_To the Editor._
Sir,--As many of your readers may not have had an opportunity of knowing
the form and manner in which dramatic representations were permitted, by
the Master of the Revels, upon the restoration of the Stuarts, I submit
a transcript of a licence in my possession. It refers to a drama, called
“Noah’s Flood,” apparently not recorded in any dramatic history. It is
true, Isaac Reed, in the “Biographia Dramatica,” 1782, vol. ii. p. 255,
cites “Noah’s Flood, or the Destruction of the World, an opera, 1679,
4to.,” and ascribes it to “Edward Ecclestone,” but it is questionable
whether this was the “play” for which the license below was obtained, as
Reed, or perhaps George Steevens, the commentator, who assisted the
former considerably in the compilation of that work, as it appeared in
1782, expressly entitles it “an opera.”
Reed states his inability to furnish any particulars of Ecclestone, and
his continuator, Mr. Stephen Jones, has not added a single word.
Ecclestone was a comedian, though I cannot immediately cite my
authority. His opera of “Noah’s Flood,” which is excessively scarce, is
said, by Reed, to be “of the same nature with Dryden’s ‘State of
Innocence,’ but falls infinitely short of the merit of that poem.” This
may be readily believed; for we are informed that the unhappy
bookseller, to prevent the whole impression rotting on his shelves,
again obtruded it for public patronage, with a new title, “The
Cataclasm, or General Deluge of the World,” 1684, 4to.; and again as
“The Deluge, or Destruction of the World,” 1691, 4to., with the addition
of sculptures. These attempts probably exhausted the stock on hand, as,
some years afterwards, it was reprinted in 12mo., with the title of
“Noah’s Flood, or the History of the General Deluge,” 1714. Many plays
were reprinted by Meares, Feales, and others, at the commencement of the
last century, as stock-plays; and Reed’s assertion, that this was an
imposition, is correct, so far as it came forth as a new production, the
preface stating that the author was unknown.
The license alluded to is on a square piece of parchment, eleven inches
high, by thirteen wide. The office seal, red wax, covered by a piece of
white paper, is engraved in one of the volumes of George Chalmers’s
“Apology for the Believers of the Shakspeare Papers.”
_The License._
“To all Mayors Sherriffs Justices of the Peace Bayliffs Constables
Headboroughs, and all other his Maties. Officers, true Leigmen & loueing
Subiects, & to euery of them greeting. Know yee that wheras George
Bayley of London Musitioner desires of me a Placard to make Shew of a
Play called Noah’s fflood wth other Seuerall Scenes. These are therfore
by vertue of his Maties. Lettrs. Pattents made ouer vnto me vnder the
great Seale of England to licence & allow the said George Bayley wth
eight Servants wch are of his Company to make shew of the said Play
called Noah’s flood wth other Scenes requireing you and euery of you in
his Maties Name to pmitt & Suffer the said Persons to shew the said Play
called Noah’s flood, and to be aiding & assisting them & euery of them
if any wrong or iniury be offered vnto him or any of them Provided that
he and they doe not act any thing offensiue against ye lawes of God or
of the Land, and that he & they doe make shew of the said Noah’s flood
at lawfull times wth Exception of the Lords Day or any other Day in the
time of Devine Service, or on any other day prohibited by Proclamation
or other lawfull Authority. And this Licence to continue for a year and
noe longre from the day of the date hearof and to Serue throughout the
Kingdome of England Scotland & Ireland & all other his Maties.
Territories & Dominions the said Geo. Bayly haueing giuen me security
for his good behauiour that hee doe not intrench vpon the lawes of the
land. Giuen at his Maties. Office of the Revills vnder my hand & Seale
of the said Office the fowerteenth day of Aprill one thousand six
hundred sixty and two & in the fowerteenth year of the raigne of o’r
Soueraigne Lord Charles ye Second by the grace of God of England
Scotland ffrance and Ireland King Defender of the faith &c.