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 30 of 76 (39%)
page 30 of 76 (39%)
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sleeve, Shoes without heels, miserable Antichristian breeches, with
some two dozen of creepers brooding in the seams; and tho' you take him charitably to your House, feed, clothe, and give him wages, yet he belongs only _to God_, and not you, and you must not think him your _Domestick_, but your _Superior_. Why, what a Scheme is here laid for Vanity and Folly, add how much more shining and beautiful does gratitude and humility appear in such a Depender, than such a bloated opinion as this? Would any honest Gentleman, that has his sences, shew his Indulgence and Generosity to Wit or Learning, on such terms as these? And does not this Chapter shew more the Spirit of Pride in our _Absolver_, relating to his own humour, than the veneration he has for the Clergy, or the Justice he would seem to do them in it? I dare affirm, most of them are against this Opinion, at least I'm sure all the modest part are, who cannot but own themselves subservient to their Patrons that maintain them, tho' at the same time they are Ministers of _Gods holy Words and Sacraments_. Yet he buffly goes on, _He is Gods Minister, not Mans Servant_. [Footnote: _Office of a Chaplain_, p. 178.] And a little way further, he clenches this admirable Notion through and through; therefore, says he, _for a Patron to acconnt such a Consecrated Person, as if he belong'd to him as a Servant, is in effect to challenge Divine Honours, and set himself up for a God_. [Footnote: Ib. _p._ 185.] Here's Ambition, here's Perfection, here's old _Bonner_ for ye. Now by his _Hollidame_, for I can't forbear that Oath now, what can a squeamish Critick, that would make _Remarks_ upon the _Remarker_ call this? But stay, he's at it again, _Dolopion_, says he, _was Priest to _Scamander_, and regarded like the God he belong'd to_. [Footnote: Collier, _p. 113._] Pray mind him, the Priest was worshipp'd equal with the God--oh rare Moralist--if he were, 'twas an _Ægyptian_ Worship, where only _Calves_ and _Apes_, and _Carrots_ and _Onions_, were _Gods_. But pray let us see a little, has not this Divine quotation a tang of _Blasphemy_ |
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