M9r.NRLF 
 
 ^B 3flq =^^4 
 
i^^ss^. afig'wa 
 
THE PLAGIARY "WARNED.' 
 
 A 
 
 VINDICATION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE DRAMA, THE STAGE, 
 
 AND 
 
 PUBLIC MORALS, 
 
 WHOM THE PLAGIARISMS AND COMPILATIONS OF THE 
 
 REVi>- JOHN ANGELL JAMES, 
 
 JtriJVISTEB OF garb's LAJS'E CHAPEL, BIRMIJ^GHAM : 
 IN A 
 
 LETTER TO THE AUTHOR, 
 
 ** Who art thou that jud^est another?" 
 
 The General Epistle of James ^ CAajo. iv. v. 12. 
 
 ** Plagiary. A Thief in Literature ; one who steals the thoughts 
 or writings of another." Johnson's English Dictionary. 
 
 ** But steal not word for word, nor thought for thought, 
 For you'll be teaz'd to death, if you are caught !" 
 
 Bramston's Art of Politics, Dodsletps Collection. 
 
 Birmingham ; 
 PUBLISHED BY J. DRAKE, NEW-STREET j 
 
 AND 
 
 BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. 
 
 1824. 
 
 
V3 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE Author of the following pages 
 sincerely asserts that it is with great re- 
 luctance he intrudes on the Public. He 
 has done so, impelled by a sense of duty. 
 The subject is of no mean importance 
 the Influence of a Popular Amusement 
 on Public Morals. 
 
 The literary history of the Drama and 
 the Stage records various periodical con- 
 troversies on the eflfects of Dramatic re- 
 presentations and reading: it is not there- 
 fore probable that Mr. James has written 
 any thing novel or particularly worthy 
 publication : by parity of reasoning this 
 remark would apply to these observations 
 and comments on him ; but there are 
 local reasons which justify the publica- 
 tion of these pages, 
 
 f: 900 
 
IV. 
 
 First, a gross insult has been com- 
 raitted in Mr. James's publications on 
 Sixty-four of the principal Inhabitants 
 of Birmingham, the projectors and pro- 
 prietors of the present Birmingham The- 
 atrea Public Company of Individuals 
 the most respectable and influential mem- 
 bers of the several political and religious 
 classes of the Town and neighbourhood. 
 The author feels himself called upon in 
 their behalf to justify their liberal and 
 disinterested re-establishment of theThe- 
 atie, after its destruction by fire in 1820: 
 and when it is known that he is not a Pro- 
 prietor of the Birmingham Theatre, and 
 had never entered the doors of that The- 
 atre when this publication was com- 
 menced, he will not be considered as a 
 partial or interested defender. 
 
 Secondly, as Mr. James is a Preacher 
 of local popularity, jDossessing and exer--. 
 cising considerable influence, it is desi- 
 rable that his admirers should form a 
 just estimate of his talent^ judgment, and 
 
writings; they will have an opportunity 
 of doing so in the perusal of these sheets. 
 It has been reported that Mr. James con^ 
 siders he has hitherto enjoyed a triumph- 
 ant argument, and that the flood of writ- 
 ing against him has made good his own 
 positions : he may perhaps now revise 
 that opinion. Added to these reasons 
 there is yet one other motive which has 
 led to this publication. If, as Mr. James 
 contends, the Christian Religion con- 
 demns Theatrical Amusements, and if 
 notwithstanding they are innocent and 
 rational, it then follows that man was not 
 made for the Christian Religion although 
 that Religion was made for man: the 
 scandal of such an inference, and its infal- 
 lible support of Scepticism (which Mr. 
 James says is so prevalent) cannot but 
 make it highly desirable to prove that the 
 Christian Religion does not condemn 
 them 
 
 There are here brought to light some 
 of the most extraordinary literary plagiar- 
 
VI. 
 
 isms ever detected, which have necessarily 
 called forth a corresponding censure, it 
 has howf ver been the studious object of 
 the Author of the exposure to avoid all 
 personality and invective; such he is sure 
 has been his intentioUy whatever construc- 
 tion may be put on the performance 
 when obliged to call things by their right 
 names. 
 
 Bigotry, and the desire of inflaming 
 the prejudices of Religious party-feeling 
 have had no share in these pages, whicU 
 seek not to create but to allay intolerance 
 and to explode uncharitable opinions. 
 Would that the Religious World could 
 
 AGREE TO differ! 
 
 The Author is not a " Play-Goer ;" 
 the last few years he has rarely entered a 
 Theatre, not because the attraction of the 
 Theatre had decreased, but because other 
 objects of intellectual occupation and 
 worldly calling had superseded its inte- 
 rest: he is therefore in some degree a 
 disinterested Advocate, and his discrimi'- 
 
Vil. 
 
 Nation of the Abuses of the Stage is not 
 blinded by habit or prejudice. He a- 
 vows however, with unaffected fervour, 
 his literary worship of Shakespeare and 
 Ben Jonsox. Gratitude for early as- 
 sociations, and obligations towards those 
 great Spirits of former ages those House^ 
 hold Gods of Literature command this 
 his humble exertion in defence of th$ 
 Drama. 
 
 But as the Author has before observed, 
 his chief reasons for publication are the 
 vindication of his fellow townsmen, and 
 the assay of Mr. James. The flourishing 
 existence and increasing popularity of the 
 Drama and the Stage are a fair presump- 
 tion that they will prosper without the 
 Author's support, and survive the assaults 
 of the Reverend John Angell James. 
 
LETTER 
 
 TO THE 
 
 JREV" JOHN ANGELL JAMES, 
 
 IN addressing this Letter to you, 1 
 beg to premise that 1 am not of the number of 
 those who seek to degrade the Clerical Cha- 
 racter; I wish to see the Ministers of the 
 Gospel, whether Members of an Established 
 or Dissenting Church, enjoy that elevated and 
 influential rank in society, which superior edu- 
 cation and sanctity of morals should secure 
 to them. 1 also duly respect the institutions 
 and ordinances of Religion, and highly esti- 
 mate the value of religious habits in the young; 
 and although I do not consider the external 
 ceremonies of religion, or the notional ideas 
 on certain niceties of speculative^ie//^ as Re- 
 ligion itself, yet the forms of religion are of 
 
essential and serious importance : they are the 
 ** enamel of virtue," and that pregnant sentence 
 of Johnson's cannot be too often enforced, 
 that, ** To be of no Church is dangerous : Re- 
 ligion, of which the rewards are distant, and 
 which is animated only by Faith and Hope, 
 will glide by degrees out of the mind, unless 
 it be invigorated by external ordinances, by 
 stated calls to worship, and the salutary influ- 
 ence of example." But on the other hand, it 
 was w^ell observed by Erasmus, of the oppo- 
 site extreme, that the profusion and immode- 
 rate value of External Ceremonies teach us 
 backwards, and bring us back from Christ to 
 Moses. Muffling Christianity up in forms and 
 mysteries is only burying its beauties and de- 
 stroying its utility. " To persuade men to the 
 Life of Christ is the pith and kernel of all 
 Religion : and those many Opifiions about 
 Religion, that are every where so eagerly con- 
 tended for on all sides, where This does not 
 lie at the bottom, are but so many shadows 
 fighting with one another."* I have made 
 these brief preliminary remarks, Sir, because 
 I know it is fashionable to confound reflec- 
 tions on the Ministers of Religion with the 
 disbelief of religion itself as if it was not 
 possible to distinguish between the Minister 
 
 Cudworth. Sermon before the House of Commons. 1647, 
 
and the object of ministration and that you 
 might at once clearly perceive, which doubt- 
 less you do, the nature of my own individual 
 belief viz. that I judge of a man's Religion by 
 its quality y not by its quantity. 
 
 I beg leave also, in the opening of this 
 letter, distinctly to disavow all intention of 
 reflection or insinuation against your private 
 character. I allow the excellence of that by 
 common report, although I have not the hon- 
 our of a personal acquaintance. I do not 
 question the sincerity of your religious zeal, 
 and I am even willing to admit the partial 
 good effect of your Public labours in the 
 Pulpit. It is your Public character as an 
 Author, which you have voluntarily placed 
 at the bar of public opinion, that I have now 
 to assay ; and as you are the popular oracle 
 of a numerous congregation, it is unquestion- 
 ably important that your pretensions should be 
 submitted to the tests of Reason and Truth. 
 Had your labours been confined to your 
 Chapel I should not have interfered with 
 them, but as you have extended the circle 
 of their influence by publishing your compo- 
 sitions, or more correctly speaking, what you 
 have put forth as your compositions, the 
 responsibility and consequences of this letter 
 rest on yourself. 
 
When a man prints and pnblishes, two 
 tilings are preSiupposed, first, that the com^ 
 positions so given to the world are the works 
 of the author whose name appears in the 
 Title page; and next, that the author con- 
 siders them above mediocrity. 
 
 Now Sir, in the first place, as to your 
 attacks on the Public Amusements and cha- 
 racter of your fellow Townsmen and Coun- 
 trymen, I shall prove in the sequel that you 
 are an incomparable Plagiary: and in 
 the second place, that more defamation and 
 illiterate ignorance have seldom been ex- 
 hibited. 
 
 '' ' As to the vice of Plagiarism I shall say 
 but little: the moral turpitude of the offence 
 is differently estimated by the moral appre- 
 hensions of different persons. In a Minister 
 of the Gospel of Truth I cannot, however, 
 but consider it as a peculiarly disgraceful 
 offence. It is appropriating more talents to 
 yourself than you can honestly claim: it is an 
 injustice to the reputation and rights of the 
 real author: nothing can justify the falsehood 
 or the meanness; you have no right ever to do 
 evil that good may come. It has ever received 
 the condemnation and contempt of all past 
 and present ages, aod I trust it will continue 
 30 to do. 
 
Since my attention was accidentally drawn 
 to three of your publications, the more imme- 
 diate objects of the present pamphlet, I have 
 read what you have committed to the press at 
 various times: a greater mass of compilation 
 and disingenuous use of other authors I have 
 never had the labour to read, and I trust I never 
 shall again. Your Sermon on the attraction 
 of the Cross, which first gave you literary dis- 
 tinction, is a most palpable compilation of the 
 metaphors and sentiments of some of our best 
 >vriters, and particularly of the most celebrated 
 passages of forensic eloquence. Should yoii 
 have the temerity to dispute this, I will publish 
 the proof; in the meantime, it is beside my 
 present purpose, and I am certain, that the 
 following sheets will obtain for the assertion 
 the credence of my Readers, without the ne- 
 cessity of a particular citation. 
 
 The works which are now the subject of 
 jny animadversion, ^r^ 
 
 1, Youih Warned. A Sermon preached in Carr's Lane 
 Meeting-House, January 4th, 1824, and addressed par- 
 ticularly to Young Men. Birmingham, 1824. 
 
 % The Christian Father's Present to his Children, two 
 volumes. London, 1824. 
 
 I^. The Scoflfer Admonished. Being the substance of Two 
 Sermons preached in Carr's Lane Meeting-House, July 
 )8th^ and August Ist^ 1824, Birmingham, 1$24. 
 
e 
 
 The first point T shall dispute with you is, 
 the present state of Public Morals and litera- 
 ture. In page 13, of ** Youth Warned," you 
 write 
 
 ** Inflammatory novels, stimulating romances, lewd poetry, 
 immoral songs, satires against religious characters, and argu- 
 ments against revelation, form in general, the works consulted 
 by corrupt and vicious youth, and by which they become still 
 more vicious. Never did the press send forth streams of 
 greater pollution than at this time. Authors are to be found, 
 of no mean character for talent, who pander to every cor- 
 ruption of the youthful bosom. Almost every vice has its 
 high priest, to burn incense on its altar, and to lead its vic- 
 tims, decked with the garlands of poetry or fiction, to their 
 ruin,'* 
 
 In p. 17 of the " Scoffer Admonished,'* 
 you give the following infamous and over- 
 charged picture of society 
 
 ** How often is the social circle the scene of this unhal* 
 lowed sport : and the entertainment of the convivial party 
 heightened by profane ridicule. Religion, like her divine 
 Author, when he was led into Pilate's hall, to be a laughing 
 stock to the Roman soldiers, is introduced only to furnish 
 merriment for the company. One calls her an impostor, 
 practising her arts on the credulity of mankind; another 
 holds up the vices of her false disciples as chargeable upon 
 her; a third tells a ludicrous anecdote of one of her sincere 
 and honourable votaries; then derided by all, defended by 
 none, with no one to speak on her behalf, and not permitted 
 to speak for herself, she stands, like the Man of Sorrows, a 
 silent object of derision, the swearer's jest, the drunkard's 
 song, yet majestic still ia grief^ and dignified amidst sur- 
 
I 
 
 rounding scorn. How much of tavern, ale-house mirth iS 
 derived from this impious source. What a supply of merri- 
 ment would be cut off from the sons of Belial if religion and 
 all ihe subjects connected with it, were suddenly, by some 
 mysterious power operating upon their mind, either forjrottea 
 or dreaded. Infatuated and miserable men! Can ye find 
 nothing less sacred than this to give a relish to your wine ? 
 Will nothing less poisonous serve as an infusion into your 
 cups ? Has the social circle no charms or power to please 
 unless the scoffer be there? Has wit no poignancy, genius 
 no brilliancy, satire no sting, irony no point, humour no 
 pleasantry, jesting no spirit, except scoffing at religion be 
 practised ? Must the voice of the scorner, rouse the slumber- 
 ing genius of mirth, and all be flat and insipid, till his per- 
 verted fancy yield the salt? It is not enough that ye can 
 be gamesters, and drunkards, and swearers, but ye must be 
 libellers and calumniators also; and even then, will nothing 
 less serve as the object of your scandal, than piety and the 
 pious?'* 
 
 Now Sir, either tliis ** Social Circle" must 
 have been witnessed by yourself or reported 
 to you by some friend: if by a member, you 
 could not consider it worthy of belief; and if 
 by a convert, I should receive such a story 
 with allowance as the exaggerated picture of 
 his past sins, by way of increasing the merit 
 of his present reformation; I should consider 
 the narrator as a sinner past saving. But 
 however this may be, it is a mere false picture, 
 and exists only in the disordered imaginatioa 
 of some religious fanatic, or of some menda- 
 
dons knave who has imposed his contemplibfd 
 narration on your credulity. What, Sir, cart 
 be your motive in joining this old *' Hue and 
 Cry" of villanizinjjr Mankind? Is it to enhance 
 the necessity and value of your own servicesi 
 *' There is a certain List of Vices committed in 
 all ages and declaimed against by all Authors^ 
 which will last as long as Human Nature! or 
 digested into common places may serve fot 
 any theme, and never be out of date until 
 dooms-day."* *' The badness of the times 
 has been a eommoti topic of complaint in 
 every age, and that they are growing worse 
 continually, is what some persons think them- 
 selves obliged to insist upon, with no less 
 vehemence; how hard soever they find it to 
 account for this in any respect." f 
 
 *' It has bieen so long the practice to repre- 
 sent literature as declining, that every renewal 
 of this complaint now comes with diminished 
 influence. The public has been so often ex- 
 cited by a false alarm, that at present the 
 nearer we approach the threatened period of 
 decay, the more our security increases."]; 
 
 Sir Thomas Browu's Vulgar Errors. 1646. 
 
 t Law's Theory of Religion. 1750.- 
 
 X Goldsmith's Enquiry into the present State of Polite Learning. 
 
9 
 
 If it were necessary, Sir, I could produce 
 regular chronological lamentations over the 
 continual moral degeneracy of Mankind, from 
 the cessation of the Flood to the present day: 
 the disease, therefore, cannot be a galloping 
 consumption, or ere this the world would have 
 become one dreary waste. That the Clergy, 
 of all classes of detracters, should join in this 
 sad complaint of leaving Christianity in a 
 Worse condition than they found it is indeed 
 extraordinary; the reflection on themselves who 
 have been educated and paid to advance the 
 religious character of the People, cannot but 
 be evident; and thus to profess not to be able 
 to keep them from backsliding, cannot but 
 make good the argument of the Society of 
 Friends, and also of the Freethinkers, who 
 contend that the office of a Priesthood is one 
 of unproductive labour. 
 
 " It reflects (says Milton) to the disrepute 
 of our Ministers also, of whose labours we 
 should hope better, and of the proficiency 
 which their flock reaps by them, than that 
 after all this light of the Gospel which is, and 
 is to be, and all this continual preaching, they 
 should be still frequented with such an un- 
 principled, unedify'd, and laic rabble, as that 
 the whiff* of every new Pamphlet should stag- 
 ger them out of their catechism and Christian 
 
w 
 
 walking." But, Sir, to be serious; can it he 
 believed that vice increases in a geometrical 
 progressive ratio with the increase of know- 
 ledge? Has the establishment of Charity ancj 
 Sunday Schools, of National and Lancasteriah 
 Systems of Education, the increased circula- 
 tion of religious magazines and tracts had no 
 effect in instructing and moralizing the People? 
 Has the distribution of Bibles, your Missionary 
 and periodical collections, had no effect on 
 Public Morals? Are Hospitals, Dispensaries, 
 Charities suited to every want and misfortune 
 of the Poor, no proofs of increasing humanity 
 and benevolence? Is not the reprint of the 
 standard works of England's Worthies, and 
 the vast influx of periodical publications con- 
 nected with the Arts and Sciences, evidence 
 of the moral and intellectual progress of your 
 Countrymen? Can any Country in the World, 
 or could any past age boast the moral habits 
 or information of British Mechanics and Arti- 
 zans? Is a state of profound Peace, and the 
 extraordinary extension of Trade and Com- 
 merce from the horrors and wickedness of 
 W^ar, no symptom of National improvement 
 Or is it only that the People have advanced in 
 every other respect save respect for their 
 Religion and its Ministers? If this were the 
 yac/, what would be the infallible inference? 
 
]1 
 
 that however your calling in life suited your 
 own interest, it ill accorded with the interests 
 of your country! 
 
 It was the original and profound remark of 
 Bacon,* Antiquitas Seculi, Juventus Mun- 
 di that the Antiquity of the World was its 
 Infancy. You libel real antiquity without 
 being aware of it, and calumniate the improv- 
 ing times in which you have the privilege to 
 be born, by thus eulogising the moral charac- 
 ter of our ancestors, at the expence and asper- 
 sion of posterity and your contemporaries: 
 and 1 leave you to estimate the spiritual pride 
 which dares thus to set itself up the Censor 
 of the age, and to anticipate judgments to 
 come. If I understand rightly the necessity 
 and divine favour of Revelation, it was to add 
 to the natural light already in the world ; and 
 if we are to interpret literally the prophecies 
 and intentions of the Great Messenger of 
 Heaven, it was the advancement of the moral 
 improvement and happiness of his creatures. 
 God, Sir, do^s not create the Hunfian Mind 
 now with less advantages than formerly : Na- 
 ture and Conscience still exercise their preroga- 
 tives. As Antiquity, therefore, in fact consists 
 in the old age of the World, not in the youth 
 of it ; as we are the fathers, not the children 
 
 * De A ag. Sclent. L. i. c.5. 
 
12 
 
 of time, abandon this stale and unprofitable 
 declamatioa: *' in disgracing the present times 
 therefore, you disgrace Antiquity properly so 
 called;"* Truth is the Daughter of Time. 
 Now, Sir, allow me to recommend you to read 
 that admirable portion of Law's Theory of 
 Religion " The Progress of Natural Religion 
 sind Science, or the continual Improvement 
 of the World in general :" his text, Sir, from 
 Solomon, is not unsuitable to the present 
 occasion Say not thou^ What is the cause 
 that the former Days were better than these ? 
 for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning 
 this. EccLES. vii. 10. 
 
 *' 'Twixt Blasphemy and Cant-*the two 
 Rank ills with which this age is curst-- 
 We can no more tell which is worst. 
 Than erst could Egypt, when so rich 
 In various plagues, determine which 
 She thought most pestilent and vile," 
 
 Fables for the Holy Alliance^ 
 
 With this exordium I shall open the more 
 immediate object of the present strictures on 
 your publication : to commence ab origine, I 
 shall quote from your first printed Sermon, 
 ** Youth Warned," your first denunciation of 
 the Drama and the Stage. 
 
 * Hakewill, Apol. 
 
