" Especially he applauds the
actor, author, and contriver of the majority of the farces--"the
incomparable Robert Cox." Isaac Disraeli gives him credit for
preserving alive, as it were by stealth, the suppressed spirit of the
drama. That he was a very natural actor, or what would now be called
"realistic," may be judged from the story told of his performance of a
comic blacksmith, and his securing thereby an invitation to work at
the forge of a master smith, who had been present among the audience.
"Although your father speaks so ill of you," said the employer of
labour, "if you will come and work with me, I will give you
twelvepence a-week more than I give any other journeyman." As Kirkman
adds: "Thus was he taken for a smith bred, that was, indeed, as much
of any trade."
It seems certain that for some few years prior to the Restoration
there had been far less stringent treatment of the players than in the
earlier days of the triumph of Puritanism. Cromwell, perhaps, rather
despised the stage than condemned it seriously on religious grounds;
the while he did not object to indulge in buffoonery and horseplay,
even in the gallery of Whitehall.
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