Passion should run from one extream to another Should break through Custom and metamorphose Desire at so short a warning To Solicit to Rudeness and talk Sentences and Morality to be Pious and Profane in the same Breath must be very extraordinary To be all Pleasure and Mortification so just together a Mad-man one Minute and a Hermit the next is one would think somewhat forced and unnatural It looks at best but like the Grimace of a Disappointment the Foxes virtue when the Grapes were above his Reach To make a Libertine talk like Plato or Socrates is Philosophy misplac'd 't is good advice but out of Character The Soil and the Plant the Man and the Morals won't agree Thus it appears the Blot he makes so much a noise with lies in his own Tables whether I have hit it or not the Reader must judge I am glad to hear him talk of his Grave 'T was a seasonable Thought and I heartily wish it its due improvement Such a Consequence wou'd be of great service both to himself and the Publick For then I am well assured he would neither Write Plays nor Defend them at the rate he has done I have nothing farther with the Vindicator but before I Conclude I shall speak to one Objection proposed by the Defender of Dramatick Poetry and Mr. Dennis These Authors endeavour to justifie the Theater from the Silence of the Scriptures The Word of God say they has no where condemned Plays the Apostles who were particular in other Cases have given the Stage no Reprimand nor Christians any warning against it And which is more St. Paul makes no Difficulty in citing Menander a Comick Poet which he would not have done unless he had approved both the Author and his business too This is the sum of what they offer Now the Plea of St. Paul's citing Menander is extreamly slender Every foreign Sentence in Scripture is not commended by the bare mention The Devil's Maxim of Skin for Skin c. is set down but not for our Imitation I grant this Verse of Menander is Moral and Sententious And without doubt St. Paul cited it to put the Christians upon their Guard and that they might be asham'd to fall short of the Instructions of the Heathens But to infer that St. Paul approved all that Menander had written and that the Apostle recommended Plays to the Corinthians To conclude all this from one single Line of Quotation is Prodigious consequence This Latitude would justifie the Stage to purpose and make the Lewdest Authors pass Muster There being few Books so entirely Vitious as not to afford an inoffensive and significant period I don't speak this with application to Menander for as Plutrarch observes he was with respect to Aristophanes a very Modest Poet. Besides this very quotation that evil communication corrupts good Manners disserves the purpose 't was brought for 'T is a sharp Rebuke of the Licentiousness of our Stage and a plain Discountenance of so scandalous a Diversion To proceed with the Objection I affirm that Plays are plainly condemned in Scripture upon two accounts I say they are clearly condemned tho not by express Prohibition yet by Principle and Consequence which is the same thing 1. They are condemned upon the score of Idolatry They were parts of Pagan Worship and under that notion unlawful to Christians But this Reason expiring in a great measure with the Heathen Religion I shall insist on it no farther However it proves thus much that the Unlawfulness of every Liberty is not particularly Mark'd in Scripture For in the Apostles time Mr. Dennis allows Plays were Idolatrous and unlawful and yet we see the Holy Text does not declare against the Theater by Name 2. The Stage particularly the English one is condemned in Scripture upon the score of Smut and Profaneness upon the Account of the Danger and Indecency of such Liberties We are strictly commanded in Scripture not to Swear at all to put away all Blasphemy and filthy Communication out of our Mouth To serve God with Reverence to be Sober and Vigilant To pass the time of our sojourning here in fear and abstain from all appearance of Evil. And in a word To have no pleasure in Scandalous Practices no fellowship with the unfruitful works of Darkness but rather reprove them Here 's Evidence enough in all reason these Admonitions are full against our Stage Not one Play in forty can stand the Test of so much as one single Text. Bring the Theater but to the Bible and the Idol is presently discovered and falls like Dagon before the Ark. This Argument from the silence of our Saviour and his Apostles is answered at large by the Bishop of Meaux in his late Book against the Stage Which being so much to the Purpose I shall Translate it for the Reader Those says he who would draw any Advantage from this Silence may by the same reason defend the Barbarities of the Gladiators and other abominable Spectacles which are all unmentioned in Scripture no less than Plays The Holy Fathers who have dealt with this Objection will furnish us with Matter for a