poral Plays and Plots," iii., 393.
The nature of these "Platts" or "Plots," he observes, "Our theatrical
antiquaries have not explained." The truth is that they never suspected
their origin in the Italian "Scenarios." My conjectures are amply
confirmed by Mr. Collier's notices of the intercourse of our players
with the Italian actors. Whetstone's Heptameron, in 1582, mentions "The
comedians of Ravenna, who are not _tied to any written device_." In
Kyd's Spanish Tragedy the Extemporal Art is described:--

The Italian tragedians were so sharp of wit,
That in one hour of meditation
They would perform anything in action.

These Extemporal plays were witnessed much nearer than in Italy--at the
_Theatre des Italiens_ at Paris--for one of the characters replies:--

I have seen the like,
In Paris, among the French tragedians.

Ben Jonson has mentioned the Italian "Extemporal Plays," in his "Case is
Altered"; and an Italian _commediante_ and his company were in London in
1578, who probably let our players into many a secret.

Evil times, with the advent of the Commonwealth, soon fell upon our
theatres, and when they, as well as plays, were suppressed by order of
the Puritan Parliament, some of the actors followed the Royalist cause
(we do not hear of any taking the side of the Parliament), and lost
their lives fighting for the king. Others attempted to enact plays in
secret, but these performances more often than not, caused the actors
incarceration in some prison. At Holland House, in Kensington, many of
these secret performances, by the aid of bribery, took place. To give
timely warning of the performances Mr. Wright, in his "_Historia
Histronica_," mentions that "Alexander Goff, the woman-actor, was the
jackal to give notice of time and place to the lovers of the drama."

All this however, could not, and would not, keep the spirit of the drama
alive. The theatres were, we know, totally suppressed, "so there might
be no more plaies acted." Play-goers there were, as I have shown, but
they never knew when, in witnessing a performance, they might be seized
by the military, to be fined or imprisoned, or perhaps both. A more
lengthy reign of "Dramatic Terror" than what we had at this period,
would, in all probability, have left us little or no trace of the Drama
of this country. But a saviour was at hand, and that was Pantomime.

Pantomime, as previously stated, kept alive for ages, after the downfall
of