University of Virginia Library

THE PREFACE.

Much has been Writ of late pro and con, about the Stage, yet the Subject admits of more, and that which has not been hetherto toucht upon; not only what that is, but what it was, about which some People have made such a Busle. What it is we see, and I think it has been sufficiently display'd in Mr. Collier's Book; What it was in former Ages, and how used in this Kingdom, so far back as one may collect any Memorialls. is the Subject of the following Dialogue. Old Plays will be always read by the Curious, if it were only to discover the Manners and Behaviour of several Ages ; and how they alter'd. For Plays are exactly like Portraits Drawn in the Garb and Fashion of the time when Painted. You see one Habit in the time of King Charles I. another quite different from that, both for Men and Women, in Queen Elizabeths time; another under Henry the Eighth different from both; and so backward all various. And in the several Fashions of Behaviour and Conversation, there is as much Mutability as in that of cloaths. Religion and Religious matters was once as much the Mode in publick Entertainments, as the Contrary has been in

some times since. This appears in the different Plays of several Ages: And to evince this, the following Sheets are an Essay or Specimen.

Some may think the Subject of this Discourse trivial, and the persons herein mention'd not worth remembering, But besides that I could name some things contested of late with great heat, of as little, or less Consequence, the Reader may know that the Profession of Players is not so totally scandalous, nor all of them so reprobate, but that there has been found under that Name, a Canonized Saint in the primitive Church; as may be seen in the Roman Martyrology on the 29th of March; his name Masculas a Master of Interludes, (the Latin is Archimimus, and the French translation un Maitre Comedien) who under the Persecution of the Vandals in Africa, by Geisericus the Arian King, having endured many and greivious Torments and Reproaches for the Confession of the Truth, finisht the Course of this glorious Combat. Saith the said Martyrology.

It appears from this, and some further Instances in the following Discourse, That there have been Players of worthy Principles as to Religion, Loyalty, and other Virtues ; and if the major part of them fall under a different Character, it is the general unhappiness of Mankind, that the Most are the Worst.