Tom Brent said then to his merry men,
            "Now, whoop, my men, and hollow,
        And to the Cockpit let us go,
             I'll lead you like brave Rollo."
        Then Johnny Cory answered straight,
             In words much like Apollo:
        "Lead, Tommy Brent, incontinent,
            And we'll be sure to follow."

       Three score of these brave 'Prentices,
            All fit for works of wonder,
       Rush'd down the plain of Drury-lane
           Like lightning and like thunder.
       And then each door with hundreds more,
           And windows burst asunder;
       And to the tire-house broke they in,
            Which some began to plunder.

       "Now hold your hands, my merry men,"
            Said Tom, " for I assure you
        Whoso begin to steal shall win
           Me both for judge and jury,
        And eke for executioner,
           Within this lane of Drury;
        But tear and rend, I'll stand your friend,
            And will uphold your fury."

       King Priam's robes were soon in rags,
           And broke his gilded sceptre;
        False Cressid's hood, that was so good,
           When loving Troilus kept her.

            *                *              *               *

        Had Theseus seen them use his queen
            So ill, he had bewept her.

        Books old and young on heap they flung,
             And burn'd them in the blazes,
        Tom Dekker, Haywood, Middleton,
             And other wand'ring crazies:
        Poor Day that day not scap'd away,
             And what still more amazes,
        Immortal Cracke was burn'd all black,
            Which ev'rybody praises.

        Now sing we loud with one accord,
             To these most digni laude.

              *                 *               *                 *

        And praise we these bold 'Prentices,
             Cum voce et cum corde.

Before dismissing the ballad, I may observe
that King Priam and Cressida were possibly
the characters of that name in Shakespeare's
Troilus and Cressida, possibly belonged to some
other play, as this was the property of the
"King's servants," who acted at the Blackfriars
and the Globe, that Theseus was probably
the character of that name in Hayward's Silver
Age, and that the immortal and universally
praised Cracke is so far shorn of immortality,
that nobody at present knows whether the name
refers to a man or a play. These observations
are not mine but Mr. Collins's, but I take
leave to confirm his theory respecting the Silver
Age, by calling attention to the fact, that
Thomas Hayward was one of "Queen Anne's
servants," and to suggest that we have a right
to infer from the context, that the mysterious
Cracke was not a tragedy, but a dramatic poet.
Day, I may add, wrote several plays, that have
not, I think, been reprinted since their first
publication, and seems to have been famous for
"bilking" his landlord. In the last verse, which,
for the sake of decorum, I have so grievously
shorn of its dimensions, theatres and immorality
are associated together, and people are advised
to thrust plays and bad company out of doors.
When I have added that some of the rioters
were severely punished, and that, after a short
interval, the "Queen's servants" were again
performing at the Cockpit, I have concluded
the entire story.

Now, according to the view commonly taken
of this little disturbance, so disgraceful in the
opinion of some, so glorious in the opinion of
others, the riotous apprentices were representatives
of the puritanical feeling which was so
prevalent in the City during the whole of the
seventeenth century, and which, even in the
sixteenth, had been manifested by a strong hostility
towards theatrical amusements. Partly animated
by a spirit of what our cousins call "rowdyism,"
but powerfully influenced by a conviction that
theatres were unfavourable to morality, these
noisy zealots, availing themselves of a licence
long conceded to their order on Shrove Tuesday,
attempted to demolish the new theatre in Drury-lane.
This is evidently the view which the
writer of the ballad intends his readers to take;
but it is equally evident, that if by his last verse
he wishes to shed a puritanic halo round an
outbreak of blackguardism, he is himself no
Puritan. He has at his fingers' end the names
of the leading dramatists; indeed, he makes
one's mouth water when he shows how well he
is acquainted with the once immortal but now
exceedingly defunct Cracke; he can compare
Tom Brent to Rollo, the principal character in
Fletcher's Bloody Brother, and he knows how
various parts are dressed. The whole ballad,
indeed, breathes a roystering spirit, which
savours much more of the factious man-about-town
than of the religious zealot.

What is there in the riot itself that denotes
a puritanical movement? There were other
theatres open beside the Cockpit, and a mob
determined to extinguish the drama would
rather have directed their efforts against the
Blackfriars, which was the very head-quarters
of the enemy, the house at which the works of
Shakespeare and other poets of the highest
repute were produced. The Cockpit, after all,
enjoyed but a Brummagem sort of gentility, and
could scarcely be regarded as a representative
establishment. The consideration of these facts
leads me to the supposition that the Cockpit
was punished for certain sins of its own, and
not merely because it was a place devoted to
theatrical amusements.

Let me digress a little. It is well known
that in the early days of the English stage,
theatres were divided into "public" and
"private." An exhaustive definition of these
terms has not yet been obtained. We are
certain that the so-called "private" theatres
were not inaccessible to the public, like those
attached to a gentIeman's mansion; but it may be
generally laid down that a system of exclusiveness
belonging to one class of theatre distinguished
it from the other. Without going
through the seven marks of distinction deduced
by Mr. Collier from various authorities, we
may confine our attention to the facts that the