Dear Mr Godshalk:
Until Prof. Berry's study comes out, the classic treatment
remains, I believe, Leslie Hotson, _The Commonwealth and Restoration
Stage_ (Cambridge, Mass., 1928; new (revised?) edn NY, 1962). The only
legal basis for suppressing plays was a resolution of the Long Parliament
in 1642 'that stage plays be forborne for this time', which after a few
years was increasingly regarded as obsolete, and which lost any validity
it ever had when Cromwell dissolved that parliament. I remember coming
across a letter of a royalist (John Evelyn?) to Edward Hyde, Lord
Clarendon at the court of the exiled king in Paris, I think in 1653, that
Cromwell's new parliament was considering a bill 'to put down stage plays'
(_Calendar of State Papers Domestic_, I think). This surely implies there
were plays to put down, and Hotson provided evidence that the players at
the Red Bull went on playing in a more or less clandestine fashion (with
sporadic 'raids' by Cromwell's Ironsides) all through the Protectorate. I
hope that's helpful.
WILLIAM COOKE
On Wed, 11 Sep 1996, W. L. Godshalk wrote:
> I was told or read that at least one theatre in London survived throughout
> the seventeenth century interregnum, and so the acting tradition was not
> completely obliterated by the Commonwealth.
>
> However, I can no longer find the source of this information. Can anyone
> give me a quick nudge in the right direction?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Yours, Bill Godshalk
> **********************************************
> * W. L. Godshalk *
> * Professor, Department of English
> * University of Cincinnati *
> * Cincinnati OH 45221-0069 * Stellar Disorder
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