13 
 
 " 4p The recreations and amusements of young men who 
 live in sinful pursuits are of the same nature as their reading, 
 conversation, and company, i. e. polluted and polluting. The 
 theatre is generally frequented by them ; the theatre, that 
 corrupter of public morals; that school where nothing good 
 and every thing bad is learnt; that resort of the vicious, and 
 seminary of vice; that broad and flowery avenue to the 
 bottomless pit. Here a young man finds no binderances to 
 sin, no warnings against irreligion, no mementos of judgment 
 to come; but on the contrary, every thing to inflame bis 
 passions, to excite his criminal desires, and to gratify big 
 appetites for vice. The language, the music, the company, 
 are all adapted to a sensual taste, and calculated to demoralize 
 the mind. Multitudes of once comparatively innoceat and 
 happy youth, have to date their ruin for both worlds, from 
 that hour when their feet first trod the polluted precincts of 
 a theatre. Till then they were ignorant of many of the ways 
 of vice, and had no fellowship with the unfruitful works of 
 darkness. That fatal night which first brought them before 
 the stage, was the dreadful season of their initiation into the 
 mysteries of iniquity. Then they fell from morality and re- 
 spectability, and continued falling deeper and deeper in vice, 
 ,till earth tired of the sickening load of their corruption, 
 beaved them from her lap ; and hell from beneath moved to 
 meet them at their coming. When therefore, a young man 
 acquires a taste for theatrical representations, and gratifies 
 his propensity, I consider his moral character in imminent 
 peril." 
 
 To this, in the publication of your Sermon, 
 you append the following note. 
 
 <' It is by no means the antbor^s intention to affirm, that all who 
 frequent the theatre are in the usual acceptation of the term, vicious 
 persons. Far be it from him to prefer aa accusation eo extensive and 
 
14 
 
 iahfounded as this. No doubt many most amiable and moral individual 
 are among the admirers of dramatic representation. That such persona 
 receive no contamination from the scenes they witness, or the language 
 they hear, is no stronger proof that the stage is not immoral in its 
 tendency and effects, than that there is no contagion in the plague, 
 because some constitutions resist the infection. That persons fenced 
 in by every conceivable moral defence and restraint, should escape 
 uninjured, is saying little; but even in their case, I will contend that 
 tbe mind is not altogether uninjured. Is it possible for an imperfect 
 moral creature, and such are the best of us, to hear the irreverend ap- 
 peals to heaven, the filthy allusions, the anti-christiau sentiments, which 
 are uttered during the representation of even our purest plays, and 
 hear this for amusement^ without some deterioration of mental purity ? 
 And it should be remembered that none but the pure in heart shall 
 see God But let us conceive of a young man going alone and unpro- 
 tected to a theatre, or in the company of others of his own age, and 
 after having his passions inflamed with all he has seen and heard 
 within, then returning home through the crowds of well-dressed pros^ 
 titutes which infest the purlieus of ^very theatre. /* this a scJiOol 
 to improve his morals ? Yes, the morals of the brothel. The ad vocateij^ 
 of the stage should be candid, and instead of talking about its im- 
 proving the taste or the morals of the age, should frankly confess, 
 what they cannot be ignorant of, that it is indeed a very dangerous 
 place for young persons, but that it is an amusement of which they 
 themselves are very fond, and that they are determined to enjoy it, 
 whatever havoc it should make in the character of others. Or even 
 admitting that occasionally sonqe one were improved by theatrical 
 satires on vice, though by the way, to laugh at vice is not the best 
 "^iray of becoming virtuous, still will they not confess that for this one 
 ase of improvement, a thousand oases of ruin could be found ?" 
 
 On the plagiarisms and declamation of 
 these extracts I shall say nothing, as the sub- 
 stance is repeated in a more elaborate and 
 serious work, The Christian Father's 
 Present to his Children: but T leave my 
 Readers to their own reflections on what must 
 be the constituent character of i/our acquaint- 
 
15 
 
 ^n(!je and followers, who cannot frequent an 
 English Theatre, or witness ** the representa- 
 tion of even our purest plays, without some 
 deterioration of mental purity:" such per- 
 sons, Mr. James, belong to Dean Swift's des- 
 cription of nice people, who, ever suspecting 
 impurities in the most unexceptionable works, 
 must be creatures of most diseased and im- 
 pure minds, which, thank God, Sir, the ma- 
 jority of intellectual beings are not. 
 
 You have thought proper. Sir, to denounce 
 in terms of most bitter and indiscriminate in- 
 vective, the character and works of Lord 
 Byron, the darling and wayward child of 
 Genius. It is a remark of an old writer, that, 
 if God has not more mercy on us than we 
 have towards one another, it will ill fare with 
 all. Lord Byron was early bereft of parents, 
 and by nature and physical constitution was 
 endowed with feelings and passions of diffi- 
 cult restraint : he was moreover born in a rank 
 of society by no means favorable to the early 
 discipline of the mind, and where temptation 
 peculiarly exposed such a character to error 
 and vice. The Superstition and Hypocrisy of 
 the world appear early to have impressed a 
 sensitive mind ; and like thousands of others 
 in the hatred and exposure of tyranny and hy- 
 pocrisy, he failed to discriminate between real 
 
16 
 
 Religion and the false pretences of Irreligioil, 
 It is impossible to justify part of his writinggi. 
 But may my countrymen ever adniire what 
 you allow *' the exquisite pathos and peerless 
 beauty of his works:" may they not seek to 
 imitate or justify his failings; and may the 
 Great Judge of all, who loves mercy rather 
 than vengeance, judge with compassion and 
 forgiveness the errors of Lord Byron, common 
 to all of us may his noble exertions in the 
 cause of Freedom and Religion, in that classic 
 and gallant land where Socrates taught and 
 Paul preached the Unknown God, atone for 
 his frailties, and ultimately place him with the 
 spirits of just men made perfect. De mortuis 
 
 NIL NISI BONUM. 
 
 " No farther seek his merits to disclose. 
 
 Or draw his frailties from their dread abode^ 
 
 (There they alike in trembhng hope repose) 
 The bosom of his Father and his God." 
 
 In these preliminary strictures on yout 
 writings, you must allow that I have fairly 
 quoted your own words. \ shall pursue the 
 same impartial course throughout this letter. 
 I now proceed to your second work, one of 
 the three subjects of my criticism. The 
 Christian Father's Present to his Child- 
 ren. This is your magnum opus, or work of 
 digested and considerate publication, ad- 
 
17 
 
 dressed to young People on education and 
 moral culture. It is unnecessary that I should 
 examine analytically its entire contents; in 
 fact it contains much from your former ser- 
 mons and tracts, inlaid in the text and notes. 
 1 shall, however, remark on some introductory 
 chapters which precede your direct attack on 
 the Drama and the Stage. 
 
 Your 14th chapter, of volume the second, 
 treats on the subject of Books, It contains 
 some most inconsistent, injudicious, and mea- 
 gre directions generally, but particularly as to 
 a course of reading on Uislory. You recom- 
 mend Hume; you speak of the "beautiful sim- 
 plicity of his composition,*' and " his philo- 
 sophical mode of analyzing character and 
 tracing events:" you then add, " but unhap- 
 pil3% Hume was a confirmed infidel, and must 
 be read with a mind ever upon its guard 
 against the poison which he has infused into 
 his narrative:" you say, that ** happily, the 
 deleterious infusion floats upon the surface, 
 and may be therefore easily detected." You 
 then, in a note at the bottom of the page, 
 (6.) assert that, "Hume has so incorpo- 
 rated his infidelity with his history, that it is 
 impossible to read the one without the other." 
 This palpable confusion of the spirit of his 
 History and his Essays, is truly ridiculous. 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 Now, I call upon you to point out one sceptt 
 cal expression throughout Hume's History of 
 England that can justify these silly observa- 
 tions. Had you really been versed iu Hume's 
 History, and in the annotations of his able 
 commentators,* you would have justly said, 
 that his High Church principles and prejudices 
 occasionally disgrace the impartiality of an 
 Historian, and were highly injurious to the 
 Cause of Religious as well as of " Civil 
 Liberty." You then add in the note alluded 
 to " Mr. (Dr.) Lingard, a Roman Catholic 
 author, is now publishing a very well written 
 history of England, in which his \iews and 
 feelings, as a catholic, are however sufficiently 
 prominent." Thus you characterize a noble 
 and admirable historical work, the labour of 
 the author's life a history of extraordinary, 
 industrious, and impartial, research as a 
 
 Observations on Mr. Hume^s History of Eng-land, 1778, by Di*. 
 Joseph Towers, and reprinted in his works. " Brodie's History of th 
 British I^mpire, including^ a particular examination of Mr. Huiue^s 
 Statement relative to the character of the English Government, &c.'* 
 4 vols. Octavo, 1822, an excellent and valuable historical work. 
 See also, ** A Kist of Books recommended and referred to in the 
 Lectures on Modern History, by Professor Smyth, of St. Peter's Col* 
 lej^e, Cambridge." To witness and record the growing- liberality of 
 the times, aid the oblivion of past illiberality, especially in the English 
 Duiversities, is a most grateful observation: in this list of Books, 
 Dr. Pkiestlky's invaluable Lectures on History are highly recom- 
 mSjided for. the " nature of Historical Authorities/' and referi'ed to in 
 tke Uiiiveifcity Lectures. 
 
19 
 
 ** very well written history!" You then add, that 
 " An English History, in which there shall be 
 the most sacred regard to the principles of 
 pure morahty, evangelical religion, and ra- 
 tional liberty, is still a desideratum in the 
 literature of our country." Do you mean to 
 supply this desideratum? Do you ever expect 
 an inspired History that is to say, a History 
 not written by a Man with certain natural and 
 acquired prepossessions in favour of his own 
 opinions and party? Do you not know that 
 historical Truth is only to be discovered by a 
 patient and candid perusal and comparison 
 of the historical works by different political 
 parties and religious sects? Do you not think 
 that if you, for example, wrote a history, sup- 
 posing you were able, that the Calvinistic and 
 Independent complexion would be ** sufficiently 
 prominent?" What therefore was your course 
 in your advice to young People but to re- 
 commend to them the diligent and dispas- 
 sionate reading of all parties, and to direct 
 them to the necessary works and collections? 
 If you were competent to have done this, you 
 ought to have particularized the works; and, 
 if not competent to it, you had no pretension 
 to the publication of such a directory as 
 The Christian Father's Present to his Child- 
 l^n. 
 
20 
 
 In p. 8, is the following " In the depart- 
 ment of JEn^lish compositiouy Addison and 
 Johnson, though moral writers, in the usual 
 acceptation of the terra, are not always cor- 
 rect in their principles, if indeed the New 
 Testament is the standard of moral senti- 
 ments." As it is not likely that your works 
 will supersede the Evidences of Christianity 
 or the Rambler, or thai the Public will re-- 
 cognize you as a Licenser of the Press over 
 Addison and Johnson, I shall pass on to the 
 conclusion of your sentence as follows: ** It 
 is desirable to cultivate a good taste, and an 
 elegant style of composition; and for this pur- 
 pose, the productions of these two celebrated 
 writers may be read, together with Burke on 
 the Sublime, Alison on Taste, Blair's Lectures, 
 and Campbell on Rhetoric." I only set out 
 this passage to expose your ignorance. You 
 subsequently rate the perusal of Fiction in 
 any shape as impious and idle. Now cau 
 you have read Burke, Alison, Blair, or Camp- 
 bell, and recommend them to young people 
 as proper authors, at the same time that you 
 condemn Dramatic and Poetic fiction? thus 
 denouncing works of the imagination, and yet 
 recommending volumes that expressly eulogize 
 the Drama and poetry of our country! If you 
 have read these authors, how defective must 
 
21 
 
 be your memory to retain, or your judgment 
 to appreciate; and if you have not, how mar- 
 vellous your ignorance! In the following 
 page, 9, you proceed *' Although the present 
 age can boast the noble productions of such 
 men as Scott, Southey, Campbell, and Words- 
 worth, whose poems every person of real taste 
 will read, yet I recommend the more hahilual 
 perusal of Spencer and Milton among the 
 ancients! and Cowper and Montgomery among 
 the moderns: the two first for their genius, and 
 the others for their piety," So your judicious 
 literary discrimination does not estimate Mil- 
 ton so much for his piety as for his genius! 
 The Author of Paradise I^st, Regained, and 
 those delicious strains of piety in his minor 
 poems and translations, is admired for his 
 *' genius," and the morbid physical and re- 
 ligious melancholy of Cowper is recommended 
 for its ** piety!" Thank God, Sir, that *' every 
 person of real taste will read," the poems of 
 the four living poets you have so partially 
 eulogized, and that *' Milton among the 
 ancients" posterity will ever read for his genius 
 and his piety; and Cowper for his poetic 
 beauties, but with a charitable pity and allow- 
 ance for the unfortunate malady which cha- 
 racterized his constitution and mind. You 
 conclude this chapter with some heartless and 
 
22 
 
 tasteless diatribes against fiction: I shall not 
 Accompany you, as the subsequent pages of 
 this pamphlet will more particularly exhibit 
 the important ends of works of the imagi- 
 nation, and fiction, on the taste and morals of 
 the world. 
 
 I proceed to Chapter xv. ** On amuse- 
 ments and recreation.'' You denounce ** kill- 
 ing flies," (query, fleas?) '* Horse racing;" ** all 
 field sports of every kind;" (your own italics, 
 p. 20,) ** Shooting, coursing, hunting, ang- 
 lujg!" " What agony is inflicted in hooking 
 a worm or a fish ;" Spirit of old Izaac Wal- 
 ton, whose innocent amusements are thus 
 denounced, and who hast told us how in thy 
 contemplative moments the sweet feelings of 
 piety pervaded thy soul when " the nightin- 
 gale, another of my airy creatures, breathes 
 such sweet loud music out of her little instru- 
 mental throat, that it might make mankind ta 
 think that miracles are not ceased. He that 
 at midnight, when the very labourer sleeps 
 securely, should hear, as I have very often, 
 the clear airs, the sweet descants, the natural 
 rising and falling, the doubling, and redoubling 
 of her voice, might well be lifted above earth, 
 and say. Lord, what music hast thou provided 
 for the saints in Heaven, when thou affordesi 
 bad men such music on Earth!" 
 
23 
 
 Viermin, such as " Wolves, bears, serpents, 
 are to be extirpated ;" but not for the pleasure 
 of killing them ; if thinning them is not abso- 
 lutely necessary, they are to be alive and at 
 large on their '* parole d' honneur." 
 
 *' Billiards and cards'' are vicious games : 
 ^'passion, petulance and sullenness, are always 
 waiting U7ider the table, ready to appear in the 
 persons and conduct of the loser :' '* scenes 
 have been described to me a disgrace to the 
 genteel party m the drawling room :" ** serious 
 misnnderstandings have arisen from this source 
 between man and wife:" " How many have 
 taken p the pistol or the poison, and have 
 rushed \^ith all their crimes about them, 
 from the gambling-table to the fiery lake in 
 Hell."!!! Has this been described to you, Sir, 
 by any Spectator? 
 
 You then run down " Balls, Routs and 
 Concerts." p. 23. The *' mode of dress," "the 
 nature of the employment; the dissipating ten- 
 dency of the music, the conversation, and the 
 elegant uproar" all these fill you with dis- 
 iriay; that is to say, the mere representation 
 of what goes on (for you never pretend to 
 have been present yourself at any,) outrage 
 your feelings. Exquisite sentimentality, and 
 audacious ignorance, which can print, *' Let 
 there be a love once acquired for these elegant! 
 
24 
 
 jrecreations by any female, and from my heart, 
 1 pity the man who is destined to be her hus- 
 band." p. 24. 1 should indeed, Sir, pity the 
 elegant woman thrown away upon you who 
 cannot appreciate the innocent accomplish- 
 ments of the female character. 
 
 You then say, that however moral these 
 amusements may be in the Upper ranks, *' yet 
 what mischief is produced to their humble 
 imitators, who attend the assemblies which 
 are held in the barn or the ale-house." p. 24. 
 ** I h)ok upon dancing among these to be a 
 practice fraught with immorality:" this you 
 illustrate not by an allusion to King David, 
 but to the case of Mary Ashford 1 
 
 After this elegant finish to all the popular 
 amusements and manly sports of your Country- 
 men, you proceed to tell us what, in your 
 liberality, you will allow'. Well is it for Eng- 
 land that you are not the modern ** Master 
 of the Revels," and that your " Book of 
 Sports" is not the only latitude of British 
 Law. 
 
 " My opinion of the Stage I shall reserve 
 for a separate chapter. In the mean time J. shall 
 reply to a question which, no doubt, ere this 
 you are ready to ask, *' what amusements I 
 would recommend." 
 
 You ** recommend*' to young Persons, br 
 
26 
 
 Way of " streDgthening the body and improv- 
 ing the mind," ** a Country ramble amidst the 
 beauties of nature." I guess, Sir, your Fe- 
 males would be very likely to fall into men 
 traps, and your juvenile males to expiate their 
 ambulatory trespasses against the Game Laws 
 and the Vagrant Act on some County tread 
 mill for the space of one Calendar month I 
 "What we are to do in the iron wilds of Staf- 
 fordshire you do not inform us, unless tumbling 
 down an obsolete coal pit is a religious recre- 
 ation, and a warning against the pit falls of 
 Satan. The mental prescription you have 
 written in this curious receipt book is, " Seek 
 for that thirst after knowledge, which, when 
 the Soul is jaded with the dull and daily 
 I'ound of secular affairs, shall ccyiduct her to 
 the fountains of thought contained in the irell* 
 slocked library." " My father's greeting smile; 
 my mother's fond embrace; the welcome of 
 my brothers and my sisters; the kind looks, 
 the fond enquiries, the interesting, though un^ 
 important conversation of all at home would 
 recruit my strength and recreate my mind:" 
 excellent substitutes for marbles, whipping 
 tops, cricket and foot ball, and Mr. Mathews's 
 " At Home!" If you have amusements and 
 no religion, you have " the joy of fools, which 
 as Solomon says, is but as * the crackling 
 
 
 
26 
 
 of tliorns beneath the pot.' " Here endeth 
 your 15th Chapter, on amusements and recre- 
 ations* 
 
 Had T not set forth your own words, Mr. 
 James, few (out of the pale of your own 
 Church) would have believed such extraor- 
 dinary ignorance of Human-nature could have 
 been exhibited by you, much less published 
 to the world. And strange it is that you did 
 riot yourself perceive the glaring inconsistency 
 of first representing mankind in so base and 
 hopeless a plight, and then prescribing such a 
 perfectibility as even no German illuminati 
 ever dteamed was possible! Human nature is 
 not to be controlled so easily as may be im- 
 agined; you cannot root out the Passions if 
 you would, #ind you ought not if you could ; 
 their office in a probationary state of exist- 
 ence is too important and too salutary to be 
 dispensed with : they are the refreshing gales 
 that purify the moral atmosphere of a being 
 never designed by nature for a cloister or a^ 
 cowl. The manifestations of passion, it is true, 
 may be cloaked, but human nature will remain 
 unchanged she may be masked but not trans- 
 formed a thick veil of hypocrisy may be as- 
 sumed the garb of exterior sanctity may be 
 worn the pfiylacteries may be made broad, 
 or, as Lord Monboddo has said, "dunghills 
 
27 
 
 may be spread with white linen, but will not 
 become clean in consequence of such a cover- 
 
 iug." 
 
 Do you not perceive that to realize (sup- 
 posing for the sake of argument it was possible) 
 your projected scheme of morality, you would 
 invert the whole order of Society, turn the 
 world upside down, and require the total 
 suppression of half the passions, feelings and 
 sympathies of mankind springs of human 
 action more or less at the foundation of the 
 whole conduct of Hfe? Half London must be 
 levelled to the ground ; Brighton, Bath, Lea- 
 mington, Cheltenham, and all the gay resorts 
 of the fashionable and the sick might be blown 
 up or totally destroyed. As a mere question 
 of Political Economy, what would be the 
 certain effect? a diminution in the demand 
 for labour to such an extent, as would not 
 only deprive you of four fifths of your Con- 
 gregation, but would depopulate your country 
 to an extraordinary degree, in as much as 
 four fifths of the arts and manufactures, now 
 supporting hundreds of thousands of the lower 
 classes, would be given up and forsaken the 
 necessary consequence of which would be the 
 diminution of population, and the consequent 
 scarcity of Souls to save ! Now, Sir, do not 
 scream out at the ** blasphemy" and infidelity 
 
28 
 
 of this last sentence; such an imputation 
 would fall, if any where, on your own el 
 dorado and dreaniing projects ; if you peruse 
 Adam Smith, James Mill, and Malthus, you 
 cannot but discover this. 
 
