Girls thus The Syracusian entred like Bacchus with Pipe before him playing a rioting Tune Theâ— Entred Ariadne gorgeously apparrel'd like a Bridâ— and sat down before the Company She 〈◊〉 not go to meet Bacchus as a dancing nor roâ—â— from her Seat but made such Signs as discover'd he might have an easie Conquest Wheâ— Bacchus beheld her he expressed his Passion as much as possible in his Dance and drawing near her fell down on his Knees embraced anâ— kissed her she tho' with some faint resemblance of Coyness and Modesty embraced him again At this the Spectators gave shouts of Applause Then Bacchus rose up and taking Ariadne with him there was nothing to be seen but Hugging and Kissing The Spectators perceiving that both of them were Handsom and that they kissed and embraced in good Earnest they be held them with great Attention and hearing Bacchus ask her If she lov'd him and she affirming with an Oath that she did The whole Audience swore That the Boy and the Girl lov'd one another in Reality for they did not Act like those who had been taught only to personaâ—â— those Gestures but like such as had a mind to perform that which they had of a long time earnestly desir'd At last when the Company perceived that they were clasped in one anothers Arms. Those that had no Wives swore they would Marry and those that were Married took Horse and went Home to their Wives immediately CAP. X. The English State against the STAGE THE Author of The Defence of Dramamatick Poetry endeavours in the next place to ward of the Blow given to the Stage by English Statutes and alledges that the 〈◊〉 of Iaâ—â— was but a Temporary Act to hold in â—orce but that Sessions of Parliament Which by 〈◊〉 leave is a mistake the Words being That it â—â—ould continue to the end of the next Parliament And it was afterwards continued again by the 3d of Car. Cap. 4. to the end of the 1st Session of the â—ext Parliament And I must also here take leave to tell him that Mr. Prin who it 's suppos'd understood the â—aw as well as he was of Opinion that the Stage-Players might have been punished in the Year 1633. by Vertue of that Act which was many Years after the 1st of Iames. But be that how it will thus much we have â—â—n'd at least That Stage-Players were declared â—o be Rogues and Vagabonds by the three Estates of England met in Parliament and ordered to be â—ent to the House of Correction to be Imprisoned 〈◊〉 on the Stocks and Whip'd and if they continued 〈◊〉 Play notwithstanding that they should be burnt 〈◊〉 an Hot Iron of the breadth of an English Sâ—â—lling with a great Roman R in the leâ—t Shoulâ—er which should there remain as a perpetual Mark of a Rogue If they still continued Obstinate they were to be Banished and if they return'd agâ—â— and continued incorrigible they were to be exeâ—â—ted as Felons This is the more remarkable that by this Act the Licenses allowed to be giv'n by Peers 〈◊〉 Players of Interludes by the 39th of Eliz. were taken away and no reserve made for any Playâ—â—â— whatever and the occasion of the making this Act was the doubts that arose upon the 39th 〈◊〉 Eliz. and that former Statutes were not so eâ—â—â—â—tual for suppressing those Plays and Interludes â—s was expected Our Author in the next place seems to call 〈◊〉 Question the Truth of that Petition of the Loâ—doners to Q. Elizabeth about 1580 for suppressing the Playhouses Makes some Raileries upoâ— Mr. Collier for Rawlidge his Author because 〈◊〉 known to the Booksellers in St. Paul's Church Yard or Little-Brittain makes himself Spoâ—â— with the Godly Citizens that were the Petitioners quotes Stow to prove that Queen Elizabeth eâ—couraged the Darlings of the Stage allowed theâ— Liveries and Wages as Grooms of the Chamber and insinuates that the Playhouses mentioned iâ— the Petition were only Gaming-Houses I answer That Mr. Prin from whom I suppose Mr. Collier had the Account of this Petition quotes as his Author Mr. Richard Rawlidge 〈◊〉 Monster lately found out Printed in London 1628. p. 2 3 4. Which though it may perhaps 〈◊〉 hard to be met with it does not therefore argâ—â— that there never was any such Author anâ— because Mr. Collier has been somewhat desectiâ—â— in his Quotation here our Author may be pleâ—sed to know that Rawlidge says in the same place That all the Play-houses within the City weâ—e Pull'd down by Order of Her Majesty and Coâ—â—cil upon this Petition viz. One in Grace-Churcâ— Street one in Bishops-Gate-Street one near Pauls one on Ludgate-Hill and one in White-Friers As to the Favour shew'd afterwards to some of the Stage Players by Queen Elizabeth it argues only a Change at Court but says nothing for the Lawfulâ—ess of the Stage K. Charles â— who there 's no doubt our Author reckons nothing Inferiour to Queen Elizabeth in Piety made a Law in the first year of his Reign condemning Stage-Plays and yet afteâ—wards set up Enterludes at Whitehall on the Sabbath Day which I suppose there 's very few will commend him for If Queen Elizabeth design'd to Reform the Stage as she had done the Church as our Author would seem to insinuate p. 11. The Event hath prov'd that the Success was not alike There 's few that read Plays or frequent the Play-House but must own if they will speak Truth that the Reformation there goes Retrograde which verifies an Observation of them that I have heard often That when you have Reformed the Stage all you can it will be good for nothing But as one says of Cucumbers after you have added Oil Vinegar and Pepper they are fitter to be thrown to the Dunghill than taken into the Body Upon the whole however our Author may please himself with his Raileries this will appear uncontrovertibly true that the Laws of England have many times restrained and some times totally discharged the Stage whereas he cannot bring one Statute that ever Commanded or Commended it By the 4th of Hen. 4. Cap. 27. All Players Minstrels and Vagabonds were Banished out of Wales because they had occasioned Mischiefs there They were forbid by the 12th of Richard 2. C. 6 11. By the 17th of Edward 4. C. 3. By the 11th and 19th of Hen 7. Cap. 12. And by the 33d of Hen. 8. C. 9. Together with Dicing Houses and other unlawful Games hecause of Seditions Conspiracies Robberies and other Misdemeanours that had ensued upon them By the 3d of Henry 8. C. 9. All Mummers or Persons disguising themselves with Visors or otherwise should be seiz'd and punished as Vagabonds upon which Polydor Virgil who wrote about 10 years after says That the English who in this are wiser than other Nations have made it Capital for any Person to put on a Visor or a Players Habit. It is evident likewise that the Stage was restrained by the 14th and 39th of Eliz. That it
