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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10187	Histrio-mastix The players scourge, or, actors tragædie, divided into two parts. Wherein it is largely evidenced, by divers arguments, by the concurring authorities and resolutions of sundry texts of Scripture ... That popular stage-playes ... are sinfull, heathenish, lewde, ungodly spectacles, and most pernicious corruptions; condemned in all ages, as intolerable mischiefes to churches, to republickes, to the manners, mindes, and soules of men. And that the profession of play-poets, of stage-players; together with the penning, acting, and frequenting of stage-playes, are unlawfull, infamous and misbeseeming Christians. All pretences to the contrary are here likewise fully answered; and the unlawfulnes of acting, of beholding academicall enterludes, briefly discussed; besides sundry other particulars concerning dancing, dicing, health-drinking, &c. of which the table will informe you. By William Prynne, an vtter-barrester of Lincolnes Inne.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1633 (1633)	STC 20464A; ESTC S115316	1,193,680	1,258

curse all his Saints they roare they wrestle they wrangle they sing they rage they shrecke they make a tumult and seeme to be as mad as Bedlams They strive who shall overcome one another in drinking they drinke merrily one to other they earnestly provoke and stirre up one another to drinke And when as they have glutted themselves and are drunke then they rise up to play c. What shall I relate the vanities of publike Playes and spectacles upon Holi-dayes The crosse-wayes sound againe with dances the Vilages and streets yea the whole Citty rebound with the voyces of Singers the shoutes the clamours of Dancers the confused sound of the Harpe the Tabre● the Psaltery and all other musicall Harmonies There mind●● being moved with the fla●●eries of laughter the thumping of the feet the glances of the eye the gropings of the hands and with the alluring sweetnesse of Verses and Harpes Wax effeminate become vaine and grow hot to luxury and incontinency There the consultations of whoredomes and adulteries are handled oportunities are taken places times and conditions are appointed And because the day is not sufficient for their lewdnesse Girles and espoused Women are there oft-times voluntarily or against their wils ravished in the darknesse of the night I know places yea famous Citties in which on Holi-dayes and Lords-daies it is lawfull for Maides in a publike manner to runne abrode to their Lovers yea to their Panders which promised liberty they diligently study to preserve without controll and speedily as soone as ever the houre of dinner is past they earnestly call themselves together and march in troopes to their corrupters with incredible wantonnesse and malepartnesse We see in Wakes or Festivities of Country Villages how Harlots come from all quarters out of the neighbour Townes and Citties and Country Youthes flocking thither by troopes who perhaps were free from such uncleanesse all the yeere casting away the bridle of modesty in the solemnity of their Patron the Saint to whose honour their Church is dedicated publikely commit adultery There Youth hath first cast off its Chastity there yong men are polluted there Children are corrupted and they learne the experiment of a most impure contagion There they continually provoke and invite one another to that most filthy pleasure and he that will not follow the rest to destruction is accounted a wretch a sluggard an unprofitable person good for nothing What Heathen skilfull of sacrilegious Feastivals if he should happen to be present would not rather beleeve that the Floralia of Venus or the feasts of Bacchus were kept then the solemnities of any Saint when as he should there behold such uncleanesses as were wont to be acted in the Festivals of those Idols Neither doth the filthy obscenity onely of Bacchus and Venus seeme to bee exercised there but likewise of Mars and Bellona too For it is ●●w a common fame that it is an unseemely Holi-day which is not sprinkled with fighting and effusion of blood Neither is it strange if that Mars be made a companion of Bacchus and Venus For mindes provoked with wine and lust are wont to be easily provoked to fight Whence Venus Martia was fained by the Poets to be coupled with a cunning and insoluble knot What is the Patron of the Village to be worshipped by the Inhabitants on his birth-day in such a manner that so he might be propitious to them all the yeere What Noble or great man would not be displeased that his birth-day should be defiled with such a pollution Who may not see how much honester how much better it were to observe no Holi-dayes then to keepe them in this manner Whose heart is so estranged from reason so devious from the truth through perverse error that he may not understand it to be lesse evill to goe to plow or to digge to sow or doe other Country workes on the solemnities of the Saints then not to honour but to prophane their solemne Festivals with such horrible obscenities And yet if any one oppressed with never so great penury of necessaries for his family be found to have done any thing in his Field or Vineyard he is cited severely punished reprehended condemned as guilty of violating an Holi-day But he who shall commit these worser things condemned by the Lawes and Commandements of God shall want both punishment and an accuser And why is this but because there is no man who will take revenge on those who transgresse the Precepts of the Lord They have their Officials whose office Petrus Blesensis hath excellently characterized they have Archdeacons they have Promoters they have Apparitors who enforce their Episcopall Edicts to be kept with most grievous penalties They runne thorow the Dioces they craftily examine and enquire if any Vine-dresser or Husbandman hath wrought or carried any thing upon an Holi-day an● if it shall appeare that hee hath done any such thing he is accused and punished not so often according to the quality of the offence as at the will of the Iudge But yet Christ hath none or very few Proctors who cause his Commandements to bee kept c. Saint Augustine saith that hee would rather goe to Plow on the Lords-day then Dance not that it is lawfull then to goe to Plow or that hee that goeth to Plow should be pardoned but because hee who danceth offends more grievously because dancing it selfe is oft-times a sinne and oft-times enforceth men to occasions of worser sinnes Consider what hee would have said of those other things which now are commonly done upon our Holi-dayes And yet notwithstanding if any one goeth to Plow on the Lords-day hee is not onely most severely punished but he is welnigh reputed an Infidell but hee who danceth excellently not onely hath no reproofe but he is likewise plausibly received with applause and gratulation even by the Censors themselves c. Now what a thing is it for men to intangle themselves in greater villanies on those dayes that are appointed for reconciliation and remission of sinnes and on which men wholy cease from terrene actions that they may give themselves to the contemplation of Heavenly things with a pure heart What confidence can such have of the suffrage of the Saints who defile their Holidayes with most foolish vanities most impure pollutions● most wicked debacchations and sacrilegious execrations Verily they deserve to have them not most pious furtherers but most deadly accusers For what greater iniury can bee done to a Saint then to dishonor his birth-day wherein he was carried into Heaven and Paradice with such uncleanesses and with every such sacrilegious custome wherewith Devils were wont to be attoned by their superstitious worshippers What doe we thinke the ancient holy Fathers would say who appointed the solemnities of the Saints to be observed in the Church for the foresaid ends if they were now alive and should see those vanities and counterfeit fooleries that are done upon