 Into what would your system manufacture 
 the raw material of man, but a gloomy mis- 
 anthrope, a maniacal religious Fanatic, at the 
 mercy of every impostor who administered to 
 his voracious credulity. The lower classes. 
 Sir, would be the slaves of despotism and 
 misery: all the rational recreations which now 
 cheer the heart and smooth the brow of ia^ 
 dustrious labour, which administer sweet con^ 
 tent to every grade of society, would be aboU 
 ished; and every national amusement, where 
 all classes meet together, to the advantage 
 of every order, from the Corinthian column 
 to the sturdy blase on which the aristocratical 
 superstructure of society is firmly built, would 
 be suppressed: ignorance and pride would, 
 stalk in insolence and malice through the un- 
 charitable world: the whole cement and every 
 rivet of the real social system would be dis- 
 solved and broken asunder. Oh pastimes and 
 games of my childhood, when inthralled in 
 chains of daisies and buttercups, and absorbed 
 in the early loves of infancy, I sported on 
 the greensward at noon day, or drank delight 
 
89 
 
 from those cheerful nursery pastimes which 
 passed before the blazing winter fire, are your 
 delightful associations never to be recalled in 
 the infantine amusements of my children! Oh 
 recollections of my youth, and of the Village 
 Schoolmistress who inoculated me with the 
 Alphabet, and from whose nod profound I 
 rushed with troops of schoolmates to the rural 
 games of the Village Green, are you also to 
 cease, and those innocent sports to be declared 
 unholy? 
 
 " Those healthful sports that gracM the peaceful scene, 
 Liv'd in each look, and brightenM all the green; 
 These far departing, seek a kinder shore, 
 -And rural mirth and manners are no more.'* 
 
 In your ruthless proscription Punch him- 
 self (the recreation of the studious Bayle and 
 numerous Literati, Divines included) would 
 be sacrificed. All those popular English 
 Pastimes, the innocent and rural delight of 
 the rustic villager, those diversions of Roman 
 origin on which the British Youth, from the- 
 earliest times have built their national cha- 
 racter, are to be abandoned: Farewell, ye Ver- 
 nal Games, ye relics of the Feast of Flora, 
 descended to us from that mighty people who 
 grasped the sceptre of the world and founded 
 ^ the eternal city:' Farewell, ye Morrice Dan- 
 
30 
 
 cers, ye remembrancers of a brave and high- 
 minded nation the successful cultivators of 
 the arts and sciences and architects of the far 
 famed Alhambra: The Mountebank, the Tum- 
 bler, the dancing Bears and Dogs, the tabor 
 and pipe, the wandering and tattered minstrel 
 touching with charity the young heart to the 
 strains of a tin fiddle. May Day with its gar- 
 lands and sports, the sooty capers of the poor 
 Sweep, the chants of the Christmas Carol, and 
 the cheerful celebration of, and pious thanks- 
 giving for the coming and new year these 
 we are to lay down at the shrine of Mr, Jarpes! 
 Then indeed may we exclaim in melancholy 
 with the Poet of the Dlserted Village 
 
 ** The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade. 
 
 For talking age and whispering lovers made! 
 
 How often have I blest the coming day. 
 
 When toil remitting, lent its turn to play. 
 
 And all the village train, from labour free. 
 
 Led up their sports beqeath the spreading tree, 
 
 "While many a pastime circled in the shade. 
 
 The young contending as the old surveyed; 
 
 And many a gambol frolic'd o*er the ground. 
 
 And slights of art and feats of strength went round ; 
 
 And still as each repeated pleasure tir*d. 
 
 Succeeding sports the mirthful band inspired; 
 
 The dancing pair that simply sought renown. 
 
 By holding out, to tire each other down; 
 
 The swain mistrustless of his smutty face. 
 
 While secret laughter titterM round the place ; 
 
31 
 
 The bashful virgin's side long looks of love. 
 The matron's glance that would those looks reprove. 
 These were thy charms, sweet village, sports like these, 
 With sweet succession, taught e'en toil to please; 
 These round thy bowers their cheerful influence shed. 
 These were thy charms but all these charms are fledi'* 
 
 Such, Sir, is the havoc which you would 
 work in society, had you the power: you 
 would abolish all those manly Field Sports, 
 which are so many component parts of our 
 national character ; the bold Hunter hallooing 
 at the break, the Sportsman's gun echoing 
 through the mountain cavern of the moor 
 game, the patient Fisherman coveting the trout 
 under the northern rapid sports which have 
 made the distinctive character of British nerve 
 and mind ; which have wafted the British flag 
 and civilization in triumphant victory over all 
 the globe and without which national cha- 
 racter, so formed, your Missionaries, Mr. 
 James, could not have conferred on so many 
 savage million^ the golden and precious gifts 
 of the Gospel! Should this pamphlet convert 
 you. Sir, which is more than I confess is 
 reasonably to be expected, you may witness 
 at the Birmingham Theatre, the proud and 
 splendid scenic representation of Waterloo; 
 and if you withstand that, I shall say you are 
 past literary redemption, and proof against 
 
32 
 
 National pride. Biit, fortunately, Sir, for the 
 world, your views of Human nature never will 
 be realized till Society is conducted iu Bal- 
 loons; till the human mind works by steam; 
 or till yoli possess the mines of Mexico and 
 Peru, and can order in your own moulds some 
 iiiillions of cast iron inen and women from the 
 foundry of Messrs. Boulton and Watt. 
 
 I now arrive at the^rand assault of youi* 
 work, in " The Christian Father's Present to 
 his Children,'^ volume the second, chap. xvi. 
 " On Theatrical Amusements." 
 
 Although I have thought proper in my 
 preceding pages to examine other passages of 
 your ** Present," by way of ascertaining and 
 shewing how far you were competent to write 
 on the subject of the Drama and the Stage, 
 I shall, however, strictly confine myself to this 
 part of your work. There is, I confess, great 
 temptation to examine your whole publication 
 and to exhibit the Plagiarisms profusely scat- 
 tered throughout your five hundred pages: but I 
 shall not concern myself or weary my readers 
 with more than has reference to this particular 
 enquiry ** on Theatrical Amusements ;" and I 
 doubt not this will be a sufficient sample of 
 the whole. I should, however, previously in- 
 form you, that I have not had the leisure or 
 the patience to search for many Creditors t^ 
 
as 
 
 whom you owe various plagiarised parts of 
 this chapter, besides those which I shall 
 justly restore to their injured proprietors: but 
 doubtless, you may expect that many of them 
 living, and the representatives of those who 
 are deceased, will now come in and prove 
 their debts! I give verbatim your introductory 
 page 
 
 ** [ do not hesitate for a moment, to pronounce the 
 Theatre to be one of the broadest avenues which lead to 
 destruction; fascinating, no doubt it is, but on that account 
 the more delusive and the more dang^erous. Let a young^ 
 Man once acquire a taste for this species of entertainment, 
 and yield himself up to its gratification, and he is in imminent 
 danger of becoming a lost character, rushing upon his ruin. 
 All the evils that can waste his property, corrupt his morals, 
 blast his reputation, impair his health, embitter his life, and 
 destroy his soul, lurk in the purlieus of a Theatre. Vice, in 
 every form, lives, and moves, and has its being there. Myriads 
 have cursed the hour when they first exposed themselves to 
 the contamination of the stage. From that fatal evening they 
 date their destruction. Then they threw off the restraints of 
 education, and learnt to disregard the dictates of conscience. 
 Then their decision hitherto oscillating between a life of 
 virtue and vice, was made up for the latter.*' p. 32. 
 
 I shall make no remarks on these pre- 
 liminary observations, as you immediately add, 
 " but I will attempt to support by argument and 
 fact these strong assertions,'* 
 
 I shall now examine " the aro^uments and 
 facts" you bring to support ** these strong 
 
 F 
 
34 
 
 assertions:'* I shall show whence you borrow 
 them; how little you are a judge of what you 
 borrow, and how impertinent and inconclusive 
 your " arguments" and reputed " facts" are 
 to the question at issue. 
 
 I should previously inform my Readers (of 
 which some without shame may be unin- 
 formed) that there exists a certain book, *' An 
 Essay on the character and influence of the 
 Stage, by John Styles^ D. J), third edition, 
 1820," price six shillings. A work against the 
 stage is little likely to be read by the admirers 
 of the Drama and Theatrical entertainments; 
 and the price of six shillings would probably 
 place this volume beyond the means of a large 
 part of Mr. James's Congregation. Mr. James 
 might therefore very safely appropriate the 
 pages of such a work in the manufacture of 
 his own : this is evident from the fact of his 
 having liberally done so, and from the cer- 
 tainty that he would not have thus acted, had 
 he anticipated discovery : moreover, it is now 
 some years since the work of Doctor Styles 
 was tlie subject of public notoriety from the 
 many reviews and answers bestowed on the 
 publication, the first edition being published 
 in 1807. The character of Dr. Styles's book, 
 k) i/s original and unmutilated shape, will ap- 
 pear from these pages; further I do not think 
 
35 
 
 it necessary to add of the Reverend author 
 than that his D. D. is noi the assay mark of 
 ail English University, and that from his illite- 
 rate use of Classical authors, he has no real 
 pretensions to such honorable initials from ant/ 
 " Seat of Learning" in Christendom. 
 
 But not to forget you, Mr. James, his 
 humble imitator and borrower, I shall imme- 
 diately return to the argument and fact. For 
 the sake of distinction, I shall number your 
 paragraphs: but first, I shall beg the favour 
 both of you and of my Readers to return to 
 pqges 13 and 14 of this pamphlet, to re-read 
 your first fulminations against the Theatre and 
 the Drama, as published in " Youth Warned." 
 It is unnecessary to reprint those pages, as in 
 the subsequent extracts from " The Christian 
 Father s Present" it will be seen that you have 
 repeated the substance, and generally the very 
 words: your right to plagiarise from yourself 
 1 shall not question, whatever opinion I may 
 entertain of the bad taste and staleness. I 
 ^hall, however, briefly notice a few particu- 
 larly exaggerated and unqualified sentences in 
 those pages. You say the Theatre is the 
 " school where nothing good and every thing 
 bad is learnt!" Now, Sir, as you cannot be 
 suspected, after this, of having read Shake- 
 speare, much less any other dramatic writer 
 
36 
 
 of later times, celebrated moral authors (whose 
 plays have been acted on the Stage,) let me 
 beg of you to borrow Ayscough's Verbal In- 
 dex to Shakespeare; turn to the denomination 
 of every Virtue and every Vicey and if you do 
 not there discover the most eloquent eulogies 
 of virtue, and the most powerful denunciations 
 of vice, (the Bible only excepted) I will forfeit 
 all claim to having proved your plagiarisms^ 
 and ignorance: so much for your following 
 sentence against the Drama as containing *' my 
 warnings against irreligion, no mementos of 
 judgment to come; but on the contrary, every 
 thing to inflame his passions, to excite his 
 criminal desires, and to gratify his appetites 
 for vice" a plainer proof than these sentences 
 could not be given that you do preach *' with- 
 out book," and that you have really never 
 visited the Theatre, where you might have 
 heard the eloquent praise of morality and the 
 dispraise of immorality more or less in every 
 dramatic piece on the English Stage. 
 ^ To give you a few examples, for fear these 
 pages should not induce you to read Shake- 
 speare, or witness the representation of his 
 Dramas, thus he speaks of the vice of Ca- 
 lumny 
 
 ** Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt 
 BOt escape calumny.** Hamlet. 
 
37 
 
 ** Back wounding calumny the whitest virtue strikes."* 
 
 Measure for Me aauTC, 
 
 And thus of the consequences which over- 
 take those who retail its abominations 
 
 ** You shall stifle in your own report and smell of ca-* 
 lumny.'* Ibid^ 
 
 You appear unsophistically i2:norant of the 
 constitution and history of the Human mind : 
 you do not seem to believe, much as you write 
 about *' original sin," that man is frail, and 
 that this world is one of probation and disci- 
 pline ; that " without vice there would be no 
 virtue." There is much in the moral character 
 of the world hidden in the final and unsearch- 
 able ways of its great Creator ; you may 
 be certain that Providence has constituted 
 the human mind as it was designed, and 
 Shakespeare, who had a profound know- 
 ledge of human nature, most expressively 
 writes 
 
 ** Our Virtues would he proud if our Faults whipped 
 them not,'^ 
 
 But if I do not restrain myself I shall be 
 seduced from the examination of your " argu- 
 ment" and " fact:" I shall therefore hasten to 
 number one. 
 
s 
 
 1. 
 
 Tfte Stage caunot be defended ** The Staje considered as an 
 
 an amusement: for the proper amasemeut, chap, iii." Amuse- 
 
 end of an amusemeut is to recre- ment is recreation, and is intended 
 
 aiB without fatiguiua: or impairing to relieve the mind from severte 
 
 ^e- strength and spirits. It should attention or to recruit the animal 
 
 iihyigorate, not exhaust the bodily spirits, by an agreeable suspen- 
 
 and mental powersj should spread sion of mental or bodily labour, 
 
 am. agreeable serenity over the (p. 47 ) Amusement should iavigo* 
 
 Biind^ and be enjoyed at proper rate, and not exhaust the powers; 
 
 seasons. Is midnight the time, or it should spread a sweet serenity 
 
 tfiie heated atmosphere of a Theatre over the mind, and should be en- 
 
 the- place, or the passionate tem- joyed at proper seasons. Midnight 
 
 jestuous excitement of a deep tra- is no time for recreation to a ra> 
 
 gedy the state of mind, that comes tional being, &c. 
 Ti^: to this view of the design of Styles, p. 42. 
 
 aioau^ment? Certainly not. 
 
 Jamesy p. 32. 
 
 As to the assertions and opinions contained 
 in Ibis paragraph, they are questions only of 
 ill dividual judgment and feeling: you and 
 your followers it appears never frequent the 
 Theatre, and therefore eannot be allowed to 
 be witnesses on the subject. But that the 
 Stage can be defended as an amusement by- 
 those who do frequent its representations is 
 certain, from the fact of *' myriads" of indus- 
 trious and moral persons nightly attending the 
 I^ondon and Provincial Theatres, who, if the 
 Theatre was not an amusement, w^ould doubt- 
 less, before 1824, have dicovered the fruitless- 
 ness of their search : do you think it likely it 
 would have been left to you to reveal such a 
 
discovery, or to explode such a delusion! It 
 is not probable that after the severe and sedeia- 
 tary labours of the Warehouse and the Count- 
 ing House, persons should pay for admittance 
 to what " exhausts their bodily and mental 
 powers." You offer no proof that the average 
 longevity of human life has decreased since 
 the more popular introduction of Stage Plays; 
 the Bills of Mortality contain no new diseases 
 or evidence of this " Stage Plague ;" the Co- 
 roners' inquests no verdicts on ** sudden 
 deaths" in the Theatres. As " all the world,^ 
 therefore, at times frequent the Theatre, w:e 
 must allow that it is an amusement and recre- 
 ation, which, after the fatigues of a long day^ 
 labour, recruits the animal spirits, and is aa 
 agreeable alterative for the mind. It is also 
 observable, that the Theatre usually closes at 
 midnight, and that " the heated atraosphei^'' 
 has no more injurious effect on the health of 
 his Majesty's subjects than the warm air of 
 your heated evening places of public worship* 
 I think this is sufficient. Sir, on this point: you 
 are of course at liberty in tiiis free country, to 
 endeavour to make people believe your asser- 
 tions, but my opinion is, that you will never 
 succeed in persuading them " against their 
 senses." I advise you therefore to give up the 
 attempt. 
 
40 
 
 Your second paragraph I now examine. 
 2. 
 
 But -what I wish particularly The immoral and antichrutian 
 to insist upon is, the immoral tendency of the Stage, chap. iv. 
 and antichristian tendency of the It is a remarkable fact (which 
 Stage. the Advocates of the Theatre, on 
 
 It is an indubitable fact that the the principle that it is the friend of 
 Stage has flourished most in the morals, must account for if they 
 most corrupt and depraved state of can) that the Stage has flourished 
 Society ; and that in proportion as most iu the most corrupt and de- 
 sound morality, industry and re- praved state of Society. How 
 li^ion advance their influence, the comes it to pass that in proportion 
 Iheatre is deserted. It is equally as sound morality, industry and 
 true, that amon<^ the most passion- relig-ion advance their inflaence, 
 ate admirers, and most constant that the Theatre is deserted and 
 frequenters of the Staj^e are to be neglected, and that it grows iu 
 found the most dissolute and aban- favour in the same ratio as Virtue 
 doced of niaukiiid, and Religion decline. How has it 
 
 James, p 32. happened too, if the Stage be the 
 School of Virtue, that the most 
 dissolute and abandoned of mau- 
 kiud are its passionate admirers 
 and warmest advocates, &c. 
 
 Sftjles, p. G4-5. 
 
 Now, Sir, I deny every assertion (save one) 
 iu this paragraph as originally written by Dr. 
 Styles, and abridged by yonrself: I certainly 
 do admit that many of the admirers of the 
 Stage are to be found amongst the most dis- 
 solute and abandoned of Mankind; according 
 to your account of society, it would be ex- 
 traordinary indeed, if the Stage, like every 
 other pursuit and profession, had not vicious 
 connections. But what should vou think of 
 
an argument ^2:ainst your sinrerity and moral 
 character on the notorious fact, that amoiij^ 
 the especial pretenders to evanj2:e!ica1 religion 
 there have been a great many especial hypo* 
 crites and scoundrels. You well know that 
 this fact has made superior sanctity itself 
 an object of pop'dar suspicion even to a pro- 
 verb, but should I therefore be liberal in cast- 
 ing such a reflection on you or the majority of 
 your audieiice? 
 
 1 assert, it is not an indubitable fact that the 
 Stage has flourished most in the most corrupt 
 state of society: the fact is the very reverse; 
 I might at once confute you by a leferciice to 
 the presejit age in which you so pitiably lament 
 the increasing love of theatrical entertainments, 
 and which, in pages 10 and 11, 1 have proved 
 to be blessed as the times foretold by the Pro- 
 phet Micahj iv. 4: but it afl()rds a good op- 
 portunity for briefly stating the rise and pro- 
 gress of the Drama and the Stage the history 
 of which will prove your utter ignorance of the 
 subject on which you have so boldly declaimed 
 in your *' Present " 
 
 The earliest Dramatic compositions and 
 performances may be said to have ori2,inated 
 in the feelings of pteli^ natural to man, and 
 indeed were invented by the Priests. The 
 Heathen celebration of *' Harvest Home" was 
 
 6 
 
42 
 
 probably the very first essay : thus in Diacfi 
 a portion of the flock was destined to recom- 
 pense heroic compositions. The Icarians dis- 
 tinguished their Drama by the name of Tra- 
 gedy^ or the song of the vintage; the vintagers 
 of Mount Icarus rewarded the poet with a 
 cup of new wine and a wreath of ivy ; and 
 through the thickets of Daphnoides, or laurel 
 roses, the victims were led to the sacrifice, 
 the Priests singing Hymns or Lyric Poems to 
 Ceres, Bacchus, and other imaginary Deities; 
 hence originated the Chorus of separate bands 
 and the company answering each other alter- 
 nately. Thespis, who lived about 536 years be- 
 fore the Christian aera, introduced the recitation 
 of verses between the songs; and is said to 
 have travelled about with a moveable stage. 
 jEschylus, fifty years afterwards, introduced 
 the dialogue and dramatis personee, and first 
 constructed a permanent Theatre, with proper 
 scenery and decoration. The regular Greek 
 Drama soon attained its highest perfection 
 under Sophocles and Euripides. Sophocles, 
 the greatest and most correct of all the Tragic 
 Poets, flourished only twenty-two years after 
 ^schylus, and was only about seventy years 
 posterior to Thespis.* How far the Drama 
 was the caus^ or effect of progressive civiliza- 
 
 * Blair' t Lectures, XLV. on Dramatic Poetry. Pauw's PWlosophical 
 Dissertations ou the Greeks, 
 
43 
 
 tion, or what influence the Grecian Iambic 
 exercised on the elegant and magnificent sim- 
 plicity which characterized the taste of that 
 nation, I shall not discuss. But certain it is, that 
 at the most noted period of Grecian virtue and 
 national prosperity, the Drama and the Stage 
 enjoyed their highest influence, and existed in 
 their greatest purity. That nation filled up 
 the chief Legislative and Executive OiBces 
 M'ith their Poets and Dramatic writers. I 
 shall not load these pages with pompous 
 citations or references. When you bring for- 
 ward any proofs of your assertions, it will be 
 time enough for me to produce mine : and if 
 you repeat these borrowed calumnies, the Men 
 of Athens shall rise up in judgment against 
 you. One singular fact, however, I cannot 
 omit viz. that the Grecian Drama declined 
 when the decision on the merits of the authors 
 was removed from the People to an arbitrary 
 tribunal at Athens, formed annually of a few 
 Judges, admitting of no appeal, and whose 
 corrupt decisions, with the most infamous and 
 unparalleled injustice, awarded the public 
 honours to the most vulgar productions, in 
 disdain of the noblest works of Euripides and 
 Menander. ^Elian* says that these Oligarchists 
 were either blinded by partiality or amused 
 
 * Hist, Divers. Lib. ii. 
 
