quite supprest, and that of the Children of the Chappel converted to the use of the Children of the Revels. . . .
It was the happiness of the Actors of those times to have such Poets as these to instruct them, and write for them; and no less of those Poets to have such docile and excellent Actors to Act their Playes, as a Field and Burbidge; of whom we may say, that he was a delightful Proteus, so wholly transforming himself into his Part, and putting off himself with his Cloathes, as he never (not so much as in the Tyring-house) assum'd himself again until the Play was done: there being as much difference between him and one of our common Actors, as between a Ballad-singer who onely mouths it, and an excellent singer, who knows all his Graces, and can artfully vary and modulate his Voice, even to know how much breath he is to give to every syllable. He had all the parts of an excellent Orator (animating his words with speaking, and Speech with Action) his Auditors being never more delighted then when he spoke, nor more sorry then when he held his peace; yet even then, he was an excellent Actor still, never falling in his Part when he had done speaking; but with his looks and gesture, maintaining it still unto the heighth, he imagining Age quod agis, onely spoke to him: so as those who call him a Player do him wrong, no man being less idle then he, whose whole life is nothing else but action; with only this difference from other mens, that as what is but a Play to them, is his Business: so their business is but a play to him.
Now for the difference betwixt our Theaters and those of former times, they were but plain and simple, with no other Scenes, nor Decorations of the Stage, but onely old Tapestry, and the Stage strew'd with Rushes (with their Habits accordingly) whereas ours now for cost and ornament are arriv'd at the heighth of Magnificence. . . . For Scenes and Machines they are no new invention, our Masks and some of our Playes in former times (though not so ordinary) having had as good or rather better then any we have now.
ii.
[Extracts from Historia Histrionica: an Historical Account of the English
Stage, shewing the Ancient Use, Improvement, and Perfection of Dramatick
Representations in this Nation. In a Dialogue of Plays and Players (1699).
A facsimile reprint was issued by E. W. Ashbee in 1872. The text is also
given in Dodsley^4, xv. I use, with a correction, the modernized text of
A. Lang, Social England Illustrated (1903, Arber, English Garner^2), 422.
The Historia Histrionica is ascribed to James Wright, an antiquary and
play-collector (1643-1713), who can only have recorded what he learnt
from others. He is, of course, writing primarily of the Caroline, rather
than the Elizabethan or Jacobean period.]
Truman. I say, the actors that I have seen, before the Wars, Lowin,
Taylor, Pollard, and some others, were almost as far beyond Hart
and his company; as those were, beyond these now in being. . . .
Lovewit. Pray, Sir, what master-parts can you remember the old