minister grace to the hearers Let all euill speaking be put away from you and as for fornication and vncleanenesse the common subiects and principall ingredients of our Comedies neither foolish talking nor iesting which are not conuenient let them not bee once named much lesse then acted or applauded among you as becommeth Saints It is a great solecisme yea a sinne among Christians either to relate or doe much more to Personate Penne or Pleasingly to behold any obscene or filthie thing Christians they are at leastwise should be Saints yea Chast and holy Virgins Temples and Vessels for the Lord cleansing themselues from all pollution both of Flesh and Spirit stopping their eares from hearing blood sh●tting their eyes from seeing euill yea not so much as touching any vncleane thing therefore they must abandon all Vnchast all Scurrilous and filthie things their Eyes t●eir Eares their Hands their Tongues their Hearts must know nothing but Christ intermeddle with nothing but pure● and holy things Their God is holy their Sauiou● Iesus Christ is holy their holy Ghost is holy their Religion their Scriptures their Sacraments their Companions their Faith their Inheritance and Profession holy Chast and Vndefiled and so must they be too in all manner of con●ersation at all times therefore all Amorous all Lasciuious filthie and polluted things which haue no analogie nor proportion with them must needes bee sinfull hurtfull and vnseemely yea odious and displeasing to them Obscenitie or rotten discourse which the Fathers in the margent who condemne it define to be nothing else but a Narration of some Vitious Amorous Adulterous and filthie action to passe away the time or to prouoke and stirre vp laughter of which sort are all ribaldrie Songs and Iests all Theatricall Complementall Poeticall or Table-discourses of the Adulteries Incests Loues and vile Obsenities of gracelesse wicked men or Heathen-gods who transcended others in their vices as much as in their Deitie was alwayes detestable and odious vnto Pagans Hence Gellius informes vs that the Romans did publikely punish not onely Obscene and petulant deedes but words Hence Romulus inacted this Law Ne quis praesentibus foeminis obscaena verba facito Let no man vse any obscene speach in the presence of any women Hence Sophocles informes vs that it is not seemely nor honest to speake such things which are vnseemely to bee done Hence was that ingenious checke● which Diogenes gaue to a beautifull youth when hee heard him vttering some obscenities doest thou not blush saith hee to draw a leaden Sword out of an Iuorie scabbard Hence was that brand which Seneca stamped vpon all scurrilous persons which I would such Christians whose tongues are tipt and hearts delighted with Ribaldrous Songs and Iests would seriously apply vnto their Consciences wheresoeuer saith he thou meetest with corrupt discourse there doubt not but the heart and manners are depraued and no wonder for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh and euill words corrupt good manners as the Scriptures teach vs Hence Aristotle magnifies the modestie of that ingenuous Pagan who when he was about to vtter an vnchast obscenitie was tongue-tied out of modest shame the Citizens of Marcelles though Pagans would admit no Stage-Playes into their Citie least their filthinesse and obsceniti● should corrupt their youth Yea the very Heathen Poet himselfe would haue all scurrilitie and ribaldrie exiled from such places where Youthes and Children were for feare they should depraue their mindes and manners If then God himselfe if the Fathers yea if all these Pagans haue vtterly condem●ed all filthie Scurrilous Vncha●t and Amorous speaches Iests and Poemes as misbeseeming Chast and Modest eyes or Lips or Eares my Maior cannot but be granted and so much the rather because Vnchast Obscene and Amorous wordes are but so many vehiculaes to carrie m●n on to Adulterous and Sinfull deedes both which all Christians must abominate For the Maior that the Stile and subiect Matter of most Comicall and Theatricall Enterludes is Amorous and Obscene it is as euident as the Morning Sunne First by the expresse and punctuall testimonie of sundry Fathers Read but Tatianus Oratio Aduersus Graecos Theophylus Antiochenus Contra Autolicum lib. 3. Clemens Romanus Constit. Apostolorum lib. 2. cap. 65.66 Clemens Alexandrinus Oratio Exhort ad Gentes fol. 8.9 Paedag. lib. 2. cap. 6.7 lib. 3. cap. 11. Tertullian De Spectac cap. 10.17 to 28. Apologia aduersus Gentes cap. 38. De Pudicitia cap. 7. Minucius Felix Octauius pag. 101. Philo Iudaeus De Agricultura lib. pag. 271. De vita Mosis pag. 932. De vita Contemplatiua lib. pag. 1209. Cyprian De Spectac lib. Epist. lib. 2. Ep. 2. Donato Origen in Rom. 11. lib. 8. Tom. 3. pag. 203. Arnobius aduers-Gentes lib. 3. pag. 114. lib. 4. pag. 149.150 lib. 5. pag. 182. lib. 7. pag. 230. to 241. Lactantius De vero Cultu cap. 20. Diuinarum Institutionum Epit. cap. 6. Basilius Magnus Hexaemeron Hom. 4. De Legendis libris Gentilium Oratio Ascetica Tom. 2. pag. 180.181 Gregorie N●zianzen Oratio 48. pag. 796.797 ad Seleuchum De recta Educatione Epist. pag. 1063.1064 Gregorie Nyssen Vitae Moseos Enarratio pag. 525. Ambrose De Paenitentia lib. 2. cap. 6. Enarratio in Plasm 118. Octon 5. Cyrillus Hierusolomitanus Catechesis Mystagogica 1. Hilarie Enarratio in Psal. 14. in Psal. 118. He. Hierom Comment in Ezech. lib. 6. cap. 20. Tom. 4. pag. 389. H. Epist. 2. cap. 6. Chrysostome Hom. 3. De Dauide Saul Hom. in Psal. 140. Hom. 6.7 38. in Mat. Hom. 62. in Acta Apost Hom. 12. in 1 Cor. Hom. 17. in Ephes. 5. Hom. 62. ad Pop. Antiochiae Augustine De Ciuit. Dei lib. 1. cap. 32.33 lib. 2. cap. 4. to 15. cap. 26.29 De Consensu Euangel l. 1. cap. 33. Confessionum lib. 3. cap. 1.2 Prosper Aquitanicus De Gloria Sanctorum Peroratio pag. 73. Orosius Historiae lib. 3. cap. 4. Isiodor Hispalensis Etimolog lib. 18. cap. 41.42 Saluian De Gubernat Dei lib. 6. 7. Bernard Oratio ad Milites Templ● cap. 4. Ioannes Salisburiensis De Nugis Curialium lib. 1. cap. 8. lib. 8. cap. 6.7 Cassiodorus Variarum lib. 1. cap. 27. lib. 7. cap. 10. To whom I may adde Concilium Parisiense sub Ludouico Lothario lib. 1. cap. 38. Concilium Agathense Canon 39. Synodus Turonica 3. Canon 7.8 Synodus Cabilonensis 2. Canon 9. Synodus Moguntina sub Rabano Canon 13. Concilium Coloniense Anno. 1536. pars 2. cap. 25. pars 9. cap. 10. Concilium Coloniense sub Adolpho Anno. 1549. Gratian. Distinctio 33.48.86 Peruse I say these seuerall Fathers and Councels whose words if I should at large transcribe them would amount vnto an ample volume and you shall finde them all concurre

a tender thing like a most beautifull flower it is quickly blasted with a small winde and corrupted with an easie breath especially where both age consents to vice and the authority of an Husband is wanting whose shadow is the shelter of the Wife Wherefore let no frizeld-pated Steward no effeminate Stage-player accompany thee let not the venomous sweetnesse of a Diabolicall Singer come neere thee nor a compt and beautifull Youth Ha●e thou nothing to doe with Stage-playes because they are the pleasing incendiaries of mens lusts and vices because they draw mens soules by their flattering entisements to deadly pleasures which Christians should extinguish with the love of Christ and curbe with fasting and cause them to violate the vow and bond of Chastity of Widdowhood of Virginity So in his Commentary on Ezechiel lib. 6. cap 20. he certifieth us That we also when as we depart out of AEgypt are commanded to cast away all those things which offend our eyes that so we may not be delighted with those things with which we were formerly affected in the world to wit with the inventions of Philosophers and Heretiques which are rightly stiled Idols We must likewise remove our eyes from all the Spectacles yea rather the offences of AEgypt as Sword-playes Cirque-playes and Stage-playes which defile the purity of the soule and by the sences gaine entrance to the minde and so that is fulfilled which is written Death hath entred by your windowes By this grave learned Fathers verdict then it is most evident that Stage-playes devirginate unmarried persons especially beautifull tender Virgins who resort unto them which I would our female Play-haunters and their Parents would consider that they defile their soules with impure carnall lusts and so let in eternall death upon them Saint Augustine brands all Stage-playes with this stigmaticall Impresse That they are the Sp●ctacles of filthinesse The overturners of goodnesse and honesty The chasers away of all modesty and chastity Meretricious shewes The unchaste the filthy gestures of Actors The art of mischievous villanies which even modest Pagans did blush to behold The invitations to lewdnesse by which the Devill useth to gaine innumerable companies of evill men unto himsefe Hence hee stiles Theaters The Cages of uncleanesse the publike professions of wickednesse of wicked men and Stage-playes The most petulant the most impure impudent wicked uncleane the most shamefull and detestable attonements of filthy Devil-gods which to true Religion are most ex●crable whose Actors the laudable towardnes of Roman vertue