The Players Scourge, Part 1 · Act 6 · Scene 16
SCENA DECIMA-SEXTA.
THe 16. pernicious fruit of Stage-playes is, the incorporating of men into lewde, deboist, ungodly company, gGrex totus in agris Vnius scabie …adi…, &c. Iuvenal. Satyr. 2. N…l tam noce… homini quam m…a societas. Eusebius, De M…rte Hieron. ad Damasum … pistola. This Mahomet himselfe knew: Therefore in his Alcaron, Azoara. 21. p. 76. he writes thus: Nolite vos male geremibus associare, &….which oft-times proves the utter ruine of their soules, their bodies, credits and estates. How many Gentlemen are there now living, who by frequenting Stage-playes, have got such intimate hSee Act 4. Scene 1.2.acquaintance with Adulterers, Whore-masters, Adulteresses, Panders, Whores, Bawdes, Parasites, Rookes, Cheaters, Drunkards, Ruffians, Rorers, Duellers, Quarrellers, Fantastiques, Idle-bees, Fashion-mungers, Stage-players, Pursers, and the like pernicious creatures, that they have never beene able to shake them off againe, till they have beene plunged over head and eares in sinne and villany, till they have wasted their bodies, their estates, their credits, and lost themselves past all recovery? How many are there now in England that even in this respect have cause iQuis te r…pit impetus? ut ad horam gaudeas unde semper doleas; ut videas semel, quod vidisse millies paenit…at. Petrarch. De Remedio Vtrius que Fortunae. lib. 1. Dial. 30.to rue the day that ever they beheld a Stage-play? How many tender carefull Parents are there who may with watry eyes and bleeding hearts cry out, that Stage-playes have beene the utter overthrow of their beloved Children, by ensnaring them in the bonds of dissolute, gracelesse, prodigall, unchaste companions, the chiefest instruments to make men wicked; and irrecoverably deboist? kQuaeritur quidem quae res malos principes facit. Iam primum nimia licentia, deinde rerum copia; amici prae…erea improbi, satellites detestādi, eunuchi avarissimi, aulici vel stulti vel detestabiles, & (quod negari non po…est) …erum publicarū ignorantia. Nihil est difficilius quam benè imperare. Colligunt enim se quatuor vel quinque atque unum consiliū ad decipiendū imperatorem capiunt; dicunt quid probandum sit. Imperator qui domi clausus est, vera non novit; cogitur hoc tantum scire quod illi loquuntur; facit judices quos fieri non oportet, amovet à republica quos debeat obtinere. Quid multa? ut Diocletianus ipse dicebat, Bonus, cautus, optimus venditur: Imperator. Vopiscus. Ibidem. pag. 392.Flavius Vopiscus, in the life of Divus Aurelianus, inquiring into the severall causes that make Princes evill; reckons wicked friends, and detestable or foolish Courtiers and companions as the chiefe of all the rest: intimating, that nothing is more contagious, more pernicious then evill company: of whom we may truely say as Seneca doth of an over-indulgent friend. lDe Beneficijs. lib. 2. c. 14.Ille amando me occidit; that they kill men whiles they love them. It is storied of mCarinus homo omnium contaminatissimus; amicos optimos quosque religavit; pessimum quemque elegit aut tenuit. Mimis, meretricibus, pantomimis, cantoribus, atque lenonibus, palatium implevit. Hominibus improbis plurimum detulit, …osque ad convivium semper vocavit. Flavij Vopisci Carinus. pag. 446.447.Carinus the most defiled of men; that when hee came to the Empire hee abandoned all his best friends, retaining and choosing none but the very worst of all for his companions: Whereupon hee filled his Court with Stage-players, Harlots, Iesters, Singers, Bawdes; and committed most of his affaires to wickedmen, whom hee alwayes invited to his Feasts. This and no other doe our common Play-haunters; they abandon all religious, modest, sober, chaste, and studious acquaintance: they fill their houses, their chambers with Poets, Stage-players, Whore-masters, Panders, Iesters, Drunkards, Whores, Bawdes, Rookes, Sycophants, who hang like Burres, like nDum juvat & vultu ridet fortuna sereno, Indelibatas cuncta sequuntur …pes: At simul intonuit fugiunt, nec noscitur ulli Agminibus comitum qui modo tectus erat. Ovid. Tristiū. lib. 1. Eleg. 4. pag. 140.Horsleeches upon them, till th…y have suckt them drie, and then they vanish. These are their onelyonly counsellers, companions, guests, and bosome friends, who prove at last their deadliest enemies. This therefore should lesson all good Christians to refraine from Stage-playes, for feare they incorporate them into evill company, who will draw them by degrees to any wickednesse. oConfessionū. lib. 6. cap. 8. Se… cap. 7.S. Augustine relates a memorable Story of one Alipius, a deare friend and convert of his, whom he himselfe had disswaded from frequenting Theaters and Cirque-playes; who. *Cum enim aversaretur, & detestaretur talia; quidam ejus amici & condiscipuli, cùm fortè de prandio redeuntibus