The Puritan party as a whole, of course, held the stage in horror, but more than one actress whose name has come down to us was descended from a stern Republican--like Anne and Rebecca Marshall, who were said to be daughters of a divine of the Long Parliament. The dissoluteness of the stage was in part attributable to the Puritan spirit which kept the soberer members of the community from countenancing the theatre by their presence, and deterred some from entering the dramatic profession. Stage-acting was decried as a calling to which only the debased would resort, and there were plentiful exhortations to those who valued their soul’s welfare to abstain from looking upon corrupting sights. It was difficult, especially in the seventeenth century, for women of unblemished reputation to go on the stage without being besmirched with the vices of the worst of their companions. Many of the mistresses of Charles II. and his courtiers belonged to the theatrical profession. But the century which delighted in the fascinations of Nell Gwynn, in the beauty of Moll Davies, which watched the performances of Prince Rupert’s mistress, Mrs. Hughes, saw also the famous Mrs. Betterton, of unquestioned virtue, and such actresses as Mrs. Bracegirdle and Elizabeth Barry. There never has been a time when the stage has been without women of high repute as well as brilliant talent to uphold its honour. It is not until the reign of Charles I. that there is any record of women artists. The first efforts of English artists were directed to the illumination of manuscripts. It was for several centuries the only kind of art worth mentioning in England. There were, it is true, clever goldsmiths and workers in precious stones. It was the custom to have books, especially religious books, richly bound and ornamented. Jacquetta, Duchess of Bedford, gave a missal with gold clasps, which had belonged to the Duchess of Portland, to her nephew, Henry VI. But there was little painting of pictures, except of the rudest kind, up to the seventeenth century. And, as far as women are concerned, the record is absolutely bare. They do not even appear among the illuminators. But with the days of Vandyck’s residence in England begins our roll of female artists. Anne Carlisle shared the royal patronage with the great Flemish painter, whom she outlived. She was a great favourite at court, and the king’s fine taste would not have tolerated an inferior artist. Then followed a period when the fine arts were forgotten in the turmoil of war, and crushed by the gloomy, repressive Puritan spirit. But after the Restoration, matters changed, and from that time onwards there is a steadily increasing stream of artists, though the women are few in number, up to the present century. The only female painters of any note in the seventeenth century were those who obtained royal patronage, like Mary Beale, a painter in both oil and water-colours,