Niall Osborough, emeritus professor of jurisprudence and legal history at University College, Dublin and a Stair Society Lecturer, is a distinguished Irish legal historian. In his preface he writes, “The Irish stage: a legal history is an attempt to explore the legal dimensions to entertainments that members of the public have over the years paid good money to come and see.” Many of these legal dimensions are well known, such as those dealing with riots and censorship, the subjects of chapters 13 and 14; but there are others which are not, such as the institution and history of the office of Master of the Revels, and the regime of theatre patents for Dublin. However, the book strays far from the sober narration of black letter law: Osborough is an entertaining story-teller; and the narrative is enlivened by many literary references, ranging from Cicero to James Boswell, from Lord Byron to Jane Austen.
The first chapter tells the story of the Irish Mastership of the Revels from its beginning in 1638 until its formal abolition in 1830. The office was created in Ireland in imitation of the corresponding office in England which had existed since the reign of Henry VIII. In both countries the Master of the Revels was a royal appointee but, unlike the position in England, the Irish office was not subject to the Lord Chamberlain. The author quotes La Tourette Stockwell (Dublin theatres, xv) approvingly: “The history of dramatic representation in Ireland belongs to the history of the English in Ireland, and its progress has been in a line which parallels the evolution of the theatre in England”(1). The first Master of the Revels appointed for Ireland was, perhaps surprisingly, a Scot, John Ogilby (1600–1676). He established a theatre in Dublin with a troupe of players about 1636. Rebellion and civil war broke out in the 1640s. Puritanism was in the ascendant in Dublin. Ogilby's theatre was closed, and he was later to claim that his theatre had been “spoyled and a cow-house made of the stage”, and that he had been lucky to escape with his life (5). After the Restoration of Charles II, Ogilby was re-appointed Master of the Revels and established another theatre in Dublin which continued until the end of the 18th century and was to become known as “Smock Alley”. Ogilby was a remarkable man. He has been described by W S Clark, the historian of the early Irish stage, as “the true founder of the Irish stage” (Clark, Early Irish stage, 27). Among other accomplishments...
