There is a general opinion abroad that the realistic play is of quite modern date, probably brought on the stage in ’L’Assommoir.’ In a publication of July, 1797, I find it stated that ’our managers some time ago conceived it would be proper to introduce realities instead of fictions. Hence we have seen real horses and real bulls on the stage, gracing the triumphal entry of some hero. Hence, too, real water has been supplied in such quantities that Harlequin’s leap into the sea would now really be no joke.... The introduction of water will, no doubt, facilitate the introduction of real sea-fights, provided we can get real admirals and seamen.’ But the writer seems to have been oblivious of the fact that, in the middle of the last century, already the water of the New River had been carried under the flooring of Sadler’s Wells Theatre, the boards being removed, for the exhibition of aquatic performances. And as to this century, long before the more recent realistic plays, we have seen in the sixties a real cab with a real horse brought on to the stage to give the heroine, who is about to elope, the opportunity of uttering the pun: ’Now, four-wheeler, wo!’ (for weal or woe!). And a very good pun it is. The formation of the English drama is chiefly due to the ’Children of Paul,’ or pupils of St. Paul’s School, in those days nicknamed the ’Pigeons of St. Paul.’ The dramatic celebrity of these juvenile performers goes back as far as the year 1378. Originally they confined themselves to ’moralities,’ but in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, before whom they acted on various occasions, they appeared in the regular drama with considerable applause. They exhibited burlesque interludes and farcical comedies. Their schoolroom, which stood behind the Convocation House near St. Paul’s, was their stage; but about the year 1580 the citizens, bent on driving all players out of the city, caused it to be removed. The plague had, as usual, caused great ravages in London, and it was thought that the actors were great means of spreading it, wherefore their performances were altogether prohibited. When the ’Children of Paul’ performed out of their own premises, it was generally the Blackfriars Theatre they resorted to. When they performed in the school-house the admission was 2d. This charge was made to keep the company select, and according to a passage in ’Jacke Drum’s Entertainment,’ first printed in 1601, it _was_ select: ’SIR EDWARD: I saw the "Children of Paul’s" last night, and troth, they pleased me prettie, prettie well. The apes in time will do it handsomely. ’PLANET: I like the audience that frequenteth there with much applause. A man shall not be choked with the stench of garlick, nor be passed to the barmy jacket of a beer brewer.’