Chapter XIII: Epilogue

An address or short poem recital before the audience after the conclusion of a play. Rosalind, the heroine of this comedy, delivered the epilogue. Few dramatists in those days furnished either prologues or epilogues when writing their plays, but after the Restoration, when women played the female parts, the custom became universal and was generally spoken by one of the actresses. Nell Gwynne, when she acted, usually recited these lines. In many instances the epilogues are spoken by a person not connected with the play. There exists some doubt whether Shakespeare wrote the prologues and epilogues prefixed to the printed edition of his plays, the general custom permitting another hand adding these verses. Of course the magnificent prologues in “Henry V” are Shakespeare to the core.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

COMEDIANS. EXTEMPORALLY. REVELS. BOY MY GREATNESS.

The quick comedians
Extemporally will stage us, and present
Our Alexandrian revels! Antony
shall be brought drunken forth and I shall see
some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness.
In the posture of a wanton.

In this celebrated passage many terms are used in connexion with the theatre. The quick comedians were the lively, quick witted actors who, by their inventive methods, will produce a play according to the rules of the _Commedia del’ arte_, which is meant by “extemporally will stage us.” The meaning of the phrase, some “squeaking Cleopatra will boy my greatness” will be apparent to every one conversant with the theatrical history of Shakespeare’s time. At that period of dramatic history no woman was allowed to appear on the public stage, all female characters being represented by boys or men, which custom lasted until the Restoration. It is generally acknowledged that a Mrs. Hughes was the first woman to act on the public stage, appearing in the character of Desdemona. This innovation was of the utmost importance, and an interesting reference was made to this new custom in a specially written prologue by Thomas Jordan.

“I come unknown to any of the rest
To tell the news I saw the lady drest:
The woman plays the part to-day; mistake me not,
No man in gown or page in petticoat.”

In comparison with former times, the stage must have reaped an enormous benefit by this change.

“Our women are defective and so sized
You’d think they were some of the guard disguised,
For to speak truth, men act that are between
Forty and fifty, wenches of fifteen
With bone so large and nerve so incompliant,
When you call Desdemona enter giant.”

PAGEANT.

Thou has seen these signs; They are black vesper’s pageants.
IV, 14, 8.

PLAY. SCENE.

Play one scene of excellent dissembley
And let it look like perfect honour.
I, 3, 78.

PUPPET.

Thou, an Egyptian puppet, shall be shown in Rome, as well as I.
V, 2, 208.

STAGED. SHOW.

And be staged to the show against a sworder!
III, 13, 30.

SHOW-PLACE.

In the common show-place, where they exercise.
III, 6, 12.

CYMBELINE

ACT.

What, makest thou me a dullard in this act?
V, 5, 265.

PLAY. PART.

Shall’s have a play of this?
Thou scornful page.
There lie thy part. Striking her, she falls.
V, 5, 228.

“Shall’s” in Elizabethan drama is equivalent to our modern “shall we.” “There lie thy part,” refers to the part the page shall play by lying down.

PART. ACT.

That part thou, Pisanio, must act for me.
III, 4, 26.

COMEDY OF ERRORS

JUGGLERS.

They say this town is full of cozenage;
As nimble jugglers that deceive the eye.
I, 2, 98.

In mediæval times Jugglers were frequently to be met with at the Court, being well received by an admiring audience. Their entertainment consisted of catching knives, tossing balls and feats of balancing. Such diversions even at the present day evoke unstinted applause, especially if practised by a Cinquevalli. The word is derived from the Latin _joculare_, to jest; the early meaning, which is now obsolete, denoted one who entertains or amuses people by shows, songs, buffoonery and tricks. It also bore the meaning of magician, wizard, or sorcerer.

MOUNTEBANK.

A mere anatomy, a mountebank, A threadbare juggler.
V, 1, 239.

A well known character in Shakespeare’s time. This entertainer performed at street corners, who, from an elevated position, addressed and amused his audience by means of stories, tricks, juggling and all forms of quackery, in which he was generally assisted by a professional clown or fool. Derived from the Italian _Montebanchi_, to mount a bench.

