g people; proud, as well they might
be, of the fact that they possessed the finest drama and the best
actors in the world. And, allowing for the licence and grossness which
the times permitted if they did not encourage, and a certain liberty
of speech and action allowed time out of mind to the clowns of the
stage, the drama suppressed by the Puritans was of sound and wholesome
constitution, rich in poetry of the noblest class. It is sufficient to
say, indeed, that it was the drama of Shakespeare and his
contemporaries. To a very large class, therefore, the persecution of
the players and the suppression of the stage must have been grave
misfortune and real privation. To many the theatre still supplied not
merely recreation but education and enlightenment as well. That there
was any rising of the public on behalf of the players does not appear.
Puritanism was too strong for opposition; and besides, the playgoer,
by the nature of his favourite pursuit, almost avows himself a man of
peace and obedient to the law. The public had to submit, as best it
could, to the tyranny of fanaticism. But that bitter mortification was
felt by very many may be taken for granted.

The authors were deprived of occupation so far as concerned the stage;
they sought other employment for their pens; printing a play, however,
now and then, by way of keeping their hands in as dramatists. The
managers, left with nothing to manage, perhaps turned to trade in
quest of outlet for their energies--the manager has been always
something of the trader. But for the actors, forbidden to act, what
were they to do? They had been constituted Malignants or Royalists
almost by Act of Parliament. The younger players promptly joined the
army of King Charles. Mohun acquired the rank of captain, and at the
close of the war, served in Flanders, receiving the pay of a major.
Hart became a lieutenant of horse, under Sir Thomas Dallison, in the
regiment of Prince Rupert. In the same troop served Burt as cornet,
and Shatterel as quartermaster. Allen, of the Cockpit, was a major and
quartermaster-general at Oxford. Robinson, serving on the side of the
King, was long reputed to have lost his life at the taking of Basing
House. The story went that the Cromwellian General Harrison had, with
his own hands, slain the actor, crying, as he struck him down: "Cursed
is he that doeth the work of the Lord negligently." Chalmers
maintains, however, that an entry in the parish register