item: #1 of 16 id: A03185 author: Heywood, Thomas, d. 1641. title: An apology for actors Containing three briefe treatises. 1 Their antiquity. 2 Their ancient dignity. 3 The true vse of their quality. Written by Thomas Heywood. date: 1612 words: 18783 flesch: 63 summary: With that in rage shee left the place , and I my dreame , for at the instant I awaked , when hauing perused this vision ouer and ouer againe in my remembrance , I suddenly bethought mee , How many antient Poets , Tragicke and Comicke , dying many ages agoe liue still amongst vs in their works , as amongst the Greekes , Euripide● : M●nand●r ▪ Sophocles , Eupolis , Eschilus , Aristophanes , App●llodorus , A●axandrides , Nichomachus , Alexis , Tereus and others , so among the Latins : Attilius , Actius , Melithus , Pla●tus , Terens , & others whome fore breuity sake I omit . I haue striu'd ( my Lord ) to make good a subiect , which many through enuy , but most through ignorance , haue sought violently , ( and beyond merit ) to oppugne : in which , if they haue either wandred through spleene , or erred by non-knowledge , I haue ( to my power ) plainly and freely illustrated , propounding a true , direct , and faithfull discourse , touching the Antiquity , the ancient Dignity , and the true vse of Act●●● , and their quality . keywords: action; actors; antiquity; art; bee; booke; caesar; citty; comedies; comedy; dayes; earth; emperour; english; euen; euery; fit; hath; haue; hee; himselfe; king; like; loue; man; men; nations; neuer; ouer; owne; place; playes; poets; present; princes; publicke; quality; rome; selfe; speake; stage; tcp; text; theater; themselues; thomas; thou; time; vpon; vse; world; yeare; ● e; ● ● cache: A03185.xml plain text: A03185.txt item: #2 of 16 id: A28844 author: Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne, 1627-1704. title: Maxims and reflections upon plays (In answer to a discourse, Of the lawfullness and vnlawfullness of plays. Printed before a late play entituled, Beauty in distress.) Written in French by the Bp. of Meaux. And now made English. The preface by another hand. date: 1699 words: 37550 flesch: 66 summary: Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. A Popular one perhaps it may be , but sure a wilder Suggestion , never was offered to men of Common sense , than , that if the Stage be damned , the Art used by Moses , and David , and Solomon , must be no more . keywords: author; chap; christians; church; conversation; discourse; diversions; god; good; hath; holy; love; man; matter; men; passions; people; persons; plays; pleasure; publick; reason; self; sense; set; sin; stage; things; think; thomas; time; use; virtue; words; world cache: A28844.xml plain text: A28844.txt item: #3 of 16 id: A29842 author: Baker, Richard, Sir, 1568-1645. title: Theatrum redivivum, or, The theatre vindicated by Sir Richard Baker, in answer to Mr. Pryn's Histrio-mastix ... date: 1662 words: 28580 flesch: 57 summary: Certain●ly , even this as forcibly , as that , apparently ; for seeing there are two principall Motives to Virtue , Praise , and R●●ward ; and two things likewise that deterr from Vice , Shame , and Punishment● what can be more forcible , either to draw us to Goodness , or to withdraw us from Vitiousness , then where the examples of all these are most lively shewed , and represented to us ? Certainly , unless men be stark fools ; rather wilfully to run into Pudles , and Quagmires , then 〈◊〉 take a fair way when it is shewed ●●em ; they cannot choose by such ex●mples , but be drawn to walk in the ●●aths of Virtue . The noble Authour of this Book seems fairly to design nothing more , then Truth , and especially in clearing the Sense of those two great Luminaries of the Church , Saint Cyprian , and Tertullian , his Master , in his Book De Spectaculis , wherein his principal drift onely is , to cry out against , and sever●●y to condemn the mixtures of Idolatry with their publick Shews : some intentions there were of annexing the Treaties of Tertullian , and Saint Cyprian , both to this Discourse ; that every man might see , what the Authour of this Book saw in them : keywords: argument; book; cause; con ●; delight; devil; fathers; fol; god; good; great; hath; heathen; hi ●; let; ma ●; makes; man; men; obscenity; places; players; plays; reason; saith; seeing; shew; speeches; tertullian; th ●; tha ●; things; time; unlawfull; use; virtue; world; ● e; ● hat; ● n; ● nd; ● o; ● ot; ● s; ● t; ● y; ● ● cache: A29842.xml plain text: A29842.txt item: #4 of 16 id: A32678 author: Charles II, King of England, 1630-1685. title: Whereas complaint hath often been made to us that divers persons do rudely press and with evil language and blows force their way into our theatres ... at the time of their