foolish Actions, yet deferves compaffion and Advice rather than derifion. But to fee Men fpending their Fortunes, as well as lives, in a Courfe of regu lar Folly, and with an induftrious as well as expenfive idleness running thro' tedious fyftems of impertinence, would have fplit the fides of Heraclitus, had it been his Fortune to have been à SpeEtator. It's very eafie to decide which of these impertinents is the moft fignal: the Virtuofo is manifeftly without a Competitor. For our follies are not to be measured by the Degree of Ignorance that appears in 'em, but by the ftudy, labour and expence they coft us to finifh and compleat 'em.

So that the more Regularity and Artifice there appears in any of our Extravagancies,the greater is the Folly of 'em. Upon this fcore it is that the laft mentioned deservedly claim the Preference to all others. They have improved fo well their Amufements into an Art, that the credulous and ignorant are induced to believe there is fome fecret Vertue, fome hidden Mystery in thofe darling Toys of theirs when all their Bustling amounts to no more than a learned impertinence and all they teach men is but a fpecious method of throwing away both Time and Money.

"The Illufions of Poetry are fatal to none but the Poets themselves: Sidonius having lately mifcarried upon the Stage, gathers fresh Courage and is "now big with the Hopes of a Play, writ by an "ancient celebrated Author, new-vampt and fut"bifht up after the laudable Cuftom of our moic dern Witlings. He reckons how much he fhall ૯ get by his third day, nay, by his fixth; how much by the Printing, how much by the Dedica

tion, and by a modeft Computaion concludes the "whole fum, will amount to two hundred Pounds, "which are to be diftributed among his trufty. "Duns. But mark the fallacy of Vanity and Self"conceit: The Play is acted, and cafts the Audi❤ence into fuch a Lethargy, that They are fain "to damn it with Tawning, being in a manner de"prived of the Ufe of their biffing Faculty. Well "fays, Sidonius, (after having recover'd from a pro"found Confternation) Now muft the important PerJon ftand upon his own Leggs. Right, Sidonius, "but when do you come on again, that CoventGarden Doctors may prefcribe your Play inftead “of Opium?

"The Town is not one jot more diverted by "the Divifion of the Play-houfes: the Players, "perform better tis true? but then the Poets "write worfe, Will the uniting of Drury-Lane and "Lincoln's-Inn-Fields mend Matters? No, ------for then what the Town fhould get in writing, they "would lofe it in Acting.

*ADramatick Poet has as hard a Task on't to manage, as a paffive obedience Divine that preaches before the Commons on the go th. of January.

To please the Pit and Galleries he mult take care to lard the Dialogue with ftore of luscious stuff, which the righteous call Baudy; to please the new Reformers he must have none, otherwife gruff Jeremy will Lafh him in a third View.

* I very much Queftion, after all, whether Collier would have been at the Pains to lafh the immoralities of the ftage, if the Dramatick Poets had not been guilty of the abominable Sin of making familiar now and then with the Backflidings of the Caffock.

* The

The Griping Ufurer, whofe daily labour and nightly Care and Study is to opprefs the Poor, or over-reach his Neighbour, to betray the Trufts his Hypocrify procured; in fhort to break all the Pofitive Laws of Morality, crys out, Oh! Diabolical, at a poor harmless Double Entendre in a Play.

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""Tis prepofterous to pretend to reform the "Stage before the Nation, and particularly the Town, is reform'd. The Bufinefs of a Dramatick "Poet is to copy Nature, and reprefent things as CC they are; Let our Peers give over whoring and drinking, the Citizens, Cheating; the Clergy, their Quarrels, Covetousness and Ambition, the Lawt yers, their ambi-dextrous dealings, and the Women intriguing, and the stage will reform of Course.

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Formerly Poets made Players, but now adays 'tis "generally the Player that makes the Poet. How many Plays would have expired the very firft Night of their appearing upon the Stage, but for "Betterton, Barry, Bracegirdle, or Wilks's inimitable Performance.

"Who ever goes about to expofe the Follies of "others upon the Stage, runs great hazard of expofing himself firft, and of being made Ridicu "lous to thofe very People he endeavours to "make fo..

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I doubt whether a Man of Senfe would ever give himfelf the trouble of writing for the Stage, if he had before his Eyes the fatigue of "Rehearsals, the Pangs and Agonies of the first "day his Play is Acted, the Disappointments of "the third, and the Scandal of a Damn'd "Poet.

* The

"The reafon why in Shakespear and Ben. JohnJon's Time Plays had fo good Succefs, and that "we fee now fo many of 'em mifcarry, is because "then the Poets wrote better than the Audience Fudg'd; whereas now-a-days the Audience judge better than the Poets write.

* He that pretends to confine a Damfel of the Theatre to his own Ufe, who by her Character is a Perfon of an extended Qualification, acts as unrighteous, at leaft as unnatural, a Part, as he that would Debauch a Nun. But after all, fuch a Spark rather confults his Vanity, than his Love, and would be thought to ingrofs what all the young Coxcombs of the Town admire and co

vet.

"Is it not a kind of Prodigy, that in this ¿ wicked and cenforious Age, the fhining Daphne "fhould preferve her Reputation in a Play "House?

The Character of a Player was Infamous amongst the Romans, but with the Greeks Honourable! What is our Opinion? We think of them like the Romans, and live with them like the Greeks.

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"Nothing fo powerfully excites Love in us "Men, as the view of thofe Limbs of Women's Bodies, which the Establish'd Rules of Modesty "bid 'em keep from our Sight. No wonder then "if Aglaura, Cafonia, Floria, and in general all "the Women on our Stages, are fo fond of acting in Men's Cloaths.

"Cafonia is Young, I own it: But then Cafo"nia has an African Nofe, hollow Eyes, and a "French Complexion; fo, that all the time the

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"acted in her Sex's Habit, her Conquefts never "extended further than one of her Fellow-Play( ers, or a Caft-Poet. Mark the Miracles of Fancy: Cafonia acts a Boy's Part, and Tallus, "one of the firft Patricians, falls defperately in "Love with her, and prefents her with two Hun"dred great Sefterces (a Gentlewoman's Portion) "for a Night's Lodging.

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"One would imagine our Matrons fhould be "mighty Jealous of their Husbands Intriguing with Players: But no, they bear it with a Chri"ftian Patience. How is that poffible? Why, "they Intrigue themselves, either with Rofcius the Tragedian, Flagillus, the Comedian, or Bathillus, "the Dancer.

Nothing Surprizes me more, than to fee Men Laugh fo freely at a Comedy, and yet account it a filly weakness to Weep at a Tragedy. For is it lefs natural for a Man's Heart to relent upon a Scene of Pity, than to be tranfported with Joy upon one of Mirth and Humour? Or is it only the alteration of the Features of one's Face that makes us forbear Crying? But this alteration is undoubtedly as great in an immoderate Laughter, as in a most desperate Grief; and good Breeding teaches us to avoid the one as well as the other, before thofe for whom we have a Refpect. Or is it painful to us to appear tender-hearted and exprefs grief upon a Fiction? But without quoting great Wits who account it an equal Weakness, either to weep of laugh out of Meafure, can we expect to be tickled by a Tragical Adventure? And befides, is not Truth as naturally reprefented in that as in a Comical one? Therefore as we do not think it ridiculous to fee a whole Audience laugh at a mer

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