Selected quad for the lemma: master_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
master_n	father_n	king_n	servant_n	3,226	4	6.7708	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57291	The stage condemn'd, and the encouragement given to the immoralities and profaneness of the theatre, by the English schools, universities and pulpits, censur'd King Charles I Sundays mask and declaration for sports and pastimes on the Sabbath, largely related and animadverted upon : the arguments of all the authors that have writ in defence of the stage against Mr. Collier, consider'd, and the sense of the fathers, councils, antient philosophers and poets, and of the Greek and Roman States, and of the first Christian Emperours concerning drama, faithfully deliver'd : together with the censure of the English state and of the several antient and modern divines of the Church of England upon the stage, and remarks on diverse late plays : as also on those presented by the two universities to King Charles I.	Ridpath, George, d. 1726.	1698 (1698)	Wing R1468; ESTC R17141	128,520	226

their Sense and Lust As one that hath the Green-Sickness may say Coals and Clay and Ashes do me more good than Meat because they are not so sit to judge as those that have a healthful State and Appetite And it seldom ple●sed the Conscience of a dying Man to remember the time he had spent at Stage-Plays IX Usually there is much cost bestowed on them which might be better employed and therefore is unlawful X. God hath appointed a stated means of instructing Souls by Parents Ministers c. which is much more fit and powerful Therefore that time were better spent and it is doubtful whether Play-houses be not a stated means of Man's Institution set up to the same pretended use as the Church and Ministry of Christ and so be not agains● the second Commandment For my part I cannot defend them if any shall say that the Devil hath apishly made these his Churches in Competition with the Churches of Christ. XI It seemeth to me a heinous Sin for Players to live upon this as a Trade and Function and to be educated for it and maintained in it that which might be used as a Recreation may not always be made a Trade of XII There is no mention that ever such Plays were used in Scripture-times by any godly Persons XIII The Primitive Christians and Churches were commonly against them Many Canons are yet to be seen by which they did condemn them Read but Dr. Io. Reinolds against Albericus Gentilis and you shall see unanswerable Testimonies from Councils Fathers Emperors Kings and all sober Antiquity against them XIV Thousands of Young People in our time have been undone by them some at the Gallows and many Servants who run out in their Accounts neglect their Masters Business and turn to Drunkenness and ●hordom and Debauchery do confess that Stage-plays were not the last or least of the Temptations which did over-throw them XV. The best that can be said of these Plays is that they are controverted and of doubtful Lawfulness but there are other means enough of undoubtful and uncontroverted Lawfulness for the same honest ends and therefore it is a sin to do that which is doubtful without need Upon all these Reasons I advise all that love their Time their Souls their God and Happiness ●o turn away from these Nurseries of Vice and to delight themselves in the Law and Ordinances of their Saviour Ps. 1. 2 3. As for Play-Books and Romances and Idle Tales I have already shewed in my Book of Self-denial how pernicious they are especially to Youth and to frothy empty idle Wits that know not what a Man is not what he hath to do in the World they are powerful Baits of the Devil to keep more necessary things out of their minds and better Books out of their hands and to poison the mind so much the more dangerously as they are read with more delight and pleasure and to fill the minds of sensual people with such idle fumes and intoxicating fancies as may divert them from the serious thoughts of their Salvation and which is no small loss to Rob them of abundance of that precious time which was given them for more important business and which they will wish and wish again at last that they had spent more wisely I know the Fantastick will say that these things are innocent and may teach men much good like him that must go to a Whore-house to learn to hate Uncleanness and him that would go out with Robbers to learn to hate Thievery But I shall now only ask them as in the presence of God 1. Whether they could spend that time no better 2. Whether better Books and Practices would not edisie them more 3. Whether the greatest Lovers of Romances and