had depriv●d of all honour disfranchised their tribe acknowledged as filthy made infamous because the people were instructed incouraged by the sight and hearing of St●ge-playes to imitate to practise those alluring criminous fictions those ignominious facts of Pagan-gods that were either wickedly and filthily forged of them or more wickedly and filthily committed by them Hence is it that this godly Father doth oft dissuade all Christians from acting seeing or frequenting Stage-playes and Cirque-playes because they are but P●nders but allectives to uncleanesse incendiaries and fomentations unto carnall lusts Hence he speakes thus to Christian Parents which I would to God those gracelesse Parents who either accompany send encourage or else permit their Children to runne to filthy lewde lascivious Stage-playes which vitiate which deprave them ever after would seriously consider As oft deare Breathren as you know that any of your Children resor● either to furious bloody or filthy Enterludes with a vaine perswation and pestiferous love● as if it were to some good worke you who now by the grace of God contemne not onely these luxurious but also cruell recreations and disports ought diligently to chastise them and to pray more abundantly to the Lord for them because you know that they run unto vanity and lying follies neglecting that place to which they are called These if they chance to be affrighted in the Play-house by any sudden accident I would our Popish Stage-haunters who thinke to scare away the Devill from them by their crossings would well consider it doe presently crosse themselves and they stand there carrying that in their foreheds from whence they would depart if they carried it in their hearts For every one who runnes to any evill worke if he chance but to stumble doth forth-with crosse his face and knoweth not that he doth rather include then exclude the Devill For then should he crosse himselfe well and repell the Devill out of his heart if he recalled himsefe from that wicked worke Wherefore I intreat you deare Brethren agai●e and againe that you would supplicate for them with all your might that so they may receive understanding to condemne these damnable things desire to avoyd them mercy to acknowledge them We may likewise speake unto those whom voluptuous Stage-playes oft-times draw from the assemblies of the Church Notwithstanding I intreat you deare Brethren that as often as you shall see them to doe any such thing you would in our stead most severely correct them Let them heare our voyce your remembrance correct them by reproving them comfort them by conferring with them give them an ensample by living well Then he will be present with them who hath beene present with you Thus Saint Augustine by whose words you may easily discover not onely the truth of our present Assumption but likewise the sinfulnesse the unlawfulnesse of Playes themselves as also of acting hearing seeing and frequenting Stage-playes Which hee likewise seconds in some other passages as namely in his 2. Booke De Moribus Manichaeorum where hee writes thus against them Finally we have oft-times found in Theaters divers of their choyce men who were grave both in age and as they seemed even in manners too with an old Presbyter I omit yong men whom we were likewise wont to finde brawling for Stage-players and Wagoners which thing is no small argument after what manner they can containe themselves from secret adulteries and villanies since they cannot overcome that lust which may uphold them in the eyes of their Auditors and makes them even to blush and runne away for shame In his Booke De Catechizandis Rudibus cap. 16. Hee informes us That there are certaine men who seeke not to be rich nor yet to aspire to the vaine pompes of honors but desire onely to be merry and to rest quietly in Ale-houses in Brothel-houses in Theaters and in the spectacles of vanity which are had gratis in great Citties But these through their luxury consume their meane estate and from poverty they fall to Burglaries Thefts and Robberies and are suddenly filled with many and great feares and these who a little before did sing in an Ale-house now dreame of the mourning of a prison But by the study and sight of Stage-playes they are made like to Devils c. To passe by his sundry notable passages against Players and Stage-playes in his 1.2 4 5 6 7

so much as with their bodies Notwithstanding be departs not but staies and demandeth drinke of us not water but holinesse For Christ des●ributeth holy things to holy men For he doth not give us water out of this Well but living Blood which albeit it be received to testifie the Lords death yet to us it is made a cause of life But thou leavest the fountaine of his blood and this dreadfull cup and runnest hastily to that diabolicall well that thou maist behold a swimming whore and suffer a shipwracke of thy soule For that water is a certaine vast sea of luxury in which bodies are not drowned but soules suffer shipwracke For she verily being naked sports her selfe with swimming in the midest of the waters but thou looking on her from an high scaffold art plunged into the depths of lust For these nets of the Devill doe not so much catch those who descend into that water and there roll themselves as those who sit above For these are drowned farre more cruelly then that Pharaoh heretofore who was overwhelmed with his Chariots Horsemen Now if were possible by any meanes for me to shew unto you the soules swimming upon these waters tru●ly they would appeare no otherwise then those AEgyptian bodies that were tossed in those floods But this verily ●s far more dangerous that this so great destruction they call pleasure and this filthy sea of perdition they stile the Euripus of delight when as verily one may more easily and safely passe over the AEgaean and Tyrrhenian sea then the horrible dangers of this spectacle For first of all the Devill doth sollicite the hearts of such all night long with an over-anxious expectation afterwards be represents that which hath beene so greedily beheld where with he doth presently binde and lead them captive Neither mayest thou thinke thy selfe free from sinnes if thou doest not couple with an harlot when as thou dost commit all this with thy will For if thou art possessed by this concupiscence thou art verily burned with a greater flame But if by beholding these things thou suffrest nothing notwithstanding thou art guilty in being a scandall unto others and by thy encouragement of such pleasures thou thy selfe confoundest both thine owne face and with thy face thy soule But that we may not seeme to deale onely by way of reproofe we will now propound the meanes of reformation What then is this meanes of amendment I deliver you to your owne wives to be instructed when certainely you ought rather according to the Apostle to be instructors of your wives But because by sinne the order is inverted and the body is made the superior the head the inferior let it not grieve you to returne to honest things by this way But if thou art ashamed of the tutorship of a woman avoyd sinne and thou maist quickly ascend into the chaire of a Doctor which is ordained for thee by God But as long as thou shalt sinne the Scripture doth send thee not onely to an woman but even to irrationall and the basest creatures Neither doth a creature endued with the honor of reason blush to become a Scholler of the Bee and the Ant neither is this the fault of the Scripture but of those who have lost their owne noblenesse Therefore we also will have a care to doe thus And now verily we assigne thee to a woman to be taught but if thou shalt contemne her admonitions we will even send thee to the tutorship of unreasonable creatures For we will shew thee how many birds and fishes yea how many kindes of beasts and creeping things outstrip thee in honesty and chastity But if thou art ashamed to be compared to such creatures returne to the ensigne of thy owne noblenesse and remembring that vast Sea of Hell and fiery River avoyd this pestiferous Fish-pond of the Play-house For this is it which doth drowne its Spectators in that fiery Sea and which doth kindle the very bottome of that fire For if he who without these provocations seeth a woman is yet notwithstanding drawne sometimes to lust after her and commits adultery onely by lusting he who not onely s●eth but likewise earnestly beholds a naked and lascivious women with his whole minde how is he not a thousand times made the captive of lust That great Flood under Noah did not so extinguish mankinde as these swimmers doe altogether suffocate all