CORIOLANUS

MUMMERS.

If you chance to be pinched with the
colic, you make faces like mummers.
II, 1, 83.

In the fourteenth century, mummings were the customary entertainments held at the Court on festive occasions. They consisted of men in masquerade, performing in dumb show, with the addition of dancing. The word is derived from mum, an articulate sound made with closed lips. Anyone taking part in these mummings was called a mummer. The meaning of the word in its slang and contemptuous reference to an actor is of quite modern date. These mummings or disguisings--both these terms were used indifferently--continued to be presented until the first quarter of the sixteenth century, at which date they assumed the name of masks, and were of a more elaborate nature than the older form of entertainment, speaking parts being added, which were generally written in verse. This is the only instance in which Shakespeare uses the word.

ACTING. PART.

It is a part that I shall blush in acting.
II, 2, 149.

ACTOR.

Like a dull actor now, I have forgot my part, and I am out.
V, 3, 40.

SCENE. ACT.

When he might act the woman in the scene, He proved the best man.
II, 2, 100.

The gods look down, and this unnatural scene they laugh at.
V, 3, 184.

PROMPT.

So then the Volsces stand but as at first;

Ready, when time shall prompt them to make road upon’s again.
III, 1, 6.

Come, come, we’ll prompt you.
III, 2, 95.

HAMLET

ACT.

When thou see’st that act afoot,
Even with the very comment of thy soul
Observe mine uncle.
III, 2, 83.

You that look pale and tremble at this chance
That are but mutes or audience to this act.
V, 2, 346.

ACTED.

I heard thee speak a speech once, but it was never acted.
II, 2, 455.

ACTOR.

When Roscius was an actor in Rome, The actors are come hither.
II, 2, 410.

Then came each actor on his ass. The best actors in the world.
II, 2, 416.

HAMLET:

My Lord, you played once i’ the university, you say?

POLONIUS:

That did I, my lord, and was accounted a good actor.
III, 2, 106.

ABRIDGEMENT.

For look, where my abridgement comes.
II, 2, 439.

ARGUMENT.

There was for a while no money bid for argument.
II, 2, 273.

Belike this show imports the argument of the play.
III, 2, 149.

Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in it?
III, 2, 242.

The argument of a play signified the plot or the subject matter under discussion. The word in this sense is now obsolete, although much in use in Elizabethan times, and frequently employed by several dramatists of the period.

AUDIENCE.

They are but mutes or audience to this act.
V, 2, 398.

CHORUS.

You are as good as a chorus, my lord.
III, 2, 255.

CUE.

What would he do
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have?
III, 2, 587.

TRAGEDY. COMEDY. HISTORY. PASTORAL.

POLONIUS:

The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy,
history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral;
tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene
individable, or poem unlimited; Seneca cannot be too heavy, not
Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty, these are
the only men.
II, 2, 415.

By the above speech Polonius must have been fairly well acquainted with the actors, and the repertoire of the tragedians of the city. The list describing the different styles of composition are somewhat exaggerated, but not to such an extent as appears at first sight. Evidence of the lengthy repertory of the Globe can be gleaned from an extract concerning a licence granted in 1603 to the Globe company. Permission is given “freely to use the, and exercise the, Arte and facultie of playing Comedies, Tragedies, Histories, Enterludes, Moralls, Pastoralls and stage plaies, and such other like.” The phrase “scene individable” refers to the dramas, scrupulously adhering to the Unity of Place, a rule so carefully observed by classical writers. “Poem unlimited” may have expressed the antithesis to scene individable. The mention of Seneca and Plautus takes us back to the dramatic writers of antiquity. Seneca’s tragedies were translated into English and published in 1581. There are many allusions in English literature to these blood-curdling dramas. Nash, the Elizabethan dramatist and pamphleteer, thus describes the works of the Latin author: “Yet English Seneca read by candle-light yields many good sentences as ‘Blood is a beggar,’ and so forth, and if you entreat him fair on a frosty morning he will afford you whole Hamlets, I should say handfuls, of tragical speeches. But o grief _Tempus edax rerum_, what’s that will last always? The sea exhaled by drops will in continuance be dry, and Seneca let blood line by line and page by page at length must needs die to our stage.”