Plays he the greatest Lovers of the Book of God and of a holy Life 4. Whether they feel in themselves that the Love of these Vanities doth increase their Love to the Word of God and kill their sin and prepare them for the Life to come or clean contrary And I would desire men not to prate against their own Experience and Reason nor to dispute themselves into damnable impe●tinency nor to befool their Souls by a few silly words which any but a Sensualist may perceive to be meer dece●t and falshood If this will not serve they shall be shortly convinced and answered in another manner CAP. XVIII Reflections on some late PLAYS First on Beauty in Distress I Come next to make some Remarks on M. Motteux's Play call'd Beauty in Distress which it seems he and his Friend Mr. Dryden propose as a pattern of Reformation It were e●sie in the first place to observe from Mr. Dryden's Poetical Epistle to the Author that it contains an unmannerly and malicious Reflection upon the Clergy in general Rebellion worse than Witch●raft they pursu'd The Pulpit preach'd the Crime the People ru'd The Stage was silenc'd for the Saints would see In Fields perform'd their plotted Tragedy Mr. Dryden's Wit and Extraordinary Talent of Poetry are uncontrovertible but his turning Renegado from the Protestant Religion which abhors the Doctrine of Killing KINGS and running over to the Church of Rome which hath advanc'd that Practice to the Dignity of Merit render● him as unfit as any Man alive to charge his Neighbours with Rebellion and is no convincing Proof of his extraordinary Judgment either as to Divinity or Politicks If his Charge had been levell'd against Sibthorp and Manwaring and their Disciples on the one side or against Hugh Peters and the Tub●Preachers of those Times on the other side there 's few Men of Sense would have thought themselves concern'd in the Reflection but as it is levell'd against all the Clergy without distinction he must give me leave to tell him that it may easily be prov'd that Sibthorp and Manwaring and the rest of their passive Obedience-Doctors who taught That the King was above Law and might dispose of our Estates Lives and Liberties without Consent of Parliament were the chief Fire-brands of the Rebellion and set the two Constituent parts of our Government the King and Parliament together by the Ears And were by consequence chargeable with the Reveries of Hugh Peters and the rest of the Enthusiastical Tribe who carried things to the other Extream when the People were render'd Mad by Oppression But as for the Body of the English Clergy either Episcopal or Presbyterian the Charge is Malicious and Injurious The best of the Church of England Clergy opposed the Stage in those times as well as the Presbyterians yet it 's known that both of them oppos'd the carrying on of things to that height which they afterwards came to And I must beg leave to tell him that his Brethren of the Stage by usurping upon the Sabbath and ridiculing the Pretensions of the People to their Liberty and Property had no small share in bringing on the Calamities he speaks of Or if he be for a later Instance I can oblige him

seldom that their part of the Play is the most Criminal In the next Place it ought to be observed what sort of Plays they are which St. Thomas approves he says O●●icium Histrionum quod ordinatur ad solatium hominibus Exhibendum non est secundum se illicitum ibid. ad 3m i. e. That Stage-Plays which are directed to recreat or solace Men are not unlawful in themselves This is quite another Work than our Stage now assumes to it self as Mr. Collier mentions in his Introduction and had the Stage held there and been regular and moderate in its practice it would not have been so culpable as now it is but all this is meerly a covering its Nakedness with Fig-leaves that was not the Original Design of the Stage It was invented by the Devil if we may believe Tertullian and therefore hath all along been true to its Founder in pursuing its primary Design of Debauching instead of Diverting Mankind Before I go further I must observe two Things The first is That St. Thomas however condemns the present practice of the English Stage in jesting with Scripture using obscene Words or Actions and Men and Womens putting on Apparel of the contrary Sex And the next is That it looks somewhat odd that a Dr. of the Church of Rome and a Divine of th● Church of England should offer to shake the Authority of the Fathers for the sake of the Play-house seeing they are the principal Quivers whence the former draws her Arrows against the Protestants and whence the latter pulls Darts to hurl against the Pu●itaus In the