| Citation |
PG-P.754.026
19 Mar 1754:11 (1317)
Friends Franklin and Hall, As I apprehend publishing the
sentiments of some of the most esteemed of the Church of
England concerning Theatrical Entertainments, may be of
service at this time, the giving the following quotations a
place in your paper, will much oblige your friend, A.B.
Britain's Remembrancer, printed in Philadelphia, page 27.
Should I pretend to give a view of the wickedness of the
theatre, I should not know where to begin, or to what length
the subject would carry me. For whether I insisted on the
lewdness or impiety of most of the plays themselves; on the
infamous characters of the actors and actresses; on the
scandalous farces they commonly tag the greatest plays with,
or, above all, on the inhumanly impudent dances and songs,
with which they lard them between the acts; I say, which
soever of these particulars I insisted on, each of them
would furnish matter for a great many pages; and much more,
if I should enter upon a full view of them all. Indeed the
theatre is at present on such a footing in England, that it
is impossible to enter it, and not come out the worse for
having been in it; for now a days, a good play is no other
than a trap to draw in the modest and innocent to a love of
theatrical entertainments: and the minds of the spectators
are not the safer from being polluted and debauched, tho'
the play itself be in the main decent and modest; in the
ingenious contrivance of the managers entirely prevents the
good effect of any worthy sentiment expressed in the play,
by introducing a painted strumpet at the end of every act,
to cut capers on the stage in such an impudent and unwomanly
manner, as must make the most shocking impression on every
mind; and, lest the audience should chance, in spite of all
this, to carry away somewhat that might make their hearts
the better, a ludicrous and shameless farce concludes the
whole, and with one stroke erases all the little traces of
virtuous sentiments that were fomented by the play itself.
I only beg leave to ask you, my dear countrymen, for what
purpose you support a sacred order of men to teach you the
pure and hold laws of the Christian religion, and at the
same time encourage by your countenance and your riches, a
sett of the very dregs of human nature, who make it their
business to debauch your minds by their lewd compositions,
and wanton gesticulations, to fill them with impure and vile
ideas. . . [7 lines]
The same author, page 30. Hear what the great Bishop
Burnet, than whom no man better knew human nature, says of
the stage;
"The stage is the great corrupter of the town; and the bad
people of the town have been the chief corrupters of the
stage; who run most after those plays that most defile the
state. - - - The poets pretend their design is to discourage
vice; but they really do recommend it in the most effectual
manner. It is a shame to our nation and religion, to see
the stage so reformed in France, and so polluted still in
England. --Till another scene appears, certainly our plays
are the greatest debauchers of the nation."
. . . [14 more lines, quote from Tillotson.]
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