The Players Scourge, Part 1 · Act 6 · Scene 8
SCENA OCTAVA.
THe eight effect of Stage-playes, is impudency, immodesty, and shamelesnesse, yea even in sinfull things: Whence this 34. Argument may be deduced.Argument 34.
That which banisheth all modesty, al shamefacenesse, and makes both Actors & Spectators impudently shamelesse in committing sinne, is questionlesse abominable and unlawfull unto Christians.
But this doe Stage-playes, and *Ille locus casti damna pudoris h…bet. Ovid, De Art… Amandi. lib. 1. pag 160.Play-houses.
Therefore they are questionlesse abominable and unlawfull unto Christians.
My Major is irrefragable: First, because *See Lockma…. Sermo. 56. Z.modesty and shamefastnesse are such graces, such vertues, *1 Tim. 2.9, 15 c. 3.2. 1 Pet. 3.4, 5. 2 Thes. 3.14. 1 Pet. 3.10. Psal. 44.15. Psal. 69.7. Ezra 7.6.as God himselfe requires of us in his Word; and which the very mPlatonis Protagoras. p. 438. Epist. lib. pag. 990. Lacedaemonij verecundiam esse Deum quendā volunt. Zenophontis Convivium. p. 898. D. Modestiae fama neque summis mortaliū spernenda …st, & à dijs aestimatur. Tacitus Annal. l. 15. c. 1. p. 301.Heathen much extoll. They are the nPudor est quasi vitij purpurcus splendor & color virtutis. Case. Polit. l. 5. c. 9. p. 710.chiefest ornaments, virtues, guides, supports, and stay of Youth; the Mothers, oModestia reliquarum virtutū par…ns est & ipsa proles: radix & altrix virtutis est, & verae famae. Lipsius. Epist. Cent 3. Epist. 10. Cent 1. ad Belgas. Epist. 4. Cent. Miscel. Epist. 17.the conservers of all other Christian, or morrall vertues; the pPudor & justitia ornamenta & vincula Civitatum. Platonis Protagoras pag. 438. Pudor satis validum vinculum legis. Livy. Rom. Hist. lib. 25.onelyonly curbs that restraine men from all sinne, all lewdnesse and dishonest… whatsoever: where these are once removed, qAmisso pudore totum dignitatis studium & honestatis extinguitur. Osorius, De Regum Instit lib. 4. fol. 111.the whole practise of honesty and vertue will be quite extinguished. Hee who hath lost these vertues, rEgo illum perijsse puto cui perijt pudo…. Putean. De Laconismo. Diatriba. p. 423.is no better then a cast-away: He who is past all shame, is certainely past all grace, past all recovery, all amendment. That therefore which banisheth these two sChrysost. Hom. 33. in Haebraeos. Tom. 4. Col. 1676. C. Pudor bonus magister officij. Qui metuit, reprimitur, non emendatur: quem pudet facere in naturam vertit Ambros. Com. lib. 7. in Evang Lucae c. 17. Tom. 3. p. 84. D.restrayning, vice-suppressing vertues, in which not onelyonly tMagna sanctis cura est verecūdiae. Ambros. Com. l. 2. in Luc. Tom. 3. p. 8. D.Christianity, but even uVbi non est pudor, nec cu…a juris, …anctitas, pietas, fides, instabile regnum est. Senecae Thyestes. Act 2. fol. 34.all common honesty, civility, and the publike safety doe subsist, must needs bee abominable. Secondly, because impudency and shamelesnesse, especially in committing sinne, is almost xIer. 3.3. cap. 6.15. cap. 8.12. Prov. 7.13. Ezech. 2.4. cap. 3.7. Ier. ….12. & cap. 5.3.the very highest degree of sinne; yea they provoke God more to anger, and draw a deeper guilt, a more multiplied condemnation upon men, then the sinne it selfe which they thus perpetrate. They are infallible symptomes of a cauterized conscience, an obdurate heart, yImpudentia & frontositas cum obdurverit, ut non pa…eat, non horr…at, non contremiscat, ea …am demum desperatio est. B…rnardi Declamationes. Col. 1002. D.a reprobate sence; of a man given wholy over unto sinne and Satan: yea they are very dangerous presages of a man bound over to eternall destruction. My Major therefore must be granted.