public representations and actings, without paying the price established ... date: 1673 words: 1335 flesch: 60 summary: Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). keywords: eebo; english; tcp; text cache: A32678.xml plain text: A32678.txt item: #5 of 16 id: A33903 author: Collier, Jeremy, 1650-1726. title: A defence of The short view of the profaneness and immorality of the English stage, &c. being a reply to Mr. Congreve's Amendments, &c. and to the vindication of the author of The relapse / by Jeremy Collier ... date: 1699 words: 35090 flesch: 78 summary: T●us by Cursing and Swearing , the Abuse of Scripture and Profane Jests , which are so frequent on the Stage , the Bold●ess of the Crime grows less remarkable , and the Terrors of Conscience are laid asleep : And if there happens to be Wit in the Ca●e , Why must the Charge be given in Furs and Scarlet , when the Law will operate every jot as well in Leat●●● ? However , this Gentleman will have it that an Ambassador who comes with advantageous Proposals , stands in no need of Equipage to procure him Respect . keywords: amend; author; c. p.; character; comedy; congreve; gentleman; god; good; ibid; ill; lady; love; man; matter; people; play; poet; profaneness; quality; reader; reason; relapse; religion; sense; stage; things; view; vindicator; way; words; world; ● ● cache: A33903.xml plain text: A33903.txt item: #6 of 16 id: A33918 author: Collier, Jeremy, 1650-1726. title: A second defence of the Short view of the prophaneness and immorality of the English stage, &c. being a reply to a book, entituled, The ancient and modern stages surveyed, &c. / by Jeremy Collier ... date: 1700 words: 36920 flesch: 73 summary: Now says the Surveyor , Wealthy People have as much need of M●●al●●y as the Poor . Surveyor , p. 36. keywords: answer; author; authority; business; c. p.; cap; character; chorus; comedy; defence; drama; english; expression; fable; good; horace; ibid; instance; law; lewdness; lib; man; men; mimi; moral; nature; people; person; place; plautus; play; poet; reader; reason; right; sence; stage; surveyor; tho; time; tragedy; tully; view; way cache: A33918.xml plain text: A33918.txt item: #7 of 16 id: A33919 author: Collier, Jeremy, 1650-1726. title: A short view of the immorality, and profaneness of the English stage together with the sense of antiquity upon this argument / by Jeremy Collier ... date: 1698 words: 63408 flesch: 78 summary: l. 2. for apon't , r. upon 't . Here is a large Collection of Debauchery ; such Pieces are rarely to be met with : 'T is Sometimes painted at Length too , and appears in great Variety of Progress and Practise . keywords: audience; author; business; cap; case; character; christian; church; comedy; conscience; don; dryden; end; english; fashion; fine; god; gods; good; heaven; honour; house; ibid; instances; jupiter; lady; language; lewdness; life; lord; love; man; manners; matter; men; modesty; nature; old; ought; people; person; place; play; pleasure; poet; practise; priest; purpose; quality; reader; reason; religion; sense; stage; things; think; tho; thought; time; vice; virtue; way; women; world cache: A33919.xml plain text: A33919.txt item: #8 of 16 id: A35682 author: Collier, Jeremy, 1650-1726. Short view of the immorality and profaneness of the English stage. title: The usefulness of the stage, to the happiness of mankind, to government, and to religion occasioned by a late book written by Jeremy Collier, M.A. / by Mr. Dennis. date: 1698 words: 26800 flesch: 61 summary: In the beginning of his Book he produces his own reasons why the Stage reform'd ought to be encourag'd , and in the end of the same Book he brings other mens opinions to ●●ew that every Stage ought to be abolish'd ; and so endeavours to ruine his own Reasons by a long scroll of other peoples Authorities , which is c●rtainly a pleasant condescension ; but such is the fantastick humility of pedantick pride . As if he were so great an enemy to the truth , that he would suborn the very dead to destroy the f●rce of what he himself had asserted . keywords: answer; authority; book; collier; comedy; drama; english; general; good; government; happiness; life; man; men; mr collier; nature; passions; people; place; plays; pleasure; poetry; reason; religion; stage; theatre; thing; time; tragedy; vices; writ cache: A35682.xml plain text: A35682.txt item: #9 of 16 id: A36512 author: Drake, James, 1667-1707. title: The antient and modern stages survey'd, or, Mr. Collier's view of the immorality and profaness of the English stage set in a true light wherein some of Mr. Collier's mistakes are rectified, and the comparative morality of the English stage is asserted upon the parallel. date: 1699 words: 76375 flesch: 64 summary: * Adol●scentulos autem & ●amborum & Comaediarum Spectatores esse lex prohibeat , prius quam ●●tatem attigeri●t , 〈◊〉 qua & 〈◊〉 caeteris accubar● jam 〈◊〉 rit , & ab omnibus , vel ebrietatis , vel aliarum inde nascentium rerum incommodis discip●lina liberos efficiat Pol. lib 7. c. 17. Collier's Moral E●say about Duelling . keywords: action; actors; antients; antiquity; argument; aristophanes; aristotle; audience; authority; business; case; character; charge; chorus; comedy; cou'd; design; drama; english; euripides; fable; fathers; faults; general; gods; good; head; honour; horace; ibid; instances; judgment; justice; kind; law; love; man; manners; matter; means; men; modesty; moral; morality; mr collier; nature; new; notice; occasion; oedipus; opinion; order; people; persons; place; plautus; play; poets; power; practice; publick; purpose; quality; reader; reason; religion; rest; roman; seneca; sense; service; shew; shou'd; sophocles; sort; stage; thing; tho; thought; time; tragedy; use; virtue; way; world; wou'd; ● ● cache: A36512.xml plain text: A36512.txt item: #10 of 16 id: A39719 author: Flecknoe, Richard, d. 1678? title: Love's kingdom a pastoral trage-comedy : not as it was acted at the theatre near Lincolns-Inn, but as it was written, and since corrected / by Richard Flecknoe ; with a short treatise of the English stage, &c. by the same author. date: 1664 words: 264818 flesch: -77 summary: xml:id=A39719-011-b-2440>Am. Right and methodical ! how d' ye ? and what a clock ? I wager now next is , what news ? or somewhat about the weather the ordinary discourse of those who can discourse of nothing , â�� and when was I pray you saw me last ? xml:id=A39719-013-a-0360>Am. Right , so you told me ; and thereupon I said he help you then to a certain spritely instrument to dance after call'd a whip , a whip ; d' ye hear Sir , worth a hundred of your Kits and Violins , to make such gallants as your self to frisk and caper . keywords: 003; 007; 010; 012; 015; 018; 020; 025; 033; 039; 041; 046; 050; body xml; date xml; dateline xml; floatingtext xml; head xml; hi xml; id="a39719; item xml; join="left">'s; lemma="as; lemma="do; lemma="it; lemma="know; lemma="now; lemma="pam; lemma="she; lemma="who; lemma="will; lg xml; list xml; opener xml; pc unit="sentence; pc xml; pos="acp; pos="av; pos="av_j; pos="cc; pos="crq; pos="d; pos="fw; pos="n1; pos="pns; pos="po; pos="uh; pos="vmb; pos="vvi; pos="xx; reg="'t; reg="all; reg="and; reg="are; reg="as; reg="but; reg="her; reg="in; reg="love; reg="me; reg="not; reg="or; reg="pam; reg="so; reg="the; reg="with; reg="you; sp xml; speaker xml; stage xml; trailer xml; type="contract2; w lemma="about; w lemma="action; w lemma="actus; 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w lemma="vice; w lemma="virgin; w lemma="virtue; w lemma="want; w lemma="water; w lemma="we; w lemma="weary; w lemma="welcome; w lemma="wench; w lemma="while; w lemma="with; w lemma="witness; w lemma="woman; w lemma="wood; w lemma="wrong; w lemma="your; w xml; xml conversion; xml version="1.0 cache: A39719.xml plain text: A39719.txt item: #11 of 16 id: A41298 author: Filmer, Edward, b. ca. 1657. title: A Defence of dramatick poetry being a review of Mr. Collier's View of the immorality and profaneness of the stage. date: 1698 words: 24952 flesch: 60 summary: Be it Enacted that all Persons calling themselves Scholars , going about begging ; all Seafaring Men , pretending Losses of their Ships or Goods on the Sea , going about the Country begging ; All idle Persons going about in any Country , either begging or using any subtle Craft , or unlawful Games or Plays , or feigning themselves to have knowledge in Physiognomy , Palmistry , or other like Crafty Science , or such like Fantastical Imaginations : All Persons that be , or utter themselves to be Proctors , Procurors , Patent-gatherers , Collectors for Goals , Prisons or Hospitals , &c. For here the Predecessors of the Romans counted Plays uncreditable , &c. But their kinder Successors , belike were of a contrary State-Opinion . keywords: argument; audience; author; case; character; christian; church; collier; comedy; diversion; divine; dryden; god; good; heathen; honour; house; love; man; nay; opinion; play; players; publick; reason; self; set; stage; subject; text; virtue; viz; way; world cache: A41298.xml plain text: A41298.txt item: #12 of 16 id: A41299 author: Filmer, Edward, b. ca. 1657. title: A farther defence of dramatick poetry being the second part of the review of Mr. Collier's View of the immorality and profaneness of the stage / done by the same hand. date: 1698 words: 16475 flesch: 64 summary: I durst lay him a Wager , that I 'll cull him a whole Set of them , out of the poor Innocent Sir Martin Marral , as topping ones as the very biggest in his whole Collection , and all founded upon as Natural a Construction , &c. And possibly in so doing , I may give my Reader a little clearer Light into the Strength and Dint of Mr. Collier's Eloquent Reasoning upon that Subject . 