_Madam_,
It is with no little Pleasure I behold you treading in the Paths of
_Virtue_, and practising the Duties of a Holy and Religious life. This,
as it has deservedly gain'd you the Love and Admiration of all that know
you: so, I doubt not, but you will always find it a _Fund_ of solid
Peace and Satisfaction to your own Mind. I heartily wish there were many
more such bright Examples in the World, that the Ladies might be at last
convinc'd, _That there is something worthy their Imitation beyond the
Modes of Dress and Equipage; something which will render them much more
agreeable to the best and wisest of their Admirers, and, in time, no
less pleasing to themselves_. I make no doubt but the Age (as corrupt as
it is) can furnish us with many Instances of those of your _Sex_, who
think the Beauty of the Mind does far surpass the gay Appearances of the
most splendid Outside: But yet, it must be confessed, that there are
others, (and those not a few) whose Lives are almost one continued
Circle of Vanity and Folly. Such as divide the best and most precious
part of their Time between their _Toilet_, the _Exchange_, and the
_Play-House_. This, I believe, upon Enquiry, will appear to be no unjust
Censure; tho' at the same time, _Madam_, I must freely own to you, that
I think it a most amazing thing, that the _Ladies_ (at least those who
make any Pretensions to Virtue and Goodness) should ever be seen at the
last of these Places; where they find themselves so scandalously
treated. I am apt to think, that very few of 'em have read Mr. Collier's
'View of the Stage'; if they had, they would there see the _Corruptions_
of the Plays set in so clear a Light, that one would believe, they
should never after be Tempted to appear in a Place where _Lewdness_ and
_Obscenity_ (not to mention other Immoralities) are so great a part of
the Entertainment; a Place that is now become the _Common Rendezvouz_ of
the most Lewd and Dissolute Persons; the _Exchange_, (if I may so call
it) where they meet to carry on the _vilest_ and _worst_ of Practices.
'Tis the Nursery of all manner of _Wickedness_, where the Seeds of
_Atheism_ and _Irreligion_ are sown, which Weak and Tender Minds too
readily cultivate, and from thence are easily led into a _Contempt_ of
all that's Serious. It is impossible to say, how many, and how great the
_Mischiefs_ are that spring from thence; which if a Man should take a
View of, it would perhaps, be one of the most Melancholy Prospects that
ever he beheld. To look into our _Modern Plays_, and there to see the
Differences of Good and Evil confounded, Prophaneness, Irreligion, and
Unlawful Love, made the masterly Stroaks of the _fine Gentleman_;
Swearing, Cursing, and Blaspheming, the Graces of his Conversation; and
Unchristian Revenge, to consummate the Character of the _Hero_;
Sharpness and Poignancy of Wit exerted with the greatest Vigor against
the _Holy Order_; in short, Religion and all that is Sacred, Burlesqu'd
and Ridicul'd; To see this, I say, and withall, to reflect upon the
fatal Effects which these things have already had, and how much worse
are likely to follow, if not timely prevented, cannot but fill the Minds
of all good Men with very dismal Apprehensions.
