][ Charles Robert Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer. ] Printed 'Stage Play License', completed in manuscript, and signed by Spencer ('Althorp') as Lord Chamberlain, permitting performance of 'The Assignation' at the New Theatre, St Martins Lane, London.

On aged and worn paper, with some staining at head. A somewhat grand memorial of English censorship. The license is printed in engraved copperplate beneath the royal crest on a 31.5 x 21 cm piece of watermarked laid paper. It folds into a packet, and on the reverse is a printed 'Mem[orandum].' ending 'No offensive personalities or representations of living persons to be permitted on the Stage, nor anything calculated to produce a riot or breach of the peace.' The license gives permission for the performance of a 'typewritten copy entitled "The Assignation" being a Comedy 3 acts', 'with the exception of all Words and Passages which are specified by the Examiner in the endorsement of this License and without any further variations whatsoever'. Presumably the play referred to is a revival of John Dryden's 1672 comedy.