SOURCE: Anderson, Michael. “The Law of Writ and the Liberty.” Theatre Research International 20, no. 3 (1995): 189-99.

In the following essay, Anderson compares the practices of English and Italian actors to suggest that the similarities are more significant than the differences, arguing that the Italian actors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries used more structure and predetermined scenarios than has generally been believed.

Our players are not as the players beyond the sea, a sort of squirting baudie Comedians, that have Whores and common Curtizans to playe womens partes, and forbeare no immodest speech, or unchast action that may procure laughter, but our Sceane is more stately furnisht than ever it was in the time of Roscius, our representations honourable and full of gallant resolution, not consisting like theirs of a Pantaloun, a Whore and a Zanie, but of Emperours, Kings and Princes, whose true tragedies they do vaunt.¹

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