performances of so early a date as England." But
our primitive stage was a chapel-of-ease, as it were, to the Church.
The plays were founded upon the lives of the saints, or upon the
events of the Old and New Testaments, and were contrived and performed
by the clergy, who borrowed horses, harness, properties, and hallowed
vestments from the monasteries, and did not hesitate even to paint and
disguise their faces, in order to give due effect to their
exhibitions, which were presented not only in the cathedrals,
churches, and cemeteries, but also "on highways or greens," as might
be most convenient. In 1511, for instance, the miracle-play of "St.
George of Cappadocia" was acted in a croft, or field, at Basingborne,
one shilling being paid for the hire of the land. The clergy, however,
were by no means unanimous as to the propriety and policy of these
dramatic representations. They were bitterly attacked in an
Anglo-French poem, the "Manuel de Peche," written about the middle of
the thirteenth century, and ascribed to Robert Grossetete, who became
Bishop of Lincoln in 1235. Gradually the kind of histrionic monopoly
which the Church had long enjoyed was invaded. Education spread, and
many probably found themselves as competent to act as the clergy.
Still, the ecclesiastical performers for some time resisted all
attempts to interfere with what they viewed as their especial
privileges and vested interests. In 1378 the scholars or choristers of
St. Paul's petitioned Richard II. to prohibit certain ignorant and
inexperienced persons from acting the history of the Old Testament, to
the prejudice of the clergy of the Church, who had expended large sums
in preparing plays founded upon the same subject. But some few years
later the parish clerks of London, who had been incorporated by Henry
III., performed at Skinner's Well, near Smithfield, in the presence of
the king, queen, and nobles of the realm, a play which occupied three
days in representation. As Warton remarks, however, in his "History of
English Poetry," the parish clerks of that time might fairly be
regarded as a "literary society," if they did not precisely come under
the denomination of a religious fraternity.

The religious or miracle plays soon extended their boundaries, became
blended with "mummings," or "disguisings," and entertainments of
pageantry. Morals, interludes, and masques were gradually brought upon
the scene. Dancers, singers, jugglers, and minstrels b