| Citation |
PC.767.020
9-16 Feb 1767:133, 134, 141 (1/4)
. . . [Another article railing against the stage. Beginning
with the third paragraph:]
I believe I shall not stand single in the opinion, when I
assert, that plays have an evil tendency to corrupt and
debauch the mind. The very best of such performances have
their secret poisons, which render them the more dangerous
as they are the less suspected. The boasted moral tragedy
of Cato itself, the very basis of theatrical righteousness,
is not without its faults. --Without asserting that it
countenances suicide, by representing the self-murderer in a
situation almost to be envied by adepts in romance; yet what
shall we think of the immodest interviews between Marcia and
Lucia!-- what of the lewd scenery between Juba and his
mistress! which cannot but disgust every beholder, and from
which modesty, unless made callous by frequent opportunity,
must turn away with confusion.
Shakespeare's plays are esteemed the apex of dramatic
composition. And yet any man who reads Shakespeare, cannot
but acknowledge, that his sublime flights of poesy scarcely
atone for the low droll and buffoonery with which his best
pieces abound. It cannot be dissembled, that instructive
lessons of morality may be conveyed in this form of writing,
and that tragedy has presented us with many characters
worthy our closest imitation. . . [16 lines. A quote from
Tillotson:]
"As the stage now is (says he) plays are intolerable, and
not to be permitted in a civilized, much less in a Christian
nation. . . [18 lines]
And his pious successor Dr. Herring, than whom few men
knew human nature better, singled himself out while the
Beggar's Opera was at its highest run, and though opposed by
many of the nobility and gentry, maintained his judgement
superior to all resistance; as what he asserted would be the
case, was afterwards fully verified by many highway-men
declaring at the gallows, that they never went out at the
head of their gangs, without carrying them to Drury-Lane, to
be spirited up by the behaviour of Macheath. . . [30 lines]
But without courting the patronage of great and venerable
names, let facts speak for themselves. In the eager moments
of passion, when reason is off her guard, then it is that
every avenue to the heart is open. Every wound, thus
received, is like to prove fatal to us.--When music lends
its sounds to elevate and enchant us, then imagination
ranges unguarded, the still voice of religion is drowned
amid the transport of passion, and nature proves victorious!
-- This is a truth too obvious to need any proofs in its
favour. . . [70 lines, signed] Eugenio.
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