"Not Roscius nor Aesope, those admired tragedians that have lived ever since before Christ was born, could ever perform more in action than famous Ned Allen" - Thomas Nashe, Pierce Penilesse (1592)
Edward Alleyn (1566-1626) was one of the most prominent actors in Elizabethan England. In William Prynne's 1632 Puritanical critique of drama and performance, Histriomastix, it is recorded that during a performance of Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus actual devils jumped through a mirror onto the stage during one of the conjuration scenes. Prynne claimed that some of the actors and spectators were unable to recover from "that fearful sight". It is possible that Prynne was referring to one of the many Faustus performances led by Alleyn, which, it is said, prompted not only his early retirement from acting but his later involvement in charity work.
Ten years after the publication of Prynne's text, as England erupted into civil war, the doors of England's theatres were sealed shut by law, for five years, in an attempt by the English Parliament (under the force of the Protestant Puritans, led by Oliver Cromwell) to drive "sinful" theatre out of the country. In 1644 the Globe theatre was demolished. Performers and playwrights were forced to develop their art in secret, putting on illicit shows in private houses and out of town taverns. Once the law expired, another ordinance was issued by the government, deeming that all actors were to be considered vile "rogues". All theatres and playhouses were ordered to be pulled down, all actors were captured and whipped, whilst anyone caught trying to view a play was fined five shillings.
It wasn't until 1660, when Charles II returned from exile in France after the end of the English Civil War, that actors and theatre practitioners were granted freedom from persecution and even better, patronage. Theatre folk were once again encouraged and respected for their talents, no longer regarded as "notorious whores", or worse, to quote from Prynne's Histriomastix:
"The players scourge, or, actors tragaedie, divided into two parts. Wherein it is largely evidenced, by divers arguments, by the concurring authorities and resolutions of sundry texts of Scripture, That popular stage-playes are sinfull, lewde, ungodly spectacles, and most pernicious corruptions; condemned in all ages, as intolerable mischiefes to churches, to republickes, to the manners, mindes, and soules of men. And that the profession of play-poets, of stage-players; together with the penning, acting, and frequenting of stage playes, are unlawfull, infamous and misbeseeming Christians".
The Old Globe Theatre
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