44 
 
 by the Drnchmee of Attica. The Tyrant 
 Dionysins, by corrupting these Judges, re- 
 ceived for bad verses and worse tragedies the 
 public rewards of Athens, to the astonishment 
 of Europe and Asia.* Thus you see, Mr, 
 James, a corrupt INational Government cor- 
 rupted the Drama, not the Drama the People 
 a trifling difference you must allow in causa- 
 tion. Dr. Blair, though he admits that *' the 
 subjects of the ancient Greek Tragedies were 
 too often founded on mere destiny and inevit- 
 able misfortunes," yet sa}'s that the instruction 
 which the fable of the plays conveyed, was 
 reverence owing to the Gods, and submis- 
 sion due to the decrees of destiny." 1 could 
 smother you with facts on this subject, but shall 
 close it with the opinion of a most celebrated 
 patriot and political writer Andrew Fletcher, 
 ' That most of the ancient legislators, thought 
 they could not well reform the manners of any 
 city, without the help of a lyric, and sometimes 
 of a dramatic poet.'*t 
 
 S. 
 
 Have not all those who have Could I summon into one inter- 
 professed the most elevated piety esling ^roup the venerable men, 
 and morality, borne an unvarying &e of the world, &c. their de- 
 aijd uiiitbrm testimony ag-ainst the cision, were it uniform, &c. There 
 St^ge? r.veu the modt virtuous pa- is scarcely a distinguished name 
 gau8 condemned this amusement nmong^ the philosophers, &c but 
 as injurious to morals and the is hostile to the Iheatre, and pro* 
 
 * Diodorus Siculus. Lib. xv. f Political Works, London, 1737. p. 37?. 
 
45 
 
 Interests of nations. Plato, Livy, tests against the Stage, &c p. !^3&. 
 Xenophon, Cicero, Solon, Cato, I might fatigue the reader wiih 
 Seoeca, Tacitus, the most venera- quotat'ons from names of the most 
 ble men of antiquity, the brightest distinguished eminence ; it would 
 f OBStellation of virtue and talents be tedious, it would be useless. It 
 which ever appeared upon the is eiiouarh to remark, that Plato, 
 hemisphere of Philosophy, have all Xenophon, Aristotle, Cicero, Livy, 
 denounced the Theatre as a most Valerius Maximus, Solon and Cato, 
 abundant source of moral pollution, Seneca and Tacitus, the most ve- 
 and assure us that both Greece and uerable men of antiquity; a con- 
 Rome had their ruin accelerated stellation of talents and virtues, 
 by a fatal passion for these cor- the greatest that ever shone, have 
 raptiug eater tainments- all condemned the Stage. 
 
 James, p. 33. Styles, p. 129, 
 
 You must allow that my conclusion of the 
 last paragraph is but a sorry introduction of 
 your succeeding one, and that the opinion of 
 Andrew Fletcher is of itself a sufficient answer 
 to this your third assertion : but lest you 
 should entertain any doubt, I will give you 
 chapter and verse on every one of these *' An- 
 cients ' whose names you have taken in vain. 
 The reader will easily see that you have 
 altered the catalogue as given by Dr. Styles, 
 and brought them forward in a very unchro- 
 nological order: but as I find them, I shall 
 meet them only premising that it is impos- 
 sible, for want of leiNure, that I can adduce 
 all the facts scattered in history and biography 
 attaching to so many characiers; bat I will 
 endeavour to advance sufficient, to shew 
 that these ** venerable men of antiquity" have 
 
not all denounced the Theatre, or attributed 
 the ruin of the Greek and Roman governments 
 to dramatic entertainments. With respect to 
 Greece; Solon, Xenophon, and Plato, could 
 not speculate on the causes of ruin in the 
 womb of futurity: Greece was at its highest 
 tone of public and private celebrity during 
 their lives; indeed the two latter, with the 
 addition of Socrates, may be said to form the 
 triumvirate of Grecian intellect and virtue. 
 As far as their opinions go, (and I do not 
 know what their opinion on the effects of the 
 Stage as it then was in such a state of un- 
 polished manners, has to do with the Stage 
 as it now is,) you shall see what they really 
 did think. 
 
 On the alledged opposition of Solon \ 
 shall refer to the original sources of informa^. 
 tion, and you will see how little relevant ta 
 the present subject is the citation of his name. 
 You ought to know that he assumed the go- 
 vernment of Athens before the introduction of 
 the regular Drama; that the morals and habits 
 of the people were excessively loose; and 
 that his jurisprudence, chiefly sumptuary, was 
 directed amongst other things to restrain the 
 excesses practised at sacrifices and funerals 
 the idleness and expence of these public ex- 
 hibitions being then a great natioual evil. 
 
47 
 
 Now, Sir, the only information we have oit 
 the sentiments of Solon is obtained from Plu- 
 tarch's life of that celebrated Lawgiver, and 
 the context of that biography clearly shews 
 two points that Solon was fond of concerts^ 
 and that considerable doubt exists as to the 
 particular exhibitions of Thespis, which have 
 received his disapproval in the following pas-, 
 sage : 
 
 ** About this time Thespis began to change 
 ** the form of tragedy, and the novelty of the 
 ** thing attracted many spectators ; for this 
 " was before any prize was proposed for those 
 '* that excelled in this respect. Solon, who 
 " was always willing to hear and to learn, and 
 ** in his old age more inclined to any thing 
 " that might divert and entertain^ particularly 
 * to music and good fellowship, went to see 
 ** Thespis himself exhibit, as the custom of 
 ** the ancient Poets was. When the play was 
 ** done, he called to Thespis, and asked him, 
 " ' If he was not ashamed to tell so many 
 ** lies before so great an assembly?' Thespis 
 " answered, * It was no great matter, if he 
 ** spoke or acted so in jest/ To which Solon 
 " replied, striking the ground violently with 
 " his staff, ' If we encourage such jesting as 
 " this, we shall quickly find it in our contracts 
 " and agreements.' "* This, Sir, is the only 
 
 * Plutarch. Solon. 
 
48 
 
 authoiity for your introduction of Solon ; and 
 I contend, that in regard to his disapproval of 
 Dramatic entertainments, first, the grimaces 
 and jests of Thespis do not deserve the name 
 of Drama, and that the precise nature of 
 those representations is altogether unknown. 
 Secondly, that the citation proves Solon had 
 no objection to frequent Public exhibitions; 
 that he was particularly fond of Music; and 
 that probably he respected ** the custom of 
 the ancient Poets." Moreover, Solon him- 
 self once performed the following notable 
 public exhibition. When the Athenians were 
 about to relinquish their claim to Salamis, he 
 feigned himself insane, and a report spread 
 itself into the city that he was out of his 
 senses: Privately, however, he composed and 
 learned by rote, an elegy, in order to repeat 
 in public : thus prepared, he sallied out un- 
 expectedly into the market place with a cap 
 upon his head. A great number of people 
 flocking about him there, he got upon the 
 herald's stone, and sang the elegy 6'alamis, 
 which consisted of a hundred beautiful lines, 
 beginning thus 
 
 " Hear and attenrl ; from Salamis I came 
 To show your error, &ic." 
 
 Do you not call this a dramatic act I 
 
49 
 
 As to the often trumpeted opposition of 
 IDemosthenes, this is the fact that the Athe- 
 nians, relieved from their fears by the death 
 of Epaminoudas, began to squander away 
 upon shows and plays, the money that had 
 been assis^ned for the pay of the army and 
 navy: Demosthenes, boldly in his oration, de- 
 nounced this mis-approprialion of the public 
 funds: but is this any proof that he was an 
 enemy to public entertainments at proper times 
 and seasons? 
 
 JiYCURGUs, also, the Spartan Legislator, is 
 equally misrepresented. No one of the pre- 
 sent day would ever introduce the Spartan 
 character, great as it might have been, but 
 seldsh and cold, as a pattern for modern na- 
 tions. Lycurgus, if the enemy of the Drama, 
 would not now be authority against Covent 
 Garden and Drury Lane: but though he re- 
 strained the expences of public entertainments, 
 he was not an enemy to them in the abstract. 
 He brought Thales from Crete, a Lyric Poet, 
 (as well as a distinguished lawgiver) who ac- 
 cording to Plutarch, by the melody of his verse, 
 prepared the way for Lycurgus, and insensibly 
 inclined the Spartan people for the instructions 
 of that great man. Lycurgus also has the 
 honour of first collecting and disseminating 
 the verses of Homek. This Lawgiver enacted, 
 
 H 
 
m 
 
 that the young women and men should often 
 dance and sing in public on certain festivals. 
 Lacedemonian poems are quoted by Plu- 
 tarch in his life of Lycurgus, and Pindar who 
 
 gnigs 
 
 There in grave council sits the sage; 
 There burns the youth's resisUess rage 
 
 To hurl the quivering lance; 
 The Muse with glory crowns their arms^ 
 And melody exerts her charms, 
 
 And Pleasure leads the dance* 
 
 Plato, certainly excluded the Stage and 
 Epic Poetry from hi Jdeal Commonwealth; 
 but how far he and Xenophon (who by the 
 bye only denounces Persian idleness) are 
 fairly appropriated by you may be gathered 
 from the fact that their great master, Socrates, 
 frequented the Theatre with his pupils, and as- 
 sisted Euripides in the composition of his Tra- 
 gedies ; and your friend Dr. Styles is equally 
 unlucky in the introduction of Aristotle, as 
 both of you may satisfy yourselves by refer- 
 ring to his Ethics and Poetry, book v. on 
 Education, (there is a translation by Dr. Gillies) 
 where Aristotle writes " The gymnastic is 
 subservient to strength and courage, invigo- 
 rating the body and fortifying the mind. 
 Music, indeed, is now degraded into a playful 
 pastime, but was introduced into education, 
 by our wiser ancestors, because youth ought 
 
51 
 
 to be taught, not only how to pursue business, 
 but how to enjoy leisure; an enjoyment which 
 is the end of business itself, and the limit in 
 which all our active pursuits finally terminate. 
 This enjoyment is of a nature too noble and 
 too elevated to consist in plays and pastimes, 
 which it would be in vain to consider as the 
 main end and final purpose of life, and which 
 are chiefly useful in the intervals of toilsome 
 exertion, as salutary recreations of the mind, 
 and seasonable unbendings from contentious 
 activity."* There is one other fact also, very 
 pertinently mentioned by Mr. Bunn that 
 Aristotle, whom Plato calls the Philosopher 
 of Truth, lays down a model for the formation 
 of the Greek Drama and Stage. I think you 
 have now, Sir, had suflScient of the Greeks, 
 but before I close these literary details relative 
 to that glorious People, the handmaids of the 
 Arts and Sciences, may I be allowed some 
 brief allusion to their present struggle for 
 Liberty and Religion against a barbarian and 
 bigoted invader. Let the Inhabitants of 
 Birmingham aid the public exertions through- 
 out the Kingdom in support of this holy 
 cause, and bring home to their own feelings 
 the violation of their families, their property, 
 and their temples of worship! Let them 
 
 Aristotle, by Gillies. London, 177, Tol. ii. p. 2H. 
 
52 
 
 picture to themselves such miseries, and bas 
 indeed must be the apathy that can remain 
 dead to the calls of the Greeks on the sym- 
 pathy and liberality of the whole world: it is 
 but the repayment of a debt of honour to- 
 wards that land where the gardens of the 
 Academy flourished the soil where the tree 
 of freedom first blossomed and shed its luxu- 
 riant seed throughout the earth to the repre- 
 sentatives of those great spirits of antiquity 
 now no more, fighting for their natural and 
 ancient rights 
 
 LIBERTY ABOVE ALL THINGS. 
 
 I shall now introduce you to the Romans; 
 to begin with Cato, it is impossible to know 
 whom you mean by this agnomen of the Por- 
 cian family, and perhaps you do not know 
 yourself. There were two illustrious indivi- 
 duals of this name celebrated by the severity 
 of their private character and their eflforts to 
 reform the public morals of Rome. If you 
 were acquainted with their characters how- 
 ever, you would hardly consider them as mo- 
 dels for the private or the public character of 
 the present day. If you mean M. Porcius 
 Cato, the (^'emor, it is true that early in life he 
 strongly opposed the introduction of the fine 
 
53 
 
 arts from Greece into Italy, fearing their effect 
 on the valor and simplicity of the Roman peo- 
 ple: but it is also true that in his advauced age 
 he altered his opinion (as you may possibly 
 do) applied himself to the study of Greek, 
 educated his son in the literature of Greece, 
 and became a great admirer of their political 
 and dramatic writers. But I think, most pro- 
 bably, you mean the Utican, Cato the youngery 
 the great grandson of the Censor : and if so, 
 you are still further mistaken. It is remark- 
 able that this Cato first distinguished himself 
 in a juvenile play, or tournament of boys, of 
 the noblest families of Rome, given by Sylla, 
 and of whom Cato by the youthful suffrages 
 was elected Captain.* As to his opinions and 
 conduct in after life, Plutarch in his biogra- 
 phy, writes that when Favonius was JEdile 
 ^* he had the assistance of Cato, particularly 
 in the theatrical entertainments that were given 
 to the people! In these Cato gave another 
 specimen of his economy ; for he did not al- 
 low the players and musicians crowns of gold, 
 but of wild olive, such as are used in the 
 Olympic games." Curio, the colleague of Fa- 
 vonius, Plutarch also says, gave noble enter- 
 
 Troy J a ^arne celebrated in the public circus by companies of 
 boys of the noblest families of Rome. Sec an interesting description in 
 Virgil, ^jieid. v. 545. 
 
54 
 
 tainraents in anolber theatre, " but that the 
 People were much more entertained with see- 
 ing Cato master of the Ceremonies :" and 
 Plutarch makes this remark, ** it is probable 
 however, that Cato took this upon him only 
 to shew the folly of troublesome and expen- 
 sive preparations in matters of mere amuse- 
 ment, and that the benevolence and good 
 humour suitable to such occasions would have 
 a better effect." 
 
 You have made extremely free with Cicero. 
 The study of Grecian literature was the found- 
 ation of his Roman Eloquence.* Roscius and 
 JEsopus, two Stage Actors, were his tutors io 
 Oratory. His Oration for Archias, and on 
 behalf of Roscius, two of the most noble 
 specimens of his eloquence, are proofs of the 
 estimation in which he held the legitimate 
 Drama and the Stage, and the respect he 
 entertained for Actors of talent and private 
 
 * * Yes, I own myself to be enchanted "with these studies. For had 
 not my youthful mind, from many precepts, from many writings, drank 
 itt this truth, that glory and virtue ought to be the darling, nay the 
 nly wish in life, never had I exposed my person in so many encounters, 
 and to these daily conflicts with the worst of men, for your deliverance. 
 How many pictures of the bravest men have the Greek and Latin 
 authors left us! A Poet is formed by the hand of nature j he is 
 aroused by mental vigour, and inspired by what we may call the spirit 
 of divinity itself. Therefore our Ennius has a right to give to Poets 
 the epithet of holy, because they are as it were, lent to mankind by the 
 indulgent bounty of the Gods." Orafion /or A.,Licimus Archicu, 
 
65 
 
 worti). If you refer to his Letters, (Melmotirs 
 Translation, b. 2) you will read in his letter to 
 Marcus Marius, many interesting facts di- 
 rectly contradicting your assertions. He there 
 speaks of his " old friend jEsopus" the actor; 
 and though he certainly condemns some public 
 entertainments then going on, it was because 
 they were gladiatorial and equestrian exhi- 
 bitions : the letter proves his frequent attend- 
 ance on theatrical amusements, such as they 
 were* fn his tenth Letter (b. iii.) addressed 
 to Caius Curio, he does indeed advise that 
 Patrician against " entertaining the people 
 with public games;' but if you turn to the 
 letter you will see the reason of this advice 
 because " they are instances of wealth only, 
 not of merit," and ** that the Public is quite 
 satiated with their frequent returns." Cicero 
 well knew the profusion of Curio's dispo- 
 sition: the latter neglected his advice, con* 
 tracted debts he was unable to pay, and 
 eventually sold himself to Caesar. That the 
 Drama was a subject particularly interesting 
 to Cicero, is evident in numerous passages of 
 his literary correspondence: the following ex- 
 tract from his letter to Papyrius Paetus is 
 ample evidence. 
 
 '^ But to turn from the serious to the jocose 
 part of your letter, the strain of pleasantry you 
 
5(5 
 
 break into immediately after having quoted 
 the tragedy of Oenomanus, puts me in mind 
 
 of the modern method of introducing at the 
 
 
 
 end of these graver dramatic pieces, the buf- 
 foon humour of our low Mimes, instead of the 
 more deUcate burlesque of the old Attellan 
 Farces/'* 
 
 I now proceed to Livy : your reference to 
 him will no more suit your purpose than the 
 last Classic. Livy was last introduced as aa 
 opponent of the stage and Drama in a Pam- 
 phlet, entitled ** The Stage the High Road to 
 Hell, J 768" from whence Dr. Styles brought 
 him into his Essay. That anonymous author 
 interpolates Livy's History with the following 
 sentence *' That Plays were brought in upon 
 the score of Religion ; but that the remedy 
 proved worse than the disease, for the plays 
 did more hurt to the mind than the pestilence 
 to the body:" he accompanies this impudent 
 forgery with no reference to Livy and no 
 Latin. Livy never said any such thing: his 
 words are, in reference to the introduction of 
 Players to propitiate the Gods during a pesti- 
 lence, that '* they neither freed their minds from 
 superstition nor their bodies from the plague."f 
 
 3Iehnot}i's translation, B. viii. lett. 20. 
 
 t Nee tamen ludorum piimum initium procurandis religionibus da- 
 tum, aut religione animos, aut corpora morbis levavit. Livy, L. vii. c. 3 
 
If you will take Baker's Translation of Livy^s 
 History of Rome, and consult the Index in 
 the sixth volume, article Games, as founded by 
 Romulus and Tarquinius Prisons, and also on 
 the Capitoline, Apollonarian, Circensian, Me- 
 galesian, Plebeian, Funeral Ceremonies, and 
 Public Amusements, and refer to the several 
 books in Livy where their origin and nature 
 are treated of, you will be asliamed of ever 
 again mentioning the name of Livy with whose 
 works you cannot have the slightest acquaint* 
 ance. In Livy you may see how these entert 
 tainments w^ere originally connected with hea? 
 then notions of piety and religion ; and you 
 will see how progressively with art and science 
 the display and eloquence of J^iblic Amuse- 
 ments and festivals also advanced. 
 
 You could not possibly have summoned a 
 more mal-apropos name than Skneca. The 
 only Roman Tragedies extant bear his name! 
 And the passage in his writings, which has 
 been construed by your party against the 
 Theatre, has nothing to do with that question:* 
 
 * Inimicaest multorum converpatlo; nemo non aliquod nobis vitinm 
 aut coinmendat, aut imprimit, aut nescientibus allioit. Utique quo 
 major est populus cui commiscemur, hoc periculi plus est. ^'ihil vero 
 est tam damnosum bonis moribus, quam in aliquo spectaculo t]e^;idere. 
 Tunc enim per voluptatem vitia faciliui* Kurrepuht Quid me existimas 
 dicere? Avarior redeo, ambitiosior, luxuriosior, imo vero crudelior et 
 iuhumauior quia inter homines fui. Casu in meridianum spectaculuui 
 
58 
 
 Seneca merely recommends to Lucilius retire- 
 ment, by shewing the interruption a Philo- 
 sopher or Man of Letters is subject to in a 
 Public life; he censures on this principle, all 
 Public assemblies, and concludes with re- 
 flections on the barbarities of Gladiatorial 
 Exhibitions but as to Stage Plays, he has 
 not a syllable about them, and do you not 
 confess, that if he had been inimical to 
 them, the Author of the Morals in such a 
 compendium for the conduct of life, would 
 not have omitted the expression of his opi- 
 nion ? 
 
 Tacitus must now be examined. 
 
 The lirst mention made by him of the Pub- 
 lic Games and amusements, is (Annals, b. xiv.) 
 of the Quinquennial Games,' instituted by 
 Nero, ** after the fashion of the prize matches 
 amongst the Greeks" if you refer to the book 
 you will see that he quotes what " some al- 
 ledged" viz. that those games were of exces- 
 sive continuance; that " nights as well as days 
 were bestowed upon the infamous revely' and 
 that the most corrupt adulation was lavished 
 on the usurpers in power. What has this to 
 
 incidi, lusus expecfans et sales, et aliquid luxamenti, quo hominura 
 oculi ab humano cruore acquiescaot Contra est, quicquid ante pug-- 
 natum est misericordia fuitj nunc, oraissis nugis, mera homicidia sunt. 
 ^en. Op.fol. rar.ed. p. 108. 
 