their spectators even with much disgrace For that flood although it brought in the death of bodies yet it blotted out the vices of soules But this water doth the contrary it workes the destruction of soules the bodies still continuing in life You verily if that any contention about honor ariseth contend with all ambition that you ought to have preheminence of the whole world flattering your selves with this priviledge that this Citty did first give the name of Christians to the faithfull but when you should contend about honesty and chastit● are you not ashamed lest you should be overcome of the very basest villages Yes sayest thou But what then doe you command us to doe To goe into desert Mountaines and to become Monkes And what else doe I lament but that thou thinkest an honest and pure life belongs onely to them Verily Christ hath given common precepts unto all men For where he saith If any man looke upon a woman to lust after her hee hath already committed adultery with her in his heart it is not onely spoken to a Monke but likewise to an Husband For that Mountaine in which Christ taught these things was then filled almost only with such Consider therefore that Theater and avoyd their Diabolicall Assemblies and doe not as it were blame my more troublesome speech For I prohibit not marriages nor honest pleasure but I would have it to be done with honesty not with obscenity or sinne I doe not therefore bid the goe into Mountaines and Deserts but to be bountifull and likewise honest and modest even while● thou livest in the midest of the City The Apostle tells us The time is short it remaines therefore that those who have wives bee as if they had none for the fashion of this world passeth away As if he should say I bid you not to dwell in the tops of Mountaines although I desire that likewise because Citties imitate the abominations committed in Sodom but yet I doe by no meanes force you to it Contiu●e having an house wife children onely doe not make them Spectators of incestuous pleasures doe not thou introduce the plague of the Theater into thine house Doest thou not heare Paul saying The man hath not the power of his body but the woman Therefore he hath also given common precepts to him Thou verily if thy wife frequent the Church becommest a most grievous accuser of her but thou thy selfe spending the whole day in Play-houses dost not believe thy selfe to be worthy of accusation but when as thou

art so vigilant over thy wiv●s chasty that thou art not ashamed to be excessive and immoderate keeping her oft-times from necessary iourneyes yet thou thinkest that all things are very lawfull to thy selfe But Paul doth not permit this to thee who likewise giveth the same power to the woman Let the man saith he give unto the wife due benevolence How then is thy wise honored by thee who is vexed with such an undeserved iniury when as thou doest ioyne thy body which is in her power to harlots For thy body is thy wives What honor I say dost thou give unto her when as thou bringest in tumults and contentions into thine owne house when as thou utterst such things in the market place that whiles thou relatest them at home thou disgracest thy wife that heares and makest thy daughter that is present to blush and besides others thy owne selfe For it were much better to keepe silence then to utter such obscene things which if thy servants should but speake of it were iust for thee to cudgle them Answer I pray what satisfaction canst thou give who beholdest these things with great delight which are not lawfull to be named and preferrest those things which are dishonest for to name before all honest and holy Arts Lest therefore I should seeme more troublesome I will here end my speech But if you persevere in these things I will launch with a sharper rasor and make a more deep incision neither wil I ever rest untill I breake in pieces that Diabolicall Theater that the Assembly of the Chuch may be made cleane and pure So shall we be freed from the present turpitude and acquire life to come by the grace and mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ to whom be glory and dominion with the Father and the holy Ghost for ever and ever Amen In his 38. Homily upon Mathew upon these words It shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Iudgement then for thee hee falls into this excllent discourse against Stage-playes and their concomitances The Sodomites though they lived most wickedly yet they sinned before the Law and Grace but what pardon are we worthy of who commit such sinnes after so diligent a care both of the Law and Grace We shut ●ur gates and stop our eares to the poore what say I to the poore when as we doe the same to the Apostles themselves Yea therefore to the poore because we doe it to the Apostles For when as Paul is read publikely and thou dost not regard when as Iohn thunders and thou dost not heare wilt thou heare a poore man who dost not heare an Apostle That our houses therefore may be open to the poore and our eares to the Apostles all filthinesse is to be purged out of the eares of the minde For as filth and dirt are wont to stop the eares of the body so whorish songs the fables of this world the burthen of Debtors the accounts of Creditors and usury are wont to stop the eares of the minde more then any filth● Or rather they doe not onely stop them but also make them impure and filthy For such speeches d●e as it were cast dirt into our eares That which that Barbarian did threaten saying You shall eate your owne dung even that doe many now unto you not in word onely but in deed yea verily even far worse and filthier For whorish songs are much more abominable then dung And that which is worse to be indured you doe not onely not grieve wh●n as you heare such things but you likewise laugh and reioyce And when as you ought to avoyd and abominate these things you entertaine and applaud them Therefore if these things be not abominable doe thou thy selfe likewise descend upon the Stage and imitate that thou praysest have society and commerce with those who move such laughter but if thou wilt not be coupled in that fellowship why dost thou give so great honor to it The very lawes of the Gentiles make them to be infamous but thou together with the whole Citty being all called together runnest out to them as to Ambassadors or Generals of the Warre that thou together with all the rest maist put dung into thine eares and thou who beatest thy servant if he utter any filthy thing in thy presence who permittest not thy Sonne to doe it who dost not suffer these things to be done at thine owne house as being an undoubted filthinesse when as certaine servile abiect persons who deserve the Whipping-post shall call thee to heare these things dost not onely not take it ill but even reioycest yea applaudest and givest thankes And what madnesse could ever be found greater then this But sayest thou I never spake nor sung these obscene things these incentives of pleasure But what profit is it if when thou dost not utter them yet thou hearest them willingly Yea how w●lt thou make this evident that thou dost not utter them when as thou dost willingly hear● them with laughter and runnest to receive them Tell me I pray ●hee when as thou hearest Blasphemers● dost thou reioyce and triumph or rather dost thou tremble and stop thine eares I doubt not but thou tremblest Wherefore because thou never art wont to blaspeme Wherefore doo so likewise in filthy speech if thou wilt thorowly perswade us that thou dost not utter filthy words then truely will we believe thee when as we shall see thee not to heare them For how dost thou respect vertue who art nourished by hearing these things how canst thou undergoe the difficult labours of chastity who aboundest with laughter and art insnared with a whorish song For if the soule which is farre remote from these songs doth scarce retaine th● honesty of chastity how can he live chastly who liveth in them Are you ignorant that we are more prone to vices When therefore we run unto these things with hast and earnestnesse how shall we avoyd the furnace of eternall fire Have you not heard Paul saying Rejoyce in the Lord. He hath said in the Lord not in the Devill How therefore canst thou heare Paul when thou shalt perceive that thou hast sinned when as thou art alwayes as it were made dranke with these ridiculous Spectacles For that thou camest hither now I wonder not yea verily I wonder greatly For thou camest hither as it were simply and perfunctorily but thou rushe● thither daily with all earnestnesse of minde with speed with alacrity which appeares by this because that most filthy sinne which by your ●ight and hearing hath beene infused into your soule you carry along with you from the Theaters to your houses yea verily you take it and lay it up in your mindes and thoughts and those things which are not worthy dete●tation thou disdainest but abominable things thou admirest and lovest For many returning from the office of burying have presently gone into the bath but those who come from