I possess an original edition of Seneca’s work in Latin, printed at Venice in the year 1498. The volume contains the ten tragedies, which were rendered into English by Thomas Newton and other writers. The “Hamlet” here referred to is an older play than Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” and presumably written by Thomas Kyd, to which Shakespeare was immeasurably indebted. Traces of this play may survive in the 1603 quarto of “Hamlet.” The relation of the 1603 quarto of “Hamlet” to the received text is one of the most puzzling subjects in all Shakesperean literature. The exact relationship still awaits solution. Plautus was a Latin dramatist, one of whose plays had been translated into English. The “Menaechmi” was rendered into the vernacular by William Warner and published in 1595. The translation acquaints us with the fact that before publication the play had been circulated in MS. Shakespeare’s play of the “Comedy of Errors” is founded on Plautus’s comedy. Whether Shakespeare went direct to the original or copied from Warner or any other translation cannot be decided. Somewhat puzzling is the question in discovering the grammatical subject of “these are the only men.” Does Polonius refer to the law of writ and the liberty or the “best actors of the world.” “Writ and liberty” bear the same meaning as “scene individable or poem unlimited.” The phrases may be intended as a compliment to the poets who were distinguished in both classes of composition, or perhaps the actors were the only men, who by their expert knowledge were capable of acting in all kinds of plays, whether a written composition or extempore plays.

CELLARAGE.

Come on; you hear this fellow in the cellarage.
Consent to sweat.
I, V, 151.

This quotation possibly refers to some kind of contrivance in use underneath the stage. Trap-doors in the Elizabethan theatre were an indispensable feature of the stage setting. From the stage of to-day they have entirely disappeared, with the exception of pantomime, where they are still much in evidence. The Ghost in “Hamlet” apparently made his entrance and his exit by one of these trap-doors. Several dramatists made use of these doors in introducing their characters upon the stage. The exact spot in which they were situated cannot be indicated; only in one instance can it be clearly defined. Ben Jonson, in his Induction to the Poetaster marks the trap-door in the centre of the stage. One may also have existed in the upper stage, but this suggestion is quite problematical. Spectators at the Blackfriars Theatres allowed stools on the stage. Considering that trap-doors were situated all over the stage, the stool-holders must have had their allotted space marked off, otherwise they would have interfered with the stage setting.

DUMB SHOW.

Capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise.
III, 2, 14.

HAUTBOYS PLAY. THE DUMB-SHOW ENTERS.
III, 2, 145.

Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen embracing him
and he her. She kneels and makes show of protestation unto him. He
takes her up and reclines his head upon her neck; lays him down
upon a bank of flowers; she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon
comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison
in the King’s ears, and exit. The Queen returns; finds the King
dead and makes passionate action. The poisoner, with some two or
three Mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead
body is carried away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with gifts; she
seems loath and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts, his love.
_Exeunt._

I have quoted the dumb-show scene in full, as only in rare instances in English dramatic literature is the action of the play foretold by such means. Why Shakespeare employed this confused method cannot be conjectured. Surely Hamlet exhibiting, through the dumb-show, how his father was murdered would naturally put the King upon his guard; the very thing he sought to avoid. The dumb-show undoubtedly detracts from the climax of the play-scene, and must be considered a serious blunder on the part of the dramatist in having introduced this artless and old-fashioned piece of machinery. The commentators give no valid excuse for its introduction. Halliwell-Phillipps makes the silly suggestion that the King and Queen should be whispering together during the scene, and so escape seeing it. A more ridiculous note by a great Shakesperean scholar has never been printed.

ENACT.

What did you enact? I did enact
Julius Cæsar, I was killed in the Capitol.
Brutus killed me.
III, 2, 107.

