The Actors And The Vagran...
The Times, 1824-05-20T00:00:00

it Pamphlet of some ingenuity has just been published on thM subj,ect by a Barrister, entitled A lEtter to a Mfember orf Parliament on the Impropriety of classing 3Play!ers wiitA Rogus5 an' Vagabonds ;-the object of the writer being to show that tte first act which treated the unlicensed player as a vagrant, contemplated a very dif- ferent description of artists fioni our lea(ling performers ot the present lav, and also to remove a slur (if any such exists) which the fact of performers being liable, under aly ircumstances, to be classe(d as vagrants, has enabled the enernies of the stage to cast upon acting as a profession. The original statute to which the 5entlemen of the sock owe this least envliable of their various characters appears to be the39thEliz.-an act which waspassed at a timewhen iothingeven approaching to the character of scenic perform- a"'nee wasknown thrr.ughoutEngland exceptin Lonl( on; and which wasinte,nded (as the author of the pamphlet observes) to sulipre the "common players of interludes," a sort of dtsorderly persons, who went in parties of two or three together, probably mumming about the country at wakes and in alehouse% and who were no more entitled to be tnsidered as "C actors of the dramna," than dusr " clown to the ring of the present (lav, or the man who whips the horses roundl one at As.ley s or Bartholomew-fair. Indleel, the folloWing licence, grantefl by James I. to Burbage, Shakapetre, and Fletcher, sufficiently shows the estimation in which " regular" actors (taking the reason able accepta- tion of the word "1 regular") were held irn that king's day; artd it is not at all improbable that Burbage and Shakspeare, whose influence at Court is known to have been considturable, ight have becn well inclir.ed to favour an act lke that of Elizabeth, wfhichgave them a profitable monopoly of their calling. The lieerce of James (as quoted in the publica- tion before us) runls thus: "I'ro Iaurento Fletcher et WillielmoShakespeare, et ali.s. A. 1. M103. Pat. .Jac. P. 2. m 4.-James, by the grace of God, &c. to all jus- tice, &c. truly. Know you that we have licensed and author.zed shese our serants, Lawrence Fletcher, IVIIiam Shakespeare, Ri- chard Burbage, Augustine Phillippes, John Hemings, Henry Condel, &c. and the rest of their associates, freely to use and exer- cisc the art atd faculty of playing comedies tragedies, histories, in- terludes, morals. pastoral,.,stafe plavs and such like other, as they ave already stud ied., or hereatter shall use or study, as weU for the recreation of our loving subjects, as for our solace and pleasure, w1hen we shall think good to see them, during our pleasure; and the iacd comedies, tragedies, histories, interludes, morals, pastorals, *tage play,, and such like. to show and exercise publicly their best conurodicy, when the infejiors of the plague shaU dccrease, as well 'thn their now usuial houlse caUed the Globe, within our county ?f Surrey; as also within any town-haUl or moute-halls, or other tvnvenient places writhin the liberties and freedom of any other city, university, to gn, or borough whatsoever, within our said realms and dominio us. W1-illing andcommanding you, and eyery of you, as you tender our pleasure, sot only to pernit and suffer them herein, ,-thout any your lets, hindrances, or molestations, during our plea- e, but also to be aiding or as;sisting to thern, if any wrong be to thern offered, and to allow t!em such former curtesies as hath beet given to men of their place and qualitv, and also what further favoler you shall show to these our servants for our sakes, we shall rae kindly atc your hands. "'itness oarself, at Westmin'ter. the 19th day of M ay. Per Breve de privato Sigillo." The law touching Lhe vagrancy of actors, however, as it now stands-upon the acts the loth George II. and 28th O;corge III.-is something misunderstood, or misrepre. sented abroad. A tlayer is nlot a vagrant, any more than a tnember of any other profession, until he is found doing that which the law tleclares to be an act of vagrancy. In fact, the existina law applies equally to all the world-not to persons merely wvho pursue t-hc stage as a trade or bttsi- ness. It -says, that any man who shall be found perform- ing a play, for gain or hire, without some one of the licences or authorities stipulated by law to be flrst obtained ,hall be dealt with 2s a vagrant, if he have no settlement In the place where he ofFends, and finedl S01. (this fine is the whole penalty) if he has a settlement in the place. Now the effect of this obviously is, that he stands ex- actly in the same situation with a vast number of respectable persons who follow trades or professions, which the law says shall only be carried on by licence. It might be as well, perhaps, if, instead of being turned over to the vagrant act itnder any circunstances, the parformer of a play for hire without dlue authority were made liable (in all cases) to a specific penalty-though the necessity of preventing chim- ney-sweepers, from playing Othello, is a question, we ap- prehend, rather of taste than of legislation-but, practical- Fy, as the law stands, actors have no grievance to comr lain or, nor is there one wvord to be found in the Statute BookI which really detracts fromn the respectabilityof their pursuit. 7I;fP AOPoPS AND1 TIlE PAORANT ACT.