next place they bring us St. Thomas's Answer to Chrysostom which they will have to be sufficient to all the Passages of the Fathers viz. That they declaim only against the Excess in Plays because the Excess of the Drama in their time was Criminal and Immoderate To this let St. Chrysostom Answer for himself And we shall soon see whether he had any Reason ●o peep down from Heaven and tell Aquinas Ben● Scripsisti de me Thoma as they foolishly tell us our Saviour did to that same Agelical Doctor St. Chrysostom against the STAGE He calls Stage-Plays The Devils Solemnities or Pomps Satanical Fables Diabolical Mysteries the impure Food of Devils Hellish Conventicles And tells his Hearers That if they continue to go to Plays he will never give over but use a sharper Stile and wound them deeper till he had pull'd in pieces the Devilish Theatre that the Assemblies of the Church might be puri●ied and cleansed In another place he says Every thing acted on the Stage is most Filthy and Obscene the Words the Apparel the Tonsure the Gestures the Musick the Glancings of the Eyes nay the very Subject of the Plays Whence they infuse so much Lascivousness into the Minds of the Audience as if they conspired together to root all Modesty out of their Hearts and to drench them in pernicious Sensuality In his Homily of Saul and David he writes thus That it is dangerous to go to Stage-Plays because it makes them compleat Adulterers wishes he knew who they were that left the Church Yesterday and went to those Spectacles of Iniquity that he might Excommunicate them they having impudently defil'd themselves with Adultery And if so be says he you desire to know the kind of Adultery I will not rehearse my own Words but the Words of him who is to be our Judge That Man saith he who looks upon a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery in his Heart If then a Woman accidentally passing the Street and but carelessly dress'd doth frequently insnare a Man with one single look with what confidence can those that purposely run to the Play-House and sit there a whole day together with their Eyes fix'd on the Faces of Women say they have not looked upon them so as to lust after them where there are the Enticements of Lafcivious Words whorish Songs painted Faces and enticing Dresses to allure the Beholders If here where there are Psalms and the Preaching of God's Word Concupiscence doth frequently creep in like a crafty Thief how can those who sit idle in Play-houses where they neither see nor hear any thing that is good and where their Eyes and Ears are beset on every side overcome their Lus● And if they cannot conquer it how can they be acquitted from the Charge of Adultery Then how can those who are chargeable with this Crime come to these Sacred Assemblies without Repenrance If a Servant should put his Nas●y and Lousy Apparel amongst his Masters Rich and Costly Robes would you bear with it patiently If he should throw Dung into a Vessel of Gold wher● your Precious Ointments are kept would you not Cudgel him for it Shall we then be so careful of our Cloaths and our Vessels and put so low a value upon our Souls Tell me how you thi●k God can endure this when there is not so much Difference between Ointment and Dirt nor the Cloaths of Master and Servant as betwixt the Grace of the Spirit and this perverse Action Dost thou not tremble whilst thou beholdest this Holy Table where dreadful Mysteries are administred with the self same Eyes that thou didst behold the Bed on the Stage where the detestable Fables of Adultery are Acted whilst with the same Ears thou hearest an Adulterer speaking Obscenely and a Prophet and an Apostle leading thee into the Mysteries of the Scripture whilst with the same Heart thou receivedst deadly Poison and this Holy and Blessed Sacrament Are not these Plays the Subversion of Life the Corruption of Manners the Destruction of Marriage the Cause of Wars of Fightings and Brawls in Houses When thou returnest from the Stage more Dissolute Wanton and Effeminate the sight of thy Wife will be less pleasing to thee let her be what she will What do I speak of a Wife or Family when as afterward thou wilt be less willing to come to Church and wilt hear a Sermon of Modesty and Chas●ity with Irksomness Wherefore I intreat you all to avoid the wicked Remembrances in Stage-Plays and to draw back others from them who have been led unto them for whatever is there done is not Delight or Recreation but Destruction In his first Homily on Psalm 50. speaking of David he saw Bathsheba saith he was wounded in his Eye and struck with a Dart. Let them take notice of this who are mad upon Stage-Plays where they may contemplate the Beauties Let them observe this who say they can look upon them without Hurt David was wounded and are you like to escape he was overcome and can I trust to your Strength he that had so much Grace was struck through and dost thou deny that thou are wounded In his seventeenth Homily on Matthew 5. If thy Right Eye offend thee He writes thus Let them take notice of this who frequent the Playhouse so much and de●ile themselves almost daily with Adultery How can

