aware that I have neglected to notice any production. that could illustrate the inquiry, and the extraordinary facilities I have enjoyed have enabled me to examine some dramatic performances, in this and other views of great value, which have either remained unknown, have been misunderstood, or have been passed over in silence. This part of the subject has necessarily embraced an examination of the predecessors and earlier contemporaries of Shakespeare. I have been anxious to arrive at a just estimate of them and their works, in order to ascertain how far our great dramatist was indebted to any previous models, and to what extent he deserved the praise, which Dryden was the first to bestow, that he 'created the stage among us.*' It was, in truth, created by no one man, and in no one age; and whatever improvements Shakespeare introduced, it will be seen that when he began to write for the theatre, our romantic drama was completely formed and firmly established.

The romantic drama and the classic drama, as far as relates to the disregard or observance of the unities, perhaps had their origin in the same cause, operating upon a different state of society, viz., the imperfectness and incompetence of mechanical and scenic art. While in Greece and Rome the effect was

* In the dedication to his Translation of Juvenal, 1692.

to limit the action to one place and time, so as not to offend the understandings of more refined spectators, in England appeal was made only to the imagination of a ruder auditory, which willingly believed that the same boards in the same play represented two different quarters of the globe.

I have not brought down the History of Dramatic Poetry lower than the era of Shakespeare, because nearly all the principal dramatists who followed him are well known. The works of Ben Jonson, of Beaumont and Fletcher, of Ford, Massinger, and Webster, have been separately published, and those of Marston and Shirley are in progress through the press :-upon these I could pretend to offer little that was new. I might, indeed, have enlarged upon Chapman, Dekker, Heywood, Brome, and some others; but specimens of their plays have been presented in various shapes, and they possess few characteristics to distinguish them from more notorious contemporaries. Shirley was the last of the School of Shakespeare, and he continued to write until the closing of the theatres by the Puritans, and died after the Restoration.

The third division of my subject relates to the Origin and History of our old Theatres, with as complete a view of their appurtenances, properties, and other matters connected with them, with authors, actors, and audiences, as I could procure from printed

books or manuscript authorities. Here I am bound to admit that Malone did much; but he left much undone, and, in the details he furnished, committed important errors, which subsequent inquiries have enabled me to correct. I have pointed out the site and foundation of theatres of which he confessedly knew nothing, and I have filled up various lacunæ, some of which he would doubtless have himself supplied, had he lived to enlarge and remodel the prolegomena to his Shakespeare. Adopting, with due acknowledgment, such materials as he and others furnished, and adding to them my own acquisitions, I have arranged the whole under distinct heads, so that the existing information upon any particular point may be referred to and examined at once. I have carefully collated all the extracts, but amid so many quotations and references, I can hardly hope that some unimportant errors do not remain.

Such is the general outline of my undertaking; and my obligations to those who have aided me in the progress of it are great and numerous.

My debt of gratitude to his Grace the Duke of Devonshire precludes the possibility of adequate acknowledgment; but I would rather be thought wanting in the due expression of my obligation, than risk the imputation that I have overstated my sense of such flattering encouragement and liberal assist

ance. Among other singular advantages, I have enjoyed unrestricted access to that most valuable collection of plays commenced by the late John Philip Kemble, and continued by his Grace, until it now forms a complete English Dramatic Library, from the earliest to the latest date.

Lord Francis Leveson Gower is himself a poet; and with the liberality which belongs to his rank in life and in letters, he afforded me every facility in the inspection of many volumes of the utmost rarity at Bridgewater House.

Through my friend Mr. Amyot, Sir Robert Peel, then principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, gave me admission into the State Paper Office. I found that he had anticipated my purpose by ordering a collection to be made of such documents as related to the stage: that collection, however, was not completed, and my object was zealously seconded by Mr. Lemon.

By Mr. Hudson Gurney, M.P., I was favoured with the unlimited use of three manuscript Moralplays, the earliest, and, without dispute, the most valuable specimens of the kind in our language.

To Mr. Davies Gilbert, M.P., I have to return my thanks for the gift of two curious works, printed under his direction, illustrative of the Cornish Guary Miracle; and for the opportunity of searching the

manuscripts of the Royal Society, of which he was then President.

Mr. Peregrine Townley, at the friendly instance of Mr. Gage, with alacrity placed in my hands a series of Miracle-plays, long preserved in his family, older than any other manuscript of the same description in English.

The Privy Council Registers, from the earliest date to which they extend, were opened to me by order of Mr. Greville; and he most obligingly lent me his assistance in searching the volumes of proclamations belonging to that office.

My hearty acknowledgments are also due to Sir Thomas Phillipps, whose collection of manuscripts is well known-to Mr. Douce, whose learning is as curious as it is extensive-to Mr. Markland, the learned editor of two of the Chester Miracle-playsto Mr. Ellis, Mr. Madden, and Mr. Carlisle, of the British Museum-to Mr. Dyce, so well read in our old poetry-to Mr. Bright, who lent me an unprinted play of the utmost singularity—to Mr. Caley, keeper of the records in the Augmentation Office and ChapterHouse, and to Messrs. C. and F. Devon, of the latter establishment to Mr. Phelps, Mr. Field, and Mr. Haslewood. Of the extraordinary resources of the latter I could not extensively avail myself, as they