The Players Scourge, Part 1 · Act 6 · Scene 7
SCENA SEPTIMA.
THe 7. consequent or effect of Stage-playes, is luxury, drunkennesse, and excesse: From whence this 33, Argument may be raysed.Argument 33.
That which is an immediate occasion of, an ordinary temptation unto luxury, drunkennesse, and excesse, is utterly unlawfull unto Christians: intolerable in any Common-weale.
But such are Stage-playes: as *Quis enim non luxuriosum ac nequam putet eum, qui scenicas artes domi habeat? Atqui nihil refert, utrumne luxuriam solus domi, an cum populo exerceas in Theatro. Lactan…ius, De Vero Cultu. cap. 21. pag. 508.Lactantius, sHinc enim erat, & ex hac providentissima patriae charitate veniebat, quod idem ipse vester Pontifex Maximus Nasica, à Senatu temporis illius quod saepe dicendum est electus, sine ulla Sententiarum discrepantia vir optimus, caveam Theatri Senatum construere molientem, ab hac dispositione & cupiditate compescuit: persuasitque oratione gravissima ne Graecam luxuriam viribus patriae moribus paterentur obrepere, & ad virtutem labefactandā, enervandā que Roma…am peregrinae consentire nequitiae: tantū que authoritate valuit, ut ejus verbis commota senatoria providen…ia etiam subsellia quibus, ad horam congestis in ludorum spectaculo jam uti Civitas caeperat, deinceps pro…ibere… apponi. August. D… Civit. Dei. lib. 1. …. 31. See c. 32.33.Augustine, Scipio Nasica, and the ensuing Authors testifie.
Therefore they are utterly unlawfull unto Christians, intolerable in any Common-weale.
The Major is evident by the 1 Pet. 4.3.4. which informes us, That the time past of our lives may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousnesse, lusts, excesse of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries; wherein they thinke it strange that you run not with th…m into the same excesse of riot, speaking evill of you: who shall giuegive an account to him who is ready to iudge both quicke and dead. By Titus 2.11.12. The grace of God which bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men; teaching us, that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, right…ously, and godly in this present world. By Ephes. 5.18. And be not drunke with wine wherein is excesse. By Luke 21.34. Take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be overch…rged with surfetting a…d drunkennesse, and cares of this world, and that day come upon you at unawares: by sundry such like Scriptures to this purpose which I have formerly quoted in *Healthes Sicknesse.another Treatise: And likewise by the tNihil est tam mortiferum ingenij… quam luxuria: Luxuriosus adolescens peccat, luxuriosus senex insanit. Seneca. Controvers. l… 1. Pro…. p. 967. & lib. 2. Con…r. 4. p. 1054.dangerous quality of these effeminating soule-destroying sinnes, uSaevior armis Luxuria incū bit victumque ulciscitur orbem. Iuvenal. Satyr. 6. p. 52.which are more pernicious to a Common-weale, then pestilence or warre it selfe; *Luxuries perdulce malum quae dedita semper C…rporis arbitrijs hebetat caligin… sensus, Membraque Circaeis effaeminat acrius herbis. Blanda quidem vultu, sed qua non tetrior ulla Interius; fucata genas & amicta dolosis Illecebris, torvos auro circumlinit Hydros. Illa voluptatum multos innexuit hamis. Claudian De Laudib… Stiliconis. lib. 2… pag. 185. here pag. 167.m…re fatall to mens soules and bodies, then any Circean charme.
