p 725 (11 September)
...
Whereas the Infeccion of the Plague doeth much increase in and about London and it is very dangerous to permit any Company or concourse of people to meete and assemble together at Playhouses. It was therefore this day Ordered at ye Boord that all Players, both their Maiestes Servants and others as also the keepers of Paris Garden bee hereby commanded and required forthwith to shut vp their Playhouses and not to exercise or play in any of them or in any other place within ye Citty or Suburbs of London till it shall please God to cease the Infeccion and that further Order shalbee given by the Boord. Hereof all the Masters and Actors of the said Playhouses are to take notice and to conforme themselves as they will answere it at their perills./.
...
The privy councillors listed as present at the meeting (p 725) were Thomas Coventry (1578–1649/40), first Baron Coventry, lord keeper of the Great Seal, 1625–40; Samuel Harsnett (c 1561–1631), archbishop of York, 1628–31; Henry Montagu (c 1564–1642), first earl of Manchester, lord privy seal, 1628–42; Thomas Howard (1585–1646), earl of Arundel, earl marshal, 1621–46; Theophilus Howard (1584–1640), earl of Suffolk; William Cecil (1591–1668), sixteenth earl of Salisbury; John Egerton (1579–1649), first earl of Bridgwater; Sir Thomas Jermyn (c 1573–1644/5), vice-chamberlain of the Household; Sir John Coke (1563–1644), secretary of state; and Sir William Alexander (1577–1640).
For an abstract of this record and details of its transcription in other printed sources, see the related EMLoT event.
Record title: Privy Council Order for Suppressing All Playhouses
Repository:
TNA
Shelfmark: PC 2/52
Repository location: Kew
The privy council's concern about the increase in plague this year seems not to have been fully justified as mortality did not reach the levels of either 1625 or 1636. See further Charles Creighton, A History of Epidemics in Britain, vol 1, 2nd ed (London, 1965), 509, 533.
1 April 1640–25 September 1640; English; paper; ii + 229 + ii; 422mm x 280mm; ink pagination 421–680, 680a–680h (interpolated in 1856), 681–750, replacing earlier foliation with stamped pagination 751–800 (contemporary index), and 801–74 (19th-c. index); good condition; bound in maroon leather over boards, tooled, gold-stamped title on spine, partially rubbed, 'CHARLES. I. | VOL. <....> PT. II. | COUNCIL | REGISTER.| 1. APR <..>40.| TO |25. SEP. 1640.'
The National Archives (UK), ref. PC 2/52