A10335:174
Th'overthrow of stage-plays, by the way of controversy betwixt D. Gager and D. Rainoldes…Th'overthrow of stage-playes, by the way of controversie betwixt D. Gager and D. Rainoldes…
Th'overthrow of stage-plays, by the way of controversy betwixt D. Gager and D. Rainoldes wherein all the reasons that can be made for them are notably refuted; th'objections answered, and the case so cleared and resolved, as that the judgement of any man, that is not froward and perverse, may easily be satisfied. Wherein is manifestly proved, that it is not only unlawful to be an actor, but a beholder of those vanities. Whereunto are added also and annexed in th'end certain latin letters betwixt the said Master Rainoldes, and D. Gentiles, reader of the civill law in Oxford, concerning the same matter.Th'overthrow of stage-playes, by the way of controversie betwixt D. Gager and D. Rainoldes wherein all the reasons that can be made for them are notably refuted; th'objections aunswered, and the case so cleared and resolved, as that the iudgement of any man, that is not froward and perverse, may easelie be satisfied. Wherein is manifestly proved, that it is not onely vnlawfull to bee an actor, but a beholder of those vanities. Wherevnto are added also and annexed in th'end certeine latine letters betwixt the sayed Maister Rainoldes, and D. Gentiles, reader of the civill law in Oxford, concerning the same matter.
Middelburg: printed by Richard Schilders, 1599
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
But if one, desirous of an harlots company, could have her so cheap, and should plead for him self that the money he spendeth on her is his own, & the charge not great, neither would he give the less unto the poor for that, nor more without it: were this a lawful bar to stay us from accusing him of 7riot, I mean, of wasteful and unhonest spending; (give it a fitter English name, if you know any; I took that which our best interpreters agree on;) but might we not accuse him thereof upon the same ground that Scripture doeth the prodigal son? Or, if some Preacher, more severe then pCato, should deal so strictly and rigorously with him; might he ask what similitude there is, or can be, between his expense of two pence half-penny, and the prodigal son, who in such a sort, as he did, spent all, and brought himself to the extremest misery? Much fault have you found with my hard incomparable comparisons and similitudes; & some of them are 8hard in deed, though none incomparable: but I must say thereof, as the Apostle of his boasting, qyou have compelled me. For when I took a softer and more gentle course, as here, to encounter that answer made to Momus, Thou sayest the charge is great; but thou mayst come, and look on, Momus, and pay nothing, no man doeth ask thee a penny; ⟨p. 145⟩I resembled it to an answer which the prodigal son might thus have made to his reprover, Thou blamest me for wasting, but I wast none of thine; thou mayst drink with me scot-free, if thou be a good fellow, & welcome: albeit the very word, wasting, might have showed I meant unhonest spending, (for rthings spent honestly are not wasted,) chiefly sith I used it in respect of the riot noted by our Saviour; and in the unthrifts speech, drawing good fellows to drink with him, I pointed to his lusty, excessive, dissolute sdrinkings with lewd companions like himself; yet you did reply, that, if he had been as moderate and thrifty in spending at his board, as you were at your plays, he might well enough have said to any niggard, that should have unwisely found fault with him, as much as I make him say, not with the note of a prodigal, but with the commendation of an ingenuous and liberal disposition.