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Essays on the Stage - Preface to the Campaigners (1689) and Preface to the Translation of Bossuet's Maxims and Reflections on Plays (1699) by Thomas D'Urfey
page 29 of 76 (38%)
Obstinacy and Stubborn Will in t'other, a humour resolv'd to defend and
carry on a hot Argument, tho it has been never so plain and reasonably
confuted: the Positions and Answers on this subject I shall not insert
here, but leave the Reader, whose curiosity obliges him, to the Papers
themselves, only I wish the _Absolver_ had made _Newgate_ the last Scene
of that part of his _Immorality_, and by an humble acknowledgment to his
Patron that redeemed him, (I hope the word will bear in this place) have
spar'd his Office of _Absolution_ in another Scene, and consequently
given no occasion to believe that his disobedient humour, and turbulent
nature, still proceeds daily, to cultivate his Party with the same
Principles as far as he can.

Another spice of _Immorality_ I believe I can make appear by his Pride,
and tho' in other places it is to be found, yet is most fairly instanc'd
in his _Book of Essays_, where, tho' we find one Chapter wholly upon
that Vice, which, to shew his Justice, begins with a Compliment upon the
same _Juvenal_, now he has use for him whom he call'd Pimp before, yet
it has not bulk enough to Skreen from us his haughtiness in another,
which he calls the _Office of a Chaplain_, for there you shall find
he has collected the Spirit of them all, and blended them into one
Character; I mean the ill Spirits of the ill _Chaplains_, _those that
are good I honour_. Here you may find his Likeness in _Don Quixot_,
_Roger_ in the _Scornful Lady_, _Bull_ in the _Relapse_, _Say-grace_,
_Cuff-cushion_, and others, all learning their Lessons of their stubborn
Superior our Reformer, and all tending to governing, brow-beating,
snubbing, commanding Families, and the like, but not one word of
_humility_ tack'd to't, for fear of spoiling the Character; there
you may find 24 pages, one after another, all written to prove most
gloriously, that 'tis impossible for a _Chaplain_ to be a Servant; that
tho' you find a poor fellow in a tatter'd Excommunicated Gown with one
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