286 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
oup north,” Sir William Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling. His tragedies, however,
are dramatic only in title, and not at all adapted for the stage. James VI. endeavoured
to mediate between the clergy and the encouragers of the drama, and, by his royal
authority, stayed for a time their censure of theatrical representations. In the year 1592,
a company of English players was licenced by the King to perform in Edinburgh, against
which an act of the Kirk-sessions was forthwith published, prohibiting the people to resort
to such profane amusements.2 The King appears to have heartily espoused the cause of
the players a few years later, as various entries in the treasury accounts attest, e.g. :-
“ Oct. 1599.-Item, Delyuerit to his hienes selff to be gevin to ye Inglis commeidianis
X;i crownes of ye sone, at iijli. ijs. viijd. ye pece. Nov.-Item. Be his lUabes directioun
gevin to Sr George Elphingstoun, to be delyuerit to ye Inglis commedians, to by timber
for ye preparatioun of ane hous to thair pastyme, as the said S‘ George ticket beiris, xl.
l i ; ” and again a sum is paid to a royal messenger for notifying at the Cross, with sound
of trumpet, “his Mat‘= plesour to all his lieges, that ye saidis commedianis mycht vse
thair playis in E@,” &c. In the year 1601, an English company of players visited
Scotland, and appeared publicly at Aberdeen, headed by “ Laurence Fletcher, comediane
to his Majestie.” The freedom of that burgh was conferred on him at the same time that
it was bestowed on sundry French knights and other distinguished strangers, in whose
train the players had arrived. Mr Charles Knight, in his ingenious life of Shakspeare,
rshows that this is the same player whose name occurs along with that of the great
English dramatist, in the patent granted by James VI,, immediately after his arrival in
the southern capital in 1603, in favour of the company at the Globe ; and from thence he
draws the conclusion that Shakspeare himself visited Scotland at this period, and sketched
out the plan of his great Scottish tragedy amid the scenes of its historic events. By the
same course of iuference, Shakspeare’s name is associated with the ancient Tennis Court
at the Water Gate, as it cannot be doubted that his Majesty’s players made their appearance
at the capital, and before the Court of Holyrood, either in going to or returning
from the northern burgh, whither they had proceeded by the King’s special orders ; but it
must be confessed the argument is a very slender one to form the sole basis for such a
conclusion.
The civil wars in the reign of Charles I., and the striking changes that they led to,
obliterated all traces of theatrical representations, until their reappearance soon after the
Restoration. One curious exhibition, however, is mentioned in the interval, which may be
considered as a substitute for these forbidden displays. “ At this tyme,” says Nicoll, in
1659, ‘ I thair wes brocht to this natioun ane heigh great beast, callit ane Drummodrary,
quhilk being keipit clos in the Cannogate, nane haid a sight of it without thrie pence the
persone, quhilk producit much gape to the keipar, in respect of the great numberis of
pepill that resoirtit to it, for the sight thairof. It wes very big, and of great height, and
clovin futted lyke unto a kow, and on the bak ane saitt, as it were a sadill, to sit on.
Thair wes brocht in with it ane liytill baboun, faced lyke unto a naip.”
Drummond of Hawthornden’a Letters, Archzeol. Scot. vol. iv. p. 83. ’ ‘‘ Nov. 1599.-Item, to Wm. Forsf, measenger, paasand with lettrea to the mercat crow of Eam, chairging ye
elderia and deacouna of the haill four aeasionia of Ed“. to annull thair act maid for ye diacharge of certane Iuglis commedianis,
L a., viiij. d.”-Treasurers’ accounts. 8 Nicoll’a Diary, p. 226.
THE CANONGA TE AND ABBEY SANCTUAR Y. 287
During the government of the Earl of Rothes as High Commissioner for Scotland, a
play called " Marciano, or the Discovery," by Sir Thomas Sydserff, was acted on the
festival of St John, before his Grace and his Court at Holyrood,' and at the Court of the ~
Duke of York, at a somewhat later period, a regular company of actors were maintained,
and the Tennis Court fitted up for their performances, in defiance of the scandal created
by such innovations.s Lord Fountainhall notes among his " Historical Observes," 3-
U 15th Novembris 1681, being the Quean of Brittain's birthday, it was keeped by our
Court at Halirudhouse with great solemnitie, such as bonfyres, shooting of canons, and the
acting of a comedy, called Mithridutes King of Pontus, before ther Royal1 Hynesses,
&c., wheirin Ladie Anne, the Duke's daughter, and the Ladies of Honor ware the onlie
actors." Not only the canonists, both Protestant and Popish-adds my Lord Fountainhall,
in indignant comment-" but the very heathen roman lawyers, declared all scenicks
and stage players infamous, and will scarce admit them to the sacrament of the Lord's
Supper "-a somewhat singular mark of disapprobation from heathen lawyers I The
Revolution again banished the drama from Scotland, and we hear no more of it' till the
year 1714, when the play of Macbeth was performed at the Tennis Court, in presence of
a number of the Scottish nobility and gentry assembled in Edinburgh for a grand archery
meeting. Party politics ran high at the time, some of the company present called for the
favourite song, May the King enjoy his ain again," ' while others as stoutly opposed it,
and the entertainments wound up in a regular mdlke, anticipatory of the rebellion which
speedily followed.
But
the scene of his successful patronage of the drama appears to have been first chosen by
Signora Violante, an Italian dancer and tumbler, who afterwards took the legitimate
drama under her protection and management. This virago, as Arnot styles her,5
returned to Edinburgh, " where she fitted up that house in the foot of Carrubber's Close,
which has since been occupied as a meeting-house by successive tribes of sectaries."
Driven from this quarter, as we have seen, the players betook themselves to the Taylor's
Hall, in the Cowgate, and though mere strolling bands, they were persecuted into
popularity by their opponents, until this large hall proved insufficient for their accommodation.
A rival establishment was accordingly set "going, and in the year 1746, the
foundation-stone of the first regular theatre in Edinburgh was laid within the Play-house
Close, Canongate, by Mr John Ryan, then a London actor of considerable repute. Here
the drama had mainly to contend with the commoner impediments incidental to the
proverbial lack of prudence and thrift in the management of actors, until the year
1756, when, on the night of the 14th December, the tragedy of Douglas, the work of a
clergyman of the Kirk, was f i s t presented to an Edinburgh audience. The clergy anew
returned to the assault with redoubled zeal, and although they were no longer able to
chase the players from the stage, John Home, the author of the obnoxious tragedy,
Allan Ramsay's unfortunate theatrical speculation has already been referred to.
Campbell's Journey, vol. ii. p. 163.
Fountainhall's Hiatorical Observes, p. 51.
* Tide, vol. i. p. 103.
Tytler concludes his account of the Duke's theatrical entertainment
with the following inference, which would have done credit to s history of the Irish stage c" Private balla and
concerts of music, it would aeem, were now the only species of public entertainmente amongst us ! "-Archsol. Scot.
vol. i p. 504. ' Campbell's History of Poetry in Scotland, p. 353. Arnot, p. 366.