Besides writing a play called “Julius Cæsar,” Shakespeare introduces his name on several occasions; apparently he was one of the poet’s favourite characters. I am afraid Shakespeare did not verify his quotations; many simple errors occur through Shakespeare copying them from other authors, whilst the critics, from sheer ignorance, always lay them on Shakespeare’s shoulders, thus making him the scapegoat for other’s mistakes. Of course, from the point of view of modern scholarship, it is a grave error in placing Cæsar’s assassination in the Capitol; Plutarch expressly states that Cæsar met his death at Pompey’s portico, where a statue of his famous rival stood in the centre. The dramatist was on the right track when Marc Antony, in his oration, describes the place where Cæsar fell:

“Then burst his mighty heart,
And in his mantle, muffling up his face,
Even at the base of Pompey’s statue,
Which all the while ran blood, great Cæsar fell.”

Julius Cæsar was murdered in the “Curia,” Pompey near the theatre of Pompey, in the Campus Martius. Chaucer commits the same blunder in believing that Cæsar was stabbed in the Capitol. In Shakespeare’s play of “Julius Cæsar” the same error was repeated. An ancient statue, which was discovered in 1553 and now stands in the Sala dell’ Udianza of the Spada Palace at Rome, may be the identical statue of Pompey, at the base of which great Cæsar fell. Plutarch relates how at the very base where Pompey’s statue stood, which ran all gore blood, till he was slain. Plutarch’s celebrated lives of the Grecians and Romans was translated into English by Thomas North in 1579, from the French version of Jacques Amyot, first printed in 1559. Four editions were issued before North made his translation without studying the text very minutely, a difficulty arises in determining which edition North used. This book was Shakespeare’s constant companion, and many of North’s vigorous prose passages are turned into verse with very little alteration. This volume was in the library of Molière’s mother, and was frequently consulted by the great French comic poet. The author was in great vogue during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and it may well be considered the most popular book of those times among educated people. During the last hundred years the work has lost much of its popularity, few people of the present day having read it. I doubt if many who profess themselves readers of good literature know the author, even by name. So much for our educational system. I possess a copy of the first Greek edition, dated 1517, formerly in the possession of the Duke of Sussex; besides the rare first French edition, 1559, which I recently purchased from the catalogue of a lady provincial bookseller.

GROUNDLINGS.

To split the ears of the groundlings, who
for the most part are capable of nothing
but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise.
III, II, 12.

That part of the theatre, corresponding to our pit, was called the yard, and the spectators who stood in the enclosure were dubbed groundlings, the word being associated with the general sense of ground. “Your groundlings and gallery-commoner buys his sport by the penny.” The price of admission to this part of a public theatre, such as the Globe, was one penny. At the Blackfriars, a private theatre, there was no open yard. In Jonson’s play of “The Case is Altered” one of the characters explains: “Tut, give me the penny, give me the penny. I care not for the gentleman, I, let me have good ground.” The same dramatist, in another play, designates these spectators as the understanding gentlemen of the ground. Judging by contemporary accounts, the yard was the most uncomfortable place for enjoying the performance, the enclosure was bare of any sitting accommodation, neither was there any flooring, being generally overcrowded; there was no room for stools. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, the people flocked to this part of the theatre, which, at most of the public theatres, held about a thousand spectators. In proof of this statement I will quote some verses from Marlowe’s Epigrams and Elegies, translated from Ovid’s _Amores_:

“For as we see
The playhouse doors
When ended is the play, the dance and song,
A thousand townsmen, gentlemen and wantons,
Porters and serving men, together throng.”

These lines were published circa 1596, and have never been quoted before in reference to the stage, and I regard them, on my part, in the light of a discovery. When every nook and cranny of Elizabethan literature has been diligently ransacked in quest of materials for illuminating theatrical matters, it is all the more surprising that this passage should have been overlooked. The reason may be that in this poem some of the verses were too highly coloured for respectable literary folk, but in spite of this obstacle I considered it my duty as a student to read the book diligently from page to page in hopes of finding some reference to the early stage, and in this instance I was amply rewarded. This volume of amorous verses was one of the books condemned to be burnt at Canterbury by Archbishop Whitgift in 1599. By a strange coincidence, the original of this volume was banned from the public libraries by order of the Emperor Augustus.

HOBBY HORSE.

For O, for O, the hobby-horse is forgot.
III, 2, 144.

