But it had been usual, apparently, with the title of the drama, to supply the name of its author, and its description as a tragedy or comedy.

Shirley, in the prologue to his "Cardinal," apologises for calling it only a "play" in the bill: Think what you please, we call it but a "play:" Whether the comic muse, or lady's love, Romance or direful tragedy it prove, The bill determines not.
From a later passage in the same prologue Mr.Collier judges that the titles of tragedies were usually printed, for the sake of distinction, in red ink: -- --and you would be Persuaded I would have't a comedy For all the purple in the name.
But this may be a reference to the colour of a cardinal's robes.

There is probably no playbill extant of an earlier date than 1663.

About this time, in the case of a new play, it was usual to state in the bill that it had been "never acted before." In the earliest days of the stage, before the invention of printing, the announcement that theatrical performances were about to be exhibited was made by sound of trumpet, much after the manner of modern strollers and showmen at fairs and street-corners.

Indeed, long after playbills had become common, this musical advertisement was still requisite for the due information of the unlettered patrons of the stage.