might be added and yet M. Actor could neuer reade of any such History One more I will exhibite and so cease The fall of Caesars Monarchie Agrippina the mother of Nero and Seneca his Tutor both ambitious of gouernment perswaded Nero in the minority of his age to take his pleasures and leaue vnto them the charge and paine of the publicke affaires of the Empire thinking that the fury of his youth would ware away with fond delights and that wisedome would encrease with age in meane time that they would better gouerne then hee Of his opinion was Burrus a singular person and next to Seneca in the waighty causes of gouernment Now therefore Nero giues himselfe to all licentiousnesse now magnificent Theaters are erected and Stage-playes instituted now the Poets pennes are set on worke Tragedians and Comedians are busily occupied now all these flourish more then before or afterwards they euer did Now Nero becommeth a Sword-player and chaser of wilde beasts vpon the Theater and thereby commeth to bee butcherous and bloudie minded afterward a murtherer and a manqueller Now Nero acteth cruell Tragedies and scurrilous Comedies in his owne person and thereby learneth to act all dissolutenesse and performe whatsoeuer mischiefe could be deuised For Quo semel est imbutarecens seruabit odorem Testa Here had so seasoned himselfe in those former euils and therewith was drawne to such a meruailous corruption that now he gaddeth about the streetes in the euenings he and his flattering companions sets vpon many Innocents he meetes withall and outragiously perpetrateth horrible facts beastlinesse and detestable murthers In the meane time for the space of fiue yeeres Seneca Agrippina gouerned the Empire indifferently Howbeit because Agrippina tooke vpon her to rule all alone after her owne appetite these two Seneca and Burrus tooke order out of hand that the Emperour should withdraw the gouernment from her and assume it to himselfe But as wise as they were yet were they greatly deceiued in that they thought Nero would become wise in age by passing his youth in folly for it hapned cleane contrary and hee became a most wicked and cruell Tyrant So that at last hauing done innumerable mischiefes against one or other great and small as his fancieled him Seneca began to doubt least the like might happen to himselfe And it came to passe that Nero's cruelties and oppressions so wonne him the euill will of all his Subiects as they one after another reuolted from his obeysance Whereupon Burrus Ruffus Sulpitius and Flauius his greatest minions entring into the like feare conspired against him but they were discouered and condemned Yet before they were executed Nero would needes conferre with Sulpitius and Flauius And after hee had demaunded of Sulpitius wherefore hee had broken his oath and conspir'd against him he asked the like of Flauius also who answered I haue loued and hated thee Nero aboue any man in the world Conspiracie against Nero and why Loued thee as long as there was any hope thou wouldest become a good Prince but when I saw thee become a Manqueller a Murtherer a Tragedian a Player of Enterludes a Fencer and a Towne-burner I could not but hate thee extreamely Here is euidently to be seene the effects of these Theaters how it made Nero to be hated of his dearest friends Whose answeres though they astonied him to heare yet in steed of amendment he addicted himselfe to farre worse enormities then before So that behold Vindex his Lieutenant generall in Gaul reuolted from him Wherewith though the losse were not small yet was not Nero much troubled But when hee vnderstood that his olde Captaine Galba President of Spaine was reuolted then too late hee feared his owne ruine And now began the Empire sodainly to bee rent in sunder for almost euery Gouernour ceased their Prouinces into their owne hands Then doth Galba hasten vnto Rome to dispatch the Tyrant who in the end being abandoned of euery one euen those of his owne guard fled and hid himselfe within a little Lodge in the Fields where fearing to be taken aliue hee kild himselfe And after this sort was the blood of the Caesars extinguished and no more Emperours by lawfull succession For the pretorian cohorts became so dissolute in Nero's raigne that both they and the other Souldiers tooke vpon them to create Emperours at their pleasure Whereby the Empire oftentimes was miserably dismembred by sundry Tyrants at once by them arected And thus to conclude whiles Playes were had in greatest honour by the corruption of manners that proceeded from them was the Romane Common-wealth changed into a Monarchie and the Monarchie afterwards into Tyrannicall gouernement Next doth M. Actor with great contumely scandalize the good Emperour Marcus Aurilius calling him Cynick and vnfit for gouernment In meane while condemning the vse of Comedies which so cynically as him selfe would haue it barke at al follies And likewise obnubilating his worthinesse for whose loue who banished Players the people made them all Statues in his memoriall which they vouchsafed for no other Emperour no not for Augustus him selfe whom the Apologist affirmes to be greatest patron of Poets and Players in his time Nor did that good Emperour interdict the vse of Theaters because the wanton Dames of Rome made a Play of him but because of the great folly they wrought the corruption of goodnesse which they brought into Rome as shall further hereaster appeare in a Letter of his written to Lambertus Gouernour of Hellespont