Chapter XX: Prologue: Play. Tragedy

I know their complot is to have my life:
And if my death might make this island happy
And prove the period of their tyranny,
I would expend it with all willingness;
But mine is made a prologue to their play.
For thousands more, that yet suspect
Will not conclude their plotted tragedy.
III, 1, 151.

SHOWS.

And now what rests, but that we spend the time
With stately trumpets mirthful comic shows
Such as befits the pleasures of the Court.

ACT. ROSCIUS. SCENE.

What scene of death hath Roscius now to act?
V, 6, 10.

Roscius was the most celebrated comic actor of his times. He lived in the first century A.D., dying in the year 62. Throughout the ages he has been personified as the greatest actor of all times, and his name has often been applied to any actor of great eminence. In Shakespeare’s period, Richard Burbage was the Roscius of the day, and was known as “Roscius Richard.”

ACTORS. PLAY’D. TRAGEDY.

Why stand we like soft-hearted women here
Wailing our losses, whiles the foe doth rage;
And look upon, as if the tragedy
Were play’d in jest by counterfeiting actors.
II, 3.

This night to meet here, they could do no less,
Out of the great respect they bear to beauty,
But leave their flocks, and under your fair act
Crave leave to view these ladies and entreat
An hour of revels with them.
_Act_ II, _Scene_ IV

Crave leave to view these ladies and entreat
An hour of revels with ’em.

Under the name of Revels was included many kinds of merrymaking and festivities. From the fourteenth century onwards such diversions were held at the Court and at the houses of noblemen. The Revels included dancing, games, masking, mummings or disguisings and other forms of lively entertainments. In Tudor times these amusements had assumed vast proportions. In Henry VII’s reign the Master of the Revels first makes his appearance, and that official post continued to be held until the Restoration. Queen Elizabeth formed a separate company, called Children of the Revels, which took part in many important functions. These children also acted in regular plays, and caused much heart-burning and dissension amongst the adult players.

KING JOHN

THEATRE. SCENES. ACTS.

As in a theatre, when they gape and point
At your industrious scenes and acts of death.

It will be generally observed that when Shakespeare introduced a simile drawn from theatrical art, other similes of a like nature regularly follow, and are accounted for by the law of association of ideas. An interesting study could be made of enquiry whether this rule applies to other dramatists of the period. Perhaps some patient and industrious student will collect all the passages bearing on this subject and publish the fruit of his labour. A study of the early stage is of so fascinating a pursuit and of so engrossing a nature that such a work ought easily to find a chronicler, not forgetting the fact that the results would be so welcome and interesting to other students. The worker in such a field of enquiry will not find that his time has been spent in vain, especially as no such collection is to be found amongst the multitudinous books written about the drama.

MASQUE. REVEL.

This harness’d masque and unadvised revel.
V, 2, 132.

JULIUS CÆSAR

CLAP. HISS. PLAYERS. THEATRE.

If the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss him, according as
he pleased and displeased them, as they used to do the players in
the theatre, I am no true man.
I, 2, 258.

These terms “clap” and “hiss” seem to have been the usual methods of showing signs of approval and disapproval in the theatre in Shakespeare’s time, as it is still with us. Dryden confirms this statement by mentioning that to clap and hiss are the privileges of a freeborn subject in a playhouse. Pepys, in his Diary, 1669, says: “Indeed, it was very finely sung as to make the whole house clap her.” Both these methods were adopted by the spectators in all playhouses in Europe. In the Spanish theatres, when the players said anything that pleased the audience, everybody cried out “Victor! Victor!” This was a custom peculiar to their country. They also had another custom which, fortunately, did not travel beyond the confines of Spain, when they wished to show signs of disapproval either with the play or the actors, they did so by blowing a whistle, much after the fashion of our football enthusiasts when a goal has been scored.

ACTORS.

Let not our looks put on our purposes,
But bear it as our Roman actors do
With untired spirits and formal constancy.
II, 1, 226.

PLAYS.

He reads much,
He is a great observer,
He loves no plays, as thou dost, Antony,
He hears no music.

THEATRE.

That done, repair to Pompey’s theatre.

JIGGING.

What should the wars do with those jigging fools?
IV, 3, 136.

MASQUER. REVELLER.

A peevish schoolboy
Joined with a masker and a reveller.

ACTED. SCENE.

How many ages hence shall this our lofty scene be acted over.
III, 1, 112.

