The Players Scourge, Part 1 · Act 8 · Scene 6
SCENA SEXTA.
THE 6. Objection in the defence of Stage-playes is this;Object. 6. which is as lSee Mr. Stubs his Anatomy of Abuses, p. 104. & I.G. his Refutation of the Apology for Actors, p. 60, 61.common as it is prophane: That Stage-playes are as good as Sermons; and that many learne as much good at a Play as at a Sermon: therefore they cannot be ill.
To this I shall answer first in the words of Mr. Philip Stubs, Answ. 1.and of I. G. in his Refutation of the Apologie for Actors, p. 61. Oh blasphemy intollerable! Are obscene Playes and filthy Enterludes comparable to the word of God the foode of life, and life it selfe? It is all one as if they had said; Baudry, Heathenry, Paganisme, Scurrilitie and Divelry it selfe is equall with Gods word: or that Sathan is equipollent with the Lord. God hath ordained his word, and made it the ordinary meanes of our salvation: the Divell hath inferred the other as the ordinary meanes of our destruction. God hath set his holy word and Ministers to instruct us in the way of life; the Divell instituted Playes and Actors to seduce us into the way of death. And will they yet compare the one with the other? If he be accursed, mIsay 5.20.that calleth light darknesse and darknesse light; truth falshood, and falshood truth; then à fortiori… is hee accursed that saith, Playes and Enterludes are equivalent with Sermons, or compareth Comedies & Tragedies with the word of God; whereas there is no mischiefe, almost, which they maintaine not. Thus they. But if Stage-playes be as good as Sermons (as many prophane ones, who heare and reade more Playes than Sermons, deeme them;) then Players certainly by the selfesame argument, are as good as Preachers: and if this be so, what difference betweene Christ and Belial, Play-houses and Churches, Ministers and Actors? yea why then doe we not erect new Theaters in every Parish, or turne our Churches into Play-houses, our Preachers into Actors, since they are thus parallels in their goodnesse? But what prodigious and more than stygean profanesse is there in this comparison? Who ever paralleld hell with heaven, vice with vertue, darknesse with light, Divels with Angels, dirt with gold? yet there is as great a disparity in goodnesse betweene Playes and Sermons, as there is in these; the one being evermore reputed the nRom. 15.29. Luke 2.10, 11chiefest happinesse, the other the *See Act. 6. Scene 5.greatest mischiefe in any Christian State. But this part of the objection is too grosse to confute, since the very naming of it is a sufficient refutation. I come therefore to the second clause: That many learne as much good at Playes, as at Sermons. And I beleeve it too; for had they ever learn'd any good at Sermons, (which would be altogether needles, if so much goodnesse as is objected might be learn'd from Playes) they would certainly have learned this among the rest, never to resort to Stage-playes. The truth then is this; most Play-haunters learne no good at all at Sermons; not because Sermons have no goodnesse for to teach them, but because they are unapt to learne it: partly, pSee Act. 6. Scene 12. & 20 throughout.because they seldome frequent Sermons, at leastwise not so oft as Playes: partly, because their eares are so dull of hearing, and their mindes so taken up with Play-house contemplations whiles they are at Church, that they mind not seriously what they heare: partly because the evill which they learne at Playes, overcomes the good they learne at Sermons, and will not suffer it to take root within them: and partly, because Playes and Sermons are so incompatible, that it is almost impossible for any man to receive any good at all from Sermons, whiles hee is a resorter unto Stageplayes: Well therefore may they learne as much goodnesse from Playes as Sermons, because they never learned ought from either, but much hurt from both,qLuke 2.34. Rom. 9.32, 33. 2 Cor. 2.15, 16, Heb. 6.7, 8. the very word of God being a stumbling blocke, a meanes of greater condemnation, yea a savour of death unto death to such unprofitable hearers who reape no grace nor goodnesse from it. But to passe by this, if there be so much goodnesse learn'd from Playes, I pray informe me who doe learne it. If any, then either the Actors or Spectators: For the Actors, their goodnesse verily is so rSee Act. 4. Scene 1.little, that it is altogether to be learnt as yet; and if ever they chance to attaine the smallest dram of grace (as they are never like to doe whiles they continue Players) it must be then from Sermons onelyonly, not from Playes, which make them every day worse and worse, but cannot possibly make them better. For the Spectators, they can learne no good at all from Playes, because (as sScenici nec unquam eos qui delinquant cor…igere in animum inducunt, ne… si velint, id possint. Mimica enim eorum ars natura tantummodo ad nocendum comparata est. Epist. l. 3. Ep. 336. Bibl. Pa…r. Tom. 5. pars 2 p. 613. AIsiodor Pelusiota long since resolved it) Players and Stageplayes can teach thē none. Never heard or read I yet of any whom Stage-playes meliorated or taught any good: all they can teach them, all they learne from th…m is but some scurrill jests, some witty obscenities, some ribaldry ditties, some amorous wanton complements, some fantastique fashions, some brothel-house Courtshippe to wooe a strumpet, or to court a whore: these are the best lessons these schooles of vice and lewdnesse teach, or these their schollers learne: I shall therefore close up this objection with that of tAnatomy of Abuses, p. 104, 10….Mr. Stubs and uRefutation of the Apology for Actors, p. 60, 61, 62.I. G. in their forequoted places. If you will learne to doe any evill, skilfully, cunningly, covertly or artificially, you neede goe no other where than to the Theatre. If you will learne falshood, cosenage, indirect dealing… if you will learne to deceive, to play the hypocrite, sycophant, parasite and flatterer: if you will learne to cogge, lie and falsifie; to jest, laugh, and fleere; to grin, nodde, and mow; to play the vice, to curse, sweare, teare, and blaspheme both heaven and earth in all kindes and diversities of oathes: if you will learne to play the bawd or curtesan; to pollute your selfe, to devirginate maides, to deflowre wives, or to ravish widdowes by enticing them to lust: if you will learne to drabbe and stabbe, to murther, kill and slay; to picke, steale, rob and rove: if you will learne to rebell against Princes, closely to carry treasons, to consume treasures, to practise idlenesse, to sing and talke of filthy love and venery; to deride, quippe, scorne, scoffe, mocke and floate; to flatter and smooth: to play the Divel, the swaggerer, the whoremaster, the glutton, the drunkard, the injurious or incestuous person; if you will learne to become proud, haughty and arrogant: Finally, if you will learne to contemne God and all his lawes, to care neither for heaven nor hell, and to commit all kinde of sinne and mischiefe with secrecie and art, you neede not goe to any other schooles: for all these good examples may you see painted before your eyes in Enterludes aud Playes. These, and these onelie are the great good instructions that either Actours or Spectatours learne from Stage-plaies; which make them fit schollers only for the Divel, and traine them up for hell, xSee Act. 6. Scen. 12. & 20.where all Play-house goodnesse (unlesse God grants merciemercy and sincere repentance) ever ends.