Master of Revels and Censorship

Every play had to be submitted to the Master of Revels for licensing before performance. He acted as the official censor and would often force the deletion of passages or references that were deemed offensive. Gerald Eades Bentley, in "Regulation and Censorship" from The Profession of Dramatist in Shakespeare's Time, 1590-1642, observes that

most of the censoring activities were intended to
eliminate from the stage five general types of lines
or scenes: 1. Critical comments on the policies or
conduct of government. 2. Unfavorable presentations
of friendly foreign powers or their sovereigns, great
nobles or subjects. 3. Comment of religious controversy.
4. Profanity (after 1606). 5. Personal satire of
influential people.

The Office of Revels was originally established to select and supervise all entertainment of the sovereign, but as time progressed, its power grew. In 1581, a patent was issued that centralized the regulation of all plays and players with...