that very day when Arbuscula exhibited with the highest applause." The same practice prevailed in the time of the emperors; for in the list of parts which Nero, with a preposterous ambition, acted in the publick theatre, we find that of Canace, who was represented in labour on the stage. 8 In the interludes exhibited between the acts undoubtedly women appeared. The elder Pliny informs us, that a female named Lucceïa acted in these interludes for an hundred years; and Galeria Copiola for above ninety years; having been first introduced on the scene in the fourteenth year of her age, in the year of Rome 672, when Caius Marius the younger, and Cneius Carbo were consuls, and having performed in the 104th year of her age, six years before the death of Augustus, in the consulate of C. Poppæus and Quintus Sulpicius, A. U. C. 762.9 Eunuchs also sometimes represented women on the Roman stage, as they do at this day in Italy; for we find that Sporus, who made so conspicuous a figure in the time of Nero, being appointed in the year 70, [A. U. C. 823] to personate a nymph, who, in an interlude exhibited before Vitellius, was to be carried off by a ravisher, rather than endure the indignity of wearing a female dress on the stage, put himself to death:' a singular end for one, who about ten years before had been publickly espoused to Nero, in the hy 7 Epistol. ad Atticum, L. IV. c. xv. Sueton. in Nerone, c. xxi. 9 Plin. Hist. Nat. Lib. VIII. c. xlviii. 1 Xiphilini Vitel. p. 209, edit. H. Stephani, folio, 1592. meneal veil, and had been carried through one of the streets of Rome by the side of that monster, in the imperial robes of the empresses, ornamented with a profusion of jewels. Thus ancient was the usage, which, though not adopted in the neighbouring countries of France and Italy, prevailed in England from the infancy of the stage. The prejudice against women appearing on the scene continued so strong, that till near the time of the Restoration, boys constantly performed female characters: and, strange as it may now appear, the old practice was not deserted without many apologies for the indecorum of the novel usage. In 1659 or 1660, in imitation of the foreign theatres, women were first introduced on the scene. In 1656, indeed, Mrs. Coleman, the wife of Mr. Edward Coleman, represented Ianthe in the First Part of D'Avenant'sSiege of Rhodes; but the little she had to say was spoken in recitative. The first woman that appeared in any regular drama on a publick stage, performed the part of Desdemona; but who the lady was, I am unable to ascertain. The play of Othello, is enumerated by Downes as one of the stock-plays of the king's company on their opening their theatre in Drury Lane in April, 1663; and it appears from a paper found with Sir Henry Herbert's Office-book, and indorsed by him,2 that it was one of the stock-plays of the same company from the time they began to play without a patent at the Red Bull in St. John Street. Mrs. Hughs performed the part of Desdemona in 1663, when the company removed to Drury Lane, and obtained See the list of plays belonging to the Red Bull, in a subsequent page, ad ann. 1660. the title of the king's servants; but whether she performed with them while they played at the Red Bull, or in Vere Street, near Clare Market, has not been ascertained. Perhaps Mrs. Saunderson made her first essay there, though she afterwards was enlisted in D'Avenant's company. The received tradition is, that she was the first English actress.3 The verses which were spoken by way of introducing a female to the audience, were written by Thomas Jordan, and being only found in a very scarce miscellany,' I shall here transcribe them: Mrs. Saunderson (afterwards Mrs. Betterton) played Juliet, Ophelia, and, I believe, Cordelia. It should seem from the 22d line of the Epilogue spoken on the occasion, that the lady who performed Desdemona was an unmarried woman. Mrs. Hughs was married. The principal unmarried actress in the King's company appears to have been Mrs. Marshall, who is said to have been afterwards seduced under a pretence of marriage by Aubrey de Vere, Earl of Oxford, and who might have been the original female performer of Desdemona. At that time every unmarried woman bore the title of Mistress. It is said in a book of no authority, (Curl's History of the Stage,) and has been repeated in various other compilations, that Mrs. Norris, the mother of the celebrated comedian known by the name of Jubilee Dicky, was the first actress who appeared on the English stage: but this is highly improbable. Mrs. Norris, who was in D'Avenant's Company, certainly had appeared in 1662, but she was probably not young; for she played Goody Fells, in Town Shifts, a comedy acted in 1671, and the Nurse, in Reformation, acted in 1675. A Royal Harbour of Loyal Poesie, by Thomas Jordan, no date, but printed, I believe, in 1662. Jordan was an actor as well as a poet. "A Prologue, to introduce the first woman that came to act on the stage, in the tragedy called The Moor of Venice. "I come, unknown to any of the rest, "Abhor all sorts of looseness, and yet play; "Play on the stage,-where all eyes are upon her: "Shall we count that a crime, France counts an honour? "In other kingdoms husbands safely trust 'em; "The difference lies only in the custom. "I'm sure this custom's better than th' excise, be: "But gentlemen, you that as judges sit "You'd think they were some of the guard disguis❜d : "With bone so large, and nerve so incompliant, 5 See also the Prologue to The Second Part of the Siege of The Epilogue, which consists of but twelve lines, is in the same strain of apology: ye "And how do you like her? Come, what is't "But, ladies, what think you ? for if you tax drive at? From a paper in Sir Henry Herbert's handwriting, I find that Othello was performed by the Red Bull company, (afterwards his Majesties servants,) at their new theatre in Vere Street, near Clare Market, on Saturday, December 8, 1660, for the first time that winter. On that day therefore it is probable an actress first appeared on the English stage. This theatre was opened on Thursday, November 8, with the play of King Henry the Fourth. Most of Jordan's prologues and epilogues appear to have been written for that company. Rhodes, (acted in April, 1662,) which was spoken by a wo man: "Hope little from our poet's wither'd wit, "From infant players, scarce grown puppets yet; "Each took her leave, and wish'd my danger past, you much, |