No More Learning

Protests were not wanting against this policy. In 1643, two tracts
appeared : one, The Actors Remonstrance, a humble request for
the restoration of acting rights in return for sweeping reforms,
which, incidentally, gives an interesting glimpse of what went on
behind the scenes of theatrical life; the other, The Players


## p. 408 (#426) ############################################

408 The Puritan Attack upon the Stage
Petition to the Parliament, a piece of satirical verse, which
mocked at the Rump under pretence of appealing to it. The
sauciness of the latter, however, was nothing to that of an un-
known person who, at the beginning of 1649, actually published
a book called Mr William Prynne, his defence of Stage-Playes.
or a Retraction of his former book. Needless to say, the in-
a
dignant victim of this effrontery at once issued a denial of the
charge?
We have now enumerated and described the chief documents
and events relating to the puritan campaign against the stage,
culminating in the victory of 1642. The controversy has never really
died out. It burst forth again in all its old vigour and with all
its characteristic pedantry at the end of the seventeenth century.
Curiously enough it was a high Anglican non-juror, Jeremy Collier,
upon whose shoulders the puritan mantle fell; and his example
was followed, thirty years later, by yet another Jacobite, William
Law, the author of A Serious Call. Even modern writers
have found it difficult to discuss the Elizabethan stage without
ardently defending the puritans who attacked it. Yet the in-
fluence which the early fathers, like distanţ planets, seemed
to exert upon every puritan in turn, the wholesale manner
in which each borrows the arguments and expressions of his pre-
decessor and, above all, the almost complete ignorance displayed
by a large proportion of the assailants as to the real character of
the institution they were attacking, combine to give the whole
discussion an air of academic unreality. This impression, perhaps,
is partly due to controversial methods which appealed forcibly to
the Elizabethan intelligence, but which, by exasperating the
modern reader, blind him to the genuine feeling that lies under
their antiquated and absurd forms. For there can be no doubt
whatever that puritan antipathy amounted to a fierce loathing,
of whose strength a generation living in blander times cannot
have any conception. In a word, the whole movement, from the
outset, was not one for reforming the theatre but for abolishing it.
Proposals for reform came rather from those who wrote in defence
of the theatre, and whose attitude, it may be observed, was, in one
sense, singularly in accord with that of their opponents. In
1 The fortunes of the players under the Commonwealth may be followed in
some detail in James Wright's Historia Histrionica 1699 (reprinted in Hazlitt's
Dodsley (vol. xv), and in Whitelocke's Memorials. It is, perhaps, worth noticing
here that, in 1658, William Cartwright found courage to reprint Heywood's Apology,
under the title an Actor's Vindication.
!


## p. 409 (#427) ############################################

General Aspects of the Controversy 409
the modern sense of the word, at least, they were puritans to
a man. The stage-hater stoutly maintained that the drama did
not and could not fulfil any ethical function. On the other hand,
Bavande, Wager, Lodge, Gager, Nashe and Heywood, one and
all, regarded the drama, first and foremost, as an engine for
moral instruction. That such a man as Heywood should express
himself thus, proves that he had scarcely more understanding than
Stubbes and Prynne of the real nature of the drama which he
represented. No one can pretend that Shakespeare and his fellow
playwrights troubled themselves about theories of conduct. The
defenders of the stage made pitiful attempts to justify their craft
upon moral principles; but, in admitting the subordination of art
to ethics, they had yielded their whole position. Had puritans
only studied the theatre more and the early fathers less, they
might, starting with the premisses which their antagonists gave
them, have made out a much better case for prosecution. They
had all the logic on their side. On the side of the apologists,
.
was all the commonsense-if they could only have seen it !


