The reformation of the stage is entirely in the power of the Queen, and
in the consequences it hath upon the minds of the younger people, does
very well deserve the strictest care. Besides the indecent and profane
passages, besides the perpetual turning into ridicule the very function
of the priesthood, with other irregularities, in most modern comedies,
which have by others been objected to them, it is worth observing the
distributive justice of the authors, which is constantly applied to the
punishment of virtue, and the reward of vice, directly opposite to the
rules of their best critics, as well as to the practice of dramatic
poets, in all other ages and countries. For example, a country squire,
who is represented with no other vice but that of being a clown, and
having the provincial accent upon his tongue, which is neither a fault,
nor in his power to remedy, must be condemned to marry a cast wench, or
a cracked chambermaid. On the other side, a rakehell of the town, whose
character is set off with no other accomplishment, but excessive
prodigality, profaneness, intemperance, and lust, is rewarded with a
lady of great fortune to repair his own, which his vices had almost
ruined. And as in a tragedy, the hero is represented to have obtained
many victories in order to raise his character in the minds of the
spectators; so the hero of a comedy is represented to have been
victorious in all his intrigues, for the same reason. I do not remember,
that our English poets ever suffered a criminal amour to succeed upon
the stage, till the reign of King Charles the Second. Ever since that
time, the alderman is made a cuckold, the deluded virgin is debauched,
and adultery and fornication are supposed to be committed behind the
scenes, as part of the action. These and many more corruptions of the
theatre, peculiar to our age and nation, need continue no longer, than
while the court is content to connive at or neglect them. Surely a
pension would not be ill employed on some men of wit, learning, and