The Overthrow of Stage Plays, Rejoinder (3 of 4)

The Overthrow of Stage Plays · Rejoinder (3 of 4)

p. 98But you, to cutt the cable of my cheefest anker, 11foreign, Chrys. homil. 4. de Lazaro.the sacred anker, as they terme it, which is, the generalitie of the lawe it selfe, pronouncing all abominable who change their raiment so, betake your selfe at the last to this desperate refuge, that though the proposition be a generall affirmatiue, All men are abomination who put on womans apparell, yet in your cases it suffereth exception. I call this refuge desperat, because your owne handling thereof doeth seeme to argue, that when you came vntounto it, you did treade on thornes; and felt that you should bee pitifully pricked, if you stoode long vponupon it. For when, vntounto the rules of law which I cited, that every speciall is suspended when the generall is suspended, and hee who forbiddeth the generall will not hauehave the speciall practised, you had replied that these rules are to bee vnderstoode of those generals that absolutely command, and necessarily comprehend their specials sub potestate sua, not those which must endure controlment as it were, & suffer exceptions to restraine their power; you giuegive this reason of it: For generall propositions, both in Divinitie, and Law, doe vsually p. 99admitt particular exceptions and limitations, quae derogant generalitati: of which sort this proposition, that we hauehave in hand, is; as there are many mo of like nature, which you could alleage (you say) to illustrate these rules, but that they are plaine to me, and you are weary already, and hauehave a great way yet to goe, and feare that I am starke tyred with your tedious discourse. It is recorded by aaAppian. de bellis Parth. Plutarch. vita Crassi.historians that the Parthians vsed to flye frō their enemies, & withal to strike thē with arrows shot backward. Whervpō bbEpistol. lib. 2. epist. 1.Horace, affirming that he wrote no verses at al, when he wrote many, doeth compare himself to 22Ipse ego qui nullos me affirmo scribere versus, Invenior Parthis mendacior.them, who fought most, when they pretēded flight. You resemble the Parthiās in your 33Versis animosum equis Parthum. Horat. carm. lib. 1. od 19.couragious flying: you will not seeme to withdraw yourselfe, as overcome, but as weary with killing, & having other exploits to doe, and taking pitie of me. Only you differ frō them, in that you shoote no arrowes while you are flying away; which else I might be afraid of, as ccCarm. lib. 2. od. 13.Horace saith their 44Miles sagittas & celerē fugā Parthi.souldiers were. For your axiome vrged in maner of a proofe, that generall propositions both in Divinitie, and Law, doe vsually admitt particular exceptions; prooveth iust nothing: vnlesse peradventure you thinke that in good Logicke this argument will hold: Some generall propositions, for the word vsually betokeneth some not all; some therfore doe admit particular exceptions; Ergo the proposition we hauehave in hande doeth so. A shaft so vnshapen without head or feather, that although the stele, I meane the antecedēt therof, be wel wrought, & many examples might you alleage to illustrate it, if need were: yet your self durst not as much as make a shew of nocking, and drawing it, to shoote it of with an Ergo. But I of the contrary side will so encounter this devise of yours, that there shall no more life be left therein, then there was in dd1 Kin. 22. 351 Kgs 22:35Achab the evening after he was wounded. And that by meanes of this argument. No particular exception is good against a generall proposition in Divinitie, saue onelyonly such as Scripture maketh and warranteth. But your asseveration, that men may put on wemens raiment in stage-playes, is a particular exception not warranted by Scripture, against the generall proposition that all who doe so are abominable. Therefore mens wearing of wemens raiment on stages can not bee good in Divinitie. p. 200The major of which syllogisme the Lawe (to goe no farder) matched with Divinitie by your selfe in this case of rules and limitations, propositions & exceptions, wil approove vntounto you. For if against a generall rule and proposition, as for example sake, that eeD. de iust. & iure. lib. 10. Cic. de Offic. lib 1.right ought alwayes to bee done, a man of ffCic. de Offi. lib. 3. Sueto. Iulio Caes. cap. 30.Caesars minde should by way of exception and limitation say, that it ought in deede, save when a kingdome may bee gotten by doeing injurie and wrong: must wee allow this exception? No. And why? Because it is not warranted by any text of Lawe. Hence is it that ggIn si. 11. D. de in ius vocando.Bartolus, and Glossa communis after him, affirming absolutely that where the law distinguisheth not, we may not distinguish, doe shew that they meane this, not of any one lawe, but of the whole body, to weete, that 55Vbi lex non distinguit, nos non debemus distinguere, nisi illa lex distinguatur per aliam.wee may not distinguish vponupon a law, vnlesse that law by some other law be so distinguished. Likewise, in Divinitie, if against the doctrine of hhPsal 106. 3.Ps 106:3doeing righteousnes at all times (to presse the same example) a woman like ii1. Kin. 21. 8.1 Kgs 21:8Iezabel, or men like the Elders and Governours, whom shee wrote to, should say that generall rules may admitt exceptions, and righteousnes is requisit to be done at all times, save when land may bee gotten by suborning false witnesses, or a king pleased by shedding innocent blood: this might be very iustly called a 66Maledicta textum glossa quae vitiat bonum.cursed glosse, because the Scripture doeth not teach in any place that it is lawfull to doe evill for advantage, or gratifying of Princes. Neither could the kk2. Tim. 3. 172 Tim 3:17Apostle rightly praise the Scripture, as serving to furnish a man of God perfitly vntounto all good workes, if a worke therein commanded or forbidden generallie, as good or naught, were contrariwise abominable or allowable in particulars not declared by Scripture. Which mooved S. Austin, among lessons given for the right expounding therof, to make this one, that llDe doctr. Christ. lib. 3. cap 28.doutfull points of Scripture ought to be cleared by the Scripture it selfe, because mmlib. 2. cap. 9all such thinges as touch faith and maners are sett downe plainly in the Scripture. True it is therefore that no particular exception, in Divinitie, may be admitted against a generall proposition, vnlesse the Scripture warrant it: which was the first parte of my syllogisme. The next, that your assertion touching mens wearing of wemens raiment in stage-playes, is a particular exception not warranted p. 101by Scripture against a generall proposition: must needes be graunted also. Specially by you: who, having talked therof with Divines, both many, and excellently learned, perceaue that none of them could bring foorth any warrant out of Scripture for it. Wherefore, the conclusion, against your stage-play-wemen, may cause both them and you to dye your faces with that colour, which a nnDiog. Laērt. in Diogene.Philosopher termed well 77foreign.the colour of vertue: and I pray God it doe.

So the commandement, that a man shall not put on womans raiment, being prooved to reach vntounto all in generall, even such, as for the saving of honour, wealth, or life, doe it, much more whom nothing moveth thereto but a playing humour: it foloweth to be sifted whether there bee truth and weight in that you adde, that your players did not weare wemens raiment. A thing avouched by you in like sort almost, as if oo1 Kin. 22. 341 Kgs 22:34Achab being wounded to death with an arrow sticking in his side, should hauehave said, I am not hurt. But this, which, if hee had brought reason to perswade men, he might hauehave seemed desirous to bee madde with reason, you labour to confirme, saying that you may not in deede be said at all to weare wemens apparell, because wearing implieth a custome and a common vse of so doing: whereas you doe it for an hower, or two, or three, to represent an others person, by one that is openly knowne to be as hee is in deede. For aunswer wherevnto, first, passing over your idle addition concerning the 88To represent an others person.ende and 99By one y^t is opēly known to be as he is in deede.circumstance of your vsing it; which I terme idle, beecause if men should vse it still to whatsoever ende, and openly knowne to be the same they are, as ppSuet. in Ner. cap. 28.Sporus was, they may indeede bee said to weare it, you will graunt: but first if it be onelyonly for an hower, or two, or three, that you doe it; where are your wemen dressed? by whom? at what time? all at the same moment they come vponupon the stage? and hath none bene dressed at noone, to play at night? and hath it not bene towards midnight, ere some playes ended? Next, if it be true, that wearing implieth a custome and a common vse of so doeing: then belike it may not be said that Nero the Emperour did ever weare any garment. For 11Nullam vestem bis induit.hee did never put on any garment twise, as qqNero. ca. 30Suetonius writeth: and therefore had no custome and common p. 102vse of any. Furthermore, suppose that you might not bee said to weare wemens apparell; yet are you not the neerer to that which you intend: sith the Scripture saith, that a man shall not put on womans raiment, and you doe put it on (I trow) when you play, whether you weare it, or no. Finally, the Prophets 22Heb. jilboschword, betokening this in the originall text, is the very same with that whereby rr1 Sam. 17. 381 Sam 17:38the armour of Saul is described to hauehave bene put on David. Now if David who put off Sauls armour by and by, within halfe an howre, a quarter, or lesse much; yet had it put on, after the phrase of Scripture: may it not be said, that they, who went in wemens raiment certaine howres, did that which Scripture speaketh of, English it as you list, put on, or weare such raiment? Alas, 33Quam miserum est id negare nō posse quod sit turpissimum cō fiteri?in how miserable plight is he, saith ssPhillipp. 2.Tullie, who can not deny that, which to confesse it is most shamefull? I, with a litle change of his sentence, must lament your case, who dare not confesse that which to deny it is most shamefull. For how many hundreds are there of eye-witnesses, that your Euryclea, Melantho, Penelope, Phoedra, Nais, others, did weare wemens raiment? Howe many did obserue, and with mislike hauehave mentioned, that Penelopes maides did not onelyonly weare it, but also sate in it among true wemen in deed, longer then David woare Sauls armour? neither were more knowne to them to bee men, then Achilles was at firste to Deidamia; vntill they suspected it, seeing them entreated by the wooers to rise and danse vponupon the stage. I wish there had not bene so bad a token to convince you; nor so many beholders to testifie thereof: though I am glad withall that they had such mislike of the thing testified. And this commoditie by it besides, that I might feare else, least you, who did before deny that men playing on your stage, are stage-players; and doe deny here that the players of wemens partes weare wemens raiment; would at length deny that you had any playes at all; and so accuse me of slaundering your friendes for being on the stage, when they were in their studies.

