[922] It is probably unnecessary to take literally Arabella Stuart's letter of 16 Feb. 1603 to Edward Talbot (Bradley, Arabella Stuart, i. 128; ii. 119), 'I am as unjustly accused of contriving a comedy, as you (on my conscience) a tragedy'.
[923] Von Raumer, ii. 206.
[924] Winwood, ii. 54. Furnivall, Stubbes, 79*, tried in vain to identify a manuscript tract on the abusive attacks of players stated by Haslewood in Gentleman's Magazine (1816), lxxxvi. 1. 205, to be in the British Museum. Possibly it was Sloane MS. 3543, ff. 19ᵛ, 49, a Treatise Apologeticall for Huntinge, which refers to the 'taxation' of James on the stage for his love of sport; cf. R. Simpson in N. S. S. Trans. (1874), 375, and E. J. L. Scott in Athenaeum (1896), i. 756.
[925] Cf. ch. xii (Chapel).
[926] Sir Edward Conway to the Privy Council, 12 Aug. 1624 (Chalmers, Apology, 500, from S. P. D. Charles I, clxxi. 39), 'His Majesty remembers well there was a commandment and restraint given against the representing of any modern Christian Kings in those stage-plays'. This was written about the performance of Middleton's A Game of Chess, reflecting on the Spanish policy of James I, by the King's men; cf. M. S. C. i. 379. Other post-Shakespearian indiscretions were a performance of a play on the Marquis D'Ancre by an unnamed company in 1617 (M. S. C. i. 376), and one of Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt by the King's men in 1619 (Bullen, O. E. P. iv. 381, from S. P. D. James cx. 37); cf. Gildersleeve, 113.
[927] This work is not directly concerned with the literary content of stage-plays. But I may be allowed to express the opinion that the search for the 'topical' in Elizabethan drama has been pushed beyond the limits of good sense. Thus I agree with P. W. Long, The Purport of Lyly's Endimion (M. L. A. xxiv. 164), that there is little ground for the elaborate theories of a dramatization of Elizabeth's personal amours propounded successively by N. J. Halpin, Oberon's Vision (Sh. Soc. 1843), G. P. Baker, Lyly's Endymion (1894), xli, and R. W. Bond, Works of Lyly (1902), iii. 81. Similarly the conjectures of R. Simpson in his School of Shakespeare (1878) and elsewhere, and of Fleay, and of most of the writers, other than Small, on the 'war of the theatres' require handling with the utmost caution.
[928] Winwood, ii. 41.
[929] Gildersleeve, 108, from Hist. MSS. iii. 57.
[930] 7 N. Q. iii. 126; Hist. MSS. iii. 62; S. P. D. Jac. I, lxxvii. 58 (John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton); Burn, 78, from Harl. MS. 1227. Yorke was fined and imprisoned with his wife and brothers, 'pur admittinge de certeigne comon players (vizᵗ) les Simpsons de player en son meason un enterlude in q. la fuit disputation perenter Popish preist et English minister et le preist est de convince le minister in argument et le weapon de le minister esteant le bible et le preist le crosse et le Diabole fuit counterfeit la de prender le English minister et son Angle prist le preist per q. enterlude le religion ore profeste fuit grandment scandall et pluss del audience fueront recusants.... Le cheife Justice [Coke?] dit q. players de enterludes sont Rogues per le statute ... et le very bringing de religion sur le stage est libell.' On the career of the Simpsons, cf. ch. ix. The actual offence may have been some years earlier than the Star Chamber sitting of 1614, for Devon, 261, records a payment to the Keeper of the Gatehouse at Westminster for the diet of Lady Julian, wife of Sir John Yorke, as a prisoner from 5 Nov. 1611 to 13 Oct. 1613. The Yorkes were not of those who learn by experience, for in 1628 the Star Chamber sentenced Christopher Malloy for playing the devil in a performance at Sir John Yorke's house in Yorkshire, in which part he carried King James on his back to hell, and alleged that all Protestants were damned (Burn, 119).
[931] Dekker, Work for Armourers (1609, Works, iv. 96), 'Tearme times, when the Twopeny Clients and Peny Stinkards swarme together to heere the Stagerites'.