The Players Scourge, Part 1 · Act 5 · Scene 2
SCENA SECVNDA.
SEcondly, as the hypocrisie, even so the lasciviousnesse of acting Stage-playes, doth draw an inexpiable guilt upon them, as this seventeenth Argument will demonstrate.Argument. 17.
That whose very action is *Quid multa? authores… omnes cum sacri… tum profani spurcitiam scenae exagitant; non modo quod fabulae obscenae in scena agerentur, sed …tiam quod motus gestus que essent impudici, atque ad…o prostibula ipsa in scenam saepe venirent; & scena prostarent. Vnde & obscaenum, ait Varro, quod non nisi in scena palam dicitur. Buleng. Do Theatro l. 1. c. 50. p. 296.obscene, lascivious, amorous, and unchaste, must needs be hatefull and unlawfull unto Christians.
But such is the very action of Stage-playes.
Therefore they must needs be hatefull and unlawfull unto Christians.
The Maior is without all controversie, since God himselfe enjoynes all Christians,bTitus. 2.12.14. Ephes 4.17, 18, 19. Rom. 13.12, 13, 14. 1 Pet. 1.14.15. c 4.2.3. c. 2.11.12. to live chastly, soberly, holily, and godly in this present world, as becommeth Saints; c.Rom. 13.13. Eph. 4.17.19 1 Pet. 4.3.2 Cor. 12.21. Titers 3.3. Iude 4.not walking in lasciviousnesse, lusts, or wantonnesse, as the Gentiles, or other carnall persons doe: but d1 Pet. 2.11.12.absteining from these and all other fleshly lusts which warre against the soule… eGal. 5.19.Lasciviousnesse (together with all amourous wanton gestures, complements and imbracements which issue from it) is a fruit of the flesh; fMar. 7.20, 21, 22, 23.an evill that proceeds from within, and so defiles the heart of man from which it springs. It is a gIude 4. Iam… 5.5.sinne of which God takes especiall notice, and will certainly charge it on mens consciences at the last. A h2 Cor. 12.21.sinne to be seriously rep…nted of. A sinne to which the iEphes. 4.19. 1 Pet. 4.3. Iude 4.Gentiles and other wicked men were given over. A sin…e, kIsay 3.16. to 26.for which God threatens to punish the daughters of Zion. A sinne which lGal. 5.19.21. 1 Cor. 6.9, 10. Rev. 21.27.disinherits and shuts men out of heaven. A sinne which sundry mClemens Alexand. Paedagogi. l. 2. c. 1. to 10. l, 3. c. 3. Ambr. De officijs. l. 1. c. 8 & l. 3. c. 12. Basil. de Vera Virginitate lib. & Ascetica cap. 13. Tertullian de Velandis Virginibus, De cultu Faeminarum, Cyprian. De …abi…u Virginum Hierom. Epist. 7, 8.16. & 23 Bernard, de Modo bene vivendi Sermo 9. Gratian d…stinctio 41. Concilium Valentinum. Can. 15. Concil… Senonense Decreta Morum. Can. 25. Calvin, Hooper, Babingeon, Perkins, Elton, Dod, Andrewes, Williams, Lake, and all other Expositors on the seventh Commandement. accordingly.Fathers have plentifully condemned, as mis-beseeming Christians, whose very outward gestures and deportment ought to be modest, chaste, and holy, nEphes. 5.3.4. Phil. 1.27. 1 …im. 2.10. Titus 2 3. 1 Pet 2.12. c. 31. to 7. Similiter impud…citiam …mnem amoliri jubemur: hocigitur modo etiam a Theatro seperamur; quod est privatum consistorium impudicitiae, vbi nihil probatur quam q…od alibi non probatur. Ita summa gratia …jus de spu…citia plutimum concin…ata est, quam attellanus gesticulatur, quam mimus etiā, per mulieres repraesen…at se…um p…dori… ex…erminans, vt …cilius domi quam in sc…n… …rubē … cant. Quam denique Pantomimus a pueritia patitur in corpore ut artifex esse possit. Ipsa etiam prostibula publicae libidinis host…ae in scena proferuntur, plus misera in presentia faemina…um, quibus solis latebant: perque omnis aetatis, omnis dignitatis or a transd…cuntur, lo…us, stipes, elogium, etiam quibus opus non est, praedicatur. Ibid.as becommeth the Gospell of Christ. The Maior therefore is unquestionable.
