Those who frequent the Play-House, say (to palliate the sin) a great deal of Morality is to be learnt from Plays; but I cannot perceive what good Morals can be obtained from such Expressions as these. “Sure, if Woman had been ready created, the Devil, instead of being kickt down to Hell, had been married. Leonora’s Charms turn Vice to Virtue, Treason into Truth; Nature, who has made her the supreme Object of our Desires, must needs have design’d her the Regulater of our Morals. She’s mad with the Whimsies of Virtue, and the Devil. Damn’d Lies, by Jupiter and Juno, and the rest of the Heathen Gods and Goddesses; for I remember I paid two Guineas for swearing Christian Oaths last Night.” As may be seen in several of the comick Writers. However, the Admirers of the Stage must have some Excuse for their Folly, and thus the Devil too, to support Vice, hangs out the Colours of Virtue. Again, we cannot see what Morality can be learnt in, there Expressions in the following Tragedies of Œdipus and Theodosius.
Tho’ round my Bed the Furies plant their Charms,
I’ll break ’em, with Jocasta in my Arms:
Claspt in the Folds of Love, I’ll wait my Doom,
And act my Joys, tho’ Thunder shakes the Room. Act 2.
Nor shall I need a Violence to wound,
The Storm is here that drives me on the Ground,
Sure Means to make the Soul and Body part,
A burning Fever, and a broken Heart. Act 5. Scene 2.
In which Lines abovesaid may be seen the Lover pursuing his Amours in Defiance of Heaven; and Varanes dying a natural Death, or else he had been so wicked, as to have laid violent hands on himself. Neither are the Greek and Latin Dramatists without their prophane Flights, and wicked Rants: Nay, hear how Augustin, that great Father of the Church, in these Words, Non omnino per hanc turpitudinem verba ista commodius discuntur, sed per hæc verba turpitudo ista confidentius perpetratur. Confes. lib. 1. cap. 16. condemns the following Lines of Terence’s Eunuch, Act 3. Scene 5.