Although only distantly connected with the stage, the mention of this well-known feature in the May games proves that Shakespeare was well versed in all matters connected with the festivities of the village homes. The hobby-horse was one of the principal actors, taking part in the Morris Dance, this dance being considered the chief attraction of the May games. Hobby was originally the name of a small horse chiefly of Irish breed; when figuring in the festivities under this name it was represented by a paste board painted figure of a horse, attached to a frame of wicker wood or other light material, and was fastened round the waist of a man, his own legs, going through the body of the horse, were concealed by a long foot-cloth, thus enabling him to walk unseen, while false legs appeared where those of the man should have been, at the sides of the horse. Thus equipped, he executed various antics in imitation of a skittish high-spirited animal. The name of the performer was also called the hobby-horse. The phrase is now obsolete, but the word hobby is now associated with the occupation of collecting various works of art or trivial things, which is compared to the riding of a toy horse. The present quotation may be a line now lost from an old ballad, in which the omission of the hobby-horse from the May games was the principal theme. The figure of a man riding a hobby-horse is depicted on a glass window at Betley Church, Staffordshire. This identical sentence is often mentioned in Elizabethan literature, which would indicate that at this period it had ceased to form a part of the rustic games. As an instance showing the disfavour into which the hobby-horse had fallen, Hope-on-high Bomby, a character in “A Woman Pleased,” by Beaumont and Fletcher, throws off his hobby-horse and will no more engage in the Morris Dance. Last summer I witnessed some very interesting Morris Dances performed on the Green in the Hampstead Garden Suburb, but was disappointed in not seeing the hobby-horse. “For O, For O, the hobby-horse is forgot,” I exclaimed in a loud voice, but no one heeded me, and the dances continued.

JIG.

Prithee, say on, he’s for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or else
he sleeps.
II, 2, 522.

This is the only instance in which Shakespeare uses the word in its connexion with the dramatic history of the stage. In this sense the word is now obsolete. Until quite lately, no specimen of this form of dramatic literature was extant, yet the early commentators were fully aware of its existence. Very little trustworthy evidence for this class of literary diversion is procurable, but several early references clearly indicate that such fare was usually provided at the public theatres. The jig was a dramatic sketch or ballad drama, of a light or farcical character, written to dance music and accompanied in most instances to dance action. The piece that has survived is without this lasting accessory. The actors in these sketches were chosen from those that played the clowns and comic characters in the regular drama. An idea of the nature of these one-act plays may be imagined by comparing them to the rollicking farces which generally concluded the programme in our theatres in Victorian times. The only extant jig, which has recently been discovered, has been printed in the collection of Shirburn ballads, and edited with much profound learning by Mr. Andrew Clark. The playlet is entitled:

“Mr. Attwell’s Jigge
betweene
Francis. A Gentleman.
Richard. A Farmer
and their wives.”

The sketch is divided into four acts, each one accompanied to a different tune. The first to the tune of “Walsingham,” the second “The Jewish Bride,” the third to “Buggle-boe,” and the fourth to “Goe from my Window.” This last tune was familiar in Scotland early in Elizabeth’s reign. The first act introduces to us the plot of the piece: the gentleman, who makes love to the farmer’s wife. When her husband returns, she tells him of the gentleman’s intentions; thereupon they concoct a plot to entrap the would-be lover, and inform the gentleman’s wife of his intrigue. In the end the gentleman makes love to his own wife in the belief that she is the farmer’s wife. When he discovers his mistake he is forgiven and all ends happily. We may readily assume that many such pieces still exist in manuscript which have not yet come to light. We owe a debt to Mr. Clark for having published this highly interesting example, illustrating a popular theatrical amusement of the Tudor period. The Spanish dramas of this date also had their jigs, which were called “bayles,” always accompanied by words, either sung or recited, and, of course, by dancing.

LINES.

But if you mouth it, as many of your players do,
I had as lief the town crier spoke my lines.
III, 2, 4.

