mous, that those pious men could not but employ their greatest zeal against a thing which was so very offensive to the church. For it is not the excess of plays, for instance, against which Tertullian cries out !*—“Let us not," says he, "go to the theatre, which is a particular scene of immodesty and debauchery, where nothing is liked but what is disapproved elsewhere; and what is thought most excellent, is commonly what is infamous and lewd. A player, for instance, acts there with the most shameful and naked gestures; women, forgetting the modesty of their sex, dare do that on the stage, and in the view of all the world, which others would blush to commit at home, where nobody could see them.— There the most disgusting scenes are represented by the infamous victims of public debauchery, most wretchedly and shame

* Vide introductory letter, page 59-75.

fully exposed to the view of such women as are supposed to be ignorant of such licentiousness. They are there made the subject of the young men's mirth ; there you are directed to the place where they reside; there they will tell you how much they get by their infamous trade, and there, in a word, those prostitutes are commended, in the presence of those who ought to be ignorant of all those things. I say nothing (adds this father) of what ought to be buried in eternal silence, for fear that by barely mentioning such horrid actions I should in some measure be guilty of them. *"

But the other fathers are not so reserved as he, and make no scruple to discover all they know about it. You must not imagine that I am ambitious of quoting all they have said: Those matters which are so freely described in another language, might prove offensive in ours, therefore I will only leave you to guess what enormities they have mentioned, by some of those lesser infamies of which I dare give an account out of their writings.

to the residence of the Cyprian fair, and being made acquainted with the profits of infamy, evidently alludes to Terence, who has generally employed a courtezan, as one of his agents for carrying on the plot.

Yet however deficient Terence may be in want of moral in his pieces, (the common failing of the ancient drama) the most fastidious critic could not condemn him to the full extent of the father's exclamation.

R. M.

Salvian was afraid to say any thing about it :-“ Who," says he, “can treat of those shameful representations, those dishonest speeches, and of those lascivious and immodest actions, the enormity and offence of which are discoverable by that restraint which they in their own nature impose upon us not to rehearse them ?”

Lactantius is not so reserved ; his most

; favourable thoughts about it are these : “ To what end do those impudent' actions of the players tend, but to debauch the youth of the age ? Their effeminate bodies in women's dresses, represent the most lacivious gestures of the most dissolute.” And a little lower he says, “from the licentiousness of speech, they proceed to that of action, &c. &c.*" Pray be you

judge whether all this can be acceptable to modesty?

St. Cyprian, who, ex proffesso, composed a book of public shows, describes at large all the infamous practices there. We may also read something of that abominable custom of their appearing naked on the theatres in St. Chrysostom, St. Jerom, and St. Augustin. The first of these does not scruple comparing those of his time who went to plays to David, who took pleasure in seeing Bathsheba naked in her bath, and saying that the theatre is a rendezvous of all manner of debaucheries, that 'tis full of impudence, abomination and impiety. A more modern writer (Alexander ab Alexander) describing the shows of the ancients, and especially their Bacchanalia, gives us such horrible pictures of their public infamies and prostitutions, that I should tremble to repeat them. You may imagine, Sir, there could be nothing good in them, since the