4 DRAMATIC MONOPOLY. 



trade and manufacture, till at length in the reigns of Elizabeth and 

 James I., these monopolies were carried to such a grievous height, as 

 to be heavily complained of by Sir Edward Coke, who denounced 

 them to be <e against the ancient and fundamental laws of the realm," 

 and (< against Magna Charta, because they were against the liberty 

 and freedom of the subject and the law of the land." Accord- 

 ingly, in the 21st year of the latter prince's reign, an act was 

 "forcibly and vehemently penned for the suppression of all monopolies," 

 enacting (21 Jac. 1. cap. 3.) that <e all monopolies, commissions, 

 grants, licences, charters, and letters patent, granted to any persons, 

 bodies politic or corporate, for the sole buying, selling, making, 

 working, or using of any thing within this realm, or of any other 

 monopolies) or power, or liberty, fyc. should be void." With respect to 

 the power and all-embracing meaning of this provision, Coke says, 

 " this word (sole) is to be applied to five several things, viz. buying, 

 selling, making, working ; and using, four of which are special, and 

 the last, viz. (sole using) so general, as no monopoly can be raised but 

 shall be within the reach of this statute; and yet for more surety these 

 words (or of any other monopolies) are added." 



So hateful had monopolies grown in the eyes of the people, and of 

 the legislature, that the above act was designed to include them in all 

 their possible shapes and varieties. In the next section but one of 

 the same statute, it is declared, that " all persons shall be disabled to 

 have any monopoly, or any such grants as aforesaid ;" and not that 

 only, for that monopolists " were to be punished with the forfeiture 

 of treble damages and double costs, to those whom they attempted to 

 disturb ; and if they procured any action to be stayed by any extra- 

 judicial order, other than the court wherein it was brought, they in- 

 curred the penalties of prcemunire." 



From this act were excepted " patents not exceeding the grant of 

 fourteen years, to authors of new inventions ; also patents concerning 

 printing, saltpetre, gun-powder, great ordnance, and shot," as well 

 as grants or privileges conferred by act of Parliament, and all grants 

 or charters to corporations or cities, their customs, &c. 



There are several instances on record of the operation of this most 

 important statute. And it was decreed by Judge Croke, and agreed 

 to by C. J. Coke, that " the patent to the College of Physicians, that 

 none practise physic but such as are allowed by them, had not been 

 good, if not confirmed by act of Parliament." 



And yet, in face of this statute, and the commentaries upon it above 

 cited, do the managers of Drury Lane and Covent Garden theatres 

 claim the right of sole acting " tragedies, comedies, plays, operas, 

 music-scenes, and all other entertainments of the stage whatsoever," for 

 ever, by virtue of a patent granted nearly two hundred years ago, and 

 which, if it ever pretended to convey such right of monopoly, was in 

 itself ab initio and de facto void, and liable to penal visitation But 

 that such was not the intention on the first granting of the patent to 

 Davenant, by Charles I. in 1639, and which is cited and cancelled by 

 the patents subsequently granted by Charles II. to Davenant and 

 Killigrew, is very evident. This patent of 1639, after giving the 

 licence for building the theatre, collecting the company, and acting 



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