Oldys, Motteux and 'The Play'rs Old Motto': The 'Totus Mundus' Conundrum Revisited

Abstract

In the Prolegomena to his 1778 edition of Shakespeare's Plays, George Steevens, drawing on information derived from the antiquary William Oldys, sets down what he takes to have been the motto of the Globe theatre: 'Totus mundus agit histrionem': the whole world acts (or drives) the actor. Once widely accepted, Steevens's account of a Globe motto prompted F. G. Fleay a century later to propose a date for As You Like It on the basis of the motto's similarity to Jaques's speech, 'All the world's a stage'. Recently, though, the tradition of a Globe motto has come under fire. In a penetrating essay Tiffany Stern questions whether Totus Mundus' was really in theatrical use in Shakespeare's time. Her alternative account begins with Richard Steele, who in a 1712 issue of The Spectator cites 'Totus mundus agit Histrionem' (a 'Bit of Latin' which he translates, 'the whole World acts the Player') as an inscription recently 'taken down from the Top of the Stage in Drury Lane', where it stood in plain view. Steele 'does not draw any connection between the motto and Shakespeare or the Globe theatre', Stern remarks, 'but, rather, stresses the familiarity that the tag will have to frequenters of Drury Lane'. Studying the history of this 'Restoration theatre [the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane] with no observable connection to the Globe', Stern concludes, 'we can presumably trace Totus as Drury Lane motto safely back to at least' the Theatre Royal's 1696 renovation and maybe its 1674 reconstruction, but there the trail runs cold. 'There is in fact no evidence that Totus dates from before the Interregnum, let alone from 1599'. (1) That a Globe motto existed is more than I know, but new evidence favours leaving the case open. Overlooked by Stem and others writing on 'Totus Mundus' is Farewel Folly, a farce by the naturalized Huguenot emigre Peter Anthony Motteux (1663-1718), first acted on 18 January 1705 at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane and published two years later. In the last speech of Act 1, Mr Mimic the Player claims to have from a friend these 'lines which he writ for me': Sure all Mankind the Play'rs old Motto shares, The Play'rs act all the World, and all the World the Play'rs. Some have such Parts, they well may blush to own 'em: Yet totus Mundus agit Histrionem. We're all Comedians on the Stage of Life. (2) A friend of Steele's, Motteux addresses from the stage an audience overlapping the readers of The Spectator. But Motteux's claim for 'totus Mundus' as 'the Play'rs old Motto' not only antedates Steele's notice by seven years but pushes the tag further back in theatrical history by characterizing it as old. Can we take Motteux at his word, and if so, how old is 'old'? What is the phrase 'the Play'rs old Motto' worth as evidence for the long association of 'Totus Mundus' with the Drury Lane company or an earlier acting troupe? The strongest argument against drawing historical inferences from Motteux's assignment of an 'old Motto' to 'the Play'rs' is that the allusion appears casual. Reflexive references, always fun in the theatre, seldom provoke scrutiny. When Colley Cibber, playing Mr Mimic, tossed off the line, gesturing perhaps to 'the Top of the Stage', auditors may have drawn a blank. As a 'Bit of Latin', the motto may only have sounded old, the adjective registering faintly as a beat to fill out the metre. (3) This minimalist reading, though, is belied by context. Concluding Act 1, Mr Mimic's allusion caps a debate between tradition and novelty, and is rendered still more emphatic by historical circumstances bearing on Farewel Folly's production, circumstances which thrust into prominence the description of the motto as an old property belonging to 'the Play'rs'. As is well known, in 1695 Thomas Betterton led a splinter group of actors away from Drury Lane to perform in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Wars between the King's Company and the rebels raged on and off for a decade and in January 1705 were in danger of heating up again, for just two days prior to Farewel Folly's performance, Drury Lane controversially launched Arsinoe, the first English opera to be performed in the Italian manner (all-sung), its librettist Motteux himself. …