Licensing Act

effect on English theatre

• 
  In Henry Fielding: Early life.

  …to push through Parliament the Licensing Act, by which all new plays had to be approved and licensed by the lord chamberlain before production.

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• In comedy: The comic outside the theatre

  The Licensing Act of 1737 ended the theatrical career of Henry Fielding, whose comedies had come under constant fire from the authorities for their satire on the government. Fielding’s comic talents were perforce directed to the novel, the form in which he parodied the sentiment and…

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• 
  In Western theatre: Middle-class drama

  …London was discouraged by the Licensing Act of 1737, which gave the lord chamberlain extensive powers to censor all plays and to uphold the monopoly of the two patent theatres in London. Theatre managers, however, found a way around this by filling out their programs with musical items. (Similar laws…

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