44. An interior view of the Swan Theatre in the time of Shakespeare, from a drawing by John de Witt, 1596, recently discovered in the Utrecht library by M. K. T. Gaedertz, of Berlin. Reproduced as illustrative of Dekker's "Horne-booke," 1609 (infra, ch. vi. § 3). Spectators have not been represented. They must be supposed to fill the pit, "planities sive arena," where they remained standing in the open air, and the covered galleries. The more important people were seated on the stage. Actors, to perform their parts, came out of the two doors inscribed "mimorum ædes." The boxes above these doors, concerning which some doubts have been expressed, seem to be what was called "the Lords' room." "Let our gallant," says Dekker, "advance himself up to the throne of the stage. I meane not the Lords roome (which is now but stages suburbs): no, those boxes, by the iniquity of custome, conspiracy of waiting women and gentlemen ushers, that there sweat together, and the covetousness of sharers are contemptibly thrust into the reare, and much new satten is there dambd by being smothrd to death in darknesse. But on the very rushes, where the comedy is to daunce, yea and under the state of Cambises himselte must our fethered Estridge be planted valiantly, because impudently, beating downe the mewes and hisses of opposed rascality" ("Works," ed. Grosart, vol. ii. p. 247) ... PAGE 286 ་ 45.-Elizabethan gaieties. The actor Kemp's dance to Norwich, from the frontispiece of Kemps nine daies wonder performed in a daunce from London to Norwich, containing the pleasure, paines and kind entertainment of William Kemp betweene London and that city. . . written by himselfe to satisfie his friends," London, 1600, reprinted by Dyce, Camden Society, 1840, 4to... ... ... 46.-Portrait of Nash, from "Tom Nash his ghost. written by Thomas Nash his ghost" (no date). A copy in the British. Museum ... ... ... ... PAGE 287 ... 326 47.-Portrait of Dekker, from "Dekker his dreame,' a poem by the same, London, 1620, frontispiece ... 48.-Heroical deeds in an heroical novel. ... · 333 “Pan dion slayes Clausus," from "Pandion and ... ... 49.-Sir Guy of Warwick addressing a skull, in a churchyard, from "The history of Guy, earl of Warwick," 1750? (a chap-book), p. 18 ... ... ... ... 50.-Burial of Sir Guy of Warwick, from the same chap-book 347 350 351 Scudéry in her novel of "Clélie," Paris, ... ... 52.-Endymion plunged into the river in the presence of Diana, after an engraving by C. de Pas, in "L' Endimion de Gombauld," Paris, 1624, 8vo, p. 223. The French plates were sent to England and used for the English version of this novel: "Endimion, an excellent fancy . . . interpreted by Richard Hurst," London, 1639, 8vo ... ... 53-Frontispiece to Part IV. of the translation of La Calprenède's "Cléopatre," by Robert Loveday: "Hymen's præludia or Loves master-piece," London, 1652, et seq., 12mo. This frontispiece was drawn according to the instructions of Loveday himself, "Loveday's Letters," Letter lxxxiii. ... ... 54. A fashionable conversation, from the frontispiece of "La fausse Clélie," by P. de Subligny, Amsterdam, 1671, 12mo. An enlarged plate was made after this one, to serve as frontispiece to the English version of the same work: "The mock Clelia, being a comical history of French gallantries . . . in PAGE 359 367 371 PAGE imitation of Don Quixote," London, 1678, 55.-Conversations and telling of stories at the house of the Duchess of Newcastle, from a drawing by Abr. a Diepenbeck, engraved for her book: "Natures pictures drawn by Fancies pencil to the life," London, 1656, fol. ... ... ... ... ... 56.-Moorish heroes, from an engraving in Settle's drama: "The Empress of Morocco,' London, 1673, 4to... ... 375 - 379 57.-A poet's dream realized, from the English version of Sorel's " Berger Extravagant," "The extravagant Shepherd," London, 1653, fol., translated by John Davies. The usual description of the heroine of a novel has been taken to the letter by the engraver, who represents Love sitting on her forehead, and lilies and roses on her cheeks. Two suns have taken the place of her eyes, her teeth are actual pearls, &c. ... ... ... 393 401 THE INTRODUCTION. HE London publishers annually issue statitsics of the works that have appeared in England during the year. Sometimes sermons and books on theology reach the highest figures; England is still the England of the Bible, the country that at the time of the Reformation produced three hundred and twenty-six editions of the Scriptures in less than a century, and whose religious literature is so abundant that to-day twenty-eight volumes of the British Museum catalogue treat of the single word Bible. |