The Minor is most apparant: First, from the originall invention, and dedication of Stage-playes; which were first of all devised by a company of drunken Grecians in honor of their Devil-Idoll Bacchus (the God of wine, of drunkennesse, and all excesse;) to whom Playes, and Play-houses were consecrated at the first; as yAthenaeus Dipnosoph. lib. 2. cap. 1. Plutarchi Romanae Quaest. Quaest. 107. Tertullian De Spectaculis. cap. 10. Cyprian De Spectaculis Lactantius De Vero Cultu. l. 6. c. …0. Eusebius, De Praep. Evang. l. 2. c. 11. Polydor Virgil. De Inventoribus Rerum. l. 1. c. 10. AEneae Silvij Historia. De Asia Minori. c. 7…. p. 371… See Buleng…rus De Theatro. l. 1. c… 1.Historians and Fathers certifie us: Whence Tertullian stiles the Theater, zIta que Theatru… Veneris, Liberi quo que domus e…t. Nā & alios lu…os scen…cos Liberali… proprie voc…bant, praeter qu… Libero devotos, quod sunt Dionysia penes Graecos, etiàm à Libero institutos. Nihil jam de …usa vocabuli: quum rei causa idololatria sit. Nam & cum promiscuè Ludi Liberalia vocarentur honorem Liberi patris manifestè sonabant. Libero enim à rusticis primò …iebant ob beneficium quod ei adscribunt pro demonstrata gratia vini. Et est plane in artibus scenicis Lib…ri & Veneris patrociniū, quae privata & propria sunt scenae. De gestu & corporis flexu, mollitiem Veneri & Libero immolant: illi per sexum, illi per fluxum, disolutis. Tertul. De Spectac c. 5. to 11. Isiodorus Originum lib. 1 cap 51. vid. Ibidem.the house or temple of Bacchus; because Stage-playes (which were formerly stiled Liberalia) were as *Nonnulli prae…ere… Satyros Baccho a…jungunt, qui in saltationibus, & ludis tragicis risus, jocique oblectamenta Deo. c…ean…. D…nique ut Musae liberalis disciplinae bonis illum juvant & demulcent, ita Satyri …udicris, & ad risum compositis gestibus & actionibus, vitam Dionysio beatam Gratijsque delibutam reddant… Quin thymelicos etiam ludos hic instituit, Theatra exhibuit, & Musicorum acroamatum Scholas instituit. Diodorus Siculus. Bibl Hist. l. 4. sect. 5. pag. 203.204. Isiodor Hisp. Orig. l. 18. c. 51.Diodorus Siculus, Isiodor Hispalensis, and others record, instituted by, & consecrated unto Bacchus, the Idol, the author of all intemperance. If therefore their very inception were thus from drunkennesse, and excesse; their progresse questionlesse must bee such. Secondly, it is euident from the testimony, the experience of former ages; who not onelyonly *Livy Rom Hist. l. 7. sect. 3.4. Valerius M…ximus. l. 2. c. 4. Plutarch. De Gloria Atheniensium lib. Cicero De Republica. l. 4. Corn…lius Tacitus. Annal. l. 14. c. 2.3. Marcus Aurelius. Epist. 12. to Lambert. Elij Lamprid…j Heliogobalus. Tertul. & Cyprian. De Spectac. l. Clem. Alex. Paedag. l. 3. c. 11. Arnobius Advers. Gentes. l. 7. p. 230. to 242. Lactantius De Vero Cultu. c. 20. Basil. Hexaëm. l. 4. Nazianzen. ad Seleucū. p. 1063.1064. Chrysost. Hom. 6.7. & 38. in Matth. Hom. 62. ad Pop. Antioch. August. De Civit. Dei. … 1. c. 32.33. l. 2. c. 3. to 30. Salvian. l. 6. De Guber. Dei. S. Asterij. Homilia in Fest. Kalendaru…. Bibl. Patrum. Tom. 4 p. 706. Ioannes Saresberiensis. De Nugis Curialium. l. 1. c. 7.8. D Hackwell, in his Apologie. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 2.3, 4.enumerate Stage-playes among the exc…sses, the luxury both of the Greckes and Romanes, as the Fathers and Authors in the margent testifie… but likewise make them the chiefe occasions of it. Hence bHom. 62. ad Pop. Antioch. & Hom. 42. in Acta.Chrysostome and cAd Seleucū De Recta Educat. p. 1063.1064.Nazianzen stile the Play-house; The Schoole of intemperance, deboistnesse, luxury, and excesse. Hence dDe Guber. Dei. l. 6.Salvian ioynes the Stage-playes, epicuri…me and drunkennesse of the Romanes, and those of Trevers, both together; making one the effect, the companion of the other. It is noted by eSuetonij Caligula & Nero Lampridij Heliogabalus. Trebellij Polionis Gallieni Duo Tacitus Annal. l. 14. c. 3. Dion Cassius. Rom. Hist. l. 59. Herodian Hist. l. 1. See here Scene 5. & Act 7. Scene 6. & Zonaras, Eutropius, and the Imperiall History in these Empero…s lives.Historians, that Caligula, Heliogobalus, Nero, Commodus, Gallienus, and other Roman Emperours who delighted most in Stage-playes, were the most deboist, luxurious, dissolute, ebrious, of all others: an infallible demonstration; that Stage-playes are the occasion, fewell, and attendants of these sinnes. fPlutarch. De Gloria Atheniensium. lib. & Sympos. l. 7. Quaest. 