Write a short essay on the closure of the theaters by the Puritans.
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THERE never was such a general passion
for dramatic entertainments as during the Elizabethan period; the art was
thoroughly studied and understood, as how could it be otherwise under the reign
of such dramatists as Jonson, Beaumont
and Fletcher, and Shakespeare? The actors lived in their fine old
substantial city houses, or in grand country manors, such as Edward
Alleyn inhabited at Dulwich, esteemed
and sought after by the best people, and if commonly prudent, died rich and
honored. Their worst enemy was the plague; while it raged, and that was pretty
frequently, all theaters were closed, and they had to migrate into the country,
which was not profitable.
But as Puritanism advanced, the prosperity
of the theatrical profession began to decline. In 1622 there were but four
principal companies--the King's, which acted at the Blackfriars and the Globe;
the Prince's, at the Curtain; the Palgrave's, at the Fortune; the Queen of
Bohemia's, at the Cockpit. 1629 was the first year in which a female performer
was seen in the English theater. The innovation was introduced by a French
company, but the women were hissed and pippin-pelted off the stage. This was at
the new theater just opened in Salisbury Court. Three weeks afterwards they
made a second attempt, but the audience would not tolerate them. King Charles
and his Queen had a great love for dramatic entertainments; the latter
frequently took part in the Court Masques, which brought down upon her the
brutal language of that canting fellow Prynne. Yet in 1635 Sir Henry Herbert,
the Master of the Revels, under whose jurisdiction all theatrical affairs were
then placed, mentions only the King's company under Lowin and Taylor at
Blackfriars, the Queens under Beeston at the Cockpit, the Prince's under Moore
and Kane at the Fortune; in the next year he adds a fourth, doubtless Salisbury
Court, to the list, which house was probably closed on the previous date.
On
the 6th of September, 1642, the theaters were closed by ordinance, it being
considered not seemly to indulge in any kind of diversions or amusements in
such troublous times. In 1647 another and more imperative order was issued, in
consequence of certain infractions of the previous one, threatening to imprison
and punish as rogues all who broke its enactments. Close upon the heels of this
second came a third, which declared all players to be rogues and vagabonds, and
authorized the justices of the peace to demolish all stage galleries and seats;
any actor discovered in the exercise of his vocation should for the first
offense be whipped, for the second be treated as an incorrigible rogue, and
every person found witnessing the performance of a stage play should be fined
five shillings.