obvius esset, recusantē vehementer & resistentem familiari violentia duxerunt in Amphitheatrum crudeliū & funestorum ludorum di… bus, haec dicentem: Si corpus meum in illum locum trahitis, nunquid & animum & oculos meos in illa spectacula potestis intendere? Adero ita que ut absens, ac sic, & vos & illa superabo. Quibus auditis, illi nihilo secius eum adduxerunt secum id ipsum fortè explora…e cu…ientes, utrum posset efficere. Quo ubi ventum est, & sedibus quibus po…uerunt, locati sunt, servebant omnia immanissimis voluptatibus. Ille clausis foribus oculorum, interdixit animo ne in tanta mala procederet at que utinam & aures obturavis…et. Ibid…mbeing sollicited by his friends and fellow Schollers, who met him as they returned from dinner, to goe along with them to a Sword-play, did at first earnestly refuse and withstand them; and being at last drawne along by them to the Amphitheater with a familiar violence, hee told them by the way, that though they should drag his body to that place, and set it there, yet they should never seriously fix his minde or eyes upon these Spectacles; I therefore (said hee) will bee absent whiles I am present, and so I will overcome both you and them. Notwithstanding these words they drew him along with them to the Amphitheater, perchance to try him, whether hee could doe as hee hath said. Where when they were come, and every man had placed himselfe in such a seate as hee could get, all things growing hot with most cruell pleasures; Alipius shutting his eye-lids, forbade his minde, that it should not proceed on into so great evills: and I would to God (writes Saint Augustine) hee had likewise stopped his eares. For when as a great shout of all the people, occasioned by some pNam quodam pugnae casu, cum clamo… ingens totius populi vehementer cum pulsasset, curiositate victus, & quasi paratus, quicquid illud esset, etiam visum contemnere & vincere, aperuit oculos, & p…rc…ssus est graviori vulnere in a…ima, quàm ille in corpore, quem cern…re concupivit, ceciditque miserabilius quàm ille, quo cadente factus est clamor; qui per ejus aures in…ravit, & reseravit ejus lumina ut esset qua feriretur & deij…eretur, a…dax adhuc potius, quàm fortis animus, & eò infirmior quo de se praesumpserat, qui debuit de …e… Ibidem.accident of the fight had vehemently beaten his eares, being overcome with curiosity, and withall being as it were prepared to contemne and overcome the sight what-ever it were, hee opened his eyes; and forth-with hee was smitten with a more grievous wound in his soule, then hee whom hee desired to see was in his body, and hee fell more miserably then hee, whose fall occasioned the shout, which entred thorow his eares, and opened his eyes, that so there might bee some thing whereby his bold, rather then as yet valiant minde (and so much the more weake, by how much hee had the more presumed of himselfe, who ought to have relied on God,) might bee smitten and cast downe. qVt enim vidit illum sanguinem, imm… nitatem simul ebibit, & non se avertit, sed fixit asp…ctum, & hauriebat furias, & nesciebat, & delectabatur s…ele…e certaminis & cruenta voluptate inebriebatur. Et non erat jam ille qui venerat, sed unus de turba ad quam venerat, & ver…s eorum socius à quibus adductus era…. Quid plura? Spectavit, clamavit, exarsit, abstulit inde secū insaniam, qua stimularetur redire, non tantum cum illis à quibus prius abstractus est, sed etiam prae illis, & alios trahens. Et inde tamen manu validissima & misericordissima eruisti eum tu, & docuisti non sui habere, sed tui fiduciam, sed longe postea. Ibidem.For as soone as he saw that blood, he dranke in cruelty together with it, and did not turne away himselfe, but fixed his eyes, and drew in fury; hee knew not the danger, and yet was delighted with the wickednesse of the combate, and was drunken with the bloody pleasure. And now hee was not the same man that hee came thither, but one of the company to which hee was come, and a true companion of the…rs by whom hee was brought thither. What shall I say more? Hee beheld, hee shouted, hee grew outragious, he carried away madnesse with him …rom thence, whereby hee was excited to r…turne thither againe, not onelyonly with those by whom hee was first drawne away, but likewise before them, and drawing along others with him. And yet thou O Lord hast pluckt him …hence with a most powerfull and mercifull hand, and hast taught him not to have any confidence in himselfe, but in thee; but this a long time after. From this experimentall Story thus related by S. Augustine, which comes punctually to our purpose, wee may learne many good instructions: First, that lewde companions are very importunate sollicitors to draw others to Playes, and Play-houses, (as Panders, Whore-masters, and Yongsters now are, to draw yong Gentlewomen and others whom they would make their prey) that so they may corrupt and lead them on to greater evils with more facility. Secondly, that the best remedy to avoyd their importunate sollicitations, rFacilius est initia illorum prohibere quā impetum regere. Sene…a. Epist. 