Reply we say then That all engaging Representations which excite and fortifie unlawful Desires are condemned in Scripture together with the Vices they tend to For the purpose Lewd Pictures are censured by all those Passages which declare in general against Immodesty And the same may be said of Dramatick Representations St. Iohn has comprehended the whole of this Subject in the following Injunction Love not the world neither the things that are in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world is the Lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of Life which Lust or Concupiscence is not of the Father but of the World Now if these Things and Inclinations are not of God the moving Representations and Charming Images of them are not of Him neither but of the World and by consequence Christians have nothing to do with them St. Paul likewise has summ'd up the Argument in these words Finally my Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure or according to the Greek whatsoever things are chast whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue or if there be any praise think on these things As if he had said whatever hinders you from thinking on these things and possesses you with contrary Amusements ought not to be entertained as a Pleasure but suspected as dangerous In this beautiful collection of Thoughts which St. Paul recommends to a Christian there 's no finding a Place for the Modern Theaater how much soever it may be in the favour of some Secular People Farther The Silence of our Saviour upon the Argument of Plays puts me in mind that he had no
and to be Inspired have a solemn and august meaning in Christianity These words imply Divine Impulse and supernatural Assistance and are oppos'd to suggestion of Fancy and humane Reasoning To speak by Inspiration is to speak by the Holy Ghost as every Body can tell him To be saved and Salvation signified at first no more than Safety and Escape But if a Man should say As he hop'd to saved and explain himself that he intended no more then that he hoped to get Cover before a Shower reach'd him would he not be look'd upon as impertinently profane If he call'd a lucky Leap of a Ditch Salvation and pretended to justifie himself that the word originally imports no more than Common Deliverance what Place would he be thought fit for Thus when Words are made Inclosure when they are restrain'd by Common Usage and tyed up to a particular Sense In this Case to run up to Etymology and Construe them by Dictionary and Praeposition is wretchedly Ridiculous and Pedantick Horace can tell him That Custom over-rules Syllables and gives Law to Language Quem penes arbitrium est jus norma loquendi Mr. Congreve perceiving himself press'd retires with all Speed to his Fourth Proposition But that I have disabled already If he is poison'd with his Profaneness and finds himself Sick he must take what follows for his Antidote is gone To return to Sir Paul I find Passion says he coming upon me by Inspiration and I cannot submit as formerly You see what an admirable reason he urges in Defence of his Folly from the extraordinary Circumstances of it No Prophet could have justified his Resentments from a higher pretence The fine Lady Cynthia out of her pious Education acquaints us That though Marriage makes Man and Wife one Flesh it leaves them still two Fools But the little word STILL is left out in the Quotation which like the Fly on the Coach-Wheel raises a mighty Dust. I grant I have by Chance omitted the word STILL and if he had done so too the Sense had been perfectly the same only better expressed For Still is plainly useless and comprehended in the Verb Leaves For if Marriage leaves 'em two Fools they are Fools after Marriage and then they are Fools Still I think Nothing can be clearer than this But besides Cynthia her self won't allow of Mr. Congreve's excuse For after she has deliver'd that remarkable Sentence of leaving 'em two Fools c. Mellifont answers That 's only when two Fools meet which is exactly Mr. Congreve in his Amendments This Cynthia denies to be her meaning Cynth. Nay says she I have known two Wits meet and by the opposition of their Wits render themselves as ridiculous as Fools And therefore after she has given Matrimony an odd Name she advises him to Court no farther to draw Stakes and give over in time So that besides Burlesquing the Bible the Satyr is pointed against Marriage And the Folly is made to lye in the State as well as in the Persons Upon the whole we see the Double Dealer and the Amendments can't agree and thus two Blemishes as well as two Beauties are sometimes unlike to each other Mr. Congreve says Ben. Iohnson is much bolder in the first Scene of his Bartholomew Fair. Suppose all that Is it an excuse to follow an ill Example and continue an Atheistical practice I thought Mr. Congreve in his penetration might have seen through this Question Ben. Iohnson as he goes on