OCR Text |
Show Wi by the Stage i Dy Favour to 'vicious young People in thof Authors, but to this I repl VA . ‘That thofe Poets had a greater com pafs of Liberty in their Religion Debau ;Y*"WO"L Yhy Mt }Sr Kwiow chery did not lie under thofe Difcouragements of Scandal,and Penalty, with the asie does wich us: Unlefs therefore H can prove Heathenifm, and Chriftianit the fame, his Precedents will do him lictl mey o 2ly, Horace who was as good a judg ndSk. | fervice 14 e tenn of the Stage, as either of thofe Comedians mvihie feems to be of another Opinion. = H demns the obfcenities of Plautus, an i bs: you Men of Fortune and Quality i contell hi mkl bimel time, 'would not endure immodeft Satir. pe 4 i v He continues, that Poets were formerly ad- reerrc@;tefwammil'ed for the great fervices they did. Fo o i by t€aching Matters relating to Religion, an X uf el Government ; For refining the Manners improvin an Paffions th temperin Vi oy fomo the Underftandings of Mankind : For ma kingthem more ufeful in Domeftick Rela JihLations, and the publick Capacities of Life i L'his is a demonitration that Vice was no ,wthe Inclination of the Mufes in thofe days ! »and that Horace believ'd the chief bufinef was, to Inftruét. the Audience goff 0? " He adds farther that the Choras ought t f bfo}‘e"'p;.turn upon the - Argument of the Drama allthat-fpzzyi}and fupport the Defign of the 4é#s. Tha o L The 1b:4 |