Puritans and Performers in Early Modern Dorset

Abstract

Historians studying the towns of Dorset have regularly attributed the decline of ancient local customs and the cool reception given to travelling players to the increasing power of puritan factions within borough élites. Only once, however, do the records of early English drama explicitly confirm that connection. Focusing on the Cobb ale of Lyme Regis, the arrest of William Sands' puppeteers in Beaminster, and the controversy over a performance by Lord Berkeley's men in Dorchester, this paper re-assesses the importance of the anti-theatrical prejudice of puritans among the complex forces that caused the decline of theatrical activity in Jacobean Dorset.