CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. ANNALS OF THE STAGE From the earliest time to Henry VIII.....p. 1. FITZSTEPHEN and Matthew Paris. Miracle-play of St. Katherine, 1119. Feast of Corpus Christi, 1264. Minstrels, and their rewards, 1333. Miracle-plays in London, 1378. Miracle-plays of St. George in 1416. Minstrels of Henry VI. in 1445. Players of interludes in 3 and 4 Edw. IV. Players, &c. of Richard III., and of the Children of the chapel, 1467 and 1482. Players of interludes, &c. of Henry VII. Players of the Prince and the Queen. The King's and Queen's Minstrels, 1494. Disguisings and revels temp. Hen. VII. Polidore Virgil regarding plays. Sir Henry Guildford, temporary Master R. Gibson, J. English, H. Medwall, and The King's old and new players. The King's books of payments to 1521. The King's minstrels, and their wages. William Peeres interlude-maker to the Comedy of Plautus before Henry VIII. Revels before Princess Mary, 1522. William Crane, Master of the Chapel. The Duke of Richmond's rewards, 152 Revels under Sir Henry Guildford an Play at Gray's Inn before Wolsey, 152 Luther brought upon the stage. Robert of Cicily played at Chester, 15 John Heywood's Interludes, 1530, Proclamation against Interludes, 1533. Sir David Lindsay's Three Estaitis, 1539 Players committed to the Counter, 1543. Stat. 34 & 35 Henry VIII., c. i. Thomas Wylley's letter to Cromwell. The King's musicians and players, 1547. Will Somers, jester to Henry VIII. and Proclamation against plays, &c., 1549. ters, 1552. The play of Æsop's Crow, by G. Ferrers. William Baldwin and his play, 1553. Proclamation by Queen Mary against interludes, 1553. Plays suppressed for two years. A Sack full of News. Plays and players in London, 1557. Mask and feats of activity, before the Miracle-plays in London, in 1557. Proclamation against plays, 1558. Children of the Chapel of Windsor. The Queen's musicians and players, 1562. Ferrex and Porrex, and Julius Cæsar. Masks, &c. for the meeting of Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots, 1562. Grindall's hostility to plays and players, Edwards's tragedy, &c. before the Queen. Palamon and Arcyte, by Richard Ed- Gray's-Inn Plays and court revels. Stat. 14 Eliz. c. 5, against the players of Plays before the French ambassadors, Thomas Blagrave, chief officer of the Patent to James Burbadge and others, From the year 1575 to the year 1585....p. 213. Lord Mayor and Corporation of London opposed to theatrical performances. Petition of the Queen's players. Remedies for the evil of plays, 1576. Players expelled from the City. Building of Blackfriars play-house by James Burbadge and others, 1576. The Theatre and Curtain in Moorfields. Sir Jerome Bowes and his theatrical project, 1577. Shews, &c. at Kenilworth Castle. William Hunnis's interludes. Edmund Tylney, Master of the Revels, John Lyly's petition for the office. John Smith, an interlude player, 1581. Renewed hostility of the City to plays. Observation of the Sabbath, 1582. Accident at Paris Garden, 1583. John Field's letter to Lord Leicester. 1585. Recorder Fleetwood's reports to Lord From the year 1585 to the year 1599....p. 261. Sir Francis Walsingham's Intelligencer's Letter, 1586. Warrant to Thomas Gyles, master of the Plays by the gentlemen of Gray's Inn. Mask given by Elizabeth to James VI. George Peele's verses to the Queen at bridge and in the University, 1593. ard Burbage, and others to the Debts of the Queen's office of the revels. From the year 1599 to the death of Elizabeth.....p. 311. Building of the Fortune theatre, 1599. allowed, 1600. Personalities in Plays at the Curtain,1601. broke's, Lord Derby's, and Lord Song in a mask before Elizabeth, 1602. The Queen entertained at Sir R. Cecill's Anecdote of Shakespeare and Richard Anecdotes of Ben Jonson, John Mars- Death of Queen Elizabeth, 1603. From the accession of James I. to the year 1617... English players at Edinburgh, 1599. License of 1603 to L. Fletcher, W. Queen's and Prince's servants. Eastward, Ho! and the Tragedy of The King's musicians and players. players of the nobility. Ben Jonson's MS. masks, 1605 and 1606. .p. 344. Shakespeare's retirement as an actor. 1610. Death of Prince Henry, 1612. Patent of 1612 to the Prince Palatine's Players sent to Bridewell, 1613. lane constructed. The Globe theatre burnt, 1613. 1616. Attack upon the Cockpit playhouse From the year 1617 to the death of James I.....p. 406. Play concerning the Marquis d'Ancre, Plays during the King's progress, 1618. The King's Declaration regarding sports Patent in 1619 to the King's players at King's letter to cancel the patent. Plays licensed by Sir George Buc. Fatal accident at the Blackfriars, 1623. prior to 1625. Middleton's Game of Chess, and the offence given by it, 1624. ANNALS OF THE STAGE, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE No country of Europe, since the revival of letters, has been able to produce any notice of theatrical performances of so early a date as England *. That notice was first published by Stow in his Survey of London, 1599, who discovered it in the Vita Sancti Thomæ Archiepiscopi et Martyris, by William Fitzstephen, In that work the author inserts a description nobilissimæ civitatis Lundonia, which contains the following passage: Lundonia pro spectaculis theatralibus, pro ludis scenicis, ludos habet sanctiores, representationes miraculorum quæ sancti confessores operati sunt, seu representationes passionum quibus claruit constantia martyrum †. *The plays of Roswitha, a nun of Gandersheim, in Lower Saxony, who wrote at the close of the tenth century, and which are mentioned in a note by the Editor of the last edition of Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet., ii. 68, were not represented. + There is a slight difference in the mode in which these words have been translated into English. Stow gives them thus: London, 'for the shews upon theaters, and comical pastimes, hath holy playes, 'representations of miracles, which holy confessors have wrought; 'or representations of tormentes, wherein the constancie of martirs ' appeared.' (Survey, 1599, p. 68.) Warton renders them compenVOL. I. B |