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Transcriber’s Notes
This e-text is based on the printed edition of ‘Shakespeare and
the Stage,’ by Maurice Jonas, from 1918. Inconsistent spelling and
hyphenation have been retained, but punctuation and typographical
errors have been corrected.
Illustrations, as well as facsimiles of book titles and exemplary
book pages, have been moved between two paragraphs for reasons of
clarity and comprehensibility. As a consequence, page references for
illustrations have been removed, because in most cases they are no
longer consistent with the original. Some title lines of the facsimile
pages seem to be cropped at the upper end. These errors originate from
the printed book; the rest of the titles cannot be retrieved.
The chapters in the original book have been numbered inconsistently;
the correct numbering scheme has been applied to this electronic
version.
Repeated, missing or inconsistent quotations have been adopted from the
original without modifications. No changes have been made to passages
copied from Shakespeare’s plays by the author; some suspected errors
have not been corrected.
Special characters have been used to highlight the following font
styles:
italic: _underscores_
bold: =equals signs=
black letter: ~tilde characters~
spaced: +plus signs+
Caret symbols (^) precede superscript characters in the original; small
caps have been transformed into regular uppercase letters.
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SHAKESPEARE AND THE STAGE
[Illustration: The interior of the Swan Theatre. Drawn by De Witt in
1596.]
SHAKESPEARE
AND THE STAGE
WITH A COMPLETE LIST OF THEATRICAL
TERMS USED BY SHAKESPEARE IN HIS
PLAYS AND POEMS, ARRANGED IN ALPHABETICAL
ORDER, & EXPLANATORY NOTES
BY
MAURICE JONAS
AUTHOR OF “NOTES OF AN ART COLLECTOR AND MASUCCIO.”
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
[Illustration]
LONDON:
DAVIS AND ORIOLI
24 MUSEUM STREET
MCMXVIII
PRINTED IN ENGLAND
BY THE WESTMINSTER PRESS,
411A, HARROW ROAD, LONDON, W.
CONTENTS
PAGE
The Early Drama 1
Inn-Yards 9
The Theatres 24
London Theatrical Companies 141
Shakespeare as an Actor 184
Court Performances 203
Theatrical Allusions 233
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Interior of the Swan Theatre _Frontispiece_
_Facing page_
A Stage Play in Progress at an Inn-yard 12
A Typical Inn-yard in Elizabethan Times, used by the Players 12
The Swan Theatre. From Visscher’s Map of London, 1616 81
The Plot of England’s Joy 86
The Rose Theatre or the First Globe Theatre 87
Frontispiece to James Howell’s Londinopolis, 1657, showing the
position of four London Theatres, circa 1600 96
The Second Fortune Theatre, 1621 113
The Red Bull Theatre 117
Facsimile of an Admission Ticket to the Roman Coliseum 120
Ticket of Admission to the Red Bull Theatre 120
The Second Globe Theatre, 1614, and the Hope 121
The Palace of Whitehall 206
Banqueting Hall and Holbein Gate, Whitehall Tiltyard in
foreground 206
Greenwich Palace in the time of Elizabeth 216
Interior of the Middle Temple Hall 227
Interior of the Old Inner Temple Hall 228
Facsimile of Passage in Manningham’s Diary, referring to
Twelfth Night 228
Interior of Gray’s Inn Hall 231
Jocasta: A Tragedie written in Greek by Euripides 232
Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, and
Tragedies 233
CHAPTER I
THE EARLY DRAMA
The beginning of the English drama dates from a late period in the
history of this country. Until the reign of Elizabeth, dramatic
literature was really non-existent. During the Middle Ages, the
religious drama held complete sway over the populace, producing such
an abiding effect that no other kind of performance was tolerated. In
England the first germs of a dramatic nature emanated from the church,
chiefly in connection with the festival at Eastertide. At this time
of the year the ritual was solemnized in a highly theatrical fashion.
Processions marched round the sacred edifice, various scenes from the
Gospels were introduced, accompanied by music and song. The festivals
of Christmas and Corpus Christi were observed with great enthusiasm,
sacred episodes taken from church history were acted with such fervour
and ecstasy that the congregation remained spellbound during the
service.