The third head of reasons, knit vp vnderunder the title of losing time in ttVlys… …ed. …. … Mom.your speech, but containing losse of better things then time, I declared the strength of, chiefly by this argument. To p. 103imitate and resemble wantonnes, scurrilitie, impudēcie, drunkennes, or any other misbehaviour, is a thing vnlawfull: But sundry misbehaviours were imitated and resembled by Penelopes wooers, her maides, Rivales, mariners, Phaedra, the Nurse, the Nymph, and others in the playing of your tragedies and comedie: The playing therefore of them is to bee misliked. Whereagainst you say not much for the maior. OnelyOnly, for as much as I, beside a number both of divine autorities, and humane, avouching it, alleaged your owne consent too, in that you affirme that 44Virile non est faeminae mores sequi.it beseemeth not men to folow wemens maners: you say your meaning was, that it doth not beseeme them to folow wemens maners in the common course of life, to the perverting of the law of nature, honestie, and comelines; or for any evill purpose; yet a boy, by way of representation onelyonly, may, not indecently, imitate may denlie or womanlie demeanour. Which aunswer though it seemeth to deny your approoving of my reproofe in part, about young mens imitating of the maners of wemen: yet the greatest part thereof doeth it approoue. For I founde most fault with imitating the manners of strumpets and bawdes, Melantho, Phaedra, the Nurse: and, I trust, you will not say that the demeanour of such vnmaidenly maidens, & vnwemenly wemen, is either maidenly or womanly. But whatsoever you say touching your owne sentence, and after your common course of distinguishing interpret it as meant in the common course of life, to the perverting of the law of nature, honestie and comelines, or for any evill purpose: it sufficeth mee, that you durst not apply these distinctions to the Scriptures, Fathers, or forein writers, by which I confirmed the major of mine argument and you acknowledge it to be truly confirmed. The minor is the hedge, whereat, as the lowest, you were in hope that you might leape over with lesse difficultie. And in this confidence you aske What proportion there is betweene those thinges, which I enlarge in my maior; and those thinges which in particular application against you, are vsed in my minor? To the which question I will make no aunswer, till you hauehave considered and tolde me what proportion there is betwene an Elephant, and Maximinus the Emperour. But the minor of mine argument, whereto I must p. 104holde you, and not giuegive you leaue thus to runne at riott vponupon every wandring conceit of proportions; the minor of mine argument, I say, is most certaine, & true, in every branch thereof. Though neither is your cunning and arte, by the way, to bee passed over, that wheras I having in generall disclosed the hurt of amatorie dansing, did note in particular your wooers dansing with their minions: you reply that they dansed onelyonly two solemne measures, without any lighter galliard; and herevpon you aske me, What Herod could be inflamed? What Propertius ravished? what flame of lust kindled thereby in mens heartes? what wounds of louelove imprinted? whose senses could bee moved, or affections delited more then ought to bee, or may honestly bee? What enemies of chastitie made by this sight? what strong or constant heart vanquished; nay, what reede shaken thereby? What so much as flaxe or towe sett on fire? Great crye, and litle wooll: as who say that I had applied all these things to dansing alone; and not diverse of them to amatorie kissing, amatorie embracing, and amatorie pangs expressed in most effectuall sort, togither with it. Or, as who saye farther, that none could be touched with anie sparke of lust by seeing the supposed gentlewemen danse so small a time, so grauelie with galant lustie yoonkers; because you, a marvellous indifferent iudge, & well seene in thinges of this qualitie, doe pronounce that none could. vvDiuin. instit. lib. 3. cap. 28Lactantius, controlling a sentence, wherein xxDe Offi. li. 2Tullie had magnified the force of fortune, and giuen edge thereto with an interrogatiō, 55Quis. inquit, nescit? Ego verò nescio.Who knoweth not that Fortune is of great force both wayes, either to prosperitie, or to adversitie? forsooth, saieth hee, I know it not. In like sort they whose iudgement herein is so much sounder, lesse daseled with affection and preiudice, then yours, as in matters touching God and true Religion, Lactantius was then Tullies, may answer your demaundes, that manie Herods might be inflamed, many a Propertius ravished thereby. For your partialitie and weaknes of sight doeth bewray it selfe, in that, where I had noted how your new Nymph, by liuely expressing of amorous panges, brought fewell enough to heate & melt a hart of yce or snow: you reply, that shee hath bene woorse reported of to me a great deale, then shee did deserue, as I and the p. 105world shall one day see. Now shee was so reported of to mee by Lactantius, I meane, a man whose woord I offer you no wrong if I beleeue before yours; a man, that deserueth to be as well esteemed of, as he, for sundrie causes, & for some, better, a man, who did report it, not of surmise, but of knowledge; not of heare-say, but of sight; not of that which might be, but which had hapned in senses and affections mooved and tickled with it. And the thing which the world and I should one day see, whereby your meaning shewed in the wordes ensuing, is, that shee did profer honest, lawfull, vertuous, mariage-meaning love, as 66Panniculus Hippolyto Se necae tragaediae assutus Append Meleagr.her speech committed now to print declareth; doeth not proove that he reported worse a great deale to me of her expressing those panges, then shee deserved. For that very 77Iugalem pariter ineamus torum Libamina ad te prima seruatae affero Famae, & iuventae: tu pariter ad me tua Affer; & vterque carpas vtriusque hanc rosam Primā integram que .action, which shee did insinuate her selfe to be 88Miserere amorem Naidis fassae gravem, Nunquam que fassurae, nisi hanc furor vltimus vocem expulisset.enraged & 99Sed vror intus, fateor.burne with desire of, is yyHeb. 13. 4. foreign.Heb 13:4honest, and lawfull, belonging vntounto vertuous and mariage-meaning louelove. Yet if one should say, that the open dooing of it, like a zzDio Laēr. in Hipparchia. foreignCynicke, or vsing of sweete woordes and gestures tending to it, like aaXen. convi….Bacchus and Ariadne, can not shake a reed, much lesse surprise or wound a strong and constant heart: hee might seeme vnwoorthie to be talked withall by men of ingenuous modestie and iudgement. Wherefore sith the profer of nothing else but honest and mariage-meaning love, made in woords only by a hansom boy apparelled like a woman did ravish a Propertius, and inflame an Herode; notwithstanding you thought that it could not possibly worke anie such effect, as I and the world also should perceive: your thicke interrogations wherewith you come vponupon mee, as with so manie foines and prickes of a sword, to make me yeelde that youthes attired in wemens raiment, & dansing a few solemne measures like bbSalust. conjurat. Cai.Sempronia, can not set flaxe on fire; in shewe they doe brave it, as if no way but one; in deed they draw not so much blood, as a needle would. But be it as be may, for the forcible operation and working of the poyson, which neither I affirmed to be altogether so quicke in every branch of the minor, concerning your players, as in some alleadged for proofe of the maior; nor doe you rightlie iudge of, who acknowledging it to be as poyson in the major for bad effectes of such playes, would hauehave it p. 106triacle in the minor for good effectes of yours: the minor of mine argument, as I saide, is certaine and true in eueryevery braunch thereof. One alone, amongst all that I specified, you take exception at; which is the Nymphes part. And therein I mistooke a circumstance, I graunt. How be it I must tell you withall that I mistooke it so, and such a circumstance, that the righting of it doth not onelyonly not diminish the certaintie and truth of my minor, but rather much encreaseth it. For when the graue and godly man, whom I spake of, had shewed me his mislike of amorousnes and drunkēnes expressed in your playes; and namely, for the former, had noted the mischief of the representing those pangs so effectually by the Nymph, a new part inserted into Seneca: I not being farder inquisitiue thereof, did thinke that you supposing the person of a bawde was not set foorth lively and skilfully enough by Seneca in Phaedras Nurse, had brought in a Nymph to perswade Hippolytus that which the Nurse could not; and therevpon I mentioned the Nurses and the Nymphes bawderie. Nowe, by your publishing of that which you inserted, I perceave you added a new bawd in deed, but a man bawde, Pandarus; and gaue the Nymph an other part almost as shamefull: so that, I confesse, I was, through some negligence, doubly overseene; first, in naming Titius, or rather Titia, for Seius; againe, in imagining one naughty part added by you vntounto Seneca, whereas you added two. For, whatsoever you say of your Nymphes wooing and profer to Hippolytus: S. ccDe Abrah. patr. lib. 1. cap. ult.Ambrose, on the ddGen. 24. 51Gen 24:51Scripture touching Rebeccas spousals, saith that a woman should giuegive vntounto her parents the choise of her husband, 11Ne appetentiae procatioris aestimetur autor.least shee bee reputed too malapert and wanton, if she take vponupon her to make her owne choise: 22Expetita enim magis debet videri… à viro, quàm ipsa virum expetisse.for shee must rather seeme to be desired by a man, then to desire a man her selfe. And you should hauehave noted, that eeEpist. de colloquioru vtil. ad lectorem.Erasmus words, alleaged by your selfe to iustifie the Nymphes action, are, Si res honesta est matrimonium, & procum agere honestum est. Procum agere, hee saith, of the masculine gender; not of the feminine, Procam. A thing, from allowing whereof hee was so farre; much more from terming them tetrica ingenia & ab omnibus Gratiis aliena, who doe disallow it; though you, not contented p. 107to adioyne this also, enlarge it with comparison of your speech to Momus; as if Erasmus likewise blamed vsus for 33Quibus impudicum videtur quicquid amicu… est ac festirū.accounting all matters touching love, and pleasant mirth, vnchast, iumpe as your selfe doe for 44Qui turpe, laetum, ludicrum, petulans vocat.calling that vnhonest and wanton, which is merry and light: but Erasmus was so farre from allowing a maide to bee a wooer, or wooesse, what shall I name it? that in expresse wordes ffChristiani matrimon. institut.he disalloweth it as 55Turpe non est juvenibus ambire sponsam, quod vir ginibus sit indecorum.vnseemely. By the iudgment therefore of your owne witnesse it was a misbehauiour in Nais to be wooing. What? And was it not a misbehaviour also in her to be railing? to say vntounto Hippolytus, that his mother was a 66Hirta duro caucasi tigris jugo.tiger, his father was a 77Aliquis taurus indomitꝰ.bull, him selfe a 88Superbe, dure, crudelis. Pensabit ista Nemesis, & pēset precor. Aspicrat altum barbari fastum viri. Vlciscere Dia: pessimo leto occubet.proud, a cruell, a barbarous savage man? to banne him? to curse him? to wishe him the most horrible kind of death that might be? and all because he would not leave his lawfull libertie to satisfie her lust? Or would your Erasmus hauehave reprooved me as 99Quid facias istis ingeniis tetricis, & ab omnibus gratiis alienis?rigorous, to say no more, for blaming this in a maiden; and him selfe hauehave liked it, ggChrist. matrim institut.who misliked in men that they faine and spread lewde reportes of such as yeeld not to their wooing? Truelie, for mine owne part, albeit Nais had not transgressed anie dutie with so fowle language, and might without impeachment of maidenly modestie, hauehave sued to be Hippolytus bedfellow: yet should I hauehave thought it a thing vnbeseeming a youth of tender yeares to be inured, and taught, how hee may by amorous speeches, lookes, and gestures, wooe for a husband, or a wife. But seeing she did that which can not be cleered of wantonnes and scurrilitie: my minor (notwithstanding the circumstance I mistook) is most true and certame for the branch concerning her. Yea, it is as certaine and true, with alteration of the name only, even for the very crime too wherewith I charged her in steede of her brother Pandarus: that is to say, for bawderie. Which worde why you should censure by terming it the brode name of bawderie, I know not: sith the Latin wordes, leno, and lena, hauehave none in our English correspondent to them (for ought that I know) but a bawde; and lenocinium, bawderie. How commeth it to passe then that my vse of the English name should be faultie: where hhPannic. Senecae assut.you doe vse the iiO blanda vox, turpis que lenonū fide….Latin without fault, I trust, and that in the person of modest, chast, Hippolytus? The truth is p. 108that I should hauehave spoken broder, so to terme it, and vsed wordes of greater eagernes and sharpnes. For his practise is bawderie, who entiseth any to single fornication. What is it farther to adulterie? What farther yet, to incest? And to doe this simply, as incestuous ii2 Sā. 13. 11.Amnon did, were abominable. What, to doe it in such sort, as the 22Nunc luxus rape; &c. Hippol. act. 2Nurse in Seneca? but chiefly as your 33Amoris expers forma cui prodest nitens? &, Nata fit cervo patri conjux: & vtero dama quein peperit, subit. Quanquam feruntur esse quoque gentes, vbi Et nata patri nubit, & nato parens; Et juncta crescit vinculo pietas duplo. Pannic. assut. Sen. act. 2.Pandarus? My speech was too minsing, when I named bawderie. If I had termed it most filthy beastly bawderie, my wordes had bene broder, though not brode enough yet. But to returne to mine argument, the maior and the minor beeing thus confirmed, the conclusion foloweth necessarily, and should hauehave bene graunted by you in my iudgement.

