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Even this extraordinary severity did not completely put an end to theatrical representations; and on the 13th of September 1648, the House of Commons found it necessary Ordinances from 1640 to 1656; and as it has never been republished in connection with the history of the stage and drama it is here subjoined:— '11th Feby, 1647. For the Suppression of all Stage-Plays and Interludes. Whereas the Acts of Stage-Plays, Interludes and common Plays, condemned by ancient Heathens, and much less to be tolerated amongst professors of the Christian Religion, is the occasion of many and sundry great vices and disorders, tending to the high provocation of God's wrath and displeasure, which lies heavy upon this kingdom, and to the disturbance of the peace thereof; in regard whereof the same hath been prohibited by Ordinance of this present Parliament, and yet is presumed to be practised by divers in contempt thereof: Therefore, for the better suppression of the said Stage-Plays, Interludes and common Players, it is ordered and ordained by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by authority of the same, that all Stage-players and Players of Interludes and common Plays, are hereby declared to be, and are and shall be taken to be Rogues, and punishable within the statutes of the thirty-ninth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and the seventh year of the reign of King James, and liable to the pains and penalties therein contained, and proceeded against according to the said statutes, whether they be wanderers or no, and notwithstanding any Licence whatsoever from the King, or any person or persons to that purpose.

'And it is further ordered and ordained by the authority aforesaid, that the Lord Mayor, Justices of the Peace, and Sheriffs of the City of London and Westminster, and of the Counties of Middlesex and Surrey, or any two or more of them, shall and may and are hereby authorised and required, to pull down and demolish, or cause or procure to be pulled down and demolished, all Stage Galleries, Seats and Boxes, erected or used, or which shall be erected and used, for the acting or playing, or seeing acted or played, such Stage-plays, Interludes and Plays aforesaid, within the said City of London and Liberties thereof, and other places within their respective jurisdictions; and all such common Players and Actors of such Plays and Interludes, as upon view of them or any one of them, or by oath of two witnesses (which they are hereby authorised to administer) shall be proved before them or any two of them, to have acted or played such Plays and Interludes, as

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to appoint a Provost Marshal, whose duty it was, among other matters, to seize all ballad-singers, and to suppress stage-plays. The fact is thus recorded by Whitelocke :—

'13 Sept. 1648:-Captain Bethan made Provost Martial, with power to apprehend such as stayed in town contrary to the ordin

aforesaid, at any time hereafter, or within the space of two months before the time of the said conviction, by their warrant or warrants, under their hands and seals, to cause to be apprehended and openly and publicly whipt in some market town within their several jurisdictions during the time of the said market, and also to cause such offender or offenders to enter into recognizance or recognizances with two sufficient sureties, never to act or play any Plays or Interludes any • more; and shall return in the said recognizance or recognizances into the Sizes or Sessions to be then next holden for the said counties and cities respectively; and to commit to the common jail any such persons, as aforesaid, who shall refuse to be bound and find such sureties as aforesaid, until he or they shall become so bound. And in case any such person or persons, so convicted of the said offence, shall after again offend in the same kind, that then the said person or persons so offending shall be, and is hereby declared to be, and be taken as an incorrigible rogue, and shall be punished and dealt with as an incorrigible rogue ought to be by the said statutes.

'And it is hereby further ordered and ordained, that all and every sum and sums of money gathered, collected, and taken by any person or persons of such persons as shall come to see or be spectators of the said Stage-plays and Interludes, shall be forfeited and paid unto the Churchwardens of the Church or Parish where the said sums shall be so collected and taken, to be disposed of to the use of the poor of the said Parish, and shall from time to time be levied by the said Churchwardens and Constables of the said Parish, by warrant under the hands and seals of any two of the Justices of the Peace of the County, City or Town Corporate where the said sums are so taken and collected, upon complaint thereof to them made, on the goods and chattels of the person or persons collecting the same, or of the person and persons to whom the same shall be paid by them that collect the same, by distress and sale of their goods and chattels, rendering to them the overplus, upon examination of

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ance, and to seize upon all ballad-singers, sellers of malignant pamphlets, and to send them to the several Militias, and to suppress stage-plays.'1

We may conclude, therefore, that the vigilance and activity of the Lord Mayor, Justices, and Sheriffs, had not been sufficient to accomplish the object. Even the Provost Marshal could not prevent clandestine performances; and under

the said persons, or proof made upon oath before the said Justices of the sum or sums so collected and received, which the said Justices are hereby authorized to take and examine.

