In his _De Tristibus_, He endeavours to make some Amends for his scandalous _Poems_, and gives _Augustus_ a sort of _Plan_ for a Publick _Reformation_. Amongst other Things, he advises the suppressing of _Plays_, as being the promoters of Lewdness, and Dissolution of Manners.
_Ut tamen hoc fatear ludi quoque semina præbent Nequitiæ, tolli tota Theatra jube._[452]
To the Testimony of _Ovid_, I could add _Plautus_, _Propertius_, and _Juvenal_, but being not willing to overburthen the _Reader_, I shall content my self with the _Plain-Dealer_ as one better known at _Home_.
This _Poet_ in his _Dedication_ to _Lady B_, some Eminent _Procuress_, pleads the Merits of his Function, and insists on being Billeted upon _free Quarter_. _Madam_ (says he) _I think a Poet ought to be as free of your Houses, as of the Play-Houses: since he contributes to the support of both, and is as necessary to such as you, as the Ballad-singer to the Pick-purse, in Convening the Cullies at the Theatres to be pick'd up, and Carried to a supper, and Bed, at your Houses._[453] This is franck Evidence, and ne're the less true, for the Air of a Jest.
I shall now in the Second Place proceed to the _Censures_ of the _State_; And show in a few Words how much the _Stage_ stands discouraged by the _Laws_ of other Countrys and our own.
To begin with the _Athenians_.[454] This People tho' none of the worst Freinds to the _Play-House_ 'thought a _Comedy_ so unreputable a Performance, that they made a Law that no Judge of the _Ariopagus_ should make one.'
The _Lacedemonians_,[455] who were remarkable for the Wisdom of their _Laws_, the Sobriety of their _Manners_, and their Breeding of brave Men. This _Government_ would not endure the _Stage_ in any Form, nor under any Regulation.
To pass on to the _Romans_. _Tully_[456] informs us that their _Predecessours_ 'counted all _Stage-Plays_ uncreditable and Scandalous. In so much that any _Roman_ who turn'd _Actor_ was not only to be Degraded, but likewise as it were disincorporated, and unnaturalized by the _Order_ of the _Censors_.
St. _Augustine_ in the same Book,[457] commends the _Romans_ for refusing the _Jus Civitatis_ to _Players_, for seizing their Freedoms, and making them perfectly Foreign to their _Government_.