''Histriomastix: The Player's Scourge, or Actor's Tragedy'' published in 1632 is a critique of professional theatre and actors, written by the
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...
author and controversialist
William Prynne
William Prynne (1600 – 24 October 1669), an English lawyer, voluble author, polemicist and political figure, was a prominent Puritan opponent of church policy under William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (1633–1645). His views were Presbyter ...
.
Publication
While the publishing history of the work is not absolutely clear, ''Histriomastix'' was published late in 1632 by the bookseller Michael Sparke. It had been in preparation by its author for almost ten years before its printing.
The title page of the first edition is erroneously dated 1633; as a result many sources cite this as the date of publication. Depositions given in connection with Prynne's trial indicate that the actual writing of the text was accomplished between spring 1631 and mid-to-late 1632.
Themes
''Histriomastix'' represents the culmination of the Puritan attack on the
English Renaissance theatre and celebrations such as
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...
, as noted in the following: "Our Christmas lords of misrule, together with dancing, masks,
mummeries, state players, and such other Christmas disorders, now in use with Christians, were derived from these Roman
Saturnalia
Saturnalia is an Roman festivals, ancient Roman festival and holiday in honour of the List of Roman deities, god Saturn (mythology), Saturn, held on 17 December in the Julian calendar and later expanded with festivities until 19 December. By t ...
and
Bacchanalian
The Bacchanalia were unofficial, privately funded popular Roman festivals of Bacchus, based on various religious ecstasy, ecstatic elements of the Greek Dionysia. They were almost certainly associated with Rome's native cult of Liber, and proba ...
festivals, which should cause all pious Christians eternally to abominate them."
Running to over a thousand pages, and with a main title of 43 lines, ''Histriomastix'' marshals a multitude of ancient and medieval authorities against the "sin" of dramatic performance. The book condemns most aspects of dramatic performance in its era, from the practice of boy actors representing women to the "obscene lascivious love songs, most melodiously chanted out upon the stage...."
Theological and political context
Prynne's book was not by any means the first such attack on the stage, though it certainly was the longest. Its Puritan theology was in any case unwelcome to the civil authorities, led by
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...
William Noy.
Trial and sentence
Prynne was imprisoned in 1633 but not tried until 1634, at which time he had to appear before the
Star Chamber on a charge of
seditious libel. Prosecuted by the
barrister
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...
William Hudson on behalf of Noy, he was defended by
Edward Atkyns and
John Herne. Sentence on Prynne was pronounced by
Lord Cottington, and the other judges (
Sir John Coke,
Robert Heath, the
Earl of Pembroke
Earl of Pembroke is a title in the Peerage of England that was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title, which is associated with Pembroke, Pembrokeshire in West Wales, has been recreated ten times from its origin ...
, and
Sir Thomas Richardson) concurred.
At Prynne's trial, some fifty separate and allegedly seditious excerpts from the book were quoted; but the one that has attracted most attention from subsequent critics is Prynne's attack on women actors as "notorious whores." Though Prynne's text made clear he was referring to French actresses who had recently performed at Blackfriars, the remark was, at the time, taken as a direct reference to Queen
Henrietta Maria
Henrietta Maria of France (French language, French: ''Henriette Marie''; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England, List of Scottish royal consorts, Scotland and Ireland from her marriage to K ...
. The Queen had had a speaking role in
Walter Montagu's masque ''
The Shepherd's Paradise,'' which was staged on January 9, 1633, most likely after Prynne's book was in print, but she had also appeared and danced in two earlier masques and performed a spoken part in French in a private performance of
Honorat de Racan's pastoral
The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...
, ''Artenice,'' in 1626.
In the end, Prynne was sentenced to be
pilloried twice, fined £5,000, and imprisoned for life. In addition, his book was to be burned by the common hangman, and he was expelled from his university, prohibited from practicing law, and mutilated by the severance of his ears. During his imprisonment, Prynne continued to produce anonymous pamphlets attacking leaders of the
Anglican Church, which induced the authorities, in 1637, to inflict further mutilation: first, the surviving stumps of his severed ears were cut off, and, second, his cheeks were branded with the letters “S.L.” The letters represented the words “Seditious Libeler,” but since his biting words sometimes attacked
Archbishop Laud, Prynne preferred to render them as “Stigmata Laudis,” or, “the marks of Laud.”
Purported retraction
Not long before the execution of
Charles I, which occurred on 30 January 1649, a tract began to circulate, datelined "London, printed in the year 1649," and bearing the title ''Mr. William Prynn His Defence of Stage Plays in a Retractation of a former Book of his called Histrio-Mastix''. Written in Prynne’s style and under his name, the text purported to be a retraction of the sentiments expressed in ''Histriomastix''. Prynne responded with a “posting-bill,” or flyer, of his own under the title “Vindication,” which bore the date January 10, 1648, oddly a full year before the publication of the alleged retraction. In 1825, the
antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic si ...
E. W. Brayley undertook to expose the “retraction” as a hoax in a slim volume entitled ''An Enquiry into the Genuineness of Prynne’s “Defense of Stage Plays,”'' and his argument addresses, in part, the anomaly of the dates by explaining the slow acceptance of the
calendar reforms of 1582.
Aftermath
Prynne was released from prison during the Long Parliament. The notorious book was never fully suppressed; however, in the next generation, even King
Charles II had a copy in his library.
See also
*
-mastix
References
Further reading
* ''The Idolatrous Eye: Iconoclasm and Theater in Early Modern England'' by Michael O'Connell contains an attempt to shed light on the Puritans' fanatical opposition to the theatre.
* ''Ungodly Delights: Puritan Opposition to the Theatre 1576-1633'' by Colin Rice .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Histriomastix
1632 books
British drama
Henrietta Maria of France
Non-fiction books about theatre