new, the thing it represents and
defines is certainly old enough, dating, probably, from the very birth
of the drama. So soon as the author began to write words for the
actors to deliver, so soon, be sure, did the comedians begin to
interpolate speech of their own contriving. For, as a rule, gag is the
privilege and the property of the comic performer. The tragedian does
not gag. He may require his part to be what is called "written up" for
him, and striking matter to be introduced into his scenes for his own
especial advantage, but he is generally confined to the delivery of
blank verse, and rhythmical utterances of that kind do not readily
afford opportunities for gag. There have been Macbeths who have
declined to expire upon the stage after the silent fashion prescribed
by Shakespeare, and have insisted upon declaiming the last dying
speech with which Garrick first enriched the character. But these are
actors of the past. If Shakespeare does not often appear upon the
modern stage, at any rate he is not presented in the disguised and
mutilated form which won applause in what are now viewed as the "palmy
days" of the drama. And the prepared speeches introduced by the
tragedians, however alien they may be to the dramatist's intentions,
and independent of his creations, are not properly to be considered as
gag.

It was in 1583, according to Howes' additions to Stow's "Chronicle,"
that Queen Elizabeth, at the request of Sir Francis Walsingham, and
with the advice of Mr. Edmond Tyllney, her Master of the Revels,
selected twelve performers out of some of the companies of her
nobility, to be her own dramatic servants, with the special title of
the Queen's Players. They duly took the oaths of office, and were
allowed wages and liveries as Grooms of the Chambers. Among these
actors were included Robert Wilson, described as gifted with "a quick,
delicate, refined, extemporal wit;" and Richard Tarleton, of "a
wondrous, plentiful, pleasant, extemporal wit." From this it would
almost seem that these comedians owed their fame and advancement to
their skill and inventiveness in the matter of gagging. No doubt these
early actors bore some relation to the jesters who were established
members of noble households, and of whom impromptu jokes and
witticisms were looked for upon all occasions. Moreover, at this time,
as Mr. Payne Collier judges, "extemporal plays," in the nature of the
Italian _Commedie al improviso_, were often presente