Thus we see what a fine time lewd people have on the English stage. No censure, no mark of infamy, no mortification must touch them. They keep their honor untarnished and carry off the advantage of their character. They are set up for the standard of behavior and the masters of ceremony and sense. And at last, that the example may work the better they generally make them rich and happy and reward them with their own desires.
Mr. Dryden, in the Preface to his Mock Astrologer, confesses himself blamed for this practice: for making debauched persons his protagonists or chief persons of the drama; and for making them happy in the conclusion of the play, against the law of comedy, which is to reward virtue and punish vice. To this objection he makes a lame defense. And answers, that he knows no such law constantly observed in comedy by the ancient or modem poets. What then? Poets are not always exactly in rule. It may be a good law though 'tis not constantly observed; some laws are constantly broken and yet ne'er the worse for all that. He goes on and pleads the authorities of Plautus and Terence. I grant there are instances of favor to vicious young people in those authors, but to this I reply:
1. That those poets had a greater compass of liberty in their religion. Debauchery did not lie under those discouragements of scandal and penalty with them, as it does with us. Unless, therefore, he can prove heathenism and Christianity the same, his precedents will do him little service.
2. Horace, who was as good a judge of the stage as either of those comedians, seems to be of another opinion. He condemns the obscenities of Plautus and tells you men of fortune and quality in his time would not endure immodest satire. He continues, that poets were formerly admired for the great services they did: for teaching matters relating to religion and government; for refining the manners, tempering the passions, and improving the understandings of mankind; for making them more useful in domestic relations and the public capacities of life. This is a demonstration that vice was not the inclination of the muses in those days, and that Horace believed the chief business of a poet was to instruct the audience.
Lastly, Horace having expressly mentioned the beginning and progress of comedy, discovers himself more fully. He advises a poet to form his work upon the precepts of Socrates and Plato and the models of moral philosophy. This was the way to preserve decency and to assign a proper fate and behavior to every character. Now if Horace would have his poet governed by the maxims of morality, he must oblige him to sobriety of conduct and a just distribution of rewards and punishments.
Mobile users, click here to return to the main page.