So many heads, so many wittes: your fansie lead you an other way. And therefore, according to the young Scholers axiome, that alwayes when both the praemisses are true, the conclusion must be denied: You deny that the playing of your tragedies and comedie is to bee misliked and censured as vnlawfull. To the fine perswading whereof you take advantage by somewhat that I said: and the point of my sworde, which pearceth through the heart of your defense of playes, you striue (though in vaine, for want of strength) to draw out, and turne against my selfe. For, because I amplified the vnlawfulnes of the thing by the inconvenience and hurt which it breedeth, principally to the actors, in whom the earnest care of liuely representing the lewde demeanour of bad persons doeth worke a great impression of waxing like vntounto them; next, to the spectators, whose maners are corrupted by seeing and hearing such matters so expressed: you encounter mee herein with two disputes; one, that neither the spectators of your playes, nor the actors, could receve any hurt thereby; an other, that no evill affections could bee stirred vp thereby, but rather good. Which points it is a worlde to see how you struggle to proove by shewes of reason; and it will not fadge. Besides, were they prooved: my conclusion standeth neverthelesse entier, because neither of them doeth touch a heare of the praemisses. The shewes of reason firste, wherby you would proove that neither the spectators, nor actors could receue any hurt by your playes, are these; that for your penning p. 109you are base and meane, as I see, (so you tell mee) and specially for womanly behaviour you were so carelesse, that when one of your actors should hauehave made courtsie like a woman, hee made a legge like a man; and your spectators could not greatly charge your actors with any such diligence in meditation and care to imprint any passions. Of which three assertions the last is already disprooved in part by Nais: and your selfe, qualifying it with the worde greatly, declare that in your conscience your actors might bee charged with earnest meditation and care to imprint passions, though not greatly charged. The middest, of one actor forgetting his woman hoode, doeth no more argue that you were earelesse for womanly behaviour, and for other also, but specially for womanly: then the oversight of a kkPhilostrat. vit. sophistar. in Polem:Greeke stage-player, who, when he said, O God, pointed to the ground; when he said, O earth, cast vp his hand to heaven ward, doeth argue that the Romans, Roscius, Aesopus, but specially the Greekes, were carelesse for seemely gesture on the stage. The formost, like the rest; and worthy to bee their ringleader for vntruth, or trifling. For neither doe I see, that in your penning you are base and meane, if you speake of all, and comprise louelove-speeches too, as 44Hippolyte nescis quod fugis vitae bonum: Hippolyte, nescis. Sed vror intus. Libamin… prima. Rosam primam. Mutua vramur face. O quam juvaret igne tam pulchro mori! & quae sequunturthat of Nais: neither if you were so, is it any proofe that you could not hurt; for base and meane writers may vtter evill speeches, & ll1. Cor. 15. 331 Cor 15:33evill speeches corrupt good maners: and, beside your owne, you played Seneca too, whose penning neither mmPoetices li. 6. cap. 6.Scaliger, nor nnAnimadvers. in tragae. Sen.Lipsius, nor ooVlyss. red. prolog. & epilog.your selfe, doe vilifie as base; so that the very stile of somewhat, which you played, might worke strong impressions by your own verdict. Wherefore when of those three assertions you inferre, that neither the spectators, nor actors, could receaue any hurt by your playes: you dispute in like sort, as if to controll ppNero. ca. 38.Suetonius and qqAnnal. li. 15Tacitus, who say, that, when Rome was burnt in Neros time, some did of purpose fire it, one should reason thus: The stuffe which those incendiaries did vse, was 55Stupa, taedaque. Sueton. Faces. Tacit.towe and firebrands scarse kindled, as you see: and specially for certaine of them, who brought that stuffe, they were so carelesse of setting fire on houses, that 66Vt raptus licentius exercerent. Tacit. Dio Xiphili. epit.they fell to pillage, carying things away out of houses vnburnt; & such as they robbed and spoyled with sword and fire could not greatly p. 110charge them with any such diligence in paines and care to burne the citie: and so neither the citie suffred hurt by them, nor they did any hurt. Strange, that Suetonius and Tacitus should say the contrarie. But sometimes good Homer him selfe will fall a slumbering. Now as you hauehave prooved thus, that neither actors nor spectators could receiue hurt by your playes: semblably you proove that no evill affections could be stirred vp therby, but rather good. For in Ulysse reduce (say you) who did not love tho fidelitie of Eumaeus; and Philaetius, towardes their maister; and hate the contrary in Melanthius? who was not mooved to compassion to see Ulysses, a great Lord, driven so hardly, as that hee was faine to be a begger in his owne house? who did not wish him well, and all ill to the wooers; and thinke them woorthily slaine for their bloody purpose against Telemachus, and other dissolute behaviour, not so much expressed on the stage, as imagined to bee done within? And so you goe forward with a troupe of questions, urging it as certaine that all your spectators did admire the constancie of Penelope, and dispraise the lightnes and bad nature of Melantho, and thinke her iustlie hanged for it; all did prayse the patience, wisedome and secrecie of Ulysses, & Telemachus his sonne; all were glad to see Vlysses restored to his wife; and goods, and his mortall enimies ouerthrowne and punished: againe, that in Rivates, all might be delited to see the fond behaviour of country-wooing, expressed by civill men, or the vanitie of a bragging souldier; all might detest drunkennes by seeing the deformitie of drunken mariners actions: that in Hippolytus likewise all yong men did wish them selues to be as chast as Hippolytus was; all the spectators detested the love of Phoedra; approved the grave coūsell of the Nurse to her in secret; none of them could be the woorse for her wooing Hippolytus in so generall termes; all did wish that Theseus had not bene so credulous; and were sory for the cruell death of Hippolytus. The most of which things you affirme they did, not meaning to pronounce of their secret thoughts, but that your playes were naturallie to woorke these effectes: as appeareth by that in some of the branches you say that the spectators might doe so, or so; yea, could not be the worse. And the same appeareth farther, by that you adde, that these & p. 111such like passions were, or might be mooved in your playes, without hurt, at the least, to any man: as in other tragedies, who doeth not hate (say you) the furie of Medea; the revenge of Atreus; the treason of Clytaemnestra, and Aegysthus; and the crueltie of Nero? Contrariwise who doeth not pitie the rage, and death of Hercules; the calamitie of Hecuba and her children; the infortunat valour of Oedipus; the murder of Agamemnon; the banishment of Octavia; and such like? You take your selfe therefore hereby to hauehave prooved that no evill affections could bee stirred vp by your playes in any: at the least, no evill; and many good perhaps. But why in the particular point touching Hippolytus, in which it most behooved you (because of your new peece of Pandarus and Nais) to shewe that good affections might be stirred vp by his part in all, and no evill in any: Why demanded you, what young man did not wish himselfe to bee as chast, as Hippolytus was, if he were not so already? Why asked you not generally, as in the rest, who did not? was it because you thought, that some elder men did not wish them selves as chast, as hee was: but were stirred vp by Phaedras pangs, and Pandarus reasons, to wish the like motion had bene made to them? Or, that any maidens were vponupon the stage, who could hauehave bene contented to become vnchast in yeelding to Hippolytus that which he would not graunt to Nais 77Amore nēpe Thesei casto furis? Sen. Hippolyt.chastlie? As for the young men of our Vniversitie who were present at it, I am hartilie glad if they were so minded: and doe reape my self the greater comfort of it, the more rrOratione d… odecima.I hauehave commended his example to them. But if they wished so, when they saw your play: it came more of somewhat which they brought thither, then which they found there. For, by your instruction, the death of Hippolytus should hauehave serued to teach them, that they must never denie vntounto a Nais, or Phaedra, such requestes: as ssEpilog. in Hippoly. Sen.your self tell them, on speech concerning wemen; Quas ne quis vnquam spernere dehinc audeat, Hippolytus ecce horribile documentum dedit; Impunè temnat nemo terrestres Deas. And what if all, who were present, not the young men only, did admire the constancie of Penelope? Could no evill affection bee therefore stirred in anie by seeing a boy play so chast a part? p. 112Happy would Lucretia then hauehave thought her selfe. For shee was not inferiour in chastitie to Penelope: and when Tarquin saw her, he saw 88N… s…a ded…am lanae inter Incub…ā tes ancillas. …ivi …b. 1.her employed as a ttProv. 31. 10Prov 31:10most vertuous woman. Yet, for all the wonderment he had of her vertue: he was more inflamed with louelove of her beautie. Yea, 99Tarqum… mala libido Lucretiae pervim stuprandae capit: tum forma, tum spectata castitas incitat.the very sight of her chast behauiour stirred vp his wicked lust. Moreouer, if Vlysses begging in his owne house, did move all the spectators to have compassion of him, and thereby grew no hurt to them: yet into the actor might there grow some hurt by acquainting him self with hypocriticall faining of vvVlyss. red. act. 1. & 3.lyes, xxAct. 