The business of _Plays_ is to recomend Virtue, and discountenance Vice; To shew the Uncertainty of Humane Greatness, the suddain Turns of Fate, and the Unhappy Conclusions of Violence and Injustice: 'Tis to expose the Singularities of Pride and Fancy, to make Folly and Falsehood contemptible, and to bring every Thing that is Ill Under Infamy, and Neglect. This Design has been oddly pursued by the English _Stage_. Our _Poets_ write with a different View, and are gone into an other Interest. 'Tis true, were their Intentions fair, they might be _Serviceable_ to this _Purpose_. They have in a great measure the Springs of Thought and Inclination in their Power. _Show_, _Musick_, _Action_, and _Rhetorick_, are moving Entertainments; and rightly employ'd would be very significant. But Force and Motion are Things indifferent, and the Use lies chiefly in the Application. These Advantages are now, in the Enemies Hand, and under a very dangerous Management. Like Cannon seized they are pointed the wrong way, and by the Strength of the Defence the Mischief is made the greater. That this Complaint is not unreasonable I shall endeavour to prove by shewing the Misbehaviour of the _Stage_ with respect to _Morality_, and _Religion_. Their _Liberties_, in the Following Particulars are intolerable. _viz._ Their _Smuttiness_ of _Expression_; Their _Swearing_, _Profainness_, and _Lewd Application of Scripture_; Their _Abuse_ of the _Clergy_; Their _making_ their _Top Characters Libertines_, and giving them _Success_ in their _Debauchery_. This Charge, with some other Irregularities, I shall make good against the _Stage_, and shew both the _Novelty_ and _Scandal_ of the _Practise_. And first, I shall begin with the _Rankness_, and _Indecency_ of their _Language_. CHAP. I. _The Immodesty of the_ Stage. 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_.