Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	government_n	language_n	university_n	13,205	5	13.5098	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57291	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 drama, faithfully deliver'd : together with the censure of the English state and of the 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.	Ridpath, George, d. 1726.	1698 (1698)	Wing R1468; ESTC R17141	128,520	226

Passages that have a tendency to promote Uncleanness and that is the Reason why nothing but the Schools is mentioned in the Introduction ERRATA PAge 3. Line 22. dele the and put after Versails p. 35. l. 13 dele the after Journey p. 40. l. 10. r. ●●vitus p. 128. l. 25. r. Epimantus p. 140. l. 5. r. adjur'd instead of abjur'd p. 162. l. 13. Genselarics p. 172. l. 20. r. Personae instead of Personal p. 194. l. 34. r. were instead of there p. 198. l. 34. r. Moses instead of Samuel Some may perhaps object against what is said p. 200 that Oliver made Richlieu to tremble whereas Richlieu died soon after 〈◊〉 began to appear the Author owns that this slipt his Observation till the Sheet was printed off but the Argument holds good as to the French Nation and his Successor Mazarin Books Printed for J. Salusbury at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1698. A Compleat French Master for Ladies and Gentlemen or a most exact new Grammar to learn with Ease and delight the French Tongue as it is now spoken in the Court of France wherein is to be seen an Extraordinary and Methodical Order for the Acquisition of that Tongue Inriched with new Words and the most modish Pronounciation and all the Advantages and Improvements of that famous Language Written for the Use of his Highness the Duke of Glocester Price 2 s. A Most compleat Compen●um of Geography General and Special describing all the Empires Kingdoms and Dominions in the whole World shewing their Bounds Scituation Dimensions History Government Religions Languages Commodities Cities Rivers Mountains Lakes Archbishopricks Bishopricks and Universities in a most plain and easie Method c. The Fourth Edition Corrected and much Improved By Laurence Echard M. A. of Christ's College in Cambridge Price 1 s. 6 d. EAchard's Gazetteer or Newsman's Interpreter Being a Geographical Index of all Cities Towns c. in Europe with their Distances from each other and to what Prince they are now subject very necessary for the right understanding of all Foreign and Domestick News-Letters and Gazettes 12● Price 2 s. THE Changeableness of this World with Respect to Nations Families and particular Persons with a practical Application thereof to the various Conditions of this Mortal Life By T. Rogers M. A. p. 1 s. MR. Oughtred's Key of the Mathematicks newly Translated with Notes rendring it Easie and Intelligible absolutely necessary for all Gagers Surveyors Gunners Military Officers and Mariners c. Recommended by Mr. E. Halley Fellow of the Royal Society THE Happiness of a Quiet Mind both in Youth and Old Age with the Way to attain it In a Discourse occasioned by the death of Mrs. Martha Hasselbor● By T. Rogers pr. 1 s. A Dialogue between two young Ladies lately Maried concerning the Management of Husbands shewing how to make that Honourable State more Easie and Comfortable The Third Edition Revised and Co●rected By the said Young Ladies Price 6 d. where the Second Part may be had Price 6 d. FINIS Introduction WE have had lately a Curious and Learned Survey of the Immorality and Profaness of the Stage but tho' that Author hath done excellently well there may still be some Gleanings left for another Mr. Collier strikes directly at the Miscarriages of the Stage because they were most obvious and nearest to View but this ought not supersede the Endeavours of others nor to put a stop to their Inquiry into the Root of the Mischief If the Foundation be sapp'd the Superstructures must ●umble of course and it signifies little to patch the Roof or to tell us that it Rains in at the Sky-Lights when an Inundation comes in at Doors and Windows There 's none can be fit to write for the Stage that hath not first been at School and if we be instructed there in Plays and Romances it s but natural we should think our selves good Proficients and that we have in a great measure answered the End of our Education when we can oblige the World with those of our own Composure If the Amorous Passages of Ovid Terence Plautus c. be thought commendable Patterns fit to be put into the hands of Youth and by them imbib'd as proper Nourishment why should not the Harvest answer the Seed-time or why should the Scholar be blam'd to Vi● with his Masters Copy or when time and opportunity serves to sett up for a Master himself CAP. I. The Stage Encouraged by the Clergy IF our Shepherds have no better Morals than to feed their Lambs with the Milk of Goats why should they not expect that their Flocks in time should come to smell P●nk and where 's the Justice to bait and worry them when they do so If the Pulpits be so grosly negligent as not to tell us with Tertullian that Stage-Plays are the Chief of those Pomps that we abjure at Baptism or if they will needs Canonize one as a Martyr and Saint who by Royal Authority introduc'd the Use of Masks and Plays into his Court and Dominions on Sundays and never testified his Repentance for it to the World why should not they who write and frequent Plays think they are in