RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE STAGE. XV
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ut long before, were sometimes personal satires, ap-peal’s from a manuscript letter from Sir John Hallies tothe Lord Chancellor Burleigh, found amongst somepapers belonging to the House of Commons, in whichthe knight accuses his lordship of having said severaldishonourable tilings of him and his family, particu-larly that his grandfather, who had then been deadseventy years, was a man so remarkably covetous,that the common players represented him before thecourt with great applause. Thus we see the stage no sooner began to improve,than it grew scurrilous ; and its first marks of sensewere seen in ribaldry and lasciviousness. This occa-sioned much offence; the zeal of the pulpit, and thegravity of the city eqally concurred to condemn it.Many pamphlets were written on both sides. StephenGosson, in the year 1579, published a book, intitled.The School of Abuse, or, A pleasant Invective againstPoets , Pipers , Players , Jesters, and such like Cater-pillars of the Commonwealth; dedicated to Sir PhilipSidney. He also he wrote. Plays confuted in fiveActions; proving that they are not to be suffered in aChristian commonwealth; dedicated to Sir FrancisWalsinghain. The defendants in this controversywere Thomas Lodge, who wrote an old play, called,A Looking-Glass for London and England ; andthat voluminous dramatic writer, Thomas Heywood. But to proceed : the stage soon after recovered itscredit, and rose to a higher pitch than ever. In 1(>03,the first year of King James’s reign, a licence wasgranted under the privy seal to Shakspeare, Fletcher,Burbage, Hemtnings, Condel, and others, authorizingthem to act plays, not only at their usual house, theGlobe on Bank-side, but in any other part of thekingdom, during his majesty’s pleasure. And now,there lived together at this time many eminent players,concerning whom we cannot but lament such imper-fect acccountsare transmitted to us. The little, how-ever, which is known, the reader will find collectedtogether, with great accuracy, by Mr. Malone, in his b 2 ‘
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