## p. 410 (#428) ############################################

BIBLIOGRAPHIES
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
VOLS. V AND VI
It may be well, without attempting to do over again part of a task
admirably accomplished by Schelling, F. E. , in the Bibliographical Essay con-
tained in vol. 11 of his Elizabethan Drama, 1558-1642, Boston and New York,
1908, to point out that the bibliographies to the several chapters of the present
volume and its predecessor repeatedly refer to certain works which more or
less cover the whole of the period in question. These works will ordinarily
be cited in the separate bibliographies by the abbreviations added in italics to
the titles in the following lists.
I. COLLECTIONS OF PLAYS.
(This does not include series of volumes of which each contains the plays,
or a selection from the plays, of a single author. )
Amyot, T. and others. A Supplement to Dodsley's Old English Plays.
4 vols. 1853. (Amyot's Suppl. to Dodsley. )
Bang, W. Materialien zur Kunde des älteren englischen Dramas. Louvain,
1902, etc. (In progress. ) (Bang's Materialien. )
Brandl, A. Quellen des weltlichen Dramas in England vor Shakespeare.
Vol. Lxxx of Quellen u. Forschungen zur Sprach- u. Culturgesch, d.
German. Völker. Strassburg, 1898. (Brandls Quellen. )
Bullen, A. H. A Collection of Old English Plays. 4 vols. 1882-5. (Bullen's
Old English Plays. )
Old English Plays. New Series. 3 vols. 1887-90. (Bullen's Old
English Plays, N. S. )
Child, F. J. Four Old Plays. Cambridge, Mass. , 1848. (Four Old Plays. )
Collier, J. P. Five Old Plays illustrative of the early Progress of the
English Drama: The Conflict of Conscience; The Three Triumphs of
Love and Fortune; The Three Ladies of London; The Three Lords and
the Three Ladies of London; A Knack to Know a Knave. Ed. for the
Roxburghe Club. 1851. (Five Old Plays. )
Dilke, (Sir) C. W. Old English Plays; being a selection from the early
dramatic writers. 6 vols. 1814-5. (Dilke's 0. E. P. )
Dodsley's Old English Plays. Ed. Hazlitt, W. C. 15 vols. 1874-6. (Hazlitt's
Dodsley. )
Earlier editions:
A Select Collection of Old Plays. [Ed. by R. D. ) 12 vols. 1744.
(Dodsley (1744). )


## p. 411 (#429) ############################################

General Bibliography
411
A Select Collection of Old Plays. [By R. D. ) Ed. Reed, I. 12 vols.
1780. (Reed's Dodsley. )
A Select Collection of Old Plays. [By R. D. ) New ed. with additional
notes and corrections by the late Isaac Reed, Octavius Gilchrist
and the editor (John Payne Collier). 12 vols. 1825-7. (Collier's
Dodsley. )
Early English Drama Society, Publications of the. Ed. Farmer, J. S. 1906 f.
(E. E. D. Publ. )
Gayley, C. M. Representative English Comedies. With introductory essays,
notes &c. by various writers, under the editorship of C. M. Gayley. From
the beginnings to Shakespeare. Vol. 1. New York, 1903. (Gayley's
R. E. C. )
Hawkins, T. The Origin of the English Drama. 3 vols. Oxford, 1773.
(Origin of E. D. )
Malone Society, Publications of the. 1906, etc. (Malone S. Publ. )
Manly, J. M. Specimens of Pre-Shaksperean Drama. With an intro-
duction, notes and glossary. Vols. I and 11. Boston, 1897-8. New ed.
1900-3. (Manly's Specimens. )
Old English Drama. 3 vols. 1830. (Old E. D. )
Scott, (Sir) Walter. Ancient British Drama. 3 vols. 1810. (Ancient B. D. )
Modern British Drama. 5 vols. 1811. (Modern B. D. )
Simpson, R. The School of Shakspere. 2 vols. 1878. (Simpson. )
Six Old Plays on which Shakespeare founded his Measure for Measure.
Comedy of Errors. The Taming of the Shrew. King John. King
Henry IV and King Henry V. King Lear. 2 vols. 1779. (Six Old
Plays.
)
Tudor Facsimile Texts. Old Plays and other Printed and MS. Rarities.
Ed. Farmer, J. S. 43 vols. 1907, etc. [In progress. ] (Tudor Fac-
simile Texts. )
Lamb, Charles. Specimens of English Dramatic Poets. Ed. Gollanoz, I.
2 vols, 1908. (Lamb's Specimens. )
II. LISTS OF PLAYS AND DRAMATISTS.
Stationers' Company, Register of the, 1554-1560. Transcript by Arber, E.
5 vols. 1875-94. (Indispensable for all independent research. ] (Sta-
tioners' register. )
Henslowe's Diary. Ed. Greg, W. W. Part 1: Text. Part : Commentary.
1904. (The standard edition of the book. ] (Henslowe's Diary. )
Baker, D. E. Biographia Dramatica; or, A Companion to the Playhouse. . . .
Originally compiled, to the year 1764, by David Erskine Baker. Con-
tinued thence, to 1782, by Isaac Reed, and brought down to the end of
November, 1811 . . . by Stephen Jones. 3 vols. 1812. (Biographia
Dramatica. )
Davenport-Adams, W. A Dictionary of the Drama. Vol. I. 1904.
(Davenport-Adams. )
Fleay, F. G. A Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama, 1559-1642.
2 vols. 1891. (Fleay's English Drama. )
- A Chronicle History of the London Stage. 1890. [This earlier work
contains lists of performances and authors. ] (Fleay's Chronicle of
Stage. )
(Genest, J. ) Some Account of the English Stage, from the Restoration in
1660 to 1830. 10 vols Bath, 1832. (Genest. )