2. & 3.Acts 2hunger, beggerie, yyAct. 2. & sequentibus.Acts 2wrath, and shedding of blood. As zzPlutarc. vit. Ciceronis.Aesopus 11foreign.playing the part of Atreus in a tragedie (one of your examples of passions mooved, without hurt, at the least, to any man) grew to such a rage by thinking and advising how he might wreake his anger, and be revenged on Thyestes; that with 22foreignhis Mace royall hee strooke one of the servants running by, and slew him. And beside this hurt that possibly might grow, there did grow the suffering of such things at Melanthius and Antinous handes, or 33Vlyssem calce ferit.one of their heeles rather, as a 44At ego infelix neque ridiculus esse, neque plagas pat… possum. Ter. Eunuchopoore wretch in Terence thought too contumelious and base for him to suffer; & a 55Nisi qui colaphos perpeti potis parasitus, frangique aulas in caput. Plaut. Captiv.Parasite in Plautus counted a peece of his trade. Which reprochfull patience if you thinke, I say not, that all who saw it, praised it (in saying so you blemish your spectators much;) but, that is was no hurt vntounto your actor of Ulysses, because (as you distinguished on 66Mamercorū alapas.Iuuenals wordes thereof) hee is a poore Scholler: you are not of 77Faciem contumeliis alaparum sic obijcit, quasi de praecepto Domini ludat. Docet scilicet & Diabolus verberandam maxillam patienter offerre. Tert. de spectac. cap. 23.Tertullians, and 88foreign. Gregor. Naz. orat. in laud. Basilii Magni.Nazianzenes minde, who note it for a staine in 99Scenici. Tert. ibid. cap. 22. foreign. Grego. Naz.what soeuer players, even in rascall Heathens; how much more would they, if not in Scholers, yet in Christians, whom Saint Paul exhorteth to aaPhil. 4. 9.Phil 4:9doe only those things which bbvers… 8. foreign.adorne & set them out with coomly gravitie? Now, if some might be the woorse for beholding or playing of the best partes, the partes of Vlysses, and Penelope: what harme might they receaue by the parts of the Wooers; of Melanthius, of Melantho, p. 113of a bragging souldier, of the drunken mariners, of the Nurse, of Phoedra? In some of which number your generall propositions, that all the spectators must needes bee mooved thus or thus thereby, are vntrue. In the rest, nay, in these too, manifest is the weaknes of your particular conclusions, that because good thoughts might be stirred vp in all the spectators by this or that part, therefore those parts could hurt no man. Besides, if by those partes no hurt could come to any, yet might there much by other which here you mention not: and so you come short of your conclusion generall, that no hurt could come to any by the passions that were mooved in your playes. Your generall propositions doe faile in the wemen: of whom you speake in such sort, that as cc1. Tim. 1. 1….1 Tim 1:1some by putting away a good conscience, made shipwracke of their faith: so it may bee feared that you, by putting trueth and singlenes away, will hazard the shipwracke of common sense and reason. For when maried women doe committ adulterie, all are not displeased with their lightnes and bad nature, nor thinke them woorthie of death for it. David had an other opinion of Bathseba, in the dd2. Sā. 11. 27sacred storie; the foole in the eeProv. 7. 22.Prov 7:22Proverbes, of the strange woman; the Trojans, in ffVly. red prolog. & epilo.your Homers, ggIliad. lib. 3.Ilias, of Helena: and in his hhOdyss. lib. 8.Odyssea, the supposed Gods, that is to say, great persons, specially Mercurie, thought otherwise of Uenus. How can it bee then, that all should not onelie dispraise the bad nature and lightnes of Melantho, an vnmaried harlot, but also account her iustlie hanged for it? whom it is more likely that some would hauehave stepped foorth to begge from the gallowes, at least the loving wooer, who had said vntounto her; 11Pulcherrim… Melantho.O most faire Melantho, 22Dulcis Melantho. Vlyss. red. act 3.O sweet Melantho; if hee had thought that shee should hauehave bene hanged in earnest. Like probabilitie hath it, that all would approove the Nurses grave counsell given to Phoedra in secret: when the counsell giuen openlie to men, by the ii2. Kin. 17. 132 Kgs 17:13Prophetes, by the kkAct. 2. 40. & 13. 50. & 17. 30.Acts 2:40Acts 13:50Acts 17:30Apostles, yea, by llMatt. 23. 37.Matt 23:37Christ him selfe, wherwith this 33So players are termed in Greek writers commonlie; sometime in Latin also. And parhaps dissemblers in faith & religion had that name by a metaphor drawne from the stage: as if they were playing other mens persons.hypocrites counsell deserveth not for gravitie to be named the same day, was not approved by all. As for that concerning Phoedra you demaund; who could be the worse for her wooing Hippolytus in so generall termes: aske mmAel Spar… in Ant. Ca… callo.Caracallus the Emperour; in whose sight when his stepmother p. 114Iulia, being madde with the same love to him-ward, that Phoedra to Hippolytus, did vncover and make bare, as it were through negligence, the most of her body, his heart conceived fyre straight, 44Vellem, si lic…et.his toung disclosed it; and by her wooing of him Si libet, licet. An nescis …e imperatorem …se; & leges dare, non accipere?in more generall termes, then Phoedra wooed Hippolytus, his consent was woon to her incestuous lust. But of all absurd speeches in this matter, that may beare the bell, that having asked who could be the woorse for her wooing Hippolytus in so generall termes, you inferre thereon: The drift whereof if it had bene to procure an honest honorable mariage, as it was covertlie to allure him to incest, he might very well hauehave listned to it. As if one of them, vntounto whom nnProv. 1. 14.Prov 1:14Salomon attributeth this speech, Cast in thy lott among vsus, wee will all hauehave one purse, should say that none could bee the worse for his entising in so generall termes: the drift whereof if it had bene to draw men to lawfull warre against enemies, as it was to vnlawfull spoiling of the innocent, they might very well hauehave listned to it. Your particular conclusions doe faile both in the women (for a surplusage of your former default concerning them) & in the men also. For although Melanthos lightnes and bad nature had bene dispraised by all: yet some might be corrupted by Melanthos loosenes and 66Domina Penelope sibi Dum nescio quā gloriam captat levē, Quot illa noctes perdidit flēdo bonas? Momēta pulchri corporis spolium auferunt, Fragilisque res est forma: dum licet, vtere, & Arce quū Dana… procos Arceret alta, quum fores clausae vndi que In imbre venit Iuppiter tandē aureo, Praedam que victor abstulit: nulla aureo Resistet imbri: ferreas aurum trabes, Nedum puellas frāgit ac sternit solobad lascivious talke, vnlesse Saint oo1. Cor. 15. 331 Cor 15:33Paul erred. And the graue counsell given vntounto Phoedra by the Nurse in secret, might hurt vnwarie lovely youthes, as doeth a scorpion, with the 77Contemne famam: fama vix vero favet, Pejus me renti melior, & pejor bonoraile therof. And Phoedras generall termes might bee as pp2. Sam. 20. 92 Sam 20:9Ioabs right hand, wherewith he tooke Amasa by the beard to kisse him: when her speciall drift being no more covered thē Ioabs sword was, might in the meane season wound Amasa to death, and shed his bowells to the ground. The same is apparant in the scurrilitie of Melanthius, the lewde or fonde trickes of the wooers, the vanitie of the bragging souldier, the beastlines of the drunken mariners. For qqPoliticor. lib. 7. cap. vlt.Aristotle wishing a lawe to be made in all well ordered cities, that 88foreign hee saith, meaning such speeches (vsed to bee expressed in that kinde of verse) as there are a number vttered by Antinous, Eruymachus, with the like, in your Vlysses redux, and commonly in all tragedies. Aristot. de poet.young men should neither see tragedie p. 115played, nor Comedie, vntill in riper yeares they be past danger of being hurt thereby, groundeth his advise on reason and experience; because things which young men receave, doe sticke fast by them: and therefore sith principall care ought to bee taken that they may proove vertuous, 99foreign.they should be kept frō hearing any ill speeches, and seeing any ill deedes; chieflie such deedes and speeches, as are lewde or hatefull. So that, where you tell vsus in defense of the spectacle of your drunken mariners, that it was not possible that anie man should be provoked to drunkennes thereby: albeit this were true, whereof yet I doubt, or rather I dout not, considering that many are overprone to folow anie vice or evill, which they see or heare, as an rrSyr. Thomas Eliot in the Governor, lib. 1. cap. 4. & 6.autour praised by your selfe observeth out of dailie experience in childrē swearing great oathes, and speaking lascivious and vncleane wordes by such example of other; but if it were true, there might neuerthelesse a deaw of that poyson, which Aristotle mentioneth, infect some tender buddes, and anoy their fruit by the drunken songs, by the drunken speeches, by the drunken gestures of those drunken beastes. The greater is your fault, who say, the Lacedemonians are commended for causing their slaves, beeing drunke in deede, to be brought before their children, that they seeing the beastlie vsage of such men, might the more loth that vice: but you much better expressing the same intent, not with drunken, but with sober men, counterfeiting such vnseemelie manners, are the lesse therefore to be reprehended. Wherein how overthwarthly you affirme your selues to hauehave done much better then the Lacedaemonians, whose fact is commended; and yet conclude that you are the lesse therefore to be reprehended, as if your conscience tolde you that either your fact is not like to theirs, or hath some notable difference whereby it is made worse and woorthy of reproofe, though of the lesse reproofe, the liker it is to theirs in part: we shall the more easilie perceaue, if we consider how the