Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of contributors
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Patrick Collinson
- 1 Nicolas Pithou: experience, conscience and history in the French civil wars
- 2 Elizabethan players and minstrels and the legislation of 1572 against retainers and vagabonds
- 3 Cleanliness and godliness in early modern England
- 4 Blood is their argument: men of war and soldiers in Shakespeare and others
- 5 Pragmatic readers: knowledge transactions and scholarly services in late Elizabethan England
- 6 The gardens of Sir Nicholas and Sir Francis Bacon: an enigma resolved and a mind explored
- 7 The Protestant idea of marriage in early modern England
- 8 James VI and I: furnishing the churches in his two kingdoms
- 9 A British patriarchy? Ecclesiastical imperialism under the early Stuarts
- 10 The Anglo-Scottish Union 1603–1643: a success?
- 11 Popery, purity and Providence: deciphering the New England experiment
- 12 Provincial preaching on the eve of the Civil War: some West Riding fast sermons
- 13 Popular form, Puritan content? Two Puritan appropriations of the murder pamphlet from mid-seventeenth-century London
- 14 The two ‘National Churches’ of 1691 and 1829
- Bibliography of the published writings of Patrick Collinson, 1957–1992
- Index
2 - Elizabethan players and minstrels and the legislation of 1572 against retainers and vagabonds
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of contributors
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Patrick Collinson
- 1 Nicolas Pithou: experience, conscience and history in the French civil wars
- 2 Elizabethan players and minstrels and the legislation of 1572 against retainers and vagabonds
- 3 Cleanliness and godliness in early modern England
- 4 Blood is their argument: men of war and soldiers in Shakespeare and others
- 5 Pragmatic readers: knowledge transactions and scholarly services in late Elizabethan England
- 6 The gardens of Sir Nicholas and Sir Francis Bacon: an enigma resolved and a mind explored
- 7 The Protestant idea of marriage in early modern England
- 8 James VI and I: furnishing the churches in his two kingdoms
- 9 A British patriarchy? Ecclesiastical imperialism under the early Stuarts
- 10 The Anglo-Scottish Union 1603–1643: a success?
- 11 Popery, purity and Providence: deciphering the New England experiment
- 12 Provincial preaching on the eve of the Civil War: some West Riding fast sermons
- 13 Popular form, Puritan content? Two Puritan appropriations of the murder pamphlet from mid-seventeenth-century London
- 14 The two ‘National Churches’ of 1691 and 1829
- Bibliography of the published writings of Patrick Collinson, 1957–1992
- Index
Summary
Two official measures of 1572 which restricted the movement of the strolling players are generally regarded by historians of the English stage as marking an epoch in its history. According to one of the most recent authorities, the proclamation of 3 January, reviving the existing laws against unlawful retaining, and the statute 14 Elizabeth, c. 5, for the relief of the poor and against rogues and vagabonds, were two of the seven ‘most decisive acts taken by the central government toward the London theatre during the reign of Elizabeth I’. While the cumulative effect of the new regulations was indeed to redefine the social and legal status of the players, the relationship between the measures has not been fully understood: the standard work on the common players, for example, considers the proclamation as a ‘prelude’ to the act and confuses the provisions of two quite distinct pieces of legislation. To appreciate their significance for the fortunes of the players in particular, the proclamation and the act should be examined in the context of the precautions taken by the Elizabethan regime against disorder and sedition in the aftermath of the first major crisis of the reign.
Vagrancy and excessive retaining were perennial problems of Tudor government; they could lead to disorderly assemblies at any time, but in the years between 1568 and 1572 they were perceived to threaten the security of the realm.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Religion, Culture and Society in Early Modern BritainEssays in Honour of Patrick Collinson, pp. 29 - 55Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994
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