And are these then the Entertainments for a Christian to be pleas'd
with; for one whose _Salvation_ is to be wrought out with Fear and
Trembling? Will the Strictnesses of Virtue and Religion be ever relished
by a Mind tinctur'd with such Licentious Representations? Must not such
Diversions (to say no worse of 'em) insensibly steal upon the
_Affections_, especially of the _Younger sort_; give their Minds quite a
wrong Biass, and disarm them of that _Severity_ which is their greatest
Guard, and which, when once lost, leaves 'em an easie Prey to every
Temptation? Will not those _Lewd Scenes_ of Love, wherewith almost every
Play is fraught, inflame the Fancy, heighten the Imagination, and render
a Person thus prepar'd, a fit Subject for ill designing People to work
on? But suppose it were possible to be so armed as to be Proof against
all these Dangers; yet let any that have the least Regard to what is
_Serious_, tell me how they can answer it to _God_, or their own
_Consciences_, to be any ways Instrumental towards the _Support_ of so
much Wickedness? Do they think it a Sin to give the least Encouragement
to Vice, and at the same time believe themselves _Innocent_, when by
their _Persons_, and their _Purses_, they contribute to the cherishing
the very _Seed-Plot_ of Irreligion? 'Tis to no purpose for such to say,
That they are cautious what Plays they see, and always go to the best
and that the _Play-Houses_ would thrive whether they frequented them or
no. This may he true, but what then, Will this excuse them? Suppose a
powerful _Rebellion_ is begun in a Nation, and carried on
_successfully_, for some time; and a Man should not only appear
sometimes among the Rebels, but should, now and then, send them a
_Supply_ (tho' never so little) of Money and Arms: Could such a one
pretend that he was no ways _Instrumental_ in this Rebellion, nor
Accessary to the Mischiefs that attended it, and that because it was not
only _begun_, but would have _prosper'd_ too, without him; and altho' he
did sometimes appear among the Authors of it, yet it was with the Party
which did the least Mischief? Do you think, _Madam_, this a just way of
Reasoning? I dare say you do not. Is not this then the very Case I am
speaking of? Is the _Stage_, as 'tis now manag'd, any thing else but a
downright Rebellion against God and his Holy Religion? Are not the
Plays, (if not by Design) yet by a natural and necessary Consequence, an
_undermining_ of his Laws, and an _Attempt_ upon his Government? And
must it not then follow, that _every one_ that frequents them, is a
_Party_ in the _Cause_, and _encourages_ the Undertaking? And tho' he
should be so Happy as never to smile at a _Prophane Jest_, nor join in
Applauding a _Vitious_ Play; yet, will that exempt him from a Share of
that _Guilt_ which his Presence and Purse has help'd to support? No,
_Madam_, 'tis _Numbers_ strengthen the Enemy, and give fresh Courage to
his Attempts! A _Full_ House is the very _Life_ of the Stage, and keeps
it in Countenance, whereas _thin Audiences_ would, in time, make it
dwindle to nothing.
I know, _Madam_, this is strange Doctrine to some People. If a Man talks
to them of leaving the Plays, they wonder what he means, and are ready
to take him for a Madman. They have so long habituated themselves to the
_Play-Houses_, that they begin to think a _Place_ there, to be part of
their _Birth-Right_: But I desire such would be perswaded to hear what
the late A. B. Tillotson thought of these matters, (and I hope some
Deference is due to his Judgment). If they look into the 11th Volume of
his 'Sermons', they will find that in his Discourse against the _Evil of
Corrupt Communication_, he tells them, _That Plays, as the Stage now is,
are intolerable, and not fit to be permitted in a Civiliz'd, much less
in a Christian Nation, They do most notoriously minister_, says he,
_both to Infidelity and Vice. By the Prophaneness of them they are apt
to instil bad Principles into the Minds of Men, and to lessen that Awe,
and Reverence which all Men ought to have for God and Religion: and by
their Lewdness they teach Vice, and art apt to infect the Minds of Men,
and dispose them to Lewd and Dissolute Practices. And therefore_, says
he, _I do not see how any Person pretending to Sobriety and Virtue, and
especially to the pure and holy Religion of our Blessed Saviour; can,
without great Guilt and open Contradiction to his Holy Profession, be
present at such Lewd and Immodest Plays, much less frequent them, as too
many do, who would yet take it very ill to be shut out of the Communion
of Christians, as they would most certainly have been in the first and
purest Ages of Christianity._
This is the Opinion, _Madam_, of that Excellent Man: and, one would
think, it should put those Persons who are the Encouragers of Plays, and
the Frequenters of them, when they read it, upon an Enquiry, What it is
they are doing? Whether they are not carrying on the Designs of the
great Enemy of Mankind? But if that will not prevail upon them, let 'em
reflect upon the late Instance of God's _severe Displeasure_ against us,
and tell me then, whether they think it consistent with that
_Humiliation_ and _Repentance_ which this great Judgment ought to awaken
in us, and which _Her Majesty_, by Her late Gracious _Proclamation_,
calls upon us to Exercise, to be ever again present at a _Place_, where
they must often hear the Name of _God_ Prophaned, and every thing that
is _Serious_ made a Jest of? A _Place_ which they cannot but know, and
must own, (if put to the Question) has contributed so much to the
_Corrupting_ the present Age; and which, 'tis to be fear'd, is one of
those _accursed things_, that has provok'd the Almighty to be so angry
with us.