69 
 
 do with the drama of the present day? And 
 with your usual ill fortune, I have to inform 
 you, (see Annals, b. xi.) that Tacitus, in the 
 Secular Games presented by the Emperor 
 Domitian, writes, " I assisted in person, and 
 the more assiduously as I was invested with 
 the Quindecemviral Priesthood, and at that 
 time Praetor." If you can find one sentence 
 in Tacitus, which can justify your quota- 
 tion of his name, it is more than I can dis- 
 cover. 
 
 Now before I close the Roman list, and 
 not to leave any thing undone, I must beg one 
 sentence as to the opinions of Valerius Maxi- 
 Mus, whom, it will be seen, Styles catalogues, 
 and you omit, (I suppose because you did not 
 know who he was:) The only passage Styles 
 can allude to i$, Val. Max. 1. ii. c. 4. s. 5 this 
 passage no more relates to stage plays than it 
 does to Dr. Styles s Chapel at Kennington: 
 any first form boy at the Charter House would 
 tell you so; it relates to the Secular Games, 
 according to some historians instituted under 
 Numa, 33G years before plays were known 
 to the Romans! 
 
 Augustus Caesar considered some of the 
 Roman plays so unexceptionable that he al- 
 lowed the Vestal Virgins to go to them, and 
 assigned them a place at the Theatre! 
 
60 
 
 But I think, to set more Romans upon 
 you would argue a revengeful spirit, you will 
 doubtless be content with Roscius for an Ac- 
 tor; Cicero, his Pupil, for a Spectator; iirutus^ 
 Poif^pey, and Augustus, for Patrons of the 
 Stage. 
 
 I hasten therefore with fear and trembling 
 to Prynne, the Goliah of your party against 
 plays. 
 
 William Prynne, a satirical and 
 pungent writer, who suffered many 
 cruelties for his admirable pro- 
 ductions in the time of Charles I. 
 has made a catalogue of authorities 
 against the Stage, which contain 
 every uame of eminence in the 
 Heathen and Christian Worlds: it 
 compre ends the united testimony 
 of the Jewish and Christian Chur- 
 ches^ the deliberate acts of fifty- 
 four ancient and modern geueial 
 national and provincial Councils 
 and Synods both of the Western 
 and Eastern Churches j the con- 
 demnatory sentence of seventy-one 
 ancient Fathers, and one hundred 
 and fifty modem Popish and Pro- 
 testant Authors J the hostile en- 
 deavours of Philosophers, and even 
 Poets, with the legislative enact- 
 ments of a great number of Pagan 
 and Christian States, Nations, Ma- 
 gistrates, Emperors and Princes. 
 James, p. 32. 
 
 Prynne, whose name is dear to 
 Protestantism, &c. iu the reign of 
 King Charles the 1st, &c. has made 
 a catalogue of authorities against 
 the stage, which contains every 
 name of eminence in the Heathen 
 and Christian worlds j it compre- 
 hends the united testimony of the 
 Jewish and Christian churches; 
 the deliberate acts of 54 ancient 
 and modern general, provincial, 
 and national councils and synods, 
 both of the Eastern and Western 
 churches 5 the condemnatory sen- 
 tence of 71 ancient Fathers, and 150 
 modern Popish and Protestant au- 
 thors j the hostile endeavours of 
 Philosophers, and of even Poets ; 
 with the legislative enactments of 
 a great number of Pagan and 
 Christian States, Nations, Empe- 
 rors, Princes and Magistrates. 
 
 Styles, p. 140. 
 
61 
 
 This literary monster, the Histrio-mastix, 
 the " substantial" work of the most " voFumi- 
 nons zealot" that ever wrote in controversy 
 now lies before me, with its 1006 quarto pages 
 excluding^ a proportionate Preface and Index, 
 with a thick garnish of marginal notes and 
 reference ! There was a time, Sir, when the 
 energy of youth carried me through a great 
 portion of this vast labour ; but if ever I am 
 to refresh my memory with its contents, it shall 
 be by getting a man to read it for me at your 
 expence. 
 
 ** Histrio-mastix, The Players Scourge or Actor*s Traf/fedie, divided 
 into two parts y wherein it is largely evidenced ^ by divers arguments, by 
 the concurring authorities and resolutions of sundry texts of Scripture, 
 qf the whole primitive Church, both under the Law and Gospel; of 
 55 Synodes and Councels; of 71 Fathers and Christian Writers, before 
 the yearc of our lard 1200 ; of above 150 foreign and domestique 
 Protestant and Popish Authors^ since; of 40 Heathen Philosopher Sy 
 Historians, Poets and many Heathen, many Christian nations, Eepub' 
 liquet Emperors Princes Magistrates, of sundry AposioUcal Canonical 
 Imperial Constitutions and our own English Statutes, Magistrates 
 Universities Writers Preachers' That Popular Stage Playes (the 
 very Pompes of the Divell which we renounce in Baptism if ve beiieve 
 the Fathers) are sinful, heathenish, leude ungodly Spectacles and most 
 pernicious Coi'raptions, condemned in all ages, as intolerable mischiefs 
 to Churches, to Pepublics, to the manners mindes and souls of men. And 
 iluit the Profession of Play-poets, of Stage Players; together with 
 the penning, acting, and frequenting of Stage Plays, are unlawful, 
 infamous, and misbeseeming Christians. All pretences to the contrary 
 are here likewise fully answered; and the unlawfulness of acting or 
 beliolding Academical Enterludes briefly discussed; besides sundry 
 other particulars concerning Dancing, Dicing, Health-drinking, ^c. 
 of which the Table will irform you. By William Pryone an Utter 
 ^arrester of Lincolne''s Inne. London. Printed by E. A. and W. /, 
 for Michael Sparke, and are to be sold at the Blue Bible, in Greene 
 Arbour, in little Old Bayley, 1633." 
 
Thus you see, Sir, Dr. Styles has only ab- 
 breviated this immense Play-bill of Prynne s 
 literary Amusements, a book he probably never 
 saw. Now, Sir, you perhaps know that there 
 are such things as Answers to books; and 
 should it ever happen to you to meet with a, 
 little 12mo. entitled 
 
 " Theatriim Redivivvm, or the Theatre vindicated hy Sir Richard 
 Jiaker in ansuer to Mr. PryrCs Histrio-mastix, wherein his groundlings 
 assertions against Sta^e Plays are discovered, his mistaken allegations 
 of the Fathers manifest ed, as also wJmt he calls his Reasons, to be 
 nothing but his Passions, (Comici finis est humanas mores nosse, atqne 
 discribere. Hierom ad Furia^h.J London 1662," 
 
 you will see in 140 small pages, one of the 
 most masterly and witty answers ever be- 
 stowed on a disingenuous Author. He there 
 exhibits Mr. Prynne going about with a Press- 
 gang, and laying violent hands on every body 
 living or dead, he could torture to his pur- 
 pose. As this ingenious and erudite Tract will 
 be shortly reprinted, I shall not enlarge on 
 Prynne's title page, further than to observe, 
 that more or less every opinion he quotes has 
 reference to Heat/ien exhibitions, and disgrace- 
 ful immorality: That his citations are most 
 partial and disingenuous; and that the man 
 who could forge Archbishop Laud's Diary, 
 and select as he did the Public Records in 
 favour of Monarchical usurpations, may well 
 be capable of dishonest quotation against the 
 
63 
 
 Stage, Pryhne was a learned, laborious, and 
 persecuted man, entitled therefore to our re- 
 spect as such ; but his character was mixed 
 up with much bigotry, fanaticism, and in- 
 consistency. In Malone's History of the Stage 
 may be also traced the real reason of Puri- 
 tanical zeal against the Drama, viz. the Thea- 
 trical lampoons on the peculiarities and opin- 
 ions of the early English Protestants and Puri- 
 tan Dissenters hinc illce lachrymce, 
 
 I now go to your fifth argument that the 
 American Congress, soon after the declaration 
 of Independence, passed a resolution for the 
 suppression of theatrical entertainments. Now, 
 Sir, had you been conversant with the history 
 of this Transatlantic State, you wouhl have 
 known that this was not merely owing to the 
 influence of some rigid Quakers and Puritans 
 whose prejudices were strongly against those 
 amusements, but was acquiesced in temporarily 
 from political reasons ; because the Drama of 
 the Mother Country kept alive the old loyal 
 associations. And now that the danger is 
 past, what is the result? the return of the 
 Drama and the Stage ; and America, univer- 
 sally cited as an instance of superior govern- 
 ment and prosperity, engages at large Salaries, 
 our principal English Performers. If there- 
 fore this resolution of the first Federal Union 
 
^wnipiPPnp^iiii 
 
 64 
 
 ** must be regarded in the light of very strong 
 presumptive evidence of the immoral tendency 
 of the Stage," does not the present state of 
 the American Stage carry an equally pre- 
 sumptive proof of the moral and amusing ten- 
 dency of the Theatre? 
 
 6. 
 
 But let us examine the average Ancient Tragedy is certainly th 
 character of those productions most unexceptionable part of Dra- 
 which are represented on the Stage, matic history ; but in this a Chris- 
 If we go to Tragedy, we shall find tian finds enough to make him 
 that pride, ambition, revenge, sui- mourn over the moral degradation 
 cide, the passionate love of fame of mankind. Pride, ambition, and 
 and glory, all of which Christianity reveng'e, are prominent features in 
 is intended to extirpate from the ancient Tragedy ; but in this the 
 human bosom, are inculcated by heathens were consistent with 
 the most popular Plays in this de- themselves, and inculcated the 
 partment of the drama. It is true, same lessons at the Theatre, which 
 gross cruelty, murder, and that they heaid in their Temples, 
 lawless pride, ambition and re- Styles, p. 40. 
 
 venge, which trample on all the 
 rights and interests of mankind, 
 are reprobated j but I would ask, 
 who needs to see Vice acted in 
 order to hate it ? or will its being 
 acted for our amusement, be likely 
 to increase pur hatred of it upon 
 right principles? 
 
 James y p 34. 
 
 As this sixth paragraph is only an opinion 
 of yours, I shall cheque it with the opinions of 
 others. Aristotle is the eulogist of this de- 
 partment of the Drama. (Poet, c. (i.) The 
 emperor Antoninus, in principle a disciple of 
 Zeno severe as Cato the Censor, thus writes: 
 
65 
 
 " Tragedy received its birth from a desire to 
 remind men of the several accidents attendant 
 on mortal man; and to forewarn them, that 
 similar events may happen to themselves ; also 
 to teach mankind, that those miseries which 
 form their amusement when feigned on the 
 Stage, ought not when real, to be deemed 
 insupportable in the general theatre of the 
 world." Mr, John Milton thus prefaces, in 
 1671, Sampson Agonistes, a Dramatic Poem 
 " Tragedy, as it was antiently composed, hath 
 been ever held the gravest moralest, and most 
 profitable of all other Poems: therefore said 
 by Aristotle to be of power by raising pity and 
 fear, or terror, to purge the mind of those and 
 such like passions. Hence Philosophers and 
 other gravest writers, as Cicero, Plutarch and 
 others, frequently cite out of Tragic Poets, 
 both to adorn and illustrate their discourse. 
 The Apostle Paul himself thought it not un- 
 worthy to insert a verse of Euripides into 
 the text of Holy Scripture, I. Cor, xv. 33, and 
 Paraeus commenting on the Revelations, di- 
 vides the whole Book as a Tragedy into acts, 
 distinguished each by a chorus of heavenly 
 harpings and song between. Heretofore men 
 in highest dignity have laboured not a little 
 to be thought able to compose a Tragedy, 
 Dronysius, Augustus Caisar, Seneca, Gregory 
 
66 
 
 Nazianzen a Father of the Church, &c." Ad- 
 diisou's opinion on Tragedy may be collected 
 in his various works, but was particularly dis- 
 played by his writing Cato. Dr. Blair, (whom 
 you recommend to the study of young per- 
 sons) says ** Modern Tragedy has aimed at 
 a higher object by becoming more the theatre 
 of passion; pointing out to men the conse- 
 quences of their own misconduct; shewing the 
 direful effects which ambition, jealousy, love, 
 resentment, and other such strong emotions, 
 when misguided, or left unrestrained, produce 
 upon human life these and such as these are 
 the examples which Tragedy now displays to 
 public view; and by means of which it incul- 
 cates on men the proper government of their 
 passions. Taking Tragedies complexly, I am 
 fully persuaded, that the impressions left by 
 them upon the mind, are on the whole, fa- 
 vourable to virtue and good dispositions. And 
 therefore the zeal which some pious men have 
 shewn against the Theatre must rest only oa 
 the abuse, of Comedy, which indeed has fre- 
 quently been so great as to justify very severe 
 censures against it."* I think you will allow 
 these opinions to counterbalance yours: I there- 
 fore pass to your assertions on Comedy^ which 
 I shall try in the same mode. 
 
 * Blair. Lecture XLV. Dramatic Poetry. 
 
67 
 
 At to Comedy, this is a thousand Comedy is iu its nature so cou- 
 times more polluting than Tragedy, temptible, and the " StuiF" of 
 Love and iutrig:ue ; prodigality which it is made so disgusting to 
 dressed in the garb of generosity; a mind of common dignity, that its 
 profaneness dignified with the plots, its follies, and what some are 
 name of faj^hionable spirit; and pleased to call its good humoured 
 even seduction and adultery; these Vices, shall not pollute my page, 
 are the usual materials which the Love, intrigue, prodigality dressed 
 Comic muse combines and adorns in the garb of generosity, profane- 
 to please and instruct her Votaries, ness dignified with the name of 
 This department of the drama is fashionable spirit, seduction and 
 unmixed pollution. adultery, mere peccadillos in these 
 
 James, p. 35. days of refinement, are all mate- 
 rials which the Comic muse com- 
 bines and adorns to please and in- 
 struct her Votaries. 
 
 Stifles, second Edition, p. 85. 
 
 I shall here content myself with again quot- 
 ing Dr. Blair's opinion against yours " Comedy 
 proposes for its object, neither the great suffer- 
 ings, nor the great crimes of men ; but their 
 follies and slighter vices, those parts of their 
 character, which raise in beholders a sense of 
 impropriety, which expose them to be cen- 
 sured, and laughed at by others, or which 
 render them troublesome in civil society. The 
 general idea of Comedy, as a satyrical exhibi- 
 tion of the improprieties and follies of man- 
 kind, is an idea very moral and useful."* The 
 only part of your paragraph deserving notice 
 is what may be fairly granted you without 
 
 * Lect. XLvn. 
 
68 
 
 affecting the question viz. that certain abuses 
 have at various periods of history disgraced 
 this department of the Drama. But what 
 .f Jhen ? is it an argument against the thing itself 
 any more than the impositions of Priestcraft 
 are arguments against the value of true Reli- 
 gion ? I grant you that the most obscene and 
 licentious compositions have disgraced lite- 
 rature and the stage, and that the periodical 
 attacks on the stage by Northbrooke, D. Rai- 
 iiolds, Prynne, and Collier, may have had 
 very salutary effects in curbing and banishing 
 immoral writings but is the abuse of a thing 
 any objection against its use. *' Licentious 
 writers of the Comic class have too often had 
 it in their power to cast a ridicule upon cha- 
 racters and objects which did not deserve it : 
 but this is a fault not owing to the nature of 
 Comedy, but to the genius and turn of the 
 Writers of it."* I am certainly aware that 
 the religious peculiarities of some Christian 
 sects have been satirized on the stage : 1 can- 
 not say that I approve of such an exhibition. 
 It is a species of religious usurpation : who is 
 to be the judge of what is false or what is 
 fanatical, amid the clashing opinions on forms 
 and doctrines? As power revolves, true reli- 
 gion itself may becom'e the banter of knaves 
 
 Blair. Lect. XLVII. 
 
and fanatics. Still the impositions; of Brotherji 
 and Joannah Southcote may be fair subjects* 
 of the Comie Muse. 1 suppose you know 
 that Hales, Chillingworth, Stillingfleef, Sher- 
 lock, and Pascal, wielded the weapons of 
 Wit and Ridicule in polemical contests. And 
 when Wit is the vehicle of Sense, not the sub- 
 stitute, it is doubtless a powerful solvent of 
 imposture and superstition so well discrimi- 
 nated by the great author of '* The Night 
 Thoughts," himself a Dramatic writer- 
 Sense is our helmet, Wit is but the plume ; 
 
 The plume exposes, 'tis our helmet saves. 
 
 Sense is the diamond, weighty, solid, sound; 
 
 When cut by wit, it casts a brighter beam; 
 
 Yet, wit apart, it is a diamond still. 
 
 Wit, widow'd of good sense, is worse than nought; 
 
 |t hoists mure sail to run against a rock. ' 
 
 Young. N. viii. 1. 1232, 
 
 Do yon not know that Menander, Plautus, 
 and Terence, have greatly contributed to the 
 progress of letters? Has the French Comedy 
 no charms for you?* The first age of English 
 Comedy was not infected with that spirit of 
 
 " Moliere is always the Satirist only of vice or folly. He has 
 elected a great variety of ridiculous characters peculiar to the times 
 in which he lived, and he has generally placed the ridicule justly. 
 Vice is exposed in the style of elegant and polite Satire, lu his Prose 
 Comedies, though there is abundance of ridicuie, yet there is never 
 any thing found to offend a modest ear, or throw fontempt on sobriety 
 and virtue." Blair, JacU XLVII. 
 
indecency and licentiousness which unhappily 
 characterized the age of Charles II. and the after 
 period. Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Massinger, 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, cannot be accused of 
 intentional immoral tendency: they have cer- 
 tainly depicted characters now unnatural, with 
 frequent coarse and gross allusions; but scenes 
 were admitted in compliance with the custom 
 of the times; and when we consider the state 
 of manners and of vulgar colloquial language, 
 what literary Goth cannot tolerate their defects 
 for the sake of their beauties? these deformi- 
 ties are but the rude casket which contains 
 the brilliant diamond. I shall pass over those 
 English Writers, who, condescending to the 
 vitiated taste of the age in which they lived, 
 disgraced their language and their country by 
 licentious writings, and with Blair, *' I am 
 happy, however, to have it in my power to 
 observe that, of late years, a sensible refor- 
 mation has begun to take place in English 
 Comedy ;" and during the half century which 
 has elapsed since this observation was pub- 
 lished, 1 may honestly say, that modern taste 
 has nearly banished all remaining impurities 
 from the Stage. 
 
 You then make some general assertions 
 that the Audience of a Theatre are constantly 
 interested on behalf of vice, and tolerate 
 
71 
 
 ** atrocities" for the sake of " open hearted^ 
 good humoured virtues." You say young 
 women are prepared for intrigues, and young 
 men for rakes. You bring forward no facts 
 or arguments in support of these " strong as- 
 sertions," I shall therefore leave them to their 
 fate and public disbelief. Then follows 
 
 8. 
 
 * Besides, how saturated are both tragedies and copaedies 
 with irreverend appeals to Heaven, profane swearing-, and all 
 the arts of equivocation, and falsehood, and deception ! What 
 lascivious allusions are made; what impure passages are re- 
 pealed! What a fatal influence must this have on the delicacy 
 of female modesty. Think too of a young man coming at the 
 hour of midnight from such a scene, with his passions in- 
 flamed, &c. passing through ranks of wretched creatures 
 waiting to ensnare him and rob him of his virtue; does it not 
 require extraordinary strength of principle to resist the 
 attack ?'* p. 36. 
 
 This paragraph is the only one I cannot 
 immediately discover in the several books be- 
 fore me, from whence your transplantations 
 have been made into your " Present," but they 
 are all scattered in Styles or Witherspoon. In 
 page 39, you " add to this, the company which 
 is generally attracted to the Theatre: the 
 most polluting and polluted characters of the 
 town are sure to be there." You illustrate 
 this assertion and argument by an anecdote of 
 
?2 
 
 a whole page, (too long a story for insertion) 
 copied verbatim from Dr. Styles. 
 
 9. 
 
 Sir John Hawkins, in his Life of Sir John Hawkins, in his Life of 
 Johnson, has a remark which strik- Johnson, has a remark which strik- 
 ingly illustrates and con6rms what ing-ly illustrates and confirms what 
 1 have now advanced, &c. 1 have now advanced, &c. 
 
 James, p. 39. Styles, p. 113. 
 
