London theatre closure 1642

Common card · No. 493792

On 2 September 1642, just after the First English Civil War had begun, the Long Parliament ordered the closure of all London theatres. The order cited the current "times of humiliation" and "sad and pious solemnity", a zeitgeist incompatible with "public stage-plays", which were representative of "lascivious Mirth and Levity". The closure was the culmination of the rising anti-theatrical sentiment among Puritans, and along with William Prynne's Histriomastix (1633), its text was the most notorious attack on theatre in English history. On 24 January 1643, the actors responded to the suppression of the theatre by writing a pamphlet to Parliament titled "The Actors remonstrance or complaint for the silencing of their profession, and banishment from their severall play-houses", in which they also state, "wee have purged our stages of all obscene and scurrilous jests". It was unclear to contemporary audiences whether the intent of the Act was a permanent ban or a temporary response to political...

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