when he sent him three Shippes of Iesters and Players wishing to haue but one Barke of Wise men in returne of his aduenture Nor did hee banish Sword-players for other cause then the pestilence of minde wherewith the people by bloody spectacls might be infected to the perpetrating of any butcherous attempt not that himselfe was a coward for he twice triumphed once when hee ouercame the Parthians and once when h conquered the Argonauts and died in conquering the Realme of Hungary Next doth M. Actor looke backe from Italy into Greece declaring that the Princes and Sages thereof being those which were the first vnderstanders trained vp their youthfull Nobilitie to be Actors debarring the Mechanicks such imployment In which is diuers things to be noted refuted First that not all Greece is to be vnderstood for Sparta is to be exempted as reiecting such abuses Secondly how doth he derogate from the glory of the Hebrewes when heriportes that the Grecians were the first Vnderstanders whereas it is euident by all History the Grecians not the first wise men the Grecians receiued their knowledg from the Aegiptians and Chaldocans and they from the Hebrewes But if erecting of Playes were such an act that it were worthy the first vnderstanders to performe how then chanced it the Hebrewes did it not among whom we neuer read Stage-playes to be solemnized and therefore neuer spoken of nor taxed in specie by the Prophets in their bookes Thirdly it may bee demaunded
infected with depraued opinion and drawne from our very expresse nature Next M. Actor recites a verse against them which condemne Playes Oderunt hilarem tristes tristemque iocosi It is true for grauity and leuity two contraries cannot consist in one But what said the Lacedemonian concerning this I know we Greeks are better weeping with our Sages then are the Romans laughing at their fooles After this hee will seeme to answer an obiection which because it is but a peece of an obiection extorted both it and his answere I will omit The obiection is that the Romanes in their time and some in these dayes haue abused Playes but they hauenot only abused them for they are abuse it selfe as I shall instance further heereafter and euer were After this againe hee saith Playes are in vse as they are vnderstood Spectators eyes may make them bad or good O right excellently well said In what a doubtfull case would the vse of playes then stand if none but fooles as commonly they all are or none but blindmen were their auditors the one kind could not vnderstand the other could not see and consequently neither giue right iudgement of them For the one could not vnderstand what vice to auoid the other could not see acted to the life what magnanimious vertue for to follow But to leaue this forked argument and with more plaine reasons to touch his meaning I Deny his maxime For allthough this Axiome Omne accipitur secundum modum accipientis bee true euery thing is receiued according to the capacity of that which receaueth yet it extendeth it self not so farre as M. Actors intention For then according to the discretion of fooles and blind men if Playes were euill as they are not to be thought otherwise by their good accepting of them they were good which how absurd a reason it is let all men iudge Besides which if their were any good in Playes yet for the euill which is greater they are not tollerable And wee are taught not to doe good if any euill may ensue thereby For good when it is the occasion of euill ceaseth any longer to bee good but is turned into sinne For euill and the occasion of euill are vnder the same predicament of sinne Next M. Actor inferreth many vocations and institutions of life wherein men liue amongst which there hath beene some bad and thereupon demaundeth whether the generall shall be condemned for the particulars sake I answer no But the Genus of playes comes not vnder the protection of this reason because they are wholy euill as more at large I will shew towards the end of my discourse Next M. Actor proceeds in the vse of Playes and shewes first that they are an Ornament to the Citty But I thinke the saying of Valerius Maximus of more authority then this who saith Playes were neuer brought vp Sine Regni rubore without shame to the Kingdome Secondly hee sheweth and to the disgrace of his mother-tongue that our English was the rudest language in the world a Gally-mafry of Dutch French Irish Saxon Scotch and Welsh but by Play-Poets it hath beene refined But doth he not forget that whiles they adde Greeke Lattine and Italian they make a great mingle-mangle Nay before the Conquest by Bastard William that the French came in our English tongue was most perfect able to expresse any Hebruisme which is the tryall of perfection in Languages and now it will very hardly expound a Greeke Lecture For after that the French had once corrupted it it was but of late yeares that it could recouer a common Dialect againe Since which againe it hath indeed beene more refined but thereby it is become more obscure and vsed amongst few for the simple vulgar people cannot vnderstand it And a plaine man can scarce vtter his mind for want of Phrases as I may say according to the fashion But what refinednesse is in our language it 's not from Poets but from other learned mens writings from whom they borrow all the refined words they haue Thirdly he affirmes that Playes haue taught the ignorant knowledge of many famous Histories They haue indeed made many to know of those