Playhouse, were built in a subsequent period expressly for dramatic exhibitions, still retained their old name, and are frequently called rooms by our ancient writers. The yard bears a sufficient resemblance to the pit as at present in use. We may suppose the stage to have been raised in this area, on the fourth side, with its back to the gateway of the inn, at which the money for admission was taken. Hence, in the middle of the Globe, and I suppose of the other public theatres, in the time of Shakespeare, there was an open yard or area, where the common people stood to see the exhibition; from which circumstance they are called by our author groundlings, and by Ben Jonson the understanding gentlemen of the ground.' "In the ancient playhouses there appears to have been a private box, of which it is not easy to ascertain the situation. It seems to have been placed at the side of the stage towards the rear, and to have been at a lower price in this some people sat, either from economy or singularity. The galleries, or scaffolds as they are sometimes called, and that part of the house which in private theatres was named the pit, seem to have been at the same price; and probably in houses of reputation, such as the Globe, and that in Blackfriars, the price of admission into those parts of the theatres was 6d. while in some meaner playhouses it was only 1d. in others only 2d. The price of admission into the best rooms or boxes was, I believe, in our author's time, Is.; though afterwards it appears to have risen to 25. and half-a crown. "From several passages in our old plays, we learn, that spectators were admitted on the stage, and that the critics and wits of the time usually sat there. Some were placed on the ground; others sat on stools, of which the price was either 6d. or 1s. according, I suppose, to the commodiousness of the situation; and they were attended by pages, who furnished them with pipes and tobacco, which was smoked here as well as in other parts of the house: yet it should seem that persons were suffered to sit on the stage only in the private playhouses, such as Blackfriars, &c. where the audience was more select, and of a higher class; and that in the Globe and other public theatres no such licence was permitted. "The stage was strewed with rushes, which, as we learn from Hentzuer and Caius de Ephemera, was, in the time of Shakespeare, the usual covering of floors in England. The curtain which hangs in the front of the present stage, drawn up by lines and pulleys, though not a modern invention, for it was used by Inigo Jones in the masques at court, was yet an apparatus to which the simple mechanism of our ancient theatres had not arrived, for in them the curtains opened in the middle, and were drawn backwards and forwards on an iron rod. In some playhouses they were woollen, in others made of silk.Towards the rear of the stage there appears to have been a balcony, the platform of which was probably eight or ten feet from the ground. I suppose it to have been supported by pillars. From hence, in many of our old plays, part of the dialogue was spoken; and in the front of this balcony curtains likewise were hung. "A doubt has been entertained whether in our ancient theatres there were side and other scenes. The question is involved in so much obscurity, that it is very difficult to form any decided opinion upon it. It is certain, that in the year 1695 Inigo Jones exhibited an Playhouse. entertainment at Oxford, in which moveable scenes were used; but he appears to have introduced several pieces of machinery in the masques at court, with which undoubtedly the public theatres were unacquainted. A passage which has been produced from one of the old comedies, proves, it must be owned, that even these were furnished with some pieces of machinery, which were used when it was requisite to exhibit the descent of some god or saint; but from all the contemporary accounts, I am inclined to believe that the mechanism of our an cient stage seldom went beyond a painted chair or a trap door, and that few, if any of them, had any moveable scenes. When King Henry VIII. is to be discovered by the dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk, reading in his study, the scenical direction in the first folio, 1623, which was printed apparently from playhouse copies, is, 'the king draws the curtain, (i. e. draws it open), and sits reading pensively;' for, besides the principal curtains that hung in the front of the stage, they used athers as substitutes for scenes. If a bed-chamber is to be exhibited, no change of scene is mentioned; but the propertyman is simply ordered to thrust forth a bed. When the fable requires the Roman capitol to be exhibited, we find two officers enter, 'to lay cushions, as it were, in the capitol,' &c. On the whole, it appears, that our ancient theatres, in general, were only furnished with curtains, and a single scene composed of tapestry, which were sometimes, perhaps, ornamented with pictures; and some passages in our old dramas incline one to think, that when tragedies were performed the stage was hung with black. "In the early part, at least, of our author's * ac- Shakequaintance with