Purpose nor to be an Instrument of gathering the Wicked together It may perhaps be said I am too lavish of my Discourse and that what I have now said might have been forborn but he that dissembles Ungodliness is a Traitor to God and as guilty of the Offence as the Offenders themselves Since therefore the Cause is Gods I dare put my self forth to be an Advocate against Satan to the rooting out of Sin Are not our Eyes at Plays carried away with Pride and Vanity our Ears abus'd with Amorous and Filthy Discourse our Tongues imployed in Blaspheming God or commending that which is Wicked Are not our Hearts through the Pleasure of the Flesh the Delight of the Eye and the fond Motions of the Mind withdrawn from the Service of God and the Meditation of his Goodness There 's no Zealous Heart but must needs bleed to see how many Christian Souls are there swallow'd up in the Whirlpool of Devilish Impudence Whosoever shall visit the Chappel of Satan I mean the Theatre shall find there no want of young Russians nor lack of Harlots utterly void of Shame who by their Wanton Gestures and Shameless Behaviour discover what they are Let Magistrates assure themselves that without speedy Redress all things will grow so much out of order that they will be past remedy Our young Men are thereby made Shameless Stubborn and Impudent Tell them of Scripture they will turn it into Ridicule Rebuke them for breaking the Sabbath they will call you a Precisian He that is virtuously disposed shall find lewd Persons enough in the Play-house to withdraw him from Vertue by Promises of Pleasure and Pastime The Play-house is the School of Satan the Chapple of ill Council where he shall see so much of Iniquity and Loosness so great Outrage and Scope of Sin that it is a wonder if he return not either wounded in Conscience or changed in Life I would wish therefore all Masters to withdraw themselves and their Servants from such Assemblies Youth needs not seek after Schoolmasters they can learn Evil too fast of themselves Many young Men of honest Natures and tractable Dispositions have been chang'd by those Shews and Spectacles and become Monsters It is wonderful to consider of what force the Gestures of a Player which Tully calls the Eloquence of the Body are to move and prepare a Man for that which is evil Nothing entre●h more effectually into the Memory than that which cometh by seeing things heard do lightly pass away but the Ideas of what we have seen says Petrarch stick fast in us whether we will or not Those Enchantments have vanquish'd the Chastity of many Women some by taking pity of the deceitful Tears of the Lover on the Stage have been mov'd by their Complaint to compassionate their secret Friends whom they thought to have felt the like Torment Some having observ'd the Examples how young Women being restrain'd from the Marriage of those their Friends have mislik'd have there learn'd the Art to Steal them away others observing by the Example of the Stage how another Mans Wife hath been assaulted and overcome have not failed to practise those tricks in earrest that were shewn before them in Jest Yet the cunning Craft of the Stage is surpassed by that of the Scaffolds without for they which are evil disposed no sooner hear any thing spoken that may serve their turns but they apply it Alas say they to the Gentlewomen by them Is it not pity this passionate Lover should be so martyr'd and if they find them inclin'd to foolish pi●y then they apply the matter to themselves and pray that they would extend the same Compassion towards them as they seemed to shew to the afflicted Lover on the Stage Those running headed Lovers are grown such perfect Scholars by long continuance at this School that there is not almost one word spoken but they can make use of it to serve their own turn Believe me there can be no stronger Engine found to batter the Honesty of married and unmarried Women than the hearing of common Plays There wanton Fables and pastoral Songs of Love which they use in their comical Discourses and are all taken out of the Secret Armory of Venus overturn Chastity and corrupt the Manners of Youth insomuch that it