fhew till in the courfe of exhibition as a flock-piece, I wonder much it has kept its ground, because it seems the moft rational and useful of any I have ever heard of. It ufed to open with a reprefentation of the City of Norwich; to which fucceeded different fcenes, difplaying the rife and progrefs of the woollen manufactory, from the time of Jafon down to that of Bishop Blaze, and fo on to a modern period. One would have thought it rather difficult to have introduced that ludicrous being Punch into an entertainment of fo grave a caft; yet he formerly was a principal performer, ufed to give them a fong at the sheep-fhearing, and mar the operations of the comb and the loom, to the infinite delight of the fpectators. There was a little bit of anachronism in bringing the golden fleece from Colchos to Norwich; but that might be pardoned in confideration of the general merit of the piece. FORTUNE THEATRE. This Theatre, as a place of amusement for the inhabitants of Finsbury and London, was once of confiderable importance, and hiftorically has, I think, been rendered infinitely more fo, when viewed as the feed, the germ, from the flourishing ftate of which the means were procured to found and endow that truly noble and philanthropic eftablishment, which has been before noticed, Dulwich College. We therefore now look with a kind of veneration on the part that is ftill standing, namely, the whole of the front in Golden-lane, on which the royal arms of the times are displayed, with other ftuccoed ornaments, that feem comparatively to have fuffered little from the lapfe of two centuries. The part of the house which was for. merly dedicated to the audience is let in tenements to the lower order of people. This was probably built with more permanent materials than the back toward Playhouse-yard, which contained the stage, dreffing-rooms, &c. and it is a curious circumstance, that in the upper story of the front, the original floor of the gallery itill remains; nay, the marks where the feats were fixed are to be difcovered. This floor confequently defcends in the fame manner as thofe of the galleries of a modern playhoufe; and one would be rather puzzled to conjecture how it was poffible to place any furniture upon this inclined plane, did not the neceffity folve the difficulty of the cafe. The poor inhabitants, under this impulfe, do, by fome means or other, contrive to accommodate their miferable beds, &c. to the fitua tion, though it certainly is like living on a stair-cafe. GRUB-STREET, CRIPPLEGATE. This ftreet, for there are others of the fame name in the metropolis, I take to have been the original fource from which fuch an infinity of wit and humour have been derived, and which has abfolutely denominated a fect of authors, and a fpecies of literature, that, if it were neceflary, I should contend have been of more benefit to mankind than the world is in general aware of. When the faid authors firit fettled upon this their once favourite fpot, which, I think, thould be viewed with the fame respect as the vestiges of Mona, or the ruins of Ilcolmkil, or, indeed, to come nearer their elevated fite, the heights of Snowdon, it is impoffible to lay; but if we fuffer conjecture for once to occupy the place of certainty, I should fuppofe that the Bards, who by-the-bye, whatsoever those who with, while they deprefs genius, to reflect upon the liberality or illiberality of these times may avow to the contrary, were certainly poorer in former ages than the prefent, chofe this place of abode for two reasons; the first and most important was the cheapness of living, for it is upon record, that about the time that wit and learning fixed their refidence in GrubItreet, the Steward, Magiftrate, and Leet Jury of the Manor of Finsbury, with all their officers, tenants, &c. which, on a moderate computation, muft have amounted to more than fifty perfons, "dined at the Turke's Head, in the Moor-fields," and the expence of the faid dinner amounted to twentythree fhillings; a fum which now would fcarcely be thought immoderate for the ample meal and etceteras of one perfon of the fame defcription. This important point, with respect to the diet of the Grubean fages, being fettled, we may reasonably fuppofe they alfo confulted their pockets, perhaps their fars, before they took their elevated ftations. A third reafon was, that this quarter of the town has, for many ages, been famous as a receptacle for authors of the lower, but, I contend, the molt ufeful, branches of literature. At no great diftance from this haunt of the Mufes lived many of thofe ingenious perfons who, before the difcovery of then in ufe; alfo the A B C, or Abfies; printing, wrote all the fmall hiftories together with the Ave, Creeds, Graces, &c. &c. Fourthly, when the difcovery I have mentioned rendered the trade of an author of ftill greater importance; when the black letter copies were, with facility, multiplied ad infinitum; when volumes, and piles of volumes, were formed; and itationers, which name they derived from being stationed at the corners of streets, particularly about Long and Hofier-lanes, the Old Bailey, Grey Friars' Wall, Paul's Cloyiters, Barbican, and a hundred other places, became book fellers, and, collecting themselves into a fraternity, * One in Westminster, &c. . chofe |