He rather prays you will be pleased to see
    One such to-day as other plays should be;
    Where neither chorus wafts you o’er the seas,
    Nor creaking throne comes down the boys to please,
    Nor nimble squib is seen to make afeard
    The gentlewomen; nor rolled bullet heard
    To say it thunders; nor tempestuous drum
    Rumbles to tell you when the storm doth come, &c.

It has been conjectured that satirical allusion was here intended to the writings of Shakespeare; yet it is certain that Shakespeare sustained a part, most probably that of Old Knowell, in the first representation of Jonson’s comedy.  Storms are undoubtedly of frequent occurrence in Shakespeare’s plays.  Thus, “Macbeth” and “The Tempest” both open with thunder and lightning; there is “loud weather” in “The Winter’s Tale;” there is thunder in “The First Part of King Henry VI.,” when La Pucelle invokes the fiends to aid her endeavours; thunder and lightning in “The Second Part of King Henry VI.,” when Margery Jourdain conjures up the spirit Asmath; thunder and lightning in “Julius Caesar;” a storm at sea in “Pericles,” and a hurricane in “King Lear.”  It is to be noted, however, that all these plays could hardly have been represented so early as 1598, when “Every Man in his Humour” was first performed.

From Jonson’s prologue it appears that the rumbling of thunder was at that time imitated by the rolling to and fro of bullets or cannon-balls.  This plan was in time superseded by more ingenious contrivances.  It is curious to find, however, that some fifty years ago one Lee, manager of the Edinburgh Theatre, with a view to improving the thunder of his stage, ventured upon a return to the Elizabethan system of representing a storm.  His enterprise was attended with results at once ludicrous and disastrous.  He placed ledges here and there along the back of his stage, and, obtaining a parcel of nine-pound cannon-balls, packed these in a wheelbarrow, which a carpenter was instructed to wheel to and fro over the ledges.  The play was “Lear,” and the jolting of the heavy barrow as it was trundled along its uneven path over the hollow stage, and the rumblings and reverberations thus produced, counterfeited most effectively the raging of the tempest in the third act.  Unfortunately, however, while the King was braving, in front of the scene, the pitiless storm at the back, the carpenter missed his footing, tripped over one of the ledges, and fell down, wheelbarrow, cannon-balls, and all.  The stage being on a declivity, the cannon-balls came rolling rapidly and noisily down towards the front, gathering force as they advanced, and overcoming the feeble resistance offered by the scene, struck it down, passed over its prostrate form, and made their way towards the foot-lights and the fiddlers, amidst the amusement and wonder of the audience, and the amazement and alarm of the Lear of the night.  As the nine-pounders advanced towards him, and rolled