Melmoth's Letters of Cicero, B. viii. lett. 20; in
Graevius's edition, Lib. ix. ep. 16.]

[Footnote 50: This passage also shows that our own custom of annexing a
Farce, or _petite piece_, or Pantomime, to a tragic Drama, existed among
the Romans: the introduction of the practice in our country seems not to
be ascertained; and it is conjectured not to have existed before the
Restoration. Shakspeare and his contemporaries probably were spectators
of only a single drama.]

[Footnote 51: Storia Critica del Teatri de Signorelli, tom. iii.
258.--Baretti mentions a collection of four thousand dramas, made by
Apostolo Zeno, of which the greater part were comedies. He allows that
in tragedies his nation is inferior to the English and the French; but
"_no nation_," he adds, "_can be compared with us for pleasantry and
humour in comedy._" Some of the greatest names in Italian literature
were writers of comedy. Ital. Lib. 119.]

[Footnote 52: Altieri explains _Formica_ as a crabbed fellow who acts
the butt in a farce.]

[Footnote 53: I refer the reader to Steevens's edition, 1793, vol. ii.
p. 495, for a sight of these literary curiosities.]

[Footnote 54: The commencement of the "Platt" of the "Seven Deadly
Sinnes," believed to be a production of the famous Dick Tarleton, will
sufficiently enlighten the reader as to the character of the whole. The
original is preserved at Dulwich, and is written in two columns, on a
pasteboard about fifteen inches high, and nine in breadth. We have
modernised the spelling:--

"A tent being placed on the stage for Henry the Sixth; he in it asleep.
To him the lieutenant, and a pursuivant (R. Cowley, Jo. Duke), and one
warder (R. Pallant). To them Pride, Gluttony, Wrath, and Covetousness at
one door; at another door Envy, Sloth, and Lechery. The three put back
the four, and so exeunt.

"Henry awaking, enter a keeper (J. Sincler), to him a servant (T. Belt),
to him Lidgate and the keeper. Exit, then enter again--then Envy passeth
over the stage. Lidgate speakes."]

[Footnote 55: Women were first introduced on the Italian stage about
1560--it was therefore an extraordinary novelty in Nash's time.]

[Footnote 56: That this kind of drama was perfectly familiar to the
play-goers of the era of Elizabeth, is clear from a passage in Meres'
"Palladis Tamica," 1598; who speaks of Tarleton's extemporal power,
adding a compliment to "our witty Wilson, who, for learning and
extemporal wit, in this facu