is a Miracle if there be found any Woman or Maid which with those Spectacles of strange Lust is not frequently inflam'd to down right Fury Don't we use in those Discourses to Counterfeit Witchcraft Charming Draughts and Amorous Potions to stir up Men to Lust by which Examples the ignorant multitude are provoked to seek after the unlawful Love of others The Device of carrying Letters by Laundresses and practising with Pedlars to carry their Tokens under colour of selling their Merchandise and other kinds of Intreagues to bereave Fathers of their Children Husbands of their Wives Guardians of their Wards and Mistresses of their Servants are aptly taught in those Schools of Abuse ●he STAGE Therefore I am sorry they are not plucked down and the School masters banished the City Thus much I will tell them if they suffer those Brothel-Houses to continue The Lord will say unto them as the Psalmist saith If thou sa●vest a Thief thou consentedst with him and hast been partaker with Adulterers This I hope is more than enough to convince the Author of The Defence of Dramatick Poe●ry That Mr. Collier ' s was neither the First Pulpit nor Press-Sermon against the STAGE and tha● though the Silence of the Clergy against the Play-house has been but too universal of late it hath not been always so from the beginning By this that Author may likewise perceive That Men of a different Kidney and Principle from those of the Calves-Head-Feasts or that acted the Tragedy at Whitehall and accounted Regicide and Rebellion Religion and Sanc●ity strain as much at the Gnat of the Stage as others I would also desire him to consider Whether the Opinion of those Reverend Bishops and Divines I have quoted at large and the Evidence of two repenting Stage-Poets as to the Danger of the Stage be not more than enough to outweigh his Banter and Flouts in denying that the Passions represented on the Stage imprints the same Passion into the Audience because a Man when he sees a Hercules Furens d●es not grow so mad and pull up'Oaks as fast as he that our Gallants don 't presently fall a Ravishing like a lustful Tarq●in upon the Representation of that Lascivious Prince and that our Ladies don't immediately take Taint and Play the Wanton upon the sight of lewd Thais The Instances of the Play-Poet just now quoted fall but little short of this and Mr. Gosson● Paris and Domitia and Menster and Messalin formerly mentioned are enough to confirm i● But because I hate to be nigardly he sha●● have another from Xenophon That Author gives us an Account of the Acting of Bacchus 〈◊〉 Ariadne by a Syracusian Boy and a

those of the other Greek Captains he hath nam'd Then as to his Roman Instances Scipio Africanus was so far from approving the Follies of the Stage that he pitied the Common-wealth as drawing near its Ruine when he saw the Children of the Nobility bred up to Dancing and singing to the praise of Stage-Players which their Ancestors reckon'd disgraceful and therefore his building or rather advising a sort of Reform as to the Seats of the Theatre to distinguish the Senators from the People seems rather to have proceeded from a Compliance with Custom and a design to humour the Times than from his approbation of Stage-Plays Besides there 's no man acquainted with Roman History but must needs know that their Theatres were applied to other uses as publick Orations and the Execution of Malefactors so that the Erecting of a Theatre will not always infer the approbation of the Drama Pompey indeed built a Theatre of Stone after the former had been destroyed by Scipio Nasica and to prevent its being demolish'd by the Censors in time to come Erected a Temple of Venus on the top of it which was no great proof that it was designed for a Reformation of Manners and this the Senate was so sensible of that they blam'd Pompey for Building his Theatre as I have said already Mr. Dennis in the same ridiculous manner ascribes the Union of the French and their Conquests to the Influence of the Drama and the loss of their Conquests to the ceasing of the spirit of Dramatick Poetry among 'em before the beginning of the last War But if he would be pleased to look back to the Time of Charlemaigne who was a Mortal Enemy to the Stage he will find that France extended her Conquests a great deal further then under his Conduct than she has done by the Influence of the Drama under Lewis XIV and kept them longer too And I would pray him to observe that our own Glorious Sovereign King William who hath oblig'd the French to resign their Conquests is no great Admirer of the Stage so that it 's something else than the Drama that hath given him the Ascendant