under noble patronage. And now the Church raised its voice,
and a controversy which still possesses some vitality touching the
morality or immorality of playhouses, plays and players, was fairly
and formally entered upon. A sermon preached at Paul's Cross,
November, 1577, "in the time of the plague," by the Rev. T. Wilcocks,
denounced in strong language the "common plays" in London, and the
multitude that flocked to them and followed them, and described "the
sumptuous theatre houses" as a continual monument of London's
prodigality and folly. Performances, it seems, had for a while been
forbidden because of the plague. "I like the policy well if it hold
still," said the preacher; "for a disease is but bodged and patched up
that is not cured in the cause, and the cause of plague is sin, if you
look to it well; and the cause of sin are playes; therefore, the cause
of plagues are playes." It is clear, too, that the clergy had become
affected by a certain jealousy of the players, the sound of whose
trumpet attracted more attention than the ringing of the church-bells,
and brought together a larger audience. John Stockwood, schoolmaster
of Tunbridge, who preached at Paul's Cross on St. Bartholomew's Day,
1578, demanded, "will not a filthy play, with the blast of a trumpet,
sooner call thither a thousand than an hour's tolling bring to the
sermon a hundred?" It was, moreover, an especial grievance to the
devout at this period that plays were represented on a Sunday, the
church and the theatre being thus brought into positive rivalry and
antagonism. The clergy saw with dismay that their own congregations
were thin and listless, while crowded and excited audiences rewarded
the exertions of the players. Mr. Stockwood, declining to discuss
whether plays were or not wholly unlawful, yet protested with good
reason that in a Christian commonwealth they were intolerable on the
seventh day, and exclaimed against the "horrible profanity" and
"devilish inventions" of the lords of misrule, morrice, and May-day
dancers, whom he accused of tripping about the church, even during the
hours of service, and of figuring in costumes which, by their texture
and scantiness, outraged ordinary notions of decency.

But notwithstanding this old-established opposition to the theatres on
the part of both Churchmen and Puritans, and the severe oppression of
the players by the authorities, it is yet indisputable that the
English were essentially a playgoin