The Players Scourge — William Prynne

The Players Scourge · William Prynne

SCENA QVINTA.

THe fift effect of Stage-playes, is the generall depravation of the mindes, the manners, both of their Actors and Spectators; which administreth the 31. Argument against them.Argument 31.

That which ordinarily corrupts the mindes, and vitiates the manners, both of the Actors and Spectators, must doubtlesse be unlawfull, yea abominable unto Christians, if not intollerable in any Christian wel-ordered Common-weale.

But Stage-playes nScil…cet expectes ut r…adat mater hoter honestos, Aut alios mores quàm quos habet? Iuvenal. Satyr. 6. p. 50.ordinarily corrupt the mindes, and vitiate the manners, both of their Actors and Spectators.

Therefore, they must doubtlesse bee unlawfull, yea abominable unto Christians, intollerable in any Christian wel-ordered Common-weale.

The Major is most apparantly evident: First, from the very principals of reason: *Quic quid enim efficit tale, est magis tale. Aristot. Poster. lib. 1. cap. 2. sect. 14. Keckerman. System. Logic. lib. 1. cap. 19.For what-ever vitiates another thing (especially mens mindes and manners) must needs be corrupt it selfe, the depravation of the one, pGal. 6.8. Ephes. 4.22, 29. 1 Tim. 6.5. 2 Pet. 1.4. Rev. 19.2.arising m…erely from the pravity of the other: If Stage-playes therefore corrupt the manners, the mindes of others, they cannot but be ill themselves. Secondly, from the grounds of Theology: which as they enjoyne men q2 Pet. 1.4.to avoyd the corruptions that are in the world through lust: r1 Thes. 5.22.to eschue all occasions of evill, sIsay 52.11. …. Cor. 6.14. to 18. Ephes. 4.29. cap. 5.3, 4, 11.all scurrilous idle speeches, t1 Cor. 5.9, 10, 11. Psal. 6.7. Prov. 5. 8, 9, 10, 11.all wicked places, all lewde companions which may defile their soules, their manners; and uIam. 1.27.to keepe themselves unspotted of the world: So they condemne x1 Thes. 5.22. Rev. 19.2. Mat. 6.13. c. 12.33, 35. c. 15.18, 19, 20.all occa…ions of evill, all dishonest contaminating pleasures of sinne which filthily disteine mens soules. Thirdly… from the rudiments of civill policy. For as yPlin. Panegyr. Trajano dictus. Zenophon. De Instit. Cyri. Hist. l. 1.2 Osorius De Regum Iustit. lib. 1. Aristot. Polit. lib. 7. Chrysost. Hō. 17. Ad Populū Antiochiae. vid. Ibidem.the happinesse, honor, life and safety of every Common-weale consists …n the ingenuity, temperance, and true vertuous disposition of the peoples mindes and manners; so the zNulla pestis est …ajor in Civitate quam morū licentia: nulla lues tetrior quam improbitas. Nam ut delicate viventium corpora laxatis & dissolutis nervis languida redduntur, discordi… que elementorum corrumpuntur; ita malis civium moribus inermes …iunt Civitates, eorum que perfidia magna vastantur imperia. Case. Polit. l. 1. p. 1.distemperature, malady, and confusion of it alwayes iss…e, from the exorbitant obliquity, the uncontroled dissolutenesse, and degeneracy of their vitious lives, aSee Osorius, De Regum Instit. l. 8. f. 254.255.which bring certaine ruine. Whence the most prudent Princes, and Republiques in all ages, have bSee Zenophon. De Instit. Cyri Hist. l 1.2. Plato, De Repub. Dialog 4. & L…gum Dial. 7. Aristot. Polit. l. 7. c. 15.17. & l. 8. c. 1. to 5. Plutarchi. Laconica Instit. & De Educat. Puerorum. Bodinus, De Repub. l. 6. c. 1. Erasmus, De Educatione Puerorum. AEneas Sylvius, De Liberorum Educatione. Maphaeus Vegius, De Educatione Puerorum. l. 1.2.constantly suppressed all such pleasures, as might either empoyson the yonger peoples manners, or pervert their mindes. The Major therefore is irrefragable.

The Minor, is an avowed truth, not onelyonly ratified by experience, but by the concurrent testimony of sundry States and Writers in… all ages, both Pagan and Christian. To begin with Pagan Authors, States, and Magistrates. The unparalleld Philosopher Plato, as his cDe Repub. Dialog. 8. & 10. p. 696.697 Legum Dialog. 2. p. 580.581.owne Workes, with dCicero. Tuscul. Quaest. l. 2. p. 449. Plutarchi Plato &. De Audiendis Poetis. August. De Civit. Dei. l. 2. c. 18. l. 8. c. 13.14,18,21. & Ludov. Vives Notae Ibidem. Franciscus Zepherus. Epist. Nuncupat. in Apologet. Tertulliani. Agrippa, De Vanit. Scient. c. 4. Caelius Rhodig. Ant. Lect. l. 7. c. 2. Rodolphus Gualther. Hom. 11. in Nahum. M. Northbrooke… M. Stubs, D. Reinolds, Gosson, and others in their Treatises against Stage-playes, &c.sundry others testifie, banished all Stage-players, Play-poets, and Play-poems out of his Common-weale, as being the chiefe instruments to effeminate the mindes, to vitiate the manners of the people, (especially the yonger sort) and to withdraw them from the study of vertue… to the love of vice. ePolitic. lib. 7. cap. 17. & l. 8. cap. 3.5, 6, 7. See Act. 7. Sce…e 6. and here page 366.Aristotle, the Oracle of all humane literature, excludes these Stage-playes out of his Republicke; debarring youthes and children from them, as being apt to poyson both their mindes and manners, with their grosse scurrility and lascivious shewes. fPlutarchi Solon. p. 31. Diog… Laertij. l. 1. Solon. p. 46.Solon, the wisest of the ancient Grecian Lawgivers, reiected Stage-playes; not onelyonly as lying, but deceitfull fictions; which would quickly teach men both to cheat, to steale, to play the hypocrites and dissemblers, and to circumvent men in their dealings, to the publike preiudice: whence he deemed them unsufferable mischiefes in a Citty. gTuscul. Quaest lib. 4. neere the end. De Legibus. l. 1. neere the end. & l. 2. neere the middest.Tully, declaimes against all pleasurable effeminate amorous Playes and Poets, as the contagions of mens mindes and manners, through their excessive delicacy: whence he adviseth the Romans to abandon them, lest they should effeminate and corrupt them as they had done the Grecians, and so subvert their Empire. hSee Plutarch. De Gloria. Atheniensium. lib. Thucidides Hist. l. 5. p. 477 Iustin. Hist. l. 6.Seneca informes us, iNihil verò, tam damnosum bonis moribus, quàm in aliquo spe…taculo desidere: Tunc enim per voluptatem facilius viti… surrepunt. Seneca Epist. 7.that there is nothing so pernicious to good manners, as to sit idlely at Stage-playes: for then vices easily creepe upon us through pleasure: And therefore kEpist. 90.122, 123 Nat. Quaest. lib. 7. cap. 31.32. & Controvers. lib. 1. Proaemio. See August. De Civitate Dei. lib. 2. cap. 9.13.he much bewailes the frequent concourse of the Roman Youth to Playes and Theaters, as an undoubted symptome of a degerated declining State, then neere to ruine, lPlutarchi Solon. Laconica Instituta. De Gloria Atheniensium. De Audiendis Poetis. lib. & Symposi. lib. 7. Quaest. 8.Plutarch, an eminent Morali…t and Historian, disapproves all Stage-playes; not onelyonly as lascivious vanities, occasioning much prodigall vaine expence to the Republikes dammage; but as contagious evils… which blast the vertues, marre the ingenuous education, corrupt the lives and manners of all those who frequent them, and with all he reports of *De Audiendis Poetis. pag. 26.Gorgias, that he reputed Tragedies and Stage-playes, meere impostures. mInter aliarum parva principia rerum, ludorum quoque prima origo ponenda visa est, ur apparere…. quàm absano initio res in hanc opulentis regnis vix tolerabilem insaniā venerit, &c. Nec tamen ludorum primum initium procurandis religionibus datum aut religio…e animos, aut corpora morbis levavit, &c. I…aque cum piaculorum magis conquisitio animos quàm corpora morbi afficerent, &c. Livy Hist. Rom. lib. 7. sect. 3.4. …ran… furti. 1609. pag. 255.256.Livy the gravest Roman Historian, writes of Playes: That they are scarce a tollerable folly or m…dnesse in wealthy Kingdomes: affirming withall… that these Stage-playes which were brought into Rome at first with an intent to asswage the Plague, and t… attone their en…aged Devill gods; did farre more infect the mindes of the Romans, then the Pestilo…ce did their bodies. nTheatra excogitata cultus Deorum, & hominum delectationis causa, non sin… aliquo pacis rubore voluptatem & religionem civili sanguine scenicorum portentorum gratia macularunt. l. 2 cap. 4. De Spectaculis. sect. 1. Raphelengij. 1612. pag. 56.Valerius Maximus relating the manner and cause of introducing Stage-playes among the Romans, records; that they were brought in, and devised onelyonly for the worship of their Devill-Idols and the delight of men; and that not without the blush or shame of peace; the Romanes having steined both their pleasures and religion with civill blood, by meanes of scenicall Prodigies. So that he reputed the tollerating of Playes, a blemish to the Roman State, which he there concludes, to be intollerable mischiefes in a Republike, and grand empoysoners of mens manners, from the Massilienses example, which he there applaudes. *Plato. Socratis Apolog. p. 12 Diog. La…rtij. lib. 2. Socrates.Socrates, the very wisest Graecian, by the expresse resolution of the Delphian Oracle, *Plato & Diogines La…rt. Ibid & AElian. Variae Hist. lib. 2. cap. 13.condemned all Comedies as pernicious, lascivious, scurrilous, and unseemely pastimes, to which he refused to resort; which caused Aristophanes, that carping Comedian, to traduce him on the Stage. *Oratio Ad Nicoclem. pag. 46 47. & De Pace Oratio p. 321. Edit. 1613.Isocrates, that grave Graecia… Orator, declaimes against all Playes and Actors as pernicious scurrilous, fabulous, ridiculous, invective, and expensive, not tollerable in a Citty. That valiant Roman *Neque Histrionem vllū, neque pluris pretij coquum, quàm villicum habeo, quae mihi lubet confiteri, &c. Apud Sallusti. Bellum Iugurthinum. pag. 158.160. Coloniae. 1615.Marius, in his Oration to the Roman Senate and people; produceth this as an argument both of his wisedome, temperance, valour and vertue, which some obiected to him as a disparagement, that he kept never a Stage-player, nor costly Cooke about him, as other voluptuous, eff…minate dissolute Romans did, whom he stiles, most filthy men. Caius Plinius Secundus in his oIdem ergo populus ille aliquando scenici imperatoris spectator & applausor, nu…c in Pantomimos quoque adversatur & dam…at ef…eminatas artes, & indecora seculo studia. Ibidem. pag. 38. See pag. 45.Pauegyricke to the Emperour Traian, stiles Stage-playes; effeminate arts and studies, altog…ther unbeseeming the world; whence he highly applaudes this Emperour for banishing them the Roman Empire, whose honor they had blemished, whose vertues they had cankered, and in his pEpist. lib. 4. Epist. 22.Epistles likewise, he declaimes against them, as intollerable mischiefes in a Common-weale, for the precedent reasons. Cornelius Tacit…s, an Historian of no small repute, informes us, qCaeterū abolitos paulatim patrios mores, funditus ev…rti per accitā lasciviam, ut quod usquam corrūpi & corrumpere queat, in urbe visatur, degeneresque studijs externis iuventus, gymnasia & otia & turpes amores ex…rcendo, principe & Senatu auctoribus, qui non modo vi…ijs licentiam permiserint, sed vim adhibeant, &c. Annal. l. 14. c. 2.3. vid. Ibidem.that the hereditary ancient manners of the Romanes were …y little and little corrupted and abolished, and their publike discipline subverted by Stage-playes; whence he de…laimes against them as the very plagues, and …verthrow of the Roman State: rAnnal. l. 14. c. 2.3. & lib. 16. cap. 1.2. vid. Ibidem.inveighing much against that Monster Nero, who corrupted the Roman Nation, and drew them on to all kinde of vice… of luxury and lewdnesse, by these accursed Stage-playes, to the publike ruine. And not onelyonly he, but likewise sHistori…e. l. 5. Edit. Basillae. 1557. p. 444.Polibius, tRom. Hist. l. 57. p. 798. & l. 59. p. 827.828.Dion Cassius, *Historiae. l. 6. p. 79.Iustin, xSuet. N…o. sect. 11.12, 21, 22, 26. Tiberius. sect. 47. Caligula. sect. 18.21, 54, 55. Cl…ud…u. sect. 6.7, 21…34.Suetonius, yDe Gloria Atheniensum. lib.Plutarch, zHistoriae. l 1.Herodian, *Ejusdem. Verus p 67.68, 69. & Maximinus & Balbinus. p. 301.Iulius Capitolinus, bEjusdem. Gallieni duo p. 305.306, 309, 310, 314 315, 319.Trebellius Pollio, cEjus Carinus. p. 447.449, 450.Flavius Vopiscus, and dIuvenal. S…tyr. 8.Iuvenal. (to passe by eRerum Rom. l. 9 & 10. Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, H…liogabalus, &c.E…tropius, fHistor. l. 7. c. 7.16. & 37.Orosius, gAnnal. Tom. 2. in the lives of Nero, Caligula, and these other Emperors.Zonaras, hImper…ll History, in the lives of these Emperors.Grimston, iChronogr. in these Emperors lives.Opmeerus, with other Christian Historians) condemne and censure, kSu…dae Historic…. C…ligula & Ardaburius. Ioannis Sari…berien…is, De Nugis Curialium. l. 1. c. 7.8. See I.G. his refutation of the Apologie for Actors. p 12.13.Nero, Claudius, Tiberius, Commodus, Heliogabalus, Verus, Balbinus, Maximinus, Gallienus, Solonius, Carinus, lCarinus homo omnium contaminatissimus, adulter, si… quens corruptor inventutis, enormibus se vitijs & ingenti faeditate macula…it. Amicos optimos quos que religavit: pessimum quem que elegit aut tenuit. Mimis, meretricibus, pantomimis, cantoribus at que lenonibus, palatium implevit, &c. Flav… Vopisci Carinus. pag. 446.447.and other dissolute Roman Emperours; for acting, countenancing and frequenting Playes; and harbouring Stage-players, (with whom they sometimes fraught their Courts) which did not only exhaust their treasures, and impoverish their subiects, but even corrupt their discipline, and strangely vitiate and deprave not onelyonly their owne, but the very peoples mindes and manners, by drawing them on to all licentious dissolutenesse, and excess… of vice, to the very utter subversion of their States, mSee August. De Civit. Dei. l. 1. c. 33. & lib. 2. cap. 2.as these Authors ioyntly testifie, whose walls could not secure them when as their vertues, their manners were gone quite to ruine. nSee Serm. l. 1. Satyr. 10. p. 192 193, 195. Epist. l. 1. Epist 6 p. 246. Epist. 19… p. 274. Epist. l. 2 Ep. 1. p. 278. to 285. De Arte Poetic. lib. pag. 298. 299, 302. to 306.Horace and Iuvenal. in their severall Satyricall Poems, together with Gellius Noctium At…icarū. lib. 20. cap. 4. inveigh against these Stage-playes, Players, and Stage-houses, as the occa…ions of much villany and lewdnesse; the corrupters of youth; especially of the female sex, who were made Strumpets by them; and as the shames, the blemishes of the Citties where they were permitted. The wanton Poet Ovid; who was farre enough, I am sure, from all Puritanicall precisenesse, as men now stile it, is even a rancke Puritan in this case of Stage-playes, For after he had informed his bawdy leacherous companions;oCuneis an habent spectacula totis Quod securus ames, quod que inde excerpere possis? Iuvenal. Satyr. 6. p. 43.44. See p. 45.53, 54 55, 56, 58. Populi frons. durior hujus, Qui sedet & spectat triscurria Patriciorum. Res haud mira tamen citharaedo principe mimus Nobilis: haec ultra quid crit nisi ludu…; & illic dedecus urbis habes, &c. Ibidem. Satyr. 8. pag. 82. See Satyr. 10. p. 94 99 Satyr. 11. p. 106. 110, 111. Satyr. 14. p. 193. Edit. Londini. 1615. that Playes and Play-houses were the best places of Mart of unchaste bargaines; the most commodious haunts for amorous Lovers, and Whore-masters; the most dangerous snares to entrap all beautifull persons, and the onelyonly places for Panders, Whore-masters, Whores and such like beastly Menmonsters to catch their desired prey; in these lascivious dis…ikes; which notably discry the intollerable mischiefes both of Playes and Theaters:

pOvid, De Arte Amandi. lib. 1. pag. 160.161. Edit. Operum …ius in 16. Raphelengij. 1611. pars 3.Sed tu praecipu… curvis venare Theatris.

Haec loca sunt votis fertiliora tuis.

Illic iuvenies quod ames, quod ludere possis;

Quod que semel tangas, quod que tenere velis.

Vt redit it que frequens longum formica per agmen

Granifero solitum dum vehit ore cibum, &c.

Sic ruit ad celebres cultissima faemina ludos:

Copia iudicium saepe morata meum est.

Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsae:

Ille locus casti damna pudoris habet.

Primus sollicitos fecisti Romule ludos.

Cum iuvit viduos rapta Sabina viros, &c.

In gradibus sedit populus de cespite factis.

Qualibet hirsutas fronde tegente comas.

Respiciunt oculis que notant sibi quis que puellam,

Quam velit: & tacito pectore multa movent

Dum que rudem praebente modum tibicine Thusco,

Lydius aequat am ter pede pulsat humum, &c.

Protenus exiliunt, animum clamore fatentes,

Virginibus cupidas inijciunt que manus, &c.

Romule militibu scisti dare commoda solis,

Haec mihi si dederi… commoda, miles er….

Scilicet ex illo solemnia more Theatra,

Nunc quo que formosis insidiosa manent.