the theatre, the want of scenery seems speare. to have been supplied by the simple expedient of writing the names of the different places where the scene was laid in the progress of the play, which were disposed in such a manner as to be visible to the audience. The invention of trap-doors, however, appears not to be modern; for in an old morality, intitled All for Money, we find a marginal direction which implies that they were very early in use. The covering, or internal roof of the stage, was anciently termed the heavens. It was probably painted of a sky-blue colour, or perhaps pieces of drapery tinged with blue were suspended across the stage to represent the heavens. "It is probable that the stage was formerly lighted by two large branches, of a form similar to those now hung in churches. They gave place in a subsequent period to small circular wooden frames, furnished with candles, eight of which were hung on the stage, four at either side, and these within a few years were wholly removed by Mr Garrick, who, on his return from France, first introduced the present commodious method of illuminating the stage by lights not visible to the audience. Many of the companies of players were formerly so thin, that one person played two or three parts; and a battle on which the fate of an empire was supposed to depend was decided by half a dozen combatants. It appears to have been a common practice in their mock engagements to discharge small pieces of ordnance on the stage. Before the exhibition began, three flourishes or pieces of music were played, or, in the ancient language, there were three soundings. Music was likewise played between the acts. The instruments chiefly used were trumpets, cornets, and hautboys Playhouse, hautboys. The band, which did not consist of more than five or six performers, sat in an upper balcony, over what is now called the stage-box. "The person who spoke the prologue was ushered in by trumpets, and usually wore a long black velvet cloak, which, I suppose, was considered as best suited to a supplicatory address. Of this costom, whatever might have been its origin, some traces remained till very lately, a black coat having been, if I mistake not, within these few years, the constant stage-habiliment of our modern prologue speakers. The dress of the ancient prologuespeaker is still retained in the play that is exhibited in Hamlet before the king and court of Denmark. The performers of male characters generally wore periwigs, which in the age of Shakespeare were not in common It appears from a passage in Puttenham's Art of English Poesy, 1589, that vizards were on some occasions used by the actors of those days; and it may be inferred, from a scene in one of our author's comedies, that they were sometimes worn in his time by those who performed female characters; but this I imagine was very rare. Some of the female part of the audience likewise appeared in masks. The stage-dresses, it is reasonable to suppose, were much more costly at some theatres than at others; yet the wardrobe of even the king's servants at the Globe and Blackfriars, was, we find, but scantily furnished; and our author's dramas derived very little aid from the splendour of exhibition. use. "It is well known, that in the time of Shakespeare, and for many years afterwards, female characters were represented by boys or young men. Sir William d' Avenant, in imitation of the foreign theatres, first introduced females in the scene, and Mrs Betterton is said to have been the first woman that appeared on the English stage. Andrew Pennycuike played the part of Matilda in a tragedy of Davenport's, in 1655; and Mr Kynaston acted several female parts after the Restoration. Downes, a contemporary of his, assures us, that being then very young he made a complete stage beauty, performing his parts so well, particularly Arthiope and Aglaura, that it has since been disputable among the judicious whether any woman that succeeded him touched the audience so sensibly as he.' "Both the prompter, or book-holder, as he was sometimes called, and the property-man, appear to have been regular appendages of our ancient theatres. No writer that I have met with intimates, that in the time of Shakespeare it was customary to exhibit more than a single dramatic piece in one day. The Yorkshire tragedy, or All's One, indeed, appears to have been one of four pieces that were represented on the same day; and Fletcher has also a piece called Four Plays in One; but probably these were either exhibited on some particular occasion, or were ineffectual efforts to introduce a new species of amusement; for we do not find any other instances of the same kind. Had any shorter pieces been exhibited after the principal performance, some of them probably would have been printed: but there are none extant of an earlier date than the time of the Restoration. The practice, therefore, of exhibiting two dramas successively in the same evening, we may be assured was not establish ed before that period. But though the audiences in the time of our author were not gratified by the representa tion of more than one drama in the same day, the eatertainment was diversified, and the