PLAYHOUSE. 
672 
play or addition to an old one, &c. unlefs a true copy 
thereof, ligned by the mailer of the playhoufe, be fent to 
the lord chamberlain fourteen days before aflecl; who may 
prohibit the reprefenting any ftage.play; and perfons 
afting contrary to fuch prohibition, forfeit 50I. and their 
licenfes, &c. No licenfe is to be given to aft plays, but 
in the city and liberties of Weftminfter, or places of his 
majelty’s refidence: but by flat. 28 Geo. III. c. 50, 
the general or quarter feffions may licenfe theatres in 
country towns and places, for 60 days at a time, under 
certain reftridtions. 
By the above Hat. 10 Geo. II. c. 28, every perfon 
afting for hire, (if he fliall have no legal fettlement where 
he adts,) without authority from the king or the lord 
chamberlain, fhall be deemed a rogue and a vagabond, 
and be punifhed as fuch, or forfeit 50I. Plays acted in 
any place where liquors are fold, fliall be deemed to be 
adted for hire. Tumbling is not an entertainment of 
the ftage within the meaning of this ftatute. 6 Term Rep. 
286. 
A pamphlet of fome ingenuity has juft been lately (May 
1824) publilhed by a barrifter, entitled “A Letter to a 
Member of Parliament on the Impropriety of clafting 
Players with Rogues and Vagabonds ;” the objeft of the 
writer being to fhow that the firft aft which treated the 
nnlicenfed player as a vagrant, contemplated a very dif¬ 
ferent defcription of men from our leading performers of 
the prefent day, and alfo to remove a flur (if any fuch 
exifts) which the faft of performers being liable, under 
any circumftances, to be clafled as vagrants, has enabled 
the enemies of the ftage to call upon afting as a profeflion. 
The original ftatute to which the gentlemen of the fock 
owe this leaft enviable of their various charafters appears 
to be the 39th Eliz. an aft which was pafled at a time 
when nothing even approaching to the charafterof fce- 
nic performance was known throughout England, except 
in London j and which was intended (as the author of 
the pamphlet obferves) to fupprefsthe “common players 
of interludes,” a fort of diforderly perfons, who went in 
parties of two or three together, probably mumming 
about the country at wakes and in alehoufes, and who 
were no more entitled to be conlidered as “ adlors of the 
drama,” than our “clown to the ring” of the prefent 
day, or the man who whips the horfes round at Aftley’s 
or Bartholomew-fair. Indeed, the following licenfe, 
granted by James I. to Burbage, Shakefpeare, and Fletcher, 
iufficiently Ibows the eftitnation in which “ regular” ac¬ 
tors (taking the reafonable acceptation of the word “ re¬ 
gular”) were held in that king’s day ; and it is not at all 
improbable that Burbage and Shakefpeare, whofe influence 
at court is known to have been confiderable, might have- 
been well inclined to favour an adt like that of Elizabeth, 
which gave them a profitable monopoly of their calling. 
The licenfe of James (as quoted in the publication 
before us) runs thus: 
“Pro Laurentio Fletcher, et Willielmo Shakefpeare, 
et aliis. A.D. 1603. Pat. 
“ I. Jac. P. 2. m. 4,—James, by the grace of God, &c. 
to all juftices, &c. truly. Know you, that we have ii- 
cenfed and authorized thefe our fervants, Lawrence 
Fletcher, William Shakefpeare, Richard Burbage, Au- 
guftine Phillippes, John Hemings, Henry Condel, &c. 