The Minor is as evident as the morning Sunne. First, by the concurrent testimony of sundry Fathers, and moderne Christian Authors. zDe Spectaculis. lib. cap. 17.Tertullian reputes Stage-playes, the banishers, the murtherers of all modesty and shamefastnesse: S. Cyprian informes us; aTheatra sunt faediora quo convenis: Verecundia illic omnis exuitur: simul cum amictu vestis honor corporis ac pudor ponitur. De Habitu Virginum. pag. 242.that all modesty is put off at Theaters; which he stiles, bPudoris publici lupanariū, De Spectac. lib.the very Brothell of publike modesty: in which the most shamefull representations of lust are acted; ut in ipsis deposita verecundia, audaciores fiant ad crimina. c…iunt per imaginem quae non sunt, ut fiant sine pudore quae vera sunt. Divinarum Instit. Epit… c. 6.Lactantius records; that those things are acted in Stage-playes by representation which are not; that so the very things themselves may be committed by the Spectators without any shame. dQuid juvenenes aut virgines faciant quū haec & fieri sine pudore, & spectari libenter ab omnibus cernunt? De Vero Cultu. c. 20.What (saith he) will Youthes and Virgins doe when they shall see these things acted, and willingly beheld of all without any blush? doubtlesse they will grow exceeding impudent and shamelesse in committing the very sinnes there acted. eDe Recta Educat. ad Seleucum. p. 1063.Gregory Nazianzen and fHomil. 38. in Matth. Tom. 2. Col. 298. C.DChrysostome, write, That all Stage-players are impudent shamelesse persons; who as they repute nothing vile but modesty; so they utterly extirpate all shamefastnesse, all modesty out of the mindes and foreheads of the Spectators. S. Augustin, in his Booke gSee lib. 1. c. 31.33. l. 2. cap. 6. to 10. c. 25. to 29.De Civitate Dei, a…firmes the very selfesame thing; whence he stiles these Stage-playes: hAnimorum labes ac pestis: probitatis & honestatis eversio. De Civitate Dei. lib. 1. cap. 33.The very pestilence and contagion of mens mindes; the overthrow of vertue and honesty: iVerè Fugalia, sed pudoris & honestatis. De Civitate Dei. lib. 2. cap. 6.the true Fugalia of shamefastnesse and modesty: Damascen in his Parallels informes us out of Nazianzen; *Fluxam atque caducam formae venustatem …is relinquebat quae Theatra & trivia consectantur, quibus pudori & probro est …rubescere. Parallel. lib. 2. cap. 65. pag. 145.that Play-haunters, and women who resort to Theaters, account it a repr…ach unto them, to blush: so impudently brawny arae their faces. The same doe other Fathers; together with lDe Remedi… Vtrius que Fortunae. l. 1. Dial. 30.Petrarcha, mFastorum. lib. 2. cap. De Carnispriu, &cMant…a…, nDe Vanitate Scient. cap. 20.59, 64, 71.Agrippa, oComment. in August. De Civit. Dei. l. 1. c. 31.3…, 33. & l. 2. c. 4. to 29.Lodovicus Vives, pSchoole of Abuse, and Playes Confuted.M. Gosson, qAgainst vaine Playes and Enterludes. Anatomy of Abuses.M. Northbrooke, r M. Stubs; The 3. Blast of Retrait from Playes and Theaters, tPraefatio ad 6. Theses.D. Rainolds, with sundry others affirme: therefore wee need not doubt its verity. Secondly, our owne present experience will evidently manifest the Minors truth. For who are there more impudently audacious; more shamelesly wicked; more ready to heare, to see, to speake, to act, to execute the most execrable obscenities, the most grosse impieties without any blush, uApud hos tota impudicitia vocatur urbanitas: libidinoso ore in gu…nibus inhaerescunt: homines malae linguae etiamsi tacerent; quos prius taedescit impudicitiae suae, quam pudescit. Pro nefas, id in se pessimi facinoris admittunt quod nec aetas potest pati mollior, nec cogi servius durior. Haec & hujusmodi propudia nobis