85. vid. Ibidem.is peremptorily to withstand them, and not to yeeld one inch unto them. Thirdly, that it is sQuis unqua… mortaliū juxta viperā securos somnos capit? quae etsi non percutiat, certè sollicitar. Securius est perire non posse, quā juxta periculū non perisse. Hierom. Epist. 47. cap. 1.2.exceeding dangerous for good Christians, especially for new converted Novices, to be drawne by any importunities or perswasions of friends or lewde companions, to a Play-house, though it be against their wills and judgements, though they goe thither with a prejudicate opinion against Playes, & with a peremptory resolution not to minde them, much lesse to be overcome or tempted by them, as this Alipius did. Fourthly, that the beholding of one lascivious Stage-play, though with prejudice, disaffection, and an absolute resolution against it, is able to corrupt and vitiate the very best spectators that resort unto it: how much more then will it deprave those lewde Play-haunters who flocke unto it with delight, and are almost daily in the Play-house? Fiftly, that the sight of one onelyonly Stage-play, though with a prepossessed opinion against it, tQuippe ex volunta…e perversa facta est libido, & dum servitur libidini facta est consuetudo, & dum consuetud…ni non resistitur facta est necessitas. Augustin. Confes. l. 8. c. 5.will draw men onto frequent, applaud, and admire others. Sixtly, that those who are once corrupted by seeing Stage-playes, uI…ti igitur posteaquam simplicitatem substantiae suae onusti & immersi vitijs perdiderunt, ad solatium calamitatis suae, non desinunt perditi jam perdere, & depravati errorem pravitatis intundere. Minucius Felix. Octavius. p. 85.are industrious to seduce, and draw others to them; xQuanto autem non nasci melius …uit, quàm numerari inter publico malo natos? Seneca De Cl… menti…. lib. 1. cap. 18.whereas it were farre better for such men not to have beene borne, then to be thus enrolled among the number of those, who are borne for the publike hurt of others. Seventhly, that those who are misled by Stage-playes, though they be civill, or religious men, yFacilis descensus averni, Sed revocare gradum superas que evadere ad auras, Hoc opus, hic labor est. Virgil. lib. 6. AE…idos. pag. 222.are seldome speedily reclaimed from them; and that onelyonly by the strong arme and powerfull hand of God, not by any strength or goodnesse of their owne. Lastly, *Master Brinsly, in his True Watch… part. 3. cap. 11. Abomination 30. pag. 302. accordingly.that God commonly with-drawes his preventing and perfecting grace, from such who runne to Stage-playes, so that sinne and Satan may easily surprise them. All which are naturally deduced from this History of Alipius; and should teach yong Gentlemen and others, as they tender their owne safety, and the eternall welfare of their owne and others soules; zMoses… seniori …opulo porcis vesci prohibuit; significans, non oportere eos qui Deum invocant, cum impuris versari hominibus, qui porcorum instar corporalibus voluptatibus, obscaenisque cibis, & impudicis titillationibus prurientes, damnosa Veneris voluptate perfunduntur. Clemens Alexandrinus. Paedagogi. lib. 3. cap. 11.to avoyd the company o… Play-haunters, yea peremptorily to withstand the very temptations and allurements unto Stage-playes, and never to come neere a Play-house, though it be with strongest prejudice, vigilancy & resolution against the corruptions, vices, abominations that attend it. How dangerous ill company are, especially a… Play-houses where the most are such; how apt they are to insinuate into others by this vice of Stage-playes, I have at large declared in a former Scene, (viz. Act. 4. Scene 1.2. I shall therefore close this Scene with this 41. Play…encountring Argument.
That which intangles men in, incorporates them into the company, the acquaintance, of dissolute, lecherous, deboist, prophane, ungodly, vitious persons, who leade them to destruction, aMalus enim pessimum prae omnibus malis homo. Vnaquae que bestia habet proprium malum; homo autem in se malus, omnia habet in se mala: sic pejor est Diabolo. Chrysostom. Homil. 43. in Matth. & A…exand…r Fabritius. Destructorium Vitiorum. pars 5. cap. 19.must needs be sinfull, unlawfull, abominable unto Christians, intolerable in any Christian State. Witnesse, Act. 4. Scene. 2.
But this doe Stage-playes; as the premises, S. Chrysostome. Hom. 7.17. & 38. in Matth. & Act. 4. Scene 1.2. doe largely testifie.
Therefore they must needs be sinfull, unlawfull, abominable unto Christians, intolerable in any Christian State.