LOVEW. These are but few indeed: But pray Sir, hat Master-Parts can you remember the Old _Black-friers_ Men to Act, in _Johnson_, _Shakespear_, and _Fletcher_'s Plays.
TRUM. What I can at present recollect I'll tell you; _Shakespear_, (who as I have heard, was a much better Poet, than Player) _Burbadge_, _Hemmings_, and others of the Older sort, were Dead before I knew the Town; but in my time, before the Wars, _Lowin_ used to Act, with mighty Applause, _Falstaffe_, _Morose_, _Volpone_, and _Mammon_ in the _Alchymist_; _Melancius_, in the _Maid's_ Tragedy, and at the same time _Amyntor_ was Play'd by _Stephen Hammerton_, (who was at first a most noted and beautiful Woman Actor, but afterwards he acted with equal Grace and Applause, a Young Lover's Part); _Tayler_ Acted _Hamlet_ incomparably well, _Iago_, _Truewit_ in the _Silent Woman_, and _Face_ in the _Alchymist_; _Swanston_ used to Play _Othello_; _Pollard_, and _Robinson_ were Comedians, so was _Shank_ who us'd to Act Sir _Roger_, in _the Scornful Lady_. These were of the _Black-friers_. Those of principal Note at the _Cockpit_, were, _Perkins_, _Michael Bowyer_, _Sumner_, _William Allen_, and _Bird_, eminent Actors, and _Robins_ a Comedian. Of the other Companies I took little notice.
TRUM. Before the Wars, there were in being all these Play-houses at the same time. The _Black-friers_, and _Globe_ on the _Bankside_, a Winter and Summer House, belonging to the same Company, called the King's Servants; the _Cockpit_ or _Phoenix_, in _Drury-lane_, called the Queen's Servants; the private House in _Salisbury-court_, called the Prince's Servants; the _Fortune_ near _White-cross-street_, and the _Red Bull_ at the upper end of St. _John's-street_: The two last were mostly frequented by Citizens, and the meaner sort of People. All these Companies got Money, and Liv'd in Reputation, especially those of the _Black-friers_, who were Men of grave and sober Behaviour.
LOVEW. Which I admire at; That the Town much less than at present, could then maintain Five Companies, and yet now Two can hardly subsist.
TRUM. Do not wonder, but consider, That tho' the Town was then, perhaps, not much more than half so Populous as now, yet then the Prices were small (there being no Scenes) and better order kept among the Company that came; which made very good People think a Play an Innocent Diversion for an idle Hour or two, the Plays themselves being then, for the most part, more Instructive and Moral. Whereas of late, the Play-houses are so extreamly pestered with Vizard-masks and their Trade, (occasioning continual Quarrels and Abuses) that many of the more Civilized Part of the Town are uneasy in the Company, and shun the Theater as they would a House of Scandal. It is an Argument of the worth of the Plays and Actors, of the last Age, and easily inferr'd, that they were much beyond ours in this, to consider that they cou'd support themselves meerly from their own Merit; the weight of the Matter, and goodness of the Action, without Scenes and Machines: Whereas the present Plays with all that shew, can hardly draw an Audience, unless there be the additional Invitation of a _Signior Fideli_, a _Monsieur L'abbe_, or some such Foreign Regale exprest in the bottom of the Bill.