Histories they neuer did by reason they would neuer take the paines to reade them But these that know the Histories before they see them acted are euer ashamed when they haue heard what lyes the Players insert amongst them and how greatly they depraue them If they be too long for a Play they make them curtals if too short they enlarge them with many Fables and whither too long or too short they corrupt them with a Foole and his Bables whereby they make them like Leaden rules which men will fit to their worke and not frame their worke to them So that the ignorant instead of true History shall beare away nothing but fabulous lyes Next M. Actor hath striued wonderfully in shewing the particular vses of playes which I will reserue to condemne with all their qualities toward the latter end of this book And proceed next to shew the absurdities of M. Actor in his 3. Histories of strange accidents that haue happened at playes which make more against him then for him if they were well considered according to Gods iust iudgement and not M. Actor's vaine application The first and last History concerning treacherous murthers committed by vntrusty wiues vpon their husbands hee applyeth to playes because at plaies their first discoueries were intimated But it was farre otherwise for these bloody-minded wines lay long in their sinnes without repentance God for a great while vsing mercy and patience towards them But when he saw them to persist in their inflexible stubburnnesse that in stead of suing to him for grace and remission of their sinnes they prouoked him to greater anger and in stead of coming to the temple there to pray to haunt Sathans Sinagogue there to see sport and seed their pleasures hee euen tooke them napping in the Diuells Sanctuary that where they thought to conceiue much mirth from vanity there they might bee prickt in conscience and receiue the beginning of their sorrow at last to bring them to repentance that God might saue their soules though in his iustice hee brought their bodies to destruction The other History of the flight of some rouing Spaniards from a towne in Cornewall vpon striking vp of an alarme at night by the Players on the stage hee applyeth likewise vnto playes But farre rather it is to bee attributed to Gods mercy who carefully kept watch for the towne and not the Players Hee I say while they were secure at their pleasures and feared least when they had greatest cause turned their present enterlude to a good vse being euill of it selfe as sometimes hee vseth the Diuels themselues for his instruments thereby to teach them to be more wary another time and not to entertaine againe the cause of like security and sparing the towne for the good that were absent and not ruinating it for
why the Grecians prohibited the baser sort from such imployment Surely I know not except their mechanicks were and they also desired they should be of honester life and behauiour then their nobility According to that speech of Aemilius probus treating of the Greekish fashions In those Countries saith hee its no disgrace for any man heere M. Actor is found tripping for debarring mechanicks to come vpon the Stage to set himselfe as aspectacle to the people which we hold for partly infamous and partly base and vnworthy of an honest man Next doth M. Actor shew why the Grecians admitted Playes Which because it toucheth the vse of Playes I will leaue perticulerly to handle it in my Third treatise Next followes that through Poets and Actors the Grecians excelled in Ciuilitie and gouernment so that other nations borrowed their lawes of them The Romans indeed sent to take a patterne of the Athenian lawes and withall a while after erected a Theater after the patterne of the Atherian and a while after this againe the lawes of Athens furthered them not to Ciuilitie so much as by the induction of Playes they fell into dissolutenesse Through which all things ranne into disorder and Ciuilitie laid aside inhumanitie sprang vp insteed thereof For then presently followed the wars they had against their own slaues sword-players Then ensued as I said before the Factions of Sylla and Marius and after that betweene Caesar and Pompey the end whereof was the vtter subuersion of their common wealth And now if through Stage-playes the Grecians learned Ciuilitie good gouernment how could it otherwise be but that the Romanes hauing both their lawes and theaters should also excell in Ciuilitie for from the same causes proceede the same efiects and not that a while after through the Grecian institutions they should learne insteed of good manners corruption insteed of concord faction and all kind of disorder Playes profited not the Grecians to ciuilitie insteed of reformation Therefore as Playes did not benefit the Romanes so neither could they profit the Grecians Whereby wee may perceaue how M. Actor to blind his readers mind would faine impose more vpon the worth of theaters then possibly could be intended And yet doth he confesse that those times of the Grecians was but the childhood and infancy of the world very fitly For indeed it was but their foolish thought and childish opinion that Playes was the readiest way to plant vnderstanding in the ignorant whereas in the riper and now old age of the world most men haue receiued a true intellect to the contrary except such onely as remaine children still Next M. Actor would faine seeme to shorten the extent of the Text and expresse commandement of God in Deuteronomic 22.5 