The Players Scourge, Part 1 · Act 6 · Scene 9
SCENA NONA.
THe 9. consequent or fruit of Stage-playes, is cozenage, fraud, and theft: which are oft-times occasioned and taught by Stage-playes. Play-houses are the Schooles, Playes the Lectures which dDocent dum fingunt, & simulatis erudiunt ad vera. Lactan…. D… Vero Cultu. cap. 20.teach men how to cheate, to steale; to plot and execute any villany: how to conceale it, to evade it being executed; men learning, yea practising that in earnest, which they act or see acted but in sport. *De Instit. Cyri. Histor. lib. 1. pag. 34. & Master G…sson, in his Playes confuted. Act 2.Zenophon makes mention of a Persian Schoole-master, who instructed his Schollers both to do… iustice and iniustice; not to lie, and to lie: not to deceive and to deceive: not to caluminate and calumniate, not to forestall any benefit that might accrue to others, and to forestall it: He did likewise distinguish which of these ought to be practised upon enemies, which upon friends: And then proceeding further, he taught that it was iust to deceive their friends if it were for their good; and to steale the goods of their friends if it were for their good: This Schoole-master likewise exercised his Schollers to practise these instructions in iest among themselves: by which meanes it came to passe, that some of his Schollers who had a naturall ingenuity wittily to deceive, to cheate and steale from others; began at last not onelyonly to cozen and steale from strangers, but likewise to cheate and r…b their friends. Whereupon the Persians were enforced to make a law to prevent this mischife (which law is yet in use) that Children should ever after be taught plainely, and to speake and deale truely, as men teach their Servants: and not to steale, to lie, or use deceits. As it fared with this Persian Schoole-master, and his Schollers; so it fares with Players and their lewde Spectators: those cheates, those fallacies, thefts and robberies, those rapes of Wards, of Virgins from their Gardians, their Parents, which they act in sport upon the Stage, the Spectators oft-times practise in earnest upon others off the Theater. fCyrian De Sectaculis. lib.Discunt facere dum assuescunt videre. This Solon knew full well, gPlutarchi & Diogenis Laertij Solon. See Bodine De Republ. lib. 6. cap. 1.who when he beheld Thespis acting a Tragedy, wherein there were many lies and cheates: he demanded of him after the Tragedy ended; whether he were not ashamed to lie and cheate so egregiously before so great a multitude? To which Thespis replyed; that there was no hurt in it, for all he had uttered or acted was but a Play, it was all in sport, nothing in earnest: which answer Solon hearing, stroke his staffe upon the ground with indignation, making this reply: If we commend or approve this Play of yours, we shall shortly finde it in our bargaines: intimating that this his lying and cozenage which hee acted in jest, would quickly turne to earnest: so prone, so docible are men to learne any evill that Players act. Saint Augustine had a hint of this: whence he stiles Stage-playes, hProbitatis & honestatis eversio. De Civ. Dei. l. 2 cap. 33. See lib. 2. c. 6.the very overthrow of honesty and upright dealing. For the theft that Playes occasion, I shall give but two or three instances. It is storied by Suetonius in the life of iSect. 16.Nero; that he put downe Chariot-playes and Stage-playes, in which men by an inveterate liberty did use to cheate and steale in iest, because this iesting turned to earnest at the last. kTacitus. Annal. l. 4. cap. 3. Marcus Aurelius. c. 14. Dion Cassius. Rom. Hist. l. 57. & Alexander ab Alexandro. Genialiū Dierum. l. 3. c. 9.Tiberius did the lik…, banishing all Players out of Italy upon the selfe same ground. VponUpon this very reason was our owne Statute of 3. Henry 8. cap. 9. against Mummers, made; because those thefts and robberies which they acted in sport, proved robberies and felonies in good earnest at the last, and were the occasions of much mischiefe. The Author of the 3. Blast of Retrait from Playes and Theaters informes us. lPag. 56.97, 102.That many servants have learnt at Stage-playes (as it may be manifestly proved) to rob and cheate their Masters, to supply the wants of their Harlots. That many have there learned a pollicy to prevent Parents of the not marrying of their Daughters to such whom they have disliked, by stealing them away. And that men are taught pollicies in this Schoole of Abuse, how to beguile Parents of their Children, Husbands of their Wives, Gardians of their Wards, and Masters of their Servants: To which mSchoole of Abuses, and Playes Confuted. Action 2.Master Gosson and nMaster Stubs, Master Northbrooke, Doctor Rainolds, and I. G. in their Bookes against Stage-playes.others doe subscribe. Wherefore from all these premises I may now safely frame this 35. Argument against Stage-playes, with which I shall conclude this Scene.
That which occasions much theft, much treachery, cozenage and deceit, must needs be unlawfull unto Christians, unsufferable in a Common-weale. Witnesse Ephes. 4.25.28. 1 Thes. 4.6. & Case Ethicorum. lib. 4. cap. 7.
But all these doe Stage-playes occasion, as is evident by the premises. See Act 3.4.5.
Therefore they must needs be unlawfull unto Christians, unsufferable in a Common-weale.