When he had thus, I say, discovered the lewdnesse of these Stage-playes, though to a lewde intent, and withall informed Lovers, that it was impossible for Parents, for Husbands, with all their care and industry to keepe their Wives or Children chaste, as long as there are so many Play-houses suffered in the Citty, in these foure verses:

qDe Arte Amandi… lib. 3. pag. 208.Quid faciet …ustos? cum sint tot in urbe Theatra:

Cum spectet iunctos illa libenter equos:

Cum sedeat Phariae sacris operata iuvencae:

Quo que sui comites ire vetantur eat.

(A good caveat for Husbands, for Parents, to keepe their Wives, their Daughters from all Playes and Play-houses…) In his Booke De Remedio Amoris: he adviseth all those who would live chastly, and keepe under their unchaste desires; to withdraw themselves from Stage-playes: to cast away all Play-bookes, Playes, and amorous Poems, especially Tibullus, and his owne wanton Verses; in these ensuing lines.

rDe Remedio Amoris. lib. 2. pag. 230.At tanti tibi sit non indulgere Theatris,

Dum bene de vacuo pectore cedat amor:

Enervant animos cytharae, cantus que lyrae que :

Et vox & numeris brachia m…ta suis,

Illic assidue ficti saltan…ur amantes.

Quid caveas, actor, quid iuvet arte docet.

Eloquar invitus: teneros ne tange Poëtas:

Summoneo dotes impias esse mea….

Callimachum fugito; non est inimisus amori:

Et cum Callimacho tu quoabque; …e noces.

Carmina quis potnit tutò legisse Tibulli?

Vel tua cuius opus Cynthea sola fuit?

Quis potuit lecto …urus discedere Gallo?

Et mea nescio quid carmina tale sonant, &c.

And to shew his utter detestation of Playes and Play-houses, sQuid fi scripsissem mimos obscena iocantes? Qui semper iuncti crimen amoris habent. In quibus assiduè cultus procedit adulter, Verba que dat stulto callida nupta viro. Nec satis incestis temerari vocibus aures. Assuescunt oculi multa puden…a pati. Cum que fefellit amans aliqua novitate maritum, Plauditur & magno palma favore datur. Haec tu sp…ctasti, spectanda que saepe dedisti; Scenica vidisti laetus adulteria. Tristium. l. 2. p. 160.whose amorous lewdnesse he at large disciphers: he informes Augustus, that they are the Seminaries of all wickednesse: the frequent occasions of much sinne, much lewdnesse and adultery unto very many; the places of many adulterous meetings, and whorish contracts: whereupon he perswades Augustus, utterly to demolish all Play-houses and Theaters; to danme up all the port…ls and passages to them; and to suppresse all Stage-playes; that so these their pernicious fr…its might be prevented. All which hee thus elegantly expresseth.

tTristium. l. 2. pag. 155.Vt tamen ho… fateor: ludi quo que semina praebent

Neq…itiae; tolli tota Theatra iube

Peccandi causam quàm multis saepè dederun…:

Ma…tia cum durum sternit arena solum?

Tolla…ur Circu…, no… tuta licentia Circi est:

Hîc sedet ignoto iunct… puella viro.

Cum quaedam spati…ntur in hac ut amator eodem

Conveniat: quare porticus ulla patet?

Omnia perversas p…ssunt corrumpere mentes.

What could any Puritan (as our prophane Play-haunters stile them) have said m…re against Playes then this? and what can any Christian speake le…se against …hem, when as a prophane lascivious Heathen Poet hath written so much? If therefore we are loath to passe a censure upon Stage-playes, or to abandon Play-houses for feare we should be as good a… Puritans; y…t l…t us now at …ast renounce them, out of …hame, lest we prove farre worse then Pagans, lest Horace, lest Iuvenal, and these fore-named Heathen Authors: lest wanton Ovid: or obscene Porpertius (who thus cryes out of Theaters:

gElegiarum. l. 2. Eleg. 22. Raphelengij. 1613. p. 148.O nimis exit…o nata Theatra meo!)