These lines refer to the delivery of the speech, inserted by Hamlet in the play scene. Apparently Shakespeare did not appreciate this boisterous school of acting, which was of a pompous oratorical style, uttering the words with great distinctness of articulation, amounting almost to affectation; in brief, a species of ranting. In poetry, verses are termed lines. Milton, in his ode to Shakespeare, prefixed to the Second Folio, 1632, writes:

“... and that each part
Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued Book
Those Delphic lines with deep impression took.”

“Unvalued” in the above quotation is here used for our modern word “invaluable.” Shakespeare uses the word in both its ancient and modern definitions, namely, “Inestimable stones, unvalued Jewels,” in “Richard III,” and once in “Hamlet,” “He may not as unvalued persons do Carve for himself.”

An actor of to-day still refers to the words of his part as his lines. A further instance of ranting occurs in Churchill’s “Roliad,” where he speaks disparagingly of an actor in the following couplet:

He mouths a sentence
As a cur mouths a bone.

Shakespeare himself refers to his “untutored lines” in the dedication of “Lucrece” to the Earl of Southampton.

PART.

The humourous-man shall end his part in peace.
II, 2, 336.

In this passage the “humourous man” has no connection with the funny or comical character in our present day melodramas. The meaning in this latter sense is first used at the end of the seventeenth century. The Shakesperean sense was moody, peevish, or capricious, ever ready in entering into a quarrel, and represented by such characters as Mercutio, Jacques, and Faulconbridge.

PLAY.

He that plays the King shall be welcome.
II, 2, 332.

The play I remember pleased not the million.
II, 2, 456.

An excellent play well digested in the scenes.
II, 2, 46.

We’ll hear a play to-morrow. Dost thou hear me?
Old friend, can you play the murder of Gonzago?
II, 2, 56.

I have heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play
Have, by the very cunning of the scene,
Been struck so to the soul, that presently
They have proclaimed their malefactions.
II, 2, 618.

I’ll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father.
II, 2, 624.

The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.
II, 2, 663.

They have already order
This night to play before him.
III, 1, 21.

After the play
Let the queen mother alone entreat him.
III, 1, 189.

O, there be players that I have seen play.
III, 2, 33.

Let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for
them.
III, 2, 43.

Though, in the meantime, some necessary question of the play be
then to be considered.
III, 2, 47.

There is a play to-night before the king.
III, 2, 80.

If I steal ought whilst the play is playing
And ’scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
III, 2, 93.

They are coming to the play I must be idle.
III, 2, 98.

Belike this show imports the argument of the play.
III, 2, 150.

You are naught, you are naught, I’ll mark the play.
III, 2, 158.

Madam, how like you the play?
III, 2, 239.

What do you call the play? The Mouse trap.
III, 2, 246.

The play is the image of a murder done in Vienna.
III, 2, 265.

Give o’er the play. Give me some light, Away.
III, 2, 279.

Ere I could make a prologue to my brains
They had begun the play.
V, 2, 31.

PLAYED.

My lord, you played once i’ the university, you say.
III, 2, 104.

PLAYER.

What lenten entertainment the players shall receive from you.
II, 2, 329.

What players are they? Even those you were wont
to take such delight in, the tragedians of the city.
II, 2, 365.

Unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question.
II, 2, 373.

There are the players.
You are welcome to Elsinore.
II, 2, 386.

Lest my extent to the players should more appear like entertainment
than yours.
II, 2, 391.

I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players.
II, 2, 406.

Will you see the players well bestowed.
II, 2, 547.

Is it not monstrous that this player here
But in a fiction in a dream of passion
Could force his soul so to his own conceit.
II, 2, 577.

I’ll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father.
II, 2, 623.

It so fell out that certain players
We o’er-raught in the way.
III, 1, 16.

If you mouth it as many of your players do.
I had as lief the town crier spoke my lines.
III, 2, 3.

O, there be players that I have seen play.
III, 3, 32.

Bid the players make haste.
III, 2, 54.

Be the players ready.
III, 2, 111.

The players cannot keep counsel, they tell all.
III, 2, 162.

Will not this--get me a fellowship in a cry of players.
III, 2, 289.

PLAYING.

Anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing.
III, 2, 23.

If he steal aught whilst the play is playing.
III, 2, 93.