the Path Road to Heaven as well as he and why may not they who distinguish themselves from others by such like performances hope some time or other to bear him company in the Calendar If the Head and Fathers of the Church did prosecute Mr. Prin for his Histriomastrix and condemn those for Schismaticks who would not Comply with Laud's Book of Sports and Pastimes on Sundays whereof Masks and Opera's at Court led the Van why should not the Writing and Haunting of Plays be reckon'd genuine Marks of a true Son of the Church and the contrary the Badge of one that is no true Church-man as a certain Clergy-man thought fit to express it in relation to K. William because of his not frequenting the Play-house Let the Clergy if they seriously design a Reform in this particular strike St. Ch s out of their Calender or declare their opposition to St. Chrysostom Tertullian and many others that might be named who thought the writing and frequenting of Plays to be damnable without Repentance and much more the commanding and patron●●ing them It cannot be denied but Mr. Collier has writ ingeniously and has taken a great deal of pains to hew and lop off the Branches and considering how much the Play-house was favoured in the Reign of Charles I. by some of the highest Dignity in the Church we have more reason to wonder that he hath said so much than that he hath said any thing too little because that part of the Sense of Antiquity which he hath repeated to us in this Matter does obliquely condemn that Prince whom so many Ecclesiasticks of great Note have always accounted a Martyr Besides his writing against Plays at present and some of the principal Authors of them is not like to be accounted an extraordinary piece

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 stand● upon his own Defence and refuses to acknowledge that the Plays of his Writing contain any thing Culpable or Blame●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 〈◊〉 ●●●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 Prefa●●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 whe● 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 e●punging those

the Ear the Tongue to every smallest Avenue that might let in the Tempter would hardly have left the broad Gates to the Play-house so open without one Warning to the unwary Christian in so direct a Road to Perdition Such a Discovery I believe would have been rather the Earlier Cautionary Favour of some of our kind Evangelical Guardians than the Extorted Confession of our greatest Infernal Enemy 200 Years after To Answer the Reviever in his own way of Argument Had the Stage been so useful to the Happiness of Mankind to Government and to Religion as Mr. Dennis pretends to prove it in his late Book or had it been such an Excellent Mean for Recommending Vertue and Discountenancing Vice as others of its Advocates would ●●ve it to be then certainly it may raise a little wonder that those kind Evangelical Guardians should not have somewhere or other dropp'd one Expression at least in its favour as well as they 〈◊〉 made use of the pertinent Expressions of ●me of the Poets and therefore their profound Evangelical Silence upon this Head gives us just cause to suspect that they had a far other Opinion of the Design and Nature of the Theatre But to come closer to our Author had he but seriously reflected upon his own Matter of serious Reflection it would soon have abated the height of his Wonder for if the Apostles Preached Re●●ntance censur'd Vice and Impiety from the highest to the lowest read Divinity Lectures upon the Ward-Robe and Dressing-Box corrected the Indecencies of the Hair and Apparel and each uncomly Gesture they must by necessary consequence have Preached against the Stage which is charg'd with the height of Impiety and Vice ●uperfluous prodigality of Apparel unlawful disguising of the Sex and obscene and uncomly postures not only by the Fathers of the Church but even by Ovid Iuvenal Horace and other Heathen Poets and Historians of those times as I have proved before so that our Reviewers Battery is fairly dismounted and his Cannon pointed against himself for by a Conclusion lawfully deduced from his own Premises it infallibly appears that the Apostles did not only give one but many Reprimands to the Theatre tho' they did not express it by name And I will make bold to tell him further that the Apostles in those very Injunctions by which they set Bars to the Eye the Ear and the Tongue did as infallibly shut up all the Avenues of the Theatre as they barricado'd those that might let in the Tempter if beholding Vanity hearing Blasphemy and speaking Lies in hypocrisie come within the reach of their Inspir'd Prohibitions And therefore well might St. Cyprian say that the Divine Wisdom would have had a low Opinion of Christians had it descended to be more particular in this Case when the Stage was known to abound with Idolatry Profanity Cruelty Blasphemy Sodomy and such other Impur●ties as were not so much as once to be named amongst Christians I pass over his Remarks on the Inconsistency betwixt Mr. Colliers Defence of the Modesty and Chastity of the Antient Heathen Poets and Stage and his quotations of the Fathers that imply the contrary Mr. Collier is able to defend himself and an Over-match for him on this Subject There 's no doubt but the Stage at its first Institution was chaster than ours and if we may give credit to Livy