Unless the claim to the acting rights were uncertain, as might
be the case with a very old play only slightly modified for revival
and with no clear title to the original version, it would seem to
have been quite unnecessary that a play should be kept out of
print by theatrical companies because of danger to stage-right.
Possibly some companies or members of companies believed
that it dulled the interest of a playgoer to have read their
version of the play in advance. In every age there are some
persons who entertain the childish idea that the plot of a
play should be new to the playgoers. One must admit, how-
ever, that much of the material used on the stage in Shake-
speare's day must have been familiar in its broad outlines
to many in the audience, so that any freshness must lie in
the treatment of the tale. Heywood's statement that certain
actors thought it against their peculiar interest to have a play in
print, and the provision in the Whitefriars contract against
putting one play ("Torrismont") into print before the expiration
of a term of months, suggest a disposition to withhold plays
from publication in order not to dull their interest.

We are confronted with the fact that a large number of plays.
were put into print, many of them with every evidence of
authoritativeness, when there was a manifest intention to
continue them upon the stage. Shirley, a professional playwright,
evidently did not think publication of his play, The Royal
Master, would kill the interest of the London public. The play
was entered on the Stationers' Registers March 13, 1638, and
published the same year. An acting licence was taken out after
the entry for printing was made ( Var., III, 232). The play
appeared as acted at the new theatre at Dublin, with the
explanation: "Tis new and never yet personated; but expected
with the first, when the English stage shall be recovered from
her long silence, and her now languishing scene changed into a
welcome return of wits and men." This advance publication was
no doubt due to the plague, but there was no suggestion of
giving up the performance because of previous publication.

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