An essay on the character, immoral, and antichristian tendency of the stageWilliams and Smith, 1806 - 139 pages |
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acknowledge actor admiration advocates apostasy approbation argument Athens audience bosom cause censure CHAP character charm children of men Chris Christianity COMEDY Congreve considered contemptible creature dangerous degraded degree of guilt depraved despise dignity disgusting divine Dramatic Art Dramatic writing effect effeminacy eminence evil expence fashionable fatal favour favourite feelings female fiction folly friend of human Garrick glory Gospel gratified Greece happiness Heaven heroes honour human heart human nature immoral infamy influence injurious insipid instructor ISLE OF WIGHT Jesus of Nazareth Johnson Kotzebue libertine licentious lived Livy luxury mankind ment mind misery modern modesty moral constitution moral improvement ness never object passions persons Play-house players plays pleasure principles produced profession prostitute racter reason recreation refinement religion remark render Roman scenes sentiments Shaftsbury simplicity soul spirit Stage suffer talents taste tendency Theatre theatrical productions thing tion tragedy truth vice virtue virtuous writers
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Page 94 - O! thou all righteous and eternal King! Who father of the fatherless art call'd, Protect my son! Thy inspiration, Lord! Hath fill'd his bosom with that sacred fire, Which in the breasts of his forefathers burn'd : Set him on high like them, that he may shine The star and glory of his native land ! Then let the minister of death descend, And bear my willing spirit to its place.
Page 100 - ... considerations of duty proceed and conclude. And their schemes of happiness, though formed for beings at once immortal and departing, include little which avowedly relates to that world to which they are removing, nor reach beyond the period at which they will properly but begin to live. They endeavour to raise the groves of an earthly paradise, to shade from sight that vista which opens to the distance of eternity.
Page 77 - Playhouse opened in any part of the kingdom, than it becomes surrounded by an halo of brothels ? Of this truth the neighbourhood of the place I am now speaking of (Goodman's Fields Theatre) has had experience ; one parish alone, adjacent thereto, having, to my knowledge, expended the sum of £1300 in prosecutions, for the purpose of removing those inhabitants whom, for instruction in the science of human life, the Playhouse had drawn thither.
Page 57 - Csesar, at an advanced period of life, to appear on the stage to recite some of his own works, he felt his character, as a Roman citizen, insulted and disgraced; and in some affecting verses, spoken on the occasion, he incensed the audience against the tyrant, by whose mandate he was obliged to appear before them. "After having lived...
Page 122 - The Theatre then, in this view, cannot reasonably be considered as an amusement. Unless it assume a higher character — unless it answer some moral purpose, it would be preposterous to represent it as...
Page 70 - Ah ! let not Censure term our fate our choice, The stage but echoes back the public voice ; The drama's laws, the drama's patrons give, For we that live to please, must please to live.
Page 94 - ... land." Pride, ambition, revenge, the love of glory, all which Christianity is intended to extirpate from the human breast, and which have been the bane and misery of man, are here traced to a source which makes me shudder : — the inspiration of Jehovah hath fill'd her son's breast with the SACRED fire of these unhallowed passions! What page of the New Testament warrants any of its votaries to adopt such sentiments? St. James would never have addressed such a prayer to the God of Heaven : —...
Page 52 - Vows, he has placed a kind unwedded fair one in an equally amiable and affecting point of view. The Noble Lie, written by the same dramatist, is another proof of the felicity of his invention in the extenuation of guilt." Let us hear no more then of the moral improvement of the Stage; its character is indelibly marked, and a review of its favourite, productions is as dishonourable to the present, as the plays of that period were disgraceful to the age of Charles the Second: the principles are the...
Page 58 - P 4 vain, or vicious part of society, become contemptible. " There is not upon record among the sayings of bold men, one more remarkable than that of Sobrius the tribune, to Nero the Roman emperor ; when asked by the emperor, why he, who was one of his personal guards, had conspired against him ? He answered, I loved you as much as any man, as long as you deserved to be loved, but I began to hate you, when, after the murder of your wife and mother, you became a charioteer, a COMEDIAN and a buffoon.
Page 77 - ... a Play-house and the regions about it are the very hotbeds of vice. How else comes it to pass, that no sooner is a Play-house opened in any part of the kingdom, than it becomes surrounded by an Halo of Brothels...