Play-houses have neither mourned nor powred out fountaines of teares Yet truely a carcase hath no uncleanesse but sinne doth so defile men that no fountaines no rivers but onely teares and confession can wash it away But there is no man who discernes how great the steines of sinne are For because we feare not things that are to be feared therefore we feare those things which have no cause of fear● in them But what is this so great noys● of Theater men what these Diabolicall clamors what this Satanicall apparell One being a yong man hath his haire combed backward and effeminating nature in his countenance apparell pace and such like strives to deduce it to the similitude of a tender Virgin Another on the other side being an old man having his haire and all modesty shaven off with a rasor standing by girt is ready to speake and to act all things Women also with a naked and uncovered head speake to the people without shame and usurpe impudency to themselves with so great premeditation and infuse so great lasciviousnesse into the mindes of the Hearers and Spectators that all may seeme even with one consent to extirpate all modesty out of their mindes to disgrace the female nature and to satiate their lusts wi●h pernicious pleasure For all things that are done there are absolutely most obscene the words the apparell the ●onsure the pace the speeches the songs the ditties the turnings and glances of the eyes the pipes the flutes and the very argument of the Playes all things I say are full of filthy wantonnesse Say therefore when wilt thou withdraw thy selfe from so great an uncleane desire of fornication which the Devill hath infused into thee and repent For we are not ignorant how many whoredomes are there committed how many marriages are there defiled with adulteries how many men are there most unnaturally abused how many yong men are there strangely effeminated all things there are full of the highest iniquity all full of prodigies all full of impudency For which things we ought not to sit laughing excessively but rather to mourne and grieve even with teares What therefore will you maist thou say shall we shut up all the Play-house doores and obeying thee overturne all things What hast thou said shall we overturne Are not all things now overturned For whence dost thou believe that the unchaste attempters of marriages proceed Come they not from these Play-houses Whence are those who invade the marriage beds of others Are they not from the Stage Is it not from hence that many men become most troublesome to their wives and that women are despised of their husbands Are not very many adulterers from hence Therefore he seemes to me to overturne all things who runnes to Play-houses who brings in a most cruell tyranny Thou wilt say no to seperate wives from their husbands to ravish children to overturne houses all these are the acts of Tyrants who have seised upon th● Castle and oppresse the Citty by force but the things we doe are approved by the lawes and these Stage-playes have never giv●n occasion to adulteries Yea verily who is not already made an adulterer For if I could call all by name I would quickly shew it thee How many have harlots led away as captives from thence How many have they either withdrawne from their wives or have not at all permitted them to come to their lawfull bed What therefore sayest thou shall we overturne all the lawes by which these things are established Yea verily these Stage-playes being overturned you shall overthrow not the lawes but iniquity and you shall quite extinguish all the plagues and mischiefes of the Citty For from hence are seditions raysed from hence tumults doe arise For those who are nourished with these Playes who sell their voyces for their bellies sake who are most ready to speake to doe all things and spend all their paines and industry in this these are most of all wont to inflame the people with rumors and to rayse tumults in Citties For the idle youth educated in these evils is more cruell then the very fiercest beast Are not many evill doers made and confirmed by these Stage-playes For that they may instigate all the people to these things that they may obtaine their dancing pleasures that they may corrupt mod●st women mixed with strumpets● they come to such a height of wickednesse that they doe not so much as absteine from the bones of dead men What shall I say that many spend infinite summes of mony at these Diabolicall societies What shall I say of lasciviousnesse What of other evils Consider then that thou art he who dost overthrow the whole life of man when as thou drawest others to these things not I who thinke that all these Playes are to be given over Thou wilt say shall we then pull down● all the Play-houses Would to God they were now pulled downe albeit that as farre as it appertaeines to us they long since lie desolate Notwithstanding I command you to doe none of these things since the magnificence of the houses may stand and the Playes and Dancing altogether cease which will be more prayse to you then if you should quite overturne all Take at least an example to your selves from the Barbarians who want the filthinesse of all these Stage-playes What excuse then can you bring for your selves if you who are now registred in Heaven you who are the companions and coheires of Angels and Arch-Angels should be found farre worse then the Barbarians in this thing especially when as thou maist else where procure to thy selfe many better comfort For when thou wilt refresh thy minde thou maist goe into Gardens behold running Rivers contemplate great Lakes looke upon pleasant Places heare singing Grashoppers be conversant in the Temples of Martyrs from whence thou shalt receive best health for thy body and excellent profit may accrue unto thy soule from whence thou maist reape singular pleasure because no lesse no griefe no sorrow followes thou hast a wife thou dost not want children thou aboundest in friends all which are wont sometimes to afford honest delight and profit For what is more sweet then children What more pleasant then a chaste wife to a moderate and chaste Husband Verily the Barbarians themselves when as they had heard of these Stage-playes and the unseasonable delight of fables are reported to have uttered words most worthy all the instructions of Philosophie For they said that the Romanes as if they had wanted wives and children had devised such pleasures as these to themselves In which words they did shew that nothing could be more sweet more pleasant to him who would live honestly then a modest wife and children But thou wilt say I can shew that these Playes h●ve done no hurt to many Yes verily they doe very great hurt in that thou spendest thy time idlely and to no purpose

far off but walkes by them lives with feare oft-times falls into them For he who curiously beholds the beauties of others although he commits not adultery yet he hath lusted and according to Christs sentence he is made an adulterer and oft-times from concupiscence it selfe he is really carried into the very sinne Let us therefore withdraw our selves farre from sinnes Wilt thou be modest not onely shun thou adultery but even a wanton looke Wilt thou be farre from filthy words thou must not onely avoyd dishonest speeches but even dissolute laughter and all concupiscence c. Much more then wanton Playes and wicked Play-houses In his 17. Homily to the people of Antioch hee thus discourseth But doe those things which the King hath done make thee sorrowfull Verily neither are those things grievous but they have even brought much profit For tell me what troublesome thing is done that he hath stopped the Play-house that he hath made the Circus inaccessible that he hath excluded and overturned those fountaines of wickednesse Would to God it might not be granted that these should be ever opened againe Hence the workes of wickednesse have budded forth in the Citty hence are those who carry a crime in their very manners selling their voyces unto Dancers betraying their owne salvation for three farthings and confounding all things c. But now our Citty seemes to be like a beautifull a faire and modest woman Feare