THE Stage Condemn'd AND The Encouragement given to the Immoralities and Profaneness of the Theatre by the English Schools Universities and Pulpits Censur'd King Charles I. Sundays Mask and Declaration for Sports and Pastimes on the Sabbath largely Related and Animadverted upon The Arguments of all the Authors that have Writ in Defence of the Stage against Mr. Collier Consider'd AND The Sense of the Fathers Councils Antient Philosophers and Poets and of the Greek and Roman States and of the First Christian Emperours concerning the DRAMA Faithfully Deliver'd Together with The Censure of the English State and of several Antient and Modern Divines of the Church of England upon the STAGE AND Remarks on diverse late Plays as also on those presented by the two Universities to King Charles I. LONDON Printed for Iohn Salusbury at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1698. To the Right Honourable the Lords and Commons of ENGLAND in Parliament Assembled THE Corruption of Our Stage most Noble Senators is so very Palpable and Notorious that the Authors themselves who Live by it and have lately writ in Defence of it are forc'd to acknowledge it wants a Reformation But when they come to Particulars every one standâ— upon his own Defence and refuses to acknowledge that the Plays of his Writing contain any thing Culpable or Blameâ—worthy All of them write in Defence of the Stage and some of them plead the Usefulness and Absolute Necessity of it at the Expence of the Honour and Credit of the Nation whom they Charge as the most Splenetick and Rebellious People in Europe and that they stand in need of the Drama as a Sovereign Preservative against the Mischievous Effects of that Distemper At Your Feet therefore most Noble Senators the following Sheets are humbly laid as containing amongst other things a Vindication of the Brave and Generous People whom You Represent from that Foul Slander and Charging the Guilt upon the True Criminals who endeavour'd to tear Our Constitution in pieces by setting Our Kings and Parliaments at Variance and endeavouring to have Liberty and Property swallowed up by Prerogative to which wicked Design the Stage hath not a little Contributed The Bleeding Morals of this Gallant Nation are past the Cure of all Quack-pretenders It is His Majesty and Your Honours alone who are capable of applying the Sovereign Remedy by obliging Magistrates and Ministers to perform their Duty or enabling them to do it by New Laws if those we have already be not sufficient Our Gracious Sovereign hath not only rescued us from Popery and Tyranny but out of his Fatherly Care to prevent our future Danger hath again and again recommended it to His People to take Effectual Methods for the Suppressing of Prophaneness and Immorality which the Enemies of our Religion and Liberty made use of as the most successful Engines to Ruine both The Author of this Treatise has endeavour'd to prove That the Corruption of the Stage is in a great measure owing to the Method of Educating our Youth in Schools from whence the Infection spreads into the Universities and Pulpits And having been Encouraged by the late Reigns and part of the Clergy hath at last prov'd so fatal to the Manners of 〈◊〉 â—â—â—ople that the Stage is become a general 〈◊〉 and hath been complained of as such 〈◊〉 by Puritans and those who oppos'd King Charles I. as the Advocates of the Theatre do falsly pretend but by Antient and Modern Church of England Divines and hath been sometimes Restrained and at other times entirely Banished by the States of England in Parliament Assembled Whether the Merits of the present Stage be such as may deserve a more favourable Censure at Your Hands is Submitted as is fit it should to Your Great Wisdom In the following Treatise there 's the Opinion of the Jewish and Christian Church of the Greatest of the Heathen Philosophers and Poets of the Heathen Greek and Roman State of the first Christian Emperours c. and of Our English State against the Theatre fairly exhibited But seeing the Defenders of the Play-house argue the Usefulness of it to the English Nation in general and to the present Govenment in particular it is reasonable the Appeal should be to Our Honourable Representatives and that the Arguments pro and con should be laid before them not doubting if they think fit at all to take it into Consideration but they will give a True and Righteous Judgment in the Matter It is not in England alone where the Lawfulness or Unlawfulness of the Stage and the Immorality and Profaneness of it is the present Subject of Controversie But in France and Italy nay at Rome it self where as well as at Paris the Stage has of late as all the Publick Intelligences inform us receiv'd a Check tho' the Prefaâ—â—r to the Play call'd Beauty in Distress says the French Stage is so Reform'd as not to fall under the Censure of the Antient Fathers The Honour of our Nation and Religion would therefore seem to require that our Theatres should come under Examination as well as theirs but the Time