In treating this Head, I hope the Reader does not expect that I should set down Chapter and Page, and give him the Citations at Length. To do this would be a very unacceptable and Foreign Employment. Indeed the Passages, many of them, are in no Condition to be handled: He that is desirous to see these Flowers let him do it in their own Soil: 'Tis my business rather to kill the _Root_ than _Transplant_ it. But that the Poets may not complain of Injustice; I shall point to the Infection at a Distance, and refer in General to _Play_ and _Person_.
Now among the Curiosities of this kind we may reckon Mrs. _Pinchwife_, _Horner_, and Lady _Fidget_ in the _Country Wife_; Widdow _Blackacre_ and _Olivia_ in the _Plain Dealer_. These, tho' not all the exceptionable _Characters_, are the most remarkable. I'm sorry the Author should stoop his Wit thus Low, and use his Understanding so unkindly. Some People appear Coarse, and Slovenly out of Poverty: They can't well go to the Charge of Sense. They are Offensive like Beggars for want of Necessaries. But this is none of the _Plain Dealer_'s case; He can afford his Muse a better Dress when he pleases. But then the Rule is, where the Motive is the less, the Fault is the greater. To proceed. _Jacinta_, _Elvira_, _Dalinda_, and _Lady Plyant_, in the _Mock Astrologer_, _Spanish Friar_, _Love Triumphant_ and _Double Dealer_, forget themselves extreamly: And almost all the _Characters_ in the _Old Batchelour_, are foul and nauseous. _Love_ for _Love_, and the _Relapse_, strike sometimes upon this _Sand_, and so likewise does _Don Sebastian_.
I don't pretend to have read the _Stage_ Through, neither am I Particular to my Utmost. Here is quoting enough unless 'twere better: Besides, I may have occasion to mention somewhat of this kind afterwards. But from what has been hinted already, the Reader may be over furnish'd. Here is a large Collection of Debauchery; such _Pieces_ are rarely to be met with: 'Tis Sometimes painted at Length too, and appears in great Variety of Progress and Practise. It wears almost all sorts of Dresses to engage the Fancy, and fasten upon the Memory, and keep up the Charm from Languishing. Sometimes you have it in Image and Description; sometimes by way of Allusion; sometimes in Disguise; and sometimes without it. And what can be the Meaning of such a Representation, unless it be to Tincture the Audience, to extinguish Shame, and make Lewdness a Diversion? This is the natural Consequence, and therefore one would think 'twas the Intention too. Such Licentious Discourse tends to no point but to stain the Imagination, to awaken Folly, and to weaken the Defences of Virtue: It was upon the account of these Disorders that _Plato_ banish'd Poets his _Common Wealth_: And one of the _Fathers_ calls _Poetry_, _Vinum Dæmonum_ an intoxicating _Draught_, made up by the Devils _Dispensatory_.