roborating evidence that these customs had not been abolished.
Moliere was annoyed by the same malpractices as Shakespeare, only he did
not, like Shakespeare, who never complained of anything or anybody, keep
his displeasure to himself. He recurs in more than one of his plays to
the indecent behaviour of marquesses sitting on the stage, and there is
scarcely one of the particulars mentioned by Dekker which does not find
place in Moliere's angry pictures of ill-bred gallants:

"The actors began; every one kept silence; when ... a man with large
rolls entered abruptly crying out: 'Hulloa, there, a seat directly!' and
disturbing the audience with his uproar, interrupted the play in its
finest passage....

"Whilst I was shrugging my shoulders, the actors attempted to continue
their parts. But the man made a fresh disturbance in seating himself,
and again crossing the stage with long strides, although he might have
been quite comfortable at the wings, he planted his chair full in front,
and, defying the audience with his broad back, hid the actors from
three-fourths of the pit.

"A murmur arose, at which any one else would have felt ashamed; but he,
firm and resolute, took no notice of it, and would have remained just as
he had placed himself if, to my misfortune, he had not cast his eyes on
me....

"He began asking me a hundred frivolous questions, raising his voice
higher than the actors. Every one was cursing him; and in order to check
him, I said, 'I should like to listen to the play.'

"'Hast thou not seen it, marquis? Oh! on my soul I think it very funny,
and I am no fool in those matters. I know the canons of perfection and
Corneille reads me all that he writes.'

"Thereupon he gave me a summary of the piece informing me, scene after
scene, of what was about to happen; and when we came to any lines which
he knew by heart, he recited them aloud before the actor could say them.
It was in vain for me to resist; he continued his recitations, and
towards the end rose a good while before the rest. For those fashionable
fellows, in order to behave gallantly, especially avoid to listen to the
conclusion."[309]

Grobianism and the picaresque novel, long survived both Nash and Dekker.
English, Spanish, and French rogues, invented or imitated, swarmed in
the English literature of the seventeenth century, without, however, in
any case reaching the level attained by "Jack Wilton." Both kinds of
writing had to wait for the