non licet nec audire: etiam pluribus turpe defendere est. Ea enim de castis fingitis & pudi…is quae fieri non crederimus, nisi de vobis probatetis Minut. Felix. Octavi…s. pag. 94.95.then our common Actors and Play-haunters? What Spectacles, what places doe more steele the faces, or crust the foreheads both of men and women, then Playes and Play-houses? Those who at first, could neither see, nor heare, (much lesse utter or act) any obscene or vitious thing without some shame of face, or checke of conscience, before their resort to Playes and Theaters; become so strangely impudent, so brazen-faced in a very little space by frequenting Stage-playes, that they cannot onelyonly confidently behold and heare, but likewise utter and commit any filthinesse, or wickednesse whatsoever, in the very open view of men, without any blush at all; even as xPelulantiam, libidin…m, luxuriam sensim quidem primò & occulte, velut inve…ili errore exercuit: sed ut tunc quoque dubium nemini foret; naturae illa vitia non aetatis esse. Su…t…nij Nero. sect. 26.Nero did. The stupendious whorish unparalleld impudency of our present age; Of our effeminate yCujus manantia sle…u Orà puellares faciunt incerta capilli. Iuvenal. Satyr. 15. pag. 140.overgrowne Yongsters, and blasphemous Ruffians, zSee Master Adams, his White Devill, and Blacke Saint.who breath out nothing but oathes, obscenities, and desperate execrations against the God of Heaven, rending the very flesh and bones, piercing the very heart and soule, blasph…ming the very Name and Blood of our Lord Iesus Christ, at every word they utter: Of our impudent, brazen-faced aSee Hic Mulier, and My Vnloveli…esse of Love lockes.M…n-woman Monsters, who have banished all shewes of modesty, of shamefastnesse from their sex; carrying the very characters of impudency, not onelyonly in their blushlesse lookes; but likewise in their lascivious gestures, their audatious deportment, their obscene discourses, their whorish attires, their immodest fashions and complements, their painted faces; their *Non sunt delicta sed monstra. Tertul. De Pudicitia. lib. p. 471.prodigious shorne, frizled lockes and foretops, which outstare the very b1 Cor. 11.5. to 16. 1 Tim. 2.9. 1 P…t. 3.4, 5.Lawes of God, of Man, of Nature, (so unnaturely, and more then cProv. 7.13. Ier 3.3. c. 6.15. Impudentia efficit meretrices. Chrysostom. Homilia 15. in Hebraos. Tom. 4. Col. 1592. C.whorishly impudent, are many of our females lately growne;) Whence is it, comes it but from Playes and Theaters? which have diffused this cursed disease of shamelesse impudency, well-nigh thorowout the Kingdome: dNam quis peccandi finem posuit sibi, quando recepit Ejectum semel attrita de fronte ruborem? Iuvenal. Satyr. 13. pag. 124.And hence is it, that we are all lately growne so immoderately excessive in committing sinne, because Playes and Play-haunters have scrued us up to such a pitch of impudency, that we are quite past all shame. Neither is it strange, that Playes and Play-houses should make the modestest and most ingenious Spectators shamelesse, if not sencelesse of any sinne. For first the eTertullian De Spectac. cap. 17. Cyprian, De Specta…. lib. & Epist. lib. 2. Epist. 2. Donato. Chrysostome Homilia 38. in Matth. & Nazianzen, De Recta Educatione ad Seleucum. pag. 1063. accordingly.Actors of them …re certainely past all shame, if not all grace. Secondly, fSee Act 4. Scene 1.…. accordingly. See Iuvenal Satyr. 