A favourite device of Shakespeare, often repeated in his plays, of making his characters allude to the stage, thus enveloping his own imaginary dramatic efforts with a reality, which almost deceives the audience that they are witnesses of living actions.

KING LEAR

CATASTROPHE. OLD COMEDY.

(_Enter Edgar._)

Edm. And pat he comes like the catastrophe of the old comedy.
I, 2, 149.

The catastrophe of a dramatic piece always occurred towards the end, and came when the audience were on the tiptoe of expectation, awaiting the final _dénouement_, as it is called in modern times.

CUE.

My cue is villanous, melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o’ Bedlam.
I, 2, 147.

PART.

You come with letters against the King, and take
vanity the puppet’s part, against the royalty of
her father.
II, 2, 40.

VANITY.

And take vanity, the puppet’s part.
II, 2, 40.

Vanity was one of the seven deadly sins often presented in old Morality plays, and many references are made to this character by the Elizabethan dramatists.

INTERLUDE.

ALB.

If you will marry, make your loves to me;
My lady is bespoke.

GON.

An interlude.
V, 3, 90.

Goneril would intimate that the interview is becoming quite interesting, and compares the scene with an interlude or a farcical play.

LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST

NINE WORTHIES.

None so fit as to present the Nine Worthies.
V, 1, 130.

Sir, you shall present before her the Nine Worthies.
V, 1, 110.

The original Nine Worthies were composed of three Jews, Joshua, David and Judas Maccabæus; three Pagans, Hector, Alexander and Julius Cæsar and three Christians, King Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon. But these original Worthies were not always strictly adhered to; the number remained the same, but other names were substituted in place of those above named.

Nashe, the Elizabethan dramatist and pamphlet writer, remarks in one of his prose works, entitled, _The Unfortunate Traveller, or the Life of Jack Wilton_, a book dedicated to Lord Southampton, Shakespeare’s patron, to whom he dedicated _Venus and Adonis_ and _Lucrece_: “To Charles the Fifth, then Emperor, they reported how he shewed the Nine Worthies, David, Solomon, Gideon, and the rest in that similitude and likeness that they lived upon earth.” Shakespeare introduces Hercules and Pompey without any authority; thus it would appear that any author might choose his own Worthies, totally ignoring historical precedence. These Worthies formed part of a pageant, a form of entertainment given by our ancestors at Christmas time and on other festive occasions. In some instances, speaking parts were allotted to the performers. Fortunately, a genuine specimen has been preserved in a manuscript of the time of Edward IV, in which the first named Worthies all appear. The text of these pageants were in most parts composed by ignorant people, and were not considered worth preserving. Shakespeare’s pageant is a parody on this kind of entertainment, similar to that of the Athenian mechanics in their play of Pyramus and Thisbe in “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Shakespeare seems to have taken infinite delight in parodying these monstrous entertainments.

ACTORS. PART. WORTHIES.

B.

By Jove, I always took three three’s for nine.

C.

O Lord, sir! it is a pity you should get your living by reckoning,
sir.

B.

How much is it?

C.

O Lord, sir! the parties themselves, the actors, sir, will show
where until it doth amount; for mine own part I am, as they say,
but to perfect one man in one poor man, Pompey the Great, sir.

B.

Art thou one of the Worthies?

C.

It pleased them to think me worthy of Pompey the Great; for mine
own part, I know not the degree of Worthy, but I am to stand for
him.
V, 2, 501.

AUDIENCE. ENTER. EXIT. HISS.

HOL.

Shall I have audience? He shall present Hercules in minority; his
enter and exit shall be strangling a snake. And I will have an
apology for that purpose.

MOTH.

An excellent device, so that if any of the audience hiss, you may
cry “Well done, Hercules; now thou crushest the snake!”

COMEDY.

Here was a consent,
Knowing aforehand of our merriment,
To dash it like a Christmas comedy.
V, II, 462.

The figurative meaning of the word dash is to destroy, frustrate, spoil; in this instance it would rather signify throwing cold water upon it. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was the usual word for the rejection of a Bill in Parliament.

As the cry of yea or no is bigger, so the Bill is allowed or dashed.
Sir T. Smith, _Commonwealth of England_, 1633.

The word is now obsolete except in the phrase: To dash one’s hopes or spirits.

ZANY.

Some carry tale, some please man, some slight Zany.
To make my lady laugh.
VII, 463.

EXIT.

ERGO.

I come with this apology.
Keep some state in thy exit and vanish.