Shakespere (Volume 3); The Poet, the Lover, the Actor, the Man. a Romance (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1849 edition. Excerpt: ... public buildings exclusively appropriated to dramatic entertainment. The most common places of performance were the yards of the Chaucer-like hostels, in the various towns through which the actors wandered. Some of these inns are even yet remaining, although altered and modernized, in the city of London, and also along the Old Kent Road. The gateways of such houses formed one side of the quadrangle, whilst the balconies, being accessible from the various chambers, obviated all necessity of descending amongst the vulgar iu the yard. In such galleries kings and nobles, the fierce Norman of the Crusades, the knight, the esquire, and the damsel of high degree, had leant over the rails in the olden time, and witnessed the miracle-plays and mysteries then exhibiting. Such, for instance, as the miracleplay of the Creation, wherein Adam and Eve appeared "in puris naturalibus," and were, as the play quaintly says, "Not Ashamed." The earliest of theatres were churches; the earliest performers, monks and friars; and for the most part their exhibitions, being on religious subjects, such as the descent of our Saviour to liberate our first parents, John the Baptist and the prophets from the lower regions. On the accession of Henry the Eighth, acting had become an ordinary profession, and companies of players were attached to each town; but previous to the reign of the bluff monarch plays on general subjects were unknown, yet long before that period it had been customary for great noblemen to have companies of players attached to their households. Such, then, is a short summary of theatrical affairs previous to the period in which Shakspere startled the town by his productions, --making a single vault from the lowest depth of misrule and barbarity to...