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Excerpt from What Is Wrong With the Stage: Some Notes on the English Theatre From the Earliest Times to the Present Day This tendency was the inevitable outcome of the preceding period of religious dramas, an inuence which had not entirely disappeared when James came to the throne. In fact, at the very time when the sentiment of drama was both wholesome and virile the outcry against it, from the Puritans, was the loudest. So far as the City Corporation's objection went it was due to dislike of interference from the Privy Council; that of the clergy was for economic reasons. And the outcry was always the same - complaints of The daily disorderly exercise of a number of players and playing-houses erected within the City, whereby the youths of the City were greatly corrupted and their manners infected with many evils and ungodly qualities by reason of the wanton and profane devices presented on the stage. Here suspicion is aroused by the vague nature of the charges made, as regards the ethical teaching of the plays, and the Corporation never attempted a definition of their accusations. Indeed, the root of the objection was obvious to those who lived within the city walls. The Corporation represented the business interests of the com munity, and merchants found the actors a sore hindrance to trade, with their afternoon performances given in the Inn Yards, after parading the narrow thoroughfares with drum and colours in order to collect an audi ence which would be sure to include many apprentices who were more interested in what they heard at the theatre than in what they were selling behind the counter. Again, London was a city of churches which were in close touch with the Livery Companies, so that the Corporation was bound to defend the interests of the clergy who complained that the theatres were better attended than the churches. Thus the Privy Council was often called upon, by the Corporation, to condemn the conduct of actors who wore the of the very noblemen wh