These are things, _Madam_, of no trifling Importance; they are such as
deserve the serious Reflections of all _good_ Christians, whatever the
_Pretenders to Gaiety_ may think. And though some may, perhaps,
misconstrue and ridicule such Considerations by the Names of
_Preciseness_ and _Fanaticism_; yet, 'tis to be hop'd, that all who have
any regard for the _Honour_ of God, the _Welfare_ of their Countrey, and
the _Interest_ of our _Established Church_, will not be laugh'd out of
their _Duty_, but be perswaded, not only to withdraw _themselves_ from a
Place of so much Danger, but advise _others_ to do the like; that the
Stage may no longer Triumph in the _Spoils_ of Virtue and Religion. 'Tis
now the time to begin such an _Undertaking_: We have a powerful Enemy
_abroad_, and a more formidable one at _home_; I mean that _Looseness_
and _Irreligion_ which so abounds: and what will it avail us to _subdue_
the one, while we _encourage_ the other? The _Hand of God_ has been
lifted up against us, we have seen the _Terrors of the Lord_, and felt
the _Arrows of the Almighty_; and what can all this mean, but to awaken
us to a due Sense of our _Danger_? And, 'tis to be hop'd, the Nation has
already taken the Alarm, and begin to think how to avert God's
Displeasure. The _Stage_ is called in Question, and Papers are dispers'd
to warn us of its Mischiefs; and it is not improbable that the
_Licentious_ and _Unbounded Liberty_ the Players have taken of late
years, and particularly in their daring to Act THE TEMPEST within a very
few Days after the late dreadful Storm, has rais'd in the Minds of Men
such an Abhorrence and Indignation, that we may possibly be so happy as
to see the Stage (if not _totally suppress'd_) yet brought under such a
_Regulation_, both as to the _Plays_ that are Acted, and the _Company_
that Resort to them, that Foreigners may no longer _stand amaz'd_ when
brought into our _Theatres_, nor Good Men _tremble_ at the Continuance
of them: but that _Virtue_ may appear there with all its Charms, and
_Vice_ be expos'd to the utmost _Contempt_. In short, that the Stage may
become so _Chast_, that even those _Birds of Prey_ who now hover about
the _Play-Houses_ and make the Avenues to 'em so dangerous, may fly away
from a Place that will no longer _Encourage_ nor _Protect_ them.
But after all, _Madam_, Whether this is such a Scheme as can ever be
reduc'd in Practice; whether so _noble a Structure_ as I am speaking of,
can be erected upon so _rotten_ a _Foundation_; whether the _Wound_ is
not _Gangreen'd_, and must be cur'd by _Excision_; I say, whether such a
_Regulation_ of the _Stage_ be possible, must be left to those who have
_Skill_ and _Authority_ to try the Experiment. In the mean time, it will
be every one's Duty to run from a Place of such _Infection_, least they
contribute to the spreading a _Disease_ which may, in time, prove
_Fatal_ to the whole Nation. But I forget, _Madam_, I am intrenching
upon your Patience, while I detain you in a place you have so long
abandon'd. I am fallen upon a Subject, which 'tis difficult not to say
much of: but I shall no longer interrupt your better Thoughts, than
while I beg Pardon for this Trouble, who am,
_Madam_,
Your very Humble Servant.
Jan. 10th.
1704.
A / Representation / of the / Impiety & Immorality / of the / English
Stage, / with / Reasons for putting a Stop thereto: / and some Questions
Addrest to / those who frequent the Play-/ Houses. / London, / Printed,
and are to be Sold by J. Nutt / near Stationers-Hall, 1704 / [enclosed
within double frame of rules]
Collation: A8 B4. Pp. [ 1-] 24. P. [1] title, as above; p. [2]
blank; pp. 3-24 text.
Three editions were issued in 1704. If we take the author's words
literally, the pamphlet was written between the "Great Storm" of
November 26, 1703 and the day of fasting decreed by Queen Anne for
January 19, 1704. According to Arthur Bedford ('The Evil and Danger of
Stage Plays' ... London, 1706) the pamphlet was published "At the Time
of the Fast ..."