The woman shall not weare that which appertaineth to the man neither shall a man put on womans raiment Where although the Law is indifferently to be vnderstood of both Sexes yet more strictly concerning the man that he should not so much as put on womans raiment A very impudent and common abuse in playes it is though M. Actor would willingly dawbe ouer the meaning of the Scripture as though that consisted in the like figuratiue sence as the words of sacramentall consecration elsewhere doe Whereas there is as much difference betweene that trope and these plaine words as betweene a Rope and a Player And although Playes are not immediately meant in the Text because in that time there was none in Israel nay nor during the whole time wherein the Church of GOD was planted among the Hebrewes was such vanities knowne among them yet doth it immediately point at this abuse of wearing womens apparell vsed in Playes flatly forbidding it Next M. Actor affirmes that the Vniuersities sometime institute Stage-playes more is the pittie that the most famous lights of learning in the world should bee branded with infamie through the meanes of some phantasticals which are in them Wherefore admit they doe Who make and act plaies in the Vniuersities who them most commonly doe compose their Playes Idle braines that affect not their better studies Who are the Actors Gentle-bloods and lusty swash-bucklers such as prefer an ounce of vaine-glorie ostentation and strutting on the Stage before a pound of learning and are sent to the Vniuersities not so much to obtaine knowledge as to keepe them from the common ryot of Gentlemen in these daies like little children whom their parents sent to schoole the rather to keep them from vnder horses feet in the streets which carefull mothers doe so greatly feare And who are the spectators but such like as both Poets and Actors are euen such as reckon no more of their studies then spend-all Gentlemen of their cast sutes But what followes in the Apology These Playes embolden the Iunior schollers against they come to read the pub-like Lecture of Dialect Ethick Mathematick Phisick and Metaphisick And why not among these the Diuinitie Lecture because certainely no such prophane and light headed persons may bee admitted to it and because according to the saying of Pope Panl 2. and Adrian 6. they are to bee held as enemies to true Religion For Plaies as saith the Apologyst makes a bold Sophister that is plainely a too cunning or false reasoner to knit preposterous and intertangled syllogismes obscure Sorites Aenig maticall Crocodilites and forke-horned Dilemma's to ensnare and obnubilate the truth as now M. Actor himselfe faine would doe Next follows Playes especiall vse for Rhetorick Rhetorica est ars bone dicendi Rhetorick is an Art of speaking well And Playes in th' Apologie instruct to speake well Playes vse for Rhetorick consuted Surely M. Actor would be esteemed for a Rhetorician and haue Plaies become one of the seuen liberall Arts but his drift is not driuen home enough For vltra posse non est esse Who euer of the ancient Orators Greekes or Latins learned to speake well from a Play Did Demosthenes learne his Science from a Stage Did Cicero learne his Oratory from a Theater Why doe not our Diuine Orators schoole themselues by Playes thereby to learne Rhetorick so necessary in their Sennons But they know well that Playes are a fictiue Art and not a liberall Science they know well that Rhetorick graceth Playes by the instruction it giues for breathing spaces distinctions and good deliuery of words and not that poesie and Playes euer gaue that facultie to Rhetorick For the first arts giue light vnto the arts succeeding And Rhetorick was long found out before possie For no sooner had God giuen to men language in the beginning but that presently expetience taught them how aptly to apply their words how to perswade and diswade how to exhort discourage animate praise or dispraise defend confute extenuate and aggrauate any matter and consequently how to rise and fall with the voice to stop to breath distinguish interrogate and to obserue all other elegancie of speech Next and last of all doth M. Actor euen as
the vicious minded that were present at these Players trumperies Now haue I opposed and confuted the grand Arguments of M. Actors third booke such as concerne some though not the more particular vse of Playes which now I come generally to handle Before which yet euen as M. Actor hath done so will I declare two authentick Histories of fearfull accidents that haue happened at the Theaters The first is recorded in the booke intituled The Anotomy of Abuses made by M. Phillip Stubbes that when a great multitude were assembled at the Theater the Lord sent a mighty earthquake as though all would haue fallen about their eares Whereat the people sore amazed fomeleapt downe to the ground from the tops of turrets and galleries where they sate whereof some had their legges broke some their armes some their backes some hurt one where and some another and many sore crusht and bruised but not any which went not away sore affraid and wounded in conscience The Second history I haue both read and heard Read if I be not deceaued in Vines commentaries vpon Saint Augustine Another more fearefull accident at a Play and heard some fiue yeares since at Bristoll from the mouth of a Reuerend Preacher recited there in a set Sermon against the abuse of Playes And it was thus In the times of the primatiue Church a