wheâ— and the Method how must be left to the Wisdom of the King and Parliament to determine In the mean time it were to be wished that our English Ladies and Gentlewomen whose Encouragement and Presence is the most powerful Argument after all for the Defence of the Stage and by whose absenting themselves it must fall in Course without Law or Statute would be pleased to consider That the wise Roman Senate approv'd the Divorce which Sempronius Sophus gave to his Wife for no other Reason but that she resorted to the Cirques and Play-houses without his Consent the very sight of which might make her an Adultress and cause her to defile his Bed And the Christian Emperor Justinian made the following Constitution That a Man might lawfully put away his Wife if she resort to Cirques to Play-houses or Stage-Plays without his Privity and Consent because her Chastity might thereby be endangered If Our Stage then be so much Corrupted as its Advocates themselves are forc'd to confess its influence upon the Morals of the Audience must needs be dangerous and therefore it s hop'd our English Senators will be as careful of the Chastity of the English Ladies as the Antient Roman Senators were of theirs and that our English Women whose Beauty is every where admir'd will readily Consent to any thing that may preserve their Modesty too from being so much as Questioned Advertisement to the Reader THE Heads treated on in this Book don't follow in the same order as they are set down in the Title Page because the Author was oblig'd to take them as they occur'd in the Books that he answers but all of them may easily be found out by the Running Titles The Reader is also desir'd to take Notice that the Author designed at first only to have Writ against teaching the Heathen Poets in Schools without eâ—punging those
demonstration of the Spirit and of Power yet this great Apostle of the Gentiles was brought up at the Feet of Gamaliel and had more humane Learning than 20 of our fluttering Doctors It is not my design to cry down Eloquence in a Preacher nor to commend a rough way of Expression from the Pulpit Eloquence is the Gift of God and commended in the Preacher Apollos but at the same time we are told That he was mighty in the Scriptures and taught diligently the things of the Lord It 's reckoned highly prophane and Mr. Collier has smartly reproved it for Poets to apply the Phrase of the Scripture to the use of the Stage and I see no reason why Vice Versa it should not be liable to that same Censure to adopt the Phrase of the Stage for the Language of the Pulpit not that it 's absolutely Unlawful for a Preache◠to quote an apposite Sentence or Verse either from Greek Latine or other Poets The Apostle himself hath taught us the contrary by his own Example when he tells the Cretians that one of their own Poets says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But it is an intolerable Affectation of Novelty when a New Word or a Quaint Phrase is no sooner published in a Play or Gazzette but we shall the next Sunday after hear it out of the Pulpit This is so far from holding fast the Form of sound Words as St. Paul enjoyned Timothy that it is rather the prophane and vain Babbling he commanded him to avoid and which Calvin upon the place says is Inanis tinnitus profanus Simulatque Doctores it a inflant suas tibias ad suam Eloquentiam Venditandam A prophane and empty Jingle which the Doctors make use of to set off their Eloquence It were an easie matter to quote as many Sermons guilty of these Vanities as Mr. Collier has quoted Plays guilty of abusing Scripture but for obvious Reasons I forbear it The only cause why I mention it is to shew that it is not the Poets alone that support the Credit of the Stage and that what is Criminal in a Poet is ten times worse in a Priest and therefore they ought not to pass without a Reproof It 's known there are many godly Persons amongst our Clergy who bewail those things and oppose them as much as they can but there is a mighty Neglect somewhere and the World will hardly be perswaded that our Church of England is unanimous in this Matter else it were easie for them who shook King James out of his Throne to overturn the Stage It is not to be supposed that the King and Parliament would deny the Clergy such a Request if it were duly presented and considering how much the Nation hath suffered in its Morals and Religion by the Licentiousness of the Stage it 's high time that some effectual Course should be taken to suppress it But there 's reason to fear that the Faction begun by Arch-bishop Laud has still too great an interest amongst our Clergy for scarcely can any other reason be imagined why after so many Years Experience of the Mischief of the Stage the Church should be so silent in this Matter That there is something in this I am very apt to think because of the Deference many of the Clergy men pay to the Memory of that Prelate and of his Master King Charles I. whom he help'd to mislead In those Times as Mr. Prin acquaints us in his Histriomastix none were accounted Enemies to the Play-house but Puritans and Precisians and in opposition to them it probably was that Laud and his Clergy became its Patrons and it is not unlike that many of the Less-thinking Church-men continue still to favour it on that Account as being unwilling to condemn that for which King Charles I. and Arch-bishop Laud testified so much Passion but these Gentlemen would do well to remember That the Defence of the Stage was never so much the Characteristick of their church as was the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and seeing the Majority of them have relinquished that they are infinitely the more to blame for still adhering to this If a Petition of the Londoners had so much Influence on Queen Elizabeth as to get the Play-houses suppress'd and if the Stage was