ABSTRACT
The observation of lent in the London theaters during the Jacobean and Caroline period was apparently less strict than in Elizabethan times, but it is not easy to make out precisely what the practice was. W. J. Lawrence thought that a further step in the development of nondramatic entertainment at the theaters during Lent was the evolution of what he calls the 'substantive theater masque,' of which The World Tost at Tennis, The Sun's Darling, and Microcosmus are examples. The argument is his familiar combination of winning exuberance, non sequiturs, careless misstatement of fact, irrelevancies, sweeping generalizations from slight evidence, and triumphant conclusion. There are nearly 140 of Herbert's dated licensing records now known, and it is notable, to be sure, that fewer of them fall in Lent than in other periods of the year. There are numerous records of actions concerning Lenten offenders from 1616 to 1625, but none involves violations other than those concerned with meat-eating.
