Field, "being angry to be stayed upon so frivolous a demand,
answered, that he might see what play was to be played upon every
post. 'I cry you mercy,' said the gentleman. 'I took you for a post,
you rode so fast.'"
It is strange to find that the right of printing playbills was
originally monopolised by the Stationers' Company. At a later period,
however, the privilege was assumed and exercised by the Crown. In
1620, James I. granted a patent to Roger Wood and Thomas Symcock for
the sole printing, among other things, of "all bills for playes,
pastimes, showes, challenges, prizes, or sportes whatsoever." It was
not until after the Restoration that the playbills contained a list of
the _dramatis personae_, or of the names of the actors. But it had been
usual, apparently, with the title of the drama, to supply the name of
its author, and its description as a tragedy or comedy. Shirley, in
the prologue to his "Cardinal," apologises for calling it only a
"play" in the bill:
Think what you please, we call it but a "play:"
Whether the comic muse, or lady's love,
Romance or direful tragedy it prove,
The bill determines not.
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