Page "belles_lettres" Paragraph 1152

According to William Ringler's study, Stephen Gosson, the theater business in London had become a thriving enterprise by 1577, and, in the opinion of many, a thoroughly bad business.

Aroused by what they considered an evil influence, some members of the clergy, joined by city authorities, merchants, and master craftsmen, began the attack on the plays and the actors for what they called `` the abuses of the art '', but by 1582 some of them began to denounce the whole idea of acting.

Although this kind of wholesale objection came at first from some men who were not technically Puritans, still, once the Puritans gained power, they climaxed the affair by passing the infamous ordinance of 1642 which decreed that all `` public stage-plays shall cease and be forborne ''.

With that act of Parliament the opponents of the stage won the day, and for more than two decades after that England had no legitimate public drama.