This statute was repealed by 13 Anne c. 26, which, however, includes
within its new scope 'common players of Interludes,' and names no
exceptions. The whipping continues, but there is an alternative in the
House of Correction: 'to be stript naked from the middle, and be
openly whipped until his or her body be bloody, or may be sent to the
House of Correction.' 17 Geo. II. c. 5 repeals a previous statute of
the same king which had repealed the statute of Anne, and provides
that 'all common players of Interludes and all persons who shall for
Hire, Gain, or Reward act, represent, or perform any Interlude,
Tragedy, Comedy, Opera, Play, Farce, or other Entertainment of the
Stage, not being authorized by law, shall be deemed Rogues and
Vagabonds within the true meaning of the Act.' The punishment was to
be 'publicly whipt,' or to be sent to the House of Correction. This
Act has been repealed, and the law is regulated by 5 Geo. IV. c. 83,
which makes no mention of actors, who are therefore now wholly quit of
this odious imputation.




A ROGUE'S MEMOIRS.


One is often tempted of the Devil to forswear the study of history
altogether as the pursuit of the Unknowable. 'How is it possible,' he
whispers in our ear, as we stand gloomily regarding the portly
calf-bound volumes without which no gentleman's library is complete,
'how is it possible to suppose that you have there, on your shelves--
the actual facts of history--a true record of what men, dead long ago,
felt and thought?' Yet, if we have not, I for one, though of a