" Other popular plays are
similarly dealt with. But Cox, it seems, invented not less than he
borrowed. Upon the foundation of certain old-established farces, he
raised up entertainments something of the nature of the extemporary
comedy of Italy: characters being devised or developed expressly with
a view to his own performance of them. "All we could divert ourselves
with," writes Kirkman, "were these humours and pieces of plays, which,
passing under the name of a merry conceited fellow called Bottom the
Weaver, Simpleton the Smith, John Swabber, or some such title, were
only allowed us, and that by stealth too ... and these small things
were as profitable and as great get-pennies to the actors as any of
our late famed plays." He relates, moreover, that these performances
attracted "a great confluence of auditors," insomuch that the Red
Bull, a playhouse of large size, was often so full, that "as many went
back for want of room as had entered;" and that meanly as these
"drolls" might be thought of in later times, they were acted by the
best comedians "then and now in being.
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