The Players Scourge, Part 1 · Act 8 · Scene 2
SCENA SECVNDA.
Objection 2.THe second Objection in defence of Playes is this: eSee Haywoods Apologie for Actors.That they are innoxious, pleasant, honest & laudable recreations, which the ancient Greekes and Romans not onelyonly tollerated but applauded: therefore they are tollerable among Christians.
Not no answer this objection with that exclamation of*Commentariorum lib. 29. fol. 113. Volateranus in this very case of Playes: Sed quid nunc de faece hujus saeculi dicam? quum virtutem ac gloriam veterum imitari nullo pacto valeamus, vitia tamen omni studio imitamur. Iam scena ubique renovata est, ubique com…dias specta… uterque sexus, quodque longe impudentius, ipsi Sacerdotes et praesules, quorum erat officium omnino prohibere. Multo igitur severiores in hac parte Graeci, qui omnes suos comicos jamdiu aboluerunt, propter unum Aristophanem, quamvis moribus mi…ime officeret. I answer first;Answer 1. that Playes are no harmelesse, honest or laudable recreations, as all the premised Authorities, and this whole treatise prove at large: this objection therefore is but a begging of the cause in question. Secondly, I answer, that although some Pagan Greekes and Romanes approved Stage-playes at the first in lewd and dissolute times; yet fSee Act. 6. Scene 5. & Act. 7. Scen. 6, 7. Bodinus De Repub. l. 6. c. 1. & Guevara his Diall of Princes, l. 3. c. 43. to 48.at last after long experience of those intollerable mischiefes which they occasioned, enforced by deare bought repentance, they banished them their Commonweales and Territories by publike solemne Edicts, as inconsistent with their safety. And although some vitious histrionicall Roman Emperours, as Nero, Caligula, Heliogabalus, Commodus, and others, reduced Plaies & Plaiers, yet the gravest Romā Emperors, Senators, Philosophers did still oppose and reexile them as the seminaries of all vice and lewdnesse, and intoll…rable mischiefes in the Commonweale: as I have gSee Act. 6. Scen. 3, 4, 5, 6. & Act. 7. Scen. 6, 7.largely proved. Wherefore wee should rather imitate the best, the wisest Pagan Greekes and Romans in abandoning, than the worst or lewdest in retaining Stage-playes. Secondly, the reason why the ancient Pagans, Graecians and Romans tollerated Plaies and Plaiers (as hDe Repub. l. 6. cap. 1. Guevara, Diall of Princes, l. 3. c. 43. p. 509. He…odian Hist. l. 1. p. 29, 31.Bodine and Guevara observe) was not for any good or laudable quality in them, but onelyonly out of superstition and idolatrous devotion to their Idol-gods, iSee Act. 1. Scene 1, 2, 3. & Godwins Roman Antiquities, l. 2. sect. 3. c. 1. to 11.who exacted solemne Stage-playes from them as the most pompous if not serious part of their idolatrous worship: which Playes (saith Guevara) were dedicated to them by the divine sufferance of the living God, who would that their Idol-gods being but laughing-stockes should be served, honoured and feasted by jeastures, mockes and Playes. The truth of this is evident, not onelyonly by that of kPoliticorum lib. 7. c. 17. sect. 77. p. 501, 502.Aristotle; who prohibiting the sight of all unchast fabulous Playes or pictures, and advising the Magistrates to suppresse them; comes in with this exception: Nisi forte apud illos Deos, quibus etiam per leges lascivia illa conceditur, et apud quos sacra facere aetate quidem provectioribus pro se, pro liberis et conjugibus permittitur: by Dionysius Hallicarnasseus, Antiqu. Rom. l. 2. c. 5. & 7. c. 9. by Ci…ero in Verr… ̄, Act. 6. Oratio de Aruspicum Responsis, p. 524, 526, 527. Oratio 3. in Catilinam, p. 452. b. Where he informes us, that Stage-playes were exacted by, and dedicated to the Roman Gods, who were honoured and attoned by them: by Thucidides Historiae, lib. 3. p. 291. Polybius Historiae l… 4, p. 340. C. and Diodorus Siculus Bibl. Hist. l. 4. sect. 5…6, 7. p. 202. to 206. with sundry other Pagans: and by lAct. 1. Scen. 1, 2, 3. See. Herodian Hist. l. 1. p. 29, 31, 55, to 74. & l. 5. p. 267 to 282.St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei lib. 2. c. 4. to 15. & l. 4. c. 20 27. HRaban…s Maurus l. 2. c. 10. with others lAct. 1. Scen. 1, 2, 3. See. Herodian Hist. l. 1. p. 29, 31, 55, to 74. & l. 5. p. 267 to 282.formerly quoted; but by that also which mHistoriae Rom. l. 9. sect. 30. & lib. 7. s… 2, 3. Valerius Max. l. 2. c. 4. sect. 4.Livy and nFastorum l. 6 p. 114.Ovid have recorded of the Romanes: who when as all the Fidlers and Players departed from Rome to Tibur in one discontented company, because the Censors prohibited them to eate in the Temple of Iove, as they had accustomed: the Senate out of their care to religion (there being no man left in Rome to sing and play before their sacrifices) sent embassadours after them to Tibur, requesting the Tiburtines to doe their best endeavour to perswade them to returne to Rome: upon which embassie the Tiburtines sent for these companions into their Senate house, where they first perswaded them to goe backe to Rome; but their intreaties not prevailing, they concluded to make them drunke with wine, oVino (cuius avidum ferme genus est) sopiunt &c. L…vie Ibidem.(of which they were very greedy) and then to put them into carts being drunke, and so to carry them backe to Rome; which they did accordingly. Where upon their returne, the Senate to obtaine their good will, restored them to their former priviledges, and withall aut…orized them to goe freely about the Citty, and to act their solemne Stage-playes every yeare. VponUpon which *See Polychronicon, l. 3. c. 34. fol. 131. Volateranus, Co… ment. l. 29. f. 312 313. I. G. his Refutation of the Apologie for Actors, p. 21, 22. Prudentius Contra Symmachum l. 1.2. & Bib. Patr. Tom. 4. p. 910. &c.Valerius Maximus descants thus: Personarum usus pudorem circumventae temulentiae causam habet. Idolatrie therefore, and the *L. 2. c. 5. sec. 4.pleasing of Idol-Gods being the chiefe, if not the onelyonly cause why these Pagan Greeks and Romans allowed Playes or Players; their example grounded on this reason, pSee 1 Cor. 8. c. 10, 20. to 32. 2 Cor. 6.14. to 18. 1 Ioh. 5.21. See Act. 1. Scen. 1, 2, 3.should rather engage all Christians eternally to detest them, than any wayes to approve them. Thirdly, admit that Stage-plaies were in high estimation among these lascivious vitious Pagans, yet they were qSee Act. 7. Scene 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.evermore execrable among Christians, who have constantly abandoned them from age to age. It is therefore a great dishonour, a shame, if not a sinne for Christians (who r1 Ioh. 2.6. Rev. 14.4. 1 Pet. 2.21, 22. Phil. 3.17. Heb. 13.7 1 Cor. 11.1.should follow the footsteps of their blessed Saviour onelyonly, and those who walke as he hath walked; sLevit. 18.13. Deu…r. 12.29, 30. Matth. 6, 7, 8, 31, 32. Eph. 2.2, 3. c. 4.17, 18, 19. Col. 2.20. 1 Pet. 4…1, 2, 3. 1 Thess. 4.4, 5 See Act. 1. Scene ….abandoning all the fashions, wayes and customes of lewd idolatrous Pagans:) to swerve from Christ and primitive Christians as not worthy the following, in this case of Plaies; and to make the worst… the most lascivious heathens, the quides and patternes of their actions. Alas, where is our Christianitie, our pietie, our obedience or our love to Christ, if we chuse rather to imitate the very vices of the lewdest Pagans than the graces, the holinesse of the best Christians? It was the brand, the infamie of the Iewish Nation; tPsal. 106.35. 2 Chron. 36.14.that they were mingled among the heathen, and learned their workes: and shall it not be much more ignoble and sinfull for us Christians, to justifie the lawfulnesse of Stage-playes from the bare examples of these wicked Pagans? O let it be vMich. 1.10. 2 Sam. 1.20.never be heard in Gath, nor published in Askelon, that any Christians should grow so atheistically prophane, so stupendiously impious, as to preferre the lewd examples of the deboisest heathens, before the unparalleld patternes of their most holy Saviour, and the best of Christians: (alas, what need we run to such precedents of impiety, when as we have better examples nearer hand?) but since all Christian, yea… xSee Act. 6. Scen. 5. & Act. 7. Scene 6, 7the very best of Pagan Greeks and Romanes have utterly condemned and exploded Stage-playes, the very ySee Act. 4. Scene 1, 2, 3.worst of Greekes and Romanes onelyonly approving them by their practise, and that to sinister ends: let us rather imitate the best, the wisest of them in abandoning, than the very worst of them in patronizing, in applauding Stage-playes; for feare we renounce our Christianity, and prove farre worse than the very worst of Pagans ever were.