Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > British theatre

ii P R E F A C E.
Si quid novifti redlus iflis
Candidus imperii j fi non his utere mecum, Hor.
Having faid thus much, we now proceed to an Ac-
count of the Rife and Progrefs of the Englij'h S>i2.ge, fox
which the Reader is obliged to the Labours of an In-
genious VV^iternow living.
Jt is generally imagined, that the Englij7? Stage rofe
later than the reft of its Neighbours. Thofe in this Opi-
nion will, perhaps, wonder to be told of Theatrical En-
tertainments almoftas early as the Conqueft ; and yet
nothing is more certain, if you will believe an honeft
Monk, one William Btephanides or Fitx-Sttphen, in his
Defcriptio NohiUfftm^e Ci^ifatis LondQni<:e3 who writes
thus ; " London^ inftead of common Interludes belong-
** ing to the Theatre, has Plays of a more holy Sub-
** jeil ; Pvcprefentations of thofe Miracles which the
** holy Confeffors wrought, or of the Sufferings wherein
" the glorious Conftancy of the Martyrs did appear."
Th^s Author was a Monk o'i Canterbury, who wrote in
the Reign of Ee-nry II. and died in that o^ Richard h
1 191 ; And as he does not mention thefe Reprefentati-
cns as Novelties to the People, (for he is defcribing all
tiie common Diverfions in ufe at that time) we can
hardly {ix them lower than the Conqueft. And this, we
believe, is an earlier Date than any other Nation oi Eu-
rope can produce for their Theatrical Reprefentations,
About 1 40 Years after this, in the Reign of EdivardlU.
k was ordained by A£l of Parliament, that a Company
of Men called Vagrants, who had made Mafquerades
ttiro' the whole City, fhould be whipt out oi London,
becaufe they reprefented fcandalous Things in the little
Alehoufes, and other Places where the Populace affem-
bled. What the Nature of thefe fcandalous Things were,
we are not told ; whether lewd and obfcene, or im-
pious and profane ; but we Ihould rather think the for-
iner, for the Word Mafquerades has an ill Sound, and,
we believe, they vveje ao better in their Infancy than at
prefent*