The Plays at first were plain Country-Dances where the Youth jok'd upon one another in Artless Verse and their Gestures were as plain and simple as the rest of the performance The Poets that Mr. Collier quoted are modester than ours and yet it will not follow that the horrid Impieties charg'd upon the Stage by the Christian Fathers and Roman Historians is all slander or that the Innocence of the Primitive Stage was the cause of the Scriptural silence against Plays The Theatre was opposed by the Jews before the Coming of Christ tho' no where condemned by name in the Old Testament Yet that People to whom the Oracles of God were committed understood it to be contrary to the Law of Moses and the Discipline of their Nation and therefore they conspir'd to cut off Herod the Great in the Theatre which he had built at Ierusalem whilst he was beholding his Stage-Plays which they had certainly effected had not the Plot been discovered whereof Herod taking the advantage he brought in his Theatrical Enterludes which at first were pleasing to none but the Heathens that sojourned there and were at last attended with an Apostacy from the Laws of their Ancesto●s a corruption of Discipline and dissolution of Manners And a remarkable Judgment followed on Herod Agrippa who appearing on the Stage in a Silver Robe of admirable workmanship and being receiv'd by the Acclamations of the People as a God because of the beams which darted from his Apparel by the Reflexion of the Sun was immediately smitten with a grievous Disease by something that appeared in the shape of an Owl hovering over his head and being tormented for five days with an intollerable pain in his Bowels was at last miserably devoured by Worms From this opposition of the jews to the Stage we may reasonably infer that 〈◊〉 such method of pastime or diversion or of recommending Virtue and discouraging Vice was allowed by the Church of God under the Old Testament and that therefore there 's much less reason to think that any such thing was allowed or approved by the Christian Church under the New Testament whose Worship has less of External Pomp but much more of the Spirit and Truth than that of the Jews had From hence likewise we gain another Argument that if the Jews thought the Stage discharg'd under the General Prohibition To take the Names of the Heathen Gods in their mouths and the Article of their Law which forbad Men and Women the promiscuous use of one anothers Apparel the Primitive Church had much greater Reason to conclude that the Theatre was forbid to them under the General Terms of Idolatry Sacrifices of Idols Vanities of the Gentiles Rudiments and Customs of the World corrupt Communication Bitterness and Evil Speaking keeping company with Fornicators fellowship with the unfruitful Works of Darkness Filthiness Foolish Talking and Iesting which was not convenient being partakers with the Children of Disobedience Rioting Chambering and Wantonness c. all which the Stage was infected with as hath been prov'd already So that the Advocates of the Play-house may with as much reason infer that Apostacy Atheism Incest and other Crimes are not forbidden by the Scriptures because not expresly nam'd there as argue that the Play-house is not discharg'd because it is not particularly mention'd in Sacred Writ If it be objected That all those Arguments are against the Corruption of the Stage but not against the Original innocent Constitution of Plays I answer that there never was a time when the Stage was free from all or part of those Corruptions that it was of an Heathenish and

frequenting the Stage for there says Mr. Dennis is the greatest pleasure But if this be the true Character of the English Gentry how comes it to pass that so many of them have rais'd Vast Fortunes by application to Law Physick Divinity and Merchandice I shall meddle no further with this Lewd Comedy nor can what I have done already be justified by any other Argument but that it 's sit the World should see what an useful thing the Stage is for Reformation of Manners CAP. XIX Answer to Mr. Dennis's Usefulness of the STAGE I Come next to consider Mr. Dennis's Arguments in his Book Entituled The Usefulness of the Stage to the Happiness of Mankind to Government and to Religion The Title is sufficient to discover that I am to combate a Man of Assurance who like another Goliah bids Defiance to the Armies of Fathers Councils Scriptures c. all that have bra●ndished their Swords against the Theatre His first Argument is That the Stage is Instrumental to the Happiness of Mankind in general because it pleases them and Happiness consists in Pleasure The Gentleman not having oblig'd us so far as to draw his Argument into Form he must pardon my Presumption if I do it for him and then I think it will stand thus Whatsoever pleases Men makes them happy But the Stage pleases Men Ergo. The Falshood of the first Proposition is so manifest from the Experience of all Men that I cannot but wonder at our Author's Confidence to advance it The Libertine is pleased with his Paramour and yet is so far from being happy in his Pleasure that it wastes his Conscience consumes his Body and ruines his Estate The Drunkard is pleased with his Bottle yet is so far from being happy in it that it has the same dismal effects upon him as Uncleaness has upon the Wanton The Glutton is pleased with his costly Cates and riotous Banquets but is so far from being