expresly condemned by a Statute of King Iames I. we have no reason to despair of obtaining the same now upon the like Application And methinks the Clergy are more concerned to stir in it than ever seeing it would appear by Mr. Collier's third Chapter Of the Clergy abused by the Stage that the Theatre is now become a Nusano◠to themselves It is apparent enough from what has been said already that the Clergy are chargeable with the Mischief of the Stage by the omitting of what their Character obliges them to do against it and that many of them are also Culpable by seeming to hallow its Phrase in the Pulpit but this is not all as will appear by what follows We have heard that the Stage was condemned by Act of Parliament in King Iames I. Time but reviv'd again in the Reign of K. Charles contrary to Law and that Operas were practised in his own Court by his Royal Authority on Sundays Now considering how much that Prince was devoted to the Interest of the Clergy it 's highly improbable that he would have atttempted any such thing had the then Governing part of the Church given him faithful warning against it but Laud and the other topping Church-men of that time were so far from opposing it that they concur'd with him imposed a Book of Sports and Pastimes upon all their Clergy to be read to the People on Sundays which was a fair step towards converting all the Churches of the Nation into Play-houses This great Example did so much incourage the Stage that Mr. Prin tells us in his Book before-mentioned in two Years time there were above 40000 Play-Books printed They became more vendible than the choicest Sermons Grew up from Quarto's to Folio's were printed on far better Paper than most of the Octavo or Quarto Bibles and were more saleable than they And Shackspeers Plays in particular were printed in the best◠Paper The two old Play-houses were rebuilt and enlarged and a new Theatre erected so that there were then six Play-houses in London twice the number of those in Rome in Nero's Time which though a much more spacious City Seneca complains of as being too many That Faction of the Clergy became at last so enamour'd of the Stage that the same Author informs us He had heard some Preachers call their Text a Land-skip or Picture and others a Play or Spectacle dividing their Texts into Actors Spectators Scenes c. as if they had been Acting a Play Upon which he complains of their using Play-house Phrases Clinches and strong Lines as they called them and that it was to to frequent to have Sermons in respect of their Divisions
for a Month into Spain and take a â—urn through France into the Empire of Germany don't let him forget to take Holland in his way Home and then let him spend some Weeks in turning over the Histories of those several Countries and I am much mistaken if he don't find himself convinc'd by Experience and Authority that our Neighbours are as sullen and morose as we have been as uneasie to one another and endanger'd their Governments as oftâ—â— and yet all of them have had the Enjoyment of the Drama I must likewise beg leave to tell him That the good Nature of Englishmen has been for a long time taken notice of and that I have read it as an Observation from as good an Author as himself that there 's no other Language has a word to express it I must likewise desire him to give a Reason Why the Splenetick Temper of the Nation should not make the Government as dangerous to the People as it renders the People dangerous to the Government seeing the Administration must always be in the Hands of Englishmen and I would pray him if he can to give me an Instance where he has read of a better Understanding betwixt Prince and People than there was betwixt Queen Elizabeth and her English Subjects or if he can parallel the Instance of the present Government that any Monarch did ever venture to leave his Dominions so frequently and with â—o much Confidence and Security as his present Majesty has done notwithstanding the Faction of a dethron'd Prince in the midst of us and a powerful Enemy at War with us abroad at all times ready to Encourage them to rebel And then â— shall yield him the Point That the English are more Splenetick than their Neighbours But now as to his Remedy the Drama He tells us That the Passions are seldom any where so pleasing and no where so safe as in Tragedy But seeing the Representations there are generally contriv'd to represent the sudden tâ—rns of Fate the unhappy result of Violence Injustice and 〈◊〉 Intrigues carried on for the suppressing of Tyrants I am afraid it will scarce be proper for a Splenetick People And thus we see how well he has prov'd That the Stage is more particularly Instrumental to the Happiness of English-men In his third Chapter he pretends to answer the Objections from Reason and denies that the more the Passions in any Man are mov'd the more obnoxious they are to be mov'd and the more unruly they grow This he says is contrary to common Experience because-the more any person frequents Plays the harder he is to be pleas'd and mov'd But by Mr. Dennis's favour his Answer is nothing to the purpose or just no more than this that the longer a man eats Beef the less he cares for it He knows the old saying Iucundissima Voluptas quam rarior usus commendat a man may be cloy'd with the greatest Dainties But can he deny that the more a Cholerick Man's Passion is mov'd the more peevish and outragious he grows and the more the Letcher's Passion is mov'd the more lustful and brutish he grows so long as Nature will keep pace or the more the Miser's Avarice is mov'd the more covetous he grows till his mouth is fill'd with dust If he can deny this he is fit for his own Heaven where his Reason shall be no more In the next place he denies that Corruption of Manners proceeded from the establishment of the Drama upon the Restoration of K. Charles the 