The wisest Part of the World were always pleafed with Fables, as the most delightful Means to convey Instruction, and leave the strongest Impression on our Minds. Nay, the facred Prophets of old, could not invent any thing to heighten the Character of the future Meffiah more, than that he should speak all in

Parables.

As for the Fables which in Homer, or on the Stage (I fpeak of the ancient Stage only) give any Offence, they had, in those old Times, a Thing which they called Allegory, which with a great Deal of Clearnefs and Eafe, obviated all the Objections and Criminations of the most malicious Obfervators. Nor is the Word confin'd to Heathenism, we meet with it in St. Paul, Galat 4. 24. and the Application of it; and to this Origen himself was glad to have Recourse, when Celfus made his Objections against the New and the Old Testament. As to the Stories of Eve and the Serpent, Cain and Abel, the Building of Babel, Sodom, with Lot and his two Daughters, which are Incests and pompous Wickedness, beyond any thing fabld in Thyeftes, and the like, says an English Author of Reputation, on this very Subject.

Shall the Christians only (says Origen on this Occafion) be deny'd the Benefit of the Allegory? May not we be allow'd our Mystery, and Tropological Meaning? Thus we find, That what Lactantius objects against Homer, and the Heathen Tragedy, is by Celfus and the Heathens objected against our Bible and Religion. Besides, Clemens of Alexandria, and Eufebius, many Ages ago, made the Discovery that Homer had most of Fables from fome Hebrew Tradition, or Original. Nor is Æschylus to be cenfur'd for bringing in Apollo fing ing at a Wedding, that much Happiness shoukk enfue upon it, and that the Child that was to be the Product of it should live long. Apollo had the Name of Laxias from his double Meaning, which thewed the Nature of Oracles Be not out of Patience, Thetis, fays

be

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be, this Child shall live; his Memory, his better Part, which Homer has ensur'd to the End of the World, according to what our Spencer says,

For not to have been dipt in Lethe Lake,
Cou'd save the Son of Thetis from to die;
But that blind Bard did him immortal make
In Verses steeped in Font of Castalie.

If therefore it appears from what I have faid, That the Fables themselves, with the Drama made use of, are not fo rafhly to be cenfur'd; fure no Body will be so vainly critical, as to stick upon the particular Sayings mentioned by you, Madam, from Ariphanes, Plato, and Lactantius. For their good Sayings we have St, Paul citing a whole Verse out of a Comedy of Menander; and Clemens of Alexandria brings more Proofs from Menander, and other Comic Poets, than from all the Bible.

On the other Hand, where ill Men are represented, we ought not to take it amiss, that according to their Character they say all things; for when we remember the Saying, we remember, that it is the Saying of a wicked Perfon.

If with the Gods above I can't prevail,
To nove the Gods below I cannot fail.

This is objected as impious in Juno. I will not justify it by what is faid by a ludicrous Author, on this Point, viz. Why may not Juno take as much Liberty with her Tongue, as Job's Wife, or any other Old Testament Matron? First, because it may feem to fome fcrupuJous Hearer, to carry the Appearance, or Glance of Irreligion; and next, because, it does not seem to stand in need of any Justification at all, according to the Pagan Theology: For Pluto, Jupiter's Brother, and the third Sovereign of Nature, is King of Hell, and had had his Temples and Sacrifices, as had the Furies themselves, so different a Notion had the Heathens of them, from what we have of the Devils. They were the legal Instruments of the Punishment of the Wicked; but then they carry'd not with them the Notion of being fallen from a beatifick State, by a Rebellion against Omnipotence, and doom'd to be there as their own Place of Punishment.

It is an easy Matter to find more Abuse of the Sayings of the Holy Scripture, and the Consequences of it more tragical, than from any perverted Piece of Poetry; and thus, Curse ye Mero, serves every Body's Turn that has a Mind to be cutting of Throats. And Campanella, and Pedro de Guzman would urge much more against the Bible's being in the vulgar Tongue, on this Account, than against the Nurse of Heresy, this Hydra's Head of Dramatic Poefy.

I know not whether we have any Eye and Infpection on the Conduct of the Pulpit; but there is in fome of our neighbouring Countries, and I can fee no Reason why there might not be proper Officers, such as Mr. Harrington affigns to this Office in his Oceana, who shou'd take Care of the Doctrine of the Stagez that nothing be there broach'd, but what tends to the Edification, as well as to the Delight of the Specta. tors and Audience.

