Page:Iniquity of balls and stage-plays, discovered.pdf/8

[ 8 ] to brutifie them; and have without any diſcord declared, that the lightneſs, laciviouſneſs, and lewdneſs that in theſe plays were touched under, and covered over with ſuch ſhreds and pieces of learning, hiſtory, eloquence, invention, wit, and art, were thereby only made the more dangerous, and that Satan fhewed his pernicious and peſtilent policy, not a little in thus tincturing, ſugaring, and gilding theſe poiſonable pills, that they might go the better down, diſſuſe themſelves the leſs ſenſibly, and operate the more ſtrongly. And however ſome empty and effeminate, vain and vicious Roman emperors reduced ſuch plays, yet ſome of the graveſt and ſobereſt, manlieſt and braveſt, even Heathen emperors, did oppoſe and exterminate them (ſo that Guevara noteth it to have been one of the tokens and characteriſticks to know a virtuous or vicious prince of Rome by, to wit, whether he maintained players, jeſters, and juglers among the people, or not) as did alſo many ſenators, Chriſtian emperors, and well regulated republicks, both Pagan and Chriſtian; as unbeſeeming exerciſes, and effeminate arts, which did much diſhonour and corrupt the ſtate, and as ſeminaries of all vice and intolerable miſchiefs in a commonwealth.

What uſeth to be ſaid for, and in defence of Stage-plays, and for reforming of them, yet ſo as to retain them ſtill, was long ſince objected by the witty and voluptuous Pagans, and has been ſolidly anſwered, and ſtrongly confuted by the fathers, and by ſome modern writers; and may, in a great part, by what has been here ſaid concerning the invention and original of them, the nature, end and uſe of them; dangerous and dreadful tendencies, and fruits of them, ſufficiently plead againſt the uſe of them altogether, being neither neceſſary nor profitable. God is jealous and will not be mocked.

FINI.S.