should bee more gracious, holy and precise then wee; whose holinesse hMat. 5.20. 1 Pet. 1.14, 15, 16.should exceed even that of Scribes and Pharesies, iEphes. 2.2, 3. c. 4.17. to 32. 1 Pet. 4.1, 2, 3, 4.much more then this of wanton Pagan Poets, kSee before, p. 97.98. Gerardi Vossij Disputat. 35. De Virtutibus Gentilium. D^r. Prideaux Lectura. 8. De Salute Ethnicorum. & Beda. See BB. Vshers Gorteschalci Historia. p. 4. Marke 16.16. Iohn 3.18, 36. Rom. 14.23. Rev. 20.6, 15. c. 21.27. cap. 22.14, 15.which carried them no farther then to Hell; what ever some old, some new Pelagians have dreamed to the contrary. To passe from Pagan Authors, to Heathen Magistrates, States and Emperors. The lPlutarchi Laconica Instituta. Platonis Laches. p. 390. Dionysius Hallicarnas. Antiq. Rom. l. 7. c. 9. p. 709.ancient Lacedemonians, excluded all Stage-playes out of Sparta, permitting neither Comidies nor Tragedies to be acted in it, lest their youth should be corrupted, their Lawes derided and brought into contempt. And when as an Embassad…r of Rhodes demanded o… a Lacedemonian, what was the occasion of their lawes against Players and Iesters, since they shewed pleasure to the people, and the people lost nothing by it, but laughed at their folly. *Plutarchi Apothegmata. Dial of Princes. l.3… c. 44. & I. G. his Refutation of the Apologie for Actors. p. 30.The Lacedemonian replied, that Lycurgus saw, he…rd or read of some great damage that Pla…ers and Iesters might do… in the Common-weale, since he had established so strait a Law against them. But this I know, that we Greekes are b…tter weeping with our Sages, then the Romans laughing at their Fooles. The Athenians, though mPlatonis Laches. p 390. AEmilij Probi Praefatio. August. De Civit. D…i. l. 2. c. 10.11, 12, 13, 14. & l. 4. c. 28.they much h…noured Actors, Players, and Play-poets at the first; yet growing wiser by deare-bought experience at the last, nPlutarch De Gloria Atheniensium. lib. Thucidides Histor. l. 5. p. 477. Iustin. Histor. l. 6. p 69.when …hey had effeminated their mindes, exhausted their treasure, the sinnes of their Wars, and brought upon them sundry mischiefes; they abandoned all comicall Stage-playes as pernicious evils, oPlutarch… De Gloria Atheniensium. lib. Vol…teranus. Comm…n…. l 29. pag. 323.enacting this publike law against them, that no man should from thence forth presume to pen or act … Comedy; and pChrysostom. Hom. 13… in 1 Cor. …. Tom. 4. Col. 356.making common Actors thence-forth infamous. The very Heathens qValerius Maximus. l. 2 c. 4. sect. 7. Alexander ab Alexand. Genalium Dierum l. 6. c. 20. Agrippa, De Vani…. Scient. c. 20. Gualther. Hom. 11. in Nahum. Thomas Gualesius. Lect. 77. in Proverb. Salomonis.Massilienses, were so Puritanically rigid in this case, that they would upon no tearmes, no intreaties whatsoever, permit any Stage-playes to be acted within their Citty or Territories; for this very reason; lest the beholding of them should corrupt the mindes and manners of their Youth; and draw them on to commit those vices in earnest, which were acted before them but in iest. The ancient Pagan Romans, as they reputed all common Actors infamous (as the *Livy, Rom. Hist. l. 7. sect. 2.3. Valerius Maximus. l. 2. c. 4. sect. 4. AEmilij Probi Praefatio. Plato Legum Dialog. 7. Cicero Oratio pro Publio Quinctio. Gellius Noctium Attic. l. 20. c. 4. Macrobius Saturnal. l. 2 c. 7. Tacitus Annal. l. 14. cap. 2.3. August. De Civit. Dei. l. 2. c. 10. to 1529. & l. 4. c. 28. with sundry others fore-quoted. p. 133.134. Summa Angelica. Tit. Infamia. Photij Nomocanonis. Tit. 13. c. 21.22. Theod. Balsomon. Comment. Ibid. Gratian. Distinctio. 33.48, 86. & Causa. 4. Quaest. 6. Tostatus. Tom. 3. in Matth. 6. Quaest. 38. & 67. fol. 40. E. Ioannis De Burgo Pupilla Oculi. pars …. c. 5.4. Alvarus Pelagius, De Planctu Ecclesiae. l. 1. Artic. 49. A. & l. 2. Artic. 28. Digestorum. l. 3. Tit. 2. De his qui notantur infamia. Corpus Iuris Civilis. Tom. 1. p. 342. & Budaeus & Gothofredus Ibidem. See p. 133. before… & Bu…engerus De Theatro. l. 1. c. 51. De Infamia Theatri.Civilians and our owne t14. Eliz. c. 5.39. Eliz. c. 4.Statutes now esteeme them,) disfranchising them their tribe as unworthy persons; and disabling them to inherite lands, to give any publike testimony betweene man and man, or to beare any honor, office or dignity in the Common-weale, ( uQuanta confessio est malae rei cujus auctores cum acceptissimi sint sine nota non sunt? Tertul. De Spectac. c. 22.a very great evidence and acknowledgement of the evilnesse of Stage-playes, as Tertullian and others descant on it; since Players were thus branded with the note of infamy, even then when Playes themselves were in their first and best request;) even so xPriscae Romanorum leges Theatrae stuprandis moribus orientia statim destruebant. Tertul. Apologia Advers. Gentes. cap. 6. Tom. 2. pag. 589. upon which Franciscus Zephyrus thus paraphraseth. Prisci Romani lasciviam Theatralem ex lege maxima cura comprimebant, gnari quantùm moribus civium obesset publica illa spectaculorum immodesta licentia. Ibidem. pag. 591. Guevara, his Dial of Princes. lib. 3. cap. 44. Augustinus De Civitate Dei. lib. 1. cap. 31.32, 33. & lib. 2. cap. 12.13. & Suetonij Octavius. sect. …5.they demolished all their Theaters, together with the Galleries built about them by a publike edict, lest the mindes and mann…rs of the people should be effeminated and defloured by them, to the publike preiudice. yIoannes Antonius Campanus, De Gerendo Magistratu. lib. Bibl. Patrum Tom. 15. pag. 819. Ioan. S…risberiensis, De Nugis Curialium. lib. 1. cap. 8. Ibidem. pag. 345. & Plutarchi Themistocles.Themistocles the famous Athenian Generall, enacted a Law, that no Magistrates should resort to Stage-playes, le…t the Common-wealth it selfe should seeme to loyter and play in them, (Et utinam audiretur à nostris (writes *De Nugis Curialium. l. 1. c. 4. p. 345. G.Iohn Sarisbury) ut saltem in provectiori aetate nugis suis republicae seria anteferrent:) and even before this law of his, it was an ancient custome in Athens, which was long observed, that not the leas… admittance into the Theater should be given unto any but such who should sing and utter honest things; lest the Magistrates and people there present should be made spectators of dishonest …asti…es, which might draw them on to vice. Not to speake of the Gothes and other *Chyrsostom. Homil. 38. in Matth. Tom. 2. Col. 299.300. Salvian, De Gubernat. Dei… lib. 6. pag. 195.Barbarians, who censured and condemned Stage-playes as effeminate and ridiculous superfluities. zAntiqu. Germaniae. l. 1. c. 20 Lugduni Bat. 1616. pag. 181.182.Philippus Gl…verius informes us out of Tacitus, (who writes thus of the German women. *De Moribus Germanorum. sect. 6.7. See 8.Ergo sep…â pudicitiâ agunt, nullis spectaculorum illecebris, corrupta:) that the ancient Pagan Germanes knowing with what things the chastity of women was most corrupted among other Nations, did wholy abandon Stage-playes, with which they were unacquainted: of the corruption of which spectacles Seneca hath spoken most truely, That there is nothing so preiudiciall to good manners as to sit idly at a Play… for then vice… creepe more easily upon us through pleasure. bO vocem fatidicam at que Divinam, tantoque sapien…ī ad doctore dignissimam. Ho… ille homo Gentilis divino…um praeceptorum quae per Moysen olim aliosque Propheras Deus aeternus populo suo tradidit, planè iudis. Nos igitur nunc, qui Christianae disciplinae militiae que dedimus nomina, quâ fronte ludorum spectacula, non solum excusamus, sed laudamus etiam atque ultrò instituimus, quae san… eò …inus erant toleranda quo magis veteris illius gentilisque modestiae modum excedunt, &c. Ibidem.O Propheticall and Divine speech most worthy so great a Teacher of Wisedome! This verily writes this Heathen man, who was al…ogether ignorant of those divine Precepts which God by Moses and other Prophets hath delivered to his people. We therefore who have now given up our names to Christs discipline and warfare, with what face doe we now not onelyonly excuse our Stage-playes, but like…ise applaude, and voluntarily instit…te them? which verily are so much the lesse to be tollerated, by how much the more they exceed the measure of that old Heathenish modesty. For now vices doe not onelyonly steale upon us through the pleasure of beholding: but they are as it were by force thrust into sincere and pur… mindes, by examples, by voyce, by hand and action: so that I verily believe, there were never any inventors and Actors of Playes more corruptly licentious then ours now. But these things are rather forraigne, then our owne, for even now the Germanes wives are lesse solicited with Stage-playes then the wives of other Nations. The ancient and moderne Germanes then, by this Authors testimony, abandoned Stage-playes, as the very Seminaries of lewdnesse, the occasion of adultery, and the grand empoysoners, especially of all womens manners; which I would wish all husbands to observe. Scipio Nasica, that unparalleld Roman Generall, as *Livy, Rom. Hist. Epit. l. 48. Augustin. De Civit. Dei. l. 1. c. 31.32, 33. & l. 2. c. 12.13, 27. Cicero De Repub. l 4. Valerius Maximus. l. 2. c. 4. Velleius Paterculus. Hist. l. 1. p. 16. Appianus. Hist. lib. 1. Eutropius Rerum Romanorum. Hist. l. 4. fol. 43. Polychronicon. l. 3. c. 34. fol. 131. Genebrandi Chronicon. l. 2. p 302. Bulengerus De Theatro. l. 1. c. 13. M. Stubs, his Anatomy of Abus…s. p. 103. Tertullian, De Spectaculis. cap. 10. & Apologia Advers. Gentes. cap. 6. cum multis alijs, who write against Stage-playes.sundry Authors testifie, did by a publike decree of the whole Senate demolish the Roman Theaters, and interdict their Stage-playes, as the very bane and ruine of the Romans manners, vertues, valour, and the like: as the Seminaries of all lewdnesse, effeminacy, idlenesse, vice and wickednesse; and the very overtures of the Commonweale: whose welfare was altogether inconsistent with lascivious Playes. Which worthy act of his, is much appla… ded by Livy, Tully, S. Augustine, and others here quoted in the margent. dPliny, Epist. lib. 4. Epist. 22. vid. Argumentum Epistolae praefixum.Trebonius Rufinus, banished all Iusts and Stage-playes out of Vienna, over which he was Governour, as infectious to their manners: for which when as he was accused before the Romane Senate by some dissolute Male-contents, because he did it of his owne head, without any direction from the Senate; Iunius Mauricus, a grave Roman Senator t…ke part with him, and iustified this act of his, which he not onelyonly much applauded, but wished openly withall, that ePlacuit agona tolli qui mores Viennensium infecerat, ut noster hic omnium. Nam Viennen…um vitia inter ipsos residunt, nostra late vagantur. Vtque in corporibus sic in imperio, gravissimus est morbus qui à capite diffunditur. Ibidem.all Stage-playes were likewise expelled out of Rome, as well as out of Vienna; For the vices of the Viennians (saith he) reside onelyonly among themselves, but the Romanes wander farre abroad; and as in bodies, so in Empires, that disease is most grievous which is diff…sed from the head to the inferior members. fMarcus Autelius. cap. 14. & Guevara. l. 3 cap. 44.Octavius the Nephew of Iulius Caesar, as Marcus Aurelius informes us, drove away all Stage-players and Iesters out of Rome, as insufferable mischiefes in the State. I read indeed in aSuetonij Octaviu…. sect. 43.44, 45.Suetonius, and bRom. Hist. l. 51. pag. 606.607. & Grim…ton. pag. 37.Dion Cassius, that Octavius (whom we usually call Augu…tus Caesar) was at first very much delighted with Stage-playes, (the meanes perchāce of making him an cSuetonij Octavius. sect. 69. See Scene 3. & 4. before.adulterer) in the beholding of which he spent much time, and now and then whole dayes together. I reade likewise, dCoercionem in Histriones. Magistratibus in omni tempore & loco lege vetere permissam, ademit, praeterquam ludos & scenam. Suctonij Octavius. sect. 45.that he tooke away the power of punishing and suppressing Stage-players permitted to the Roman Magistrates at all times and places by the ancient law, (an infallible evidence that the ancient Roman lawes condemned Stage-playes and Actors;) yet so, as that he reserved the power of punishing Players, and reforming Stage-playes to himselfe; by vertue of which power; he first of all eDion Cassius. Rom. Hist. lib. 54. p. 682… See Act 7. Scene 6.inhibited all Roman Knights, Gentlemen, and Gentlewomen from acting or dancing on the Stage, prohibited likewise by a former law: Secondly, he commanded one Stephanio, (some call him Epiphanius,) an excellent Player and Iester (who upon a Holyday to shew this Emperour some pleasure, and hoping to receive a good reward, went thrice unto his Palace: one time in the attire of a Page, and another time in the habite of a Romane Matron, and so truely counterfeited every thing, that it seemed not to be him, but the selfesame person he represented;) t… be whipped publik…ly three severall times one after another about the Theater, and then to be banished for this fact of his. And when he complained that the Emperour commanded Vagabonds to be whipped but once, and he thrice: fSuetonij Octavius sect. 4… Guevara, his Dial of Princes. lib. 3. cap. 44. pag. 512. I.G. his Re…utation of the Apologie …or Actors. p. 36.3…Augustus replyed: Once they shall whip thee for the iniury thou diddest to the Roman Matron whom thou representedst: The s…cond time they shall whip thee for the presumption thou hadst, to act it in my presence. The third, for the time thou hast made divers lose for beholding and hearing thee. For I…sters and Players deserve not so much punishment for their Iests and Playes, as for the time which they lose, and cause others to lose. Thirdly, fSuetonij Octavius. s…ct. ….he commanded Hylas an eminent Stage-player, upon a complaint of the Pret…r against him, to be publikely whipped in the Court of his Palace. Fourthly, h…, Ibid. Guev…ra, his Dial of Princes. lib. 3. c. 44. pag. 512. I.G. his Refutation of the Apologie for Actors. pag. 36.37.he banished Pilades (some write him Pilas) another Actor out of Rome and Italy, after he had tasted of the Whipping-post, for pointing at a Spectator with his finger, who had hissed at him; and so had made him notorious. Which Pilas, being very popular, and making many friends to Augustus, that he might not be exiled, Augustus notwithstanding gave sentence of banishment against him, saying: That Rome hath beene mighty and puissant enough to make her enemies stoope, and now she is not able to banish Iesters and Fooles; and that which is worst of all, they have presumption to vex us, and we have not courage to repr…ve them. Lastly, he iMarcus Aurelius. cap. 14. Guevara, Di…l of Princes. l. 3. cap. 44. p. 512. Suetonius. sect. 45.banished all the Players and Iesters out of Rome for those intolerable mischiefes they did occasion. And when as the people earnestly besought him to recall Pilas from his exile: kDial of Princes. Ibid. See Dion. Cassius. Rom. Hist. l. 54 pag. 696. & Xiphilinus, in Vita Augusti.he condiscended to their request with much adoe, upon this condition; that they should give a Master and Tutor to Pilas, that should chastise and correct him as a Foole: saying, That since Sages take Fooles to be their Masters, that Fooles also should have Sages …or their Masters. All which is a sufficient evidence, that Augustus deemed Playes and Players, whom hee thus whipped and exiled, intolerable mischiefes in a State. *Tacitus Annal. l. 1. c. 14. & lib. 4. c. 3. Dion Cassius. Rom. Hist. l. 57. pag. 798. Marcus Aurelius. c. 14. Pliny Panegyr. Trajano dictus p. 38. Alex. ab Alexandro. l. 3 c. 9. Genebrardi Chronicon. pag 212.Tiberius, none of the best Emperours, though he much delighted in Playes at first; yet at last by reason of those grea… mischiefes, outrages, misdemeanors, tumu…ts, quarrels, murthers, seditions, that Playes and Players did occasion, after many ioynt complaints preferred against them both by the Senate and the Common-people; he was enforced to condemne all Players to the Whipping-post, (a punishment sutable to such unruly Rogues) and then, to banish them and their Stage-playes out of Italy, as insufferable evils in a Kingdome. Nero that vitious Roman Emperour, hSuetonij Nero. sect. 23.24, 25. Eutropius Rerum. Rom. lib. 9. Nero. Grimstons Nero. and others.who was so much besotted with Stage-playes, as sometimes to play the Actor, to his eternall infamy: iSuetonij Nero. sect. 16. Marcus Aurelius. c. 14. Plinius Secundus Panegyr. Traj…no dictus. pag. 38. Alexander ab Alexandro. lib. 3. cap. 9.was at last enforced to expell all Stage-players out of Rome and Italy… together with their Theatricall Enterludes, for those many unsufferable villanies and uprores that they did produce. *Alexand. ab Alexandro. lib. 3. cap. 9.Domitian also did the like upon the same occasion. Yea Iulian himselfe, that Atheisticall Antichristian Apostate, as impious as he was, had thus much goodnesse in him, as to prohibite Stage-playes: and kSozomen, Eccles. Hi…tor. l. 5. c. 17. Nicephorus Calistus. Eccles. Historiae. l. 10. cap. 22. p. 581. Eutrop…us Rerum Romanorum. Hist. l. 11. Iulian…s Aposta…a. p. 150. Centuriae Magd. Tō. 4. Col. 458. Baronius & Spondanus. Annal. Eccles. Anno 362. …ect. 60.therefore in an Epistle to Arsatius, the Pagan High priest of Galatia, he commands him to exhort all the Idol-priests under his Iurisdiction, that they should not be seene in Play-houses, nor resort to T…eaters; endeavouring to draw the Pagans to imitate the very discipline and manners of the Christians; lSee Act 7. Scene 2.3, 4. & Act 4. Scene 2. Iustinian. Codicis. l. 1. Tit. 3… De Episcopis & Clericis. Lex. 17.18. Corpus Iu…is Civilis. Tom. 4. Col. 77. & Tit. 4. De Episcopali Audientia. Lex. 40.41. Ibidem. Col. 156.157.who inhibited both Ministers and people to resort to Playes; though now both Ministers and people flocke unto them, as if they were worse then Pagans. And if these very worst and dissolutest Heathen Roman Emperours exiled Playes and Players, as intolerable mischiefes and corruptions, what thinke yee did their better Pagan Successors doe? You shall heare a true relation what they did. The Roman Princes that were good (as *Dial of Princes. lib. 3. cap 43. to 48. & I. G. Refutation of the Apologie for Actors. pag. 36, 37.Guevara, and others witnesse;) did alwayes cast out Playes and Stage-players, and those onelyonly that were evill called them in. So that one of the tokens to know a vertuous or vitious Prince in Rome, write Gu…vara and I. G. (how much more then to know a religious vertuous Christian Prince and Magistrate?) was to see, whether he maintained Players, Iesters, and Iuglers among the people, yea or no; which did so effeminate, vitiate and deboist both Magistrates, Prince and people too, as to precipitate them into all kindes of lewdnesse, sinne and wickednesse, and to prepare them both for invasions and destruction, as Ammianus Marcellinus. lib. 28. c. 9.10. Augustin. De Civitate Dei. lib. 1. c. 31.32, 33. lib. 2. c. 3. to 17. Guevera, Dial of Princes. lib. 3. c. 43.44, 45, 46, 47. & Carolus Sigonius, De Occidentali Imperio. lib. 1. pag. 32. most plentifully testifie. Hence that worthy Emperour mPlinius Secundus Panegyr. Trajano dictus. p. 38.45. M…rcus Aurelius. c. 14. Alex. ab Alexandro. l. 3. c. 9.Traian, though a Pagan, (who *Dio in Vita Trajani. Guevara. l. 3. c. 44. p. 552. I.G. his Refutation of the Apologie for Actors. pag. 45.when he was intreated by his Courtiers to heare an active Player, made this most worthy reply, worthy all Christian Princes imitation: It is not for the Maiesty of a grave and vertuous Prince that in his presence any such vaine thing should be shewed; for in such a case himselfe should be no lesse noted of lightnesse, then the other of folly; and that before Princes no man should be so hardy as to utter dishonest words, or to act any light representations, and that those who move Princes to behold such. Enterludes deserve as great a punishment as those that act them, since none ought to present before Princes things that may move them to vice, but such things as might move them to amendment:) partly out of his owne voluntary… disposition, and partly upon the peoples owne request, abandoned all Stage-playes out of Rome, as effeminate arts, and unbeseeming exercises, which did much dishonour and corrupt the Romane State: which memorable act of his is thus emblazoned by C. Plinius Secundus, being then the Roman Consul, in his elegant Panegyricall Oration to him in the Senate House, in the name of al the Senators. nIbid. pag. 38. Edit. Coloniae All obr. 1610.Perge modo Caesar, & vim effectum que censurae tuum propositum, tui actus obtineb…nt, &c. Et quis terror valuisset efficere quod reverentia tua effecit? Obtinuit aliquis ut spectaculum Pantomimorum populi Romani tolli pateretur; sed non obtinuit ut vellet: rogatus es tu quod rogebat alius, caepit que esse beneficium quod necessitas suerat. Ne que enim à te minore concentu ut tolleres Pantomimos, quàm à patre tuo, ut restitueret, exactum est. Vtrum que rectè: nàm & restitui oportebat, quod sustulerat malus princeps, & tolli restitutos. In his enim qu… à malis benefiunt, hic tenendus est modus, ut apareat, autorem displicuisse, non factum. Idem ergo populus ille aliquando *He meanes Nero. See p. 44.45. Qui ad postremum tanto se dedecore prostituit, ut omnia paene Italiae ac Greciae Theatra perlustrans assumpto etiam varij vesti…us dedecore, cantaret, saltaret in scena citharae dico habitu vel tragae dico. Eutropius. Rerū Rom. l. 9. p. 104. Or if not him, Caligula, of whom Dion Cassius. Rom. Hist. l. 59. p. 829. writes thus. Caius ab aurigis gladiatoribus que regebatur; servus histrionū & scenicorū hominū, &c. Principio ipse Spectatorem tantū se ac auditorem tantū praebuit: procedente tempore multos imitatus est varijs in rebus, cum multis certavit: nam & aurigavit, & pugnavit & saltavit, & Tragaediā egit, semper haec tractans. Semel noctu primoribus patrū quasi ad necessariam deliberationem vocatis, coràm faltavit, &c.scenici Imperatoris Spectator & applauser, nunc in Pantomimis quo que adversatur, & damnat effaeminata… artes, & indecora seculo studia. Ex quo manifestum est, principum disciplinam capere etiam v…lgus; quum rem, si ab uno fiat, severissimam fecerint omnes. Macte hac gravitatis gloria Caesar, qua consecutus e…, ut quod antea vis & Imperium, nunc mores vocarentur. Castigaverunt vitia sua ipsi qui castigari merebantur, ijdem que emendatores qui emendandi fuerunt. And a little after. oP…e 45.Et quis iàm locus miserae adulationis manebat (speaking of Nero his times) quùm laudes Imperatorum ludis etiam & commessationibus celebrarentur saltarentur que , at que in omne ludibrium effaeminatis vocibus, modis, gestibus frangerentur? Sed illud indignum, quod …odem tempore in senatu & in scena ab histrione & à Consule la…dabantur: *Nota.tu procul à tui cultu ludicras artes removisti. Seria ergo te carmina honor que aetern… annalium, non haec brevis & pudenda praedicatio colit: quinetiam tanto maiore consensu in venerationem tui *He meanes such Theaters where Orations were made, and the Senators and people met in Councell, not such where Playes were acted. See Bulengerus, De Theatro, lib. 1. cap. 32. & here, Act 8. Scene 1.Theatr… ipsa consurgent, quanto magis de te scenae silebunt. A pregnant evidence how much this Emperour and the whole Roman Senate distasted Playes and Actors, as the very bane and ruine of the Common-weale. These Stage-playes creeping into Rome againe after this good Emperours decease, in the raigne of Antoninus Pius, qui amavit his…rionum artes, as pIn his Antoninus Pius. pag. 37.38.Iulius Capitolinus writes; qIulij Capitolini. M. Anton. Philosophus. pag. 57.59.Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who succeeded him; that he might reduce the people to Philosophie and civility, tooke away the Gladiators and Players with him into the Warres, inhibiting all publike Playes and meetings under a severe edict both at Rome and Antioch: Which Edict of his taking no such good successe as he expected: hee rMarcus Aurelius. cap. 14. & Epistle 12. to Lambert. Guevara, his Dial of Princes, lib. 3. cap. 44… 45, 46, 47.thereupon banished all Stage-players, Tumblers and Iesters out of Italy, and sent three Ships lading of them to Lambert Governour of Hellespont; commanding him in his Letter directed to him, to keepe these lasie Loyterers hard at worke, that they might no longer minde or practise their foolish Sports: certifying him withall in this his Letter; that the cause he had banished these Trewants and loytering Players from Rome, was not for the blood they had shed (for they had sMarcus Aurelius. cap. 14.occasioned divers tumults in which many were slaine;) but for the hearts they had perverted: not for the occasion of any who were dead, but because they were Masters of …ollies to the living. For without comparision (writes he to Lambert) it is a *Artificum enim scenicorū amorem que inhonestum & probrosum esse Taurus Philosophus docet. A. Gellius Noctium. Attic. l. 20. c. 4. vid. Ibid.greater offence to the gods, and more damage to the Common-weale for these Trewants to take away the wits from the wise folke, then for Murtherers to take away mens lives. Yea there is nothing that our Fore-fathers did, which displeaseth me so much as the sufferance of these …nthrifty Trewants. In the yeere 264. of the foundation of Rome, in a time of an horrible pestilence in Italy, to reioyce the people was first found out the invention of Theaters by the advice of these Trewants. It is a shamefull thing to heare, that the pestilence dured but two yeeres, and the rage and folly of these …nthrifts dureth foure hundred yeeres. Would to the immortall gods that the plague had ended these few which remaine, before this cursed generation had brought such abominable customes into Rome; for much better had it bene for our Mother Rome that she had wanted Inhabitants, then such Rascals should have come and dwelt therein. These Master-fooles have beene so wily to teach folly, and the Romane youth so apt to learne, *Loe here the spreding leprosie of contaminating Stage-playes.that though they be put in Barkes, their disciples would lade 3000. Carrackts. Rome was never overcome by those who were valiant and vertuous, yet that day we saw it overgone & troden under foo… by those …ooles: the walls of Rome, that were never touched by the Paenians had that day their lowpes full of armed Trewants. Rome that triumphed over all Realmes, was triumphed upon that day with Players and Iuglers. I am so abashed in this case, that I know not what to say or write. Yet one thing comforteth me, that sithe Rome and Romanes uniustly doe reioyce with these fooles, …he and the famous Wisemen iustly shall be chastised for their fooles. And in this the gods shall not be dispeased; that sithe Rome laughed at these Trewands and mockeries, one day she shall weepe with these Tumblers and Iuglers, &c. Thus farre this Heathen Emperour, who bot… by his deeds and words, exterminated Playes and Players out of the Roman Territories, as the greatest contagions and corruptions of his Empire. tQuippe erant qui Gn. quo que Pompe…um incusatū à senioribus ferunt, quod mansur… Theatri sedem posuisset. Nam antea subitarijs gradibus & scenâ in tempus structâ, ludos edi solitos… vel si ve…ustiora repetas, stantem populū spectavisse… si consideret Theatro dies totos ignaviâ cōtinuaret, &c. Caeterum abolitos paulatim patrios mores, funditus evert… per accitam lasciviam, &c. Annalium. l. 14. c. 3. vid. Ibidem. See The Dial of Princes. lib. 3. c. 4…3.4…, 47.Cornelius Taci…us records: That when as Pompie erected his standing Theater at Rome, he was accused and blamed for it by the Senators; because it would be a meanes to make the people sit wh…l… dayes together idle in the Theater beholding Playes; and utterly overthrow their hereditary manners and discipline by new acquired lasciviousnesse… So that the whole Romane Senate then reputed Stage-playes pernicious to their State and manners. And for a conclusion of this tragicke Scene, uMartianus, Heraclianus, & Claudius, Gallienum hujusmodi insidijs appetend… esse dixerunt, ut labem improbissimam malis fessa Republica, à gubernaculis humani generis dimoverent: ne diutius Theatro & Circo addicta Republica per voluptatum deperirer illecebras. Trebel. Pollio…i… Gallieni D…. p. 310.Trebellius Pollio relates: that Martianus, Heraclianus, and Claudius, three worthy Romanes, conspired together to murther Gallienus the Emperour, (a xIdem Ibid. p. 309.310, 315, 316.man much besotted and taken up with playes, to which he likewise drew the Magistrates and people by his lewde example,) as *Tacitus. Annal. l. …5. sect. 9.10.Flavius and others conspired Nero his murther too for the selfesame cause, lest the Cōmon-weale being longer addicted to the Cirque and Theater, should utterly perish through the allurements of pleasures: which murther they accomplished. All these recited Authorities of Pagan Writers, Emperours, States and Magistrates, together with *Hist. l. 28. c. 10.Ammianus Marcellinus, a famous Heathen Historian; who reckons up the unworthy approbation of Cirque-playes, and Stage-playes, in which the people spent their lives and time, as the very greatest corruption of the Roman State, and the chiefest character of their depraved manners: against which Playes, and their Spectators, he hath much inveighed: (which me thinkes should for ever shame and silence all such gracelesse Christians, who dare to plead for Stage-playes, giving out, that none but some few foolish Puritans did ever yet condemne them:) infallibly evidence unto all mens consciences; that Stage-playes desperately vitiate and deprave mens mindes and manners, precipitating them into all vice, all wickednesse and lewdnesse whatsoever; and that they are unsufferable contaminating pernicious plagues in any Well-ordered State; which caused these very Pagan Emperors, States and Magistrates thus solemnely to exile them; and these their Authors to declaime against them.

