Excerpt from Pains and Penalties: The Defence of Queen Caroline, a Play in Four Acts
The Lord Chamberlain, it then appeared, had refused to license my play, not for the supposed reasons at all ou those I had been misinformed - but because it dealt with a sad historical episode of comparatively recent date in the life of an unhappy lady. The unhappy lady, as I at once pointed out, had been dead for ninety years, and during the whole of that period her memory had rested under a cloud which the main trend of my play was calculated to remove. Driven to give a public reason for his action, the Lord Cham berlain decided that such an attempt to rehabilitate her character was not to be allowed.
And so the pro-censorists must adapt their attitude of adulation and agreement with the Lord Chamber lain's thoughts, words, and actions to the new substitute for a reason which he has given them. Now it is no longer respect for the monarchic principle, but high toned chivalry which bids them stick their stings into me for endeavouring to secure production for this play. A few days before my persistency won me the trick, the Referee declared that I was guilty of triing when I asked the Lord Chamberlain to state publicly in what respect my play offended under the terms of the Act he was supposed to administer; it also accused me of not playing the game because I had refused to submit, without protest, to an unexplained veto.
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Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Genre: Literary Fiction
The Lord Chamberlain, it then appeared, had refused to license my play, not for the supposed reasons at all ou those I had been misinformed - but because it dealt with a sad historical episode of comparatively recent date in the life of an unhappy lady. The unhappy lady, as I at once pointed out, had been dead for ninety years, and during the whole of that period her memory had rested under a cloud which the main trend of my play was calculated to remove. Driven to give a public reason for his action, the Lord Cham berlain decided that such an attempt to rehabilitate her character was not to be allowed.
And so the pro-censorists must adapt their attitude of adulation and agreement with the Lord Chamber lain's thoughts, words, and actions to the new substitute for a reason which he has given them. Now it is no longer respect for the monarchic principle, but high toned chivalry which bids them stick their stings into me for endeavouring to secure production for this play. A few days before my persistency won me the trick, the Referee declared that I was guilty of triing when I asked the Lord Chamberlain to state publicly in what respect my play offended under the terms of the Act he was supposed to administer; it also accused me of not playing the game because I had refused to submit, without protest, to an unexplained veto.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Used availability for Laurence Housman's Pains and Penalties