makes her more meeke and honest and hath freed her from those wicked ones who have adventured to commit these horrible wickednesses Let us not therefore lament with womannish sorrow for I have heard many saying in the Market place Woe unto thee Antioch what is done unto thee How art thou deprived of honor And when I had heard it I derided the childish minde of those who spake such things For we ought not to say these things now but when thou shalt see Dancers Players Drinkers Blaspemers Swearers Forswearers Lyers then use these words Woe unto thee Citty what is done unto thee It appeares then by this excellent discourse that Play-houses are the Seminaries of all vice and mischiefe and that those Citties are truely miserable wherein they are but tolerated To passe by his 19. Homily to the people of Antioch where he commends the condition of the Country husband-men because they had no spectacles of iniquity no Horse-combates nor whorish women c. where he withall describes the paines which Tumblers Players and Dancers upon the Rope did take to make themselves expert in their professions with halfe which labour men might overcome their customary sinne of swearing In his 21. Homily to the same people of Antioch How absurd a thing is it writes hee after that mysticall voyce brought downe out of Heaven by a Cherubin to defile the eares with whorish songs and effeminate melodies Yea how is it not worthy of extreame punishment to behold Harlots and to practice adultery with the same eyes with which thou beholdest the secret and dreadfull mysteries and to returne againe to those pompes of the Devill which thou hast renounced in thy baptisme Now these pompes of Satan which thou renouncest are Theaters and Cirque-playes And in his 23. Homily to the Antiochians he hath this excellent discourse worthy of most serious observation Beloved externall dignities are fitly manifested by extrinsecall signes that are put about them but oures oft to be knowne by the soule For a Christian ought not to be seene onely by his office but likewise by his newnesse of life It is fit a believer should shine forth not onely by those things which he hath received from God but also by those things which he himselfe performes and to be manifested on all hands by his gesture by his countenance by his habit by his voyce Now I have spoken these things not that we should dispose of our selves to ostentation but to the profit of the beholders But now from whence shall I know thee to be a Christ I finde thee on every side conspicuous by the contraries For if I would learne who thou art either from the place I see thee abiding in C●rques in Theaters and in iniquities in the councels of wicked ones and in the conventicles of desperate hopelesse men Or from the forme of thy countenance I see thee alwayes laughing excessively and dissolute like a reclus● Harlot and vile withall Or from thy clothes I see thee no better apparelled then those who are conversant in the Play-house Or from thy followers thou leadest about Parasites and Flatterers Or from thy words I heare thee speaking nothing that is savory or necessary or conferring to a Christian life Or from thy table hence a greater accusation will appeare From whence then I pray shall I know thee to be a Christian all thy words and deeds professing the contrary But why doe I say a Christian For thou art not so much as a man if I can plainely discerne For when as tho● kickest like an Asse and playest the wanton as a Bull and neighest after Women like an Horse and pamperest thy belly like a Beare and fattest thy flesh as a Mule and retainest evill in thy memory like a Camell and moreover ravenest as a Wolfe and art angry as a Serpent and smitest like a Scorpion and art crafty like a Fox and keepest the poyson of wickednesse as an Aspe or Viper and impugnest thy Brethren as that wicked Devill How shall I be able to number thee among men when I shall behold in thee the signes of such a nature For seeking after the difference of a Catechumenish and a Believer I am afraid that I shall not finde the difference no not of a man and a beast For what shall I call thee A beast but beasts are held onely with one of these vices but thou carrying about all of them together proceedest on to a greater beastlinesse then they Or shall I stile thee a Devill but the Devill serves not the tyranny of the belly neither doth he love mony Since then thou hast greater imperf●ctions then Men and Devils how shall we call thee a man But and if it be not lawfull to call thee a man how I pray shall we salute thee as a Believer And that which is worse neither being so evilly disposed doest thou thinke of the deformity of thy soule nor yet consider its filthinesse but sitting in a Barbers shop and triming thy haire taking a glasse thou diligently examinest the composition of every haire and advisest with those that stand by and with the Barber himselfe whether he hath ordered those haires well that are about thy forehead And when as thou art for the most part an old ma● thou art not a●hamed to wax ●ad with youthfull vanities But we behold not not onely the deformity of our soules but we doe not so much as any whit at all consider that beastly shape that Sylla or Chymaera according to

Puritans y●t l●t us now at ●ast renounce them out of ●hame lest we prove farre worse then Pagans lest Horace lest Iuvenal and these fore-named Heathen Authors lest wanton Ovid or obscene Porpertius who thus cryes out of Theaters O nimis exit●o nata Theatra meo should bee more gracious holy and precise then wee whose holinesse should exceed even that of Scribes and Pharesies much more then this of wanton Pagan Poets which carried them no farther then to Hell what ever some old some new Pelagians have dreamed to the contrary To passe from Pagan Authors to Heathen Magistrates States and Emperors The ancient Lacedemonians excluded all Stage-playes out of Sparta permitting neither Comidies nor Tragedies to be acted in it lest their youth should be corrupted their Lawes derided and brought into contempt And when as an Embassad●r of Rhodes demanded o● a Lacedemonian what was the occasion of their lawes against Players and Iesters since they shewed pleasure to the people and the people lost nothing by it but laughed at their folly The Lacedemonian replied that Lycurgus saw he●rd or read of some great damage that Pla●ers and Iesters might do● in the Common-weale since he had established so strait a Law against them But this I know that we Greekes are b●tter weeping with our Sages then the Romans laughing at their Fooles The Athenians though they much h●noured Actors Players and Play-poets at the first yet growing wiser by deare-bought experience at the last when ●hey had effeminated their mindes exhausted their treasure the sinnes of their Wars and brought upon them sundry mischiefes they abandoned all comicall Stage-playes as pernicious evils enacting this publike law against them that no man should from thence forth presume to pen or act ● Comedy and making common Actors thence-forth infamous The very Heathens Massilienses were so Puritanically rigid in this case that they would upon no tearmes no intreaties whatsoever permit any Stage-playes to be acted within their Citty or Territories for this very reason lest the beholding of them should corrupt the mindes and manners of their Youth and draw them on to commit those vices in earnest which were acted before them but in iest The ancient Pagan Romans as they reputed all common Actors infamous as the Civilians and our owne Statutes now esteeme them disfranchising them their tribe as unworthy persons and disabling them to inherite lands to give any publike testimony betweene man and man or to beare any honor office or dignity in the Common-weale a very great evidence and acknowledgement of the evilnesse of Stage-playes as Tertullian and others descant on it since Players were thus branded with the note of infamy even then when Playes themselves were in their first and best request even so they demolished all their Theaters together with the Galleries built about them by a publike edict lest the mindes and mann●rs of the people should be effeminated and defloured by them to the publike preiudice Themistocles the famous Athenian Generall enacted a Law that no Magistrates should resort to Stage-playes le●t the Common-wealth it selfe should seeme to loyter and play in them Et utinam audiretur à nostris writes Iohn Sarisbury ut saltem in provectiori aetate nugis suis republicae seria anteferrent and even before this law of his it was an ancient custome in Athens which was long observed