To passe from these to Christians; wee shall finde both Christian Princes, Republikes, Authors, of ancient and moderne times, concurring with these former Pagans in these their doomes of Playes and Actors. It is storied by xAntiq. Iudaeorum. l. 15. c. 11 pag. 415.416.Iosephus; that when as King Herod would have brought Stage-playes, Cirque-playes, and other Spectacles into Hierusalem, where he had erected a beautifull Theather, and Amphitheater, adorned with Caesars Titles and Inscriptions; yHaec peregrinis quidem spectatoribus plurimum admirationis simul atq. delectationis afferebant, indigenis verò pror…us ad dissolutionem patriae disciplinae tendere videbantur, &c. Itaque veriti ne ex hac mutatione sequeretur magnum aliquod reipublicae detrimen…ū; putaverunt su… officij labanti disciplinae publicae vel capitis periculo succurrere, nec pati Herodem quicquam contra receptos mores inducere, & pro rege hostem agere, &c. Ibidem.the whole Nation of the lewes, (though Forraigne Spectators much admired and delighted in his spectacles) perceiving that these Playes did wholy tend to the dissolution of their ancient received Country discipline; and fearing that some great inconvenienc… to their Common-wealth would follow upon this alteration; thought it their duty to maintaine their publike discipline which was now declining, though it were with the hazard of their lives; and not to suffer Herod to proceed with these his Spectacles, shutting up their Citty Gates against them. Which when Herod perceived, he began to pacifi… and perswade them with good words, to admit of these his Playes; which prevayling nothing with many, he endeavoured to introduce these Playes among them perforce: whereupon ten of the Iewes conspired together to murther him whiles he was sitting in the Theater beholding these his Enterludes; which they had certainely effected, had not this their conspiracy beene casually detected: Of which Herod taking advantage, accomplished his desire, and so brought these his Theatricall Enterludes into Hierusalem: by meanes whereof, saith Iosephus (pray marke the dangerous consequence) zQuo factum est ut magis & magis discederet à patrijs ritibus, & peregrinis studijs veterûm instituta corrumperet inviolabilia: quorum tempore permagna facta est bonorum morum in deterius inclinatio, labante disciplina qua ant… hac populus solebar contineri in officio, &c. Ibidem.the Iewes departed more and more from their Country rites, and corrupted the inviolable Institutions of their Ancestors with forraign… inventions and delights; so that there was a very great declining and degenerating of their good manners into worse: the discipline decaying whereby the people were won… before this time to be kept in order. Such vigorous venome was there in these Stage-playes, both to subvert their State, and discipline, and corrupt their manners; the whole Nation of the Iewes being thus both reall witnesses and examples to confirme my Minors truth, whom I have here ranked among Christians, as being then opposite unto Pagans: I now come to reall Christians. It is storied of Constantine the Great, that *Sulpitius Severus. Sacrae Historiae. lib. …. Bibl. Patrum. Tom. 5. pars 1. p. 305. H. Berengosus Abbas, De Inventione & laude S. Crucis. l. 2. c. 11. Bibl. Patrū Tō 7. p. 288. B.very first and most famous Christian Romane Emperour, (whose name we English men have speciall cause to honour, he being aSee Ioannis Sarisberiensis Prologus. in l. De Nugis Curialium. Bibl. Patrum. Tom. 5. pag. 341. D. Liberavit ille Brittannias servitute, tu etiam nobiles illi… oriendo fecisti. Pan…gyr. Constantino dictus. p. 86. See Eutropius. Rerum Rom. l. 11. p. 135. Centuriae Magdeburg. Tom. 4. Col 61. Baronius & Spondanus. Annal. Eccl. Anno 306. sect. 5.7. Iohn Bale Centuria 1. Script. Brit. c. 36. p. 32. Mathew West. Anno 307. p. 130. Polychronicon. l. 4. c. 25.26. Galfredus Monumetensis. Hist. Regum B…it. l. 5. c. 6.8. Ponticus Verunnius. Hist. Brit. l. 5. p. 108. Beda Eccles. Hist. l. 1. c. 8. Speedes Chronicle. lib. 6. cap. 46… p. 153. Socrates, Eccles. Hist lib. 1. cap… 2. Caxtons Chron. Chronicon Chronicorū … Anno 344. fol. 145.bor…e, bred, and first crowned King and Emperour here in England, his Mother Helena being a Brittish woman to:) *Zosimus Historiae. lib. 2. Baronius & Spondanus… Anno 303. sect. 3.That he wholy with-drew himselfe from the Secular Stage-playes of the Gentiles made in the third yeere of his Consulship, …o drive away plagues and diseases: contemning and reiecting these their E…terludes; at which these Pagan Gentiles grieved much: After which being established in his Empire, he did by publike Edicts cEusebius, De Vita Constantini. lib. 3. cap. 52.56. & lib. 4… cap. 23.24, 25. Sozomen. Historiae Eccles. lib. 1. cap. 8. Nicephorus Calist. Historiae Eccles. lib. 7. cap. 46. Eutropius Rerum Romanorum. lib. 11. pag. 142. Centuriae Magd. Tom. 4. Col. 76… Baronius & Spondanus. Anno 32…. sect. 5…. Socrates Historiae Eccles. lib. 1. c. 14. Codicis Theodosij. lib. 15. Tit. 5. to 12. De Gladiatoribus. Bulengerus De Circo, &c. pag. 87.88.abolish all the ceremonies, rites, lascivious customes aud obscenities of the Gentiles, and interdicted all gladiatory Playes and Enterludes, as intolerable pernicious evils. Not to speake of dZonaras Annal. Tom. 2. fol. 101. à, Nerva…Nerva, eBaronius & Spondanus. Anno 357. sect. 23. lib. 15. Codic. Theodosij Tit. De Gladiatoribus.Constantius, fLib. 8. Codic. Theodosij. Tit. De Paen. Baronius & Spondanus. Anno 365. sect. 5.Valentinian, gEutropius Rerum Rom. l. 13. p. 174… Baronius & Spondanus. Anno 404. sect. 174.Honorius, hEutropius Rerum Rom. l. 13. pag. 174.Arcadius, and iSee Centur. Magdeburg. Tom. 4. Col. 1528.1530. & Codex. Theodosij lib. 15. Tit. De Gladiatoribus.others, who banished and prohibited all Sword playes … against which kSee before, p. 74.75. Cassiodor. Variarum. l. 5. c. 42.divers Fathers did declaime as barbarous and unchristian Spectacles, not tolerable in any civil State… with which our tumultuous bloody Tragedies have too neere a…finity; I finde Theodosius the Great, (who lTheodosius rescriptum dedit adversus psaltrias & fidicenas mulieres Civitatum pestes. Eutropius Rerum Rom. Hist. l. 13. pag. 173. Baronius & Spondanus. Anno 385. sect… 9. See Iustiniani Codex. l. 1. Tit. 7. Lex. 5. Bulengerus De Circo, &c. pag… 87.88.banished all Women-dancers, Players, and Singers by a publike Edic…, as the plagues of those places and Citties where they were tolerated:) not onelyonly suppressing and inhibiting all Stage-playes and Cirque-playes a… Antioch, and stopping up all Cirques and Theaters, as the fountaines of all wickednesse, and the Nurseries of all those mischiefes that sprung up in Citties, as mSed à Rege profecta contristant? Sed nec illa profecto gravia, verum & ipsa multum attulerunt emolumenti. Quid enim molesti (dic mihi) factum est, quod orchestram obstruxit, quod Circum inaccessibilem fecit, quod nequitiae fon…es exclusit & subvertit? Vtinam nec daretur unquam hos aperiri. Hinc nequitiae radices in Civitate germinaverunt, hinc sunt qui moribus ipsis crimen afferunt, &c. Propterea tristaris ch…rissime? Imò & propterea gaudere & laetari oporteat & gratias regi agere, &c. Homil 17. Ad Populum Antiochiae. Tom… 5. Col. 135. C. D. Bulengerus De Circo. pag. 81.82. See here, pag. 422.423, 424.Chrysostome at large relates: and I likewise finde both him, Valentinian and Gratian, together with Valens the Emperour, enacting these publike lawes against Stage-playes and common Actors, well worthy observation: oCodex Theodosij. lib. 15. Tit. 5. De Spectaculis. Lex. 2.4. pag. 471.472. & Tit… 7. De Scenicis. Lex. 1. pag. 473. Spondanus Epit. Baronij Anno. 371. sect. 10.That no Stage-playes should be acted on the Lords-day; that Stage-players and Women-act…rs should be quite debarred from the Sacraments as long as they continued in their playing, and that the Sacrament should not be administred to them in their extremity, when as they lay upon their death-beds, though they de…ired it, unlesse the… did first renounce their wicked lewde profession, and protest solemnely that they would not returne unto it againe in case they should recover. Such was their detestation against common Actors, and so by consequence against Playes themselves, which made their Actors so base, so execrable, to these Christian Emperours. pSee here Act 7. Scene 3. pag. 647.648. Iustiniani Cod. lib. 1. Tit. 6. De Epis…. & Clericis. Lex. 17.18, 33, 34. Corpus Iuris Civilis. Tom. 4. Col. 161. Ipsi praedicant ut abrenuncient adversarij Daemonis cultui, & omnibus pompis ejus, quarum non minima pars, talia spectacula …iunt. Ibidem. Lex. 34. pag. 42. to 61.Iustinian the Emperour, promulgated this pious Edict; That all sorts of Clergie men, together with all other Christians, should refraine, not onelyonly from Di…e play, and Dicers company, but likewise from the very acting and beholding of Stage playes and Theatricall Spectacles, because they are not the least part of those pompes of the Devil which Christians solemnely renounce when they are baptized. Leo and Anthemius, two worthy Christian Emperours, made this most pious Edict. rDies festos Majestati a…tissimae dicatos nullis volumus voluptatibus occupari, nec ullis exactionū vexationibꝰ profanari. Dominicū ita que …i…m ita semper honorab…lē decernimꝰ & venerandū, ut à cunctis executionibus excusetur, nulla quemquam urgeat admonitio, nulla fidejussionis flagitetur exactio, …aceat apparitio, advocatio delitescat, sit ille dies à cognitionibus alienus, praeconis horri…a vox sil…scat, resp…ent à controversijs litigantes, & habeant saederis intervallum, ad sese simul veniant adversarij non timentes, subeat animos vicaria paenitudo, pacta conferant, transactiones loquantur. Nec hujus tamen religiosi diei ocia relaxantes ob caenis quenquam patimur voluptatibus detineri. Nihil eodem die sibi vendicet scena Theatralis, aut Circense certamen, aut ferarum lachrymosa spectacula: e…si in nostrum ortum aut natalem celebranda sole…nitas inciderit, di…eratur. Amissionem militiae, proscriptionem patrimonij sustinebit, si quis unquam hoc die festo spectaculis interesse, vel cujuscunque judicis apparitor praetextu negocij publici, seu priva…i, haec, quae hac lege …atuta sunt, crediderit temeranda. Datum. Idibus Decemb. Constantinop. Zenone & Martiano Cos. Iustinian, Codicis. lib. 3. Tit. 12. De Ferijs. Lex. 10. Edit. Parisijs 1537. pag. 124.All Fea…t-dayes, or Holy dayes dedicated to the most high God, shall not be taken up or solemnized with any pastimes or excursions. We therefore decree the Lords-day to be alwayes so honourable and venerable, that it shall be exempted from all Executions, Admonitions, Bayles, Appearances, Arrests, Lawsuites, and Controversies, which shall all th…n cease; Let all Advocates and Criers then be silent, let there be then a kinde of tr…ce for a space, that so Adversaries may safely meete together upon it, without feare, and reconcile themselves one to the other, &c. Neither releasing the imployments of this religious Day doe we permit any one to be occupied in obscene pleasures. Let not the Theatricall Scene, nor the Cirque Combate, or the dol…full Spectacles of wilde Beasts, claime any liberty to themselves on this day: and if any solemnity to be celebrated, either in respect of our coronation or nativity, shall chance to happen upon it, let it be put off to some other time. If any person shall ever hereafter presume to be present at Stage-playes on *Viz. on the Lords-day.this Holy-day; or if the Apparitor of any Iudge under pretext of any publike or private businesse shall violate those things which are decreed by this law, he shall undergoe the losse of his office, and the sequestration of his Patrimony. O that this godly Law were now in force with Christians! then Playes and Pastimes on Lords-day evenings, would not be so frequent; then those who had served God at Prayers, and Sermons in the day time, would not so seriously serve the world, the flesh, the Devill, in Dancing, Dicing, Masques, and Stage-playes in the night, beginning perchance the Lords-day (like the sGal. 3.1, 3.foolish Galathians) in the spirit, but ending it in the flesh, as alas too many carnall Christians doe. Theodoricus, a Christian King of Italy, (whose prayses tIn his Panegyricus Theadorico dictus. Bibl. Patrum. Tom. 6. pars 1. pag. 243.E…nodius Ticinensis, hath proclaimed to the world) in his Epistle to Faustus, transmitted to posterity, by uVariarum. l. 3. Epist. 51.Marcus Aurelius Cassiodorus, hath-passed this Censure upon Stage-playes, and Cirque-playes: *Spectaculum expellens gravissimos mores, invitans levissimas contentiones, evacuator honestatis, fons irriguus iurgiorum: quod vetustas quidem habuit sacrum, sed contensiosa posteritas fecit esse ludibrium. Ibidem.that they expell the gravest manners, invite the most triviall contentions; that they are the exhausters of honesty, the ever-running fountaine of brawles and quarrels; which antiquity verily reputed sacred, but contentious posterity hath made them a meere ludibrium. Which passage he thus seconds in his Epistle to Speciosius. yMores autem graves in spectaculis quis requirat? In Circum nesciunt convenire Catones. Quicquid illic gaudenti populo dicitur injuria non putatur. Locus est qui defendit excessum. Cassiodorus Variarum. lib. 1. Epist. 27.Who can expect grave manners in Stage-playes? Catoes know not how to meete together at Play-houses. Whatsoever is there spoken to the reioycing people is not deemed an iniury. It is a place which defends excesse. In another Epistle of his to the Roman Senate, he thus informes them, what great mischiefes these Stage-playes had procured to the people, who were brought into extreme dangers by th…m. zVariarum. l. 1. Epist. 30.Animum nostrum, Patres Conscripti, Reipub. curis calentem, pulsavit saepius querela populorum, orta quidem ex causis levibus, sed graves eructavit excessus. Deplorat enim pro spectaculorum voluptate ad discrimina se ultima pervenisse, &c. And in his aCassiodorus. Variarum. l. 5. Epist. 42.Epistle to Maximus, of the divers sorts of Spectacles, which the Consuls exhibited to the people out of a preposterous custome, to their great expence; (against bSed hic apte iungendumest, quod ait de Inferis Mantuanus; Quis scelerū comprendere formas possit, &c? Ibid.the severall wickednesses of which Enterludes hee there much declaimes) he closeth up that Epistle with this patheticall Epilogue. Heu mundi error …olendus: si esset ullus aequitatis intuitus, tantae divitiae pro vita mortalium deberent dari, quantae in mortes hominum videntur effundi. Such was his Royall Censure of these pestiferous Stage-playes, which bred so many mischiefes and discords in the world. It it cRodolphus Gualther. Hō. 11. in Nahum. fol. 214.215. Theodo…u… Zuinger. Theatrum Vitae Humanae. Vol. 12. l. 5. p. 1834.1835. Chronicon Chronicorum… Augusta. 1497. AEtas 6. fol. 21 …. a.registred of Henry, the third Emperour of that name, whom they stiled blacke and godly; that when as a great company of Stage-players and Actors flocked together to Ingelheim to his marriage, about the yeere 1044. he thrust them all out of the Court and Citty; and comm…nded that the money which should have beene spent in maintaining, rewarding, and adorning them, should be distributed among the poore: An example (writes Master Gualther, who relates it) truely worthy of eternall prayse; which if Princes and Magistrates of Common-weales would this day imitate, there would be lesse place left to filthy and sloathfull idlenesse, then which there is nothing more powerfull to corrupt mens manners: yea wise and prudent men would be then in greater request, and the poore would be better provided for, who now wander about in every corner to the great scandall of Christianity: It is storied of dThe Generall History of France. London 1624. pag. 114.123. Bodinus De Repub lib. 6. cap. 1.Philip Augustus, the 42. King of France; that he being an enemy to publike dissolutions, and a friend to good order and Iustice, enacted publike lawes against Players, Iuglers, Playes, and D…cing-houses, which he wholy suppressed, as pornicious to his Kingdome; banishing all Stage-players out of France by a publike Edict: the true grounds of which worthy act of his Vincentius in his eLib. 29. c. 41. Edit. Coloniae. Agrip. 1494. Olaus Magnus Historiae. l. 15. cap. 31.32.Speculum Historiale, doth thus expresse. Cum antem in Curijs regum vel principu… frequens histrionum turba convenire solebat, ut ab eis aurum & argentum, & equos seu vestes, quas saepe principes mutare solent verba ioculatoria varij… adulationibus plena proferendo ab eis extorqueant: vide…s Rex Philippus haec esse vana, & animae saluti contraria, mente promptissima Deo promisit; quod omnes vestes suas quamdiu viveret intuitu Dei pauperibus erogaret; malens nudum Christum in pauperibus vestire; quàm adulatoribus vestes dando peccatum incurrere; *See here, p. 324. Iuonis Decreta. pars 11. c. 84. Olaus Magnus. Hist. l. 15. c. 31.32. Ioan. Bertochinus. Repertoriū. pars… 2. p. 664. Histrio. Guillermus Altissiodorensis Summa Aurea. in l. 3. Sentent. Tract. 7. Quaest. 3. f. 163. & Stephanus Cost… de Ludo sect. 2. numb. 7. Tractat. Tractatuum. Tom. 1. p. 157.158. accordingly.quoniam histrionibus dare (and I would those who spend their money at Play-houses would well consider it) est Daemonibus imolare. Hoc si quotidie principes attenderent, nequaquam tot leccatores per mundum discurrerent. Vidimus autem principes quosdam vestes diu excogitatas, & varijs florum picturationibus artificiosissime elaboratas vix evolutis septem di…bus, proh dolor, histrionibus, scilicet, Diaboli ministris (so hee stiles them) ad primam vocem dedisse, pro quibus forsan .20. aut 30. vel 40. marcas argenti impenderent, de quo nimirum preci… totidem pauperes per totum annum victus necessaria percipere potuissent. By all these severall Acts and Testimonies of these worthy Christian Princes, it is most apparant; that Stage-playes insufferably corrupt mens mindes and manners, and that they are no wayes tolerable in a Christian State. The selfesame verity wee shall finde confirmed by the Fathers. Hence fNec inconcinnè stadia & Theatra pestilentiae Cathedram quis vocaverit, &c. Paedagogi. l. 3. c. 11. See Gentianus Harvetus. Ibidem.Clemens Alexandrinus, stiles Playes and Play-hous…s; the very Chaire of Pestilence, which corrupts mens mindes. Hence Tertullian records; gCensores saepius renascentia cùm maxime Thatra destruebant, moribus consulentes, quorum periculum ing…ns de lascivia praevidebant, &c. De Spectaculis. lib. cap. 10.that the Roman Censors oft-times demolish their re-erected Theaters to prevent the corruption of the peoples manners, which they fore-saw would be much indangered and corrupted by the lasciviousnesse of Stage-playes; the lewde effects of which hee at large discovers, stiling the Stage, the very Chaire of Pestilence, and the Gallerie of the enemies of Christ. Hence *De Spectaculis. lib. cap. 16.27. See here, pag. 154. in the margent.Cyprian phraseth Stage-playes; hMagister & Doctor non erudiendorum, sed perdendorum liberorū, &c. Ep…st. lib. 1. Epist. 10. Eucratio.the Masters not of teaching but of corr…pting, of destroying Yo…h: and Play-houses, the very Brothels of publike chastity; where all vices ar… …oth taught and learned; all modesty exiled, all contin…y wreck…d, mens soules and manners most incurably corrupted to Gods dishonor a…d th… Church…s shame. iPudoris publici lupana…iū, &c. De Spectac. l…b & Epist. lib. 2 Epist. 2. Donato. See Scene 3. & 4. where his words are quote… at large. p. 331. to 334.Hence kDe Vero Cultu. l. 6. c. 20. Divinarum Instit. Epist. c. 5. See Scene 3. & 4. before. pag. 334.335, 336.Lactantius informes us; that the v…ry hearing and beholding of Stage-playes exceedingly corrupt all Youth; by depraving their manners, enraging their unruly lusts, and te…ching them to commit adulteri…, whiles they behold them acted: Whereupon he peremptorily concludes; that all Stage-playes are wholy to be aband…ed, that so not onelyonly no vices might harbour in our brests, but that the custom… of no pleasure might ever overcome us, and so turne us away from God and from good workes. Hence Gregory Nazianzen avers; lSpect…culum illud nihil aliud putari debet, quàm pestis at que morbus animorum. N…m urbes distrahit, &c Quapropter mani…stòpater, illud spectaculū meruma…imorum ess… perniciem. Ad S…lu…um De Recta Educat. p. 1063.1064. vid. Ibidem.th…t Stage-playes ought to be reputed nothing else but the very plague and sicknesse of mens mindes; the severall ill eff…cts of which he there reckons up at large, and thereupon he thus concludes; Wherefore it evidently appeares, that these Stage-playes are nought else but th… very destruction of mens soules: which Censure of his is fully ratified by the concurrent suffrages of *See …h…ir words quoted bef…re, S…ene 3. & 4.Tatianus, Oratio Advers. Graecos. Bibl. Patrum, Tom. 2. pag. 180.181. Of Theophilus Antiochenus, Ad Autolichum. lib. 3. Ibidem. pag. 170. G. H. Of Minucius Felix. Octavius. pag. 101.121. Of Arnobius Advers. Gentes. lib. 4. pag. 149.150, 151. & lib. 7. pag. 230. to 242. Of Basil. H…xaëmeron. Hom. 4. Tom. 1. pag. 45. & De Legendis Libris Gentilium. Oratio. pag. 308.312. Of S. Asterius, in Festum Kalendarum. Hom. Bibl. Patrum. Tom. 4 pag. 706. Of Gaudentius Brixiae. Episcopus, De Lectione Evangelij. Sermo 8. Ibidem. p. 812. G. Of S. Hierom. Comment. in Ezechiel. lib. 6. cap 20. Tom. 4. pag. 389. A. Of Eusebius & Damascen, Paralellorum. lib. 3. cap. 47. with …undry others hereaft…r quoted, who all passe the very selfesame doome upon them. Saint Chrysostome is exceeding copious in this Theame, as is evident by all his transcribed passages in the prec…ding Scene. (See here, page 401.402.404… 405.406.415.416.424.431. whence hee stiles the mTheatru Cathedra Pestilentiae, incontinentiae gymnasiū; officina luxuriae, impudicitiae orchestra; pessi…us locus, plurimorum que morborum plena Babilonica fornax, quae non corporis naturam, sed bonā animae depopulatur habitudinem, &c. Hom. 8. De Paenitentia. …om. 5. Col 750. C.D. vid. Ibidem.Play-house; the Caire of Pestilence; the Shop of Luxury… the Scaffold of Incontinency; the publike Schoole of L…wdnesse: a Babilonish Brothell full of many filthy noysome diseases, which depraves, depopulates, not the nature of the body, but the good habitude of the soule, nIbid. & Hom. 38. in Matth. Tom. 2. Col. 299. A. B.which over-turnes all lawes, all modesty, vertue, discipline, oMagna Civitatibus mala ferunt Theatra magna, nec hoc videmus quàm magna. Hom. 15. & 62. Ad. Pop. Antioch. Tom. 5. Col. 347.and brings many great mischiefes unto Citties: Whereupon he thus concludes; pHis Theatralibus ludis eversis, non leges sed iniquitatem evertetis, & omnem Civitatis pestem extinguetis. Homil. 38. in Matth. Tom. 2. Col. 299. B. & Homil. 69.that Magistrates by overthrowing Play-houses shall overturne all iniquity, and utterly extinguish all the plagues, the mischiefes of the State and Citty. Saint Augustine, as he informes us in expresse tearmes: qSi tantummodo boni & honesti homines in Civitate essent, nec in rebus humanis ludi s…enici esse debuissent. De Civitate Dei. lib. 4. cap. 1.That if there had beene none but good and honest men in the Citty of Rome, that they would never have admitted Stage-playes to have any existence among humane things, much lesse in Divine affaires: so rDe Civitate Dei. lib. 2. cap. 31.32, 33. lib. 2. c. 2. to 15.22, 27. l. 5. c. 12. l. 8. c. 13.14. & Epist. 202.…e proves at large out of Heathen Authors, that Stage-playes are most unsufferable cont…gions and mischiefes in a State, vitiating the mindes, subverting the manners, th… discipline of those places where they are but tolerated. Among other passages to this purpose, he affirmes: sIllas Theatricas artes diu virtus Romana non noverat: quae etsi ad oblectamentum voluptatis humanae quaererentur, & vitio morum irreperent humanorum, di…amen …as sibi exhiberi petiverunt. De Civit. Dei. l. 2. c. 13. See Ibid. c. 5. to 12.That the Roman vertue was altogether unacquainted with these Theatricall arts almost 400. yeeres: which albeit they were sought after to delight the voluptuousnesse of mens lusts, and crept in onelyonly by reason of the corruption of mens manners, yet the Idol Heathen gods desired that they might be dedicated unto them. And then speaking of the first occasion of bringing Stage-playes into Rome, to asswage the pestilence which afflicted their bodies, they brought in (saith he) another farre more grievous and perp…tuall pestilence of their mindes, which he thus elegantly expresseth. tDe Civ. Dei l. 1. c. 32.33. See Polychronicō. l. 3. c. 34. …. 