commender of it (why signified you not his name, or place?) Plutarch, ssAntiq. Lacedaemon…or. institut.doeth likewise by and by therevpon cō mend them for that 11foreign.they neither heard Comedie nor Tragedie, least they should in earnest, or iest, lende eare to those who gain said the lawes. For hereby I gather, that they did not purposely p. 116make their slaves drunken; against ttXenophon. de repub. Lacedaem.their lawes had that bene: but 22foreign Pl…tar. saith, and not, foreign.when the slaves were drunke, they turned the example to their childrens benefite, that, by seeing swine wallowing in the myre of vomit, and so foorth, they might detest drū kennes. As with vsus when theeves are hanged, or hoores carted, we shew them to our children, to breede a detestation of theft and hoordome in them. Wherevpon if Seius should say, it were much better that true men should faine them selves to be theeves, display some theevish pranke of theirs vpō a stage, and seeme to be hanged for it; or that chast maidens and yong men should coūterfeit the misdemeanour of hoores & knaves, and openly representing the filthy act of their vncleannes, bee taken in it, and putt to shame: your selfe, I am perswaded, would iudge his better to be woorse; at least in the latter point of knaves and hoores, because the shame, that lighteth on thē after the fact done, may profit the beholders; but the doeing of it, and of things tending to it, hath turpitude that may corrupt them. Which censure if you will apply to your fact compared with the example of the Lacedaemonians, you may see their drunken slaves doe little helpe to iustifie your mariners: because the 33foreign.rotton or stinking talke (as vvEphe. 4. 29.Eph 4:29Scripture termeth it) which your mariners vsed before and at their quaffing, would not hauehave bene suffered among the Lacedaemonians to be soong or said in their childrens hearing, no not by enterlude-players. Neither hauehave you greater reason to commende and extoll the woorthy play-felowes of your mariners by Catos name and credit, in that you aske; What Cato might not bee delited to see the fond behaviour of Country-wooing expressed by civill men, or the vanitie of a bragging soldier? For Cato, not the younger, whose Stoicall austeritie xxOrat pro Muraen.Tullie findeth fault with, but whom without such note yyDe senect.he prayseth, the elder, zzPlutar. vita Caton. majo…s.did put out of the number of Senatours one Manilius, because in the day time he had kissed his wife in his daughters sight: & him selfe tooke no lesse heed of speaking filthy woords in his sonnes presence, then he would hauehave done in presence of the Uestall virgins; nor ever would enter into the bathe with him, least his sonne should see him naked. And can you thinke that any of this p. 117mans disposition, what delite soever him selfe might hauehave taken in that which could not taint his gravitie and constancie, would hauehave bene delited, delited? nay, contented to beholde the filth of your country-wooers in the mouthes & actions of Scholers like his sonne, before so great a companie both of sonnes and daughters; in whose 44Nil dictu s… dum visuque haec li…nina …angat Intr… quae puer est.eares, & eyes, a aaIuven…l. sat. 14.Poët, no way comparable with Cato for severitie and care of vertuous nurturing & training vp of youth, detesteth the expressing of any one such foolerie, as your country-wooers did expresse a number?

As for the vanitie of your bragging souldiour, I marvell that intending to proove there could no evill affection bee stirred vp thereby in anie, you durst mention Cato: whē I had shewed that bbIn prolog. Capuuor.Plautus, a farre looser person, and better experienced in matters of this kinde, doeth note that 55Profectò expediet fabulae huic operam dare. Hic neque pe…iurus leno est, nec meretrix mala, Neque miles gloriosus.mens maners are woont to be corrupted and made worse by playes which hauehave a bawde, or boore, or bragging souldier in them. The dissolute behaviour of your courtly-wooers, you say, was not so much expressed on the stage, as imagined to be doon within. Not so much on the stage: much on the stage therefore; and in deed too much. Yet this would proove, I graunt, that small harme could be done by the playing of their partes, vnlesse that were true which the Scripture saith: cclam. 3. 5.How great a pile of wood how litle fire kindleth? Melanthius alone of all the sorts, or varlets, whom you namelie specifie, hath no amplification of Lacedaemonians, or Cato; no extenuation of not so much on the stage, to grace the vngratiousnes of his fowle scurrilitie. The likelier is Aristotles sentence and autoritie to prevaile with you, that yong men might be stained by hearing of his railing, his 66foreign such as these are; Eumoee impudens, Quo gurgitē hunc tristemque mensarú omniú vo…aginem ipsam ducis, & verè infimum Barathrum macelli? liminibꝰ humeros sibi Detriuit iste pluribꝰ; quadram aptior. Purgare lingua, quàm quatere iaculum manu. &c. Vlyss r…d act. 2.Iambicall speeches, as Aristotle termeth them. At least Syr Thomas Eliots ddIn the Govern lib. 1. cap. 27.wordes of playing at footeball, that therein is nothing but beastly furie, & extreeme violence, whereof proceedeth hurt, and consequentlie rancour & malice doe remaine with them that be wounded, may moove you to thinke that there was daunger of anoying our youth by Melanthius action, 77Vlysse… calce ….striking and girding (like Silenus 88Calce …eritur aselh. Ovid Fastor. lib. ….asse) at Vlysses with his heele. For boyes affecting footebale, will argue peradventure, that seeing such horseplay was vsed by Melanthius, & he might strike Vlysses body with his p. 118foote; more lawfull should it bee for them to strike a ball so: and what Cato would not be delited to see them breake one an others shinnes? or who was that vicechancellour, what a convocation, that made our Vniversitie statute to the contrarie? Thus are your particular conclusions overthrowne, euen by those passions which the parties mentioned might imprint in others. How much more in them selues? Whose mindes in what danger they are of infection, by meditating and studying sundrie dayes, or weekes, how to expresse the manners of wantons, or drunkards, or country-wooers lively, the seeing wherof played but an hower, or two, might taint the spectators: I wish with all my hart, that I may rather seeme in vaine to have feared, then they should by experience feele. Your conclusion generall faileth more and more yet, because evill affections might be stirred vp by other partes then these: as namelie, by your new parts of Pandarus and Nais. The former, after a sort confessed by your selfe, in that you demaund; who could be the woorse for Phoedras wooing Hippolytus in so generall termes? For this doeth insinuate that through Pandarus wooing him i… speciall termes, so speciall, that incestuous 99Fit equo sua filia coniux, Quasque cre…it, init pecudes caper. &, Gentes tamen esse fe…ntur, in qui bus & nato genitrix, & …ata parenti Iungitur; vt pietas geminato crescat amore.Myrrha went no farder (as eeMetamorph. lib. 10.Ovid thought fitt to describe it) not in her secret 11Et secū, Quò mente feror? quid molior? inquit. &c.thoughts, some might be the woorse. The later, most evident by that which is ffLucian. quo modo hist. scribend. sit.recorded to hauehave come to passe in the Citi… of Abdêra. Where, when at midsummer, in very hottweather, Andromeda (a Tragedie of Euripides) being played, manie brought home a burning ague from the theater: about the seventh day folowing, they were ridde thereof, some by much bleeding, some by sweating, but all, as soone as they were abroade out of their beddes, did fall into a strange distemper and passion of a light phrensie. The which exciting them to say & cry aloude such things as were sticking freshly in their memorie, and had affected most their minde, 22foreign.they grewe all to Tragedie-playing, and full lustilie they sounded out 33foreign.Iambicall speeches: their toungs harping chieflie on Euripides, Andromeda, and the 44foreign.melodious woords of Perseus touching love. So that the whole citie was full of pale and thinne folke, pronouncing like stage-players, and braying with a loude voice. p. 11955foreign.But O Cupido, prince of Gods and men, with the rest of that part: vntill at length the winter and colde, waxing great, asswaged their distemper, and eased them of their frantike follie. A woorde to a wise man is enough. That speech, But O Cupido, Prince of Gods and men, vttered vnderunder Perseus, that is, a mans person, was of all likely hoode lesse pearcing and patheticall, then yours, O quàm iuvaret igne tam pulchro mori, vttered by Nais, a woman, and a Nymph. It was well that shee played in winter, not in summer. For ggHerodo…. Polymn. Ovid. Metamorph. li. 4.Perseus loved Andromeda in the way of mariage too, as Nais did Hippolytus. But the force of love-pangs, and the care of lawfulnes, ioyne not their dwelling houses together still in all heartes. Wherefore you are so farre off from having prooved that no evill affection could bee stirred vp in anie by your playes: that I can hardlie remember any evill affection, which might not be stirred vp thereby in many; not onelyonly in the actors, but the spectators also. And I thinke your selfe, if you peruse advisedly this whiche I hauehave written, and diligentlie compare it with your Vlysses redux, Rivales, and Hippolytus, will take time of respitt before you name as much as one inordinate passion; whereto I shall not quote, at least one players part, perhaps two, or three, that may be as oile vntounto the fire. Howbeit, had you prooved the contrarie hereof, yet is my conclusion entier, as I said, and your playes vnlawfull: because it is vnlawfull to imitate and resemble any misbehaviour; and your selfe can not denie but sundry lewdnesses were imitated and resembled in eche of your playes.

