The "comedians of
Ravenna," who were not "tied to any written device," but who,
nevertheless, had "certain grounds or principles of their own," are
mentioned in Whetstone's "Heptameron," 1582, and references to such
performers are also to be found in Kyd's "Spanish Tragedy," and Ben
Jonson's "Case is Altered." In "Antony and Cleopatra" occurs the
passage:
The quick comedians
Extemporally will stage us and present
Our Alexandrian revels.
And Mr. Collier conjectures that when Polonius, speaking of the
players, informs Hamlet that, "for the law of writ and the liberty,
these are your only men," he is to be understood as commending their
excellence, both in written performances and in such as left them at
liberty to invent their own discourse.
But however intelligible and excusable its origin, it is certain that
by the time Shakespeare was writing, the "extemporal wit" of the
theatre had come to be a very grave nuisance. There is no need to set
forth here his memorable rebuke of the clowns who demonstrate their
"pitiful ambition" by speaking more than their parts warrant.
Pages:
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613