'T is true , that strictness may be much more practicable in the French Model of Plays ; and for this amazing Reason , viz. that the French who are the sprightliest Conversation of all People in the World , can nevertheless be the dullest of Mankind at their Play-houses ; can be contented to hear a Play made up of a short-winded Plot , and a few long-winded Speeches , much about enough for the Argument of one of our Acts , and go home as much regaled as from a Misers Feast : And the Devils in 't if their Dramatick Authors cannot furnish out so scanty a Banquet , with all the foremention'd Unities ; and pride in it accordingly . keywords: author; brother; character; collier; coupler; dramatick; english; fashion; foppington; god; lord; man; nay; play; reason; relapse; self; sir; stage; text; time; tunbelly; viz; work cache: A41299.xml plain text: A41299.txt item: #13 of 16 id: A50839 author: Hammond, Anthony, 1668-1738. title: A letter to A.H. Esq., concerning the stage date: 1698 words: 6567 flesch: 63 summary: As to the First Objection , That the Debauchery of the Town is to be attributed to the Looseness of our Plays and Stage . It is Pity that England shou'd be the only Exception , and since we have some of our Nobility , who have a Taste of Eloquence , and all those Vertues which adorn the Stage , that It shou'd want their Assistance by whom it was at first rais'd , and since maintain'd : If it has fallen from its Purity , or never arriv'd to what they fully lik'd , let it not want their Countenance , without whom 't is impossible to be any thing at all , and by whom it may become all that we can wish . keywords: collier; good; man; men; plays; shou'd; stage; world; wou'd cache: A50839.xml plain text: A50839.txt item: #14 of 16 id: A51496 author: Caffaro, Francesco, ca. 1650-1720. title: Beauty in distress as it is acted at the theatre in Little Lincolns-Inn-Fields by His Majesties servants / written by Mr. Motteux ; with a discourse of the lawfulness & unlawfulness of plays, lately written by the learned Father Caffaro, divinity-professor at Paris, sent in a letter to the author by a divine of the Church of England. date: 1698 words: 523661 flesch: -127 summary: pos=n-ab reg=Mistress xml:id=A51496-131330 facs=A51496-016-a-1760>Mrs. Bracegirdle . POys'ning and stabbing you have seen me scape , And , what you think no mighty thing , a Rape : But can poor Poet scape , like richer Drudges , The dreadful Votes of his five hundred Judges ? He has no Epilogue . What shall he do ? H sent me a Petition here for you . That it â�� Cry ' Mercy ! That a Billetdoux . [ She pulls out a Paper , and puts it up in haste ; then pulls out a Petition , and reads it . ] Reads . To you great Wits , dread Critics , nicest Beaux ! Gay Sparks with borrow'd Wit , and Masks with borrow'd [ Clothes ! You , who to chat or ogle fill yond' Benches , Or tempt with Love our modest Orange Wenches ! Rakes , Cuckolds , Ciâ��â�� , Squires â�ª Cullies great and small ! I think , Sirs , this Pâ��tition's to you all . [ Speaks this line of her self . Reads . The trembling Author , by this short Petition , Most humbly shows , he in a sad condition : Doom'd to be thought profane , or write dull Trash , Venture Damnation , or some Zealot's Lash : H chose to trust your Clemency to live , For well he knows , that sometimes you forgive . Then spare these Scenes , and let all People see Plays may be lik'd , yet grave and moral be . Seem pleas'd and edifi'd to go away , And your Petitioner shall never pray â�� Without remembring you and his third day . [ Here ends the Petition . ] Now , Sirs , I know what you would have him ask ? As for you Rakes , that no uneasy Task , Good Wine for you , full Pockets , and a Mask . And for you , Masks , still in your Pray'rs â�� but stay , Who ever knew a Vizard Mask to pray ? For Cits , he shou'd ask Trade ; for Courtiers , Places ; For Squires , more Wit ; and for you , Beaux , more Graces , Kind trusting Taylors , full Wigs , and new Faces ; And for you , Jockeys , better luck at Races : For Sharpers wealthy Bubbles , and much Play ; For Souldiers , no more fighting , and full Ri. Away ! fly instant Fate ! is in my hand . Thou mayst more safely tempt the greedy Lyon , When with contracted Paws he grumbles o're his prey . Be gone ! I never threaten twice . Villain , stab , or desist . Pushes text; body xml; eos; facs="a51496; head xml; hi xml; id="a51496; item xml; join="left">'s; sp xml; speaker xml; stage xml; trailer xml; type="contract1">i