131. & Thomas Brad…wardin, De Causa. Dei. lib. 1. pag. 14.Dij propter sedandam corporis pestilentiam ludos sibi scenicos exhiberi iubebant, pontifex autem vester (Scipio) propter animorum cavendam pestilentiam, ipsam scenam construi prohi…ebat. Si aliqu… lu…e mentis animum corpori praeponitis, eligere qu…m …olatis? Ne que enim & illa corporum pestilentia ideo conquievit, quia populo bellico…, & solis antea ludis Circensibus assueto, luderum scenicorum delicata subi…travit insania: sed astutia spirituum nefandorum praevidens illam pestilentiam iàm …ne de…ito cessat…ram, aliam longè graviorem, qua plurimum gaudet, ex hac occasione, non corporibus, sed moribus curav… immittere: quae animos miserorum tantis occaecavit tenebris, ta…ta deformitate faedavit, ut etiam modò quod incredibile for…itan erit, si à nostris posteris audietur, Romana urbe vasta…a, quos pestilentia ista possedit, at que inde fugientes, Carthaginem pervenire potuerunt, in Theatris quo…idie certatim pro histrionibus insanirent. A me…tes, amentes, quis est hic tant…, non error, sed f…ror, ut exitium vestrum plangentibus Orientalibus populis, & maximis Civitatibus in remotissimis terris… publicum luctum maerorem que ducentibus, vos Theatra quareretis, intraretis, i…pleretis, & multò insaniora quàm fuerant antea faceretis. *In Theatri… labes morum, discere turpia, audire inhonesta, videre perniciosa. August. De Symbolo ad Catechumenos. l. 2. c. 2. Tom. 9. pars 1. p. 1394.Hanc animarum labem ac pestem, hanc probitatis & honestatis eversionem (so he truely stiles the Theater) Scipio ille metuebat, quandò consirui Theatra prohibebat, &c. ne que enim censebat ille faelicem esse rempub. stantibus maenibus, ruentibus moribus: sed in vobis plus valuit quod impij Daemones seduxerunt, quàm quod homines providi praecaverunt, &c. It is evident then by Saint Augustines resolution: that Stage-playes incurably vitiate and desperately corrupt, if not subvert mens manners; and so bring ruine to that State that suffers them, uSecundisque rebus (& spectaculis) ea mala oriantur in moribus, qùae saevientibus pejora sin… hostibus. De Civit. Dei. l. 1 c. 30. vid. Ibid.the evils which they ingenerate in the peoples manners, being farre worse then the cruellest enemies. Hence he informes us… xRomam quippe curâ partam veterū auctamque laboribus, faediorem stant…m fecerant qu…m ru…ntem: quandoquidem in ruina ejus, la…ides & ligna, in istorum autem vita omnia, non murorum, sed morum menumenta are; ornamenta ceciderunt, cùm funestioribus eorum corda cupiditatibus, quàm ignibus tecta …lius urbis arderent. De Civitate Dei. lib. 2. cap. 2. vid. cap. 5. to 15.that Stage-playes had made Rome, which was gotten with the care, and augmented by the industry of their Ancest…rs, more filthy whiles it was standing, then when it was falling unto ruine: since in its ruine, onelyonly the stones and timber, but in the lives of Play-haunters, all the monuments and ornaments not of walls, but of manners were fallen to the ground; since their hearts burned with more lamentable polluting lusts, then the houses of the Citty did with flames. Yea hence he yDe Civ. Dei. l. 1. c. 30. to 34. l. …. thorowout. l. 3. c. 18. lib. 4. c. 1.10, 26, 27, …8, 31. l. 6. c. 1.… 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, …6 27, 33. l. ….….5. 13, 14, 18, 20, 21, 26, …7. & Epist. 202. this being the very end and drift of all these places.concludes and prov…s, the Pagan Deities of the Romanes to be no gods, but beastly Devils, and uncleane infernall spirits; who were no friends, no advancers, no protectors of the Romanes or of their Common-weale, but professed en…mies, plagues, and traitors to them both, because they invented, exacted, countenanced, and delighted in those obscene, lascivious, vitious… Stage-playes, which defiled the mindes, corrupted the lives, ruinated the manners, and eternally destroyed the soules of men, by precipitating them into all vice and lewdnesse whatsoever: which Playes both Plato, Scipio, Cicero, and the ancient Romanes quite abandoned, as the very Pests, the Cankers, ban… and overthrow of the Common-weale. Such they, such he reputed them… and from thence he zQui sunt ergo illi qui ludos scenicos amant, eos que divinis rebus adjungi, & suis honoribus efflagitant exhiberi, quorū vis non eos indicat nullos, sed iste affectus nimirum indicat malos? August. De Civitate Dei lib. 8. c. 13. vid. Ibidem.perswades the Romanes to di…carde them, together with all their Devill-Idols who tooke such pleasure in them. Paulus Orosius, Saint Augus…ines intire friend and Coetanean, in his excellent History (dedicated to this learned Father,) relating the originall introduction of Stage-playes among the Romanes, to asswage the plague; thus discants on that passage. aHistoriae, lib. 3. cap. 4. Edit. Coloniae. 1532. pag. 120.A…tores sua…re pontifices, ut ludi scenicidijs expetentibus adere…ur: & ita pro depellenda temporali peste corporum, accersitus est perpetuus morbus animarum: these Stage-playes being no other in his opinion, but a p…rpetuall sicknesse of mens soules, far worse then any p…stilence that could …ff…ct their bodies: What State, what person then would foment such fatall plagues? bDe Gubernatione Dei. lib. 6. thorowout, w…ll worth the reading, to which I shall referre you.Salvian, Bishop of Massilia in France, most elegantly inveigheth against the horrid obsc…nity of Stage-playes, informing the ancient Romanes and others, cS…e Scene 3. & 4. before, where most of his words are transcribed. & Sc…ne 12. & 19.that Stage-playes were those insufferable impurities which polluted their soules, depraved their manners, provoked the Maiesty of their God to wrath, offended their blessed Saviour, dishonoured their Christian profession, and drew downe Gods Iudgements on their State, which was then miserablie wasted by the Goathes and Vandals: and th…reupon he adviseth them, eternally to abandon Playes and Theaters (according to their vow in baptisme) as the most pernicious evils, which would bring their soules, their bodies, their Church and State to utter ruine. Isiodor Pelus…ota, who flourished about the yeere of our Lord 440. in his Epistle to Hi…r…, who then swayed the Common-wealth under Theodosius the Yonger, writes thus of dScenicis, vir optime, summū hoc studiū est, non ut per ipsorū cavillas multi meliores reddantur; (quemadmodū ipse dixisti, teipsu… & eos, qui te …udiunt, decipiens;) verum ut multi peccēt. Etenim in spect…torum improbi…ate faelicitatem s… am cōstitutam habent. Ita …t, ut, si illi meli… res effician…ur, sua his ars p…r…tura sit. Qu…m… brem, nec unquam eos qui delinquunt corrig…re in … induxer…t, nec si vel…t, … …oss…nt. Mimica enim eor… ars n… tura t…tummodò ad nocendum comp…ra…a est. Epist. l. 3 Epist. 336. Bibl Pa…rum. Tom. 5. pars 2… 613 A.Stage-players; that this is their chiefe end and study, not that many should be made better by their scoffes, (as some have said, deceiving both themselves, and those that heare them,) but that many might be drawen to sinne. For their felicity is wholy placed in the lewdnesse of their Spectators. For so it is, that if their Spectators should be made better, their very occupation would goe to wracke: wherefore they never so much as thinke of reforming any who o…fend, neither if they willed it, could they effect it. For their mimicall art of its owne nature is onelyonly …itted for to hurt men. A passage, which not onelyonly answers that vaine eSee this Objection fo…merly an…wered… p …02. to 106.Obiection of Play-patrons (which you see was ancient) that Stage-playes reforme men by reprehending vice: but likewise man…ests them to be intolerable mischiefes in any Christian State, since their very end and nature is onelyonly to corrupt and make men worse. fQuam vis art… l…ricae honestis moribus …int… r…motae & Histrionum vita vaga, videatur effe… ri p…sse lic… i…, tame… …oderat…ix … vidi… …tiquit…s, ut in totum non …uerent, cum & i…sae ju…cem sust…. Ad…inistra… enim …t sub quad…m disciplina exhibitio vol… …. Tene…t … …us, vel umbra…ilis ordo judicij. Temperentur & haec legum qualit…te …g…ci…, quasi hon…st…s imparet inhonestis, & quibusdam regulis vivant, qui viā rectae conversationis ignorant. Student enim illi non tantū jucunditati suae, quantum alienae le…itiae: & conditione perversa cum dominatū suis corporibus tradunt, servire potius animas compulerunt. Dignū fuit ergo moderatorē suscipere, qui se nesciunt juridica moderatione tractare. Locus quippe tuus his gregibus hominum veluti quidam tutor est positus. Nam sicut illi aetates teneras adhibita cautela custodiunt, sic … te voluptates fervidae impensa maturitate frenandae sunt. Age bon… institutis quod nimia prudentia constat invenisse Majores. Leve desideriū, e…si ve…ecundia non cohibet, districtio praedicta modificet, &c. Variarum. l. 7. c. 10.Aurelius Cassiodo…us, describ…n… the office of the Romane Censor, or Surveyer of sports, records; that the dissolute lives, and light arts of Stage-players are remote from honest manners; and that therefore antiquity becomming a Moderator, did take care to suppresse their insolencies by appointing Censors to correct and punish them, that so they might not wholy lash out, when as they should undergoe the censure of a Iudge. For the very exhibition of pleasures is to be administred under a certaine discipline. If not a true, yet at leastwise let a shadowed order of iustice keepe Stage-playes with in compasse. Let even these businesses be tempered with the qualification of lawes, that so honesty may rule over dishonest persons, and they may live under certaine rules, who know not the way of a right conversation: For these Players seeke not so much their owne pleasure as other mens myrth, and by a perverse condition, when as they deliver the dominion to their bodies, they have compelled their soules to serve. It is fit therefore that those should receive a Moderator, who know not to carry themselves with a legall moderation. For the office of a Censor is set up as a Tutor over these heards of men. For as Tutors keepe children of tender yeeres with diligent care, so vehement pleasures are to be curbed by the Censor, with great grauity, &c. Which passage, as it proves Stage-playes, intolerable mischiefes; and Players, disorderly dissolute wicked person, whose excesses need to be suppressed, even by the opinion of the ancient Pagan Romanes, *See Bulengerus De Theatro. l. 1. c. 53.who appointed Censors of purpose to correct their grosse abuses, *See here, p. 37.38, 39, 40, 41.which yet could never be redressed: so it condemnes the excessive lewdnesse of our moderne Playes and Actors which have no such Surveyers to curbe, to censure their abuses; & withall acquaints us, how pernicious Stage-playes are, both to mens manners & the publike weale: and what reason Christians have for ever to abandon them; since the very worst of Pagans, gSee August. De Civit. Dei. l. 1. c. 31.32, 33. l. 2. c. 13.22, 27. l. 3. c. 18 l. 4. c. 1.10, 26, 27, 28. l. 6. c. 5.6, 7, 9, 10, 26, 27, 33. l. 8. c. 5.13, 14, 18, 20, 21, 26, 27. Bodinus De Repub. l. 6… c. 1. Polychronicon. l. 1. c. 34. fol. 171. accordingly.had long since wholy discarded them, for their unsufferable corruptions and abuses, but to please their Idols, to whom they wer… devoted; which reason holds not with us Christians, but ingageth us most against them. To passe by hDe Nugis Curialium. l. 1. c. 7.8. & lib. 8. cap. 6.7.Iohn Saresbury, iDestructoriū Vitiorum. pars 4. c. 23. & pars 3. cap. 10.Alexander Fabritius, kLectio. 172. in lib Sapientiae.Holkot, lSerm. 5. & 7. De Custodia 5. Sensuum & Auditus.…aulus Wan, mDe Educat. Liberorum, l. 1. c. 14. & l. 3. c. 7.12. Bibl. Patrū. Tom. 15. p. 837 M. 838. A. 847. F. 848. C.D 864 E.F. 865. A.Mapheus Vegius, *De Novis Celebritatibus non Instituendis. p. 143. to 150.Nicolaus De Clemangis, oDe Causa Dei. l. 1. c. 1. Corol. 20. p. 14.15.Thomas Bradwardine, pDe Remedio Vtrius que Fortu. l. 1. Dialog. 30.Petrarcha, and qSee Act 7. Scene 5.other more ancient Writers, who censure Stage-playes; as the intolerable depravers of mens mindes and manners; the Seminaries of all wickednesse, vice, and lewdnesse; the corrupters of Youth, the subverters of all good discipline; the enemies of all vertuous education; and insufferable mischiefes in a State, which thorow the eyes and eares usher eternall death into mens soules: To whom I might accumulate; rDe Causis Corruptionis Artium. l. 2. p. 81.82, 83. & Comment. in August. De Civit. Dei. l. 1. c. 31.32, 33. & l. 2. c. 2. to 16.Ludovicus Vives, sDe Casibus. l. 2. Tit. 53. & l. 4. Tit. 17. sect. 4.Astexanus, tDe Vanit. Scientiarum. c. 20.59, 64, 71.Cornelius Agrippa, *French Achademy. c. 20. p. 205.Peter Primauday, *Ethicae Christianae. l. 2. c. 8. p. 107.Danaeus, yLocorum Cōmunium Classis. l. 2. c. 11. sect. 62.66. c. 12. sect. 15.19. & Comment. on Iudges. c. 21.Peter Martyr, zDe Vita & Honestate Ecclesiasticorum. l. 2. c. 20.21.Ioannes Langhecrucius, aDecreta Ecclesiae Gal. l. 6. Tit. 19. c. 11, &c.Bochellus, bDe Spectaculis. lib.Ioannes Mariana, cDe Spectaculis. lib.Barnabas Brissonius, dDe Theatro. l. 1. c. 50.51, 52.Caesar Bulengerus, *Annal. Eccles. Anno 404. sect. 1.2, 3. Anno 206. s…ct. 2. Anno 399. sect. 5. Anno 469. sect. 2Baronius, fEpit. Baronij Annis eisdem.Spondanus, gCenturiae Magd Tom. 3. Col. 141.142. Tom. 4. Col. 458. Tom. 5. Col. 721. Tom. 6. Col. 159.The Centuriators, with hSee Act 7. Scene 5.sundry other Forraigne Authors hereafter quoted; who fully suffragate to this their Censure. I shall onelyonly recite the words of 4… other moderne Outlandish Authors against the intolerable abuses of Stage-playes, and then passe unto our English Writers: The first of these, is Master Ralph Gualther, a reverend orthodox Divine, whose laborious learned Workes all Protestant Churches highly honor: who acquaints us: iSunt ejusmodi homines non parva rerum publ. pestis. Nam libidinum ministri sunt, & bonos mores corrumpunt, &c. Gualther Homil. 11. in Nabum. fol. 214.215.That Stage-players, the artificers, the ministers of unlawfull pleasures, who are wont to frequent the Courts of great Princes, and the eminentest richest Citties where there is most hope of gaine propounded to them, are not a small plague of Common-weales: for they are the servitors of lust, they corrupt good manners, they bring all religion into contempt: they greatly exhaust both the publike and m…ns private treasure, and that which ought to be distributed for the poores reliefe, they by their arts have almost intercepted. These the Prophet compares to Locusts, not onelyonly for their multitude… but rather for *See Gu…vara, his Dial of Princes. l. 3. c. 43. to 47.their idle sloathfulnesse, and because being borne onelyonly for to eate and drinke, they doe nothing in the meane time that is honest, or which may any way advance the publike good. Wherefore grave men in all ages have thought fit to exclude this sort of men from the Common-wealth. This kSee here pag.Plato a man of most acute iudgement perceived when as he banished all Poets out of his Common-wealth, because he knew they would both corrupt mens manners, and bring the god, into contempt. Neither undeservedly is the old discipline of the lSee here pag. 455.456. & Valerius Maximus. lib. 2. c. 6. sect. 7.Massilienses applaude…, who would admit no Stage-players into their Citty, …or any person… but such who were skilfull in some art or other, wherby they might honestly maintaine themselves To which this also may be added, that the ancient Divines most sharpely condemne both Stage-playes and Spectacles: having a respect to that of the Apostle, mEphes. 5.3, 4.who would not have fornication, filthy discourse, scurrility or any uncleanesse, so much as to be once named among Christians: commanding all the followers of Christ, not to absteine from evill onelyonly, but likewise n1 Thes. 5.22.from all appearance of it. It is ther…fore a great signe of corrupt and perverted discipline, that th…se effeminate persons and furtherers of most …ishonest pleasures, are in great esteeme both in the Courts of Princes & in rich Citties, whiles grave men who excell in councell and experience are in the meane time excluded and contemned, and the poore neglected, &c. Then he recites the examples of pSee Eutropius Rerum Romanoru…. l. 11. p. 140. & Caelius Rhodig. Antiqu. Lect. l. 14. cap. 19.Licinius, and qSee here pag. 471.Henry the 3. Emperor of that name, who cast all Stage-players out of their Courts and Citties, as the very Rats and Moathes of the Court and Common-weale. Examples (writes he) worthy of eternall prayse, which if Princes and Magistrates of the Common-weale would imitate at this day, there would be lesse rome left for filthy sloathfull idlenesse, then which there is nothing more powerfull to corrupt mens manners: yea wise and prudent men would be in more esteeme, and the poore would be better provided for, who now wander up and downe in every corner, to the great scandall of Christianity. But because all here neglect their duty, God himselfe will at one time or other finde out a meanes whereby he will cast out these plagues (so stiles he Playes and Players) not without some publike calamity, as the Prophet here threatens to the Ninivites. Thus hee. The second is rOpus Chronagraphicum, Orbis Vniversi. Antwerpia…. 1611. pag. 186.187.Petrus Opm…rus, a grave Historian, who writes thus of Playes. The ancient Romanes did waste too much upon Pleasures and Spectacles, of which they had foure sorts: Stage-playes which served to delight their eares: Cirque-playes, Gladiators, and Huntings, which served for their eyes: From the first of these, they learned filthinesse and lewdnesse: from the latter, cruelty and inhumanity. Neither did any one bring backe those manners from these Spectacles that he brought thither; for a certaine rust and canker did spread it selfe over them at unawares. Neither doe vices more easily or speedily corrupt mens mindes then by these pleasures. The third is *In tertiam partē divi Thomae Salamancae. 1589. pag. 545.546.Didacus de Tapia, a famous Spanish Hermite; who discussing this question; Whether the Sacrament might be given to Stage-players? writes thus. *Tam acriter Patres antiqui in perniciosum hoc hominum genus invehuntur, & …ain fevere sacri Canones in illos animadvertunt censuris Ecclesiasticis, vehementer ut suspicor, turpiora esse quae olim in Theatris agebantur, quam quae his temporibus. Quicquid vero de hoc sit, lasciva sunt quae modo aguntur, turpia & obscaena, atque religioni christianae valde perniciosa… Ac proinde quicunque aliquid sapit in Domino eos tenetur arbitrari publicos pec… catores, reique publicae pestem tanto graviorem, quantò gravius est animae v…lnu… quam corporis, &c. Ibidem.The ancient Fathers inveigh so bitterly against this pernicious kinde of men, and the holy Canons punish them so severely by Ecclesiasticall censures, that I suspect that those things which were acted in Theaters heretofore, were filthier then those things that are acted now. But let this be as it will, yet the things that are played now are lascivious, filthy, and obscene, and very pernicious to Christian Religion. And therefore whosoever …asts any sweetnesse in the Lord, or is any whit wise towards God, is bound to repute them publike sinners, and so much the more grivous plague of the Common-weale, by how much the wound of the soule is greater then that of the body. The Councell of Carthage, Saint Cyprian, Chrysostome, and Augustine (whose words he there recites at large) excommunicate them both from the Society of the Faithfull, and the Sacraments, as the very infamy, plagues, and blemish of the Church, which could not tolerate them without much infamy and dishonour; since the very Pagan Roman…s disfranchised them their tribes, and made them infamous. *Quod si homines scenici apud Ethnicos habentur infames, & omni honore privabantur, ut verissi…e affirmat div…s Augustinus, quid nos tandem Christianos facere oportet? Certè fugere ac damnare debemus in Iudo ac joco, qu…cquid profusum, quicquid immodestum, quicquid illiberase, quicquid petulans, quicquid flagitiosum: quae omnia in Officijs Tullius ipse damnabat. Inveniuntur autem haec in Theatris. Quod si homines scenici facetijs & acumine dictorum, & cantus suavitate delectant, & sententijs gravioribus admonent & erudiunt, & repraesentatione antiquarum rerum atque affectibus recreant, utinam nunquam ista bona Comaedijs miscuissent. Hoc enim ideò accidit, quod malum tam per se sit debile ac miserum, ut seipsum tueri non possit nisi juvetur a bono. Malum enim …i perfectum fuerit destruit seipsum, ut ait Aristotelis; ac proinde occultatur sub specie boni, ut detineat ac fallat homines incautos: Sumus enim natura vehementer propensi ad honestatem. Quamvis autem aliqua bona misceantur in his ludis, deberemus autem prae oculis semper habere illa praeclara verba Hi…ronomi ad Letam. Nemo ad lupanar mittit virginem suam quamvis q…aedam ibi reperiri possi…t de turpi corruptione lugentes: nemo haeredem suum latronum turbae committit, ut discat audatiam: nemo in perforatam intrat cymbam ut disc…t vitare naufragium. Nemo ergo ad Theatri locum impurum & infamem, & contrarium religioni, & modestiae & sobrietati Christianae (locus scilicet ille Daemonibus familiaris, invisus Deo) debet procedere, ut discat aut gustet quae ibi dicuntur, sunt enim mixta veneno. Ibidem.And if these Stage-players are reputed infamous among Heathens, and deprived of all honour, as Saint Augustine most truely affirmeth. De Civitate Dei. lib. 1. cap. 31. what ought we Christians now to doe? Verily we ought to eschue and condemne both in Playes and sports, what ever is profuse, what ever is imm… dest, what ever is unseemely, what ever is wanton, what ever is wicked; all which even Tully himselfe condemned …n his Offices. But all these things are found in Play-houses: But if that Stage-players delight men with their pleasures, iests, and wily speaches, and with the sweetnesse of their songs, and musicke; or if they adorne and instruct men with their grave Sentences, and please them with the representation of ancie…t things, or with their passions; (A common objection in the behalfe of Stage-playes;) would to God they had never mixed these good things with their Com…dies: For this onelyonly happens because evill is so weake and miserable by it selfe, that it cannot defend and helpe it selfe, unlesse it be holpen and assisted by good: For evill, if it be perfect, de…troyeth it selfe, as Aristotle saith; and therefore it is hid under the shew of good, that it may deteine and deceive incautelous men: for by nature we are vehemently prone to honesty. But albeit some good things are mingled in these Playes, yet we alwayes ought to have these excellent words of Hierom before our eyes, in his Epistle to Laeta. No Man (saith he) sendeth his Daughter to the Stewes, although some Women may there be found bewayling their filthy corruption: no man commits his Heire to a company of Theeves, that he may learne audacity; no man enters into a Boate that is full of holes, that he may learne to avoyd shipwracke. *Nota bene.No man therefore ought to goe to the impure and infamous place of the Theater which is contrary to religion, to modesty and sobriety, (a place so familiar to Devils, and so od…ous to God,) that he may learne or tast the things there acted: for they are intermixed with poyson. Such is the venome, the contagion of Players and Play-haunters, in this Popish Hermites judgement, whose words of Papist (and I presume no Protestant) dares to question. The fourth is Iohn Bodine, an eminent Polititian, and renowned Statesman, who hath passed this verdict upon Stage-playes. tBodine his Common-wealth. Lōdon 1606. Booke 6. chap. 1. pag. 645.646.I will (writes he) passe over in silence the abuses which are committed in suffring of Comedies and Enterludes, the which (pray marke it) is a most pernicious plague to a Common-weale: for there is nothing doth more corrupt the Citizens good manners, simplicity and naturall bounty then *Spectacula enim dulcissima sunt irritamenta omnis, non tàm libidinis quàm inhumanitatis. Mapheus V…gi…, De Educatione Puerorum. lib. 1. cap. 14. Bibl. Patrum. Tom. 15. pag. 8…8. D…Stage-playes: the which have the more power and effect, for that their words, accents, gesture, motions and actions, governed with all the art that may be, and of a most filthy and dishonest subiect, leaves a lively impression in their soules who apply thereunto even all their sences. To conclude, we may well say, that the Comedians Stage is an apprentiship of all impudency, loosenesse, whoredome, cozening, deceit and wickednesse. And therefore *Politicorum. lib. 7. cap. 17.Aristotle doth not with out cause say, That they must have a care lest the subiects went to Comedies: *O that our Magistrates would consider it.he had said better, that they should have pulled downe their Theaters, and shut the Comedians out of the Citty ga…es. For saith xEpistola 7.Seneca. there is nothing more contrary to good manners, then to haunt Playes. And therefore ySee the Generall History of France. pag. 114. accordingly.Philip Augustus King of France, did by a publike Edict, banish all Players out of his Realme. If any one will say, that both Greekes and Romanes did allow of Playes: I answer, that it was for a superstition they had unto their gods: but the wisest have alwayes blamed them. For although a Tragedy hath something in it more stately and heroike, and which doth make the hearts of men lesse effeminate: yet zPlutarchi Solon.Solon having seene the Tragedy of Thespis played, did much mislike it; and whereas Thespis excusing himselfe, said, it was but a Play: No (replyed Solon) but this Play turnes to earnest. Much more had he blamed Comedies, which were then unknowne: and now alwayes they put at the end of every Tragedy (as poyson into meate) a Comedy or Iigge. And although that Comedies were more tolerable among those that dwell in the Southerne parts, being more heavy and melancholy by nature, and for their naturall constancy lesse subiect to change, yet should they be utterly denyed to those that live toward the North, being of a sanguine complexion, light and inconstant; having in a manner all the force of their soule in the common and brutall sence: But there is aNullam habet spe… salutis aeger, quem ad intemperantiā medicus hortatur. Seneca Epist. 129.no hope to se… Playes forbidden by the Magistrates, for commonly they are the first at them. Thus farre these Forraigners. To passe by *Cantores autem & scenicos artisi…es tanto in pretio habuerunt ut ejusmodi acrooma… atque ocij liberalis oblectamēta pluris quàm doctos atque disertos homines facerent. Ex plebe autem alij in tabernis vinarijs pernoctabant, nonnulli velabris umbraculorum Theatralium seabdebant,, quidem aleis pugnanter contendebant, omnes ferme totos dies in Theatris ac Circis ludis muneribus que dediti traducebant, otium ipsum Imperatori solertia comperatum ad voluptatem, non ad virtutem incitamenta praebentes. At que hi quidem mores licet posteriores aliquot Imperatores emendare conati sunt, tamen in dies corruptiores deterīores que effecti sunt quous que tota Italia, quae marcescente ac diuturno prope languore torpente, barbari Imperium ex omni parte debile invaserunt, & sevissime distraxerunt. D… Occidentali Imperio. lib. 1. fol. 32.Carolus Sigonius, who enumerates the frequenting, tolerating, and countenancing of Stage-playes both by Prince and people, as the inevitable forerunner, and chiefe occasion both of th… destruction and overthrow of the Roman Empire, by the Gothes and Vandals: and *Who is very copious to our present purpose.…uevara, his Dial of Princes. l. 3. c. 43. to 48. I come now to our own domestique Playes, to see what our Writers, our Divines, in their daily Sermons; what our Vniversities, Magistrates, and our whole State have determined of them, in confirmation of my Minors truth.

