LOVEW. After all, I have been told, that Stage-Plays are inconsistant with the Laws of this Kingdom, and Players made Rogues by Statute.
TRUM. He that told you so strain'd a point of Truth. I never met with any Law wholly to suppress them: Sometimes indeed they have been prohibited for a Season; as in times of _Lent_, general Mourning or publick Calamities, or upon other occasions, when the Government saw fit. Thus by Proclamation, 7 of _April_, in the first Year of Queen _Elizabeth_, Plays and Interludes were forbid till _All hallow-tide_ next following. _Hollinshed_, p. 1184. Some Statutes have been made for their Regulation or Reformation, not general suppression. By the Stat. 39 _Eliz._ c. 4, (which was made _for the suppressing of Rogues, Vagabonds and sturdy Beggars_) it is enacted,
S. 2, That all persons that be, or utter themselves to be, Proctors, Procurers, Patent gatherers, or Collectors for Gaols, Prisons or Hospitals, or Fencers, Barewards, common players of Interludes and Ministrels, wandering abroad, (other than Players of Interludes belonging to any Baron of this Realm, or any other honourable Personage of greater Degree, to be authoriz'd to play under the Hand and Seal of Arms of such Baron or Personage) All Juglers, Tinkers, Pedlers, and Petty chapmen, wandering abroad, all wandring Persons, &c. able in Body, using loytering, and refusing to work for such reasonable Wages as is commonly given, &c. These shall be ajudged and deemed Rogues, Vagabonds and sturdy Beggars, and punished as such.
LOVEW. But this priviledge of Authorizing or Licensing, is taken away by the Stat. 1 _Ja._ 1. ch. 7, S. 1, and therefore all of them (as Mr. _Collier_ says, p. 242) are expresly brought under the foresaid Penalty, without distinction.
TRUM. If he means all Players, without distinction, 'tis a great Mistake. For the force of the Queens Statute extends only to _wandring Players_, and not to such as are the King or Queen's Servants, and establisht in settled Houses by Royal Authority. On such, the ill Character of vagrant Players (or as they are now called, Strolers) can cast no more aspersion, than the wandring Proctors, in the same Statute mentioned, on those of _Doctors-Commons_. By a Stat. made _3 Ja._ I. ch. 21. It was enacted,