populace diverted, by I vaulting, tumbling, slight of hand, and morris-dancing, Playhose. a mixture not much more heterogeneous than that with which we are daily presented, a tragedy and a farce. "The amusements of our ancestors, before the commencement of the play, were of various kinds, such as reading, playing cards, drinking ale, or smoking tobacco. It was a common practice to carry table-books to the theatre, and either from curiosity or enmity to the author, or some other motive, to write down passages of the play that was represented and there is reason to believe that the imperfect and mutilated copies of some of Shakespeare's dramas, which are yet extant, were taken down in short hand during the exhibition. At the end of the piece, the actors, in noblemen's houses and in taverns, where plays were frequently performed, prayed for the health and prosperity of their patrons; and in the public theatres for the king and queen This prayer sometimes made part of the epilogue. Hence, probably, as Mr Steevens has observed, the addition of Vivant rex et regina to the modern play-bills. 66 Plays, in the time of our author, began at one o'clock in the afternoon; and the exhibition was usually finished in two hours. Even in 1667 they commenced at three. When Gosson wrote his School of Abuse, in 1579, it seems the dramatic entertainments were usually exbi. bited on Sundays. Afterwards they were performed on that and other days indiscriminately. It appears from a contemporary writer, that exhibiting plays on Sunday had not been abolished in the third year of King Charles I. "The modes of conveyance to the theatre, anciently as at present, seem to have been various; some going in coaches, others on horseback, and many by water.To the Globe playhouse the company probably were conveyed by water; to that in Blackfriars the gentry went either in coaches or on horseback, and the common people on foot. In an epigram to Sir John Davis, the practice of riding to the theatre is ridiculed as a piece of affectation or vanity, and therefore we may presume it was not very general. 66 66 "The long and whimsical titles that are prefixed to the quarto copies of our author's plays, I suppose to have been transcribed from the play-bills of the time. A contemporary writer has preserved something like a play-bill of those days, which seems to corroborate this observation; for if it were divested of rhime, it would bear no very distant resemblance to the title pages that stand before some of our author's dramas: -Prithee, what's the play? (The first I visited this twelvemonth day) They say A new invented play of Purle, "That jeoparded his neck to steal a girl "Of twelve; and lying fast impounded for't, "Has hither sent his beard to act his part; "Against all those in open malice bent, "That would not freely to the theft consent: "Feigns all to's wish, and in the epilogue "Goes out applauded for a famous rogue." "Now hang me if I did not look at first "For some such stuff, by the fond people's thrust." 66 Plea. John Heminge and his company for the performance of Playhouse, "Thus scanty and meagre were the apparatus and Playhouse. lation which would have been very favourable to some of the ephemeral productions of modern times. But for this there is not, I believe, any sufficient authority. From D'Avenant, indeed, we learn, that in the latter part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth the poet had his benefit on the second day. As it was a general practice in the time of Shakespeare to sell the copy of the play to the theatre, I imagine in such cases an author derived no other advantage from his piece than what arose from the sale of it. Sometimes, however, he found it more beneficial to retain the copyright in his own hands ; and when he did so, I suppose he had a benefit. It is certain that the giving authors the profit of the third exhibition of their play, which seems to have been the usual mode during almost the whole of the last century, was an established custom in the year 1612; for Decker, in the prologue to one of his comedies printed in that year, speaks of the poet's third day. The unfortu nate Otway had no more than one benefit on the production of a new play; and this too, it seems, he was sometimes forced to mortgage before the piece was acted. Southerne was the first dramatic writer who obtained the emoluments arising from two representations; and to Farquhar, in the year 1700, the benefit of a third was granted, When an author sold his piece to the sharers or proprietors of a theatre, it remained for several years unpublished; but when that was not the case, he printed it for sale, to which many seem to have been induced, from an apprehension that an imperfect copy might be issued from the press without their consent. The customary price of the copy of a play in the time of Shakespeare appears to have been twenty nobles, or six pounds thirteen shillings and four pence. The play when printed was sold for sixpence; and the usual present from a patron in return for a dedication was forty shillings. On the first day of exhibiting a new play, the prices of admission appear to have been raised; and this seems to have