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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02072	A refutation of the Apology for actors Diuided into three briefe treatises. Wherein is confuted and opposed all the chiefe groundes and arguments alleaged in defence of playes: and withall in each treatise is deciphered actors, 1. heathenish and diabolicall institution. 2. their ancient and moderne indignitie. 3. the wonderfull abuse of their impious qualitie. By I.G.	I. G., fl. 1615.	1615 (1615)	STC 12214; ESTC S103404	45,377	76

Constantine the Great who suppressed Playes as did Aurelius till the time of Richard 2. of England Anno 1390. and Edward 4. Anno 1490. and Francis the French King Anno 1539 hee hath nothing to say for himselfe But he must now needs confesse that when Christianitie began publikely to flourish As Christians encreised so P●●y●● were more and mor● abolished then Paganisme dayly more and more was abolished and at the last vtterly extinct in Christendome till of late yeeres first Papisticall Fryers and Iesuits raised it vp a-fresh Next doth M. Actor alledge authoritie from Cicero to proue that Playes were both in Athens and Lacedemon In Athens indeed they were but neuer in Lacedemonia Happily there might bee Theaters or places of prospect to behold their actiue youth shew their martiall feates and warlike prowesse at certaine times of the yeere as the Romans in their Circensian Playes and ludis secularibus secular games But it was neuer read that Hystriones Actors Tragedians or Comedians were in Lacedemon For Plutarch in his Apothegmes saith that the Lacedemonians neuer permitted any such in their common-wealth And that when an Embassador of Rhodes demanded a Lacedemonian what was the occasion of their lawes against such since that the Iesters and Players shewed pleasure to the people and the people lost nothing but laughed at their folly The Lacedemonian answered Lycurgus saw felt heard or read some great damage that Iesters and Players might doe in the common-wealth since against them hee established so straight a Law But that which I know is wee Greekes are better weeping with our Sages then are the Romans laughing at their Fooles Next doth M. Actor declare that Cicero calleth Plautus our Plautus as it were noting thereby a name of excellency Truth hee calls him our Plautus in his workes de Republica by the mouth of Scipio Concerning which thus saith Lodouicus Viues Hee calleth him our Plautus not that hee euer knew him but because hee was a Latine Poet and hee had spoken of the Greekes before Lastly M. Actor maketh Cicero to commend vnto his sonne Marcus some Poets as Statius Naeuius and Plautus for their writings This is a thing hardly to be credited For in the third of his Tusculane Questions speaking of the causes corrupting the seeds of vertue hee addeth Poets Heerevnto saith hee also may Poets bee added who pretending what is not in them a great deale of doctrine and wisdome are learnd read herd and borne away in the mind of euery man Now haue I sufficiently confuted the particulars of M. Actors second treatise of Actors antient dignity Therefore I will now proceed in opposition thereof to declare their antient indignity and how base both Theaters Play-Poets Stage-Iesters and Actors were esteemed of the cheese antiquitie which by any meanes could neuer well indure them But mee thinkes I see how resolutely past reason M. Actor his mates and all adherents stand yet vppon their rermes of ancient dignity Wherefore with Saint Augustine I say Aug. de Ciuit. Dei O that Scipto Nassica were now aliue hee whose face perhaps yee durst not to behold hee would shame you for this grosse impudence of yours For what cause is there for you to ●●claine at the prosperity of Christian faith in these times which condemneth the vse of Playes but onely that you would follow your luxury vncontrolled and hauing remoued the impediments of troublesome opposition swim on in your vnhonest vnhalowed dissolution in seeking out infinite variety of vain pleasures so to giue birth vnto these exorbitances which wil heap thousands of mischiefes vpon you in the end Hence it was out of his most circumspect zeale vnto his country that the said Scipio who was then chosen by the Senate of those times for the best man without any difference of voices a thing worthy often repetition when the Senate had giuen order for a Theater to bee built wherein the Roman people might sit and see plaies Scipio would haue no Theaters in Rome diswaded their vaine resolution in a graue oration perswaded them not to suffer the luxury of the Greeks to creep into their old conditions nor to consent vnto the entry of forraigne corruption to the