claim subjection to their jurisdiction in theatricals, and make my appeal at once to the scripture, the proper guide for christians! If the practice of the present stage be not at variance with the precepts of our Saviour and his disciples, if that divine record does not positively condemn our pursuits, I shall remain as perfectly indifferent upon this subject, to the opinions of Tertullian and Cyprian, as I should be to the ipse dixit of TOM O'NOKES, or JOHN O'STYLES!!!

And now Madam, with every sense of gratitude for your attention and perseverance, I respectfully take my leave, by subscribing myself,

Madam,

Your most obedient,

Much obliged, humble Servant,

Robert Mansel.

FATHER CAFFARO'S LETTER

UPON THE

Lawfulness or Unlawfulness of the Stage;

WITH A

BRIEF INTRODUCTION.

INTRODUCTION.

WHEN I had the good fortune to encounter Father Caffaro's discourse, it struck me as a most suitable prolegomena to a stage-defence.-I hailed him as a powerful ally-1 congratulated myself upon meeting with an ecclesiastic who had undertaken the task of investigating the objections started by the earlier churchmen, and combating them upon their own grounds. I conceived (however the world might despise my feeble efforts, or condemn the liberties I have taken with opinions rendered venerable by antiquity and sacred by prescription) the religious and conscientious would pay some degree of deference to one of their own community.-Nor must my illustrious

H

coadjutor be rejected because he was of a different persuasion to our present adversaries, nor reproached with the terms of PAPIST and JESUIT to depreciate his candour, industry and information. It was my design (as I have premised) to have made him my introducer to the public, and under his venerable protection, I might perhaps have more certainly commanded respect and attention, but some considerable time having elapsed from the final arrangement of "Free Thoughts," to the period of delivering the work into the hands of my publisher, I had leisure, opportunity, and inclination to collect fresh matter, and I was tempted to throw it into the form of a prefatory letter, by which means the learned professor is removed from the van to the centre. He therefore (to pursue the metaphor) loses the post of honour, and my antagonists may take advantage of the undisciplined state, and badly marshalled system, evident in the van and rear-but my centre will remain inviolable, and bid defiance to all their arts and all their efforts.

Father Caffaro's letter, or rather the translation, is prefixed to a tragedy written by a Mr. Motteux, called BEAUTY IN DISTRESS, published in the year 1698→→→

It appears the English dramatist was himself labouring under some conscientious scruples, and applied for satisfaction on that head, to a DIVINE of the CHURCH of ENGLAND, who favoured him with the following

answer.

To Mr. MOTTEUX,

936641A

To Mr. MOTTEUX,

AUTHOR OF THE TRAGEDY CALLED

"BEAUTY IN DISTRESS,"

Concerning the Lawfulness and Unlawfulness of Plays.

SIR,

Since you have been pleased to desire my opinion about the lawfulness or unlawfulness of writing plays for the stage, I shall give it you with all the freedom and impartiality which becomes one of my function. Upon reflecting on the present management of our theatres, on the actions, humours, and characters, which are daily represented there, which are for the most part so lewd and immodest, as to tend very much to the debauching the youth and gentry of our English nation; I might very well dissuade you from giving any countenance to such unmanly practices, by offering any of your works to the service of the stage.

But though theatrical representations are become an offence and scandal to most, yet I am not of their