The Regulation and Censorship of Early Modern Drama

Abstract

Hamlet plays many roles, several of them quite explicitly theatrical, including that of Master of the Revels. He determines that the actors shall play The Murder of Gonzago at court, and when Claudius shrewdly suspects that it may contain ‘offense’ (i.e. offensive material) he assures him that it contains ‘no offense i‘the’world’ (i.e. no crime of any sort) — because the poisoning it depicts is only fictional, not the real thing. It is a sophisticated piece of quibbling, going to the heart of the role of the Master of the Revels, the key figure in the licensing and censorship of professional drama in the time of Shakespeare and down to the closing of the theatres in 1642.