Originally published 1633 | ||
Similar Short View of the Immoralit, Areopagitica: A Speech for the Lib, An Apology for Poetry | ||
Histriomastix: The Player's Scourge, or Actor's Tragedy is a critique of professional theatre and actors, written by the Puritan author and controversialist William Prynne.
Contents
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, 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 and Bacchanalian 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 Attorney General William Noy.
Trial and sentence
Prynne had to appear before the Star Chamber, on a charge of seditious libel. The trial took place in 1634. Prosecuted by William Hudson for 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, and Sir Thomas Richardson) concurred. He was to be pilloried, imprisoned for life and fined £5,000.
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," which was, at the time, taken as a direct reference to Queen Henrietta Maria.
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, Artenice, in 1626.
Aftermath
The notorious book was never fully suppressed, however; in the next generation, even King Charles II had a copy in his library.