been occasionally practised on the benefit-nights of authors to the end of the last century. The custom of passing a final censure on plays at their first exhibition is as ancient as the time of our author; for no less than three plays of his rival Ben Jonson appear to have been damned; and Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess, and The Knight of the Burning Pestle, written by him and Beaumont, underwent the same fate. "It is not easy to ascertain what were the emoluments of a successful actor in the time of Shakespeare. They had not then annual benefits as at present. The performers at each theatre seem to have shared the profits arising either from each day's exhibition or from the whole season among them. From Ben Johnson's Poetaster we learn, that one of either the performers or proprietors had seven shares and a half; but of what integral sum is not mentioned. From the prices of admission into our ancient theatres, which have been already mentioned, I imagine the utmost that the shares of the Globe playhouse could have received on any one day was about 351. So lately as the year 1685, Shadwell received by his third day on the representation of the Squire of Alsatia, 130l. which Downes the prompter says was the greatest receipt that had been ever taken at Drury-Lane playhouse at single prices. It appears from the MSS. of Lord Stanhope, treasurer of the chambers to King James I. that the customary sum paid to VOL. XVI. Part II. Pleas are usually divided into those of the crown and common pleas. Pleas of the crown are all suits in the king's name, or in the name of the attorney-general in behalf of the king, for offences committed against his crown and dignity, and against his peace; as treason, murder, felony, &c. See ARRAIGNMENT. Common pleas are such suits as are carried on be-Blackst. I. Dilatory pleas are, 1. To the jurisdiction of the These pleas to the jurisdiction, to the disability, or in account. Plea All pleas to the jurisdiction conclude to the cognizance of the court; praying "judgment whether the court will have farther cognizance of the suit." Pleas to the disability conclude to the person; by praying "judgment, if the said A the plaintiff ought to be answered." And pleas in abatement (when the suit is by original) conclude to the writ, or declaration; by praying "judgment of the writ, or declaration, and that the same may be quashed," cassetur, made void, or abated but if the action be by bill, the plea must pray "judgment of the bill," and not of the declaration; the bill being here the original, and the declaration only a copy of the bill. When these dilatory pleas are allowed, the cause is either dismissed from that jurisdiction, or the plaintiff is stayed till his disability be removed; or he is obliged to sue out a new writ, by leave obtained from the court, or to amend and new-frame his declaration. But when, on the other hand, they are overruled as frivolous, the defendant has judgment of respondeat ouster, or to answer over in some better manner. is then incumbent on him to plead, It 2. A plea to the action; that is, to answer to the merits of the complaint. This is done by confessing or denying it. A confession of the whole complaint is not very usual; for then the defendant would probably end the matter sooner, or not plead at all, but suffer judgment to go by default. Yet sometimes, after tender and refusal of a debt, if the creditor harasses his debtor with an action, it then becomes necessary for the defendant to acknowledge the debt, and plead the tender; adding, that he has always been ready, tout temps prist, and is still ready, uncore prist, to discharge it: for a tender by the debtor and refusal by the creditor will in all cases discharge the costs, but not the debt itself; though in some particular cases the creditor will totally lose his money. But frequently the defendant confesses one part of the complaint (by a cognovit actionem in respect thereof), and traverses or denies the rest; in order to avoid the expense of carrying that part to a formal trial, which he has no ground to litigate. A species of this sort of confession is the payment of money into court: which is for the most part necessary upon pleading a tender, and is itself a kind of tender to the plaintiff'; by paying into the hands of the proper officer of the court as much as the defendant acknowledges to be due, together with the costs hitherto incurred, in order to prevent the expence of any farther proceedings. This may be done upon what is called a motion; which is an occasional application to the court by the parties or their counsel, in order to obtain some rule or order of court, which becomes necessary in the progress of a cause: and it is usually grounded upon an affidavit (the perfect tense of the verb affido), being a voluntary oath before some judge or officer of the court, to evince the truth of certain facts, upon which the motion is grounded: though no such affidavit is necessary for payment of money into court. If, after the money is paid in, the plaintiff proceeds in his suit, it is at his own peril: for if he does not prove more due than is so paid into court, he shall be nonsuited