_Fletchers Faithfull Shepheardess_ is remarkably Moral, and a sort of Exhortation to Chastity. This _Play_ met with ill Judges, 'twas Hiss'd before half _Acted_, and seems to have suffer'd on the account of its Innocence.[98] Soon after _Ben. Johnson_ and _Beaumont_ appear and justifie the Author in a Copy of Verses. And as _Beaumont_ commends Modesty in _Fletcher_, so he is commended himself by Mr. _Earl_ for the same Quality.[99]
_Such Passions, Such Expressions meet my Eye, Such Wit untainted with Obscenity._
And as I remember _Jasper Main_ has some stroaks to the same purpose.[100] _Fletcher_ is still more full for the Cause. Indeed nothing can be more express. He delivers himself by way of _Prologue_; where the _Poet_ speaks in his own Person. The _Prologue_ to the _Woman-Hater_, very frankly lets the Audience know what they are to expect. _If there be any amongst you, (says he) that come to hear Lascivious Scenes, let them depart; For I do pronounce this, to the utter discomfort of all two-penny Gallery Men, you shall no Bawdry in it._ We find in those days Smut was the expectation of a Coarse Palate, and relish'd by none but two-penny Customers. In the _Knight_ of the _Burning Pestle_, part of the _Prologue_ runs thus. _They were banish'd the Theatre at_ Athens, _and from_ Rome _hiss'd, that brought Parasites on the Stage with Apish Actions, or Fools with uncivil Habits, or Courtezans with immodest words_. Afterwards _Prologue_, who represents a Person, gives us more to the same purpose.
----_Fly far from hence. All private taxes, immodest phrases, Whatever way but look like Vitious. For wicked mirth, never true Pleasure brings; For honest Minds, are pleas'd with honest things._
I have quoted nothing but Comedy in this Author. The _Coronation_ is another. And the _Prologue_ tells you there is
_No Undermirth such as does lard the Scene, For Coarse Delight, the Language here is clean. And confident our Poet bad me say, He'll bate you but the Folly of a Play. For which altho' dull Souls his Pen despise; Who think it yet too early to be wise. The Nobles yet will thank his Muse, at least Excuse him, cause his Thought aim'd at the Best._
Thus these _Poets_ are in their Judgments clearly ours. 'Tis true their Hand was not always steady. But thus much may be aver'd, that _Fletcher's_ later _Plays_ are the most inoffensive. This is either a sign of the _Poets_ Reformation; or that the exceptionable Passages belonged to _Beaumont_, who dyed first.