over France And the World must own that his Courage and Conduct and Qualifications for Government are equal to any of those whom Mr. Dennis has mentioned as the great Patrons of the Theatre In his Second Chapter he would perswade the World That the Stage is particularly useful to the English and especially the present Government because the English are more prone to Rebellion than any People upon the Face of the Earth and that we have been longer at quiet since the flourishing of the Drama than at any time before since the Conquest and that the Civil War was begun by those that were Enemies to the Stage So much for its Usefulness to the English in general Then he proves its Usefulness to this Government in particular Because some of its Friends would prove averse to it if the Stage were either suppress'd or very much discouraged and that it diverts the Enemies of the Government hinders their Plotting and frequenting Iacobite Conventicles Here 's another piece of Civility to the Nation again They are the greatest Rebels on Earth according to him but this I have answer'd already That we have had more Peace since the flourishing of the Drama than at any time since the Conquest is false It cannot be said to have flourished but since the Restoration of Charles II. For it was restrained in Queen Elizabeths Time by Act of Parliament and banished the City of London as has been already said yet her 's was a Long and a Peaceable Reign Stage-Players were condemned as Rogues in that of King Iames yet we had Peace all his time But the unanswerable Argument is this Those that rebell'd against Charles I. were Enemies to the Stage But if Mr. Dennis will be pleased to look back he will find I have proved That the Incendiaries and Fomenters of the Civil War were the Friends of the Stage who taught Rebellion against our Constitution set the King above all Laws and would have trod Parliaments under foot who are two thirds of our Government if the two States of Lords and Commons may be allowed that Name But if this will not do what will Mr. Dennis reply if I tell him that those very Men who were Enemies to the Stage or at least their Successors in Principle and Practice who abhor the Tyranny of 41 as much as Mr. Dennis abhors the Rebellion on 't are the firmest Friends this Government has And here I 'll venture to say once for all That it 's very dangerous to our present Establishment to have the Theatre manag'd by such kind of Persons as our Author and others who exclaim with so much Malice and Ignora●●● against those very Maxims which contrib●●● 〈◊〉 the Happy Revolution for if resisting or dethroning a Prince be in no case Lawful which is the common Theme and known Principle of most of the Libellers against 41 it will by necessary Consequence condemn the Revolution of 1688. So very useful are some of the late Advocates and Authors for the Stage to the present Government I will not say all that have writ Plays for I know that Mr. Tate and some others whose Parts deserve a better Imployment are Persons of Generous English Principles Our Authors Insinuation that the Suppression or Discouraging of the Stage would create an Aversion in any of the Friends of the Government to the present Constitution is so very silly that certainly he must be ashamed of it himself upon second Thoughts Does he think that a Prince of such Courage and Bravery as ours puts any Value upon the Friendship or Enmity of a parcel of Men who have been declared Rogues and Vagabonds by the Statute or that the Nation would any way resent the overturning of the Stage which never had any continued Footing nor settled Incouragement among us but under the Reign of a Luxurious Prince especially considering how Instrumental it has been to the debauching of our Youth Does he think that the People who have look'd on with Satisfaction to see several of those Non-jurant Bishops turn'd out of their Sees though once they ador'd them when Petitioners against King Iames's Declaration would bestow one sigh on the lew'd Stage though it were first pull'd down and then built up again to make its own Funeral Pile The contrary would be so true that thousands of Husbands Parents and Masters who have had their Wives Children and Servants debauched by it would gladly throw up their Hatts at such a Bonfire and lay such a curse upon those that should ever attempt to erect another Stage as Ioshua laid upon the Re-builder of Iericho The Nation is brought to a delicate pass indeed when we must not talk of overturning the Stage but a parcel of debauched Wits will threaten the Government If the Thing were worthy of His Majesties Notice he might well