_To the Editor._
Sir,--Conjecturing that some slight notices of the early use of
play-bills by our comedians might be interesting to your readers, allow
me respectfully to request the insertion of the following:--
So early as 1587, there is an entry in the Stationers’ books of a
license granted to John Charlewood, in the month of October, “by the
whole consent of the assistants, for the onlye ymprinting of all maner
of bills for players. Provided that if any trouble arise herebye, then
Charlewoode to bear the charges.” Ames, in his _Typogr. Antiq._, p. 342,
referring to a somewhat later date, states, that James Roberts, who
printed in quarto several of the dramas written by the immortal
Shakspeare, also “printed bills for the players;” the license of the
Stationers’ Company had then probably devolved to him. The announcements
of the evening’s or rather afternoon’s entertainment was not circulated
by the medium of a diurnal newspaper, as at present, but broadsides were
pasted up at the corners of the streets to attract the passerby. The
puritanical author of a “Treatise against Idleness, Vaine-playes, and
Interludes,” printed in black letter, without date, but possibly
anterior to 1587, proffers an admirable illustration of the
practice.--“They use,” says he, in his tirade against the players, “to
set up their bills upon postes some certain dayes before, to admonish
the people to make resort to their theatres, that they may thereby be
the better furnished, and the people prepared to fill their purses with
their treasures.” The whimsical John Taylor, the water-poet, under the
head of Wit and Mirth, also alludes to the custom.--“Master Nat. Field,
the player, riding up Fleet-street at a great pace, a gentleman called
him, and asked what play was played that day. He being angry to be
stay’d on so frivolous a demand, answered, that he might see what play
was plaied on every poste. I cry your mercy, said the gentleman, I took
_you_ for a poste, you rode so fast.”
It may naturally be inferred, that the emoluments of itinerant players
could not afford the convenience of a printed bill, and hence from
necessity arose the practice of announcing the play by beat of drum.
Will. Slye, who attended Kempe in the provincial enactment of his “Nine
Men of Gotham,” is figured with a drum. Parolles, in Shakspeare’s “All’s
Well that ends Well,” alludes to this occupation of some of Will. Slye’s
fellows, “Faith, sir, he has led the drum before the English comedians.”
The long detailed titles of some of the early quarto plays induce a
supposition, that the play-bills which introduced them to public notice
were similarly extended. The “pleasant conceited Comedy,” and “the
Bloody Tragedy,” were equally calculated to attract idling gazers on the
bookstalls, or the “walks at St. Paul’s,” and to draw gaping crowds
about some vociferous Autolycus, who was probably an underling belonging
to the company, or a servant to one of the players; for, as they ranked
as gentlemen, each forsooth had his man. A carping satirical writer, who
wrote anonymously “Notes from Blackfriers,” 1617, presents some traces
of a play-bill crier of that period.
-------------“Prithee, what’s the play?
The first I visited this twelvemonth day.
They say--‘A new invented boy of purle,
That jeoparded his neck to steale a girl
Of twelve, and lying fast impounded for’t,
Has hither sent his bearde to act his part,
Against all those in open malice bent,
That would not freely to the theft consent:
Faines all to ’s wish, and in the epilogue
Goes out applauded for a famous--rogue.’
--Now hang me if I did not look at first,
For some such stuff, by the fond-people’s thrust.”
In 1642, the players, who till the subversion of the kingly prerogative
in the preceding year, basked in the sunshine of court favour, and
publicly acknowledged the patronage of royalty, provoked, by their
loyalty, the vengeance of the stern unyielding men in power. The lords
and commons, assembled on the second day of September in the former
year, suppressed stage plays, during these calamitous times, by the
following
_Ordinance._
“Whereas the distressed estate of Ireland, steeped in her own blood, and
the distracted estate of England, threatened with a cloud of blood, by
a Civill Warre; call for all possible meanes to appease and avert the
wrath of God, appearing in these judgments; amongst which, fasting and
prayer having been often tried to be very effectuall, have bin lately,
and are still enjoyned: And whereas public sports doe not well agree
with public calamities, nor publike Stage Playes with the seasons of
humiliation, this being an exercise of sad and pious solemnity, and the
other spectacles of pleasure, too commonly expressing lascivious mirth
and levitie: It is therefore thought fit, and ordeined by the Lords and
Commons in this Parliament assembled, that while these sad causes, and
set times of humiliation doe continue, publike Stage Playes shall cease,
and bee forborne. Instead of which, are recommended to the people of
this land, the profitable and seasonable considerations of repentance,
reconciliation, and peace with God, which probably may produce outward
peace and prosperity, and bring againe times of joy and gladnesse to
these nations.”
The tenour of this ordinance was strictly enforced; many young and
vigorous actors joined the king’s army, in which for the most part they
obtained commissions, and others retired on the scanty pittances they
had earned, till on the restoration, the theatre burst forth with new
effulgence. The play-bill that announced the opening of the new theatre,
in Drury-lane, April 8, 1663, has been already printed in the _Every-Day
Book_. The actors’ names were then, for the first time, affixed to the
characters they represented; and, to evince their loyalty, “Vivat Rex et
Regina,” was appended at the foot of the bills, as it continues to this
day.
In the reign of the licentious Charles II., wherein monopolies of all
kinds were granted to court favourites, licenses were obtained for the
sole printing of play-bills. There is evidence in Bagford’s Collections,
Harl. MSS. No. 5910, vol. ii., that in August, 1663, Roger L’Estrange,
as surveyor of the imprimery and printing presses, had the “sole license
and grant of printing and publishing all ballads, plays, &c. not
previously printed, play-bills, &c.” These privileges he sold to
operative printers. When that license ceased, I have yet to learn.
The play-bills at Bartholomew-fair were in form the same as those used
at the regular theatres; but, as they were given among the populace,
they were only half the size. One that Dogget published recently, in my
possession, had W. R. in the upper corners, as those printed in the
reign of Charles II., had C. R., the royal arms being in the centre.
The luxurious mode of printing in alternate black and red lines, was
adopted in Cibber’s time; the bills of Covent-garden theatre were
generally printed in that manner. The bills of Drury-lane theatre,
within the last ten years, have issued from a private press, set up in a
room below the stage of that theatre. The bills for the royal box, on
his majesty’s visit to either theatre, are printed on white satin.
Connected with these notices of playbills, are the means by which they
were dispersed. A century ago, they were sold in the theatres by young
women, called “orange-girls,” some of whom, Sally Harris and others,
obtained considerable celebrity; these were succeeded by others, who
neither coveted nor obtained notoriety. The “orange-girls” have _gone
out_, and staid married women, who pay a weekly stipend to the box-lobby
fruit-woman, now vend play-bills in the theatre, but derive most of
their emolument from the sale of the “book of the play,” or “the songs”
of the evening. The old cry about the streets, “Choice fruit, and a bill
of the play--Drury-lane or Covent-garden,” is almost extinct; the
barrow-women are obliged to obtain special permission to remain opposite
some friendly shopkeeper’s door; and the play-bills are chiefly hawked
by little beggarly boys.