"
These ladies, however, it may be noted, met with a very unfavourable
reception. Prynne's denunciation of them was a matter of course. He
had undertaken to show that stage-plays of whatever kind were most
"pernicious corruptions," and that the profession of "play-poets" and
stage-players, together with the penning, acting, and frequenting of
stage-plays, was unlawful, infamous, and misbecoming Christians. He
speaks of the "women-actors" as "monsters," and applies most severe
epithets to their histrionic efforts: "impudent," "shameful,"
"unwomanish," and such like. Another critic, one Thomas Brande, in a
private letter discovered by Mr. Payne Collier in the library of
Lambeth Palace, and probably addressed to Laud while Bishop of London,
writes of the just offence to all virtuous and well-disposed persons
in this town "given by the vagrant French players who had been
expelled from their own country," and adds: "Glad am I to say they
were hissed, hooted, and pippin-pelted" (pippin-pelted is a good
phrase) "from the stage, so as I do not think they will soon be ready
to try the same again.
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