2d â—st Says he Because we never heard any Complaint of the like Corruption of Manners before the Restoration of K. Charles the II. tho' the Drama flourish'd in the Reign of K. James I. as Mr. Collier tells us with the like Licentiousness By Mr. Dennis's leave here 's a contradiction in Terms a Stage as licentious as ours at present whose Abuses he owns in the same page to be palpable and yet no Complaint of Corruption of Manners But because I will give him a better Authority than his own let him read Mr. Prin's Histriomastix and there he will find Complaint enough before the Restoration of K. Charles II. and sufficient cause for it too The â—d Argument That the Corruption of Manners is greater in France tho' their Theatres are less licentious than ours will stand him in little stead for supposing it true that the Manners of the French are more corrupted than ours which I am afraid will scarcely be granted tho' their Theatres be less licentious their Religion is more which allows them to be as wicked as the Devil can make them provided they have but Money enough to pay for a Pardon or fury enough to persecute the Protestants That the Germans are greater Drinkers and the Italians more inclinable to Unnatural Lust tho' they have less of the Drama than we Perhaps they will charge the Cause upon Heaven as he does and impute it to their Clime but can he say that if they had more of the Drama they would not be more addicted to those Crimes than at present they are If he will give himself the trouble of reading the Authorities I have formerly quoted he will find both those Crimes and particularly the latter charg'd upon the Stage Nor can Mr. Dennis assign any Reason why going from the Theatre to the Tavern with a Miss or other lewd company as is but too too common should not occasion Drunkenness and Sodomy both His 3d Argument is That the Corruption of Manners upon the Restoration appeared with all the fury of Libertinism before the Play-house was re-established And that the Cause of that Corruption could be nothing but that beastly Reformation which in the time of the Late Civil Wars begun at the Tail instead of the Head and Heart and which oppressed and persecuted Men's Inclinations instead of correcting and converting them which afterwards broke out with the same Violence that a Raging Fire does upon its first getting Vent And that which gave it so liscentious a Vent was not only the Permission but the Example of the Court. Which having sojourn'd for a considerable time both at Paris and in the Low-Countries united the Spirit of the French Whoring to the fury of the Dutch Drinking Here 's Civil Treatment to the Parliament of England a parcel of beastly reforming fellows aad a reforming Tail too But by Mr. Dennis's leave whoever's the Head the Parliament is the Brains they have all the trouble of Contriving and one half nay some say two thirds of the Authority of Enacting Laws and no small share in putting them in Execution so that for them to attempt a Reformation when the Court would not proves them to have been the Men and some body else the Beast But to pass that I must intreat Mr. Dennis to be merciful to his own Arguments and not always to cut their Throats with his own Hands For first he tells us That the Cause of that
time of the Reformation here in England several good Christians propagated the Protestant Doctrine under the Veil of Dialogues by way of Comedy and Tragedy insomuch that the Popish Clergy got them forbidden by the 34 and 35 of Henry 8. c. I. The famous Du Plessis Mornay writ a Tragedy of Ieptha's Daughter The great Poet Buchanan did the like he wrote also another call'd Baptistes and translated into Latin the Medea and Alcestis of Euripides but it will not therefore follow that those great Men approv'd the Stage Buchanan in his Dedication of Alcestis to Margaret of France Sister of Henry II. recommends that Tragedy to her because there is no mention in it of Parricid Witchraft or other Crimes with which Tragedians commonly abound so that by this he rather Censures than approves the Theatre Our Author's Assertion That the Stage was Established in Queen Elizabeths Time and flourished in that of K. Iames upon which Spencer Bacon and Raleigh three Prodigies of Wit appear'd all at once and that we had no first-rate Writer till Henry VIII is like the rest of his Learning and Confidence It was so far from being established in Queen Elizabeths Time tho' it had then but too much Incouragement that all the Play-houses in London were suppressed upon a Petition to that Queen in 1580. The Stage was restrained by the 14th and 39th of her Reign and Books against it there dedicated to her Secretary Walsingham and it was so far from flourishing in King Iames I. time that in the 1st Year of his Reign Stage-Players were by Act of Parliament declared Rogues and Vagabonds c. as has been already said under the Head of The English State against the Stage As to the Learning of Bacon and Raleigh it surpasses Mr. Dennis's Skill to prove that it was any way owing to the Stage and indeed according to his solid way of Writing he owns as much himself when he says immediately upon the Establishment of the Drama those three Prodigies of Wit appear'd And I must likewise observe That Bacon and Raleigh as he calls them employed themselves in more generous and manly Studies than any the Stage can boast of as appears by the Learned Works they have left behind them As to the other part of his Assertion that we had no first-rate Writer on any Subject before Henry VIII it 's an injury to the Nation and a proof of his own Assurance and Ignorance To name but a few What does he say to Rog. Bacon who liv'd in the 13th Centry and for his skill in the Mathematicks was esteemed a Conjurer and summoned to appear at Rome on that account where he cleared himself and was sent back again To go