 The pith of this anecdote is " that no 
 sooner is a Theatre opened in any part of the 
 kingdom, than it becomes surrounded by 
 houses of ill fame." 
 
 I shall answer these two paragraphs in one, 
 as they are in fact mere reverberation of de- 
 clamation. In regard to blasphemy and pro- 
 fane swearing, Mr. James, the Law has pro- 
 vided against that abuse; and you have only 
 to give information at the Public Office, and 
 the Persons jestingly or profanely using the 
 name of God will be fined 10. (Stat, I. 
 James I. cap, 21. J Penal Laws in abundance. 
 Sir, defend Religion from the dangers of the 
 Theatre. Players speaking any thing in dero- 
 gation of Christianity, &c. are liable to for- 
 feitures and imprisonment, (I, Eliz,) The act- 
 ing of Plays also on Sundays (which long con- 
 tinued out of Prayer hours) was prohibited 
 and subjected to penalties, by I. Car, I, cap, I. 
 Ko person can act any new play, or additioa 
 
73 
 
 to an old one, unless licensed by the Lord 
 Chamberlain fourteen days before it be acted, 
 and who may also prohibit the representation 
 of any established Stage play; and the viola- 
 tion of these prohibitions (every Theatre also 
 being licensed) incurs a penalty of 50. and 
 the forfeiture of the Hcenses. (Stat, 10. Geo. 1 1. 
 cap. '28 J Now if this our Penal Code, aided 
 by Pubhc Opinion and Clerical Magistrates, 
 will not repress Stage irreverence, I do not 
 think your warnings or ** Presents" are likely 
 to effect much. In respect to the company 
 who frequent a Theatre, I contend that the 
 great majority attend purely as an intellectual 
 amusement. I am persuaded that the fashion- 
 able boxes of a Theatre are best filled when un- 
 exceptionable Dramatic pieces are performed ; 
 and the late revival of our most pure and 
 celebrated Dramas is a proof. As to the pol- 
 luted Society you mention, it is but too true, 
 that the English Box Lobbies are disgraced by 
 the open display of female prostitution; but it 
 is a well known fact, that the other parts of 
 the Theatre, the Pit and Galleries, appro- 
 priated to less fashionable classes of society, 
 are not so disgraced ; and the following ave- 
 rage account of the numbers in the London 
 Theatres will shew how comparatively few 
 must be the number of these unfortunate 
 
 L 
 
74 
 
 women, (wlio only frequent the upper tier) and 
 consequently how few men can be attracted 
 by their presence. The two principal London 
 Theatres will contain Boxes 1400; Pit 950; 
 Galleries 1200: The Birmingham Theatre 
 Boxes 720; Pit 480; Gallery 1050. Now can 
 you on this statement, assert that these Audi- 
 ences comprehend a more numerous class of 
 the vicious, than any other public society of 
 equal numbers? You well know that Vice, like 
 every other marketable commodity, will be 
 offered for sale in great public thoroughfares. 
 Can you see the vast majority of an audience 
 rivetted on the scenic representation, without 
 confessing that many a youthful passion is 
 preserved from temptation out of doors by this 
 intellectual occupation of his time within? 
 London, and all large towns, are by reason 
 of their congregated numbers a focus of vice: 
 -vou know licentiousness would find other 
 haunts and not be one wit limited by the sup- 
 pression of the Stage: it would be hard in- 
 deed, that virtue should imprison itself be- 
 cause vice frequented the same resort ; on that 
 principle we might not walk in broad day 
 light the great streets of the metropolis be- 
 cause of the " polluted" neighbours on all 
 sides. The vice here alluded to, Sir, is the 
 only disgrace of the Theatre; it doubtless 
 
r 
 
 75 
 
 mio'ht be reduced within more decent and con- 
 tracted bounds: but to exterminate it is hope- 
 less. God forbid, Sir, 1 should seek to palli- 
 ate its immorality but speak not too harshly 
 of those unfortunate beings whom the vicious- 
 ness of your own sex have brought within the 
 cruel fangs of dire necessity. 
 
 ^* Poor Profligate ! I will not chide ihy sins: 
 What, tho* the coldly virtuous turn away. 
 And the proud Priest shall stalk indignant by. 
 And deem himself polluted should he hold 
 A moment's convejrse with thy guilty soul. 
 Yet thou shah have my tear. To such as thou, 
 Sinful, abas'd, and unbefriended, came 
 The world's great Saviour 
 
 Yes, hapless outcast ! thou shalt have my tear; 
 Thou once was fairer than the morning light. 
 Thy breast unsullied as the meadow's flower 
 Wash'd by the dews of May, 
 
 Not on thee 
 Shall fall the curse of Heaven, but on the wretch. 
 Fell as the lion on Numidia's wilds. 
 
 Soon left thee as the poor and nak^d stalk 
 Now worthless, to abide the wintry blast 
 The chilling tempests of the world's proud scorn." 
 
 Unpublished Poem, 
 
 The story of Sir John Hawkins is lost in 
 the fact that the neighbourhood of the Bir- 
 mingham Theatre is particularly respectable 
 and is not the dwelling place of the vicious. 
 
76 
 
 10. 
 
 I admit that modem plays are in I would by no means be thought 
 
 some measure purified from that to institute a comparison between 
 
 excessive grossness which polluted the plays of Consrreve and modern 
 
 the performances of our more anci- writers. But as our writers for 
 
 cut dramatists. But who knows not the Stage now manage it, " vice 
 
 that vice is more mischievous in loses half its evil by losinar all its 
 
 some circles of society, in propor- grossness," and consequently is 
 
 tion as it is more refined. The more dangerous than the bau-efaced 
 
 arch equivoque and double enten- obscenities, &c a double entendre 
 
 dre of modern plays " are well and an arch equivoque are well 
 
 understood, and applied by a licen understood and applied by a liceu' 
 
 tious audience J and the buzz of ap- tious audience; and the buzz of 
 
 probation, which is heard through approbation which is heard through 
 
 the whole assembly, furnishes the whole assembly, furnishes a- 
 
 abundant proof that the effect is bundant proof that the effect is not 
 
 not lost.*' lost. 
 
 James, p. 36. Styles, p. 30. 
 
 The last six lines of this paragraph is the 
 only passage you have marked as quoted, but 
 you have given no reference to Dr. Styles. 
 My remarks will be brief: if subtracting gross- 
 ness from vice makes it more dangerous, then 
 I know not the distinction between sensu- 
 ality and intellectual feeling. And formerly a 
 great frequenter of plays, I can flatly contra- 
 dict this imputed propensity in the Public to 
 applaud a licentious double entendre: I have 
 always heard noble sentiments echoed in public 
 applause; and on several occasions the lurking 
 remains of the old broad Comedy received 
 with marked disapprobation. And whatever 
 may be the opinions of those who do not go to 
 
77 
 
 Plays these facts will be corroborated by all 
 who do. 
 
 Your thirty-eighth page abridges Dr. 
 Styles's chapter " Christian Morality and 
 the Morality of the Stage contrasted." You 
 assert that the most passionate admirers of the 
 latter will not " try it in such a court :" that 
 they ** are diametrically opposed to each 
 other." " Let any man read our Lord's Ser- 
 mon on the Mount, or St. Paul's 8th or 1 2th 
 chapter to the Romans, and say if the Play 
 and the Play house can be in unison with, 
 Christianity." 
 
 11. 
 
 Whether ye eat or drink or Thus every thing in the Gosw 
 
 whatsoever ye do, do all to the pel is directly opposed to pride and 
 glory of God," cannot look with ambition, to anger and revenge, 
 a tolerating eye on the Stage The &c the New Testament, and its 
 morality of the Stage and the Cos- leading fundamental principle is 
 pel are as diametrically opposed to " whatsoever ye do, do all to th 
 each other as the east and the west, glory of God." 
 They stand thus opposed to each StyleSf p*.94. 
 
 other; pride to humility; ambition 
 to moderation J revenge to forgive- 
 ness, &c. 
 
 James, p. 38. 
 
 The best things are frequently the most a- 
 bused, and it is conceded that immorality Aas 
 sometimes disgraced the stage, but as Lyciir- 
 gus said " shall we destroy all the vines, 
 because some men get drunk with the juice of 
 
the grape ?" The Stage does not pretend te 
 teach the Gospel it is an amusement, not a 
 religions ceremony ; and doubtless the same 
 general Christian laws forbid the abuses of 
 Plays which forbid any other vicious occupa- 
 tions. But no single text can be fairly quoted 
 out of the Bible by you against the Drama or 
 the Stage. The Old Testament in numerous 
 instances may be cited in their defence : refer 
 to the Psalms, and to Jeremiah, where God 
 himself promises to the Jews on their return 
 from Chaldea, timbrels and dances to make 
 merry I The Chorus and Semi-cborus have 
 their earliest origin in the Psalms of David. 
 The Song of Solomon and the Book of Job 
 are considered by the ablest expositors and 
 critics as Dramatic Poetry (see Gray's Key, 
 Orton and Lowth's Lectures on Hebrew Po- 
 etry, vol. ii. xxxiii.) In the New Testament 
 there is no express or implied reflections on the 
 Theatre, notwithstanding our Saviour and the 
 Apostles preached the Gospel in Judaea and 
 countries where the Drama was a Public and 
 popular amusement. The Christian Revela- 
 tion had no relation to Stage Plays ; and f 
 should as soon think of seeking in the New- 
 Testament the Pneumatic Philosophy, as an 
 approval or disapproval of Dramatic perform- 
 anc^. 
 
79 
 
 12. 
 
 't*hen remember all the accom- The Stae raises the passions 
 
 "paniments of the Stag^e, the facin- above their proper tone, and thus 
 
 sttions of music, paintin^^ action^ induces a dislike to grave and se- 
 
 t)ratory, and say, if when these rious subjects, which have nothing 
 
 are enlisted in the cause of fiction, but their simplicity and importance 
 
 they do not raise the passions to recommend them. Poetry, mu- 
 
 abovc their proper tone, and thus sic, action, oratory, all enlisted ia 
 
 induce a dislike to grave and fieri- the cause of fiction, combine their 
 
 ous subjects, and a distaste for all influence to draw off the mind from 
 
 the milder and more necessary vir- the simple and the useful, while 
 
 taes of domestic life. a passion for the romantic, the 
 
 James, p. 38. showy, and the splendid, is excited 
 and incieased. Stylesy p. 100-1. 
 
 I might with as much reason doubt how a 
 tnan could resume his Monday's work after 
 his Sunday's excitement; but you know that 
 even Jumpers and Shakers overget in twelve 
 hours the physical and mental exhaustion of 
 their sabbatical exercises. 
 
 Music, Poetry, Painting!!! 
 
 * The Man who has no Mtjsick in his soul, 
 Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds. 
 Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils; 
 The motions of his spirit are dull as night. 
 And his affections dark as Erebus; 
 Let no such man be trusted. Mark the Musick ! 
 
 Merchant ef Venice, Act v. sc, I, 
 
 Says Sir William Temple, " he that is in- 
 sensible to the charms of Poetry should take 
 care to hide it, that it is not known ; for fear 
 he bring iu question his good-nature, if not his 
 understanding."* Cartoons of Raphael, Ma- 
 
 * 3Iiscel!auea. Part 2. 
 
80 
 
 dounas of Guido and Morillo, Crucifixions of 
 Caracci, start not from your canvas in scorn 
 Genius of Michael Angelo and Chantry, be 
 not overcome with dismay ! 
 
 13. 
 
 The arguments aj^aiiist the Stag-e Another collateral argument of 
 
 ate streng^thened by a reference some importance ag^aiust the Stag^e 
 
 to the general habits of the per- may be drawn from the general 
 
 formers, and the influence which Character of Players. The senti- 
 
 their employment has in the forma- ments of mankind have ever con- 
 
 tion of their Character, and here I signed this wretched class of 
 
 may assert, that the sentiments of beings to infamy. The Story of the 
 
 mankind have generally consigned unfortunate Laberius exhibits in a 
 
 this wretched class of beings to strong point of view the odium 
 
 Infamy. The story of the unfortu- which was attached to the pro* 
 
 nate Laberius exhibits in a strong fession of an Actor among the 
 
 point of view, the odium which Romans. Compelled by Csesar, at 
 
 was attached to the profession of an advanced period of life, to ap' 
 
 an Actor among the Romans. Com- pear on the Stage to recite some of 
 
 pelled by Caesar, at an advanced his ovm works, he felt his character 
 
 period of life, to appear on the as aRoman Citizen insulted and dis- 
 
 Stage to recite some of his own graced, and in some affecting verses 
 
 works, he felt his character as a spoken on the occasion, he incensed 
 
 Roman Citizen insulted and dis- the audience against the Tyrant 
 
 graced, and in some affecting by whose mandate he was obliged 
 
 verses spoken on the occasion, he to appear before them. " After 
 
 incensed the audience against the having lived (said he) sixty year 
 
 Tyrant, by whose mandate he was with honour, I left my house thia 
 
 obliged to appefar before them, morning a Roman Knight, but shall 
 
 ** After having lived (said he) sixty return to it this Evening, an infa- 
 
 years with honour, I left my house mous Stage player. Alas! I have 
 
 this morning a Roman Knight, but lived a day too long." 
 shall return to it this Evening an Styles, p. 112. 
 
 infamous Stage player. Alas ! I 
 have lived a day too long." 
 
 Jamesy p. 40. 
 
81 
 
 You here stand fully committed. The 
 Profession of an Actor among the Greeks was 
 most honourable. " At Athens the Actors 
 were generally persons of good birth and edu- 
 cation, for the most part Orators and Poets of 
 the first rank."* Cornelius Nepos asserts the 
 same:t and Kings themselves performed on 
 the Grecian Stage. But to your character of 
 the Roman Actor. You should be informed 
 that originally the Stage performers in Rome 
 were foreigners, and consequently not entitled 
 to the rights of citizenship. It is also re- 
 markable, that the only class of Roman Ac- 
 tors, deserving the name of Actors in the mo- 
 dern acceptation of the term, the Performers 
 of the Fabuise Attellanae, had privileges be- 
 yond the ordinary class of Stage performers. 
 Valerius Maximus (lib. 2. c. 4.) gives as a rea- 
 son, the superior character of the drama. In 
 the virtuous times of the Republic, we tind an 
 exception in their favour. (I ivy. I. vii. c. 2.) 
 In the Laws of the Emperors we find they are 
 protected and privileged. (Rosin. Rom. Ant. 
 1. 5. c. 0,-2.) The application also of Theatri- 
 cal money, even to the service of the public, 
 
 * Kennet. 
 
 t Nulla Laccdaemoni tam est nobilis vidaa, quse non ad scenam eat 
 mercede conducta, &c. In scenam yexh prodire, et populo esse spec- 
 tdculo, nemini iu eisdem gentibus fuit turpitudini. In Fref, 
 
was considered scandalous and a capital 
 crime. The " story of the unfortunate Labe- 
 rius,'^ is a very unfortunate one for you, as you 
 may discover even in Lerapriere's Classical 
 Dictionary; it is no more proof for you than 
 His present most gracious Majesty forcing Mr. 
 Horace Twiss on the Stage to recite his drama* 
 woahl be proof against tlie character of Eng- 
 lish Actors. 
 
 You would have us believe that the Roman 
 Actor was infamous, when Roscius the pride 
 of Rome, received the munificent remuneration 
 of a thousand denarii per diem, and when 
 ^sopus beqiieathed '200,000. to his son!'*^ 
 Of these two distinguished Actors I have be* 
 fore written as the bosom friends of Cicero^ 
 and of their iliost distinguished cotemporaries. 
 But the connection of Roscius with Tully de- 
 serves a more particular mention. It is a most 
 interesting anecdote that this great Tragedian, 
 during Cicero's exile, pronounced several pas- 
 sages with so eloquent a pathos on the banish- 
 ment of Telamon, applicable to the Orator's 
 misfortunes, that the whole audience burst 
 with enthiisiastic feeling, and Cicero himself 
 acknowledges that his return was greatly faci- 
 litated by the effect. When Roscius was the 
 object of prosecution, Cicero thus speaks on 
 
 * Macrobius. Saturn, lib. iii. 14. 
 
83 
 
 behalf of his friend *' Has Roscius clefrantled 
 his friend? Can he possibly be guilty of this? 
 Who by heavens, (I boldly speak it) has more 
 itiincerity than he has art, more integrity than 
 professional skill, who by the judgment of the 
 Jloman People is a better man than he is a 
 Player, the worthiest of all men to tread the 
 Stage by reason of his superiority, and the 
 most worthy to fdl the Magistracy on account 
 of his virtues."* Cicero says that Roscius 
 not only knew how to represent virtue to his 
 auditors better than any other man, but was 
 more moral in his private life. Nor were 
 these the hired praises of an Advocate; after 
 the death of Roscius he thus gratefully eulo- 
 gises him, ** Where, amongst us, is the mind 
 so barbarous, where the breast so flinty, as of 
 late, to be unaffected with the death of Ros- 
 cius? He died, indeed, an old man; but a 
 man wdiose art and elegance seemed to chal- 
 lenge immortality to his person. Was he then 
 so universally esteemed and loved for the in- 
 imitable management of his limbs? And are 
 we to overlook the divine enthusiasm of ge- 
 
 Roscius socium fraudavit? Potest hoc horaini huic haerere pec 
 catum? qui, rnedius fidius, (audacter dico) plus fidei quam artis, plus 
 Teritatis quam disqiplinae, possidet io se : qaem Populus Rontanus meli- 
 rem virum, quam Histrionem, esse arbitralur j qui ita dignissimus est 
 scend propter artificium, ut dignissimus sit curia propter abstiueutiam. 
 Pro. Roscio Comaedo, 
 
84 
 
 tiitis and the glowing energy of the soul?" 
 Orat. Archias. 
 
 The names of jiEsopus and Roscius are 
 not exceptions; you are totally ignorant of the 
 history of the Stage or you might discover iu 
 a learned old tract, " The Actor s Vindication, 
 containing three brief treatises, viz. Their An- 
 tiquity, Their Antient Dignity, The true use 
 of their Quality, by Thomas Heywood, Lon-- 
 don, If) 1 2," numerous Roman Actors whose 
 celebrity and respectability are recorded. 
 
 14. 
 
 As to the feelinsfs of modern It is impossible to entertain re- 
 times, is there a family in Britain spect for a player, and there is not 
 of the least moral worth even a family of any consideration in 
 amongst the middling class of Britain, which would not count it 
 Tradesmen, which would not feel an indelible disgrace if any of its 
 itself disgraced if any one of its members were to embrace this dis- 
 members were to embrace this pro- honourable profession, 
 fession? I ask if the Characters of Styles, p. 113. 
 players is not in general so loose 
 
 as to make it matter of surprize to In the second place, as playem^ 
 
 find one that is truly moral? A have been generally persons of 
 
 performer, whether male or female, loose morals, so their employment 
 
 that maintains an unspotted reputa- directly leads to the corruption of 
 
 tion, is considered as an exception the heart. It is an allowed prin- 
 
 from the general rule. Their em- ciple among Critics, that no human 
 
 ployment, together with the indo- passion or character can be well , 
 
 lent line of life to which it leads, represented unless it be felt: this 
 
 is most contaminating to their they call entering into the spirit 
 
 morals. The habit of assuming a of the part. Now I suppose 
 
 feigned Character, and exhibiting the following Philosophical remark 
 
 unreal passions must have a very is equally certain, that every 
 
 injurious effect on their principles human passion, especially when 
 
 f integrity and truth. They are strongly felt, gives a certain mo 
 
6& 
 
 M accustomed to represent the arts dification to the blood and spirits, 
 
 of intrigue aud gallantry, that it is and makes the whole frame more 
 
 little to be wondered at, if they susceptible of its return. Therefore 
 
 should practise them in the most whoever has justly and strong-ly 
 
 unrestrained manner. acted human passions that are vici- 
 
 Jamesy^. 40-1. ous, will be more prone to these 
 
 same passions: and indeed with 
 
 respect to the whole Character, 
 
 they will soon be in reality what 
 
 they have so often seemed to be. 
 
