We have now reached the time when Shakespeare’s hand had learnt its cunning, so far at least as any previous examples could teach it.  Perhaps I ought to add, as showing the prodigious rush of life and thought towards the drama in that age, that, besides the authors I have mentioned, Henslowe’s Diary supplies the names of thirty other dramatists, most of whom have propagated some part of their workmanship down to our time.  In the same document, during the twelve years beginning in February, 1591, we have the titles recorded of no less than two hundred and seventy pieces, either as original compositions, or as revivals of older plays.  As all these entries have reference only to Henslowe’s management; and as, during that period, except for some short intervals, he was concerned with the affairs of but a single company; we may thence conceive how vastly fertile the age was in dramatic production.

After all, it is hardly possible for us to understand how important a part dramatic exhibitions played in the life of “merry England in the olden time.”  From a very early period, the interest in them was deep, general, and constant; it grew with the growth of civilization; it became complicated with all the mental, moral, and social habitudes of the people; and, in fact, whatever “seed-points of light” got planted in the popular mind had no way but to organize themselves into that shape.  Those old plays, such as they were, with their rude, bold attempts to combine religion and mirth, instruction and sport, may almost be described as having been the nerves upon which the whole mental character of the nation formed itself.  The spirit which began so early to work in them kept on asserting itself more and more strongly from age to age, till the Drama became emphatically a popular passion; as indeed must always be the case before any thing deserving the name of a National Drama can possibly arise.  And it is quite surprising how long this spirit, so universal and so intense, was restrained from putting on so much of institutional form and expression as is implied in having buildings erected or adapted for its special use and service.  For we have thus far heard of nothing in the character of temples provided for the liturgies of the Dramatic Art.

The spirit in question, however, did at last reach such a measure of strength, that it could no longer be restrained from issuing in a provision of that sort.  The play-house known as the Blackfriars was established in 1576, and was owned and run by the company to which Shakespeare afterwards belonged.  Two others, called The Theatre and The Curtain, were probably started about the same time, as we find them in operation in 1577.  Before the end of the century, the city and suburbs of London had at least eight more in full blast.  And there were, besides, ever so many strolling companies of players carrying the mysteries of their craft into nearly all parts of the kingdom.  So that the Drama may well be