and pay the defendant's costs; but he shall still have the money so paid in, for that the defendant has acknowledged to be his due. To this head may also be referred the practice of what is called a set off; whereby the defendant acknowledges the justice of the plaintiff's demand on the one hand; Ples. but on the other, sets up a demand of his own, to counterbalance that of the plaintiff, either in the whole or in part; as, if the plaintiff sues for ten pounds due on a note of hand, the defendant may set off nine pounds due to himself for merchandise sold to the plaintiff; and, in case he plead such set-off, must pay the remaining balance into court. Pleas that totally deny the cause of complaint, are either the general issue, or a special plea in bar. 66 1. The general issue, or general plea, is what traverses, thwarts, and denies at once, the whole declaration, without offering any special matter whereby to evade it. As in trespass either vi et armis, or on the case," non culpabilis, not guilty;" in debt upon contract, "nihil debet, he owes nothing;" in debt on bond, "non est factum, it is not his deed;" on an assumpsit, non assumpsit, he made no such promise." Or in real actions, "nul tort, no wrong done; nul disseisin, no disseisin ;" and in a writ of right, the mise or issue is, that "the tenant has more right to hold than the demandant has to demand." These pleas are called the general issue, because, by importing an absolute and general denial of what is alleged in the declaration, they amount at once to an issue; by which we mean a fact affirmed on one side and denied on the other. 2. Special pleas in bar of the plaintiff's demands are very various, according to the circumstances of the defendant's case. As, in real actions, a general release or a fine; both of which may destroy and bar the plaintiff's title. Or, in personal actions, an accord, arbitration, conditions performed, nonage of the defendant, or some other fact which precludes the plaintiff from his action. A justification is likewise a special plea in bar; as in actions of assault and battery, son assault demesne, that it was the plaintiff's own original assault; in trespass, that the defendant did the thing complained of in right of some office which warranted him so to do; or, in an action of slander, that the plaintiff is really as bad a man as the defendant said he was. Also a man may plead the statutes of limitation in bar; or the time limited by certain acts of parliament, beyond which no plaintiff can lay his cause of action. This, by the statute of 32 Hen. VIII. c. 2. in a writ of right is 60 years: in assizes, writs of entry, or other possessory actions real, of the seisin of one's ancestors in lands; and either of their seisin, or one's own, in rents, suits, and services, 50 years: and in actions real for lands grounded upon one's own seisin or possession, such possession must have been within 30 years. By statute 1 Mar. st. 2. c. 5. this limitation does not extend to any suit for avowsons. But by the statute 21 Jac. I. c. 2. a time of limitation was extended to the case of the king; viz. 60 years precedent to 19th Feb. 1623; but, this becoming ineffectual by efflux of time, the same date of limitation was fixed by statute 9 Geo. III. c. 16. to commence and be reckoned backwards, from the time of bringing any suit or other process to recover the thing in question; so that a possession for 60 years is now a bar even against the prerogative, in derogation of the ancient maxim, Nullum tempus occurrit regi. By another statute, 21 Jac. I. c. 16, 20 years is the time of limitation in any writ of formedon: and, by a consequence, 20 years is also the limitation in every action of ejectment; for no ejectment can be brought, unless where Plea. PLEA to Indictment, the defensive matter alleged by Blackst. a criminal on his indictment; (see ARRAIGNMENT). Comment. This is either, 1. A plea to the jurisdiction; 2. A demurrer; 3. A plea in abatement; 4. A special plea in bar; or, 5. The general issue. where the lessor of the plaintiff is entitled to enter on the lands, and by the statute 21 Jac. I. c. 16. no entry can be made by any man, unless within 20 years af ter his right shall accrue. Also all actions of trespass (quare clausum fregit, or otherwise), detinue, trover, replevin, account, and case (except upon accounts between merchants), debt on simple contract, or for arrears of rent, are limited by the statute last mentioned to six years after the cause of action commenced: and actions of assault, menace, battery, mayhem, and imprisonment, must be brought within four years, and actions for words two years, after the injury committed. And by the statute 31 Eliz. c. 5. all suits, indictments, and informations, upon any penal statutes, where any for feiture is to the crown, shall be sued within two years, and where the forfeiture is to a subject, within one year, after the offence committed,' unless where any other time is specially limited by the statute. Lastly, by statute 10 W. III. c. 14. no writ of error, scire facias, or other suit, shall be brought to reverse any judgement, fine, or recovery, for error, unless it be prosecuted within 20 years. The