For this he was indicted
in the Star Chamber for libel, and was sentenced to stand in the pillory,
to lose his ears, to pay the king a fine of L5000, and to be imprisoned
for life. For his attack there was much excuse in the license of the
former period; but when puritanism, in its turn, was brought under the
three spears, the drama was to come back tenfold more injurious and more
immoral than before.
From the stern and gloomy morals of the Commonwealth we now turn to the
debaucheries of the court,--from cropped heads and dark cloaks to plumes
and velvet, gold lace and embroidery,--to the varied fashions of every
kind for which Paris has always been renowned, and which Charles brought
back with him from his exile;--from prudish morals to indiscriminate
debauchery; from the exercisings of brewers' clerks, the expounding of
tailors, the catechizing of watermen, to the stage, which was now loudly
petitioned to supply amusement and novelty. Macaulay justly says: "The
restraints of that gloomy time were such as would have been impatiently
borne, if imposed by men who were universally believed to be saints; these
restraints became altogether insupportable when they were known to be kept
up for the profit of hypocrites! It is quite certain that if the royal
family had never returned, there would have been a great relaxation of
manners.
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