8. Basil De Ebrietate & Luxu Sermo.It was the custome of the Pagan Greekes and Romanes, in all their drunken riotous Feasts, (as it is now the usage of too many Christians) to exhilerate themselves with Stage-playes, of purpose to draw men on to drunkennesse, luxury, and more grosse intemperance: Whence the gB…nius Concil. Tom. 1. pars 1. p. 232. Surius Concil. Tom 1. p. 458. & Gratiau D…st…nct. 5.Councell of Laodicea. Can. 53.54. and the Councell of Aquisgrane under Lewes the godly, prohibited Stage-playes at Christians marriage-Feasts; and enioyned all Ministers not to be present at them, but to arise and depart from such feasts before the Players entred; that so they might prevent that riot, that excesse which these theatricall Enterludes might occasion. All which, together with that of Plutarch, who relates, *Scenici artisices… B…ccho Sacri. Romanae Quaest Quaest. 107. p. 600.that all Stage-players were consecrated unto Bacchus as well as these their Stage-playes, is a plenary ratification of my Minors truth, to which our owne experience must subscribe. hSee …he third Blast of Retrait from Playes and Theaters, accordingly.For who more luxu…ious, ebrious, riotous or deboist, then our assiduous Actors and Play-haunters? Who greater Taverne, Ale-house, Tobacco-shop, Hot-water house haunters, &c? who greater, stouter drinkers, health-quaffers, Epicures, or good-fellowes, then they? What walke more usuall then from a Play-house to a Taverne, to an Ale-house, a Tobacco-shop, or Hot-water Brothel-house; or from these unto a Play-house? where the Pot, the Can, the Tobacco-pipe are alwayes walking till the Play be ended; from whence they returne to these their former haunts. Many are the *These are the vulgar, these the sublimer meetings of the more gentile ranke.Ale-house, more the Bacchanalian Taverne-meetings that are appointed, concluded at the Play-house, from which much drunkennes…e, and excesse arise: yea the Play-house is the common Randevouze where most such riotous Taverne conventicles are either motioned, plotted, or resolved on, as our Play-haunters themselves confesse. And is there not reason, why it should be so? Are not drunkennesse, ioviality, epicurisme, luxury, and profusenesse, most rhetorically applauded, most elegantly adorned in our Stage-playes with the sublimest Encomiums, the most insinuating Panegyrickes, the most amiable Titles that either art or eloquence can invent? and doth not this adde spurs and fewell to many Yongsters lusts? who to purchase the empty title. iHaec tame… illi Omnia cum faciant hilares nitidique vocantur. Iuv… n…l. Satyr. 11. Habebitur aliquando ebrie…ati honos & plurimum vini cepisse, virtus erit. Senec… De Beneficijs. l. 1. cap. 10.of brave, generous, liberall, and right ioviall Sparkes, whom Players most applaud, doe prodigally *Divitiarum & pecuniae fructu… non alium puta…t quam profusionem. Sordidos & deparcos ipsi putant quibus ratio impensarum constaret. Suetonij Nero. sect. 30.consume their Patrimonies, their Pensions, their time in Tavernes, Ordinaries, Tobacco-shops, &c. in ebrious luxurious meetings, to their owne undoing, their friends and Parents griefe. Alas, the pittifull complaints of sundry parents, together with the testimony of our owne grave English kBB. Hall Epist. Decad. 6. Epist. 6. Master Bolton in his Discourse of True Happinesse. p. 73.74. The 3. Blast of Retrait from Playes and Theaters. I.G. in his Refutation of the Apologie for Actors. pag. 39. & D. R…inold… Overthrow of Stage-playes.Authors, prove this to be too true: Therefore we must needs abominate and reject all popular Stage-playes, in respect of these their cursed fruits.