For our Writers. To passe by those of more ancient times, as Beda, Anselme, Alexander Fabritius, H…lkot, Bradwardi…, Ioannis de Burgo, Alexander de Ales, Edmundus Cantuariensis, Ioannis Saresberiensis, Petrus Blesensis Math…w Paris, Polychronicon, Ludovicus Vives, Thomas Waldensis, and *Act 7. Scene 5.others hereafter quoted, who all condemne these Stage-playes as intolerable corruptions. Master Northbro…ke, an eminent learned Divine, in his excellent Treatise against Vaine Playes and Enterludes, Imprinted by Authority, London 1579… writes thus of Stage-playes. *Fol. 28. vid. Ibidem.To speake my minde and conscience plainely and in the feare of God, I say, that Players and Playes are not tolerable nor sufferable in any Common-weale, especially where …he Gospell is preached; (which he there proves at large by sundry testimonies of Fathers, Councels, moderne Divines, and others; and by many arguments,) because they are the occasions of much sinne and wickednesse, corrupting both the mindes and manners of their Actors and Spectators. The Author of the third Blast of Retrait from Playes and Theaters, (once cThe 3. Blast of Retrait from Playes and Theaters. pag. 49.50, 51.a Playerly Play-poet himselfe, till being pricked in conscience for it, he renounced his profession) d…livers his experimentall resolution of Stage-playes in these very tearmes. dIbidem. pag… 43.44.Such doubtlesse is mine opinion of common Playes, that in a Common-weale they are not sufferable. My reason is, because they are publike enemies to vertue and religion, allurements to sinne, corrupters of good manners, meere Brothel houses of Bawdery, and bring both the Gospell into slander, the Sabbath into contempt, mens soules into da…ger, and finally the whole Common-weale into disorder: all which particulars hee there confirmes at large. The title of which Booke is very observable: viz. A second and third Blast of Retrait from Playes and Theaters: the one whereof was sounded by a reverend Bishop, dead long since; the other by a worshipfull and zealous Gentleman now alive: one shewing the filthinesse of Playes in times past; the other the abomination of Theaters in the time present: both expresly proving, that that Common-weale is nigh unto the curse of God, wherein either Players be made of or Theaters maintained: Set forth and allowed by Authority. Anno 1580. A pregnant Authorized evidence of my Minors truth. Master Stephen Gosson, another great Play-poet before his conversion, (for eSee his Schoole of Abuse, the Epistle to the Reader, accordingly.which he afterw…rds shed many a bitter teare;) in his *This is the Title of the Booke.Schoole of Abuse; containing a pleasant invective against Poets, Pipers, Players, Iesters, and such like Caterpillers of a Common-wealth, setting up a …lagge of Defiance against their mischeivous exercise, and overthrowing their Bulwarkes by Prophane Writers, Natur…ll Reason, and Common Experience; printed by Allowance, and Dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney. Anno 1578. And in his Playes Confuted, Dedicated to Sir Francis Walsingham; which Booke is thus intituled: Playes Confuted in five Actions: Proving that they are not to be suffred in a Christian Common-weale, &c. Imprinted at London, about the yeere 1581. doth positively affirme, and copiously demonstrate upon unanswerable grounds; That Stage-playes and common Actors are no wayes tolerable in any Christian, or Well-governed Common-weale; because they occasion much wickednesse, lewdnesse, and disorder, and exce… dingly corrupt the mindes, the manners both of their Auditors and Spectators: as the Perusers of these Tractates shall more at large discerne. The selfe-same Assertion and Conclusion we shall finde, in Master gEdition 4. London 1595. p. 101. to 107.Stubs, his Anatom… of Abuses: in reverend hIn his Works. 1622. London. pars 3. p. 60.B B. Babington, his Exposition upon the 7. Commandement; in Master Iohn Field, his Declaration of Gods Iudgement at Paris Garden; published by Authority. Anno 1583. In a Book intituled, The Church of evill m…n and women, &c. printed by Richard Pinson. Anno 1580. In Matthew Parker Archbishop of Canterbury, De Antiqu. Ecclesiae Brittanicae. Lo…dini 1572. fol. ult. In M. George Whetston, his Mirror for Magistrates of Citties. London 1586. fol. 24. In Holling shead, his Chronicle. Anno 1549. pag. 1028. Numb. 25.30. Col. 2. Anno 1559. Col. 1184. Anno 1576. Col. 1209. In Doctor Iohn Case, Ethicorum. lib. 4. cap. 8. pag. 307.308. & Politicorum. lib. 5. cap. 8. pag. 474.475, 476. where he condemnes all Popular, though he allowes of Academicall Stage-playes, as Doctor Gager, and Doctor Gentiles likewise doe. In reverend B B. Halls Epistles, De…ad. 6. Epist. 6. In the Rich Cabinet. London 1616. pag. 116.117, 118. In Master Samuel Purchas, his Pilgrim. cap. 51. pag. 490. In M. Doctor iSee the Epi…tle to the 2. and 3. Blast of Retrait to Playes and Theaters.Sparkes, his Rehearsall Sermon at Pauls Crosse, the 29. of Aprill. Anno 1579. In the Anonymous Treatise of Dances. London 1581. shewing, that they are dependents or things annexed unto whoredome; wherin it is also proved by the way, that Playes are ioyned and knit together in a ranke with them. In incomparable Doctor Reinolds, his Overthrow of Stage-playes, printed 1597. and reprinted at Oxford, 1629. and in his Preface to the Vniversity of Oxford before his 6. Theses. pag. 45.46. London 1612. In Doctor Iohn White, his Sermon at Pauls Crosse, March 24. 1615. sect. 11. In D^r. Bond of the Sabbath. London 1595. p. 134.135.136.137.138. In I. G. his Refutation of the Apologie for Actors. London 1615. pag 13. & 48. to 60. In Master Iohn Brinsly … his 3. part of the True Watch chapter 11. Abomination 30. pag. 302. In Master Osmund Lake, his Probe Theologicall upon the Comma…dements. London 1612. pag 167. to 272. In Master William Perkins, his Exposition upon the 7. Commandement, in his Workes. vol. 1. p. 60. D. In his Treatise of Conscience. cap. 3. Tom. 1. pag. 538. In his Cases of Conscience. Booke 3. chap. 4. sect. 4. Question 2. vol. 2. pag. 140.141. and in his Commentary on Galathians 3. vol. 2. pag. 239. In I. P. his Covenant betweene God and man: Exposition on the 7. Commandement. In B B. Baily, his Preface to the Practise of Piety. In Master Dod, Master Cleav…r, M. El…on. and B B. Andrewes, on the 7. Commandement. In Master Thomas Gatiker, of the Lawfull use of Lots. pag. 216. In Doctor Layton, his Speculum Be…i Sacri. cap. 45. In Master Iohn Downh…m, his Summe of Divinity. Booke 1. chap. 11. pag. 203. and in his Guide to Godlinesse. lib. 3. chap. 21. sect. 5. In Master Rebert Bolton, his Discourse of True Happinesse. pag. …3.34. In a Short Treatise against Stage-playes Dedicated to the Parliament. Anno 1625. In Richard Rawlidge, his Monster lately found out, &c. London 1628. pag. 2.3.4. In Doctor Ames, De Iure Conscientiae. lib. 5. …p. 34. pag. 271. In Master Richard Brathwait, his English Gentlewoman. London 1631. pag. 53.54. In Doctor Thomas Beard, his Theater of Gods Iudgements. Edition 2. London 1631. Booke 2. chap. 36. pag. 435.436. who in these their severall Writings, unanimously condemne all Stage-playes, as unsufferable pernicious abominations and corruptio…s in a Christian State, which desperately deprave mens mindes and manners, by drawing them on to idlenesse, wantonnesse, prophanesse, whoredome, dissoluten…sse, effemi…acy, and all kinke of vice and wickednesse whatsoever; as these their Writings, with *See D. Featlies Hand-mayd of Devotiō. Edit. 2. pag. 408. M^r. Samuel Ward, his Balme from Gilead. pag. 82. My Perpetuity, &c. p. 586.587. My Censure of M. Cosens, his Cozening Devotions. pag. 90. Lame Giles, his Haulting. p. 1. & The Historicall Narration, annexed to it. pag. 14.sundry others will more largely testifie; which fully suffragate to my present Assumption.

