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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

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

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

a defensative to secure them from the plague their sicknesse being more effectuall to convert them then their health For those who were so weake in their health that they could not bee wonne by reasons to approve the truth were made whole in faith by this their corporall disease Loe here a man-eating pestilence sent by God from Heaven upon these Pagan Play-haunters Answerable to which I finde another Story in Plutarch who relates that in the Consulship of Caius Sulpitius and Licinius Solon the great plague then raigning in Rome devoured not onely sundry Play-haunters but even all the Stage-players then in Rome so that there was not so much as one of them left alive A just judgement of God upon these pestiferous miscreants And may we not then suspect that their toleration of and our great resort to Stage-playes hath beene a great occasion of those devouring Plagues which formerly and now of late have seised not onely upon London and her Suburbs where divers publike standing Play-houses are every day frequented but on other Townes and Cities too where stragling wandring Players though Rogues by Statute doe oft-times act their parts Sure I am that Saint Augustine Orosius and others truely stile Stage-playes the very plague and pestilence of mens mindes and manners and that Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian and S. Chrysostome call the Play-house the ●ery sea●e and chaire of pestilence no wonder therefore if they produce a plague in those Kingdomes the Cities which permit them Indeed the ancient Pagan Romanes when as Rome was exceedingly pestred with the plague sent into Tuscany for Stage-players to asswage its rage but both Livy Augustine and Orosius assure us that they were so farre from mitigating this plague which ●eised on mens bodies which they did rather aggravat● that in stead of it they brought in among them a far more pernicious and perpetuall pestilence of their soules and manners to wit their wicked pestiferous Stage-playes which they could not shake off In the first yeere of Queene Elizabeths Raigne all Stage-plages were prohibited by publike proclamation from the 7. of Aprill till Allhallontide of purpose to cease that plague which was then begun and so in all great sicknesses since that time all publike Enterludes have beene suppressed for the selfesame reason If then the inhibiting of publike Stage-playes hath beene such a common an●idote to asswage those fearefull Plagues which God in justice hath inflicted on us we may then conclude from the rule of contraries that our resort to ribaldry Stage-playes which God without all question as appeares by all the new recited judgements cannot but abhorre is a grand occasion both of the engendring and propagating these late these present plagues which yet wee feele and suffer As therefore we would flie and feare this dreadfull fatall sicknesse which hath a long time hovered over our heads and hath almost quite depopulated some particular places of this Kingdome and God knoweth how soone how fast it may increase to sweepe us all away let us henceforth cast out these our lewde pestiferous Enterludes and rase downe these our Leprous Play-houses which may involue us in the selfesame miseries that these Caesarians here sustained to our utter ruine But if all these former examples will not deterre us from these Spectacles let us consider what generall Nationall judgements they have oft procured To passe by Gods judgements upon Sodom for her Cirques and Theaters as Prudentius poetically expresseth it who affirmes with all that Christians after their conversion returne backe no more to Playes and Theaters The excessive expences of the Athenians on their Stage-playes if Plutarch or Iustin may be credited was the very overthrow and destruction of their State and the occasion of their bondage to the Macedonians Arnobius informes the Gentiles against whom he wrote that all the evils the miseries with which mortality was overwhelmed and oppressed from day to day without intermission originally sprang from Stage-playes with which these Heathen Gentiles were besotted Saint Augustine at large demonstrates that the bringing in and tolerating of Stage-playes which vitiates the mindes and manners of the Romanes was the principall cause of the very ruine of their Common-weale and of all those fat all miseries which befell them