_To the Editor._
Dear sir,--When I sent you the sketch of “Tom Airay” of this place, and
his associates, I was not aware that the practice of acting plays was a
very ancient one in the parish of Linton, (in which this place is.) The
following extract from Whitaker’s history will prove this to have been
the case, and that Airay was “the last of a bright band.” It will
doubtless be perused with interest by many of the inhabitants of Craven,
very few of whom I am inclined to think know of the circumstance.
Whitaker’s history is an expensive work, and only in the hands of a few.
“Many of these amusements were long after in use at Linton. But the most
popular of their amusements was the practice of acting old plays,
continued, I have no doubt, from the old ‘Kirk Sights,’ and clerk plays,
though I can trace it in Craven no farther than 1606, where I find the
following article in the accounts of Francis, earl of Cumberland:--
“‘Item, paid to the yonge men of the town, (Skipton,) being his l’ps
tenants and servants, to fit them for acting plays this Christmas,
IIII_s._’
“In the interval of a century from this time, it does not seem that they
had much improved their stock of dramas; for, within the recollection of
old persons with whom I have conversed, one of their favourite
performances was ‘The Iron Age,’ by Heywood, a poet of the reign of
James I., whose work, long since become scarce, and almost forgotten,
had probably been handed down from father to son, through all that
period. But in every play, whether tragedy or comedy, the _Vice_
constituted one of the _dramatis personæ_, and was armed, as of old,
with a sword of lath, and habited in a loose party-coloured dress, with
a fur-cap, and fox’s brush behind. In some parts of Craven these
personages were called clowns, as in Shakspeare’s time, and too often
and too successfully attempted to excite a laugh by ribaldry and
nonsense of their own; a practice which is very properly reprehended in
Hamlet.
“In the ‘Destruction of Troy’ this personage easily united with
Thersites; but he was often found in situations where his appearance was
very incongruous, as ex. gr. in ‘George Barnwell.’ These rustic actors
had neither stage nor scenes, but performed in a large room, what is
called the ‘house,’[331] of an ordinary dwelling.
“Sometimes they fabricated a kind of rude drama for themselves; in which
case, as it is not likely that the plot would be very skilfully
developed, the performers entered one by one, and each uttered a short
metrical prologue, which they very properly chose to call a fore-speech.
For why should these honest Englishmen be indebted to the Grecian stage
for the word prologue, when they were certainly beholden to it for
nothing else?
“In these fabrications, I believe, the subjects were frequently taken
from printed plays; but the texture was of very inferior workmanship.
For this I must beg my reader to give me credit; though, if all readers
had the same relish for what, in the language of dulness, is called low,
with Dr. Farmer and Mr. Warton, I could excite more than a smile by
their travestie of the ‘Merchant of Venice.’ An old inhabitant of this
place, (Linton,) whom I well knew, had the reputation of a dramatic
manufacturer, though he had, in reality, no talents beyond those of an
actor. But his fame drew upon him an awkward application; which, as the
stated price of these services was three half crowns, he parried very
dexterously by demanding half a guinea. Thus much for the chapter of
amusements.”
In mentioning Airay’s stage companions I forgot to name Sim Coates, one
of the principal. He was a club-footed man, and used to perform the
“Fair Penitent!” He is lately dead.