Note 1208 — APPENDIX II.

So Ste. Gosson, in his Schoole of Abuse, 1579, 12mo., speaking of the players, says, "These, because they are allowed to play every Sunday, make iiii. or v. Sundayes at least every week," fol. 24. So the author of A Second and Third Blast of Retrait from Plaies, 1580, 12mo. "Let the magistrate but repel them from the libertie of plaeing on the Sabboth-daie.... To plaie on the Sabboth is but a priviledge of sufferance, and might with ease be repelled, were it thoroughly followed." P. 61-62. So again: "Is not the Sabboth of al other daies the most abused?.... Wherefore abuse not so the Sabboth-daie, my brethren; leave not the temple of the Lord." ... "Those unsaverie morsels of unseemelie sentences passing out of the mouth of a ruffenlie plaier, doth more content the hungrie humors of the rude multitude, and carrieth better rellish in their mouthes, than the bread of the worde, &c." Vid. p. 63, 65, 69, &c. I do not recollect that exclamations of this kind occur in Prynne, whence I conclude that this enormity no longer subsisted in this time.

It should also seem, from the author of the Third Blast above quoted, that the churches still continued to be used occasionally for theatres. Thus, in p. 77, he says, that the players (who, as hath been observed, were servants of the nobility), "under the title of their maisters, or as reteiners, are priviledged to roave abroad, and permitted to publish their mametree in everie temple of God, and that throughout England, unto the horrible contempt of praier."