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 Some Things about Theatres. Sir William is as large in stature as in in tellect — he must weigh over 200 lbs.; in the House he is called "Jumbo." Lady Harcourt is the daughter of the late John

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Lathrop Motley, the eminent historian, who was United States Minister to England during 1869 and 1870.

SOME THINGS ABOUT THEATRES.

By R. Vashon Rogers. SOME three hundred and sixty years ago, William Prynne, a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, got into serious trouble by writing on this subject; the Star Chamber passed this sen tence on him : that " he be committed to prison during life, pay a fine of five thousand pounds to the King, be expelled Lincoln's Inn, disbarred and disabled ever to exercise the profession of a barrister, degraded by the University of Oxford of his degree there taken; and that done he be set in the pil lory at Westminster with a paper on his head declaring the nature of his offence and have one of his ears there cut off; and at another time be set in the pillory at Cheapside, with a paper as aforesaid, and there have his other ear cut off; and that a fire shall be made before the said pillory, and the hangman being there ready for that purpose, shall publicly in disgraceful man ner cast all the said books which could be produced into the fire to be burnt as unfit to be seen by any hereafter." (This is a good specimen of the sentences of this famous infamous tribunal.) We trust thatwewill not be pilloried even by public opinion for anything we say here in. Master Prynne deserved some punish ment for the voluminous title he gave his book. It was this, " Histrio-mastix. The Players Scourge, or Actors Tragedie; Di vided into Two parts. Wherein it is largely evidenced, by divers Arguments, by the concurring Authorities and Resolutions of sundry texts of Scripture, of the whole

! Primitive Church, both under the law and Gospell; of 55 Synodes and Councels; of 71 Fathers and Christian Writers, before the year of our Lord 1200; of about 150 foraigne and domestique Protestant and Popish Authors since; of 40 Heathen Philosophers, Historians, Poets, of many Heathen, many Christian nations, Republiques, Emperors, Princes, Magistrates; of sundry Apostolicall, Canonicall, Imperiall Constitutions and of our owne English Statutes, Magistrates, Vniversities, Writers, Preachers. That popular Stage-playes (the very Pomps of the Devill which we renounce in Baptisme, if we believe the Fathers) are sin-full, heathenish, lewde, ungodly Spec tacles, and most pernicious Corruptions, condemned in all ages, as intolerable Mis chiefs, to Churches, to Republickes, to the manners, mindes and soules of men. And that the Profession of Play- poets of Stageplayers : together with the penning, acting and frequenting of Stage-plays are unlaw ful!, infamous and misbecoming Christians: All pretences to the contrary are here like wise fully answered : and the unlawfulness of acting, of beholding Academical Inter ludes, briefly discussed, etc., etc." Mark well the brevity of the lawyer! Out of consideration for our readers, we will not in this article go further back than the beginning of the Christian era. The Fathers do not appear to have approved of plays as acted in their days. Tertullian wrote on the subject and dwells on the in