The next development in the evolution of the drama is the
representation of the liturgical play, written in Latin, gradually
being superseded by the religious play written in the vernacular; the
scenes depicted consisted chiefly of episodes in connection with the
Birth of the Saviour, also of events narrating the Lives of the Saints,
together with other legendary characters.
All these scenes were called Miracle Plays, a name by which in this
country all religious dramas were known, regardless of the origin of
their source. In course of time these first offshoots of the ordinary
service had grown to such dimensions that it was found impracticable
that these spectacles should be presented inside the church,
consequently, a larger space outside was deemed more convenient,
but still remaining within the precincts. Even this innovation was
not entirely successful, as the ground allotted for the performance
was not extensive enough for the numerous throng that assembled on
these occasions. Then a further step was taken by transferring the
scene of action from the sacred precincts to the open spaces within
the town. The development of the drama was greatly accelerated by
this innovation. During the period that these plays formed part of
the religious service, the clergy only were allowed the privilege of
assuming the different characters, but when spectacular episodes were
added to the ordinary ritual they became secularized by calling in
the aid of the various guilds, assisted by professional entertainers.
By these means the plays gradually lost their religious significance,
finally being regarded as a popular form of amusement. By an act of
Pope Gregory in 1210, the priests were forbidden to officiate in these
interludes in any capacity, even if held inside the church. After the
act had been confirmed by the Council of Trent in 1227, the clergy were
strictly prohibited from joining the open-air performance.
The important Festival of Corpus Christi, founded by Pope Urban IV
in the year 1264, was ratified years later by the Council of Vienne
strictly enforcing its celebration. In England this very Corpus Christi
day was, above all others, chosen for the representation of important
plays composed in dramatic form chiefly from events connected with the
religious history of the civilized world. There are extant several
groups of plays which, during the Middle Ages, were regularly performed
before appreciative audiences. Four of these “cycles” as they were
termed, namely, the York, Townley, Chester, and Coventry plays, have
been published and edited by competent scholars. The York cycle
contains forty-eight pieces, most of which are derived from biblical
subjects. These plays were written during the fourteenth century, and
were acted by members of the different guilds.
In the “Ordo Paginorum” of 1415 a detailed list is given of the whole
forty-eight interludes. “The order of the Pageants of the Play of
Corpus Christi in the time of the mayoralty of William Alne, in the
third year of the reign of Henry V, anno 1415, compiled by Roger
Burton, town clerk.”
Forty-eight different Companies took part in this pageant, commencing
with the Tanners and ending with the Mercers. These crude compositions
were still being exhibited during the greater portion of Shakespeare’s
lifetime; their total suppression followed in the first decade of the
seventeenth century. Although these plays continued until so late a
date, signs of their waning interest were apparent in the last quarter
of the sixteenth century, when a more ambitious type of drama gradually
superseded the old Morality play. The New Comedy displays more
inventive genius in dramatic construction, together with greater skill
in treating the literary dialogue, and a wider sympathy and ingenuity
in the development of character, thus appealing to a more educated
section of the public. The first real comedy written in the English
language is entitled “Ralph Roister Doister,” and was composed about
the year 1550. By this composition an enormous stride in advance was
made compared with earlier dramatic pieces.
Many of the characters are moulded on classical models, whilst others
still bear traces of an allegorical nature. Other plays quickly
followed based on similar types. The first English tragedy called
“Gorboduc or Ferrex and Porrex,” produced about this period, was
likewise founded on classical lines. Henceforth the Miracle play was
doomed, and hereafter budded forth a new drama, the full blossom
thereof culminating in the immortal works of William Shakespeare.
The construction of the open-air stage, where the Miracle plays were
exhibited, totally differed from any kind of stage adopted by Europeans
for the last three hundred years. The inn-yard performance presents
a greater likeness to our present theatre than the primitive shows
represented before our ancestors of the Middle Ages compared with the
inn-yard performances. These Miracle plays were performed for over
three centuries, and formed the only dramatic fare of the English
people during this long period. The Miracle play can fitly be described
as an isolated production, the successive stages can be plainly
regarded as an organic whole, beginning with birth, developing into
maturity, eventually drifting into decline and decay, finally ending in
total extinction. The plays of a later date, and the conditions under
which they were produced, owed little or nothing beyond a trifling debt
to their forerunners.
