From a later passage in the same prologue Mr. Collier judges that the
titles of tragedies were usually printed, for the sake of distinction,
in red ink:
----and you would be
Persuaded I would have't a comedy
For all the purple in the name.
But this may be a reference to the colour of a cardinal's robes. There
is probably no playbill extant of an earlier date than 1663. About
this time, in the case of a new play, it was usual to state in the
bill that it had been "never acted before."
In the earliest days of the stage, before the invention of printing,
the announcement that theatrical performances were about to be
exhibited was made by sound of trumpet, much after the manner of
modern strollers and showmen at fairs and street-corners. Indeed, long
after playbills had become common, this musical advertisement was
still requisite for the due information of the unlettered patrons of
the stage. In certain towns the musicians were long looked upon as the
indispensable heralds of the actors. Tate Wilkinson, writing in 1790,
records that a custom obtained at Norwich, "and if abolished it has
not been many years," of proclaiming in every street with drum and
trumpet the performances to be presented at the theatre in the
evening.
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