From Chapter IV. The Stage-Poets Make Their Principal Persons Vicious and Reward Them at the End of the Play
The lines of virtue and vice are struck out by nature in very legible distinctions; they tend to a different point, and in the greater instances the space between them is easily perceived. Nothing can be more unlike than the original forms of these qualities: the first has all the sweetness, charms, and graces imaginable; the other has the air of a post ill carved into a monster, and looks both foolish and frightful together. These are the native appearances of Good and Evil. And they that endeavor to blot the distinctions, to rub out the colors or change the marks, are extremely to blame. 'Tis confessed as long as the mind is awake and conscience goes true there's no fear of being imposed on. But when vice is varnished over with pleasure and comes in the shape of convenience, then the case grows somewhat dangerous; for the fancy may be gained and the guards corrupted and reason suborned against itself. And thus a disguise often passes when the person would otherwise be stopped. To put lewdness into a thriving condition, to give it an equipage of quality, and to treat it with ceremony and respect is the way to confound the understanding, to fortify the charm, and to make the mischief invincible. Innocence is often owing to fear, and appetite is kept under by shame; but when these restraints are once taken off, when profit and liberty lie on the same side, and a man can debauch himself into credit, what can be expected in such a case, but that pleasure should grow absolute and madness carry all before it? The stage seems eager to bring matters to this issue; they have made a considerable progress and are still pushing their point with all the vigor imaginable. If this be not their aim, why is lewdness so much considered in character and success? Why are their favorites atheistical and their fine gentlemen debauched? To what purpose is vice thus preferred, thus ornamented and caressed, unless for imitation? That matter of fact stands thus, I shall make good by several instances. To begin then with their men of breeding and figure. Wildblood sets up for debauchery, ridicules marriage, and swears by Mahomet. Bellamy makes sport with the Devil, and Lorenzo is vicious and calls his father bawdy magistrate. Horner is horridly smutty, and Harcourt false to his friend who used him kindly. In The Plain Dealer, Freeman talks coarsely, cheats the widow, debauches her son, and makes him undutiful. Bellmour is lewd and profane, and Mellefont puts Careless in the best way he can to debauch Lady Plyant. These sparks generally marry the top ladies, and those that do not are brought to no penance, but go off with the character of fine gentlemen. In Don Sebastian Antonio, an atheistical bully, is rewarded with the Lady Moraima and half the Mufti's estate. Valentine in Love for Love is (if I may so call him) the hero of the play. This spark the poet would pass for a person of virtue, but he speaks too late. 'Tis true, he was hearty in his affection to Angelica. Now without question, to be in love with a fine lady of 30,000 Pounds is a great virtue! But then abating this single commendation, Valentine is altogether compounded of vice. He is a prodigal debauchee, unnatural and profane, obscene, saucy and undutiful, and yet this libertine is crowned for the man of merit, has his wishes thrown into his lap, and makes the happy exit. I perceive we should have a rare set of virtues if these poets had the making of them! How they hug a vicious character, and how profuse are they in their liberalities to lewdness! In The Provoked Wife, Constant swears at length, solicits Lady Brute, confesses himself lewd, and prefers debauchery to marriage. He handles the last subject very notably and worth the hearing. There is (says he) a poor sordid slavery in marriage that turns the flowing tide of honor and sinks it to the lowest ebb of infamy. 'Tis a corrupted soil; ill nature, avarice, sloth, cowardice, and dirt are all its product—but then constancy (alias whoring) is a brave, free, haughty, generous agent. This is admirable stuff both for the rhetoric and the reason! The character of Young Fashion in The Relapse is of the same staunchness, but this the reader may have in another place.
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