That our godly Divines in their zealous daily Sermons, have likewise declaimed against Stage-playes, both in former and latter times, as these our Writers doe, it is evident, not onelyonly by our owne daily experience; (there being not one godly faithfull Minister where these Play-houses, Playes and Players are admitted, but hath oft cyred out against them in the Pulpit, as the *See the Preface to the 2. and 3. Blast of Retrait from Playes and Theaters.very Schooles, the Tutors of Bawdery and Abuse; The nests of the Devill; the chaire of pestilence, the sinkes of all sin, the pompes and soveraigne places of Satan; the poyson of mens soules and manners, the plagues and overtures of the Commonwealth, &c.) but by the testimony of the Prefacer to the 2. and 3. Blast of Retrait from Playes and Theaters. Anno 1580. who in…ormes us; that in his time many godly Preachers day by day, in all places of greatest resort, did deno…nce the vengeance of God to those, be th…y high or low, that favoured Playes, Theaters, or Players. That in all ages th… most excellent men for learning have condemned them by th… force of eloquence and power of Gods Word: and that many in the principall places of this Land have, and daily, yea openl… doe speake against Playes, Players, and Theaters; as neither warranted by Gods Word, nor liked of Christians, but disallowed utterly, *See here A… 7. thorowout.by Script…re, by reason, by Doctors, by Bishops, by their very Authors themselves, yea and by all other good men, as the enemies to godlinesse, the corruption of the wel-disposed: and so consequently a spe…iall engine to subvert all religion, and to overthrow the good State of that Common-weale wherein they are tolerated. By the suffrage of Master kPlayes Confuted. Action 4. at the close of it.Stephen Gosso…. Anno 1581. who acquaints us… That it is a shame to frequent Playes, impudency to defend them: it is sinne in the Gentiles to set o…t Playes, in Christians it is a presumptuous sinne; because we see better wayes and yet take the worse: we know their corruptions and allow them. All this hath beene sufficiently proved by ancient Writers, and daily revealed by learned Preachers; yet will n…t my Country-men leave their Playes, because Playes are the nourishers of delight. By the expresse averment of M. lIn his Mirror for Magistrates. fol. 2….George Whetston. An. 1586. who records: That godly Divines, in p…blike Sermons, and others in printed Bookes, have (of late) very sharpely invayed against Stage-playes… (unproperly called Tragedies, Comedies and Morals) as the springs of many vices, and the stumbling-blockes of godlinesse and vertue. Truely, the use of them on the Sabbath day, and the abuse of them at all times, with scurrility and unchast convaiance, ministers matter sufficient for them to blame, and the Magistrate to reforme. To which I might adde D. Rainolds, Overthrow of Stage-playes. Epistle to the Reader, & pag. 93.94. I. G. his Apologie for Actors, with sundry others who concurre in this.