a little higher What does he think of the Venerable Bede who liv'd in the beginning of the 8th Century from the Birth of Christ to whose time Bale reckons but 79 British Writers Did he never hear of Sir Thomas Littleton the Oracle of the Law who liv'd in the Reign of Henry VI. of Bracton or Fortescue But because I will trouble my Reader with no more I would advise Mr. Dennis to turn over Bale's Centuries of English Writers and there he will find his bold Assertion to be shamefully False For in the 8th Century that Author reckons 18 more Writers besides Bede 7 in the 9th 14 in the 10th 18 in the 11th 87 in the 12th amongst whom were 6 of the Decem. Angliae Scriptores 123 in the 13th 244 in the 14th 137 in the 15th and from thence to the Year 1557. but 137 more Not that these were all First rate Writers but it is sufficient to shew that the State of Learning was not so low in England as Mr. Dennis would represent it to have been And that the increase and decrease of Learning has no dependency on the Stage all that our Plays can pretend to teach being only some scraps of Rhetoâ—ick and History which may be much better learn'd elsewhere The Reflections which he casts on the Parliament times when the Stage was abolish'd are full of Malice and Ignorance No Man can expect that Learning should flourish during an Intestine War yet those Times were not without Eminent Scholars in all Faculties and upon Enquiry it will be found that most of the great Men England can boast of laid the Foundation of their Studies and formed their Thoughts before the Stage was restored by King Charles II. The World cannot deny but Selden and Milton were famous for Learning tho' they were of the Parliaments side ow'd nothing of their Education to the Stage Nor can our Author pretend that the Lord Chief Justice Halcs or the Beginners of the Royal Society the Doctors Ward Wilkins Wallis c. or the famous Mr. Boyle were any thing indebted to the Theatre for their great Learning The slovenly Reflection he casts on the Divines of those times sufficiently discovers that he 's but sorrily read in Divinity The Doctors Calamy Case and Manton whom he mentions with so much Contempt are approv'd by better Judges than any that writes for the Theatre the good acceptance which the latter's Volumes of Sermons have met with from the Publick have sufficiently proclaimed their Value and if our Author had a little bethought himself the great Archbishop Usher flourished in those times who was no Friend to the Stage The most Learned Bishop of Worcester whom he forgets to mention was well advanc'd in his Studies and had given sufficient proof of his Extraordinary Abilities before the Revival of the Stage and I dare boldly aver that the Theatre afforded him none of those Learned Arguments by which of late he hath baffled the Deistâ— and Socinians The Bishop of Salisbury whose Learning has made him famous owes his Education to a Country where the Stage never took root The late Arch-bishop Tillotson ow'd nothing of his great Endowments to the Theatre And I Question whether Mr. Lock and Mr. Newton whose Learning he mentions wiâ—h deserved applause will give it under their Hands that they have had any Benefit by it This Venemous Reflection That none were encourag'd in the Parliament times but Hypocritical Fools whose abominable Canting was Christned Gift and their Dulness Grace is no Scandal from the Pen of an Ignorant Libertine It 's very well known that some of them that are yet alive such as Dr. Bates Mr. How Mr. Alsoâ— c. are in general esteem by the Learned Men of all Sides the two former were particularly respâ—cted by the late Arch-bishop Tillotson for their great Learning and Worth and the latter is sufficiently known to the World for the Accuteness of his Pen his admirable Talent of Preaching and Universal Learning It 's needâ—ess to mention Dr. Owen Mr. Baxter Mr. Câ—arnock and Mr. Pool deceased and I had almost forgot to mention the Poly-Glot a Laborious and Learned Work the Birth of which is owing to those times In a word The Reflection is so malicious and ill grounded that
nothing can justifie my insisting so much upon it but that it was necessary to Answer a Fool according to his Folly lest he should be wise in his own Conceit I come now to his Second Part. Where in the first Chapter he asserts with his usual Confidence That the Stage is useful to the Government which if true the Antient Greeks and Romans who understood Government the best of any People in the Gentile World were very much in the wrong when they banished the Stage by the Decree of the State as has been already mentioned and the Government of England were mightily out in their Measures in the time of King Iames and Charles I. when by Act of Parliament Stageâ—Players were declared Rogues and Vagabonds If the Stage be such a Sovereign Remedy against Ambition and the Immoderate Love of Pleasure as Mr. Dennis would have it what unlucky Stars were they that marr'd its Influence and prevented its curing of Iulius Caesar Nero and others of old and three of our own successive Kings of late who encouraged and frequented it more than any of their Predecessors How came the Jews to be so foully mistaken as to think that the Stage would over-turn their Constitution as I have already prov'd from Iosephus or did old Samuel's Spirit of Prophecy forsake him when he recommended the perusal of the Law of God to the Kings of Israel as the properest Method to keep them steady in their Administration Had there been such Poets amongst them in those days who as Mr. Dennis has it are sometimes by a Spirit not their own exalted to Divinity They would have prescribed Tragedy as the best Remedy against their inconsiderate Ambition and immoderate love of pleasure Nothing says Mr. Dennis is more capable than Tragedy of raising the Soul and giving it that Greatness that