ABSTRACT
Had the terms of Elizabeth’s proclamation still been strictly in force by the end of her reign, it is difficult to believe that the great era of drama associated with her name would have taken anything like the form it did. Popular drama would have been severely inhibited and subject to constraints from multiple authorities. The fact that this did not happen, why it did not happen, and the consequences of all this for community-formation in early Stuart London are the subjects of this chapter.