Whereupon hee breakes out into this patheticall exclamation O fooles O mad men what is this your extreame I say not error but frensie that when as all the Easterne Nations as wee have heard and the very greatest Cities in the remotest Countries doe publikely grieve and sorrow for your destruction that you should runne after Theaters● enter into them fill them and make them much more unruly and outragious then before This plague and pestilence of mens mindes this overthrow of honesty and goodnesse did worthy Scipio feare would befall you when he prohibited Theaters to be erected when he discerned that you might be easily corrupted and overturned with prosperity when as hee would not have you secure from feare of enemies neither did he thinke the Common-weale could be happy when as the walls of it onely stood but the manners fell to ruine But in you that hath more prevailed which wicked Devils have seducingly suggested then that which provident men have laboured to prevent Hence is it that the evils which you doe you will not have them to be imputed to you and the evils which you suffer you impute onely to the Christian times Neither in your security doe you seeke for a peaceable Common-wealth but an unpunished luxury who being depraved with prosperity cannot yet be amended by adversity Saint Chrysostome as hee records that Stage-playes had brought great mischiefes upon Cities both in respect of sinne and punishment so hee with all relates That the very Heavens were made Brasse and the earth Iron that the very elements themselves did proclaime Gods wrath against men for their Stage-playes How long therefore O sonnes of men will yee be slow of heart Why writes he doe yee love vanity in Enterludes and seeke after lies in Stage-players Holy Salvian writes expresly That the very sacking of Rome the destruction of all Italy the spoyling of Ravenna Trevers Marseilles Agrippina Moguntia and a great part of France and Spaine by the Goathes and Vandals was but a iust iudgement of God in●licted on them for their frequenting and maintaining Playes and Theaters whose execrable filthinesse whose inconsistency with Christianity and whose odiousnesse in Gods eye-sight hee most eligantly discyphers If wee observe all the passages of the Roman History we shall easily discover that the Roman Common-weale had never so bad Emperours and Magistrates and the greatest plagues that can befall a people that it was never so ill governed never so much disordered and corrupted and that the Romanes themselves and their Allies were never so strangely oppressed afflicted dissipated and consumed with all kinde of plagues and

venit ac virides passim disjecta per herbas Potat et accumbat cum pare quisque sua Sub jove pars durat pauci tentoria ponunt Sunt quibus è ramis frondea facta casa est Sole tamen vinoque calent annosque praecantur Quot sumunt cyathos ad numerumque bibunt Invenies illic qui Nestoris ebibat annos Quae sit per calices facta Sibylla suos Illic et cantant qui●quid dedicere theatris Et jactant faciles ad sua verba manus Et ducunt posito duras cratere choreas Cultaque diffus●s saltat amica comis Cum redeunt titubant et sunt spectacula vulgi Et fortunatos obvia turba vocat c. Rusticus ad ludos populus veniebat in urbem Sed dîs non studijs ille dabatur honos Luce sua ludos unvae commentor habebat Quos cum taedifera nunc habet ille dea c. Ibunt semi-mares et inania tympana tundent● AEraque tinnitus are repulsa dabunt Scena sonat ludique vocant spectate Quirites Et fora marte suo litigiosa vacent Annuimus votis Consul nunc consule ludos c. Talia luduntur fumoso mense Decembri Quae jam non ulli composuisse nocet The third thus Nunc mihi nunc fumo veteris proferre falernum Consulis et Chio solvere vincla cado Vina diem celebrent non fes●a luce madere Est rubor errantes et malè ferre pedes Sed bene Messallam sua quisque ad pocula dicat Numen et absentis singula verba sonant c. Agricola assiduo primùm satiatus aratro Cantavit certo rustica verba pede Agricola et nimio suffusus Baccho rubenti Primus inexperto duxit ab arte choros c. Whom Philo Iudaeus writing of the Romans festivals doth second in this manner In omni festo nostro e● celebritate quae miramur sunt haec securitas remissio ebrietas potatio ●ōmessationes deliciae oblectamenta patentes januae pernoctationes indecentes voluptates insolentiae exercitiū intēperantiae insipientiae meditatio studia turpitudinis honestatis pernicies nocturnae excitationes ad cupiditates inexplebil●s somnus diurnus quando vigilandi tempus est naturae ordinis perversio tunc virtus