6. pag. 54. Iamque eadem fummis pariter minimisque libido est, &c. & Satyra 11. pag. 110.the greater part of common Play-haunters are a…dacious Panders, Whores, Adulterers, Whore-masters, and the like, who are as blushlesse as Frier Bacons Brazen-head, or as he who acts the Devill in the Play. Thirdly, the very words, the parts, the speeches, gestures, complements, and representions in Stage-playes, gSee Act 3. Scene 1. & 3.are so obscene, lascivious, lewde, and beastly, that the very hearing and beholding of them were enough to banish all modesty out of the hearts and countenances of the most ingenious Spectators, or at least to drive them from the Play-house: For as Aristotle well observes; *Pudet non solum eorum quae dicta sunt pud…ndorum, sed etiam signo…um: & non solum cùm in re venerea versantur, sed etiā cum adsunt signa ejus rei, & non solum cum faciunt …urpia, sed etiam cum dicunt. Aristot. Rh…t…r. lib. 2 cap. 6 pag 137.Men are not onelyonly ashamed of those shamefull things that are so called, but likewise of the signes of them: not onelyonly when they are conversant in any lecherous thing, but likewise when the representations of that thing are present: and not onelyonly when as they doe filthy things, but likewise when they speake them: So that modesty and shamefacenesse doe not onelyonly re…traine men from speaking and doing; but likewise from hearing and beholding any scurrilous or immodest thing. iAl…ae… Carmina apud Pindarum. pag. 405. Aristot. Rhetor. lib. 1. cap. 9. pag. 60.Alc…us a modest Heathen, being about to utter some obscenity, was so overcome of modesty, that he brake out into these memorable words *Volo aliquid dicere sed me prohibet pudor.I would have spoken some thing, but modesty prohibites me. kAElian Variae Historiae. lib. 14. cap. 18.It is storied of Archy…as *And shal not these two Pagans rise up in judgement against scurrilous Christians and condemne them?another Pagan, that …is modesty was such, as …e would not so much as utter a scurrilous word; and being upon an occasion necessitated to speake some unbeseeming thing, he could not be induced to relate it upon any tearmes, but wrote it on the wall, and then pointed to others to read it. Yea lNatural. Hist. l. 8. c. 5.Pliny records, that the bashfulnesse and modesty of brute Elephants is such: Vt pudore nunquam nisi in abdito co…unt: that they never couple but in some s…cret place not obvious to m…ns view. Certainely, if modesty had such prevalency in these bruites and Pagans, to deterre them both from obscene discourses, and venereous actions, especially in publike: our Stage-playes which are fraught with many ribaldrous passages, many witty obscenities, many filthy gestures, many feined, mHeliogabalus mimicis histrionibus ea quae solent simulate fieri effici ad verum jussit. Lampridij Heliogabalus. pag. 202.if not reall representations of Incests, Rapes, Adulteries, and the like, must either utterly abolish all modesty out of the Actors and Spectators eyes and eares; or else quite chase them from the Play-house; whose lewdnesse and unchastity is such, nSee Tertullian De Spectaculis. cap. 17. Cyprian De Spe…taculis. lib. and the 3. Blast of Retrait from Playes and Enterludes.that it is capable of none but shamelesse and immodest Customers. So that I may well conclude with Tacitus;oAnnalium. lib. 14. cap. 2. That shamefastnesse, chastity, or any other honest quality, which are hardly retained in honest arts, can never possibly be preserved amids so many confluences and combates of vices as accompany Playes and Theaters. *Suetonius De Claris Rhetoribus. lib. Cicero De Oratore. lib. 3. & Genebrardi Chron. lib. 2. pag. 314.And hereupon L. Crassus, and Cn. Domitius prohibited Playes and Play-houses, by a publike Edict, quod his corroboraretur impudentia, because they made their Spectators more impudent. The propositions therefore being thus infallibly confirmed by the premises, the Conclusion from them must be granted,