that not the leas● admittance into the Theater should be given unto any but such who should sing and utter honest things lest the Magistrates and people there present should be made spectators of dishonest ●asti●es which might draw them on to vice Not to speake of the Gothes and other Barbarians who censured and condemned Stage-playes as effeminate and ridiculous superfluities Philippus Gl●verius informes us out of Tacitus who writes thus of the German women Ergo sep●â pudicitiâ agunt nullis spectaculorum illecebris corrupta that the ancient Pagan Germanes knowing with what things the chastity of women was most corrupted among other Nations did wholy abandon Stage-playes with which they were unacquainted of the corruption of which spectacles Seneca hath spoken most truely That there is nothing so preiudiciall to good manners as to sit idly at a Play● for then vice● creepe more easily upon us through pleasure O Propheticall and Divine speech most worthy so great a Teacher of Wisedome This verily writes this Heathen man who was al●ogether ignorant of those divine Precepts which God by Moses and other Prophets hath delivered to his people We therefore who have now given up our names to Christs discipline and warfare with what face doe we now not onely excuse our Stage-playes but like●ise applaude and voluntarily instit●te them which verily are so much the lesse to be tollerated by how much the more they exceed the measure of that old Heathenish modesty For now vices doe not onely steale upon us through the pleasure of beholding but they are as it were by force thrust into sincere and pur● mindes by examples by voyce by hand and action so that I verily believe there were never any inventors and Actors of Playes more corruptly licentious then ours now But these things are rather forraigne then our owne for even now the Germanes wives are lesse solicited with Stage-playes then the wives of other Nations The ancient and moderne Germanes then by this Authors testimony abandoned Stage-playes as the very Seminaries of lewdnesse the occasion of adultery and the grand empoysoners especially of all womens manners which I would wish all husbands to observe Scipio Nasica that unparalleld Roman Generall as sundry Authors testifie did by a publike decree of the whole Senate demolish the Roman Theaters and interdict their Stage-playes as the very bane and ruine of the Romans manners vertues valour and the like as the Seminaries of all lewdnesse effeminacy idlenesse vice and wickednesse and the very overtures of the Common-weale whose welfare was altogether inconsistent with lascivious Playes Which worthy act of his is much appla●ded by Livy Tully S. Augustine and others here quoted in the margent Trebonius Rufinus banished all Iusts and Stage-playes out of Vienna over which he was Governour as infectious to their manners for which when as he was accused before the Romane Senate by some dissolute Male-contents because he did it of his owne head without any direction from the Senate Iunius Mauricus a grave Roman Senator t●●ke part with him and iustified this act of his which he not onely much applauded but wished openly withall that all Stage-playes were likewise expelled out of Rome as well as out of Vienna For the vices of the Viennians saith he reside onely among themselves but the Romanes wander farre abroad and as in bodies so in Empires that disease is most grievous which is diff●sed from the head to the inferior members Octavius the Nephew of Iulius Caesar as

heare them but that many might be drawen to sinne For their felicity is wholy placed in the lewdnesse of their Spectators For so it is that if their Spectators should be made better their very occupation would goe to wracke wherefore they never so much as thinke of reforming any who o●fend neither if they willed it could they effect it For their mimicall art of its owne nature is onely ●itted for to hurt men A passage which not onely answers that vaine Obiection of Play-patrons which you see was ancient that Stage-playes reforme men by reprehending vice but likewise man●●ests them to be intolerable mischiefes in any Christian State since their very end and nature is onely to corrupt and make men worse Aurelius Cassiodo●us describ●n● the office of the Romane Censor or Surveyer of sports records that the dissolute lives and light arts of Stage-players are remote from honest manners and that therefore antiquity becomming a Moderator did take care to suppresse their insolencies by appointing Censors to correct and punish them that so they might not wholy lash out when as they should undergoe the censure of a Iudge For the very exhibition of pleasures is to be administred under a certaine discipline If not a true yet at leastwise let a shadowed order of iustice keepe Stage-playes with in compasse Let even these businesses be tempered with the qualification of lawes that so honesty may rule over dishonest persons and they may live under certaine rules who know not the way of a right conversation For these Players seeke not so much their owne pleasure as other mens myrth and by a perverse condition when as they deliver the dominion to their bodies they have compelled their soules to serve It is fit therefore that those should receive a Moderator who know not to carry themselves with a legall moderation For the office of a Censor is set up as a Tutor over these heards of men For as Tutors keepe children of tender yeeres with diligent care so vehement pleasures are to be curbed by the Censor with great grauity c. Which passage as it proves Stage-playes intolerable mischiefes and Players disorderly dissolute wicked person whose excesses need to be suppressed even by the opinion of the ancient Pagan Romanes who appointed Censors of purpose to correct their grosse abuses which yet could never be redressed so it condemnes the excessive lewdnesse of our moderne Playes and Actors which have no such Surveyers to curbe to censure their abuses withall acquaints us how pernicious Stage-playes are both to mens manners the publike weale and what reason Christians have for ever to abandon them since the very worst of Pagans had long since wholy discarded them for their unsufferable corruptions and abuses but to please their Idols to whom they wer● devoted which reason holds not with us Christians but ingageth us most against them To passe by Iohn Saresbury Alexander Fabritius Holkot ●aulus Wan Mapheus Vegius Nicolaus De Clemangis Thomas Bradwardine Petrarcha and other more ancient Writers who censure Stage-playes as the intolerable depravers of mens mindes and manners the Seminaries of all wickednesse vice and lewdnesse the corrupters of Youth the subverters of all good discipline the enemies of all vertuous education and insufferable mischiefes in a State which thorow the eyes and eares usher eternall death into mens soules To whom I might accumulate Ludovicus Vives Astexanus Cornelius Agrippa Peter Primauday Danaeus Peter Martyr Ioannes Langhecrucius Bochellus Ioannes Mariana Barnabas Brissonius Caesar Bulengerus Baronius Spondanus The Centuriators with sundry other Forraigne Authors hereafter quoted who fully suffragate to this their Censure I shall onely recite the words of 4● other moderne Outlandish Authors against the intolerable abuses of Stage-playes and then passe unto our English Writers The first of these is Master Ralph Gualther a reverend orthodox Divine whose laborious learned Workes all Protestant Churches highly honor who acquaints us That Stage-players the artificers the ministers of unlawfull pleasures who are wont to frequent the Courts of great Princes and the eminentest richest Citties where there is most hope of gaine propounded to them are not a small plague of Common-weales for they are the servitors of lust they corrupt good manners they bring all religion into contempt they greatly exhaust both the publike and m●ns private treasure and that which ought to be distributed for the poores reliefe they by their arts have almost intercepted These the Prophet compares to Locusts not onely for their multitude● but rather for their idle sloathfulnesse and because being borne onely for to eate and drinke they doe nothing in the meane time that is honest or which may any way advance the publike good Wherefore grave men in all ages have thought fit to exclude this sort of men from the Common-wealth This Plato a man of most acute iudgement perceived when as he banished all Poets out of his Common-wealth because he knew they would both corrupt mens manners and bring the god into contempt Neither undeservedly is the old discipline of