SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
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Liondon, he went to Wittember^, embraced Lautheranism, and gut liberty toteacn his philoso- phy publicly. Here he made himself so many enemies, that he was obliged to decamp ; and he desperately determined to revisit his native country. On his return he was seized by the inquisitors of Venice, and sent to Rome, where he lay in prison fur the space of two years. He suffered (teath, which he might have averted eight days before, by a recantation, with forti- tude. The philosophical writings of Bruno, which have become very rare, display a classical cultivation of mind, a deep insight into the spirit of ancient pliilosophy, wit,and satire,as well as a profound knowledge of mathematics and natural philosophy. Most of them were published be- tween 1 584 and 1591. The most eminent philo- sophers since his time have borrowed much from him. Among recent writers, Schelling resembles him the most in metaphysics and his philoso- phical views of nature, and has given his name to one of his philosophical writings.
1600. Nevxt from Flaunders. A new ballad of the great overthrow, that the valliant captaine Graue Maurice, sir Francis Veere, and other of the queene of England's friends, gaue to the archauke, and his army of Spaniards, upon Sunday the 22d of June last past, 1600. To the tune of lusty gallant.
/( hegint,
Yoa that be desirous, and therein take delight, &c. End»,
Thos have 70a heard the serrlce
Of these onr EngiUsh friends. That still with losac nf life and Ununes
The Flemish state defends. God banish thence idolatrie.
That Engtisbmen mar say : That still we bane In apigrht of Spaine
Some frendes beyond the sea.— Finis.
1600, June 22. An order of the privy council, inhihiting all public performances about the city, except in two houses, the Globe and the Bankside. It was also ordered that the two companies should play " twice a-week, and no oftener;" and especially they shall refrain to plav on the sabbath day.
It was customary, at this time, to carry table booh, (as they were called,) to the theatre, and either from curiosity, or enmity to the author, or some other motive, to write down passages of the play. There is reason to believe that some of Shakspeare's dramas underwent this fate, and that some of the old quartos were published from some of these imperfect copies.
The prices of admission to the theatres in the reign of queen Elizabeth, were considerably under the sums charged at the present day, even on reference to the relative value of monev at both periods. The cost varied from the gallery at two-pence, to the lords' room, where the charge was one shilling. The lords' room, situated over the stage, answered to the present stage boxes. Ben Jonson in the prologue to Every Mm out of hit Humour, acted for the first time
at the Olobe, on Bankside, in 1509, says, " Let me never live to look so high as the two-penny room again ;" and in the same play mention u made of "the lords' room over the stage." Decker, in his Belman of London ; brintjing to Light the most Notorioui Villaniet that are now praetited in the Kingdom, first printed in 1608, also says, " Pay you too-pence to a player,and you may sit in the gallery," while in a play from the pen of Middlcton, " one of them is a nip : I took him once into the two-penny gallery at the Fortune." It appears that the price of admis- sion to the lords room over the stage, at the period above alluded to, was one shilling, for Decker, in his GuCt Hornbook, printed in 1609, says, " At a new play you take up the twelve penny room, next the stage, because the lords and you may seem to bee hail fellow well met."
The customary price of the copy of a play to the booksellers, at this time, appears to have been twenty nobles, or £6 l-it. 4d. The usual present from the patron to whom it was dedicated, was 40<. Dramatic poets were in those times, as at present, admitted grati* into the theatre.
The ancient custom of concluding the play with a prayer for the health and prosperity of the king and queen, if it were acted in the pub- lic theatres, probably gave birth to the common addition to the modern playbills, Vimnt Rex el Regina. If the play was acted in a private house, the patrons of it were prayed for.
l.')99. Angelus Roccha, in bis appendix to the liiblia /Epostolica Vaticani, speaking of the li- brary of cardinal Launcclot, says, it was " cele- brated as well on account of the books (for there are seven thousand volumes,) as for the beauti- ful binding, their admirable order, and magnifi- cent ornaments."
1599. The number of master printers in the whole of London, were twenty-two ; the journey- men amounted to about sixty. It must be recollected that there were not any other printers allowed in the kingdom, except in the universi- ties of Oxford and Cambridge. The number of persons who exercised the art in England, from its introduction in 1474, to the end of this century, was about two hundred ; in Scotiand, eleven ; in Ireland, two ; and in Wales, one.
1600. One Compendious Buik of Godly and Spiritual Sanges, colletit out of tundrye partet of the Scripture, with tundrye other Btulatet, changrit out ofprophaine languit in godly Sangit, for avoyding of Sin and Harlotry, with augmet^ tation of tyndrie gude and godly Ballatet, not contenet in thefirtt edition.
Exactly con-ectit and newlie printed in Edin- burgh be Robert Smith, dwelling at the Nether Bow. 1600.
Of the above curious book, Beloe never saw or heard of any copy but that which is in the Roxburgh collection.
1600. NiNiAN Newton and Arnold Hat- field printed some works in partnership, and others separately. Newton dwelt in Lotbbury, and kept .shop at the sign of the Brazen Serpent, in St. Paul's church yard.
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