The Theatre: An Essay Upon the Non-accordancy of Stage-plays with the Christian Profession |
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
actors actresses American amusements ancient appear attendance authority boys bring called cause centuries character Christ Christian Church claim concerned consider corrupt crime desire devil drama early effect enacted enter entertainment essay evil example excitement exhibition experience express frequent Friends give given hearts held holy interest late leading least less live London look Lord matter means meet mind months moral nature never noted observed offered once opera parent passed passions peace performances permitted persons play-house players plays pleasures present professing Quakers quote reading reform religion religious remark respect result says serious shows social society spiritual stage stage-plays Sunday testimony theatre theatre-going theatrical things thought thousand tion true truth turn vice virtue visiting week witness writer York young
Popular passages
Page 69 - And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee ; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee ; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee...
Page 18 - 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 57 - ... whereas public sports do not well agree with public calamities, nor public stage-plays with the seasons of humiliation, this being an exercise of sad and pious solemnity, and the other being spectacles of pleasure, too commonly expressing lascivious mirth and levity...
Page 24 - They that turn many to righteousness, shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.
Page 27 - HELL on her straight, haughty brow. They tuned her voice to the note of torment. They writhed her regal face to a demoniac mask. Hate and Murder and Madness incarnate she stood.
Page 59 - Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.
Page 9 - A SERIOUS remonstrance in behalf of the Christian religion, against the horrid blasphemies and impieties which are still used in the English play-houses, to the great dishonour of Almighty God, and in contempt of the statutes of this realm.
Page 82 - For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God : and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God ? 18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
Page 39 - What is the talent of the actor? It is the art of counterfeiting himself, or putting on another character than his own, of appearing different than he is, of becoming passionate in cold blood, of saying what he does not think as naturally as if he really did think it, and, finally, of forgetting his own place by dint of taking another's.
Page 59 - To church, it being thanksgiving-day for the cessation of the plague ; but, Lord ! how the town do say that it is hastened before the plague is quite over, there being some people still ill of it, but only to get ground for plays to be publickly acted, which the Bishops would not suffer till the plague was over...