Herein is that confuted withall by the way, which otherwhere you mention as an intent sufficient to iustifie & warrant your coming on the stage: namely that you doe it to practise your style, either in prose or verse; to bee well acquainted with Seneca, or Plautus; honestly to embolden your youth; to trie their voices, & cōfirme their memories, to frame their speech; to conforme them to convenient action; to trie what mettall is in everie one, and of what disposition they are. For although you aimed at all these things, and hitt them, which as I hauehave shewed in one branche to bee false, so must you graunt it in some other; vnlesse you will saye, that to arme a youth with a hhI…. …. ….whoores p. 120forehead, is honestly to embolden him; or, by trying what metta… is in every one, you meane the occasioning of thē to giuegive proofe whether their iiEsai. 48. 4.Isa 48:4browes bee made of brasse; but admitting all were even as you pretend: yet your stage-playing being convicted of vnlawfulnes, your pretēses for it are grinded all to powder; kkRom. 3. 8.Rom 3:8iust is their damnation, who say, Let vsus doe evill that good may come thereof. Our great and first parents, llGen. 3. 5.Gen 3:5seduced by the serpent, did eate of the fruit of the forbidden tree: to the intent that they might become like to God, and knowe both good and evill. The mmHeb. 5. 14.Heb 5:14knowledge of good and euill, is to be wished: but because the nnGen. 2. 17.Gen 2:17meanes was ioyned with disobedience, it had bene better for them to hauehave lacked that knowledge. Among the Lacedaemonians, ooXenoph. de rep. Lacedaemon.boyes by their publike order were instructed, and through want of vittalls were provoked to steale meat: that being occasioned thereby to watch at night, while others were sleeping, and to lye in wait by day time for their pray, they might be the skilfuller to circumvent & spoile their enemies in warre.

The end good and commendable, as he who pp2. Sam. 22. 35. Psal. 144. 1.2 Sam 22:35Ps 144:1taught David to fight, assureth vsus: but qqDeut. 5. 19. 1 Sam. 25. 7Deut 5:191 Sam 25:7David was not taught it by pilfering and stealing. Parmeno in rrEunuch. act. 5. scen. 4.Terence telleth what commoditie Chaerea might purchase by cōming into Thais ho…se: to bee acquainted with the nature and manners of harlots, that knowing them betime he might for ever hate them. To hate thē, is a qualitie ssPsal. 13…. 21.Ps 13:21beseeming vertuous persons: but who so by acquaintance with them doe seeke to hate them, are likelie to be evill qualified; for ttProu. 6. 28.Prov 6:28can a man goe vponupon coales, and his feete not be burnt? But here you will reply percase that in Chaerea, beside the good effect which Parmeno did boast of, some bad effects might fall out, vvAct. 3. scen. 5Acts 3through the seeing of Iupiters picture with Danaë, and being neere to Pamphila: which in your playes cā not be feared. But I have prevented this reply by shewing that 66Arce quum Danaë procos Ar…eret …lta, &c. Vlyss. red. act. 3.your Danaes picture with Melanthos talke may breede some bad effectes in a Chaerea too, though he were a beholder onelyonly of your playes, much more if he be a player him selfe. Wherefore if a dead flye doeth cause the sweet ointment of the Apothecarie to stinke, as the xxEccles. 10. 1.Eccl 10:1wise man saith: what a lothsome savour p. 121must needs so great store of such caraine breed in the perfume of eloquence, into the which you cast it? Beside that, to come neerer you, the ointment and perfume itselfe commended by you, hath a rammish smell, and stinketh like a goate: as a good Apothecarie, and of verie quicke sent, 77Quinuliane vagae moderator summe inventae, gloria Romanae Quintiliane togae. Mart. lib. 2. epigram. 90.Quintilian, I meane, acknowledgeth and avoucheth. For he, yyOrator. in…titut. lib. 1. ca. 14.requiring 88In primis.chieflie that young and tender mindes 99nō modòqu… diserta, sed vel magis qu… honesta sunt, discant.should not onelyonly learne such things as are well vttered, but, & that much rather, such things as are honest; forbiddeth them to reade at all any poëmes of 11Vtique, qu… ama….amatorie fansies, at least, 22Ad firmius aetatis robu… reseruentur.till they bee growen to greater maturitie of yeares, and strength of age. In which sort hee alloweth them to reade Menanders Comedies also, and others, 33Quum mores in tuto fuerint. Vide li. 2. cap. 2.Whē they be past daunger of having their manners corrupted. And their zzLib 2. cap. 1 & 4. &. 11.style he willeth to be exercised in commō places, either against vices, or touching doubtfull questions; in praysing good, dispraysing evill: in reporting trueth; in defense of innocencie; and the like matters that may serve an 44Orator, vir. bonus. Lib. 1 in proaem. & lib. 12. cap. 1honest man in vse of life. Their aaLib 2. ca. 8.memorie he wisheth to be cōfirmed by learning without booke, sometime somewhat of their owne, well penned; but principally, places elected and chosen out of orations, or stories, or other kind of 55Dignorum ea cura voluminum.writings worthy that care and studie; that they 66Assuescent optimis.may accustome themselves to the best, and have their style holpen manie wayes thereby. Finallie, for bbLib. 1. ca. 19framing of speech, voice, and gesture, he would not hauehave them imitate the voice of Women, or old men; nor expresse the fautes of drunkennes; nor be taught to play the slaves; nor learne the affection and passion of love, of couetousnes, of feare. Which things are neither necessarie, saith he, 77Oratori.for an oratour; and 88Mentem, praecipuè in aetate prima teneram adhuc & rudem inficiunt.they doe corrupt the minde, in childhoode specially, while it is tender yet and vnacquainted with things; because 99Frequēs imitatio transis in mores.such as those are whom we imitate much, such our selves become. Behold the great difference betweene a heathen mans conceit of the instructing of oratours for civill causes: & yours, of Christian Preachers, or what soeuer place your Studentes shall be called to in Church or Common weale, at least of honest men and Christians.

Hee would hauehave no amatorie poëmes, neither Comedies, no not ccLib. 10. ca. 1.Menanders, that is, the 11Omnibus …iusdem operis autoribus abstulit nomen.best of all to be read by his p. 122youth: you, as if Phaedras amorous speech expressed by Seneca were nothing without a pe…ce of menstruous cloth sowed to it, doe occasion yours to make them selves familiar and well acquainted with Plautus, ddHorat. de art. poet. vives lib. 3. de tratend. disciplin Scalig. poetic. lib. 6. cap. 3.one farre beneath the best. He would hauehave his youth to practise their style in good things, as in 22Arma sunt hac quodāmo do praeparā da semper, vt his, quum res poscet, vtaris.weapons, which they may vse when neede shall be: you practise yours in speeches entising men to Uenerie, to ribauderie, to scurrilitie, to hoordom, to incest, to other abominations. He would hauehave his youth to commit most excellent thinges and wordes to memorie; you pester yours with filth, such filth in Rivales (I am ashamed to reherse it) as can not be matched, I thinke, sure very hardly, throughout all Plautus. Hee would not hauehave his youth 33Femineae voc…s exilitate frangi.to counterfeit a womans voice: you procur… Minerva, Penelope, Euryclea, Antonoë, Eurynome, Hippodamia, Melantho, Phaedra, the Nurse, the Nymph, besides I know not whom in the vnprinted Comedie, to bee played by yours. Hee would 44Nec vitia … brietatis effingat.not have his youth to represent the faults of drunkennes: yours must flant it out in most vnmodest guise, with vnseemely barbarous carousing songes and speeches, and be defended too by the brave example of Lacedaemonian slaves. Hee would 55Nec seruili vernilitate imbuatur.not hauehave his youth to bee imbrued and tainted with slavish behaviour: for yours it is an ornament to play the goteheard Melanthius, or a bragging souldier, or a clownish wooer. In fine, hee would 66Nec amoris discat affectum.not hauehave his youth to learne the passion of amorousnes and louelove; 77Plu…imum aberit à scenico gestu.nor to bee stage-player-like in action and gesture: you breede yours in stage-playing, as conforming them to convenient action; and teach them to resemble the panges of louelove in maner of most amorous Nymphes, with 88O quàm iu…aret igne tā pulchro mori.burning exclamations, and 99Tu nostris, precor, Nym phas amare …e puta in syluis nefas. Aurora Cephalo, Salmacis puero suo, Adonide venus Latmio iuvene & tua, Hippolyte, quondam exarsit … arcitenens Dea. In tam beato, quaeso …umeremur grege.fansies of Poëticall fables. S^t eeConfession. lib. 1. cap. 16 ….Austin reprooving the course of the world which traineth vp their children in Poëts wanton tales of Iupiters adulteries, and vseth to defend their custome by saying, Hence are wordes learned, hence is eloquence gotten: forsooth, saith hee, belike wee could not know these wordes, imbrem aureum, and gremium, and fucum, and templa caeli, and the rest there written, vnlesse ^f Terence had brought in a lewde young man proposing Iupiter to him selfe for an example of hooredome, while hee beholdeth on the p. 123wall a certaine painted table, wherein was this picture; how Iupiter sent a 11Imbrem … reum.golden shower, they say, of olde time into the 22Gremium.lappe of Danaë, 33Fucum.vnderunder the colour thereof to beguile a woman. And see how he stirreth vp himselfe to lust as it were by the instruction of a heavenly maister. But what God? saith hee. Even that God which shaketh 44Templa …the sanctuaries of heaven with thunder. Should not I, who am a mortall wretch, doe the same? Yes in deed I did it, and gladly. 55Non omnin… per hanc turpitudinē verba ista commodius discuntur; sed per haec verba turpitudo ista confidē tius perpetraturNo, no, saith S. Austin, those wordes are not learned the more conveniently by meanes of this dishonestie: but this dishonestie is wrought the more confidently by meanes of those wordes. Thus did that discreete and godly Father iudge of causing such devises of Poëts to bee learned by children yea although the Poëts were as good as Terence and the childrē as well inclined as himselfe. For him selfe it is, of whom ggAug. confess. lib. 1. cap. 15hee confesseth that 66Didici in … multa verba vtilia: sed & quae in … non vanis disci possunt; & ea via … est in qua pu…ri ambularent.hee learned many profitable wordes in vaine, Poëticall fansies; but such as both may bee learned in thinges not vaine, & that is a safe way wherein children ought to walke. On which consideration sundry men of note in our memorie also, not onelyonly among professors of purer religion, but even among the Papists, hauehave advised Scholemasters & instructors of youth either not to read Terence to their Scholers, or if they will read him, not to read him all. hhDe tradend. disciplin. li. 3.Ludovicus Uives, having declared in generall out of iiforeign.Plutarch touching the reading of Poëts, that, vnlesse you vse it most warily, it hurteth; and therefore, if a childe may be allowed to meddle with it, their writinges would be purged first, & filthy matters be wholly cut out of them: Doth wish the same concerning Terence in speciall for those thinges which might defile the mindes of children with such faultes and vices, as naturally wee are prone to. Ignatius Loiola, a man no worse minded in certaine pointes then were the olde Iewish kkAct. 