happy in his Pleasure that he Entails Diseases upon himself and diggs his Grave with his own Teeth The Miser is pleased with his Baggs yet is so far from being happy in them that he is eat up with carking cares how to preserve them or to lay them out to the best advantage To prove this Argument Mr. Dennis says That by Happiness he could never understand any thing but Pleasure and that he could never possibly conceive how any one can be happy without being pleased or pleased without being happy Let him but take a turn to Bedlam and there he may have convincing Instances of poor Wretches being extreamly pleased with their foolish Conceits that are far from being happy or let him visit some of his Friends in a raging Feaver and perhaps he may hear them express a great deal of Pleasure and Delight in many things and yet poor Creatures fall much short of being hapy His own Assertion p. 8. That a Man cannot be happy without or against Reason perfectly destroys his Proposition for in all the Cases above-mentioned those Persons are pleased both without and against Reason which plainly proves that it is not pleasure but a Rational Pleasure or none at all that makes a Man happy otherwise the Brute-beasts are more happy than the happiest of Men. So that if this be granted which no reasonable Man or good Christian can deny that our Pleasures ought to be ruled by Reason his Argument will prove but a feeble Support to the Stage it being highly unreasonable to take pleasure in that which is not only needless to the ends for which it is pretended there being other meansap pointed for that as I have prov'd already but comes so far short of them that by the concurring Testimony of all Ages it is condemned for producing the contrary Effects To set this matter in a Clearer Light let us take a View of those Pleasures which are to b● reap'd from the Stage Spiritual Pleasures they are not for Divinity and Religion are seldom or never mentioned there but in order to be ridicul'd Rational Pleasures they cannot be seeing it is contrary to Reason for Mankind to please themselves with the Representations of Rapes Murders and all manner of Villanies which is the principal part of the Entertainment the Punishments allotted them take up the least part of the time for most of that is spent in representing the Intrigues that the Personal Dramatis carry on for obtaining their lwed Ends and the pleasure they take in the Enjoyment of their desires and the Impression of the Tragical Catastrophe is generally defac'd by some Comical Conclusion at last So that upon the whole the Pleasures that are reap'd from the Stage must needs be sensual and if wallowing in them conduce any thing to the happiness of Mankind then Reason and Religion too have put a horrid Cheat upon us ought to be banished out of the World and the only Deity we are to invoke is some Circe or other to transform us into Dogs and Swine that we may be compleatly happy For Mr. Dennis says page 6 and 7. The Philosophers were Fools to ascribe their Happiness to Reason for that may often afflict us make us miserable is an impediment to our pleasure and nothing but Passion can please us The natural consequence of which must be that none but Beasts Fools and Mad-men are happy in this World He tell us page 8. That it 's plain that the Happiness both of this Life and the other is owing to Passion and not to Reason so that he must be the only happy man here that wallows in his pleasures and indulges his passions And in the other World he informs us we shall be delivered from those Mortal Organs and Reason shall then be no more We shall lead the Glorious Life of Angels a Life exalted above all Reason a Life consisting of Extasie and Intelligence If this be not a Rhapsody of downright contradictions there can be no such thing as a contradictions there can be no such thing as a contradiction in nature a Rational Soul without Reason Understanding without Reason and Reason dying with Mortal Organs Nay there 's another Position in the bottom of the 7th page as extraordinary as any of those and that is That the very height and fulness of pleasure which we are promised in another Life must we are told proceed from Passion or somthing that resembles Passion at least no man 〈◊〉 so much as pretended that it will be the result of Reason Who it is that has told our Author thus he would do well to inform us for I believe this Revelation is peculiar to himself The Scriptures do indeed say That in the presence of the Lord there is fulness of Ioy and at his Right hand there are Pleasures for evermore but are so far from hinting at any thing like Joy without Reason that the Works of Creation Redemption and Providence and the Beatifical Vision of God in his perfections seem to be plainly

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 vert●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 ●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 Doctrine● so much then contended for by the Court that i● 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-Days●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 Sa●yrical hint tho' I cannot think co●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 St●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 ●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 th●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 Holyd●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