and the reft of their aflociates, freely to ufe and exercife 
the art and faculty of playing comedies, tragedies, hifto- 
ries, interludes, morals, paftorals, ftage-plays, and fuch 
like other, as they have already ftudied, or hereafter- 
fliall ufe or ftudy, as well for the recreation of our loving 
lubjedts, as for our folace and pleafure, when we fliall 
think good to fee them, during our pleafure; and the 
faid comedies, tragedies, hiftories, interludes, iftorals, 
paftorals, ftage-plays, and fuch like, to fhow and exercife 
publicly their beft commodity, when the infeftion of the 
plague fhall decreafe, as well within their now ufual 
houfe called the Globe, within our county of Surrey ; as 
alfo within any town-halls, or moute-halls, or other con¬ 
venient places within the liberties and freedom of any 
other city, univerfity, town, or borough whatfoever, 
within our faid realms and dominions. Willing and 
commanding you, and every of you, as you tender our 
pleafure, not only to permit and fuffer them herein, 
without any yourlets, hindrances, or moleftations, during 
our pleafure, but alfo to be aiding or aflifting to them, if 
any wrong be to them offered, and to allow them fuch 
former curtefies as hath been given to men of their place 
and quality; and alfo what further favour you fliall fhow 
to thefe our fervants for our fakes, we fhall take kindly 
at your hands. Witnefs ourfelf, at Weftminfter, the 19th 
day of May, 1603. Per Breve de privato Sigillo.” 
The law touching the vagrancy of aftors, however, as 
it now ftands, upon the acts of the 10th George II. and 
28th George III. is fomething mifunderftood or mifre- 
prefented abroad. A player is not a vagrant, any more 
than a member of any other profeflion, until he is found 
doing that which the law declares to bean aft of vagrancy. 
In faft, the exifting law applies equally to all the world; 
not to perfons merely who purfue the ftage as a trade or 
bufinefs. It fays, that any man who fliall be found per¬ 
forming a play, for gain or hire, without fome one of the 
licenfes or authorities ftipulated by law to be firft obtained, 
fliall be dealt with as a vagrant, if he have no fettlement 
in the place where he offends, and fined 50I. (this fine is 
the whole penalty) if he has a fettlement in the place. 
Now the eft’eft of this obvioufly is, that he ftands exaftly 
in the fame fituation with a vaft number of refpeftable 
perfons who follow trades or profeffions, which the law 
fays fliall only be carried on by licenfe. It might be as 
well, perhaps, if, inftead of being turned over to the 
vagrant-aft under any circumftances, the performer of a 
play for hire without due authority were made liable (in 
all cafes) to a fpecific penalty; but, praftically, as the 
law ftands, aftors have no grievance to complain of; nor 
is there one word to be found in the ftatute-book which 
really detracts from the refpeftability of their purfuit. It 
will depend, therefore, upon themfelves, whether they 
fliall be well received in good fociety, and whether invi¬ 
dious diftinftions fliall be forgotten. The refpeftability 
of the prcfeflian has greatly improved within thefe thirty 
years, and during that fpace of time three aftreffes have 
been railed to rank of nobiiity. To conclude : let all 
who are engaged in this feduftive employment endeavour 
to preferve their moral charafter unfullied ; and they will 
meet with their reward. “ Few perfons can dioofe their 
way of life; they are only anfwerable for their manner of 
life.” Gent. Mag. 1732. 
The works to which we have been indebted in the 
compilation of this article, befides thofe whofe titles we 
have given with the paflages quoted from them, are— 
Malone’s Shakefpeare; Biographia Britannica, chiefly the 
Introduftion, and fome books there referred to; Davies’s 
Dramatic Mifcellanies and Life of Garrick; Dibdin’s HtfJ. 
of the Stage; Ency. Britannica and Supplement ; Gent. 
Mag. for 1813, 14, 16, 22, 23. Monthly Mag. vol. xliv. 
Times newfpaper, 1823 and 1824. Examiner, 1822. Lite¬ 
rary Gazette, 1822. New European Mag. for June 1824. 
Plulomathic Journal, N° I. for July 1824. Elines’s Dift. 
of the Fine Arts, Part I. 1824. 
PLAY'MATE,/. Playfellow; companion in amufe- 
ment: 
Mirth and free-mindednefs, fimplicity, 
Patience, difcreetnefs, and benignity ; 
Thefe be the lovely playmates of pure verity. More. 
PLAY'SOME, adj. Wanton ; full of levity.—I have 
heard that when a boy he [Hobbes] was playjome enough ; 
but withall he had then a contemplative melancholinefs, 
Aubrey’s A need. 
PLAY'SOMENESS, f. Wantonnefs; levity. 
PLAY'THING, /. Toy; thing to play with.—A child 
knows its nurfe, and by degrees the playthings of a little 
•, more: 
