1806.] 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
BSERVING that you infert occa- 
honally papers relative to farming 
and gardening, permit me to requeft. of 
fome one of your correfpondents who un- 
derftands gardening, te what profitable 
ule I can apply a green houfe, after the 
feafon f ry putting ou! geraniums, myrtles, 
&c., is arrived ? from which time tll late 
in aufumn no ule commonly is made of 
it, if I except vines againft the roof, and 
fome fruit-trees againft the back wall ; 
but the area is applied to none. I here 
beg leave to obferve, that my green-houle 
was mace with old fhop-fafhes ; which 
points out to what god ule the fafhes of 
old houles mizht be applied by gardeners, 
initead of their being broke to pieces by 
the mifchievous :abble, as {oon as there is 
an appearance of a defign in the owner to 
pull tie houfe down. 
Your inlertion of the above in your 
very .valuabie Magazine will greatly 
blige your conilant reader, W.1. 
7G waa ae 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
ABRIDGED HisTORY of the DUTCH 
STAGE; by M. DE HAUG. 
RAMATIC literature commenced 
among the Dutch in the 14th ccn- 
tury, by means of their Spreckers, or Ka- 
ser [peelers, the only orators of that time. 
‘They generally went alone, fometimes at- 
tended by one of their colleagues, to the 
neighbouring courts, where they deciaim- 
ed hittories or fubjects of their own inven-' 
dion, and accompamed their delivery with 
all forts of geltures. Among others is 
mentioned William van Hillegardiberg. 
Bn the 15th century appeared the Redex- 
rykers, or rhetoriticians, who procured 
great celebrity by their pcems an‘ their 
ipectacles, and formed particular focieties 
which they called Redenryk.kamers,— 
Chambers of Rhetoric. As early as 1430 
we find mention made of that of Middle- 
burg, in Zealand, the members of which 
were denominated Sproon-fpreckers,—— 
Speakers of Proverbs. A few years after- 
wards fimilar affociations were eftablifhed 
at Viaardingen, at Nieuwkerk, and at 
Gouda. ; 
So far back as the year 1401, the Re- 
furrection of Jefus Chrift was ated before 
Duke Albert of Bavaria; and in 1418, 
all kinds of hiftories taken from the Bible, 
fuch as the fayings and deeds of Herod, 
were reprefented in the cathedral of 
Utrecht. Among the moral pieces are 
Duery in Gardening.—Hiftory of the Dutch Stage. 
299 
mentioned, ‘¢ Het Schaakfpele gemorali- 
feerd,’’—-T he Game of Chefs moralized 5” 
«< De Moralifatie in de Deftructie van 
Troye,’——-The Moralization of the De- 
ftrugtion of Troy. In 1452 a moral play, 
on the fubje& of the Virgin May, was. 
acted before the town-houfe at Arnheim, 
The moft ancient piece that is now exiant 
bears this fingular title, ‘* Sport of the 
amorous May in which Pluto carries off 
Proferpine.”? Philip the Fair had no he- 
fita‘ion to becoine a member of the Cham- 
her of Ruetoric of Bruffels ; nay, he went 
ftill farther, and eftablifhed at Mechiin a 
Sovereign Chamber of Rhetoricians, giv- 
ing it for its prefident bis own chaplain 
Peter Aeclturs, who aflumed the title of 
Sovereign Prisce of the Chamber. Ael- 
turs afterwards transferred ic to Ghent 3; 
and Maximilian I., and likewife Charles 
V., confirmed its inftitutions. 
From all the de(criptions of thefe thea- 
trical reprefentations, it appears, that, in 
the beginning, the priefts were in Hol- 
land, as in every other country, the firlt 
poets and the firft ators. To render 
thee pieces taken from the Bible {till more 
palatable to the puolic, they added to 
them comelies and farees, which th-y de- 
nominated Kiuchten and Zotteklucten. 
The moral end of thefe reprefentations 
was commonly explained in a prologue or 
epilogue ; and they were encouraged not 
only by fecular princes, but even by arch-. 
bifhops and popes. Morality was now- 
ever {oon forgotten; and writers took the 
liberty of introducing into thefe pieces io 
many cutting fatires, fo many fevere allu- 
fiens and licentious expr-ffions, that in the 
year 1445 they were prohibited! in many ~ 
places. This did not however prevent the 
continuation of the obnoxious exhibitions 
for a confiderable time longer ; the people 
would not fubmit to be deprived of this 
pleafure ; fo that it was found neceflary 
at leaft to place thefe pieces and the ac- 
tors under the authority cf the magiltrates, 
who were inftructed to fubje&t them to an 
examination more or lefs fevere. ‘Till to- 
wards the fixieenth century the clergy 
abufed thefe plays and their reprefenta- 
tions, making them fubfervient to their 
political or private plans, and fometimes. 
converting ihem into vehicles of mifchief 
to the laity ; but at the commencement of 
the 16th century the cafe was reverfed ; 
the laity in their dramas depreciated the 
clergy in every poflible way, and too free 
quently made religion and eccleftaitics the 
fubject of their pleafantry. In 1533 
fome Reden, ykers eftablifhed a Chamber 
at Amiterdam, and, without giving pre- 
Qq2 vious 
SUS S57 Fe SES 
ee ee en ee eee —_—Csttttt— 