subuersion and extirpation of their natiue Roman perfection working so much by his owne only Authority that the whole bench of the iudicious Senate being moued by his reasons expresly prohibited the vse of those seats which the Romans began then to haue in the beholding of Playes This History Valerius Maximus doth record And how Nassica so laboured with the Senate that Theaters was held a thing vnfit as preiudiciall to the manners of the people so that by a decree of the Senate all the preparation for the Theater was laid aside And it was ordained that noe man should place any seates or sit to behold any Playes within the Citty or within a mile of the walles How ernest would Scipio haue been to haue clensed Rome of the Playes themselues durst ye haue opposed their authority whom he held for Gods being ignorant that they were malicious Diuels or if hee knew it then it seemes hee held Oh hellish ignorance that they were rather to bee pleased then despised being hee was high Priest vnto them For as yet that heauenly doctrine was not deliuered to the world which purifying the heart by saith changeth the affect and in Christ freeth men absolutely from the slauery of these proud and vngracious Diuels Who as I haue before said euen by command and constraint forced the stayed Romans which knew nothing but of armes before to present them with such thinges nay not only to present them but to dedicate and consecrate them saith Saint Augustine with all solemnity vnto their honors There are many thinges in this History of especiall note First that it was the chosen best man in Rome which diswaded the Senate from their enterprise and that the wise Senate condiscended to him Also that they held the Greekish corruption an enemy to the natiue Roman perfection which afterward proued true when they had giuen entrance to it The last thing is that they banished Theaters out of their Citty and without a mile of their walles which was euer after obserued vntill the sack of Corinth when Lucius Memmius set vp a Theater for the Playes at his triumph which stood no longer neither then the triumphs lasted nor any after it till Pompeius time For as long as meerely some Atomes of Roman perfection did remaine standing Theaters by no meanes might be erected Caligula that famous or rather infamous villaine what impudent shifts he made to maintaine his riot all Histories of him do record Among other thinges hee shamefully exacted toll and custome from Baudes Harlots and strumpets which vse may seeme was euer after retained till Alexander Seuerus was Emperor For hee saith Lampridius did forbid that it should bee brought into the common treasure but assigned it to the reparations of the

in diuers Prouinces and Emporiall Citties some ruinated as thinges repudiated some built by Heathen Ethnicks some by Popish Catholicks some for the hardnesse of peoples hearts tollerated in the reformed Churches and amongst others one of especiall note by Popish King Francis Anno 1539. wherein for 30. dayes together were represented the Acts of the Apostles Concerning this let all true Christians giue their censure whether this act of King Francis was not most impious and sacrilegious that he should prophane the holy Scripture on a stage Yet doth M. Actor approue him for it for hee traduceth him as a great dignifier of Stagerits If this be true then let not M. Actor bee adiudged for a true Christian vntill hee sing a Palinode in recantation of his Apology Next doth M. Actor spend many words in repetition of a whole crew of Poets and Actors ancient and moderne and amongst them hee extolls one of especiall note and fame in Rome by name Roscius Of him thus saith D. Anthony de Gueuara in his Dial of Princes We find saith hee some fragments of an Oration which Cicero made in the Senate greatly reprouing the Senators and all the people because they so willingly gaue eare to this iester which raised sedition among the commons his name was Roscio who was so highly esteemed in Rome that the Romanes more willingly heard his iests then that which Cicero spake in good earnest This Iester Roscio and Cicero striued which of them both were the better Roscio for presenting a thing with diuers iests or Cicero for pronouncing waighty matters in earnest When I read saith hee in Iulius Capitolinus that which I haue spoken I confesse that I could not refraine my selfe from laughter to see that Roscio being Prince of folly presumed to contend with Cicero which was father of Eloquence Next M. Actor shewes what kind of men he would Players should bee such that although they cannot speak wel yet know how or such that haue volubility their tongue to run afore their wit and can speake well though they vnderstand