Knighting a Bogue and Vagabond.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5303, 6 July 1895, Page 6

Knighting a Bogue and Vagabond.

The bestowal of knighthood npon Henry Irving, the actor, has led some people to inquire if it is not just a trifle •utrS, or inconsistent, or both, for a sovereign to confer a signal mark of favour upon a man, however eminent, who belongs to a class whom the law of the land declares to be a "rogue and vagabond." There is a general impression that, under a law over three centuries old, all players are liable to prosecution as vagrants or " sturdy beggars," and it is not long since an old actor, Mr Henry Neville, made this supposed law the subject of an indignant protest. Mr W. Lestocq, the actor and dramatist, made a point of carefully explaining the meaning and intention of the Vagrant Act of 1572 before a recent meeting of the Actora' Association in London. This statute, 39 Eliz. c. 4, adjudged as " rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars" a long list of persons, including " common players of interludes and minstrels wandering abroad," but exoepted those authorised to play "under the hand and seal of arms of any baron or Personage of Higher Degree." In other words, unlicensed players alone came within the Act, and Mr Lestocq's reminder that in theße days actors are still punished for playing in unlicensed houses seems much to the point. The old Act was therefore merely drawn up to enforce the purchase of a license. Nevertheless the mistake of supposing all actors to be virtually criminals in the eyes of the law flourished in 1699, and was promptly exposed in " Wright's Historia Histrionica," which is written chiefly in the form of a dialogue between one Lovewit and a good old cavalier named Truman. The two are engaged in deploring the bad business in 1699, whereby London only supported two companies with difficulty instead of five. Lovewit, voicing the common error, remarks :— "'After all, I have been: told that Btage plays are inconsistent with the laws of this Kingdom, and players made rogues by statute." Truman replies :— " He that told you bo strained a point of truth "— and thereupon explains the restricted application of the Act. It is thus made abundantly clear that Sir Henry Irving is not, even in the eye of the law — that consummate " hass and hidjit "—a rogue, a vagabond or a sturdy beggar.