Page:Iniquity of balls and stage-plays, discovered.pdf/6

[ 6 ] 6. As being a corruption of manners, incentives to lightneſs and luſt, and ſeminaries and nurſeries of wantonneſs and uncleanneſs.

Many inſtances of publick, judgments having befallen the actors and frequenters of ſuch plays, might be adduced: Ludovicus Vives in his notes upon Auguſtine de Civit. Dei, ſays, “That a certain man, who having in a play in one of the cities of Brabant acted the Devil's part, and going home dancing to his houſe, and in that habit, accompanying with his wife, and ſaying he would beget a Devil on her, had a child brought "forth to him that danced as ſoon as it was born, being ſhaped as men uſed to paint the Devil." Tertullian in his book, de ſpectaculis, cap. 26. Speaking of two Chriſtian women, to the truth of which, be faith, God is witneſs. The one whereof, was at her returning home from a play, immediately poſſeſſed with a Devils who, being by exorciſm expoſtulated with, how he durſt thus aſſault and enter into a believing woman, anſwered boldly, That he had done it moſt juſtly; for, ſaid he, I found her in my own temple, or in my own ground, or in my own dominion, or juriſdiction; and, as if he had ſaid, About my own work and buſineſs. The other, who the ſame night, after hearing a Tragoedian, had a linnen ſheet preſented to her in her ſleep; the actor in the play being alſo named, with a ſharp upbraiding of her for this deed of hers, and lived not above five days after. A late Engliſh gentlewoman of good rank, who, ſpending much of her precious time in attendance on plays, and falling at last into a dangerous tickneſs, whereof the died Anno 1631. Friends in her extremity ſent for a miniſter, who beginning to inſtruct and exhort her to repent and call on God for mercy, ſhe made him no reply at all; but cryed out, Hieronimo, Hieroni-