To these Authorities of our own Nation, I shall add a considerable Testimony out of Mr. _Corneille_. This Author was sensible that tho' the Expression of his _Theodore_ was altogether unsmutty,[101] 'Yet the bare Idea of Prostitution uneffected, shock'd the Audience, and made the Play miscarry. The _Poet_ protests he took great care to alter the natural Complexion of the Image, and to convey it decently to the Fancy; and delivered only some part of the History as inoffensively as possible. And after all his Screening and Conduct, the Modesty of the Audience would not endure that little, the Subject forced him upon. He is positive 'the Comedies St. _Augustine_ declaim'd against, were not such as the _French_. For theirs are not spectacles of Turpitude, as that Father justly calls those of his Time. The _French_ generally speaking, containing nothing but examples of Innocence, Piety and Virtue.'
In this Citation we have the Opinion of the _Poet_, the Practise of the _French_ Theatre, and the Sense of that _Nation_, and all very full to our purpose.
To conclude this _Chapter_. By what has been offer'd, it appears that the _Present English Stage_ is superlatively Scandalous. It exceeds the Liberties of all Times and Countries: It has not so much as the poor plea of a _Precedent_, to which most other ill Things may claim a pretence. 'Tis mostly meer Discovery and Invention: A new World of Vice found out, and planted with all the Industry imaginable. _Aristophanes_ himself, how bad soever in other respects, does not amplyfie, and flourish, and run through all the Topicks of Lewdness like these Men. The _Miscellany Poems_ are likewise horribly Licentious. They are sometimes Collections from Antiquity, and often, the worst parts of the worst _Poets_. And to mend the Matter, the Christian _Translation_, is more nauseous than the _Pagan_ Original. Such stuff I believe was never seen, and suffer'd before. In a word, If Poverty and Diseases, the Dishonour of Families, and the Debauching of Kingdoms, are such valuable Advantages, then I confess these Books deserve encouragement. But if the Case is otherwise, I humbly conceive the Proceeding should be so too.
An other Instance of the Disorders of the _Stage_ is their _Profaness_: This Charge may come under these two particulars.