makes Littlewit say Man and Wife make one Fool. I hâ—ve said nothing comparable to that Nothing comparable Truly in the usual sense of that Phrase Mr. Congreve 't is possible has said nothing comparable to Ben. Iohnson nor it may be never will But in his new Propriety he has said something more than comparable that is a great deal worse For though Littlewit's Allusion is profane the words of the Bible are spared He does not Droll directly upon Genesis or St. Matthew Upon God the Son or God the Holy Ghost Whereas Mr. Congreve has done that which amounts to both And since he endeavours to excuse himself upon the Authority of Ben. Iohnson I shall just mention what Thoughts this Poet had of his profane Liberties at a time when we have reason to believe him most in earnest Now Mr. Wood reports from the Testimony of a great Prelate then present That when Ben. Iohnson was in his last Sickness he was often heard to repent of his profaning the Scriptures in his Plays and that with Horrour Now as far as I can perceive the Smut and Profaneness of Mr. Congreve's Four Plays out-swell the Bulk of Ben. Iohnson's Folio I heartily wish this Relation may be serviceable to Mr. Congreve and that as his Faults are greater his Repentance may come sooner Quem secutus es peccantem sequere poenitentem The Double Dealer is now done with and Mr. Congreve concludes his Vindication in his usual Strain of Triumph and Assurance Love for Love comes at last upon the Board In this Play I blamed him for making a Martyr of a Whoremaster Upon this he flies immediately for Succour to Scapula and the Greek Grammar He very learnedly tells us that Martyr is a Greek word and signifies in plain English no more than a Witness Right these two words are the same and when a Cause comes on in Westminster-Hall the Martyrs are call'd immediately But Martyr is but bare Witness in the Greek Not always Christian Writers often use it in a sense appropriated And were it otherwise there 's no arguing from one Language to another Tyrant was once an Honourable Name in Greek but always a Reproach in English But to dilate upon these Cavils is throwing away time If the Reader desires more he may please to look back on my Answer to his Objection about Inspiration This Poet's way of understanding English puts me in mind of a late Misfortune which happen'd to a Country Apothecary The Dr. had prescrib'd a Lady Physick to be taken in something Liquid which the Bill according to Custom call'd a Vehicle The Apothecary being at a Stand about the word applies as Mr. Congreve might have done to Littleton's Dictionary And there he finds Vehiculum signified several considerable Things He makes up the Bill and away he goes to the Lady where upon the Question how the Physick was to be taken He answers very innocently Madam says he You may take it in a Cart or a Waggon but not to give your Ladyship too much trouble I think a Wheelbarrow may do for the word Vehicle in the Bill will carry that sense In short This Direction was comply'd with and the Footman drove the Wheelbarrow about the Chamber To return to Mr. Congreve I had said that this Libertine Application of his was dignifying Adultery with the Stile of Martyrdom As if says Mr. Congreve any word could dignifie Vice And pray why not Does not the Varnish hide the Coarseness
you would think him extreamly Innocent But after all this unconcernedness 〈◊〉 his Crime should not be little I am afraid his Conscience will appear so However he complains he is mightily overcharg'd and that all the stretch of the Prophaneness lies in Ld. Foppington 's Gad and Miss Hoyden's I-Cod Now Hoyden's Expression I take to be rank Swearing neither does he deny it And as for Ld. Foppington he adds By to Gad which in his particular way of Pronouncing o like a is broad and downright This Gentleman would excuse himself by the Liberties of Conversation and gives several Instances of disguised Oaths What means he by insisting so much upon Precedent Does Custom justifie a Fault Is Sin Improv'd into Privelege and can a Man Swear by Common-Law Besides all the Instances mention'd excepting Par Die are less Criminal than his own And were it otherwise no sort of Profaneness is fit for Representation as I have prov'd sufficiently already This Author complains my Accusations against him almost always run in general Terms c. Well If a List of Particulars will oblige him he shall have it I did not take this Method for want of Evidence I can assure him The petty Oaths and Curses as I suppose the Poets think them together with the vain Invocation of the Name of God I shall omit To transcribe or point to them would be tedious But as for those of a blacker Complexion tho they must not be produced the Reader may see them if he pleases And then he may judge if I have done the Vindicator any wrong by pronouncing them Rampant and Scandalous In the Relapse this Horrible Rhetorick is spoken by Ld. Foppington Young Fashion