## p. 412 (#430) ############################################

412
Bibliography
Greg, W. W. A List of English Plays written before 1643 and printed
before 1700. Bibliographical Society. 1900. (Greg's List of Plays. )
A List of Masques, Pageants, &c. , supplementary to A List of English
Plays. Bibliographical Society. 1902. (Greg's List of Masques. )
Halliwell-Phillipps, J. 0. A Dictionary of Old English Plays. Being a
revision of Baker's Biographia Dramatica. 1860. (Halliwell's Dict. )
Hazlitt, W. C. Handbook to the Popular and Dramatic Literature of Great
Britain, with Supplements. 1867-90. (Hazlitt's Handbook. )
Langbaine, G. An Account of English Dramatic Poets. 1691. (Lang-
baine. ) Revised by Gildon, C. 1699.
Lowe, R. W. A Bibliographical Account of English Theatrical Literature.
1887. (Lowe. )
In addition to the above, the Catalogue of Printed Books in the British
Museum Library will of course be consulted, together with the following
catalogues of special collections :
Capell's Shakespeariana. Catalogue of the Books presented by Edward
Capell to the Library of Trinity College in Cambridge. Compiled by
Greg, W. W. Cambridge, 1903.
Chatsworth. A Catalogue of the Library at Chatsworth. (With preface by
Lacaita, Sir J. P. ) 4 vols. (Privately printed. ) 1879.
Dyce-Forster Collection. A Catalogue of the Printed Books and Manuscripts
bequeathed by the Rev. Alexander Dyce and John Forster. 2 vols. 1879.
III. HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH DRAMA.
Collier, J. P. History of English Dramatic Poetry. New ed. 3 vols. 1879.
(Largely superseded, especially in its earlier and in its concluding
portions, but still to some extent indispensable. ] (Collier. )
Jusserand, J. J. Le Théâtre en Angleterre jusqu'aux prédécesseurs im-
médiats de Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Paris, 1881. (Jusserand's Th. en A. )
Schelling, F. E. Elizabethan Drama. 2 vols. Boston and New York, 1908.
[Invaluable. ] (Schelling's Elizabethan Drama. )
Ward, A. W. History of English Dramatic Literature to the Death of
Queen Anne. 2nd ed. 3 vols. 1899. (Ward. )
For F. G. Fleay's works, which possess an enduring critical as well as
historical value, notwithstanding the excessive amount of conjecture contained
in them, see under sec. II above.
Baker, H. Barton. History of the London Stage and its famous Players.
1904.
Chambers, E. K. The Mediæval Stage. 2 vols. Oxford, 1903. (Chambers. )
Coleridge, S. T. Literary Remains. Vols. 1-11. 1836. (Coleridge. )
Courthope, W. J. History of English Poetry. Vols. 1-III. 1895-1903.
(Courthope. )
Creizenach, W. Geschichte des neueren Dramas. Vols. 1-iv, Part 1.
Halle, 1893-1909. (A standard work. ] (Creizenach. )
Du Méril, E. Histoire de la Comédie. Période Primitive. Paris, 1864. (No
more published. ) (Du Méril. )
Hazlitt, W. C. The English Drama and Stage, under the Tudor and Stuart
Princes, 1543-1664. Illustrated by a series of Documents, Treatises and
Poems. Roxburghe Library, 1869. (Hazlitt's English Drama and':
Stage. )
Herford, C. H. Studies in the literary Relations of England and Germany
in the 16th century. 1886. (Herford's Literary Relations.