But to fay, Euripides brought Harlots on the Stage; in that I believe you are led aftray, by the Zeal of some designing Declaimer against the Theatre; for his Phedra was fo far from being fo, that the chofe rather to die than admit of fuch a Guilt. But had this been true, it had been the Practice of but one Poet; for Æschylus was so far from doing so, that he introduces not one Woman that can be suspected to be in Love: The Fault of One Poet is not to be charg'd to the Reft, nor on the Art itself.

:

If I grant, That in Tragedy, the Felicity of the Invention, the Novelty of the Notion, the Strength

of

of Verse, the Easiness of Expreffion, still heighten'd from Act to Act; together with the Richness of the Figures, the Pomp of the Theatre, the Habits, Gesture, and Voice of the Actors, at the fame Instant charming both the Eyes, and the Ears; so the Soul being won, the Judgment is surpriz'd, and the whole Man at once led captive; for a Man must indeed be of Brass or Stone to resist so many united Charms, and be Master of himself in the midst of fuch Allurements; granting all this, I fay, Where is the Hurt? What is the Danger, if the End of all this be (as it evidently is) to shew Virtue in Triumph ? The nobleft Thoughts make the strongest Impressions: And the justest Passions find the kindest Reception among us. The Medicine is not the less Wholesome for the Honey, or the Pill for its gilding, nor can a moral Lesson be less profitable, when adorn'd with all the Decorations of the Theatre. I muft own indeed, that this is the most bewitching of all Diversions, and for that Reason, I think, the Theatre to be a Magazine, not to be trusted to vulgar Hands, and common Heads, or ever to escape the special Eye, and Direction of a virtuous Government; since it might otherwise so far degenerate (not to say it has fo far degenerated) as to deferve the Afperfions and ill Names, under which the Jefuits, and fome akin to them in this Nation, wou'd render it odious: As when they call it the School of Vice, the Sanctuary of Venus, the Temple of Impiety, the Furnace of Babylon, the Confiftory of Impurity, the Shop of Lewdness, the Pest of the Common-wealth, the Seminary of Debauchery, Sathans Festival, and the Devil's Dancing-School.

If it be unpardonable, and all together unallowa ble, to mention or name any Vices at all; then is there no Book free, that is either Historical, Theological or Moral. The Holy Scriptures are full of Narrations of the excess of Wickedness in every Kind;

the

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the Divines harangue against the Vices they have defcrib'd; but Tragedy never represents a Vice, or even the frail Approaches to any one without a Punithment. I speak of just Tragedy, not of such Stuff, as you, Madam, have with a great deal of Reafon condemn'd in Fletcher, and fuch as is in Poffeffion of the Stage at present, full of Lewdness, Cruelty, Villany; in which all the Advances to Vice are set off with luscious Descriptions, which, with the effeminating, amorous Speeches, are got by Heart by the young Girls and young Fellows, and take such Poffeffion of their Hearts and Hands, that they quite extirpate all that is wholesome and useful.

But, Madam, there is no such thing among the Tragedies of the Ancients, nor is there any thing ✓ like it in its Constitution; this is all Ufurpation, and Intrusion upon the Scene, by its having been, through the Carelessness of the Government, permitted to the Management of ignorant, and abandon'd Creatures, who have nothing in their Eyes, but the Money they can any way convey to their own Private Pockets, not minding nor caring whether they corrupt the Audience; Religion and Morality being an equal - Jest to these scandalous Managers of the Theatre.

I must therefore acknowledge, that most of Mr. Collier's Criminations on the Stage, as it is debas'd in this Nation, are too true and just; but then the Conclufion he draws from this Abuse, is by no Means just, even from the Principles he fixes at the Opening of his own Book, where he lays it down, for an undoubted Maxim, That the Wit of Man cannot inventany thing more conducive to Virtue, and destructive of Vice, than the Drama; and yet for the Abuses of Particulars, he would destroy the Diversion: Whereas, all that he could in Reafon demand, or contend for, was a Reformation of the Stage, by removing it from the Hands of Ignorance and Irreligion, and restoring it