Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-21T18:54:16.752Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

18 - The condition of the theatres in 1642

from PART III - JACOBEAN AND CAROLINE THEATRE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Martin Butler
Edited by
Jane Milling  and
Peter Thomson
Jane Milling
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
Peter Thomson
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
Get access

Summary

The London theatres had been active for barely eight months of 1642 when their operations were peremptorily halted by order of Parliament. On 2 September, a directive was issued from Westminster commanding that performances of stage plays should cease forthwith.

Whereas the distressed Estate of Ireland, steeped in her own Blood, and the distracted Estate of England, threatened with a Cloud of Blood by a Civil War, call for all possible Means to appease and avert the Wrath of God, appearing in these Judgements; amongst which, Fasting and Prayer, having been often tried to be very effectual, have been lately and are still enjoined; and where as Public Sports do not well agree with public Calamities, nor Public Stage-plays with the Seasons of Humiliation, this being an Exercise of sad and pious Solemnity, and the other being Spectacles of Pleasure, too commonly expressing lascivious Mirth and Levity: It is therefore thought fit, and Ordained, by the Lords and Commons in this Parliament assembled, That while these sad causes and set Times of Humiliation do continue, Public Stage Plays shall cease, and be forborne, instead of which are recommended to the People of this Land the profitable and seasonable considerations of Repentance, Reconciliation, and Peace with God, which probably may produce outward Peace and Prosperity, and bring again Times of Joy and Gladness to these Nations.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of British Theatre , pp. 439 - 457
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bawcutt, N. W. (ed.), The Control and Censorship of Caroline Drama: the Records of Sir Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels 1623–73, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Berry, Herbert, ‘ The Globe bewitched and El Hombre Fiel ’, Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England 1 ( 1984).Google Scholar
Butler, Martin, ‘ Ecclesiastical censorship of early Stuart drama: the case of Jonson's The Magnetic Lady ’, Modern Philology 89 ( 1992).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, Martin, Theatre and Crisis, 1632–1642, Cambridge University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Butler, Martin, ‘ Two playgoers, and the closing of the London theatres, 1642 ’, Theatre Research International 9 ( 1984).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durston, Christopher, ‘ “For the better humiliation of the people”: public days of fasting and thanksgiving during the English revolution ’, The Seventeenth Century 7 ( 1992).Google Scholar
Durston, Christopher, ‘ Puritan rule and the failure of cultural revolution, 1645–1660 ’, in Durston, and Eales, (eds.), The Culture of English Puritanism .
Dutton, Richard, ‘ “Discourse in the players, though no disobedience”: Sir Henry Herbert's problems with the players and Archbishop Laud, 1632–34 ’, The Ben Jonson Journal 5 ( 1998).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Firth, C. H. and Rait, R. S. (eds.), Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 3 vols., Cambridge, 1911.Google Scholar
Fletcher, A., Reform in the Provinces, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Gurr, Andrew, The Shakespearian Playing Companies, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopwood, C. H. and Martin, C. T. (eds.), Middle Temple Records, London: Butterworth, 1904.Google Scholar
Hotson, L., The Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1928.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutton, Ronald, The Rise and Fall of Merry England: the Ritual Year 1400–1700, Oxford University Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Lennam, T. N. S., ‘ Sir Edward Dering's collection of playbooks ’, Shakespeare Quarterly 16 ( 1965).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLuskie, Kathleen, ‘ The plays and the playwrights ’, in Edwards, et al. (eds.), The Revels History of Drama in English , IV .
Milhous, Judith and Hume, Robert D., ‘ New light on English acting companies in 1646, 1648, and 1660 ’, Review of English Studies 42 ( 1991).Google Scholar
Orrell, John, The Theatres of Inigo Jones and John Webb, Cambridge University Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Shirley, James, Dramatic Works and Poems, ed. Gifford, W. and Dyce, A., 6 vols., London: Murray, 1833.Google Scholar
Williams, G. W. and Evans, G. B. (eds.), ‘The History of King Henry the Fourth’ as Revised by Sir Edward Dering, Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1974.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×