Courage that Force and that Constancy which are the Qualifications that make men deserve to command others which is evident from Experience For they who in all Countries and in all Ages have appeared most to feel the power of Tragedy have been the most deserving and the greatest of Men. Aeschylus among the Athenians was a great Captain and Tragick Poet. Sophocles an able States man and a victorious General The very greatest among the Romans were so far touch'd with the Drama as either to write their Plays themselves or to build their Theatres witness Scipio Lelius Lucullus Mecenas Iulius and Augustus None among the French has shew'd so much greatness of Mind as Richlieu and none so much passion for the Drama which was so great that he writ several Plays with that very hand which at the same time was laying the Plan of the French Universal Monarchy This is one of Mr. Dennis's raptures when exalted to Divinity which inspir'd his Pen with irresistible Arguments But I am afraid his Divinity is not of the right stamp for had he look'd into the Divine Records he would have found that Moses Ioshua Iepthah Samson David and others have far out-done all that he has nam'd for greatness of Courage and qualifications for Government and yet never one of them saw a Tragedy Hunniades Scanderbeg Tamerlan Zisca Gustavus Adolphus were equal for Valour to any of his great Samplars and yet not one of 'em were inspir'd by the Stage Then for the mighty Richlieu he was so far over-match'd by his own Contemporary Oliver the Stage-hater that for all the Courage of his Tragical Pen he could not save himself nor his Country from trembling when the Usurper Roar'd Nor was the Theatre able to cure his own Ambition But notwithstanding Mr. Dennis's probatum est with the same Hand that he wrote his Plays he laid the foundation of the hatefullest Tyranny that Europe hath known for several Ages I must also make bold to tell Mr. Dennis that the countenance given to the Stage by Iulius Caesar Pompey and other aspiring Romans seems rather to have been the effect of their Ambition than propos'd as a cure for it that by immersing the people in Debanchery and Pleasures they should be render'd the less careful of their Expiring Liberties which the Senate being aware of thought fit whilst they had any power left them to cashier the Stage and this being the Opinion of the State is more to be regarded than that of any particular person how great soever It 's likewise worthy of our observation that Augustus himself and severall other Emperours who favour'd the Stage were sore'd to discharge it at last as a Nursery of Lewdness and Villany Scipio Nascica a great General who by Vote of the Senate was declar'd the best Man of the Common-wealth because of his extraordinary Valour Prudence and Morality suppress'd the Stage as destructive to the Morals of the People Trajan who if Pliny may be credited was one of the best Roman Emperours did the like And the Emperour Alexander Severus who was none of the worlt of them withdrew the Pensions of the Players so that all that were great among the Romans were far from favouring the Stage The Influence which Mr. Dennis ascribes to the Stage in preventing Rebellions amongst the People is equally ridiculous with his other Propositions It 's but a few of the People at best who have either time opportunity or money to frequent the Theatre so that by necessary consequence its Influence can never be universal but besides he is contradicted by matter of fact the Incouragement given to the Stage here in England could neither prevent the opposition made by the Parliament and People to Charles the I st nor the Plots of the Papists against Charles the IId nor the Revolt of the Nation from the last K. Iames. The Stage in France could not prevent the Rebellion against Lewis XIV during his Minority and it 's remarkable that the Protestants of that Kingdom who have declar'd against the Theatre in a National Council as before mentioned were his firmest Friends It 's pleasant to read how this Stage Panegyrist will in spite of History and common Sense ascribe all the Great things done by the Greeks and Romans to the Influence of the Stage when the States of both condemned them as occasioning a dissolution of Manners which render'd them unfit either to defend themselves or to conquer others And Themistocles in particular who is one of the Generals he mentions had so low an Opinion of the Theatre that he made a Law against Magistrates frequenting it lest the Common wealth should seem to play and loiter in the Stage Pericles another of them who was joint Pretor with Sophocles rebuk'd his Companion for beholding and commending a beautiful Boy telling him that wanton looks did not become a Pretor what would he have said then of the Modern Stage Our Author has forgot to mention Alexander the Great the Discipline and Apparel of whose Army smelt nothing at all of the gawdy and lascivious Theatre and yet his Conquests exceeded all
It had been more becoming a Supream Magistrate to provide against such unsuitable Matches by wholsom Laws than to have had them represented as the Subject of Mirth on a Stage as it would have been more decent for an University to have given him such Counsel than to divert him with such ridiculous Entertainment The Dialogue betwixt Albumazar Pandolfo and Cricca about Astrology is a meer Rhapsody of studied Nonsence which looks very unlike the Practice of Christians whose great Law-giver tells them They must be accountable for every idle Word The Courtship betwixt Trincalo a Farmer and Armellina Pandolfo's Maid wherein Trincalo compares himself to a lusty strong Ass and her to a Wanton young Filly and that they should have a race of Mules if she were willing is so very Coarse and throws so much Contempt upon the Country Farmers who are so useful to the Nation that it can neither