III. SCENE ILLUSTRATING ETHEREDGE'S "MAN OF MODE; OR, SIR FOPLING FLUTTER." After the design by Lud. du Guernier.
IV. SCENE ILLUSTRATING CONGREVE'S "DOUBLE DEALER." After F. Hayman.
V. GRIFFIN AND JOHNSON IN THE CHARACTERS OF TRIBULATION AND ANANIAS, Ben Jonson's "Alchemist," act iii. scene 2. Tribulation. "I do command thee (Spirit of Zeal, but Trouble) to peace, within him." After the original by Peter Van Bleeck, 1738.
VI. SCENE ILLUSTRATING OTWAY'S "ORPHAN." After the contemporary etching by G. Vander Gucht.
VII. MRS. PORTER, MILLS, AND CIBBER. After a contemporary engraving by J. Basire.
VIII. SCENE ILLUSTRATING STEELE'S "FUNERAL, OR GRIEF À LA MODE." After the contemporary design by G. Vander Gucht.
IX. MR. ESTCOURT AS "KITE" IN FARQUHAR'S "RECRUITING OFFICER." After the contemporary design by E. Knight and G. Vander Gucht.
The ancient Use, Improvement, and Perfection, of Dramatick Representations, in this Nation.
Printed by _G. Croom,_ for _William Haws_ at the Rose in _Ludgate-Street_. 1699.
_Much has been Writ of late_ pro _and_ con, _about the Stage, yet the Subject admits of more, and that which has not been hetherto toucht upon; not only what that is, but what it was, about which some People have made such a Busle. What it is we see, and I think it has been sufficiently displayed in Mr._ Collier'_s Book; What it was in former Ages, and how used in this Kingdom, so far back as one may collect any Memorialls, is the Subject of the following Dialogue. Old Plays will be always read by the_ Curious, _if it were only to discover the Manners and Behaviour of several Ages; and how they alter'd. For Plays are exactly like_ Portraits _Drawn in the Garb and Fashion of the time when Painted. You see one Habit in the time of King_ Charles I. _another quite different from that, both for Men and Women, in Queen_ Elizabeths _time; another under_ Henry _the Eighth different from both; and so backward all various. And in the several Fashions of Behaviour and Conversation, there is as much Mutability as in that of cloaths. Religion and Religious matters was once as much the Mode in publick Entertainments, as the Contrary has been in some times since. This appears in the different Plays of several Ages: And to evince this, the following Sheets are an Essay or Specimen._