After my hartie comendacions. Where my nowe companie of Players haue byn accustomed for the better exercise of their qualitie, & for the seruice of her Maiestie if need soe requier, to plaie this winter time within the Citye at the Crosse kayes in Gracious street. These are to requier & praye your Lo. (the time beinge such as, thankes be to god, there is nowe no danger of the sicknes) to permitt & suffer them soe to doe; The which I praie you the rather to doe for that they haue vndertaken to me that, where heretofore they began not their Plaies till towardes fower a clock, they will now begin at two, & haue don betwene fower and fiue, and will nott vse anie Drumes or trumpettes att all for the callinge of peopell together, and shalbe contributories to the poore of the parishe where they plaie accordinge to their habilities. And soe not dowting of your willingnes to yeeld herevnto, vppon theise resonable condicions, I comitt yow to the Almightie. Noonesuch this viijth of October 1594.
Your lo. lovinge friend,
H. Hounsdon.
To my honorable good friend Sir Richard Martin knight Lo: mayour of the Citie of London.
cii.
[1594, Nov. 3. The Lord Mayor to Lord Burghley, printed M. S. C. i. 74, from Remembrancia, ii. 73. The theatre was doubtless the Swan.]
Langley intending to erect a niew stage on the Banckside & against playes.
My humble duetie remembred to your good L. I vnderstand that one Francis Langley, one of the Alneagers for sealing of cloth, intendeth to erect a niew stage or Theater (as they call it) for thexercising of playes vpon the Banck side. And forasmuch as wee fynd by daily experience the great inconuenience that groweth to this Citie & the government thearof by the sayed playes, I haue embouldened my self to bee an humble suiter to your good L. to bee a means for vs rather to suppresse all such places built for that kynd of exercise, then to erect any more of the same sort. I am not ignorant (my very good L.) what is alleadged by soom for defence of these playes, that the people must haue soom kynd of recreation, & that policie requireth to divert idle heads & other ill disposed from other woorse practize by this kynd of exercize. Whearto may bee answeared (which your good L. for your godly wisedom can far best iudge of) that as honest recreation is a thing very meet for all sorts of men, so no kynd of exercise, beeing of itself corrupt & prophane, can well stand with the good policie of a Christian Common Wealth. And that the sayed playes (as they are handled) ar of that sort, and woork that effect in such as ar present and frequent the same, may soon bee decerned by all that haue any godly vnderstanding & that obserue the fruites & effects of the same, conteining nothing ells but vnchast fables, lascivious divises, shifts of cozenage, & matters of lyke sort, which ar so framed & represented by them, that such as resort to see & hear the same, beeing of the base & refuse sort of people or such yoong gentlemen as haue small regard of credit or conscience, draue the same into example of imitation & not of avoyding the sayed lewd offences. Which may better appear by the qualitie of such as frequent the sayed playes, beeing the ordinary places of meeting for all vagrant persons & maisterles men that hang about the Citie, theeues, horsestealers, whoremoongers, coozeners, conny-catching persones, practizers of treason, & such other lyke, whear they consort and make their matches to the great displeasure of Almightie God & the hurt and annoyance of hir Maiesties people, both in this Citie & other places about, which cannot be clensed of this vngodly sort (which by experience wee fynd to bee the very sinck & contagion not only of this Citie but of this whole Realm), so long as these playes & places of resort ar by authoritie permitted. I omit to trouble your L. with any farther matter how our apprentices and servants ar by this means corrupted & induced hear by to defraud their Maisters, to maintein their vain & prodigall expenses occasioned by such evill and riotous companie, whearinto they fall by these kynd of meetings, to the great hinderance of the trades & traders inhabiting this Citie, and how people of all sorts ar withdrawen thearby from their resort vnto sermons & other Christian exercise, to the great sclaunder of the ghospell & prophanation of the good & godly religion established within this Realm. All which disorders hauing observed & found to bee true, I thought it my duetie, beeing now called to this publique place, to infourm your good L., whome I know to bee a patrone of religion & lover of virtue & an honourable a friend to the State of this Citie, humbly beeseaching you to voutchsafe mee your help for the stay & suppressing, not only of this which is now intended, by directing your lettres to the Iustices of peace of Middlesex & Surrey, but of all other places, if possibly it may bee, whear the sayed playes ar shewed & frequented. And thus crauing pardon for this ouer much length I humbly take my leaue. From London the 3. of November. 1594.
Your L. most humble.
To the right honourable my very good L. the L. high Treasurer of England.