23. 8.Acts 23:8Pharises, whose llMark 7. 9.Mark 7:9sect in his ofspring of Iesuits hee hath renued, mmPetr. Ma…. vita Ign. Loi. lib. 3. cap. 8.did forbidde Terence to bee reade in schooles (vnlesse he were purged) least hee should more anoy their maners by his wantonnes, then by his Latin helpe their wittes. nnEpist. ad Augustum Ducem Saxoni….Georgius Fabricius, not seeing how he may be well purged to this purpose, because the conditions of fond or bad persons, as of lovers, …oores, murmurers, mizers, fretters, ruffians, varlets, flatterers, p. 124boasters, bawdes, and sycophants, that is, the most of those things which Comedies entreate of, belong to stronger mindes, and to an age confirmed and stayed with some judgement, not to vnskilfull children, before whom they are better omitted and concealed; Fabricius therefore grounding him selfe vponupon the iudgement of ooPoliticor. li. 7 cap. v…t.Aristotle, and ppLib. 1. ca. 14Quintilian, both applyed to Terence, resolveth that hee is not to bee read at all to youths of tender yeares. Wherevnto a light of our vniversitie and country, D. Humfrye, subscribeth and agreeth, in that vponupon occasion of shewing how Noblemens children and Gentlemens should bee brought vp in learning, qqLaur. Humfred. de nobilit. lib. 3.he saith that they may hauehave Terence reade vntounto them, but them, when they shall be growen in age and iudgement. Though douting least even then too the 77Si quid insit obscaeni, fidelis diligentia boni praeceptoris medeatur: & alio…um librorum l…ctio, tanquam pharmacum, pellat quicquid … est toxicū.poyson of his filthines may be more forcible then the coūter-poyson to be vsed against it he addeth that hee would not graunt him this place neither in their education, but that Tullie had made good account of him, and prosited in eloquence by him. Now the same reasons, that, in choise of autours to be read by vsus, exclude so fine a Poët, and send vsus vntounto purer fountaines of good literature: doe likewise in the practise of style, the frame of speech, and imployment of memorie, exclude such points and matters as Terence is excluded for, and commend vntounto vsus more commendable arguments to exercise our wittes, our tounges, our pennes in. Which the wise Founders and Governours of the worthy Colleges and companies of Students here among vsus did very well consider: taking order therefore that by rendring and rehearsing of Aristotle; or Tullie; by writing, pronouncing, declaiming, disputing, of questions in sundry faculties and artes, the vse whereof may serue them afterward to purpose, young men should bee made the readier and fitter to confirme the truth, to confute errours, to dehort from evill things, and instruct to good. Neither doeth your suttle matching and comparing of these scholasticall exercises with enterludes and playes, in as much as you tell mee that if I had but said that your playes are toyes, vnnecessarie, vaineit had bene no more perhaps then is, in strictnes, true, because rrL…k. 10. 4….vnum modò necessarium; and hee, that had tried all things, of his owne wise experience pronounceth, ssEccles. 1…. 8.Eccl 1:8vanitas p. 125vanitatum, & omnia vanitas, yea, even learning, and wisedome, and all thinges else, except the feare of God which endureth for ever, & you hauehave heard a godly & a learned Preacher in the pulpitt affirme, that our declamations, oppositions, suppositions, and such scholasticall exercises, are no better then vaine things: but these three autorities, wherein you saw not strength sufficient to perswade you that your playes are certainlie vnnecessarie and vaine, (your speech cōcerning them you lay in water with perhaps;) doe not convince in deede our disputations, declamations, with the like exercises, to be so. For when our Saviour said that 88foreign.one thing is needfull, speaking of ttLuk. 10. ver. 42.Luke 10:42the good part which Marie had chosen in that vvver. 39.shee heard 99foreign.his preaching, the word of God preached by him: he did not by commending the needfulnes of the ende, condemne the meanes, as needlesse, wherby the ende is attained to. Nay, hee did imply rather that the meanes are consequentlie needfull: as if a naturall man should say, We must liue, his meaning were that wee must hauehave sustenance to live by. And how shall men xxRom. 10. 1…Rom 10:1heare the word of GOD preached, vnlesse there be Preachers to expound it? How can Preachers expound it, vnlesse they learne the way of yy2. Tim 2. 152 Tim 2:15cutting it aright and applying it? How can they learne the way ordinarilie: vnlesse they be trained vp in Logike and Rhetorike? The necessarie vse whereof for the sound interpreting of Scripture, it may be that you heard zzPraelectioni. in epist. ad Coloss. cap. … ver. 8.me shewe against the Brownists, as well as you heard the Preacher whom you speake of: or if you did not, Saint aaDe doctr. Christ. lib. 2. cap. 31. & seq…entibus.Austin, or bbDe rat. stud. theolog. lib. 1. cap. 4.Hyperius, may serve to informe you. The a…tes then of Rhetorike & Logike are requisit to preaching of the woord. And the exercises of declaiming, answering, opposing, doe helpe to breede ripenes in those artes. Our Saviours sentence therefore that one thing is needfull, argueth not these exercises to be vnnecessarie. No more doth Salamons saying that all things are vanitie, proove them to be vaine. For out of 11Heb. HACCOL w^t HE (an article as it were) expressed & expounded by Tremellius & Iunius, Eccl. 1. 2. & 12. 10Eccl 1:2Eccl 12:10those all things him selfe doeth except, the ccEccle. 12. 13Eccl 12:13feare of God (as you note) and (as you should hauehave noted) the keeping of Gods commaundements. Wherefore sith our Students be commaunded by God ddLuk. 19. 13.Luke 19:13to employ the pieces of moony that hee hath given them, in trade and traficke as it were, to make gai…e therof; p. 126and the trade, wherein they must employ their time, is, to gett them selves all instrumentes of learning, by whiche they eeTit. …. 9.may be able to 22foreignexhort with wholesome doctrine; and 33foreign.convince such as gainsay it: their practise of exhortatorie and convincing faculties, of declamations, of elenches, of oppositions and suppositions, can not be condemned, as vaine, by his woord, by whom ffMat. 25. ver. 26.Matt 25:26the evill servant is condemned, as ggver. 30.vnprofitable, for hhver. 25.hyding his talent in the earth. Well may you hauehave heard a Preacher in the pulpitt affirme that which you mention: but I doubt whether you vnderstoode him well. For you alleage him so, as if he had pronoūced those exercises simply, & in them selves, vaine: Which it were iniurious to thinke, that a learned and a godli… Preacher (such doe you report him; and I, not knowing who it was, doe beleeve you) should purpose to affirme: feing Christ; iiHeb. 7. 27.Heb 7:27whose mouth was never defiled with toy or anie vaine thing, vsed certaine of them, as oppositions namely. For what are kkAristot. Topic. li. 1. & 8.oppositions but arguments obiected against a point in question? What was it but an argument obiected so by Christ, when against the llMat. 22. ver. 23.Matt 22:23Sadduces, denying the resurrection, mmver. 31.he vrged a text of Moses? and against the nnver. 42.Pharises, holding no more of Christ but that he was Davids sonne, a oover. 43.testimonie of David? Yea, in this later he did that which of all things in our disputations might seeme to be most vaine, obiect ppver. 45.against a trueth, although with purpose for the trueth. It is not to be thought then, that the Preacher, terming our exercises vaine, meant that they are such simply and in them selves; but as they are vsed by vsus, by many of vsus, to sundry fruitlesse endes, not to make vsus fitter for the qq…ph. 4. 29.good and 44foreign.need full edifying of men: nor to advance rr1. Tim. 4. 8.1 Tim 4:8godlines profitable for all things, but to encrease or make a shew of ssEccles. 1. ver. 13.Eccl 1:13that knowledge, which therfore is called ttver 14.vanitie by the wise man, because it hath vvver. 3.no permanent and lasting commoditie, xxver. 15.nor bringeth vsus salvation and eternall life. Whereof it doeth no more folow that the exercises are vaine, as you conclude; then if one should reason that the feare of God, (which you except) is vaine, vponupon that place of Esay, yyEsai. 29. 13.Isa 29:13Their f…are toward me is taught by the precept of men. For, if, notwithstanding that zzMat. 15. 9.Matt 15:9the Iewes worshipped and feared God in vaine, p. 127fearing him amisse according to the precepts of men, not to his woord, yet the feare of God is most beneficiall, and aaMal. 3. 1….Mal 3:1was to some among the Iewes too: then may declamations, supposititions, oppositions, and such schol…sticall exercises be profitable & fruitfull, even vntounto some among vsus also, though many of vsus make them vanitie of vanities, as vaine as that bb2. Tim. 2. 142 Tim 2:14strife is which Saint Paul reprooveth, I meane, both 55foreign.voide of wholesome iuice, & 66foreign.ful of poyson. But to what purpose are these discourses, will you say, of exercises fitt for scholers, and Terence not to be read vntounto them, till they be of riper yeares & iudgement? To let you vnderstand, that whereas you tell vsus, you come vponupon the stage to practise your style, to acquaint your selues with Plautus, to embolden your youth, to trye their voices, confirme their memories, frame their speech and action; you are so farre from iustifying your playes by this defense, that you condemne thē more. For if the tale of Iupiter with Danaë, in Eunuchus, should not be read to such as your Melantho and Nais: much lesse should they be taught the same tale 77Nulla … …esistet imb…i.vrged farther, in Vlysses …edux; and lesse yet another tale of ccOvid Metamorph lib. 4.wanton Salmacis 88Salmac… puero suo.with her boy; in Hippolytus. If they should not as much as salute Te…ence, the finest Comicall Poët, for purenes of the Latin toung in ddLimone, apud Dona…ū in vita Teren….Tullies iudgement: much lesse should they be made well acquainted with Plautus; and lesse yet with Rivales. If they should not be suffered to peruse writings of base & filthy qualitie, nor to cast their eyes, as it were, vponupon them: much lesse should they engraue them by heart in their remembrance, expresse them with voice, commend them with action, deliver them with boldnes. If they should not exercise their style, their speech, their memorie, but in honest, vertuous, and commendable matters, which in vse of lise may serve them to good purpose: much lesse should they meditate how they may inflame & tender youth with louelove; entise him to daliance, to hoordom, to incest; inure their mindes and bodyes to vncoomly, dissolute, railing, boasting, knavish, foolish, brainsicke, drunken conceits, woordes, and gestures. Wherefore to the Timothees, that are among your Students, I must say in like sort as Saint Paul to Timothee: ee2. Tim. …. ….Consider what I say; and the Lord giuegive you p. 128vnderstanding in all things.

