Sabbath Theatricals.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 238, 21 January 1888, Page 5

Sabbath Theatricals.

It is not generally known that theatrical representation took place on Sun- k days in the olden time, but such is undoube,dtly the fact. During the reign of Elizabeth plays were exhibited in the pub.lie theatres on Sundays as well as on other days of the week. The license ' granted by that queen to James Bur- ' bage in" 1574 shows that they were then represented on that day * out of the hours of prayer. 1 ' • , We are told by John , Field, in his « Declaration of God's Judgment at , Paris Garden' (1584), that ' about the , yeare 1580 the magistrates of the Citye ior London obtained from Queen* JElizabetb, of famous memory, that all -heathenish plaies arid interludes should , be, banished on Sabbath dayes. 1 .This prohibition, However, probably lasted but for a short time, for her Majesty, when she visited; Oxford in 1592, did not scruple to be at theatrical exhibition on the night of Sunday, the 24th of September in that year. During the reign of James 1., Jhough ', dramatic performanqes were given at Court on Sundays, *no ' play was publicly represented on those days ; and by the. Statue ;, ( 3,' ( Charles 1., chap. 1, their , exhibition on the. Sabbath day was absolutely prohibited, yet, notwithstandr. * irig this act of Parliament,both plays and " masques were, performed at Court on. Sundays during the first sixteen years. -. -cf that king's reignf/ and certainly in private houses;; if not on the public stage. . A long account* and condemnation of these entertaiments may be found in, a Purifyfajcal work published in defence ,of Collier in 1699, entitled * The Stage Condemned.'