| Citation |
PG-P.767.020
5 Mar 1767:11 (1993)
To the printers of the Pennsylvania Gazette. Messieurs Hall
and Sellers, I have, with all the composure imaginable,
overlooked the torrent of incomprehensible abuse which has
been, of late, so plentifully bestowed on the theatre, those
who countenance it and the performers; nor do I now intend
to enter into a controversy with the gentlemen who have
attacked me in so indecent, so illiberal, a manner: people
of understanding, who are unprejudiced, will judge for
themselves; nor will it be in my power, or that of my douhty
adversaries, to bias them: but as I have reason to think
that the greater number, by far, of those who are enemies to
the theatre, are unacquainted with the nature and tedance
[?] of dramatic entertainments, I am of opinion that the
following essay, written at New-York about five years ago,
but not published, as the opposition to which it refers
subsided, will not, at this time, be an improper address to
them, as it presents an impartial view of the good effects a
well-regulated theatre must undoubtedly have on the manners
of a people. However my profession may subject me to the
censure of the more rigid part of the world, I declare, and
it is my heart that speaks, I should look forward with
terror, if I thought myself engaged in a business that could
be producive of the horrid consequences imputed to it; on
the contrary, I am firmly persuaded, that numbers may, and
daily do, derive singular advantages from the well wrought
scenes of plays: And in that conviction, I flatter myself I
may, without arrogance, presume that I am not entirely
unuseful to society.
'I am, gentlemen,
'Your most humble servant, D. Douglass.
[The letter which follows consumes 244 lines, or 10
paragraphs. The writer quotes Addison as an advocate of the
stage and its social importance, and cites that both the
stage as the pulpit have been abused and that there is no
reason for a good performer to be abused because of a poor
one. Also stated is the affirmation that an audience can
leave a performance better off for having attended and that
theatre may be considered one of man's highest
entertainments.]
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