ridetur ut noxia vitium tanq●am utile rapitur tunc in contemptu sunt quae oportet facere quae vero non oportet in precio Tunc philosophia et omnis eruditio divinae animae divina revera simulachra tenent silentium ac istae artes quae suis lenocinijs ventri et his quae sub ventre sunt voluptatem conciliant ostendunt suam facundiam Haec sunt festa istorum qui se faelices dicunt quorum ●urpitudo quamdiu inter privatos parietes locaque prophana continetur minus peccare mihi videntur ubi verò torrentis in morem populans omnia vel in sacratissima templa irrumpit quicquid in his sanctum est sternit continuò facie●s prophana sacrificia victimas absque litatione praeces irritas prophana enim mysteria simul et orgya pietatem sanctitatemque fucatam et adulterinam castitatem impuram veritatem falsatam cultum Dei superstitiosum Ad haec quidem corpora abluuntur lavacris et purificationibus affectiones verò animae quibus vita sordidatur nec volunt nec curant eluere Et ut candidati templa sub●ant dant operam diligenter emaculatis vestibus amicti mentem verò maculosissi●am in ipsa sacraria penitissima inferre non verentur A most accurate Character both of our unruly Christmasses and such Christmas-men If wee now parallell our grand disorderly Christmasses with these Roman Saturnals and heathen Festivals or our New-yeares day a chiefe part of Christmas with their Festivity of Ianus which was spent in Mummeries Stage-playes dancing and such like Enterludes wherein Fidlers and others acted lascivious effeminate parts and went about their Towns and Cities in womens apparrell whence the whole Catholicke Church as Alchuvinus with others write appointed a solemne publike fast upon this our New-yeares day which fast it seemes is now forgotten to bewaile those heathenish Enterludes sports and lewd idolatrous practises which had beene used on it prohibiting all Christians under paine of excommunication from observing the Kalends or first of Ianuary which wee now call New-yeares day as holy and from sending abroad New-yeares gifts upon it a custome now too frequent it being a meere relique of Paganisme and idolatry derived from the heathen Romans feast of two-faced Ianus and a practise so execrable unto Christians that not onely the whole Catholike Church but even the 4 famous Councels Altisiodorum viz. Towres Capit. Graecarum Synodorum here p. 581. Concil Constantinop 6. here p. 583. together with St. Ambrose● Augustine Ast●rius HRabanus Maurus Alchuvinus Gratian Iuo Carnotensis● Isiodor Hispalensis Pope ●achary Pope Martin Saint Chrysostome Michael Lochmair Ioannes Langhecrucius Bochellus Stephanus Costa Francis de Croy Polydor Virgil Durandus with sundry other have positively prohibited the solemnization of New-yeares day and and the sending abroad of New-yeares gifts under an anathema excommunication as unbeseeming Christians who shovld eternally abolish not propagate revive or recontinue this pagan festivall and heathenish ceremonie which our God abhors If wee compare I say our Bacchanalian Christmasses New-yeares tides with these Saturnalia and feasts of Ianus we shall finde such neare affinitie betweene them both in regard of time they being both in the end of December and on the first of Ianuary and in their manner of solemnizing both of them being spent in revelling epicurisme wantonnesse idlenesse dancing drinking Stage-playes Masques and carnall pompe and jollity that wee must needes conclude the one to be but the very ape or issue of the other Hence Polydor Virgil a●firmes in expresse tearmes that our Christmas Lords of misrule which custome saith he is chiefly observed in England together with dancing Masques Mummeries Stage-playes and such other Christmas disorders now in use with Christians were derived from these Roman Saturnalia and Bacchanalian festivals which should cause all pious Christians eternally to abominate them If any here demaund by whom these Saturnalia these disorderly Christmasses Stageplayes were first brought in amōg the Christians I answer that the paganizing Priests and Monkes of popish the same with heathen Rome were the chiefe Agents in this worke who as they borrowed their Feast of All-Saints from the heathen festivall Pantheon and the feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary which they have christned with the name of Candlemasse from the festivall of the Goddesse Februa the mother of Mars to whom the Pagan Romans offered burning tapers as the Papists in imitation of them now offer to the Virgin Mary on this day at evening answerable to which are their ordinary burning