ere originally contrived by Robert Cox, a comic
genius in his way, who exhibited great ingenuity in evading the
ordinances of Parliament, and in carrying on dramatic performances in
spite of the Puritans. He presented at the Red Bull what were
professedly entertainments of rope-dancing, gymnastic feats, and such
coarse practical fun as may even now be seen in the circus of
strolling equestrian companies; but with these he cunningly
intermingled select scenes from the comedies of the best English
dramatists. From Kirkman's book, which is now highly prized from its
rarity, it appears that the "drollery" entitled "The Bouncing Knight,
or the Robbers Robbed," is, in truth, a famous adventure of Sir John
Falstaff's, set forth in close accordance with the original text;
while the comedy of "Rule a Wife and have a Wife" is reduced to a
brief entertainment called "The Equal Match." Other popular plays are
similarly dealt with. But Cox, it seems, invented not less than he
borrowed. Upon the foundation of certain old-established farces, he
raised up entertainments something of the nature of the extemporary
comedy of Italy: characters being devised or developed expressly with
a view to his own performance of them. "All we could divert ourselves
with," writes Kirkman, "were these humours and pieces of plays, which,
passing under the name of a merry conceited fellow called Bottom the
Weaver, Simpleton the Smith, John Swabber, or some such title, were
only allowed us, and that by stealth too ... and these small things
were as profitable and as great get-pennies to the actors as any of
our late famed plays." He relates, moreover, that these performances
attracted "a great confluence of auditors," insomuch that the Red
Bull, a playhouse of large size, was often so full, that "as many went
back for want of room as had entered;" and that meanly as these
"drolls" might be thought of in later times, they were acted by the
best comedians "then and now in being." Especially he applauds the
actor, author, and contriver of the majority of the farces--"the
incomparable Robert Cox." Isaac Disraeli gives him credit for
preserving alive, as it were by stealth, the suppressed spirit of the
drama. That he was a very natural actor, or what would now be called
"realistic," may be judged from the story told of his performance of a
comic blacksmith, and his securing thereby an invitation to work at
the forge of a master smith, who had been present among