When the Miracle plays emerged from the church and became secularized,
the performances took place in the open streets. These exhibitions
consisted of two kinds, one being stationary, and generally acted in
the market place, or other convenient open space, such as the village
green, or they were divided into separate stations or points, or as we
should now say districts, each station being visited by the several
pageants or movable stages, which formed a kind of processional
ceremony. The actual acting place was a kind of platform resting on
trestles, with planks thrown across; this primitive stage was fixed
on wheels and was drawn by horses from one street to another, and as
they arrived at each station a performance was given. By this method
a large concourse of people could witness the entertainment in ease
and comfort. What a contrast in comparison to a performance of a Greek
play, when twenty thousand people were seated in a public theatre
and watched with enthusiasm and delight the tragic masterpieces of
Æschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and the biting satirical comedies of
Aristophanes, and pray remember that these great plays were written and
performed about two thousand years before these puny dramatic efforts
of our own people. In large towns like York, sixteen stations were
erected to satisfy the demands of the public. In a small town about
three or four would supply all needs. At Coventry the latter number
proved sufficient. Six stations are mentioned in a pageant acted at
Beverley. The length and duration of the plays varied at different
places. Three days were allotted to the Chester plays, other towns
managed in quicker time, finishing their programme in a single day.
These one-day performances usually commenced at daybreak. Newcastle
was not quite so enthusiastic, conforming more with our modern ideas,
commencing their pageant a little after mid-day, corresponding almost
with our matinée. The most trustworthy account of a performance of a
Miracle play is that described by Archdeacon Roger, who witnessed one
of the plays at Chester during the Whitsun holidays in the year 1594.
“Every company had his pageant, or parte, which pageants weare a high
scafolde with two rowmes, a higher and a lower, upon four wheels. In
the lower they apparelled themselves, and in the higher rowm they
played, beinge all open on the tope that all behoulders mighte heare
and see them. The places where they played them was in every street.
They begane first at the abye gates, and when the first pageant was
played it was wheeled to the high crosse before the mayor, and so to
every streete and soe every streete had a pageant playinge before them
at one time, till all the pageants for the daye appointed were played,
and when one pageant was neare ended, worde was brought from streete to
streete that so they might come in place thereof exceedinge orderlye
and all the streets have their pageants afore them, all at one time
playinge together, to see which plays was great resorte, and also
scafoldes and stages made in the streets in these places where they
determined to play their pageants.”
The Miracle plays are frequently mentioned by Chaucer, a verse in the
Miller’s Tale included among the Canterbury Tales, informs us how
Joly Absolom, the parish priest, played Herod “in a Scafolde hie.”
Shakespeare refers to the ranting of the actors that prevailed in these
entertainments in the proverbial phrase “out Herod’s Herod,” Herod
being a well-known character in the Miracle play. May we not indulge in
the fancy that John Shakespeare took his eldest son, William, over to
Coventry to witness one of these shows, this town being distant only a
few miles from Stratford-on-Avon?
In a most fascinating book written by the late Professor Haigh, of
Oxford University, entitled _The Attic Theatre_, the author gives an
exhaustive and detailed account of the ancient Greek theatre from
the earliest times until its extinction. After the perusal of this
admirable work, the reader may well be amazed at the paucity of
reliable information concerning our own theatre. The distinguished
author analyses each of his statements with remarkable accuracy before
pronouncing judgment. The wealth of illustration brought to bear on the
subject is truly remarkable, placing before the reader an exact account
of how a play was produced in those remote times by graphically
describing the conditions with such minuteness and intelligence that
the reader can visualize the acted play from the printed page. Many
other points of a theatrical interest are discussed in this fascinating
book, which should be read by everyone who takes the least interest
in the drama. After studying this detailed account of theatrical
events, existing so many centuries past, we naturally expect from the
innumerable writings of the Elizabethan age an ample and exact account
how a play was represented during that era. Unfortunately in this
instance our expectations will remain unrealized, stage history not
being deemed worthy of chronicling in those spacious times.
Professor Lawrence, of Dublin, is specially to be congratulated on his
brilliant articles and essays in Shakespearean dramatic and theatrical
subjects. It would be a consummation devoutly to be wished if the
erudite author would undertake to write a history of the early stage on
the same lines as adopted by the author of _The Attic Theatre_.
[Illustration: AN EARLY TYPE OF STAGE
Reproduced by kind permission of Professor G. P. Baker.]