But when everything is said for the Star Chamber that can be
said, and every precaution taken to secure to those whom it
pursues the alternative of trial by jury, the expedient still
remains a very questionable one, to be endured for the sake of
its protective rather than its repressive powers. It should
abolish the present quaint toleration of rioting in theatres. For
example, if it is to be an offence to perform a play which the
proposed new Committee shall condemn, it should also be made an
offence to disturb a performance which the Committee has not
condemned. "Brawling" at a theatre should be dealt with as
severely as brawling in church if the censorship is to be taken
out of the hands of the public. At present Jenny Geddes may throw
her stool at the head of a playwright who preaches unpalatable
doctrine to her, or rather, since her stool is a fixture, she may
hiss and hoot and make it impossible to proceed with the
performance, even although nobody has compelled her to come to
the theatre or suspended her liberty to stay away, and although
she has no claim on an unendowed theatre for her spiritual
necessities, as she has on her parish church. If mob censorship
cannot be trusted to keep naughty playwrights in order, still
less can it be trusted to keep the pioneers of thought in
countenance; and I submit that anyone hissing a play permitted by
the new censorship should be guilty of contempt of court.
STAR CHAMBER SENTIMENTALITY
But what is most to be dreaded in a Star Chamber is not its
sternness but its sentimentality.
Pages:
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94