That our two famous *Our Vniversities cōdemne Stage-playes.Vniversities have passed the selfe same doome of condemnation against Stage-playes; is most apparant; both by the testimony of M. Stephen Gosso…. Anno 1581. who upon his owne knowledge a…firmes: mPlayes Confuted. Action 5. at the beginning.That many famous men in his time in both our Vniversities, had made open out-cries of the inconveniences bred by Playes; and that they held this opinion; That Playes are not to be suffred in a Christian Common-weale: but (saith he) they doe not thorowly prosecute the same, by printing any full discovery against them, because that …inding the eares of the hearers stopt with the deafe Adder, they begin to shak… the dust of their shooes against them; and follow the Counsell of God himselfe; nMath. 7.6.Which biddeth them, throw no Pearles to Swine. By the testimony of learned D.oOverthrow of Stage-playes p. 151.152, 153. Rainolds, who a…firmes; that the best and gravest D…vines in the Vniversity of Oxford, pCited by D^r. Rainolds, in his Overthrow of Stage-playes. pag. 151.152.condemned Stage-playes by an expresse Statute made in a full Convocation of the whole Vniversity, in the yeere of our Lord 1584. whereby the use of all common Playes was expresly prohibited in the Vniversity, lest the qPejora enim …uvenes facile praecepta audiunt. Seneca Thyestes. Act. 2. fol. 36 Parebit pravi docilis Roman… juventus. Horat. Serm. l. 2. Satyr 2. pag. 201. Inde trahunt juvenilia pectora pestem Mortiferam fiunt que ipsae sine fronte puellae. Mant. Fast. l. 2. & D^r. Rainolds Epistle Dedicatory to his 6. Theses. p. 45.56.yonger sort (who are prone to imitate all kind… of vice) being spectators of so many lewde & evill sports as in them are practised, should be corrupted by them: answerable to which the Vniversity of Cambridge (as I have beene credibly informed) enacted a publike Statute; that no common Actors should be suffred to play within the Precincts of the Vniversities Iurisdiction, for feare they should deprave the Schollers manners. Which Statutes though perchance they are not alwayes so strictly observed as they ought, yet they are oft-times put in execution, by such Vice-chancelers, and Proctors as are most conscionably vigilant and carefull in their places. All which being put together, sufficiently discovers our Vniuersities judgement of common Players and Actors, what unsufferable mischiefes and corruptions they are. If any here Object; That our Vniversities approve of private Stage-playes acted by Schollers in private Colledges: therefore these Playes are not so intolerably evill in their opinions. I answer; rSee D. Rainolds Overthrow of Stage-playes. p. 151.152, 153.that our Vniversities though they tolerate and connive at, yet they give no publike approbation to these private Ent…rlud…s, which are not generally received into all Colledges, but onelyonly practised in some private houses, (perchance once in three or foure yeeres;) and that by the particular Statutes of those houses made in times of Popery, which require some Latine Comedies, for learning-sake onelyonly, to bee acted now and then: Which Playes, as they are composed sI.G. his Refutation of the Apologie for Actors. pag. 17… whose words I here recite.for the most part by idle braines, who affect not b…tter studies; and acted (as I. G.) informes us, by Gentle-bloods, and lusty Swash-bucklers, who preferre an ounce of vaine-glory, oftentati…n and str…tting on the Stage, before a pound of learning; tSee BB. Hall… Epistles. Decad. 6. Epist. 6. and his Qu… Vadis sect. 3.4… 10, 11.or by such who are sent to the Vniversity, not so much to obtaine knowledge, as to keepe them from the common ryot of Gentlemen in these dayes; like little Children whom their Parents send to Schoole, the rather to keepe them from under feet in the streets, which carefull Mothers greatly feare: their spectators for the most part being such as both Poets and Actors are; even such as reckon no more of their studies, then spend-all Gentlemen of their cast-suites: uD. Rainolds Overthrow of Stage-playes, p. 151.152, 153, 154. See Langbecrucius, De Vita & Honestate Ecclesiasticorum. l. 2. c. 2….22. accordingly.So the graver, better, and more studious sort (especially Divines, who by sundry *See here, p…g. 149.150. and Act 7. Scene 3. thorowout.Councels are prohibited from acting or beholding any publike or private Stage-playes, and therefore dare not to a approach them) condemne them, censure them, come not a… them, (especially when they transgresse the rules of modesty and decency as ought times they doe:) Neither are these Playes so frequent now as they have beene in former times, by reason of those mischiefes, xD. Ra…nolds Overthrow of Stage-playes. pag. 24.25.those expences of time and mony which they occasion, and that affinity they have with common Stage-playes, which all ages, all Christian, all prophane Authors of note, and these our Vniversities have solemnely condemned. Descend we from our Vniversities to our Magistrates. The Magistrates of the Citty of London, as yHis Declaration of Gods Iudgement at Paris Garden.M. Iohn Field records, obteined from Queene Elizabeth, of famous memory, about the yeere 1580. that all Heathenish Playes and Enterludes should be banished upon Sabbath dayes: and not long after zRichard Rawlidge, in his Monster lately found out and discovered, or the Scourging of Tiplers. London 162…. pag. 2.3, 4. where this is verbatim related.many godly Cittizens, and wel-disposed Gentlemen of London, considering that Play-houses and aSee M. George Whetston, his Myrror for Magistrates of Citties thorowout, to this pur…ose.Dicing-houses, were traps for yong Gentlemen and others; and perceiving the many inconveniences, and great damage that would ensue upon the long suffring of the same, not onelyonly to particular persons, but to the whole Citty; and that it would also be a great disparagement unto the Governours, and a dishonour to the government of this honourable Citty, if they should any longer continue; acquainted some pious Magistrates therewith, desiring them to take some speedy course for the suppression of common Play-houses and Dicing-houses within the Citty of London and Liberties thereof. Who thereupon made humble suite to Queene Elizabeth and her Privy Councell, and obtained leave from her Maiesty to thrust the Players out of the Citty, and to pull downe all Play-houses and Dicing-houses within their Liberties: which accordingly was effected: and the Play-houses in Gracious-street, Bishops-gate-street, that ni…h Pauls, that on Ludgate-hill, and the White-Friers, were quite put downe and suppressed by the care of these religious Senators. And surely (writes my Author) had all their Successors followed their worthy steps, sinne would not at this day have beene so powerfull and raigning as it is. This memorable Act of suppressing Play-houses by our London Magistrates, by Authority from our vertuous Queene Elizabeth, and her most Sage Privy Counsell, as intolerable grievances and annoyances to our chiefe Christian Metropolis, is an infallible argument, that they *Ne que enim censebant isti faelicem esse rempublicam stantibus maenibus, ruentibus moribus. Ea enim mala quae oriuntur in mor…bus, saevientibus pejora sunt hostibus. August. De Civit Dei. lib. 1. cap. 30.33.all reputed them, unsufferable corruptions in a Christian State. Now as these pious Magistrates demolished Play-houses, and thrust out all Players from within their Liberties, which now have taken sanctuary in some priviledged places, without their Iurisdiction; so divers sage and pious Iustices of Peace, and Magistrates in sundry Citties and Counties of our Realme, have from time to time, punished all wandring Stage-players bBy Vertue of the Statutes of 14. Eliz. c. 5. & 39. Eliz. cap. 4. & 1. Iac. cap. 7.as Rogues, notwithstanding the Master of the Revels, or other mens allowance, who have no cFor 14. Eliz. c. 5.39. Eliz. c. 4 & 1. Iacob. c. 7. give them no authority at all to license any, and this their license is voyd, by the expresse words of 1. Iaco…i. cap. 7.legall authority to license vagrant Players: and in cases where they have had Commissions to act, they have oft denyed them liberty so to doe, within their Iurisdictions, lest their lascivious, prophane, and filthy Playes, should corrupt the people, and draw them on to vice. All which sufficiently demonstrates what our Magistrates thinke of Players and Stage-playes, which our whole State and Kingdome have condemned, as I shall now make evident, by some Acts of Parliament. In d4. Henry 4. cap. 27.4. of Henry the IV. cap. 27. I finde this Act of Parliament made. Item, to eschew many diseases and mischiefes, which hath hapned before this time in the Land of Wales, by many Wasters, Rimours, Minstrels, and other Vacabonds; It is ordained and stablished, that no Master-rimour, Minstrill nor Vacabond be in any wise sustained in the Land of Wales to make commo…thes nor gathering upon the people there. Loe here an ancient Statute banishing all Players, Rimours, and Minstrels out of Wales, as the Authors of many commotions, disorders, and mischiefes. *3. Henry 8. cap. 9.In 3. Henry 8. cap. 9. there was this Law enacted against Mummers. For as much as lately within this Realme, divers persons have disguised and apparelled themselves, and covered their faces with Visours or other things, in such manner as they should not be knowne: and divers of them in a company together, naming themselves Mummers, have come to the dwelling place of divers men of honour, and substantiall persons, and so departed unknowne; whereupon murthers, felony, rape, and other great hurts and inconveniences have afore-time growne, and hereafter be like to come by the colour thereof, if the said disorder should continue not reformed. Wherefore be it enacted by the King our Soveraigne Lord, &c. that if any persons hereafter disguise or apparell them with Visours or otherwise upon their faces, and so disguised or apparelled as Mummers or persons unknowne, by reason of their apparell, associate or accompany them together or apart, and attempt to enter into the house of any person or persons, or assault or affrayes make upon any person or persons in the Kings high-way, or any other place in forme afore disguised, that then the said Mummers, or disguised persons, and every of them shall be arrested by any of the Kings leige people as suspects or Vacabonds, and be committed to the Kings Gaole, there to be imprisoned by the space of 3. monethes without bayle or mainprise, and then to make fine to the King by the discretion of the Iustices, by whom they shall be delivered out of prison. And also it is ordained and enacted by the said Authority, that if any person or persons sell or keepe any Visours or Visour in his house, or in any other place within this Realme af…er the feast of Easter next comming, and after this Act proclaimed, that the said person (that keepeth the said Visour or Visours) shall forfeit to the King our Soveraigne Lord for every Visour 22. s. And further shall suffer imprisonment, and make fine after the discretion of the Iustices afore whom he is thereof convicted by examination or by inquisition, after the course of the Commonlaw. VponUpon the consideration of which Statute, fVna omnium regionum Anglia ejusmodi personatas belluas hactenus non vidit, necquidem vult videre; quando apud Anglos, in re hac prae alijs sapientiores, lex est, ut capitale sit, si quis personas induerit. De Inventor. rerum. …. 5 cap. 2. p. 388.Polydor Virgil writing of Stage-playes and Mummers, records: That onelyonly England of all other Countries did not as yet behold these personated beasts: neither truely will she see them: since among the English, who in this thing are farre wiser then others; there is this law, that it shall be ca…itall for any person to put on a Visour or Players habit: Which Statute, as may be collected from Polydor, (who gThis Booke of his was published, Anno 1499. as appeares by the Epistle Dedicatory.wrote about some 10. yeeres after it) extends as well to Players as Mumme…s. In h2. & 3. Philip and Mary. c. 19.2. & 3. of Philip and Mary. cap. 9. intituled; An Act to avoyd divers licenses of houses wherein unlawfull games be used: upon the humble Petition of the Commons to the Queene in Parliament, it was inacted; That whereas by reason of sundry Licences heretofore granted to divers persons, as well within the Citty of London and the Suburbs of the same, as also in divers other places of the Realme, for the having, maintaining, and keeping of Houses, Gardens, & places for Bowling, Tennise, and Dicing (a game prohibited as unlawfull by sundry other of our Statutes: viz. By 12. Richard 2. c. 6.11. Henry 4. cap. 4. 17. Edward 4. cap. 3.11. Henry 7. cap. 2.19. Henry 7. cap. 12. & 33. Henry 8. cap. 9. where Dice-play is stiled an unlawfull, unprofitable, ungracious, and incommendable game, whereby divers are utterly undone and impoverished of their goods, and by meanes whereof divers and many murthers, robberies, and other hainous felonies were oftentimes committed in divers parts of the Realme. See 17. Edw. 4. c. 3. and thereupon it is severely condemned under great mulcts and punishments; the Dice-players being to forfeit ten pound a peece, and to suffer two yeeres imprisonment, and such as keepe any Dicing-houses to forfeit twenty pound a peece, and to suffer 3. yeeres imprisonment, &c.) for white and blacke, making and marring, and other unlawfull games prohibited by the Lawes and Statutes of this Realme, divers and many unlawfull assemblies, conventicles, seditions and conspiracies had beene daily and secretly practised by idle and misruly persons repairing to such places, of the which robberies and divers misdemeanours had ensued; that for remedy thereof, all Licences, placards or grants made to any person or persons for the keeping of any Bowlingallies, Dicing-houses, or other unlawfull games (in the which number Stage-playes were included) should be utterly voyd, and of none effect. By the i34. & 35. Henry 8. cap. 1. 2. & 3. Edward 6. cap. 1.1. Eliz. cap. 2. & 3. Iacobi. cap. 21.Statutes of 34. & 35. Henry 8. cap. 1. of 2. & 3. Edward 6. cap. 1.1. Eliz. cap. 2. and of 3. Iacobi. cap. 21. we have severall mulcts and penalties inflicted upon such, who should recite or interpret Scripture, or revile the Sacrament or Booke of Common Prayer, or any part thereof; or iestingly and prophanely speake or use the Name of God the Faether, or of Christ Iesus, or of the holy Ghost, or of the Trinity, in any Enterludes, Stage-playes, Rymes or Pageants. And lest any one should hence inferre, that these Statutes (which are principally intended in private Playes and Enterludes, since they condemne and suppresse all publike,) seeme to allow of popular Stage-playes, because they suppresse not Playes themselves, but onelyonly these their abuses; the k14. Eliz. c. 5.39 Eliz. cap. 4.1. Iacobi. cap. 7. & 1. Caroli. c. 1.Statutes of 14. Eliz. cap. 5.39. Eliz. cap. 4.1. Iacobi. cap. 7. & 1. Caroli. cap. 1/ doe in expresse words, condemne all Stage-playes, and common Enterludes, as unlawfull exercises and pastimes; occasioning many great inconveniences, quarrels, blood-sheds, and disorders, to Gods dishonour, and the publike preiudice: For the better suppression of which, the l14. Eliz. c. 5. & 39. Eliz. c. 4.Statutes of 14. Eliz. cap. 5. & 39. Eliz. cap. 4. have branded, have adiudged all common Players of Enterludes, all idle persons using any unlawfull games, all Players and wandring Minstrels, for Rogues, for Vacabonds and Sturdy Beggers; subiecting them to such paines and punishments as other wandring Rogues and Vacabonds are to undergoe; unlesse they should belong to some Baron or other honourable person of greater degree, and be authorized by them to play under their hand and Seale of Armes: which license of theirs exempted them onelyonly from the punishment, not from the infamy, or stile of Rogues and Vacabonds: which Statutes, not so effectually suppressing these Playes and Enterludes as was expected, by reason of the liberty that Barons and other Noblemen had to license Players of Enterludes belonging to them to act their Playes, the m1. Iacobi. c. 7.Statute of 1. Iacobi. c. 7. to remedy this mischiefe, hath declared and enacted: that from thenceforth no authority given or to be given or made by any Baron of this Realme, or any other honourable Personage of greater degree unto any Enterlude Players, Minstrels, Iuglers, Bearward, or any other idle person or persons whatsoever, using any unlawfull games or Playes, to play or act, should be available to free or discharge the said persons or any of them, from the paines and punishments of Rogues, of Vacabonds and Sturdy-beggers in the said Statutes (viz. 14. Eliz. cap. 5. & 39. Eliz. cap. 4.) mentioned; but that they shall be taken within the offence and punishments of the same Statutes, and of this Statute of 1. Iacobi. cap. 7. So that now at this day, by these severall Acts of Parliament yet in force, (resolved and concluded upon after long mature deliberation by our whole State and Kingdome,) all common Stage-playes, are solemnely adiudged to be unlawfull and pernicious Exercises, not sufferable in our State: and all common Stage-players, by whomsoever licensed; to be but Vacabonds, Rogues, and Sturdy-beggers; who ought to suffer nViz. They may be sent to the house of Correction; imprisoned, set in Stockes and whipped, &c. and if they stil persist in Playing after these corrections; they may bee burned with an hot burning Iron of the bredth of an English shilling, with a great Roman R. in the left shoulder, which letter shall there remaine as a perpetuall marke of a Rogue, &c. as these severall Statutes more largely shew: and if this will not reforme them; they may be banished, and after that if they returne againe and persist incorrigible, be executed as Felons.such paines and punishments in every degree, as are appointed to be inflicted upon all other Vacabonds, Rogues, and Sturdy-beggers, by the forenamed Statutes. So that all Magistrates may now justly punish them as Rogues and Vacabonds, where-ever they goe, (yea they ought both in law and conscience for to doe it, since these severall Statutes thus inforce them to it) notwithstanding any License which they can procure, since the expresse words of the Statute of 1. Iacobi. cap. 7. hath made all Licenses unavaylable to free them from such punishments. It is most apparantly evident then by all these promises; that not onelyonly Pagan Writers, Emperours, States, and Magistrates; together with the Primitive Christians, Fathers, and Christian Writers of Forraigne parts; but even our owne domestique Writers, Preachers, Vniversities, Magistrates, and our whole State it selfe in open Parliament, both in ancient, moderne, and present times, have abandoned, censured, condemned Stage-playes and common Actors, as the nSpectacula quoniam maxima sunt irritamenta vitiorum, & ad corrumpendos animos potentissimè valent, tollenda sunt nobis, &c. Lactantius De Vero Cultu… cap. 20.very pests, the corruptions of mens mindes and manners; the Seminaries of all vice, all lewdnesse, wickednesse, and disorder: and intolerable mischiefes in any civill or well-disciplined Common-weale: therefore my Minors truth is past all doubt, we cannot but readily subscribe unto it; and so by consequence to the conclusion too, without any more dispute. How then can we tolerate, or connive at, much lesse applaude, frequent, or iustifie these pernicious depraving Enterludes, which we have all thus condemned as intolerable evils? Our owne Writers, Preachers, Vniversities, Magistrates; yea, our whole Realme and State in Parliament (to whose pChescun home est partie al Act de Parliament. 39. Edward 3.7. Br. Parliamēt. 26.4. Henry 7.10. b. 21. Henry 7, 1. b. 3. Edward 4.2 a. 21. Edw. 4.45. Plowdon. f. 59. a. & 396. b. cum pluribus alijs.Acts we all are parties, as our Law-bookes teach us) have thus publikely branded, censuraed them, as extreamely evill… how can, how dare we then foment them, pleade for them… or resort unto them, as exceeding good? Let us, O let us not be worser then these Heathen, nor wiser then these Christian fore-recited forraigne, and dom…stique Authors, Fathers, Ministers, Magistrates, Princes, Emperours, States and Kingdomes, who have thus abandoned, suppressed Playes and Players for the forenamed mischiefes which they did occasion: but as we cannot but approve, applaud their censure in our judgemēts, so let us submit unto them in our practise; renouncing, abominating all filthy Stage-playes from henceforth and for ever, as the very poyson, the corruption of our mindes and manners, which they will strangely vitiate, as all these conclude, and the examples both of the ancient Greekes and Romanes witnesse. And no wonder is it, that Stage-playes should thus deprave the Actors, the Spectators mindes and manners… hPejora juvenes facile praecepta audiunt. Senec…. Thyestes. Act 2. fol. 36. a Citò flores periunt; citò viol…s & …ilium & crocū pestilens aura corrūpit. Hierom Epist 7. c. 5. Imberbis invenis tandem custode remo…o, Gaudet equis, canibusque, & aprici gramine campi; Cereus in vitium flecti, monitoribus asper; Vtilium tardus provisor, prodigus aeris: Sublimis, cupidus que , & amata relinquere pernix Horace De Ar…e Poet. p. 301.especially those of the yonger sort, who in regard both of their tender yeeres, their wa…t of iudgemēt, of experience; the strength, the vigor of their lusts, and their naturall inclination unto evill, are more easily c…rrupted. For if i1 Cor. 15.33. Scab…e animus laborat, plenus que est malorum succorū ex pravis colloquijs. Iustin Martyr, ad Zenam & Screnum Epistola. Verba enim ad opera viam praebent. Theophylact & Chrysostome in Ephes. 5.3, 4.evill words corrupt good manners, as the Apostle teacheth: there is plenty of these in all our Stage-playes, *See Act 3. Scene 1. accordingly.which are little b…tter then meere b…wd…ry and sc…rrility: If sinfull, lewde companions: if the society of Adulterers, Adulteresses, Whore-masters, Whores, Ru…ians, Panders, Bawdes or such like leprous creatures, can deprave men, kSee Act 4. Scene 1.2. accordingly.as all professe they will; lAt que horu vitiorum spectator…s sedeat homines impij at que mali. Nazianzen ad Seluchum. p. 1063. B. & here Act 4. Scene 1.2. accordingly.what others shall we meete at Theaters, but such lewde filth… persons? If pestilen…, wicked, vitious mLoca non contaminant perse, sed quae in locis …iunt, a quibus loca ipsa co…taminari altercati sumus. Tertul. D… Spectac. lib. cap 8.places will infect mens mindes or manners; What place so dangerous, so leprous, so contagio…s, as the Play-house? which the Fathers stile, nThea…rum P…st…le…ae Cathedra… Clemens Alexand. Paedagogi. lib. 3. cap. 11. Chrysost. Hom. 8. De Paenitentia. Tom. 5. S…l. 750. C. D. See here, pag, 67.68.a Chaire of Pestilence. If adulterous, lasc…vious Spectacles …re apt to poyson, to contaminate the eyes, the soules, the l…ve…, the manners of the Spectator…, oIob 31.1, 7… Prov. 23.33. Isay 33.15. See Act 3… Scene 1. Act 6. Scene ….4. accordingly.as they are: what Shewes, what Spectacles so lewde, so obscene, as those that are daily represented on the Stage? If any, if every of these will severally corrupt men, in company, in places where there is little danger, as too oft they doe; much more will they deprave men pEt si non prosint singula, juncta juvant.when they are all combined, as they are in Stage-playes; qHabent scelerum quicquid possedimus omnes. Claudia… in Rufinum. l. 1. pag. 414. See here, p. 67… 68, 69. accordingly.where all the severall scattered corruptions that usually adulterate mens mindes and manners of themselves alone, unite their forces; their contagio…s into one. But what need I presse any further reasons to prove this cursed effect of Stage-playes, when as our own visible experience abundantly confirmes it? For alas, whence is all that prodigious desperate dissolutenesse, prophanesse, wickednesse, drunkennesse, impudence, lewdnesse, and disorder… that grosse uncleanesse, that exorbitant obliquity, that stupendious degeneracy in life, apparel, speech, gesture,*See my Vnlovelinesse of Lovelockes. & Act. 5. Scene 6. haire, complements, and the intire man? Whence all those severall armies of corruptions, of vices, which infect our Nation? Whence all those severall beastly, diabolicall, audacious, crying, daring sinnes of our rNunc eò gloriantur & qui patrant, & qui patiuntur muliebria, effae minati corpore juxtà at que animo, ne scintillam quidem retinent generis masculini, protinus plectentes cincinnos ornantesque, & cerussa fucoque oblinentes faciem pingentesque, unguentis quo que fragrantes exquisitissimis, Nam & hac utuntur illecebra, exercitati omnibus formae lenocinijs, nec pudet eos marem data opera mutare in faeminam. His parcendum non est, si audimus legem, quae jubet androginum & sexum suum adultera…tem impun… occ…di die ipsa ac hora qu… deprae henditur, cum sit probrosus, patriae que suae & familiae dedecus, atque adeo totius humanae generis. Philo Iud…us, De Specialibu… Legibus. pag. 1059.1060.femalized gotish males, or *Quem praestare potest mulier galeata (de…onsa) pud'orem Quae …ugit à sexu? vires amat… haec tamen ipsa vir nollet fieri: nam quantula nostra voluptas, &c… Iuv…nal Sa…yr. 6. pag. 50.51. See 56.mannish females, who out-stare the very Lawes of God, of Man, of Nature, and send up daily challenges for vengeance to the God of Heaven; Whence all those common Adulterers, Adulteresses, Whore-masters, Whores, Bawdes, Panders, Ru…ians, Rorers, Swearers, Duellers, Cheaters, Fashion-mongers, Fantastiques, Libertines, Scoffers, tRom. 1.30.haters of God, of grace, of holinesse; u2 Tim. 3.3.Despisers and slanderers of all religious men; the Enemies of all modesty and common civility; with such other lawlesse, godlesse persons, who now swarme so thicke of late in the streets of our Metropolis; professing themselves openly to be the very *Thus Polycarpus said to Marcion the Heretique. Agnosco te primogenitū Satanae. Eusebius Eccles. Hist. lib. 4. cap. …4. Irenaeus Contra Haereses. l. 3. c. 3. p. 254.first-borne of Satan, the very factors, and heires apparant of Hell; in that yIsay 3.9.they proclaime their sinne as Sodom in the open view of all men, without the smallest blush, and glory in those infernall filthy practises which should even zPsal 119.28. Nahum. 2.10.melt their soules with sorrow, and *Isay 1.29. c. 31.19. Psal. 44.15. Ier. 3.25. c. 31.19. Ezech. 16.54, 63. c. 36.32. Dan. 9.7, 8.confound their Faces with the deepest shame; bSee Chrysostom. Ho…il. 38. in Matth. accordingly.Are not they all originall from Playes? From Play-houses? have they not all their birth, their growth, their aliment, their complement, their intention, their support from these? Are not these the Nurseries, the Fountaines whence they spring? the food by which they live, they grow, and multiply? the meanes by which they roote and spred themselves? Certainely he is starke blinde that cannot; he most perversly wilfull that will not see it; so apparant is it to the eyes, the consciences of all men who pri… into the cau…es of these grosse diso…ders. Since therefore the dangerous leprosie, the *See August. De Ci…it. Dei. lib. 1. cap. 32.33. & lib. 2. cap. 4. to 14. & cap. 27.29.p…stiferous contagio… of mind-corrupting, manner-depraving Stage-playes is so irrefragably confirmed by reason… by experience, by all the fore-quoted Au…hori…i…s, both Pagan and Christian… forraigne and domestique; I may safely, I may confidently conclude on all the premis…s, (and I hope ere long, to see *Animum nostrum, Patres conscripti, Reipub. curis calentem, pulsavit saepius querela populorum, orta qui…em …x causis levibus, sed graves eructavit excessus. Deplorat enim pro spectacul…um volup ate ad discriminis se ultima pervenisse: ut legum ratione calcata, desp…r…te p…rs…quere…ur inno…ios servilis furor armatus: & quodillis humanitas …ostra le…ae ca…sa pr…stitit, in tristitiam audacia nec plectenda convertit. Quod nos clementiae nostrae solita provisione compriminus, ne paulatim …inendo graviorem vi…dicar… coga…ur offensam. Benigni quippe principis est, non tam delicta vel…e punire quam tol…ere: ne …ut acriter vindicando aestimetur nimius, at leviter agendo putetu… improvidus. Theodoricus Rex. apud Casstodorum Variarum. lib. 1. Epist. 30.our Gracious Soveraigne, or Church, our State, our P…rliament, our Counsell; yea all our Magistrates… Ministers, People, even really concurring with me in this right Christian Assertion;) That Stage-playes deprave the mindes, adulterate the manners both of their Actors and Spectators; and that therefore they are altogether unlawfull, abominable unto Christians; dSemper enim scelera dum non resecantur, increscunt, & in augmentum facinorum prosilitur, quoties secur… impunitate peccatur. Chrysostom. De Absolon persequente Patr…m David Sermo. Tom. 1.not tolerable in any Christian well-ordered Common-weale: Which should cause us all in generall, each of us in particular, as wee either tender the publike or our owne private welfare, for ever to abandon, suppresse, renounce all Stage-playes. eHierom. Epist. 4. cap. 3.Crudelitas ista, p…etas est: This cruelty will be at least our piety, if not our safety, in these dangerous wicked times, that cry for nought but wrath and vengeance, which are likely f1 Thes. 2.16.for to come upon us to the uttermost, (as they did of old upon the *See Scene 19.Iewes, the Greekes and Romanes,) for our resort to Stage-playes and our other sinnes, unlesse our speedy repentance, & Gods great mercy ward them off.

The Players Scourge, Part 1 · Act 6 · Scene 5

p. 447SCENA QVINTA.

SCENA QVINTA.