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Historical Register for the Year 1736 -Henry Fielding- Damage Done: Effects of the Licensing Act of 1737 on the London Theatre and beyondby Danielle StraughnIn the mid-eighteenth century, The London theatre gave birth to a new wave of experimental drama. Among the great playwrights of the time was actor and dramatist, Henry Fielding, notorious for his harsh social satires packed with sarcastic humor. Unfortunately, the theatrical genius was born in a time when politics influenced acceptable amusement and dictated the forms of "tasteful" entertainment. In turn, Fielding's success as a theatrical playwright was cut short of his potential, after the Licensing Act went into effect in the spring of 1737. The Licensing Act of 1737 modified the laws against the unpredictability of playwrights. The act attempted to eliminate the illegitimate theatres and also to expurgate insurgent works that were previously creeping their way into the Patent theatres. The law required all licensed theaters to submit the texts of their plays to Lord Chamberlain for censorship prior to the performance, thus allowing him to filter out any subversive material contained in the texts and thus deny the performance of any play that he felt was distasteful to the public. Remarkably, the Licensing Act of 1737 withstood over a hundred years of effectiveness, as it was subsequently used as a model for the legislation of censorship by modern Western States. Not until 1968, was the act fully revoked. Herein lies the argument of the powerful effects of the Licensing Act and the damage it caused to drama and theatre in the years following its birth. Naturally, the licensing act supported only certain types of drama, and excluded many revolutionary forms. One can assume that if the authorities had not suppressed the creativity of the rising dramatists' of the era, these forms would have flourished and influenced modern drama and theatre alike. Theatres which were not patent (or Royal, if you will) produced melodrama, ballad opera and burlesque which incorporated music between short scenes and therefore was not considered to be a play. The Licensing Act is therefore directly responsible for dividing British theatrical performance into "legitimate" and "illegitimate" theatre. For a while, the illegitimate theatres found ways around the laws enacted by the Licensing Act. The development of new genres still took place, but the playwrights had to find loopholes to maneuver their way onto the stage. In attempts to avoid prohibition, performances would have to be altered by adopting visual and musical forms in which spoken dialogue was either eliminated or minimized. This practice is evident in the development of Pantomime in the eighteenth century, which can be best described as telling a story not with words, but through body movements, facial expressions, and gestures. This practice is also marked by the rise of the Melodrama and the Music Halls in the nineteenth century. Similarly, these two forms emphasize "alluded storytelling," through music and other wordless forms of communication. Additionally, since plays written before 1737 could be performed without permission from authority, the playhouses turned to the reenactment of old plays which were free of any political content. Consequently, William Shakespeare's plays were performed much more often than before. In fact, one fourth of all the plays performed during the decade were written by Shakespeare. One effect that the licensing act had on comedy was that theatrical writers began developing a comedy of sentiment, which was typically labeled "high comedy." This type of comedy contained less actual humor than it did mere entertainment by inspiring emotional responses from the audience. The plot directing this sort of comedy found it necessary to stage characters that were in or out of compassion with one another. However, true forms of comedy, marked by absurdly harsh realities, ugly truths, and downright sarcastic, yet honest humor was driven from the stage after the Licensing Act of 1737. The effects of the Licensing Act were certainly profound. The public no longer trusted any of the plays that actually did pass Lord Chamberlain's censors, because they did not trust he who passed the laws which required censorship of plays in the first place. The public's initial mistrust of those plays which passed the censoring process is clearly understandable when we stop to look at the works which were produced post 1737. The plays became more sentimental and domestically oriented. Experimental forms were deprived because of the political interference with the theatre at that time. Prospective works of theatrical geniuses were left unfulfilled, and their brilliance left in the dust, overshadowed by dominating political figures. Ultimately, writers and poets that were forced from the stage due to censoring laws, found a new outlet in the form of the novel. Popular authors like Richardson, Fielding, and Defoe found success with this rising literary form, conveying messages which had previously only reached the ears of the London theatre audiences. Ironically, the Licensing Act ended up increasing the power of rebellious authors as it put a stop to anti-ministry arguments on the stage and sent their powerful messages through the form of the novel, which could resist law and authority, and survive throughout the ages.
Avery, Emmet L."Fielding's Last Season with the Haymarket Theatre." Modern Philology,
36.3 (Spring, 2939): 283-292. JSTOR. Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Pomona, NJ. 12
Mar. 2006.
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