A Short View of the Immorality, and Profaneness of the English Stage: Together with the Sense of Antiquity on this ArgumentCollier, Jeremy
General
A Short View of the Immorality, and Profaneness of the English Stage: Together with the Sense of Antiquity on this Argument
Collier, Jeremy
Theater -- England -- Early works to 1800; Theater -- Moral and ethical aspects -- Early works to 1800
buckle on his _Bason_, and draw out for the Combat, Let us hear his
Resentment.
Don Quix. _Oh thou old black Fox with a Fire brand in thy Tail, thou very
Priest: Thou Kindler of all Mischeifs in all Nations. De'e hear Homily: Did
not the Reverence I bear these Nobles----I would so thrum your Cassock you
Church Vermin_.[385]
At last he bids _Bernardo_ adieu in Language too Profane and Scandalous to
relate.[386] In the Fourth _Act_ His Song calls the Clergy _Black Cattle_,
and says _no Body now minds what they say_. I could alledge more of his
Courtship to the _Order_, but the _Reader_ might possibly be tired, and
therefore I shall proceed in the
_Third_, place to his want of Modesty, and Regard to the Audience. As for
Smut _Sancho_ and _Teresa_ talk it broad, and single sens'd, for almost a
page together.[387] _Mary_ the _Buxsom_ has likewise her share of this
Accomplishment. The first Epilogue is Garnish'd with a Couplet of it;[388]
_Marcella_ the Maiden Shepherdess raves in Raptures of Indecency; And
sometimes you have it mixt up with Profaness, to make the Composition the
stronger.[389] But this entertainment being no Novelty, I shall pass it
over; And the rather because there are some other Rarities which are not to
be met with else where.
Here he diverts the Ladies with the Charming Rhetorick of _Snotty-Nose,
filthy Vermin in the Beard, Nitty Jerkin, and Louse Snapper, with the
Letter in the Chamber-pot, and natural Evacuation_;[390] with an abusive
description of a Countess, and a rude story of a certain Lady, and with
some other varieties of this Kind, too coarse to be named. This is rare
stuff for Ladies, and Quality! There is more of _Physick_, than _Comedy_ in
such Sentences as these. _Crocus Metallorum_ will scarse turn the Stomack
more effectually. 'Tis possible Mr. _Durfey_ might design it for a
_Receipt_. And being Conscious the _Play_ was too dear, threw a Vomit into
the Bargain.[391] I wonder Mr. _Durfey_ should have no more regard to the
_Boxes_ and _Pitt_! That a Man who has _studied the Scenes of Decency and
Good Manners with so much Zeal_, should practise with so little Address!
Certainly _indefatigable Diligence, Care and Pains_, was never more
unfortunate![392] In his _third Part_, _Buxsome_ swears faster, and is more
scandalous, and impertinent, than in the other two. At these Liberties, and
some in _Sancho_, the Ladies took Check. This Censure Mr. _Durfey_ seems
heartily sorry for. He is _extreamly concern'd that the Ladies, that
Essential part of the Audience_, should think his Performance _nauseous and
undecent_.[393] That is, he is very sorry they brought their Wits, or their
Modesty along with them. However Mr. _Durfey_ is not so Ceremonious as to
submit: He is resolved to keep the Field against the Ladies; And endeavours
to defend himself by saying, _I know no other way in Nature to do the
Characters right, but to make a Romp, speak like a Romp, and a clownish
Boor blunder_ &c.[394]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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