CHAPTER VIII. ELIZABETHAN AUDIENCES. It has already been shewn that the crowds which gathered at the playhouses consisted mainly of the lowest elements of the population. The author of a manuscript pamphlet, written sometime about 1606, defends the theatre, and "the sweet and comfortable recreation of bearbaiting," for the reason that these diversions drained all "the scumme of the people," to Bankside and to other localities where the authorities could at a moment lay hands upon them. "Where exception is taken to bear baiting on Festival Days I say, upon those, Hell is broke loose and it is good policy to draw all the devils (if it be possible) into one place.... The poor slaves have been held in hand to labour at the working days and would be glad to have a little recreation on the Holy days which our commiserant Lord ordained in part for the rest of them and all brutes in general. Let them use the rest of bear baiting and other such public excercises a God's name, that we may know what they do and where to find them if need be."1 It will be noticed that this broad-minded humanist classes together as beings on similar I See New Shakespeare Society reprints. Series VI, No. 6, p. 79. planes the frequenters of Bankside and "all brutes in general." Evidence corroborating the prevailing brutishness is abundant, but of so squalid and obscene a nature that it is better to leave it in oblivion. Besant describes the crowd of a later period as "brutal beyond all power of words to describe or imagination to understand; so bestial that one is induced to think that there has never been in any town. or in any age a population which could compare with them." Except that the Tudor and Jacobean crowds were unquestionably more vicious and ignorant the description will apply. It is interesting and instructive to note the dramatists' views upon their patrons. "Vox populi vox Dei," says Nashe, "The vulgars voice, it is the voice of God! Yet Tully saith, Non ratio non descrimen non differentia, the vulgar hath no learning, wit nor sense. " 1 The Vox Dei theory was unanimously scouted by the dramatists. In their vitriolic denunciation of the natural depravity and malignant disposition of their auditors they far out-Tully'd Tully. Charitable in every other respect, the mere mention of Democracy seems to have lashed them into a frenzy of abhorrence. Avaunt base muddy scum! ....abject peasants! ....Am I forced to bear the blasting breath of each lewd censurer ? MARSTON (Satyres) 1599. Oh the toil of humouring this abject scum of mankind, muddy brained peasants! FORD (Perkin Warbeck 11. 1.) 1634. I Summer's Last Will; 1600. The vulgar's a kennel of black mouthed dogs that worry mens deserts and fame. My curse fester in their temples! FALKLAND (Marriage Night 11.) 1664. A sudden rot consume this base herd.... the ribble rabble! SHIRLEY (The Traitor) 1631-1635. All damnations seize on the hydra headed multitude that only gape for innovations ! O who would trust a people.... curse on the inconstant rabble! WEBSTER (Appius and Virginia v. 3.) 1654. I'll not trust the rabble: confusion on 'em the giddy multitude! SHIRLEY (The Traitor) 1631-1635. "Thanks to the Gods!" ejaculates the unknown author of Timon, "I am not of the rags or fag end of the people!" "I," says Shakespeare, "will not jump with common spirits and rank me with the barbarous multitude; a sentiment which is thus re-choed by Dekker : — " 1 I scorned to crowd among the muddy throng Of the rank multitude, whose thickened breaths, Like to condensed fog, do choke that beauty Which else would dwell in every Kingdoms cheek.' The proximity of the crowd outraged the delicate susceptibilities of the dramatic Nostril. In his abhorrence of "the mutable rank scented many." Shakespeare was neither singular nor peculiar. What air to cool us but poisoned with their blasting breaths and curses! BEAUMONT & FLETCHER (Bonduca II. 1.)1619-1647. I 2 Old Fortunatus II. 2. You.... whose breaths infect the air! LYLY (Campaspe IV. 1.) 1582-1584. This forked rabble with their infectious acclamations. MIDDLETON (Mayor of Quinborough 1. 1.) 1661. The unsavoury breath of multitudes Shouting and clapping with confuséd din. MARSTON (Antonio and Mellida Iv. 4.) 1602. The rabblement shouted and clapped their chopped hands, and threw up their sweaty night caps, and uttered such a deal of stinking breath.... that it almost choked Caesar for he swooned and fell down at it. For my part, I durst not laugh for fear of opening my lips and receiving the bad air. SHAKESPEARE (Julius Cæsar 1. 2.) 1623. I perceive few traces that the dramatists played down to the level of the crowd, on the contrary they are unsparing in their dislike and contempt. The writer of the preface to Troilus and Cressida mentions that the play had never been "clapperclawed by the palms of the vulgar," and adds, "Refuse not, nor like this the less for not being sullied with the smoaky breath of the multitude." Similarly in the introduction to his White Devil Webster bluntly remarks that, "The breath that comes from the uncapable multitude is able to poison it. " One can only marvel that the groundlings and "unapprehending stinkards, as Chapman terms them, did not more frequently resent the aspersions dropped on them from the stage. Taine relates that it was not uncustomary for the crowd to mob a dull or unpopular actor, toss him in a blanket, or express even more effectively their sense of injury and dissatisfaction. In their hatred of Democracy the authors of the slum-born Drama display an unswerving unanimity; worthy of notice, not only on its own account, but as shedding additional light on the status of the crowds on whose pennies they existed. I have collected a few references and grouped them into their natural orders, adding here and there an expression of opinion from the philanthropist Bacon. "Shakespeare," says Gervinus, " despised the million, and Bacon feared with Phocion the applause of the multitude. It has been charged against Bacon that he was far too grave to be a true Humanist. "Hence, says a modern critic, "we actually find him saying, 'I do not love the word people.' One of his chief characteristics is a lack of sympathy for the popular mind a flagrant dislike of all democracy. Bacon lived in the Court, and he wrote as one writing for the courtiers and nobles. " The meaner sort. BACON (Henry VII) 1622. BACON (Advancement of Learning) 1605. The vulgar sort. The vulgar sort. The vulgar sort. ANON (King John) 1591. SPENSER (Fairy Queen III. 40) 1590-1609. The vulgar sort. SHAKESPEARE (1 Henry VI. III. 2.) 1623. The common sort. MARLOWE (Edward II) 1593-1598. |