The Penn's Grove record., 1882-05-06
Her Majesty's Players.

chants with well-tronzed faces, q dan
dy staining his lace ruflies with snuff
from a silver box, and a broad shout
dered eountryman, evidently up for
law term, are coming its rough, large
letters. If we look over the shoulders
of one OF the apprentices we can read
1t. There is now being performed, it
states, 1.-THE most excellent historic Of
the Merchant of Venice with the
extreame crueltie of Shylocke the
Jewe, toward the sayd merchant, in
cutting a just round of his flesh, and
obtaining of Pertia by the choyse of
three caskets, as it hath diverse times
been acted by the Lord Chamberlain,
his servants. Written by William
Shakespeare" There Is no cast of the
performers.
We enter In good time for the play.
This Is the wooden o mentioned by
the bard himself in his Prologue TO
Henry ". The pit is already fairly
filled and worth studying. Leathern-
belted apprentices abound some with
permission of their masters, others, to
judge from their dissipated looks, evil
IDENTIFY without. Some are grouped in
busy gossip on the earthen floor, Others
playing at cards, whilst eatingfsmok-
ing, chsffing and hustling are going
on all round. There is a good deal of
pushing toward the front. These are
the youths that thunder at the play
houses and fight for bitten apples"
referred to in Henry VIII" A few
women, wearing masks are visible
here, but they rise no higher than the
wives of citizens, and some of
them sink much lower. In the boxes
whose fronts are hung with painted
cloths, are the more fashionable per-
sops, curled and perfumed, looking
down ON the tumult below with great
curiosity. In a high box is the band
playing an overture, in response to a
trumpet call, but not much regarded.
The instruments apparently are
shawns, v%iolins, sackbuts and dulci-
mers. The worsted stage curtain is
down, and we can see that it opens
down the centre, and that each part
draws back from behind. Whilst the
Proundlings are pointing out the nota-
Dles in the boxes-a well-known eour-
tier, a new ambassador, a great sea
captain the trumpet sounds again,
and the curtain is drawn aside.
We are introduced to a street in
Venice, as appears by a label in an
tique type. Had there been a pro-
logue, it would have been spoken by
an sctor in a long black cloak, and had
1t been "Hamlet" or king Lear" the
stage would have been hung with
black. The stage itself is rather broad
than deep. 1t is covered with green
rushes. A curtain at the back hides a
raised balcony in which are unem.
ployed actors, and possibly Shakes
peare himself. The actors speaking
wear common clothes, suitable to
their rank in England. Before Bas-
sanio enters, several dandies, in trunk
hose and short cloaks and dainty low
crowned hats, have lounged on to the
stage, with boy attendants bringing
their stools. Their rosetted shoes are
plainly visible as they cross their legs,
with an air of languor, and Int their
eyebrows the better to study the pit.
One of them, dreadfully bored, dis
cards his stool, and.lies at his full
length on the rushes. Another takes
out his pipe and his tobacco, and be-
gins TO smoke through his nose, and to
blow the blue cloud upward, in ling
after ring to show that he had learned
to take tobacco from the very best
professors.
The play proceeds. Portia and Ne
riss a are played by boys, as all are
women's parts. Presently Shylocke
enters in his Jewish gsberdine, such
as can be seen any day in the Jewerie,
or in Lombard street, and there is
fierce clapJing in the pit. Surely it
is Richard Burbage himself. The
handles on their stools seem m
tarily interested. One takes from his
pocket his table-book, made of small
pieces of slate, bourd together in duo
decimo, such as Autolycus sold in "a
Winters Tale,'' and such rs Sir Ma
thaniel drew out to write down the
most singular and choice epithet'
used by Holofernes, in Loves Labors
Lost" in describing Don Adriano de
Armada as being too picked, too
spruce, too affected, too odd, as il were
to per%egrinste." We are unable to see
what he is writing down, whether
comments on the play, or passages for
use in conversation at ST. Paurs or
over his ordinary. Probably his
friends will hear him saying tonight,
How like a fawning publican he
looks" "The devil can cite Scripture
for his purpose in "In religion what
damned error, but some sober brow
will bless it, and approve it with q
text" Concerning the handles turn
ed critics, Ben Johnson once wrote:
"Let them know the author defies
them and their writing-tables.n Many
of the pithy quotations still in common
use were first introduced by the writ
ing table gentry, who made them
classic before the plays in which they
were contained were printed for public
reading,
A midst whistling from the select
sitters on the stools, and much yelling
from the pit at Slylocke, and a great
deal of merry imitation when Bassanio
sings, in the easket scene, the play
goes on. The sprawling gentleman,
who is evidently i'll at ease, wishes the
audience to see that he cares nothing
for Portia and her domestic arrange