of their ableft critics upon dramatic entertainments, where they were as much admired and encouraged, as at that time defpifed in England. That thefe were really improvements, and that the public ftood greatly indebted to Sir William Davenant as a poet, and master of a theatre, we can produce no lefs an authority than that of Dryden, who, beyond any of his predeceffors, contemporaries, or those who have fucceeded him, underftood poetry as an art. In his effay on heroic plays, he thus fpeaks, "The firft light we had

of them, on the English theatre (fays he) was "from Sir William Davenant. It being forbid"den him in the religious times to act trage. "dies or comedies, because they contained fome

matter of fcandal to thofe good people, whọ "could more eafily difpoffefs their lawful fove

reign, than endure a wanton jeft, he was for"ced to turn his thoughts another way, and to

introduce the examples of moral virtue written "in verfe, and performed in recitative mufic. "The original of this mufic, and of the fcenes "which adorned his works, he had from the "Italian opera's; but he heightened his characters, as I may probably imagine, from the ex "amples of Corneille, and fome French poets, "In this condition did this part of poetry remain at his Majesty's return, when grown bolder as

66

66

now owned by public authority, Davenant re"vived the Siege of Rhodes, and caufed it to "be acted as a juft drama. But as few men "have the happiness to begin and finish any new project, fo neither did he live to make "his defign perfect. There wanted the fulness "of a plot, and the variety of characters to form

it as it ought; and perhaps fomewhat might "have been added to the beauty of the ftile: "all which he would have performed with more

E 3

"exact

"exactnefs, had he pleafed to have given us "another work of the fame nature. For myfelf "and others who came after him, we are bound "with all veneration to his memory, to acknow

ledge what advantage we received from that "excellent ground work, which is laid, and fince "it is an eafy thing to add to what is already "invented, we ought all of us, without envy to him, or partiality to ourselves, to yield him "the precedence in it."

Immediately after the reftoration there were two companies of players formed, one under the title of the King's Servants, the other, under that of the Duke's Company, both by patents from the crown; the firft granted to Henry Killigrew, Efq; and the latter to Sir William Davenant. The King's company acted first at the Red Bull in the upper end of St. John's Street, and after a year or two removing from place to place, they established themfelves in Drury-Lane. It was fome time before Sir William Davenant compleated his company, into which he took all who had formerly played under Mr. Rhodes in the Cock-Pit in Drury-Lane, and amongst these the famous Mr. Betterton, who appeared firft to advantage under the patronage of Sir William Davenant. He opened the Duke's theatre in Lincoln's Inn-Fields with his own dramatic performance of the Siege of Rhodes, the houfe being finely decorated, and the ftage fupplied with painted fcenes, which were by him introduced at leaft, if not invented, which afforded certainly an additional beauty to the theatre, tho' fome have infinuated, that fine fcenes proved the ruin of acting; but as we are perfuaded it will be an entertaining circumftance to our Readers, to have that matter more fully explained, we shall take this opportunity of doing it.

In the reign of Charles I. dramatic entertainments were accompanied with rich scenery, curious machines, and other elegant embellishments, chiefly conducted by the wonderful dexterity of that celebrated English architect Inigo Jones. But thefe were employed only in mafques at court, and were too expenfive for the little theatres in which plays were then acted. In them there was nothing more than a curtain of very coarse stuff, upon the drawing up of which, the stage appeared either with bare walls on the fides, coarfly matted, or covered with tapeftry; fo that for the place originally reprefented, and all the fucceffive changes in which the poets of those times freely indulged themfelves, there was nothing to help the fpectator's understanding, or to affift the actor's performance, but bare imagination. In Shakespear's time fo undecorated were the theatres, that a blanket fupplied the place of a curtain; and it was a good obfervation of the ingenious Mr. Chitty, a gentleman of acknowledged tafte in dramatic excellence, that the circumftance of the blanket, fuggefted to Shakespear that noble image in Macbeth, where the murderer invokes

Thick night to veil itself in the dunneft fmoke of
Hell,

Nor Heaven peep thro' the blanket of the dark
To cry hold, hold.

It is true, that while things continued in this fituation, there were a great many play-houses, fometimes fix or feven open at once. Of thefe fome were large, and in part open, where they acted by-day light; others fmaller, but better fitted up, where they made ufe of candles. The plainnefs of the theatre made the prices fmall

E 4

and

and drew abundance of company; yet upon the whole it is doubtful, whether the spectators in all thefe houfes were really fuperior in number, to those who have frequented the theatres in later times. If the fpirit and judgment of the actors fupplied all deficiencies, and made as fome would infinuate, plays more intelligible without fcenes, than they afterwards were with them, it must be very aftonishing; neither is it difficult to affign another caufe, why thofe who were concerned in play-houfes, were angry at the introduction of fcenes and decorations, which was, that notwithstanding the advanced prices, their profits from that time were continually finking; and an author. of high authority in this cafe, affures us, in an hiftorical account of the ftage, that the whole fharers in Mr. Hart's company divided a thousand pounds a year a-piece, before the expenfive decorations became fashionable.. Sir William Davenant confidered things in another light he was well acquainted with the alterations which the French theatre had received, under the aufpice of cardinal Richlieu, who had an excellent tafte; and he remembered the noble contrivances of Inigo Jones, which were not at all inferior to the defigns of the best French mafters. Sir William was likewife fenfible that the monarch he ferved was an excellent judge of every thing of this kind; and these confiderations excited in him a paffion for the advancement of the theatre, to which the great figure it has fince made is chiefly owing. Mr. Dryden has acknowledged his admirable talents in this way, and gratefully remembers the pains taken by our poet, to fet a work of his in the faireft light poffible, and to which, he ingenuously afcribes the fuccefs with which it was received. This is the hiftcry of the rife and progress of scenery on

Our

our ftage; which, without doubt, gives greater life to the entertainment of a play; but as the beft purposes may be proftituted, fo there is fome reafon to believe that the exceffive fondness for decorations, which now prevails, has hurt the true dramatic taste. Scenes are to be confidered as fecondary in a play, the means of fetting it off with luftre, and ought to engrofs but little attention; as it is more important to hear what a character fpeaks, than to obferve the place where he ftands; but now the cafe is altered. The fcenes in a Harlequin Sorcerer, and other unmeaning pantomimes, unknown to our more elegant and judging fore-fathers, procure crowded houses, while the nobleft ftrokes of Dryden, the delicate touches of Otway and Rowe, the wild majesty of Shakespear, and the heart-felt language of Lee, pafs neglected, when put in competition with thofe gewgaws of the ftage, thefe feafts of the eye; which as they can communicate no ideas, fo they can neither warm nor reform the heart, nor anfwer one moral purpose in nature.

We ought not to omit a circumstance much in favour of Sir William Davenant, which proves him to have been as good a man as a poet. When at the Restoration, those who had been active in disturbing the late reign, and fecluding their fovereign from the throne, became obnoxious to the royal party, Milton was likely to feel the vengeance of the court, Davenant actuated by a noble principle of gratitude, interpofed all his influence, and faved the greatest ornament of the world from the ftroke of an executioner. Ten years before that, Davenant had been refcued by Milton, and he remembered the favour; an inftance, this, that generofity, gratitude, and noblenefs of nature is confined to no particular party; but the heart of a good man will till difcover itself in acts of munificence and kindness, how