be reconciled to the Maxims of Christianity nor Common Policy In short the whole Comedy is far from having any thing of a tendency to Vertue in it except Reflections upon the City as not affording a Dozen of Chast VIRGINS and the like on Sheriffs and Justices of Peace as Cheating and Hectoring their Neighbours and representing Country Gentlemen as minding nothing but Wenching and Drinking and young Gentlewomen talking smuttily of their Amours be vertâ—ous Representations If it be said as usual that those Vices are represented in order to make them be abhorr'd and the Guilty Persons ashamed of them it is easie to Answer That a Supream Magistrate is authoriz'd by God and the Laws of his Country to punish those Vices by the Sword of Justice which will be ten times more effectual than making them the Subject of Diversion on a Stage I come next to the Royal Slave a Tragi Comedy presented to the King and Queen by the Students of Christ-Church in Oxford The Prologue to the King and Queen is on the Representation of one of the Person Magi discovered in a Temple worshipping the Sun and at the sight of a new Majesty he leaves the Altar and addresseth himself to the Throne What Moral this can include is hard to determine except it were that they had a mind to insinuate that it was no Crime to Sacrifice Religion to the Court as too many of them attempted to do in reality when they embrac'd Doctrines contrary to those of the Church of England for which some of them as Laud Montague and others were censur'd by the Parliament afterwards In the Prologue to the University there 's a Jerk at some that they call Late damned Books and wich they hoped would inspire none of the University with a harsh Opinion of the Play which they alledge was so innocent that the â—ittle Ruff or Careless might be present at it without fear and they valued themselves highly upon the Presence of their Majesties as giving Life to the Performance and the King's Servants spoke much in the same manner when they presented it before them at Hampton Court The first Act represents a parcel of drunken Ephesian Captives revelling in their Chains and calling for VVhere 's but bidding their Goaler and his Wife be sure that they did not suffer any of the Young Students of the LAW to forestal the Market The Goaler too has a Jerk at the Custom of Singing Psalms at the Gallows All which I humbly conceive was an Entertainment no way suited to the Royal Majesty of a King nor to the modesty of a Queen Nor was it any thing for the Credit of the Nation that the Reins of Publick Discipline should be so far let loose as to suffer such Practices amongst the young Students of the Law if that was the Moral of the Fable The Rape attempted afterwards upon the Persian Queen and her Ladies by those Ephesian Captives and their lewd Discourses from time to time was no very good Lesson nor meet Entertainment for a Queen And their bringing in the Persian Courtiers yielding compleat Obedience to Cratander a Mock-King for three Days because Arsamnes their Prince commanded it and at the same time divested himself of his Authority for that space seems to teach the slavish Doctrineâ— so much then contended for by the Court that iâ— was unlawful to resist the King or any having his Commission under any Pretence whatsoever tho' he should ev'n overturn the Foundations of their Constitution as here their Counterfeit Arsamnes did by making a Captive King of Persia. Nay and this Play too which they pretend was so fram'd as it could give no offence to the Gravity of the University or Clergy represents Atossa the Queen a little inclining to the Taint of an Unlawful Amour with Cratander the Three-Daysâ—King and him Entertaining it also tho' at the same time he is their chief Pattern of Vertue Indeed there 's Praxaspis's Saying in the Second Scene that seemed to be a Saâ—yrical hint tho' I cannot think coâ—sidering the Temper of the Stage that 't was so design'd Viz. that when one of the Ladies wondred that they had not chosen Cratander a Queen for Company to impe his Reign Praxaspis answer'd That the Female Sex was too Imperious to Rule and would do as much harm in a Kingdom as a Monkey in a Glass-shop move and remove till they had broken all Had her then Majesty taken the hint and forborn medling with Affairs of State it 's probable that Matters had not come to that fatal Exit they did which is one Instance more to convince our Advocates of the Stâ—ge that those who frequent and admire it most are never reform'd by it I shall forbear any further Remarks upon those Plays these being enough to make good the Charge that our Universities have encouraged the Stage which is so much the more Criminal in â—hem because they ought to instruct the Nation by their Example as well as their Learning Methinks the Reverence they ow'd to the Antient Philosophers Fathers and Councils besides what our first Reformers the Acts of Parliament and those of their own Convocations requir'd from them should have restrained them But to the great Misfortune of the Nation neither thâ—se nor any Consideration whatever were able to prevail with them so that the Universities became infected with the Contagion of the Stage and they being the Nurseries of Officers for the Church and State it was no wonder if the Infection spread from them all over the Kingdom especially being patroniz'd by the Court and A. B. Laud and his Faction of the Church This encourag'd particular Students afterwards such a Barton Holydâ—y and Gaspar Main both of Christ-Church Oxford to write Plays The latter in his Comedy call'd The Amorous VVar is so very foul and smutty that it may well deserve the Name of down-right Lewdness but it 's supposed he thought it Attonement sufficient to jerk at the City and Parliament which he does there with abundance of more Malice than Wit Neither Time nor Room will now