ABSTRACT
In the later years of the sixteenth century, clowning became immensely popular in the theatre, especially in the hands of Tarlton and Kemp, and clowns occur regularly in the scenes under discussion. In the first, Pilgrimage to Parnassus, a university play of c. 1599, Dromo begins by bemoaning the universal popularity of the clown - 'a play cannot be without a clown'. Simon in The Mayor of Queenborough (1619/20) testifies that the clown is still widely thought to be the best thing in a play:
Some talk of things of state, of puling stuff; There's nothing in a play to a clown, if he Have grace to hit on't
(V.i)
Sidney, in his Apology for Poetry (published 1595), had deplored those plays that:
thrust in Clowns by head and shoulders, to play a part in majestical matters, with neither decency nor discretion.
