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…

Wherefore sith the Romans would not have suffered such things to be performed by infamous persons, being matters of great state and magnificence, and, as they thought, of great devotion and necessity: it followeth, by your reason, that they did not judge professed whores and strumpets to be infamous persons. Now, if this consequent touching whores be false, as your ^plaw showeth it is: then is the consequution of your reason faulty. Which your self may see by the other branch thereof, avouched jointly, to wit, that the Romans would not have suffered such things to be done at all, if they had judged them evil: and by him, whose sentence, that it is a virtue ⁸to set out plays bravely, you add for the gracing and countenancing of your reason, I mean, even by Aristotle. For he, in reckoning it among magnificent actions ⁹if any where men think they ought to set out plays bravely (so he qualifieth his sentence with a circumstance of moment omitted by you in alleging it,) respecteth the opinions and customs of the Grecians: who thought it an honourable thing to be at charges with furnishing and decking companies of Musicians, of Dancers, of Players, in their solemn feasts, & usual processions celebrated to their Gods. As among the Athenians, for example sake, ^qDemosthenes, when no man of ⟨p. 71⟩his tribe was willing to bear the charge thereof, did promise of his own accord that he ¹would bear it, and thereupon provided golden crowns and costly garments for a company ²in the feast of Bacchus. This feast ^rhad as filthy matters represented, though by an other sex, in the shows & plays belonging thereunto, as that of Flora had. Yet, such was the brutish superstition of Heathens, that