not what See see his absurdity heerein He would in his first Booke faine make acting an Art Rhetoricall instructing to speake well and yet the tutors in it to bee disable for their functions All Arts consist of two partes method and practise Now for the first sort such as cannot speak well cannot teach the part practick of the Art and the second sort such as vnderstand not what they speake cannot teach the part methodicall And so consequently no perfection by Players is to bee attained in Rhetorick or the art of speaking well if to bee an Art it were admitted Concerning which read againe Page 17.18 Next M. Actor could wish but he will not that such as are condemned for their licentiousnesse were excluded their society And wish long enough hee may without redresse himselfe among others neuer seeking for it For exempt their licentiousnesse only out of Playes too too small alas will bee their gettings to maintaine their idle life that being the thing which most pleaseth the multitude who chiefly run flocking to the Play-house that they might make mirth of such folly and laugh at it and that they might tell it to others when they come home to make more fooles laugh for company And therefore in vaine afterwards doth M. Actor intreat for excuse not to misdeeme all for the misdeeds of some being it is the generall carriage of them all It is a rule in Diuinity to know a mans conditions and what hee is by the company hee doth vsually keepe Now if the best of them were not licentious why do they liue and Ioue accompany and play together with them which are Were it not madnesse for a man to be his companion which is his daily reproch But Players all of them are licencious for the prouerb is Birds of a feather flye together And therefore if they were not they would neuer associate them which are whon the Synteresis of their owne conscience and the conscience of all men willeth to auoyd Next doth M. Actor recite a memorable example of Iulius Caesar that slew his own seruant whiles he acted Hercules furens on the Stage Which example indeed greatly doth make against their Playes For it 's not vnlikely but a Player might doe the like now Facyfull sights likely to happen et Playes as often they haue done And then what a lamentable proiect would there be for the Spectators to behold As many times it happens when their supposed nocent persons are falsely hanged and diuers of them ready to be strangld or altogether As for the other Emperours which were Actors by th' apologist recorded as Caligula Nero Vitellius Domitianus and Commodus all History shewes they were the most bloody mercilesse and cruell Villaines breath'd Fit to make Actors though fit for nothing else Next doth M. Actor prosecute his matter with example from the Papists though hee would excuse himselfe for it with haec breter me at the end thereof But how impious it is to prophane holy Scripture as they doe all true Christians can determine as I haue said before And for such prophanenesse Players many times haue receiued their due deserts as may appeare by the most fearfull accident that happened to the Iesuites of late yeeres at Lyons in France when they would needs Act a Play of Christs comming to Iudgement at the last day And Eusebius in his Booke De preapar Euangelica ●b ● cap. 1. sets downe an History of a Poet that sodainly lost his Naturall sight for hauing lewdly applied a peece of Scripture to a Fable Next doth M. Actor shew out of Virgil that Theaters were erected immediatly after the Ruine of Troy But surely M. Actor is not acquainted with Virgil though he be a Poet. If he were then verily he is not ignorant how Virgil doth apply auncient Monuments and memorials to his time As when hee faineth a prophecie that from Iulus should proceed another of like name which should gouerne the state of Rome meaning Iulius Caesar Nascetur pulcra Troianus origine Caesar Imperium Oceano famam qui terminent astris Virg. Aened ●… Iulius a magno demissum nomen Iulo Likewise elsewhere doth Virgil faine Dido to prophecie of the Romane and Carthaginean continuall hatred because in long time after there chanced such continuall warres betweene them Tum vos ô Tyrijstirpem Exercete odijs cinerique haec mittue nostro Aeneid l. 4. Munera nullus amor populis nec foedera sunto Next M. Actor saith That he hath discourst of Theaters euen till the Raigne of Iulius Caesar and how they continued in their glory he forgets that Tyberius witnesse Corn Tacitus annalum lib. 4. droue them out of Italy till the time of Marc. Aurelius who banished them into Hellespont And from him euen to these times Ho there stay a little good Sir To skip aboue a thousand yeeres is nothing with M. Actor For from the time of