 Witherspoon on the Stage* 
 
 If I granted the truth of the whole of this 
 paragraph (which I am not disposed to do of 
 any part) it would prove nothing against actors 
 different from the rest of the world, according 
 to 1/our description of society. I might well 
 say, with the Author of an old Defence of 
 Plays and Players,* to a charge ** that Actors 
 were not Saints' '* If the major part of them 
 fall under a different character, it is the gene- 
 ral unhappiness of Mankind that the most are 
 the worst r But as far as opinion goes, Shake- 
 speare, whose judgment and sagacity you 
 must allow at least to equal your own, says 
 that '* Players are the abstract and brief Chro- 
 nicles of the times,"* ** whose end, both at the 
 first, and now, was, and is, to hold as 'twere 
 the mirror up to nature."! ^" the subject of 
 the rank of an Actor in British Society, yoa 
 
 Historia Histrionica. 1699. 
 Hamlet. Act ii, 8c,2. f ^^em. Act ill. 8C.3 
 
80 
 
 as a man of the world, and looking back to 
 your own origin, cannot but know that income 
 is the general measure of respectability and 
 reciprocal worldly entertainment. You of 
 course know that Players, usually have but 
 small stipends ; but trying the stage by the 
 test of income, T unhesitatingly assert that 
 Players in general do occupy their relative 
 rank in society; and that the chief ornaments 
 of the Stage are respectfully received in so- 
 ciety far above their means of return : I do 
 not mean by the Blue Stocking proprietor of a 
 London party of odd people, or by the purse- 
 proud Citizen who bribes with good dinners 
 and wines every lion of the day; but 1 mean 
 by the highest intellectual society of London 
 and Edinburgh, and amongst jLhe most literary 
 and accomplished Nobility. The Kembles 
 and Siddons's, Mr. Bannister, Mr. Young, 
 Mr. Kean, Mrs. Beecher, Mrs. Bunn, Miss 
 Kelly, Mrs. Davison, Mr. Liston, Mr. Ma- 
 thews, Mr. Munden, and Mr. Macready, are 
 my proofs if you have not met them, and 
 are ignorant of this, your want of know- 
 ledge of the fact is no proof against it, but 
 merely that you do not know any thing of 
 that high class of society to which they are so 
 honorably admitted. 
 
87 
 
 If yon were to investigate the origin of the 
 English Player you would discover that he 
 was, as it were, created for the pleasure of 
 royalty; that Royalty itself has performed on 
 the Stage. The Drama took its rise in the 
 schools. As early as the year 1430 the cho- 
 risters of Maxtoke Priory, in this county, acted 
 a play every year;* and I hope the public will 
 soon be favoured with some curious history of 
 the Coventry Plays, by the accomplished and 
 liberal antiquary of that town, Mr. Thomas 
 Sharpe. The children of St. Paul's, West- 
 minster, and Windsor, acted before Queen Eli- 
 zabeth, and towards the latter end of her 
 reign the Stage assumed its present established 
 order of actors.f Do you not know, that if the 
 old players, Heminfre and Condell, had not 
 bought the manuscript works of Shakespeare^ 
 those treasures might never have been printed ? 
 Did you never hear of Jiurbage the friend of 
 Shakspeare, or of JLowin his pupil and the 
 * gentle friend" of Massinger? Tiie early dra- 
 matic writers were almost to a man gentlemen 
 
 Warton's History of Poetry. 
 
 \ It IB a singular fact, that The Merry Wives of Windsor, in some 
 respects the most exceptionable of Shakespeare^s dramas that is to say, 
 in tlie eyes of the Prynuites was specially bespoken of our great bard 
 by Queen Elw!:al>eth, who wished to see Fulstatfin Love! And her pious 
 Either first formed a company of actors for the amuseiueut of " bis many 
 Queens." 
 
88 
 
 of family and education Shakespeare, per- 
 haps, was an exception ; the Poet of Nature 
 was truly ex se natus born of himself; his 
 genius was not the heir-loom of a family. 
 But to quit these interesting times of early 
 English literature, can you gravely make these 
 assertions against the characters of modern ac- 
 tors, with the fact staring you in the face, that 
 most of the ornaments and popular actors of the 
 Stage are men of superior education? John 
 Kemble received his early initiation in letters 
 at the Catholic Academy of Sedgeley Park, in 
 Staffordshire, and, from his extraordinary pro- 
 gress, was early sent to the University of 
 Douay. Charles Kemble, by the generosity of 
 his brother, was educated at Douay, and is an 
 accoraphshed scholar and gentleman. Henry 
 Siddons, born at Wolverhampton, was placed 
 by the favour of the late Queen Charlotte, upon 
 the foundation of the Charter House. Ma- 
 thews and Young were at Merchant Taylor s. 
 Elliston was educated at St. Paul's. Macready 
 at Rugby, and Holman at Dr. Barrows', in So- 
 ho-square, where Morton, the dramatic writer, 
 was likewise educated. Kean was partly edu- 
 cated and early distinguished at Eton. Gen-- 
 tleman Smith, so many years an ornament of 
 Drury-lane, was at Eton; as was also Mt. 
 Smith, who married a sister of the late Lord 
 
m 
 
 Sandwich. Mr. Yates and Mr. Calvert, I be- 
 Jieve, received University educations. Mr. Bunn, 
 in his letter to you, has very justly noticed the 
 coronets whose honours are maintained by the 
 virtues of many female nobility formerly on the 
 stage. No coronet could add to the pre-emi- 
 nence of Mrs. Siddons; titular honour would 
 only obscure a name which will go down to 
 posterity the proverb of all that nature and art 
 could combine in an incomparable actress*"^ 
 
 As to the present moral character of the 
 English Stage it may be boldly asserted that at 
 no time was it so unblemished. 
 
 The Rev. James Plumtree, who wrote 
 '* Four Discourses on subjects relating to the 
 amusements of the Stage" (octavo, 1819,) and 
 who is by no means the unqualified panegyrist 
 of the stage, states (p 21 1) that the Managers 
 of the ISottingham, Lincoln, and Norwich The- 
 atres (the establishments within the author's 
 
 * In the dedication of " The Regent, a tragedy, London, 1788," by 
 Bertie Bertie Greatheed, Esq. a drama of great literary and dramatic 
 merit, the following elegant compliment is paid to Mrs. Siddons: 
 * Tlirough your means it is that this tragedy is now before the public: 
 you procured me the intimacy of your brother; you enabled me to pro- 
 fit by his very refined taste and perfect knowledge of the drama. Would 
 there were some language sacred to sincerity, in which I might express, 
 without a suspicion of compliment, the true sense I have of your perfec* 
 lions! But there is none." It was in this county, at Guy's ClifF, that 
 Mrs. Siddons, in early life, was the attendant of Lady Elizabeth Great- 
 hoed, the mother of the present possessor of a spot, in the simple laa* 
 guage of Lelaad, described us " a place meet for the Muses." 
 
 N 
 
m 
 
 neiglibourhood) would not allow a person of 
 bad character lo enter their companies. The 
 Bath Theatre has been lon^ conducted with the 
 most exemplary distinction as to the character 
 of its performers ; and some of the most dis- 
 tinguished ornaments of the London Stage have 
 come from this theatre. 
 
 1 need not further enumerate the many dis- 
 tinguished names on the London and Ldin- 
 burgh boards. It is true that some instances of 
 immorality occasionally occur; they do in 
 every class of society, but be it remembered, 
 that the Actor is a public character immediately 
 under the public eye ; and that the personal 
 charms of Actresses are certainly exposed to 
 the temptation3 held out by rank and riches. 
 That players may be the object of the "foul 
 wind" of scandal is well illustrated by your 
 echoes of Dr. Styles. That the character of 
 the Stage was formerly that of profligacy, how- 
 ever, is no more evidence that it now is so, than 
 that because ecclesiastics once professed tem- 
 perance and celibacy, practising sensuality, 
 therefore the Clergy of the present day are to 
 be denounced for the same vices, 
 
 1 cannot conclude this defence of the Stage 
 against your works, without a just tribute to 
 the character of the Birmingham Theatre. 
 Mr. Bunn, the lessee, is a gentleman of consi- 
 derable talent and acquirement ; he has bgea 
 
m 
 
 Manager of Drury-lane, for which you must 
 allow him no ordinary mind and judgment; 
 and his company here is of a very high pro- 
 fessional character. Of Mrs. Bunn it is im- 
 possible to speak too highly ; her professional 
 repntation requires no eulogy, but it is eclipsed 
 by the amiable and maternal excellencies of 
 her private character. ^ 
 
 Public report may be allowed an unexcep- 
 tionable witness for the private character of all, 
 Mr. Shuter and Mr. Warcle possess very great 
 histrionic talent. The latter, by birth, educa- 
 tion, and profession, is a Gentleman ; he has, 1 
 understand, bled in the cause of his country ; 
 and if I mistake not, he will, ere long, be the 
 first t|-agedian of the London Stage. 
 
 Can you also have been ignorant, or have 
 you forgotten, that the Italian Opera has been 
 of late years conducted by a Committee of 
 Noblemen that Drury-lane also has been 
 managed by several of the first Nobility and 
 Commoners of the highest character and la- 
 lent? 
 
 On the charge of players " assuming a 
 feigned character," certain I am that not one 
 of those so honourably named, would have 
 appropriated the works of other men. Shake- 
 speare may have stolen a deer of Justice Shal- 
 low, but would never have borrowed a Sermon 
 of Latimer, or printed a Play not his own. 
 
f 
 
 You have not interwoven even a single ne\t 
 anecdote in support of your *' assertions," but 
 retail the old exploded stories of Whitfield, on 
 " the best authority," copying two whole 
 pages verbatim. 1 shall not encumber my 
 sheets with such nonsense, but only give your 
 introductory sentence to shew with what acti- 
 vity you follow Dr. Styles. 
 
 15. 
 
 Shuter, whose facetious powers Shuter, whose facetious power* 
 
 convulsed whole audiences with convulsed whole audiences with 
 
 laughter, and whose companionable laughter, and whose companionable 
 
 qualities often " set the table in a qualities often " set the table in a 
 
 roar," was a miserable being. The roar," was a miserable being- The 
 
 following anecdote, told from the following anecdote, told from the 
 
 best authority, will con6rra this best aothority, will confirm this 
 
 assertion; and I am afraid, were assertion; and I am afraid, were 
 
 we at all acquainted with many of we at all acquainted with many of 
 
 his profession, we should find that his profession, we should find that 
 
 his case is by no means singular. his case is by no means singular. 
 
 Jamesy p. 41. Styles, p. 123. 
 
 It is quite sufficient for this story that it 
 rests on the authority of John Whitfield, and 
 there it is likely to rest. 
 
 16. 
 
 To send young people therefore It seems to have been a sentiment 
 
 io the play house to form their of this kind that led a certain au- 
 
 roanners, is to expect they will thor to say, that to send young 
 
 loarn truth from liars, virtue from people to the Theatre to form their 
 
 profligates, and modesty from hai*- manners, is to expect that they will 
 
 Jots. learn virtue from profligates, and 
 
 James, p. 43. modfesty from harlots. 
 
 Witherspoon on the Stage. 
 
03 
 
 No observation is required on this extract: 
 the Readers will judge between you and 
 ine, Sir, whose assertions are supported by 
 facts. 
 
 17. 
 
 Can it then be right, even on the As the profession of an actor n 
 
 supposition that we could escape ignomiuious, and as it has uui- 
 
 the moral contag^ion of the Stage, formly debased the human eharac- 
 
 to support a set of our fellow crea- ter, what virtuous mind will con- 
 
 tures in idleness, and in a profes- tribute to the support of a class of 
 
 sion which leads to immorality, li- men so miserable, and whose very 
 
 centiousness, and proflig-acy ? employment must render them con* 
 
 7amef, p. 44. temptible? 
 
 Sti/les, p. 121. 
 
 I shall make but one observation on this: 
 yon are grievously mistaken on the supposition 
 that an Actor's life is that of " idleness:" it is 
 a Profession of the severest labour and the 
 deepest study. 
 
 1 have thus subdivided and answered this 
 notable Chapter of the " Christian Father's 
 Present." You consistently close it with the 
 assertion of Styles viz. that you know in- 
 stances (could you but be freed from the Con- 
 fessor's seal of secrecy) of the moral ruin of 
 many who have frequented Theatres. I think, 
 after this exposure of your retailing Dr. Styles, 
 I may without illiberality doubt this assertion; 
 and place it to the account of those " pious 
 frauds" which are considered lawful warnings 
 by some, however mean by others. 
 
I shall make no farther mention of Doctor 
 Styles: The Reader may refer to " a few short 
 remarks upon this sacred and silly gentleman,^ 
 in the Edinburgh Review, vol. xiv. p. 48,* and 
 notwithstanding the insignificancy of the sub- 
 ject, the perusal of the Review will amply re- 
 pay in wit and humour the dulness of the ob- 
 ject: The Reviewers very justly say that his 
 everlasting text is, " Whoever is tmfriendly to 
 Methodism is an Infidel and an Atheist^ Be it 
 so. Throughout these barefaced plagiarisms 
 you have nowhere expressed your obligations 
 to Dr. Styles. You do partiaHy towards other 
 persons from whom you have borrowed in 
 your different chapters of the " Present," it is 
 therefore fairly to be concluded that you in- 
 tentionally omitted reference to Dr. Styles, or 
 marks of quotation; that is to say, you have 
 passed his strictures on the Stage as your 
 own. You certainly do, in two instances, re- 
 commend Dr. Styles: in Youth Warned, in a 
 note you write, " I recommend all who wish 
 to judge of the tendency of the Theatre, to 
 read an Essay, by Dr. Styles." In a note at the 
 end of the sixteenth Chapter of the '' Present" 
 you also write, '^ I most earnestly reconimend 
 
 * This learned DoctoVy then Mr. John Stjflesy in reply to the Edin- 
 burgh Review, g^ave a learned dissertation on the Reviewer's word 
 Kime, a misprint for Knife; mistaking- the said Kim^ for an Hiudo 
 instrument of torture! .. 
 
"C'^ 
 
 *5 
 
 to all young persons, M'ho have any doubts 
 upon this subject, or any taste for theatrical 
 i'epresentations, the perusal of an admirable 
 treatise on this subject, hy Dr. Styles" this 
 you were well aware was a, reconiniendatiou 
 little likely to be taken: your Congregation 
 have hitlierlo had a sufficient trust in the sup- 
 posed originality of your own lucubrations; 
 and who can ever suppose you would seriously 
 reconamend a book of which you had printed 
 the entire substance? 
 
 But I shall now shew that this is not your 
 nly offence against the code of Literature. 
 
 Subsequently to the publication of Mr. 
 Buno's Letter to you, in answer to your attack 
 on the Theatre and the character of the per- 
 formers, you published a second Tract ^' The 
 Scoffer Admonished, being the substance 
 of two Sermons preached at Carr's-lane Meet- 
 ing-house, July 18, and August 1, 1824." To 
 this publication you prefixed a Preface, of 
 which the following is an extract: 
 
 ** The outline of t^e following Sermon was drawn up 
 neatly a month ago, and consequently hefore it was possible for 
 the author to anticipate the circumstances which have lately 
 occupied so much of the pubhc attention in Birmingham. 
 To tltese events the discourse bears no other relation whatever, 
 than that of a coincidence, seasonable it must be confessed, 
 but altogether uncontrived." 
 
99 
 
 Under these circumstances, and repeating 
 your attack on the Theatre in the 16th page 
 with hicreased rancour,* you could not reason- 
 ably expect people to believe that you had not 
 a reference to Mr. Bunn at all events your 
 Preface has. You might, however, safely and 
 honestly assert, that the " outline of the fol- 
 lowing Sermons was drawn up nearly a month 
 ago:" verily, it was, in the reign of King Wil- 
 liam, and by Archbishop Tillolson, a dignitary 
 of the Church of England ! 
 
 You entitle your Sermon " The Scoffer 
 Admonished." Tillotson entitles his " The 
 Folly of Scof&ng at Religion." You both use 
 the same text, 2 Peter, iii. 3. You subdivide 
 both your Sermons into three heads, allowing 
 for a little dexterous substitution, as follows : 
 
 1 . I shall g-ive you a represcnta- 1. Consider the natures of the 
 tioa of the nature of the vice itself, sin here mentioned. 
 
 2. I shall consider the causes of 2. The character of the persona 
 scoffing p. 22. that are charged with the g-uilt of 
 
 this 
 
 sin. 
 
 3. Let me now exhibit to yott 3. I shall represent to you the 
 the characters of this vice. p. 28. heinousness and the aggravations 
 James, of this vice. Tillotson, 
 
 You use all the texts used by him, and few 
 others. You open your Sermons with the 
 
 * " But it is now time to enquire where and when the practice of 
 acolSng is indulged in. 
 
 In the Theatre, where, besides the mockery of the claims and obliga- 
 lious of religion, that runs through more or less the whole conlextwre of 
 
97 
 
 same sentiments and nearly in the same lan- 
 guajre. 
 
 At the time of St. Peter's writ- Tliese it serms were a sort of 
 ing this Epistle, the disciples of people that derided oiir Saviour's 
 Christ were exposed to the attacks prediction of his coming to judge 
 of the Epicareans among the Gen- the world. 
 
 tiles, and the Sadducees among the In those times there was a com- 
 Jews, both of whom ridiculed the mon persuasion among- Christians, 
 doctrines of the resurrection of that the day of the Lord was at 
 the deadj the general jadgmont, hand. 
 
 the destruction of the world, and So that the principles of thestf 
 
 a future state of rewards and men seem to be much the same 
 
 ptuiBhlnents. with those of the Epicureans, who 
 
 JameSy p. 1-3. denied the providence of God and 
 
 the immortality of men's souls, and 
 
 consequently a future judgment, 
 
 which should sentence men to re- 
 
 "Wards and punishments in another 
 
 world. Tillotson. 
 
 You then write, copying and paraphrasing 
 Tillotson 
 
 It was said by an infidel of for- T remember it is the saying of 
 
 mer times, that when reason is one who hath done more by his 
 
 against a man, then will a man he writings to debauch the age with 
 
 against reason: and it may with atheistical principles than any man 
 
 equal, if not greater propriety, be that lives in it, That when reason 
 
 said, that when religion is agaliist is against a man, then a man will 
 
 aman,then will aman beaijaiust re- be against reason. I am sure this 
 
 ligion Tlie truth and the principles is the true account of such men's 
 
 of revelation are enemies to pride enmity to religion religion is 
 
 f intellect and depravity of heart J against them^ and therefore they 
 
 dramatic representation, plays are acted which were originally writtenj 
 and are still performed with the obvious design of bringing all scriptural 
 piety into contempt The theatre is the very seat of the scornful, where 
 lie sits first as a learner, till he becomes proficient enough to appear in 
 the character of a teacher. It may be Very truly affirmed, that if infi- 
 dels teach men to argue against religion, players instruct them to laugh 
 at it." 
 
 O 
 
98 
 
 and it is matter of little surprise, pet themselves against religion* 
 
 that they who cannot be reconciled The principles of religion, &c. are 
 
 to humility and purity, i.hould terrible enemies to wicked men, 
 
 Rcoru the system which enforces and this is that which makes them 
 
 such virtues. kick against religion, &c. talk pro" 
 
 JameSf p. 26. faoely, and speak against religion, 
 &c. Tillotson. 
 
 Again, you paraphrase the Archbishop : 
 
 . The sum of the whole matter is The sum is, the true cause why 
 
 a man says there is no God, because any man is an atheist, is because 
 
 be wishes there were none, &c ; he is a wicked man. Religion 
 
 be is an infidel because he is a sin- would curb him in his lusts, and 
 
 uer; he is a scoffer because he is an therefore he casts it off, and puts 
 
 in6del, &c. all the scorn upon it he can, &c. 
 
 James, p. 27. Tillotson. 
 
 In the following sentences you copy him 
 nearly verbatim. The reader will remark an 
 asterisk and marks of quotation at the foot of 
 your paragraph ; of that hereafter. 
 