Seringe Coupler and Miss Hoyden To these we must add Iustice Tunbelly who to make himself the better Magistrate Swears like a Bully with open Mouth The Provok'd-Wife is little better Sir Iohn and the Colonel Swear with a great deal of Relish and Noise and Constant is not over stanch Some of these Pages have double Charges and so have some in the Relapse Cursing and Fiends Language is likewise very frequent in the Provok'd-Wife Now tho Oaths are not Curses may be Blasphemy Fashion's is so in a horrible manner This fine Gentleman does not stick to Curse the Author of his Being for making him younger than his Brother But this is not all the Blasphemy the Relapser has to account for And now at the close of the Article I must own my self surpriz'd at the Courage of the Vindicator That a Man thus Ill prepar'd should cast the Cause upon so bold an Issue press for a second Hearing and call for a Charge in Particulars The second Branch of the Stage's Profaneness is the Abuse of Religion and Holy Scripture How does the Vindicator excuse himself here He says Before he fell upon me for an Abuser of Holy Scripture he should first clearly have prov'd That no Story Phrase or Expression whatsoever in the Scripture should be either repeated or so much as alluded to upon the Stage In return to this I must say I have hinted this pretty strongly already and proved it by plain Implication To argue the point more at length I did not then think necessary For what can be more evidently Impious than to throw the most Solemn and the most Trifling things into the same Composition to make Religion part of our Sport and the Bible furnish out the Stage I thought no Person professing Christianity could have wanted Information in this Case But since I find the Poets disposed to Cavil I have satisfied this Objection more at large in my Reply to Mr. Congreve The Vindicator's next attempt is very remarkable The Scripture says he is made up of History Prophecy and Precept which are things in their own Nature capable of no other Burlesque than what calls in question either their Reality or their Sense To this I Answer 1 st That the Vindicator is out in his Notion of Burlesque To Burlesque a Book is to turn it into Ridicule Now this may be done without questioning the History or mistaking the Text. To apply the Case To doubt the Meaning of some part of the Bible may be done without a Fault I confess to question any Facts in Scripture would be to renounce Christianity But then to make Diversion with them is still worse And adds Contempt to Infidelity Indeed to take these Freedoms with Religion is a sign of a slender Belief We don't see Comedy Garnished with Parliament-House-Speeches No. Where people are sure to be punished they are careful not to provoke 2 ly To believe the Scripture God's Word and to play with it heightens the Presumption 'T is a horrid Reflection on the Divine Wisdom It supposes the Concerns of the other World over flourish'd that a Pompoâ—s out-side is given to Things Insignificant and that the weight of the Cause holds no proportion with the Solemnity of the Court. Now that this Gentleman has several times brought the Bible to jest for him is clear beyond all Contradiction 3 ly The Vindicator is cast upon his own state of the Case For his Play not only questions the Truth of the Scripture but denies it and gives an Instance to prove the Assertion and to give the more Credit to 't it comes from the best Character in the Poem 'T is done in a Soliloquy too where according to our Author the person who speaks is always supposed to deliver his real thoughts to the Audience Amanda is the person Le ts hear her What slippery Stuff are Men Composed of Sure the Account of their Creation's false And 't was the Womans Rib that they were form'd of This Lady it seems spoke this for the good of the Publick Her business like Worthy's was to Instruct the Audience Yes the design of a Soliloquy is to prevent misconstruction to direct the Understanding and secure the Interest of Virtue 'T is possible the Account of Man's Creation might have been thought true and the meaning of the Relapse misunderstood if Amanda had not been drawn out single for this Service Well But the Gentleman who writ this Speech is gone to Muscovy I hope not to tell them the History of the Creation is false well let him go I think this Town may spare him But tho the Man is gone to Muscovy the Play is here and so is the Author too who took the pious Muse into his Protection and made her Free of his Poem Suppose this new Lawreâ—â— should write a Treasonable Copy of Verses upon the Czar and sheer off from Mosco when he had done Suppose a Brother Poet of the Place should borrow them for his proper use and Act and Publish them for his own Would it be a sufficient excuse for the Latter to alledge that they were only borrowed that his Friend was gone into a remote Country but That to his Knowledge he had too much Veneration