use of these statutes of limitation is to preserve the peace of the kingdom, and to prevent those innumerable perjuries which might ensue if a man were allowed to bring an action for any injury committed at any distance of time. Upon both these accounts the law therefore holds, that interest reipublicæ ut sit finis litium: and upon the same principle the Athenian laws in general prohibited all actions where the injury was committed five years before the complaint was made. If, therefore, in any suit, the injury, or cause of action, happened earlier than the period expressly limited by law, the defendant may plead the statutes of limitations in bar: as upon an assumpsit, or promise to pay money to the plaintiff, the defendant may plead, Non assumpsit infra sex annos, He made no such promise within six years; which is an effectual bar to the complaint. An estoppel is likewise a special plea in bar; which happens where a man hath done some act, or executed some deed, which estops or precludes him from averring any thing to the contrary. As if a tenant for years (who hath no freehold) levies a fine to another person. Though this is void as to strangers, yet it shall work as an estoppel to the cognizor; for, if he afterwards brings an action to recover these lands, and his fine is pleaded against him, he shall thereby be estopped from saying, that he had no freehold at the time, and therefore was incapable of levying it. The conditions and qualities of a plea (which, as well as the doctrine of estoppels, will also hold equally, mutatis mutandis, with regard to other parts of pleading), are, 1. That it be single and containing only one matter; for duplicity begets confusion. But by statute 4 and 5 Ann. c. 16. a man, with leave of the court, may plead two or more distinct matters or single pleas; as in an action of assault and battery, these three, Not guilty, son assault demesne, and the statute of limitations. 2. That it be direct and positive, and not argumentative. 3. That it have convenient certainty of time, place, and persons. 4. That it answer the plaintiff's allegations in every material point. 5. That it be so pleaded as to be capable of trial. Special pleas are usually in the affirmative, sometimes in the negative, but they always advance some new fact I. A plea to the jurisdiction, is where an indictment is taken before a court that hath no cognizance of the offence; as if a man be indicted for a rape at the sheriff's tourn, or for treason at the quarter-sessions: in these or similar cases, he may except to the jurisdiction of the court, without answering at all to the crime alleged. II. A demurrer to the indictment, is incident to criminal cases, as well as civil, when the fact as alleged is allowed to be true, but the prisoner joins issue upon some point of law in the indictment, by which he insists, that the fact, as stated, is no felony, treason, or whatever the crime is alleged to be. Thus, for instance, if a man be indicted for feloniously stealing a greyhound; which is an animal in which no valuable property can be had, and therefore it is not felony, but only a civil trespass to steal it; in this case the party indicted may demur to the indictment; denying it to be felony, though he confesses the act of taking it. Some have held, that if, on demurrer, the point of law be adjudged against the prisoner, he shall have judgment and execution, as if convicted by verdict. But this is denied by others, who hold, that in such case he shall be directed and received to plead the general issue, Not guilty, after a demurrer determined against him. Which appears the more reasonable, because it is clear, that if the prisoner freely discovers the fact in court, and refers it to the opinion of the court whether it be felony or no; and upon the fact thus shown, it appears to be felony, the court will not record the confession, but admit him afterwards to plead not guilty. And this seems to be a case of the same nature, being for the most part a mistake in point of law, and in the conduct of his pleading; and, though a man by mispleading may in some cases lose his property, yet the law will not suffer him by such niceties to lose his life. However, upon this doubt, demurrers to indictments are seldom used; since the same advantages may be taken upon a plea of not guilty; or afterwards, in arrest of judgment, when the verdict has established the fact. III. A plea in abatement is principally for a misnomer, a wrong name, or a false addition to the prisoner. As, if James Allen, gentleman, is indicted by the name of John Allen, esquire, he may plead that he has the name of James, and not of John; and that he is a gentleman, and not an esquire. And, if either fact is found by a jury, then the indictment shall be abated, as writs or declarations may be in civil actions. But, in the end, there is little advantage accruing to the prisoner by means of these dilatory pleas; because, if the exception be allowed, a new bill of indictment may be framed, according to what the prisoner in his plea avers to be his true name and addition. For it is a rule, upon all pleas in abatement, that he who takes advantage of a flaw, 4 M 2 must |