The Minor is abundantly ratified; First, by the concurrent testimony of sundry Fathers and moderne Authors, who from hence condemne all Stage-playes, because the acting of them is obscene, and amorous. Witnesse Tertullian. Despectaculis lib. cap. 17. o We are commanded (writes he) to put away all wantonnesse and incontinency… by this meanes therefore we are divorced from the Theater, the private consistory of uncleannesse, where nothing is approved, but what in all other places is disapproved. Yea, its greatest praise is for the most part conci…nated of that lasciviousnesse, that filthinesse which the Stage-player acteth; which the Actor likewise representeth by women, who have banished the modesty of their sex, that so they may more easily blush at home, than …n the Stage. Which finally the Patomimus doth suffer in his body from his childhood, that so h… may be expert in his profession. Yea, the very Stewes themselves, the sacrifices of publike lust, are brought forth upon the Stage, they being more miserable in the presence of women, from whom alone they were concealed; and before the eyes of every age, of every degree, the place, the hire, the testimoniall are represented, yea, published unto those to whom there is no need pTaceode reliquis, ea que in tenebris & speluncis suis delitescere decebat, ne diem contaminarent. Erubescat senatus, erubescant ordines omnes, Ipse ille pudoris sui interempt Fices de gestibus suis ad lucem & populum expaues centes seme… anno erubescunt. Quod si nobis omnis impudicitra execranda est, cur liceat audire, quae loqui non licet? Cum etiam scurtilitatem & omne varum verbum judicatum à Deo sciamus, cur aeque lic… at videre quod facere flagitium est? Cur quae ore prolata communicant hominem, ea per oculos, & aures admissa non videantur hominem communicare: cum spiritui appareant aures & oculi, nec possit mundus praestari, cuius apparitores inquinantur. Habes igitur & theatri interdictionem, de interdictione impudicitiae. Ibidem Tom. 2. p. 395.396.I forbeare to mention more, it being meet they should lie obscured in darknesse, in their dungeons, lest they should defile the light. Let the Senate blush, let all degrees blush at this, since those very murtherers of their owne chastity, fearing their actions should be manifested to the people, blush once a yeere. Now if all unclearnesse must be execrable to us, why should it be lawfull to heare those things which it is unlawfull to speake? for since we may know that all scurrillity, and every vaine word is condemned by God, how can it be lawfull to heare those things which are a wickednesse to commit? Why should those things which defile a man being uttered onelyonly with his mouth, not seeme to pollute him, when they passe through his eyes and eares by his consent? since the eyes and eares, lie open to the soule: neither can he be made or reputed, cleane, whose appariters are defiled. Thou hast therefore an interdiction of the Theater, from the interdiction of uncleannesse. Thus Tertullian. qPaedagogi. l. 2. c. 10. l 3. c. 11.Clemens Alexandrinus, rDe spectaculis lib; & Epist. l. 2. Epist. 2. Donato.Cyprian, sAdversus Gentes lib. 4. p. 149.150. lib. 7. p. 233.Arnobius, tDe Vero Cultu cap. 20. Divinar: Instit. Epitome c. 6.Lactantius, vOratio adversus Graecos.Tatianus, xCatechesis Mystagogica. 1.Cyril of Ierusalem, yHexa…m. Hom. 4. & De Ebrietate & luxu Oratio.Saint Basil, zIn dictum Evangelij. Quatenus fecistis, &c.Gregory Nyssen, declaime much against the lasciviousnesse, the lewdnesse which attends the acting of Playes; especially the aCelebrantur ludi illi cum omni lascivia, convenientes memoriae meretricis. Nam praeter verborum licentiam, quibus obscaenitas omnis effunditur, exuuntur etiam vestibus populo flagitante meretrices, quae tunc mimorum funguntur officio, & in conspectu populi vsque ad satietatem impudicorum luminum cumpudendis moribus detinentur. Lactantius De falsa Relig. l. 1. c. 20. p. 75. See August. de Civit. Dei. l. 2. c. 8. & Ludovici Viver Nota Ibidem. ….Floralian Enterludes, whose transcendent filthinesse, was so execrably odious, as I dare not to relate it. Gregory Nazianzen, considering the filthinesse that accompanies Playes; doth from thence stile Play-houses, bLasciva faeditatis & impuritatis omnis officina. De Educatione ad Seleucum p. 1063.the lascivious shops of all filthinesse and impuritie Playes cMimorum petulantias omni impudicitia & contumelia refertas. Lascivorum hominum inhonestas disciplinas & indecoras, qui nihil …urpe ducunt praeter modestiam. Ibid.; the petulancies of Players, fraught with all incontinency: the dishonest and unseemely disciplines of lascivious men, who repute nothing filthy but modesty: and Players dTurpitudinis administri, &c. Ibid.the servants of filthinesse, the counterfeiters of ridiculous things, who are ready in the open view of all men, to suffer or act all detestable things whatsoever. eEcclesiast. hist. l. 8. c. 24.Eusebius Pamphilus from the selfe-same ground, cals Stage-players, men of waton and lewde-gestures, who did wonderfully delight the Spectators, and made Maximinus the tyrant sport. Saint Chrysostome writes, fCuncta enim quae ibi fi…at turpissima sunt, verba, vestitus, tonsura, incessus, voces, cantus, modulationes, oculorum eversiones, ac motus, tibiae, fistulae, & ipsa fabularum argumenta: omnia (…inquam) turpilascivia, plena sunt: Tantam lasciviam in audientium atque videntium animos infundunt, vt vno omnes animo radicitus ementibus modestiam …c…lere, & perniciosa voluptate cupiditates suas implere conari videantur. Hom. 38. in Matth. Tom. 2. Col. 298. C.D.That all things which are acted on the Stage, are most filthy and lascivious: the words, the apparell, the gestures, the tonsure, the musicke, the glances of the eyes, the ditties, the pipes, the very arguments of the Playes themselves; All things, I say, are full of filthy lasciviousnesse. Whence they infuse so great lasciviousnesse into the hearers and spectators minds, that all of them may seeme to endevour, even with one consent to eradicate all modestie out of their hearts, and to satisfie their lusts with pernicious pleasure, Saint Augustine, as he much declaimes against the obscenity of acting of Playes, gDe Civit Dei. l. 2. c. 4. to c. … 3. l. 4. c. 3.10, 26, 27, 28. l. 6. c. 6.7 l. 7. c. 26, 27. l 8. c. 5.13, 14, 18, 20, 21, 27.in sundry places; so hee informes us from his own experience; hVeniebamus etiam nos aliquando adolescentes ad spectacula ludibria que sacrilegiorum: ludis turpissimis qui dijs deabusque exhibebantur, oblectabamur. Caelesti virgini, & Berecynthiae matri Deorum omninum ante erus Iecticam die solemni lavationis eius, talia, per publicum cantitabantur a ne quissimis sceticis, qualia non dico matrē deorū, sed matrē qualiumcun que senatorū, vel quorum libet honestorū virorum; imo vero qualia nec matrem ipsorū scenicorum deceretau…ire Illam enim turpitudinem obscaenorum dictorum atque factorum scenicos ipsos domi suae pro…udendi causa coram matribus suis agere puderet, quam pet publicum agebant coram deorum omnium matre spectante & audiente vtriusque sexus frequentissima multitudine. Quae si illecta curiositate adesse potuit circumfusa; saltem offensa castitate debuit abire confusa, Aug. de Civit. Dei. l. 2. c. 4.5. S… l. 7. c. 26, 27.That on the solemne day of the lotion of Berecynthea, the mother of the Gods, such things were publikely chanted by most wicked Stage-players; as did not beseeme, I say not, the mother of the Gods to heare; but even the mother of any of the Senators, or of any honest men; yea, the mothers of the Stage-players themselves. For humane modestie hath such a respect towards parents which wickednesse it selfe cannot wholly take away. The Players themselves might blush, to act in private at their owne houses for exercise sake before their owne mothers, that filthinesse of obscene words and deeds, which they did publikely act before the mother of the gods, in the sight and hearing of a most numerous multitude of both sexes: which if …he being inticed by curiosity could bee circumfusedly present at these Playes, she ought at l…ast to depart ashamed from them, her chastity being offended with them. iQuae sunt sacrilegia si illa erant sacra? aut quae in quinatio, si illa lavatio? Et ha…c fercula appellabantur convivium, quo velut suis epulis immunda daemonia pascerentur. Quis enim non sentiat cu…usmodi spiritus talibus obscaenitatibus delectentur; nis… vel nesciens vttum omnino sint vlli immundi spiritus deorum nomine decipientos: vel talem agens vitam, in qua istos potius q…m Deum verum, & optet propitie… & for…idet iratos? Ibidem See Iulius Firmicus de Err…re profanarum Religion…m cap. 13.What things are sacrileges, if these were sacrifices? or what is pollution if this were lotion? And these were called dishes, as if some