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ReadingWillow structured literacy program for Australian students
Poetry Library

— Stephen Crane

I stood upon a high place,

And saw, below, many devils

Running, leaping,

And carousing in sin.

…

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noun

A person whose profession is acting on the stage, in films, or on television.

“The lead actor delivered a powerful performance that moved the entire audience to tears.”

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Xvi RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE STAGE.

40 lines
Ben Jonson·1572–1637
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Supplement to Shakspeare,” to which work we referour readers for further information. And now the theatre seems to have been at its heightof glory and reputation. Dramatic authors abounded,and every year produced a number of new plays : sogreat, indeed, was the passion at this time for shewor representation, that it was the fashion for the nobi-lity to celebrate their weddings, birth-days, and otheroccasions of rejoicing, with masks and interludes,which were exhibited with surprising expence; thatgreat architect Inigo Jones being frequently employedto furnish decorations with all the magnificence ofhis invention. The king and his lords, the queenand her ladies, frequently performed in these masquesat court, and all the nobility in their own privatehomes : in short, no public entertainment wasthought complete without them; and to this humourit is we owe (and perhaps it is all we owe it) the ini-mitable masque of Cotnus by Milton, performed atLudlow Castle ; for the same universal eagerness aftertheatrical diversions continued during the whole reignof King James, and great part of Charles 1. till puri-tanism, which had now gathered great strength, openlyopposed them as wicRecl and diabolical. Bui purita-msm, from a thousand concurrent causes, every dayincreasing, in a little time overturned the constitu-tion ; and amongst their many reformations this wasone, the total suppression of all plavs and playhouses. This event took place on the 1 1th day of February,iG47'» at which time an ordinance was issued by theLords and Commons, whereby all stage-players, andplayers of interludes and common plays, were declaredto be rogues, and liable to be punished according tothe statutes of the 3Qth of Queen Elizabeth, and 7thof King James I. The Lord Mayor, justices of thepeace, and sheriffs of the city of London and West-minster, and of the counties of Middlesex and Surrey,were likewise authorized and required to pull downand demolish all playhouses within their jurisdiction,and apprehend any persons convicted of acting, who
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