the Massilienses applaude● who would admit no Stage-players into their Citty ●or any person● but such who were skilfull in some art or other wherby they might honestly maintaine themselves To which this also may be added that the ancient Divines most sharpely condemne both Stage-playes and Spectacles having a respect to that of the Apostle who would not have fornication filthy discourse scurrility or any uncleanesse so much as to be once named among Christians commanding all the followers of Christ not to absteine from evill onely but likewise from all appearance of it It is ther●fore a great signe of corrupt and perverted discipline that th●se effeminate persons and furtherers of most ●ishonest pleasures are in great esteeme both in the Courts of Princes in rich Citties whiles grave men who excell in councell and experience are in the meane time excluded and contemned and the poore neglected c. Then he recites the examples of Licinius and Henry the 3. Emperor of that name who cast all Stage-players out of their Courts and Citties as the very Rats and Moathes of the Court and Common-weale Examples writes he worthy of eternall prayse which if Princes and Magistrates of the Common-weale would imitate at this day there would be lesse rome left for filthy sloathfull idlenesse then which there is nothing more powerfull to corrupt mens manners yea wise and prudent men would be in more esteeme and the poore would be better provided for who now wander up and downe in every corner to the great scandall of Christianity But because all here neglect their duty God himselfe will at one time or other finde out a meanes whereby he will cast out these plagues so stiles he Playes and Players not without some publike

Kings and great men and not to bee Actors or Spectators of vanity but wholy to lay aside such foolish Masques and Enterludes At Lions in France in the moneth of August in the yeere 1607. whiles the Iesuites were acting a prophane Play of Christs comming to Iudgement at the last day to the disgrace of true Religion the Lord from Heaven continued thunder and lightnings for two houres space together slew twelue of the Actors and Spectators presently and amazed all the rest with great terror and feare To passe from France to Rome Suetonius records that in Iulius Caesar his time there resorted such a multitude of people to Rome to behold his Stage-playes and Spectacles that most of the strangers were forced to lodge in the Villages adioyning in Tents there was oft-times very many people trod and crushed to death at these Playes by reason of the multitude and among them two Senators so tragicall and fatall were these Enterludes Dion Cassius records that in Pompey his time a Theater in Rome built for the acting of Syrian Enterludes was overturned with a sudden tempest to the death and destruction of many persons To passe by the memorable example of Gods avenging Iustice upon the Philistines and their Lords many thousands of them being crushed to death with the fall of their Dagons Temple which Samson pulled downe upon their heads whiles they were there feasting dancing and acting Playes before their Idoll Dagon and beholding Samson playing dancing and making sport before them like a Clowne in a Play they calling him out of the prison to that purpose From whence Arias Montanus well observes that it was the custome of the Philistines and other Idolaters to court their Idols with dances and Stage-playes on their sol●mne Festivals their temples being built in such a manner that people might conveniently behold the dances and Stage-playes that were acted in them and thereupon hee iustly taxeth Christian Princes for exhibiting Playes and such like impure unchristian spectacles to the people and tolerating them in their Kingdomes they being unsuitable and pernicious unto Christian manners and altogether unlawfull unto Christians as originally consecrated unto Idols the very acting and beholding of them being odious unto God as this his iudgement on the Philistines proves Cornelius Tacitus and Paulus Orosius and out of them sundry others relate that about the eighth yeere of Tiberius his Raigne there were by the iust iudgement of God at least fifty thousand persons slaine and pressed to death at once with the fall of a Theater at Fidena in Italy which Theater was built by one Atilius whiles they were there beholding Sword-playes and such like Theatricall Enterludes the dolefulnesse of which bloody Tragedy and judgement seconded with a devouring fire which almost burnt up that City is at large described by Tacitus Ioannes Aventinus in his excellent Annals hath registred two memorable Examples for our present purpose The first of them hapned at Pisonium a City of Bavaria about the yeere of our Lord 1200. where divers people assembling together from all quarters to behold Enterludes and Cirque-playes above three hundred of them were there slame outright with thunder and hayle from Heaven The latter of them fell out in Rome it selfe upon the 15. day of October in the yeere of our Lord 1450 when Pope Nicholas the first solemnized his famous Iubily with secular Playes at which time fiue hundred and fifty persons comming to Rome to see these secular Enterludes which this Pope brought in contrary to the decrees of the Councell of Constance were drowned washed to death in the River Tiber the Bridge upon which they were being overturned with the waters To these I shall adde one Tragicall Story more which Gregory Nyssen in the life of Gregory the worker of miracles hath registred to posterity The Citizens of Caesarea and well might all the people of that Province accustomed to meet together at Caesarea once a yeere upon a publike solemne Festivall which they dedicated to a certaine Devill-Idol which that Country worshipped at which feast they alwayes celebrated some publike Stage-playes to the honour of this their Idoll and to delight the people It fortuned that the whole Country and City assembled thus together after their wonted manner when Saint Gregory was newly made Minister of that City and being thus assembled they presently flocked to the Theater which being filled with those who first hasted thither those who came after climbed up by troopes upon the Scaffolds that were built about it At last the crowde of the people who were very desirous to behold these Enterludes grew so great that they left no roome at all upon the Stage either for the Players or Musicians to act their parts whereupon the whole multitude cryed out to that Devill whose festivall they then solemnized with one united voyce O Iupiter make us roome Which Saint Gregory over-hearing hee presently sends one who stood by to the Theater to tell the people that that they should forth-with have more roome and ease then they desired No sooner was this message delivered to them l●ke a dolefull sentence passed against them but a devouring pestilence suddenly seised upon that great assembly which were there sporting and beholding Playes and presently a lamentation was mingled with their dancing in so much that their pleasures were turned into sorrowes and calamities and funerall dolefull Elegies one upon another were heard thorowo●t the City in stead of acclamations and musicke For as soone this pestilent disease had seised upon men opinion and conceit did propagate it the faster it consuming whole houses at once like a fire in so much that flying from their houses to their Temples for succour and recovery their very temples were even filled up with the carcases of such who there fell downe dead of this disease whose extremity was such that all the Cisternes Fountaines and pits of water neere the City were covered with the dead corps of such who resorted to them for to quench their thirst in so much that many went voluntarily to their graves to die there because the living were not sufficient to bury the dead Neither did this pestilence surprise men suddenly but a certaine Ghost or Spirit came first unto these houses over which destruction hovered and then certaine perdition followed after At last when the people came to know the cause of this their sicknesse they renounced their former Idolatrous sacrifices rites and Enterludes and resorting with their whole families to Saint Gregory they intreated him both to instruct them and to pray unto God for them that so they might escape this pestilence By which meanes they all abandoning their Idol-worship were drawne to the profession of Christs Name part of them being led as it were by the hand unto the truth by the disease that was then upon them others of them embracing the faith of Christ as