feast were cel…brated, wherewith the uncleane Devils might be fed, as with their banquets. For who may not disc…rne what spirits they are which are delighted with such obsceniti…s? unlesse …e be ignorant whether there be at all any uncleane spirits deceiving men under the name of Gods, or unlesse …e leade such a life, in which …e may rather desire th… favour and feare the wrath of these, than the true God. Thus he. That pious Father kTaliasunt quae illic fiunt, vt …a non solum dicere, sed …tiam recordari aliquis sine pollutione non possit. Omnia quidem tam flagitiosa sunt, vt etiam explicar… ea quispiam atque eloqui salvo pudore non valeat, &c De Gubernat. Dei l. 6. p… 18…, 186.Salvian, records the obscenity of acting Stage playes to be such, that no chaste, no modest face could once behold it, no gracious tongue relate it, without sin or shame. If then we will give any credit to these recited Fathers, with sundry other here recited in the ensuing Scene. Or to the third Blast of Retrait from Playes and Theaters; to Master Northbrooke against vaine-Playes and En…erludes; To Master Gosson his Playes confuted, to Master Stubs in his Ano…omie of Abuses, p. 101. to 107. To Doctor Reinolds in his Overthrow of Stage-playes, to Barnabas… Brissonius, Ioannis Mariana, or Bulengerus, De Spectaculis & Ludis Sc…nicis l. 1. c. 50, 51, 52. or to Bishop Babington, Bishop Andrewes, Osmund Lak…, Master Perkins, Master Elton, Master Dod, Master Downham; with sundry others on the seventh Commandement, who concurre with the alleaged Fathers in the lacivious filthinesse of Play-acting; We must needs acknowledge the very acting of Stage-playes, to be necessarily obscene, and so unlawfull unto Christians, as they all conclude. Secondly, those severall lA mans saltatur Venus, & per affectus omnes meretriciae vilitatis impudica exprimitur, imitatione bacchari. Saltatur & magna sacris comptacu… infulismater, & contra decus aetatis illa Pessinuntia Dindymone in bubulci vnius flagitiosa amplexu fingitur appetitione gestire, &c. Arnobiu… adve…s. Gentes l. 4. p. 149, 150. S…l 7. p. 230. to 242.…eretricious amorous passages, ditties, parts, and complements which we meet with both in mAristophanes, Plautus, Terence, Menander, and others.ancient and moderne Play-poems, (which can neither be acted nor vttered without much obscenity,) will evidently evince the very acting of Playes to be lascivious. And doth not daily experience testifie as much? Survay we but a whiles, those venemous unchaste, incestuo…s kisses, (as the nEst autem aliud osculum incestum veneno plenum. Oscula meretricia: oscula impudicitiae virus saepè immittunt. Clemens Alexandrinus, Pae… gogi lib. 3. cap. 11. l 2. c. 16. Sunt turpia & immunda oscula. Chrysost Hom… in Psal. 140. Tom. 1. Col. 1109. B. Obscaenè osculantur Hom. 13. …n 2 Cor. Tom. 4. Col. 832. D. Summa igitur cautione communicandum est osculum, vt non aliter quam pia salutatio, vel potius adoratio quaedam habeatur: quae …i parum impura cogitatione inquinata fuerit a vita aeterna nos alienet. Athenagoras pro Christianis Legatio. Bibl. Patr. Tom. 2 p. 139. A See Doctor Reinolds Overthrow of Stage-playes p. 12, to 18.Fathers …tile them:) those wanton dalliances, those meretricious imbracements, complements; those enchanting, powerfull, overcomming sollicitations unto lewdnesse; oVanis gestibus ac nutibus mimus risum provocat. Minucius Felix. Octavius pag. 1…1.122.those immodest gestures, speeches, attires, which inseparably accompany the acting of our Stage-playes; especially where the Bawdes, the Panders, the Lovers, the Wooers, the Adulterers, the Womans, or Love-sicke persons parts are lively represented, (whose pTimeo autem n… fortè magnum hoc venenum totum revelom, velut cujusdam basilisci serpentis faciem, ad perniciem magis legentium, quam ad correctionem. Polluit enim revera aures magnae hu…us audaciae blasphema collectio, & haec turpitudinis coacervatio a… enarratio. Epiphaniu… Contr. h…reses lib. 1 Tom… 2… Haereses 26. Col. 70. B.poysonous filthinesse, I dare not fully anatomize, for feare it should infect, not mend the Reader,) must needs at first acknowledge, the very action of our Stage-playes to be execrably obscene; to be such as none but persons desparately lewde, unchaste, immodest, can seriously affect, much lesse approve or act. Therefore Stage-playes themselves must questionlesse be abominable unto Christians, even in this regard: