The Players Scourge, Part 1 · Act 8 · Scene 5
SCENA QVINTA.
THE fifth Allegation in the behalfe of Stage-playes is this:Object. 5. That there is much good history, many grave sentences, much good councell; much poetry, eloquence, oratory, invention, wit, and learning in them. Therefore they must certainly be very good and commendable recreations.
To this I answer first:Answ. 1. that it is true, there is in many Stage-playes many commendable parts of history, poetry, invention, rhetoricke, art, wit, learning; together with much good language, and some sage Counsell too, all which are good and usefull in themselves; gSee Cyprian Epist. l. 2. Epist. 2. Donato; & De Spectaculis lib. Tertullian. De Spectac. lib. c. 27. & here Act. 3. Scene 1. accordingly.but yet there is so much obscenity, scurrility and lewdnesse mixed with them, like deadly poyson in a sugred potion, that these hSee Didacus de Tapia in tertiam partem divi Thomae, Artic. 8. p. 546. accordingly.very good things make the Playes farre worse. The stronger the wine, the better, the sweeter the conserves wherewith poyson is contemperated, the more deadly, the more dangerously it workes; the deeper it sinkes into the veines, and the more greedily and iAnimae pestes …anto periculosius laedunt quanto subtilius serpunt. Concil. Cabilonense 2. Can. 32.insensibly it is swallowed downe. So the more kSee Tapia qua (h) & Mr. Gosson his Schoole of Abuses, and Playes confuted; I.G. his Refutation of the Apologie for Actors, accordingly.witty, the more eloquent and rhetoricall the Playes, the more imperceptibly, the more perniciously & abundantly diffuse they their vices, their obscenities, & poysonful corruptions into the eares and hearts of the Spectators. It is a true saying of judicious Augustine, lValde noxia sunt prava diserta. De Anim… et eius Origine, li…. 2.That evill things elegantly expressed are most pernicious: whence mNam et in hoc et Philosophi, et oratores, et poetae perniciosi sunt, quod incautos animos facile irretire possunt suavitate sermonis et carminum dulci modulatione currentium. Mella sunt venenum …egentia. De Iustitia l. 5. c. 1.Lactantius affirmes; that the heathen Philosophers, Orators and Poets were most hurtfull in this, that they did easily intangle unwary mindes with the sweetnes of their words, and the harmony of their smooth-running verses, which were but as honey covering poyson. The more elegant and witty therefore the Playes, the more dangerous and destructive are they, as the Fathers teach us; there being nothing else but nVenenum sub melle late…. Hi…ron. Epist. 57. Damaso, Tom. 2. p. 195.poyson under the honey of art and eloquence. Secondly, the reason why there is so much history, poetry, sweetnesse, wit and curious language in our Stage-playes, is oSee Tertull. De Spectaculis c. 27. & Didacus de Tapia in tertiam partem Thomae, Artic. 8. p. 546. accordingly; Venena enim non dantur nisi melle circumlita. Hi…ron. Epist. 7. ad Laetam, c. 4.onelyonly to conceale their venome, their contagion, that so the auditors, the spectators may swallow it downe with greater greedinesse, and lesse suspition. pIuvenal. Satyr. 10. p. 92.Nulla aconita bibuntur fictilibus: the Divell and his accursed instruments know full well, that poysoned potions must be infused qNulla… acconita bibuntur Fictilibus; tunc illa time cum pocula sumis Gemmata, et …ato Getinum ardebit in auro. Iuvenal. Ibidem.not into earthen, but into golden Cuppes; that venemous pills must not be tempered with gall or colloquint, but with honey, sweet-meates, or the most luscious conserves, else none will swallow or quaffe them downe: wherefore they temper, they guild over their venemous obscenities and Stage-corruptions (which rSee Didacus de Tapia accordingly.if they came naked on the Stage without these trappings, would be so bitter, so foule and desperately obscene that few Christians could digest them) with these specious outsides, these luscious conserves of wit, of eloquence, invention, learning, history, and the like, that so they may the better countenance, shrowd and vent them to the hurt of others. What Gregory the Great writes of Heretiques: sGregor. Mag. Moral. l. 5. c. 11.Habent hoc haeretici proprium, ut malis bona permisc…ant, quatenus facile sensus audientis illudant. Si enim semper prava discerent citius in sua pravitate cogniti, quod vellent, minimè persuaderent. Ita permiscent recta perversis, ut ostendendo bona auditores ad se trahant; et exhibendo mala, latenti eos peste corrumpant. Or what tDe Libero Ar…bitrio l. 1. c. 4. Bibl. Patr. Tom. 5. pars 3. p. 505. F, G.Faustus Rhegiensis writes of the Divell and malicious poysoners. Diabolus calliditate veteris artificij ac multiformis ingenij, condit blandimenta peccandi. Sic etiam malefici facere solent qui mortiferos herbarum temperant succos in condito aut aliquo dulci poculo nescientibus propinaturi, gustum mentita suavitate componunt, virus amaritudinis obscurant fraude dulcedinis. Provocat primus odor poculi, sed praefocat inclusus sapor veneni. Mel est quod ascendit in labia, fel est quod descendit in viscera. Or what uAdvers. Haereses cap. 35.Vincentius Lerinensis writes of Heretiques: Faciunt quod hi solent qui parvulis austera quaedam temperaturi pocula, prius ora melle circumli…unt; ut incauta aetas cum dulcedinem praesenserit, amaritudinem non reformidet: Quod etiam ijs curae est, qui mala gramina, et noxios succos, medicaminum vocabulis praecolerant, ut nemo ferè ubi supra-scriptum legerit remedium, suspicetur venenum. The same may I truly write of Play-poets and Actors. They cover and sweeten over their poyson, their corruption with eloquence, art and witty inventions, that so they may have the freer vent; and temper their evill with some shewes of good, that so it may more easily circumvent the Auditors, and find freer entrance into their soules. This xDe Spectac. lib. & Epist. l. 2. Ep. 2.Cyprian, this yDe Spectac. c. 27.Tertullian, zDe Gubern. Deil. 6.Salvian, with other aChrysost. Hom. 6, 7, & 38. in Matth. See Act. 6. Scen 3, 4, 5, 12.Fathers, together with bIn 3. partem Thomae Artic. 8. p. 546.Didacus de Tapia, and sundry cBishop Babingtō, Northbrook, Gosson, Stubs, Dr. Reinolds, and others in their forequoted workes.moderne Authors testifie: heare but Tertullian for them all, who writes thus of the pleasure, the eloquence and good ingredients that are oft in Playes. dDe Specta…. lib. cap. 27.Nemo venenum temper at felle et hellebora, sed conditis pulmentis et bene saporatis, et plurimum dulcibus id mali injicit. Ita diabolus letale quo conficit, rebus Dei gratissimis ac acceptissimis imbuit. Omnia itaque illic (speaking of the Theatre) seu fortia, seu honesta, seu sonora, seu canora, seu subtilia proinde habe ac si stillicidia mellis de libalun…ulo venenato; nec tanti gulam facias voluptatis, quanti periculum. All the eloquence and sweetnesse therefore that is in Stage-playes, is but like the drops of honey out of a poysoned limbecke, which please the pallate onelyonly, but destroy the man that tastes them. So that I may well compare our Stage-playes to Apothecaries Gallie-pots: eLactantius De Falsa Sapientia, lib. 3. c. 15.Quorum tituli habent remedia, pyxides venena: which have glorious soothing titles without, but poysons onelyonly within. Thirdly, though all these good things are in Stage-playes now and then, yet they are there onelyonly as good things perverted, which prove fMatth. 5.13. Luke 14.34, 35.worst of any. Nothing is there so pernicious gVincentius Lerinensis Advers. Haeres, c. 23, 24.as good parts, or a good wit abused: as wit, art, eloquence and learning cast away upon an amorous, prophane, obscene lascivious subject; on which whiles many out of a vaine-glorious humour have spent the very creame and flower of their admired parts, I may truly affirme with Salvian, hPraefatio in lib. 1. de Gubern. Dei p. 2.Non tam illustrasse mihi ipsa ingenia, quàm damnasse videantur: they seeme to me not so much to have illustrated as damned their much applauded wits and parts, in being acutely elegant in such unworthy sordid theames, which modest e…es would blush to reade, and chast tender consciences bleede to thin…e of. As therefore Ovids transcendent poetry, Martials prophane and scurrilous pande…ly wit, Catullus, Tibullus, and Propertius their eloquence, made their obscene lascivious poëms farre more pernicious, not more chast and commendable; so the elegancy, invention, stile and phrase of Stage-playes, is onelyonly an argument of their greater lewdnesse, not any probate of their reall goodnesse. What therefore iAdversus Haereses lib. c… 23, 24.Vincentius Lerinensis writes of Origen and Tertullian, that their transcendent abilities of eloquence, learning and acutenesse, made their erronious Tenents farre more dangerous: the same wee may conclude of Playes and Poets; the more witty and sublime their stile or matter, the more pernicious their fruites: for then,
kProspe… De Prudentia lib.Viperium obducto pot…mus melle venenum.
We drinke downe deadly poyson in a honey potion; which proves honey onelyonly in the pallate, but gall in the bowells, death in the heart; as the most delightfull amorous Stage-playes alwayes doe.