Christian woman went into the Theater to behold the plaies She entred in well and sound but she returned and came forth possessed of the Diuell Wherevpon certaine Godly brethren demanded Sathan how he durst be so bould as to enter into her a Christian Whereto he answered that hee found her in his owne house and therefore tooke possession of her as his owne A fearefull example this is indeede able to affrighten and deter any from entring into Theaters least they incur the like danger as this woman did But now I am come to entreat of the qualities of Plaies and Players I will heare add some historicall Apothegmes and sayings concerning them vnto the former recited and alleaged in my second treatise and so withall I will proceed in my discourse Saint Augustine in his booke of the City of God speaking of some vices in the Romaines which their Cities ruine by the Barbarian Gothes did not reforme exclaymeth thus O you sencelesse men how are you bewitched not with error but furor That when all the nations in the East as we heare bewaile your Citties ruine and all the most remote regions bewaile your misery and publike sorrow you your selues runne headlong vnto the Theaters seeking them filling them and playing farre madder parts now then euer you did before This your plague of minde this your wracke of honesty was that which Scipio so feared when hee would not haue any Theaters built for you Dio in the Life of Tyaian reporteth concerning an actiue Player thus That when they entreated the good Emperour that hee would please to heare him hee answered It is not for the maiesty of a graue and vertuous Prince that in his presence any such vaine thing should be shewed For in such a cafe himself should be no lesse noted of lightnesse then the other accused of folly And further he said Before Princes a man should not be so hardy to speake dishonest words nor shew light representations And in such a case as much paine deserue they which moue him thereto as those which doe represent them for none ought to put before Princes things that might allure them to vices but such as might moue them to vertues Marcus Aurelius wrote a letter to Lambertus his friend certifying him that he had banished from Rome all Iesters Fooles and Loytering Players and declaring how hee had found the Sepulchers of many learned Philosophers in Hellespont wherevnto he had sent them Marcus Aurelius his letter Some fragments of this letter I will heare repeat After salutation saith hee To declare the chiefe cause that I write vnto thee at this present it is I send thee three ships loaden with Iesters Fooles Players and Vagabunds And yet I doe not send vnto thee all the Vagabunds which are in Rome for then I should em-em-people thine Ile with strangers The offices that they bare was that some of them were Rayling iesters some Singers of Mallicious and filthy songs others playd common playes and enterludes and entertayned the Romaines with foolish fables and tales others set forth vaine and light bookes of Poesie And yet I sweare vnto thee these Loyterers wanted no Fooles to heare them I let thee weet my friend Lambert that these loyterers are such and their schollers in number so many that though the maisters may be in three ships carried yet the schollers in an hundred could not be transported One thing there is at which I much wonder that the Earth-quakes ouerthrow the houses great invndations carry away the bridges the frost perish the vines and the contagious aire infecteth Wise-men But yet there is no plague that consumeth these Fooles O Rome how vnhappy dost thou present thy selfe to him that doth diligently search thee For in thee wanteth valliant Captaines honest Senators iust Censors faithfull Officers vertuous Princes and onely thou aboundest with Fooles Iesters Players Loyterers and Vagabonds O Lambert what seruice shouldest thou doe to God and Profit to our Mother Rome if for three ships of Fooles thou didest returne vs one onely Barke of Wise-men After this hee writeth of those that heare these Fooles thus A Foole hath a semblance of the Sage when he accompanieth with a Sage But the Sage sheweth himselfe a Foole when he accompanieth with a Foole. If wee communicate with Lyers wee shall be Lyers and if wee desire the Foolish we shall be Fooles for accordying to the Masters and Doctrines we haue such shal be the Sciences we learne and the workes we shall follow Dionisus the Scicilian tyrant demanded of Diogenes with what persons wee should deuide our goods who answered with aged persons that should counsaile vs good seruants which should obey vs friends that should comfort vs and the poore that should pray for vs. By this answere wee may see that it is not iust to giue to cate to Iesters Players Loyterers and Fooles And it seemeth to me a man ought not to thinke that Players can giue good instruction by their lyes and mockeries Also it should be great folly to vse such men as Sages which of their owne will haue made them-selues Fooles And againe it seemeth to me vaine to thinke that such Iesters should serue as seruants For they to fly trauaile haue onely taken vpon them this so slanderous an office Thirdly it seemeth to me a thing of great inconuenience that a noble or Sage man should accept any such Iester as his friend For they cannot be counted amongst true friends since they loue vs not for the vertue we possesse but for the goods which wee haue Fourthly it seemeth vnto me vninst that vnder the coulour of pouerty it should