'And it is hereby further ordered and ordained, that every person or persons which shall be present and a spectator of any such Stage-play or Interlude hereby prohibited, shall for every time he shall be so present, forfeit and pay the sum of five shillings to the use of the poor of the Parish, where the said person or persons shall at that time dwell or sojourn, being convicted thereof by his own confession, or proof of any one witness upon oath, before any one Justice of Peace of the County, City or Town Corporate where the said offence is committed (who is hereby authorized to take the same oath), to be levied by the churchwardens or constables of the said Parish, by warrant of the said Justice of Peace, by distress and sale of the goods of the said person offending, rendering to him the overplus.

'And it is hereby further ordered and ordained, that all Mayors, Bailiffs, Constables and other Officers, Soldiers and other persons, being thereunto required, shall be from time to time, and at all times hereafter, aiding and assisting unto the said Lord Mayor, Justices of the Peace and Sheriffs in the due execution of this Ordinance, upon pain to be fined for their contempt in their neglect or refusal thereof.'

1 Malone is in error in most of his figures when he is speaking of the closing of the theatres at this period. He tells us (Shakespeare by Boswell, iii, 92) that the ordinance (meaning the act) was passed on the 13th of February 1647-8. It was passed on the 9th of February, and promulgated, according to the date in Scobell, on the 11th of February. He gives the date of the appointment of Captain Bethan, 13th of December 1648, when he was made Provost Marshal three months earlier ; and he cites, as his authority, Whitelocke's Memorials, p. 332, when the proper reference is p. 337.

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date of the 20th of December 1649, Whitelocke registers, that 'some stage-players at the Red Bull, in St. John's-street, were apprehended by troopers, their clothes taken away, and themselves carried to prison." The company at Salisbury Court Theatre seems to have been most disobedient to the orders of Parliament; and in the Perfect Occurrences, under date of December 29th, 1648, we are told that they were disturbed, when they were acting a play, the title of which is not given it is added that the military took the players of the fool and of the King to Whitehall, in their dresses, insulting his Majesty by taking off and putting on his crown repeatedly as they proceeded through the streets.

The latest infraction of the act of suppression, of which we have intelligence, occurred at Witney, in Oxfordshire, when Mucedorus was acted by strolling players. They had previously represented it at Moore, Stanlake, Southleigh, Cumner, and other places, so that the law was not very rigidly enforced in that part of the kingdom; and the representation at Witney, on the 3rd of February 1653-4, was not interrupted either by the civil or military authorities, but by an accident by which some lives were lost, and many persons were wounded. John Rowe, of C. C. C. in Oxford, Lecturer to the town of Witney, published an account of the catastrophe in a pamphlet of which the following is the title :-' Tragi-Comœdia. Being a brieff relation of the strange and wonderful hand of God, discovered at Witney in the Comedy acted February the third, where there were some slaine, many hurt, and several other remarkable passages', etc.1

The performance of Davenant's 'opera', as he himself calls

1 Memorials, p. 435, edit. 1732.

2 This tract was printed at Oxford ‘by L. Litchfield for Henry Cripps, 1653-4'.

it,1 The Siege of Rhodes, in 1656, is to be looked upon as the first step towards the revival of dramatic performances, and more properly belongs to the transactions of the reign of Charles II; but we may add here, for the sake of completeness, the following extract from The Public Intelligencer of Dec. 1658.

'A course is ordered for taking into consideration the Opera shewed at the Cockpit in Drury Lane: and the persons to whom it stands referred are to send for the Poet and the Actors, and to inform themselves of the nature of the work, and to examine by what authority the same is exposed to public view. And they are also to take the best information they can concerning the acting of stage-plays, and upon the whole to make report.'

For the same reason, and because it has hitherto been altogether neglected and omitted, we add the copy of a Patent or Licence granted by King Charles II, one of the first of its kind, issued by him after his arrival at Whitehall.

'BY THE KING.

'CHARLES R.-Charles by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc. To all to whom these presents shall come greeting. Whereas we have thought

1 And as it is called in the following lines by Thomas Pecke, in his Parnassi Puerperium, 1659, addressed 'to the egregious poet, Sir Will. Davenant':

That Ben, whose head deserved the Roscian bayes,

Was the first gave the name of works to plays;

You, his corrival, in this waspish age

Are more than Atlas to the fainting stage.

Your Bonus Genius you this way display,

And to delight us in your Opera.

The sense seems incomplete; but the author does not show, in any part of his work, that he had much of that commodity to spare: to read do or so for to in the last line might improve it.

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