 . 1 , Let no man think the wors^ of 2 Let no man think the worse of 
 religiony or any of its doctrines, religion, because some are so bold 
 because some are so bold as to des- as to despise and deride it. For 
 pise them; for tis no disparagement 'tis no disparagement to any person 
 to any person or thing to be laughed or thing to be laughed at, but to 
 at; but only to deserve to be so The deserve to be so. The most grave 
 most grave and serious matters in and serious matters in the whole 
 the world are liable to be abused, world are liable to be abused. It 
 A sharp wit may find something in is a known saying of Epictetus, 
 the wisest or holiest man, whereby " that every thing hath two bun- 
 to expose him to the contempt of dies;" bywhich he means that there 
 injudicious people. The gravest is nothing so bad but a man may lay- 
 book that ever was written, may hold of something or other about it 
 be made ridiculous by applying the that will afford matter of excuse, 
 sayings of it to a foolish purpose. A and extenuation, nor nothing so ex- 
 jest may be obtruded upon any cellent but a man may fasten upon 
 thiug; and therefore, no man ought something or other belonging to it^ 
 
99 
 
 t have less rcrerence for the prin- whereby to reduce it. A sharp 
 
 eiples of religion, because profane wit may find somethingT in th 
 
 wits can cast jokes upon them. No- wisest man, whereby to expose him 
 
 thing" is more easy than to take to the contempt of injudicious peo- 
 
 particular phrases and expressions 
 put of the best book in the world, 
 and to abuse them by forcing: an 
 odd and ridiculous sense upon 
 them But no wise man will think 
 a good book foolish for this reason, 
 but the man that abuseth; nor will 
 he think that to which every thing 
 i liable, to be a just exception 
 against any thing. At this rate 
 we must contemn all things; but 
 
 pie. The gravest book that ever 
 was written, may be made ridicu- 
 lous by applying the sayings of it 
 to a foolish purpose. For a jest 
 may be obtruded upon any thing. 
 And, therefore, no man ought to 
 have the less reverence for the 
 principles of religion, or for the 
 Holy Scriptures, because idle and 
 profane wits can break jokes upon 
 them. Nothing is so easy as to 
 
 surely the better and the shorter take particular phrases and expres- 
 
 way is to despise those who would 
 bring any thing worthy into con- 
 tempt."* 
 
 James, p. 44. 
 
 sions out of the best book in the 
 world, and to abuse them by forc- 
 ing an odd and ridiculous sense up- 
 on them. But no wise man will 
 think a good book foolish for this 
 reason, but the man that abuseth 
 it; nor will he esteem that to 
 which every thing is liable, to be a 
 just exception against any thing. 
 At this rate we must despise all 
 things; but surely the better and 
 the shorter way is to confeirm those 
 who would bring any thing that i 
 ^orthy ioto contempt. 
 
 Tillofson, 
 
 Til a note following this asterisk you 
 write See Archbishop Tillotsoris Sermon on 
 Scoffing at Religion. The inverted com- 
 mas t are errors of tlie press, being inser- 
 
 t Seeing a secmd edition of the Scoflfer Admonished, ^ bought it 
 with a view to discover if this error of the compositor was rectified, 
 and the inverted commas put out: but on comparing the reputed second 
 
100 
 
 ted by the compositor in consequence of 
 seeing a reference to an author. You Could 
 not mean to quote this passage first, be- 
 cause the two first lines form a subdivision of 
 your sermon : secondly, because if the reader 
 examines the two paragraphs by you andTiU 
 lotson, it will be seen that you do not literally 
 cite all, or correctly, the words of the Arch- 
 bishop ; and lastly, because when you write 
 " see Archbishop Tillotson's Sermon," that 
 monosyllable is always applied by you when 
 you refer to, not when you quote from, a work ; 
 in the latter case you invariably omit it. The 
 reader will perceive, by reference to your ser- 
 mon in p. 15, half a page marked as quotation, 
 but where you borrowed it you do not say ; 
 every syllable may be found in Tillotson, but 
 you did not wish it to be discovered. I do not 
 think it necessary to load my pages with fur- 
 ther proofs of your plagiarisms. If required, I 
 can point out various others in this and your dif- 
 ferent works, from Tillotson, who thus seems 
 to be a favourite author with you. The reader 
 may find them particularly in Tillotson's ** Cer- 
 tainty of a future Judgment;" in the *^ Wisdom 
 
 edition with the first, I find that, excepting an alteration in the Title 
 page v;ith the addition of the words " second edition," they are one 
 and the same, with all the typographical errors, there having beea 
 but one edition 3 does not this equal if not surpass the pvffs of the. 
 Play Bill? 
 
101 
 
 of bpin^ Religious;" and in " The Evil of Cor- 
 rupt Communication " In the latter sermon, 
 whence some passages are borrowed by you 
 for the Scoffer Admonished, you pass over the 
 Archbishop's Reflections on the Licentiousness 
 of the Stage in the time of Charles II. because 
 in principle he commends the Theatre there- 
 fore, this extract would not do for your pur- 
 pose* 
 
 That you should occasionally use the best 
 sermons of old Divines in your manuscript or 
 extempore Sermons, is sanctioned by the cus- 
 tom of the first modern Clergymen: I have 
 even seen a venerable and learned Divine of 
 this County read from a printed sermon, and 
 occasionally comment on the passages and the 
 Author; but printing and publishing another 
 man's Sermon as your own, is plagiarism : do- 
 ing this with Tillotson may be a proof of your 
 taste in the selection ; and as Tillotson is not 
 
 " I shall only speak a few words concerning Plays, which as they 
 are now ordered among us, are a mighty reproach to the Age and 
 Nation. To speak against them in general, may be thought too severe, 
 and that which the present age cannot so well brook, and would not per- 
 haps be so just and reasonable 5 because it is very possible, they might 
 be so framed and governed by such rules, as not only to be innocently 
 diverting, but instructing and useful, to put some vices and follies out 
 of countenance, which cannot perhaps be so decently reproved, nor 
 so effectually exposed and corrected any other way. But as the Stage 
 now is, they are intolerable, and not fit to be permitted in a civilhed, 
 much less in a Christian Nation, &c." 
 
 Tillotson* The JEvil of Corrupt Communication. 
 
102 
 
 an aiitbor known to your congregation, it was 
 certainly a safe quarter to go to. You may 
 well have time to preach so often, and to preach 
 extempore, that is to say, to get a sermon by 
 rote; and your pulpit oratory is thus reduced 
 to something very like acting the graces of 
 diction, gesture, and action. 
 
 I cannot pass by your frequent reflections on 
 the Catholics,* such as " the monkish legends 
 of Popery,prurient as they are," &c. without cen- 
 sure. I do not think that these aspersions come 
 with a good grace from the Minister of an unpo- 
 pular sect; one, who like the Catholics, labours 
 under the stigma and injustice of Civil Disa- 
 bilities for Conscience sake. Why should you 
 keep alive these unnecessary and vulgar pre- 
 judices, and perpetuate uncharitable feeling? 
 You cannot but know that the modern Catho- 
 lics neither believe nor profess to believe many 
 of the dogmas imputed to their creed; that 
 they encourage learning; that many excellent 
 and pious works are published by their Clergy ; 
 and that the Priests and the Laity afford ex- 
 amples of virtue we might all profit by.| You 
 
 " There are a hundred and twenty Millions folloTving" the Papal 
 Beast r The Christian Father' g Present, vol. 2, p. 60. 
 
 t See gome noble and truly Christian remarks on this subject ia 
 Parr's Characters of Fox, by the distinguished Editor. " I shall never 
 ease to explore the g^ood as Tvell as the bad effects of the Papal power 
 
103 
 
 eUght to know that the errors and vices of^ 
 antient Catholicism originated in the darkness 
 of the times and mistaken zeal; that the du- 
 ration of poiver is the general measure of 
 abuse by all parties and God foibid that your 
 Sect should at any time possess the same 
 means of curbing Christendom, which many 
 corrupt Governments, adopling Catholicism^ 
 exercised over the pure religion of Jesus. I 
 cannot but think that you might borrow with 
 advantage, and with far less danger of de- 
 tection, some discourses of Massillon, Fenelon, 
 Fleury, Pascal or Bossuet. 
 
 It was in Catholic countries, in Catholic 
 intellect and heart, that the embers of Learn- 
 ing were kept alive in the " dark ages." \\\ 
 Warton's first Dissertation on the Orioin of 
 Romantic Fiction in luirope, you may trace 
 the progressive march of the Eastern Litera- 
 ture, which paved the way for the more sub- 
 in Ages, when the rude barbarism and military ferocity of Europeaa 
 nations Beem to have been checked by no restraints more efficacious 
 than that power, so far as history has set before us the order of events, 
 or the operation of causes. 1 shall always look back with triumph upon 
 th contributions which foreig-n Catholics have made to the Arts, to 
 Science, and io every branch of polite learning whether ancient or 
 modern. I shall always remember that by the monastic institutions 
 were preserved to us the means of acquiring: tliat knowledge which 
 co-operating-, sometimes from accident and sometimes from design, 
 with other circumstances has enabled men in all countries, whether 
 Catholic or Protestant, to become progressive in the better use of their 
 faculties, and the better discharge of their duties," vol. 2 p. 620. 
 
104 
 
 little imagination of the Italian P6ets and their 
 disciple Spenser. The Speaking Pantomime, 
 the Improvisatori, and extempore Comedy, 
 were the nnrseries of the Epic Poets of the 
 middle ages.* Do yon not know that Milton 
 first projected Paradise Lost as a Drama, and 
 that his original idea for this poem was from 
 a comedy or opera of Andreini? The literature 
 of Italy, Germany, Holland, France, and Great 
 Britain, teems with evidence of the beauty and 
 usefulness of the early Fiction. But the tales 
 of the Troul)adours and the Minstrels can 
 have no attraction for you or Dr. Styles. 
 Dante, Ariosto, and Tasso, are strangers to 
 you. 
 
 The early Mysteries and Moralities were 
 not without their use. The Ecclesiastics per- 
 formed them, the open plain was the stage, at 
 the expence of the Corporations and municipal 
 authorities, (see Warton and D'Israeli.) By 
 a manuscript in the Harleian library, quoted 
 by Warton, it appears that they were thought 
 to contribute so much to the information and 
 instruction of the People, that one of the 
 
 " One Summer Salvator Rosa joined a Company of young persons 
 Tiho were curiously addicted to the making of Commedie aW ivrproviso. 
 In the midst of a vineyard they raised a rustic stage, under the direction 
 of one Mussi, who enjoyed some literary reputation, particularly from 
 his Sermons preached in Lent." 
 
 PasserVs Life of Salvator Hosm, 
 
105 
 
 Popes 2:rnrtefl a pardon of one thousand days 
 to every person who resorted peaceably to 
 the ph<ys performed in the Whitsun-week at 
 CheNier. Whatever were the vulgarities and evils 
 of these representations, they were of essen- 
 tial service in times when the People were not 
 only forbidden to read the Sacred Scriptures, 
 when printing was not invented, bat when 
 the Eccie8iaitics themselves were not Clerks, 
 Warton has given the folio wijig elegant and 
 philosophicali tribute to their use " not only 
 in teachino^ the great truths of Scripture to 
 men who conid not read the Bible, but in 
 abolishing the barbarous attachment to mili- 
 tary games and the bloody contentions of the 
 Tournament, which had so long prevailed as 
 the sole species of popular amusement. Rude 
 and even ridiculous as they were, they softened 
 the manners of the l*eople by diverting the 
 Public attention to spectacles in which the 
 mind was concerned, and by creating a regard 
 for other arts than those of bodily strength 
 and savage valour." 
 
 I bhall terminate these remarks on Drama- 
 tic and Poetical literature, with the following 
 extract from Goldsmith : 
 
 " It was the Poet who harmonized the un- 
 grateful accents of his native dialect, who 
 lifted it above common conversation, and 
 
 p 
 
106 
 
 shaped its rude combinations into order. From 
 him the Orator formed a style, and though 
 Poetry first rose out of Pf ose, in turn it gave 
 birth to every prosaic excellence. Musical 
 period, concise expression, and delicacy of 
 sentiment, were all excellencies derived from 
 the Poet ; in short he not only preceded but 
 formed the Orator, Philosopher and Hist- 
 orian/' 
 
 It is just to observe that many Dramatic 
 Writers have reprobated the prostitution of 
 the Stage to licentious works. In the Preface 
 to Ben Jonson's Fox* you may see some beau- 
 tiful sentiments on the purity of the Drama. 
 Dr. Johnson, Goldsmith, Young, Addison, 
 and numerous other Dramatic Authors, have 
 denounced in the strongest language immoral 
 Dramas. I am no friend to those slang pieces 
 which bastardize and corrupt the language: 
 and although the beauties of many old Eng- 
 lish Dramatic Writers redeem their faults and 
 obliterate their errors, yet I agree with Gold- 
 smith, that " in fact the revival of those 
 pieces of forced humour, far-fetched conceit 
 and unnatural hyperbole, which have been as- 
 cribed to Shakespeare, is rather gibbeting than 
 raising a statue to his memory." But is it 
 
 * "The Fox, the Alchemist and Silent WomaUy 
 Done by Ben Jonson, and outdone by no Maa.'* 
 
107 
 
 therefore that with Gothic barbarity, I am to 
 excommunicate the Drama from Education 
 and Literature ? Bishop Andrews in his Pre- 
 face to his Lectures on the eloquence of the 
 Pulpit justly observes ** that the abuse of it 
 is worse than that of the Stage, for as faith 
 cometh by hearing, so doth infidelity" but 
 should I therefore denounce the Clerical Pro- 
 fession ? 
 
 You are partipulajly fond oi going abroad 
 to attack and indiscriminately denounce ** fo- 
 reign infidels." You are perhaps not aware 
 that Styles uses Rousseau's Emilius, and you 
 borrow it second hand. Voltaire is the par- 
 ticular object of your fulminations : whatever 
 might be the inconsistency or the irreligion of 
 some of the writings of this extraordinary man, 
 he was the enemy of Priestcraft; and in hisf 
 volumes on Toleration and Commentary on 
 Beccaria^'s Essay on Crimes and Punishments 
 he exhibits himself the valuable friend of phi- 
 lanthropy and human nature. And certain I 
 am, from the follo\ying sentiments, that he 
 would not appropriate to his own fame and 
 profit the writings of any other man. 
 
 " Plagiarism. It is said that this word 
 is derived from the Latin word ' plaga,' and 
 that it signifies the condemnation to the 
 scourge of those who sold freemen for slaves. 
 
108 
 
 This lias nothing in cornraon with the .pla!2;i- 
 arism of authors, who sell not men eiiher en- 
 slaved or free. They only for a liUle money 
 occasionally sell themselves. When an Au- 
 thor sells the thoughts of auother man, for 
 his own, the larceny is called Pla:>iaiisra. 
 The true plagiarist is he who gives the works 
 of another for his own, who inserts in his 
 rhapsodies long passages from a sjood book, a 
 Utile modified. The enlightened reader, see- 
 ing this patch of cloth of gold upon a blanket, 
 soon detects the bungling purloiner.'* 
 
 For myself I shall make no remarks on 
 Plagiarism. Some voluminous and learned 
 Latin works have catalogued the offenders of 
 olden times. Richesource, a French Author, 
 taught it as an Art. In the ** Mask of Ora- 
 tors" he gives ample rules how a man of the 
 humblest ability may become a proficient by 
 changing the mode of expression, by substi- 
 tuting and disguising as the curious Reader 
 may further see in D'Israeli's Curiosities of 
 Literature, vol. 3. 
 
 1 shall now close this expose with a few brief 
 observations on your divinity. I have no more 
 business with your religious opinions than you 
 have with mine. I shall therefore say nothing 
 
 * Dictionnaire Philosophique, par M. De Voltaire ^r^ PlagiaU 
 Translation now publishing by i. and H. L. Hunt, 
 
109 
 
 on docfrhtes. However we differ on these 
 points, we profess and believe tlie same reli- 
 eion. \Vc mav difier on the iiwrfe of the Di- 
 "vine existence, but we both worship and trust 
 in thesame Great Parent of iMankind. We be- 
 lieve the same message, revealed by Jesus 
 Christ, however we may ditfer on the charac- 
 ter or former state of the Messenger, The day 
 is past-r-never more to return, for the explo-p 
 s^ion of the volcano of Bigotry on the world. 
 She may thunder and roll within her own bow- 
 els, but never will the burnhig lava of her erup- 
 tions devastate the Christian dominions of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 I cannot terminate these pages without a 
 condemnation of those horrid and unauthorised 
 descriptions of '' Hell" and the *' Devil"- -" the 
 pre.^ence of a God whose eyes are as a flame 
 of fire" *' rain fire and brimstone, and a hor- 
 ble tempest" *' that comprehensive but com- 
 monly abused word, Hell"'* the burning 
 Lake, the soul plunged in its fiery billows" 
 ^* rushing to the fiery Lake in Hell,"* &c which 
 fill your pages. Tt was said of old, that preach- 
 ing ** damnation" to all outside a Church, was 
 an ingenious mode of filling it. The Devil is 
 one of your principal performers one of your 
 chief Dramatis Personce. I have no doubt that 
 
110 
 
 because I do not believe in him, you will con- 
 ceive me to be a Blasphemer and Atheist. 
 You ought to know, Sir, that this dogma is a 
 dangerous temptation for the ignorant to peg 
 their sins upon. 
 
 ** Pad as he is, the Devil may be abus*d, 
 Be falsely charged, and cau&jblessly accused. 
 When men, unwilling to be blam*d alone. 
 Shift off those crimes on him which are their own." 
 
 "What can be the ground or motive of your 
 shocking description of " Hell V By the mi- 
 nutiae of the detail one would suppose that you 
 had an inventory and plan of its domains. 
 These vulgar '* warnings" are the " men traps 
 and spring gnns" of your divinity. And to 
 seek thus to interest the Young in Religion ! 
 It was the memorable saying of old Roger 
 Ascham's Schoolmaster, '* Love doth work 
 more in a Childe for Virtue and Learning 
 than Fear." Is your doctrine that of Mercy 
 and Salvation? " Is God powerful to kill and 
 to destroy, to damne and to torment, and is he 
 not powerful to save ? Nay, it is the sweetest 
 flowre in the garland of his attributes, it is the 
 richest diamond in his crowu of glory that he is 
 Mighty to save; and this is farre more magnifi- 
 cent for him, than to be styled Mighty to destroy. 
 What would you make the God of the whole 
 world? Nothing but a cruell and dreadful 
 
m 
 
 Erynnis, with curly fiery snakes about h\i 
 head, and firebrands in his hands, thus govern- 
 ing the world? Surely this will make us 
 either secretly to think that there is no God at 
 all if he must needs be such, or else to wish 
 heartily there were none !"* Reason, which 
 I consider the Magnetic needle of the Human 
 Understanding, you proclaim its bane ; al- 
 though by the very use of it in controversial 
 religion you recognise its necessity and law- 
 fulness. It is the distinctive faculty of Man. 
 Doubtless you will consider this a blasphemous 
 opinion : but as Lord Bacon says, " it is no 
 less impious to shut where God Almighty has 
 opened, than to open where God Almighty has 
 shut." Dugald Stewart, whom you recom- 
 mend, most forcibly writes: ** Among the va- 
 rious forms which religious enthusiasm as- 
 sumes, there is a certain prostration of the 
 mind, which, under the specious disguise of a 
 deep humility, aims at exalting the Divine per- 
 fections, by annihilating all the powers which 
 belong to Human nature." 
 And Milton sings 
 
 There wanted yet the master-work, the end 
 Of all yet done ; a creature who, not prone 
 And brute as other creatures, but endued 
 With sanctity of Reason, oight erect 
 
 Cudworth. Sermon preached before the House of Coaimons, 3l8t 
 f March, 1047. 
 
112 
 
 Wis stature, and "Upright with front serene 
 Govern rhn resi, self-knowini* ; a\d from thence, ; 
 Magnanimous, to correspond with Heaven ; 
 But, grateful to acknowledge whence his good 
 Descends, ihuher with heart, and voice, and eyes 
 Directed in devotion, to adore 
 And worship God supreme, who made him thief' 
 Of all his works, 
 
 I think you now know my Religion, if it is 
 an object of interest or curiosity to you. 1 do 
 not expect we shall agree, but I can agree 
 to differ. 
 
 In conclusion I briefly beg, that as you 
 cannot but see the impossibility of abolishing 
 the Drama or the Stage, you will in future 
 shape your animadversions to advance their 
 purity, and to gain them over exclusively to 
 the cause of Virtue and Rational Amusement. 
 
 I can honestly avow that my sole motive in 
 this publication is the advancement of Virtue 
 and Religion, and you will probably in future 
 be secure against further notice from me. I 
 trust that I have maintained the character of 
 a Gentleman and a Christian, and that I have 
 not treated you in these pages with greater 
 seventy than was necessary or your puhlica- 
 lions j ustify. 
 
 But it was not to be endured that the Coun- 
 ty of Warwick, which proudly boasts as na- 
 tives, Shakespeare, Digby Lord Bristol^ 
 
113 
 
 Fulke Greville Lord Brooke^ Drayton, So* 
 merville, and Southern, (though it has not the 
 honour of giving birth to you,) should be in- 
 sulted, and the sacred rights and reputation of 
 the illustrious dead defamed. 
 
 I conclude with two items of advice: before 
 you again publish " Presents," know that 
 '' Charity begins at Home;" and remember, 
 as I have no doubt you will, Bramston*s 
 counsel 
 
 ^ Steal not word for word, nor thought for thoug:hty 
 For you'll be teazM to death, if you are caught 1" 
 
 October 30, 1824. 
 
 PRINTED FOR J. X)RAK, NEW-SFREiiT, BIRMINGHAM. 
 
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