opinion, far unmeet for the matter, which I thought might seem more tedious unto the wise than any way else to be regarded, though haply they have been of some vain-conceited fondlings greatly gaped at, what time they were shewed upon the stage in their graced deformities:  nevertheless now to be mixtured in print with such matter of worth, it would prove a great disgrace to so honourable and stately a history."[b]  By the words, "fond and frivolous gestures," we are to understand those of the      "clown;" who very frequently figured, with more or less prominence, even in the most serious dramas of the time. The introduction of such buffooneries into tragedy[c] is censured by Hall towards the conclusion of a passage which, as it mentions "the Turkish Tamberlaine," would seem to be partly levelled at Marlowe:[d]         "One higher-pitch'd doth set his soaring thought On crowned kings that Fortune hath low brought, Or some vpreared high-aspiring swaine, As it might be THE TURKISH TAMBERLAINE. Then weeneth he his base drink-drowned spright Rapt to the three-fold loft of heauen hight, When he conceiues vpon his fained stage The stalking steps of his greate personage, Graced with huf-cap termes and thundring threats, That his poore hearers' hayre quite vpright sets.                  * * * * * * * * *          NOW, LEAST SUCH FRIGHTFULL SHOWES OF FORTUNE'S FALL AND BLOUDY TYRANTS' RAGE SHOULD CHANCE APALL THE DEAD-STROKE AUDIENCE, MIDST THE SILENT ROUT COMES LEAPING IN A SELFE-MISFORMED LOUT, AND LAUGHES, AND GRINS, AND FRAMES HIS MIMIK FACE, AND IUSTLES STRAIGHT INTO THE PRINCE'S PLACE:         THEN DOTH THE THEATRE ECCHO ALL ALOUD WITH GLADSOME NOYSE OF THAT APPLAUDING CROWD:         A GOODLY HOCH-POCH, WHEN VILE RUSSETTINGS ARE MATCH['D] WITH MONARCHS AND WITH MIGHTIE KINGS!"[e]       But Hall's taste was more refined and classical than that of his age; and the success of TAMBURLAINE, in which the celebrated Alleyn represented the hero,[f] was adequate to the most sanguine expectations which its author could have formed.]      [a] "A ballad entituled the storye of Tamburlayne the greate," &c. (founded, I suppose, on Marlowe's play)          was entered in the Stationers' Books, 5th Nov. 1594.      [b] P. 4 of the present volume.      [c] In Italy, at the commencement of the 18th century          (and probably much later), it was not unusual to introduce "the Doctor," "Harlequin," "Pantalone," and          "Coviello," into deep tragedies.  "I have seen," says Addison, "a translation of THE CID acted at 

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