A

TREATISE

OF

Plays and Shews.

T

HE common Criticism of Plays is founded on an Application of the Poetick Rules to those particular Works of which it intends to discover the Beauties or Defects. It confiders the Choice of the Subject, whether it be Historical, Fabulous, or a Mixture of both; It confiders the Beginning, the Progress and the Catastrophe, if the Paffions are defcrib'd with Delicacy, or with Force and Vehemence, according to their Nature, or to their Degree; if the Characters and Manners of Nations, of Ages, of Conditions, of Sexes, and of Persons are preserv'd; if the AEtion, Time, and Place, are conform'd to those Rules which the Poets have prescrib'd

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prescrib'd themselves, that the Atterition of the Audience being not divided they may be the more susceptible of that Pleasure or Instruction which is intended to be given them; if the Verfification is fine and correct; if the Words by their Turn, by their Justness, by their Sound, by their Gravity, by their Sweetness, by their Richness and their Magnificence, by their Pleasingness, by their Languifhment, or by their Vivacity contribute to the Exactness of the Picture which the Thoughts they express are to raise in the Mind, or to that Emotion of the Heart which is to be excited by the Sentiments they represent. According as these things are found or are wanting in the Compofition of a Dramatick Poem it is receiv'd with Applaufe or with Contempt.

The Criticism which I now undertake is not of this Nature, it leaves to Poefy all her Jurisdiction, but it is likewife much Superiour to her; it has a Right to correct even what is confor mable to the most strict and severe Laws of that Art. As it is guided by the Religion of JESUS CHRIST, it follows infallible Rules, and provided that it applies them with Justness and Fide

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lity it cannot be deceiv'd in Judgment. I do not write here for those who not believing the Christian Religion, tho they outwardly profess it, are only to be look'd on as Baptiz'd Heathens, who disavow by their Impiety and Irre. ligion, the Offer which their Parents have made of them to the Church, and retract the most Solemn Promises of their Baptifm. Their profound and miserable Blindness makes them reject with Contempt the most certain Truths of Christianity; and as these are the Principles and Foundations of this Discourse, they will be unhappy enough not to receive any Fruit from it.

'Tis only design'd then for those Christians who partake in some manner of the Gospel, acknowledging its Mysteries because those do not make them uneasy; but not acknowledging its Maxims (at least not in their PraEtice) because these condemn their Life and Libertinism; as they resolve to abandon themselves to the Desires of their Heart, they corrupt the moft Solid Truths, they seek to find that Innocent which they will not cease to do, they obicure their Minds by a voluntary Darkness, that they may fol

low that Custom without Remorse which they will not overcome; and the Fear they are in of discovering such Truths as would hinder them from finning at Ease, makes them continue in . Common Errors without ever examining whether they are Errors or not. They are befides fortified in them because they fee them Authoriz'd by the Example or the Approbation of many Persons who have either a pretended or a very ignorant Piety, and who accommodate the Maxims of the Gospel to the Remisness of their Manners, instead of forming as they ought their Manners on the Truths of the Gospel.

As these Persons cannot deny the Principles of our Religion, 'tis to them I particularly address this Work; I hope to prove to them that Plays in the state they are in at this time are not an innocent Diversion as they imagine, and that a Chriftian is oblig'd to look on them as Evil. Provided one will be Sincere one will easily be convinc'd of this, if we examine the Nature of Plays, their Origine, their Circumstances, and their Effects; and if we inform our selves of the Universal Tra

dition of the Church on this Subject,

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by the Sentiments of the Fathers who have spoken of it, and by those of the Church assembled in a great Number of Councils. This seems to me the best and surest way to find out the Truth, and this Order the most natural and the most regular that I can observe.

The General Idea that may be form'd of a Play, that is to say, of a Dramatick Poem, is nothing else but a Natural Representation of an Action, or rather of an Event, in its Substance and in its Circumstances. 'Tis a real Painting, the Words paint the Thoughts, and the Acting paints Actions and Things; and if this Definition may be apply'd in fome manner to Hiftory and Fable, a Dramatick Poem is in this different from them, that besides that they only furnish it with Matter, it makes us see things as Present, which History and Fable recounts to us as past, and that it represents them in a lively, animated, and as it were personal manner, whereas History and Fable only relate them in a manner Lifeless and without Action. By History we recal things paft to us, and by Dramatick Poetry, Things do as it were make us go back to them.

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