But when the emergency is past,
liberty is restored everywhere except in the theatre. The Act of
1843 is a permanent Coercion Act for the theatre, a permanent
suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act as far as plays are
concerned, a permanent proclamation of martial law with a single
official substituted for a court martial. It is, in fact, assumed
that actors, playwrights, and theatre managers are dangerous and
dissolute characters whose existence creates a chronic state of
emergency, and who must be treated as earthquake looters are
treated. It is not necessary now to discredit this assumption. It
was broken down by the late Sir Henry Irving when he finally
shamed the Government into extending to his profession the
official recognition enjoyed by the other branches of fine art.
To-day we have on the roll of knighthood actors, authors, and
managers. The rogue and vagabond theory of the depravity of the
theatre is as dead officially as it is in general society; and
with it has perished the sole excuse for the Act of 1843 and
for the denial to the theatre of the liberties secured, at
far greater social risk, to the press and the platform.
There is no question here of giving the theatre any larger
liberties than the press and the platform, or of claiming larger
powers for Shakespear to eulogize Brutus than Lord Rosebery has
to eulogize Cromwell. The abolition of the censorship does not
involve the abolition of the magistrate and of the whole civil
and criminal code.
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