Now, the inconveniences and mischiefes of your playes being so notorious and manifold, as I hauehave shewed: the rest of mine answer opposed to your reasons devised for their defense, will easilie deliver it selfe from your cavills. For where you having said that your Students did not misspend their time therein, because they spent no more time then vseth to be spent in sports, sleepe, talke, and learned releasing of the minde from studie; and having added thereto that, sith there is a time for sportes, playes, danses, and man consisting not of one part alone doeth neede recreation, therefore you may be stage-players; I answered to the former, that by the like reason a student haunting a dicing house, or taverne, or stewes, might proove that he did not misspend his time thereat; to the later, that recreation is necessarie for Schollers, yet would it not beseeme them to play at stoole-ball amonge wenches, nor at Mumchance or Maw with idle lost companions; nor at trunkes in Guile-halls, nor to danse about Maypoles, nor to rifle in alehouses, nor to carowse in Tavernes, nor to steale Deere, nor to robbe Orchyards: you reply that to compare your playes to these things, it exceedeth the compasse of any tollerable resemblance; and therevpon eftsoones you surname them hard and incomparable comparisons. Wherein howe incomparably you lavish out of measure, and exceede the compasse of any reasonable speach, you may quickly see, now that I hauehave prooved your playes to be evill: si…h these things being likewise evill and disorderlie, and so agreeing with them in a generall point, it is cleere they may be resembled therevnto.

The Scripture compareth ffMat. 25. 27.Matt 25:27our Saviour to an 99foreign.vsurer, who desireth gaine by the moony hee lendeth; ggLuk. 16. 8.Luke 16:8the children of light to an vniust steward, who maketh him selfe frendes with his maisters goods against a time of neede, hh1. Thes. 5. 2.1 Thess 5:2the coming of the Lorde… day to a thiefe in the night, who cometh suddenly and vnlooked for. Comparisons not tollerable, if the speciall qualities of vsurers, of vniust men, of the…ves, should bee meant: but very good and fitt, if wee marke the generall points that they are matched in. Or, if Scripture-eloquence, which yet S^t iiDe doctrin. Christ. lib. 4. …p. 6.Austin magnifieth, seeme base in your eyes; though, seeme it never so p. 129base, I trust you will not say that to compare our Saviour, and so foorth, to these things, it exceedeth the compasse of any tolerable resemblance: but the eloquence, the learning, the autoritie of Homer, whose witt (kkVlyss red. Prolog. & epilog. you say) 11Illuminatut & homines simul & Deos.enlightned both men and Gods together, whose 22Dignetur humilem tanta maiestas tua Induere soccum.maiestie you worshippe with 33Haurire …yathum font… nos largo sine.prayer and 44Benignita… gratias agimus …ae.thankesgiuing, to 55Aeterna maneat gl… ria in terris tibi.whom you wish eternall glorie, and call him 66Nam quis aeterno seni Par esse poterit?the eternall olde man, will suffice to open your eyes and stoppe your mouth. For he compareth llIliad. lib. 11. m lib. 16.valiant Aiax to an asse, that being in a corne-field will not bee driven out with any cudgels of boyes till he hauehave filled his belly; the ^m Grecians and Troians about Sarpedons carkasse, to flies about a milke-paile in a warme spring-time, all busy and loth to leaue it. There are nnHieron. vid. & Lud. viv. lib. 3. de tra. disciplin.who finde fault with these comparisons, I graunt, as overbase and abiect: but your adoration of Homer doeth perswade me, that you will make more of ooIul. Scalig. poetic. lib. 5. cap 3.his censure, who, for the generall drift thereof, approoveth them. At least you shall be forced to yeeld by your owne wordes, in as much as having compared our reproofe of your expense in playes to ppMatt. 26. …Matt 26their speech who saide of the costly ointment powred vponupon Christes head, what needed this wast? and being tolde the difference of that fact from yours; you say, that though you knowe there is an infinite difference betwene yours and the action against the which it was hypocritically first vsed: yet you thinke it may also bee applyed against, either the niggardise, or the hypocrisie of any Momus, that shall condemne all expense as cast away, that is sometimes moderatly bestowed vponupon honest sports and pastimes. For how can it be chosen but to compare your charges on playes to those on Christ, must needes exceede the compasse of any tolerable resemblance: vnlesse things agreeing in a generall point, as you suppose (though falsly) these to doe in honestie, may be very well resembled eche to other? And 77Quis tule… Gracchos d… seditione que rentes? Iuvenal. sat. ….why should you reproove it in me as a hard incomparable deede: when you thinke it comparable and soft in your own case? Chiefly, sith you know, that even in the degree of honest matters too, whereon expenses are made, there is an infinite difference betwene the actions, which you match: I can not say so of those that I compare. Nay, some of the thinges that I compare your stage-playes with, are lesse evill; as namelie, p. 130for scholers to play at stooleball among wenches: which to doe by day light, in open streetes, in their owne likenes, were not so vnmeete and inconvenient for them, as to be attired in wemens raiment, by wemen, within doores, in the night time, to goe to and fro, and come vponupon the stage, and play Melantho, or Nais. Contrariwise, the action wherewith you match yours; was infinitely better, as your selfe acknowledge: and had, as you must also acknowledge, 88foreign, or foreign, it was esteemed by thē, who amplified it to the vttermost. Mark. 14. 5. Ioh. 12 5. And that may amount to nine or ten pound of our moony.Mark 14:5John 12:5lesse bestowed thereon, then yours had. So that your consequution doeth halt here againe; It was no wast to bee at lesser cost in woorking a good woorke on Christ; Ergo it is no wast to bee at greater charges in setting foorth of playes. But mine is vnreprooveable; It beseemeth not scholers to play at stooleball among wenches, though modest and chast; Therefore it beseemeth them not to play wanton wemen on the stage. The same may I say of the two comparisons, which herewithall you checke; the former, alleaged out of Salvianus, or out of Scripture rather; the later, adioyned by mee for illustrating and opening the former: to weete, that with the players of lewde and naughty parts it fareth as with ae foole committing wickednes in pastime; and they are like a mad man, who casteth firebrands, arrowes, and mortall thinges, and saith, was I not in sport? For a mad man casting firebrandes, and the like, endangereth bodies onelyonly: the players of lewde parts doe endanger sowles. And a foole commiting wickednesse in pastime hath seldome many admirers and folowers to hurt: the players hauehave as many, as a great Theater holdeth, and can heare them say, But O Cupido, or, O quàm juvaret. Wherefore when you amplifie herevpon, and tell me, you could hauehave wisht that such comparisons had bene forborne, if not for the playes them selves, though also they ought for the playes them selves, being thinges that savour of some witt, learning, and iudgement; yet in respect of the actors, your whole house, the spectators, approovers, autours, writers; all which points you loade with patheticall circumstances otherwhere entreated of: you force me to say I could hauehave wisht also that you had forborne these Galba-trickes of seeking to preiudice the trueth and equitie of causes with partiall affections and respect of persons, a qqLev. 19. 15. Prov. 24. 23 …. 2. 1.Lev 19:15Prov 24:23Prov 24:2Prov 24:1thing p. 131condemned by Scriptire; and that you had considered that if playes savouring of some witt learning, and iudgement, ought not to be compared to such things as I mentioned, then your selfe did ill in praysing and allowing that part of my discourse, wherein the foole and mad man served for comparisons. For you gaue testimonie therof, that I had written copiously and truly against the bad effects of stage-playes in generall. Yea, specifying the proofes that I made by sundry examples and autorities, among which the autoritie of Salvianus was, you soothed it as containing a truth, and well handled. But the stage-playes spoken of by Salvianus, did savour of some witt, learning, and iudgement: as what play doeth nor? at least of all those that any ancient Poët wrote. Your reason therfore brought from the savour of witt learning, and iudgement, to crosse my comparisons; doeth crosse your owne allowance of that which you acknowledged to be well spoken against the bad effects of stage-playes in generall. And thus, as rrApollod… de o…g. D…. or. lib. 3.Lycurgus the Thracian imagining that hee was hewing downe a vine with his hatchet, is said to have slaine his sonne, and maimed him selfe: likewise you intending to shew that my comparisons are hard and incomparable, and exceede the compasse of any tolerable resemblance, and should hauehave bene forborne, hauehave wounded vnawares your eternall olde man, and your selfe greevously.