Stage Licensing Act

June 21 1737.

History

The idea of theatre restrictions was first discussed in Parliament in 1735 when, one year after the general elections, famous playwrights like Henry Fielding expressed themselves very critically on politics, the contemporary government and the literary establishment, i.e. the hegemonic structures in theatre management. Fielding, who was renowned for his comedies, began to publish political satires in which he directly and boldly attacked Sir Robert Walpole. These works were seen as the main motive for the final creation of the Stage Licensing Act but it was the offensive satire The Golden Rump written by an unknown author which initiated the enactment.

Consequences

With the Stage Licensing Act Walpole forced plays as well as their prologues and epilogues under direct legal supervision. Every play had to be presented to and to be controlled by the Lord Chamberlain before being allowed to be performed. The Lord Chamberlain alone had the power to approve it, to censor or adapt certain inappropriate parts if necessary or even to deny the production. Furthermore, all but two London theatres had to close down and by that a stop was put to the competition among the theatres. That ended the boom of new plays and genres that began in the 1720s. Only the remaining two licensed theatres, also called patent theatres, Drury Lane and Convent Garden were allowed to stage licensed plays. Non-patent theatres, for instance the Little Theatre in Haymarket or Lincoln Inn Fields, avoided the censorship of the Stage Licensing Act by performing other genres such as pantomime, melodrama, opera, ballet or burlesque, therefore shows which contained music or musical interludes, and for that reason were not categorised as plays but as illegitimate theatre.

Abolishment

The Stage Licensing Act was repealed only in 1968 after shaping London's theatre world for more than two hundred years.

Sources

• Nettleton, George Henry. “§ 17 Stage Political Satire and the Licensing Act of 1737”. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in Eighteen Volumes (1907 – 1921). 13th November 2013 http://www.bartleby.com/220/0417.html.

• Parry, Dawn. 2006. “The Background and Impact of the Stage Licensing Act of 1737.” Historical Register for the Year 1736. Thomas Kinsella's Spring 2006 Literary Research class, Richard Stockton College of NJ, ed. 17th December 2013 http://loki.stockton.edu/~kinsellt/projects/hr1736/stage.html.

• Straughn, Danielle. 2006. “Damage Done: Effects of the Licensing Act of 1737 on the London Theatre and beyond.” Historical Register for the Year 1736. 2006. Thomas Kinsella's Spring 2006 Literary Research class, Richard Stockton College of NJ, ed. 17th December 2013 http://loki.stockton.edu/~kinsellt/projects/hr1736/storyReader$22.html

• The Theatres Trust, ed. Eighteenth-Century Theatre. 28th October 2013 http://www.theatrestrust.org.uk/resources/exploring-theatres/history-of-theatres/eighteenth-century-theatre.

• Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University, ed. “Henry Fielding and the Licensing Act.” The Stockton Axson Eighteenth-Century Drama Archive. 13th November 2013 http://exhibits.library.rice.edu/exhibits/show/axson/henryfielding/licensingact.