of playbills. In the prologue to the anonymous tragedy of “A Warning for Fair Women” (1599), Tragedy whips History and Comedy from the stage, exclaiming:—
They have also, however, in various places and at various times, been called “text bills for plays.” The natural and shorter title, though, always overruled its more pretentious rival. From the prologue to Shirley’s “Cardinal” (1652) it appears that it was usual to add on the bill whether the piece was a comedy or a tragedy. This “Cardinal” being a tragedy, the author apologises in the following words for only calling it “a play” in the bills:—
From which it may be inferred that the names of tragedies, for greater distinction, were usually, or at all events occasionally, printed in red ink. That the custom of posting playbills continued in the reign of Charles II. may be inferred from the following entry in Pepys’ Diary: “I went to see if any play was acted and I found none upon the posts, it being Passion Weeke.”
During the Civil Wars the drama had a hard struggle not to be swamped in the deluge which destroyed all things appertaining to the pomp and luxury of the Court, or connected with pleasure generally. The face of the Parliament was turned against stage-plays, and when the war broke out, one of the first measures was that which led to the publication of the following bill:—
Ordinance of the Lords and Commons concerning Stage-Plays.
Whereas,
The distressed Estate of Ireland, steeped in her own Blood, and the distracted Estate of England, threatened with a Cloud of Blood by a civil