This inventively comical and satiric play opened at “Little Theatre” in the Haymarket on 21 March 1737, under the looming threat of the tightening of censorial control of the stage under the provisions of the amendment to the Vagrant’s Act, commonly referred to as the Stage Licensing Act (introduced on 24 March and given Final Assent on 21 June 1737) that would soon close such non-patent theatres and effectively end Fielding’s prolific, satirically daring and profitable career as a writer for the stage. Though it had been announced a few days earlier that it would play with Fielding’s Eurydice Hissed as its afterpiece (an expectation onl

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Published 22 April 2004

Citation: Cleary, Thomas R.. "The Historical Register for the Year 1736". The Literary Encyclopedia. 22 April 2004.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=610, accessed 20 November 2009.]