Representation of the Impiety and Immorality of the English Stage | Page 4

Players of one House were Indicted

at the _King's-Bench-Bar_, before the Right Honourable the Lord Chief
Justice Holt, for using these following Expressions, and were thereof
Convicted._
_In the Play call'd, _The Provok'd Wife.__
'But more than all that, you must know I was afraid of being damn'd in
those Days; for I kept sneaking, cowardly Company, Fellows that went
to Church, and said Grace to their Meat, and had not the least Tincture
of Quality about em.
'Damn 'em both, with all my Heart, and every thing else that daggles a
Petticoat; except four generous Whores, with Betty Sands at the Head
of 'em, who were drunk with my Lord Rake and I, ten times in a
Fortnight.
'Sure, if Woman had been ready created, the Devil, instead of being
kick'd down into Hell, had been married.
'Pox of my Family.
'Pox of her Virtue.
'He has married me, and be damn'd to him
'Pox of the Parson.
'Damn Morality, and damn the Watch.
'Let me speak and be damn'd.
[Note: _This is spoken by one in a Minister's Habit._]
'And you and your Wife may be damn'd.
'Stand off and be damn'd.
'Damn me, if you han't.
'Lord! What Notions have we silly Women from these old Philosophers
of Virtue, for Virtue is this, and Virtue is that, and Virtue has its own
Reward; Virtue, Virtue is an Ass, and a Gallant is worth forty on't.
'If I should play the Wife and Cuckold him.
'That would be playing the down-right Wife indeed.
'I know according to the strict Statute Law of Religion, I shou'd do
wrong; but if there were a Court of Chancery in Heaven, I'm sure I
shou'd cast him.
'If there were a House of Lords you might.
'If you should see your Mistress at a Coronation, dragging her Peacocks
Train, with all her State and Insolence about her, it would strike you
with all the awful Thoughts that Heaven it self could pretend to, from
you.

'Madam, to oblige your Ladyship, he shall speak Blasphemy.
'In hopes thou'lt give me up thy Body, I resign thee up my Soul.
'A Villain, but a repenting Villain; Stuff which Saints in all Ages have
been made of.
'Satan and his Equipage; Woman tempted me, Lust weakened me, and
so the Devil overcame me; as fell Adam, so fell I.
_A Bill was likewise found against the Players of the other House, in
the Term abovementioned, for the following Expressions; but the
Indictement being wrong laid, they were acquitted: but they were
Indicted the Term following for the same, which Indictment is not yet
tried._
In the Humour of the Age.
'Marriage, that was only contriv'd for the meaner Rank; tell me of
Marriage, commend me to a Whore.
'Every serious Thought, was so much Time lost.
'We address you with the same awful Reverence we petition Heaven.
_In Sir 'Courtly Nice'._
'Nay, his Salvation is a Looking-Glass, for there he finds his eternal
Happiness, Surly's Heaven, at least his Priest is his Claret-Glass, for to
that he confesses all his Sins, and from it receives Absolution and
Comfort. But his Damnation is a Looking-Glass, for there he finds an
eternal Fire in his Nose.
'That same thing, the Word Love, is a Fig-Leaf to cover the naked
Sense, a Fashion brought up by Eve, the Mother of Jilts, she Cuckold
her Husband with the Serpent, then pretended to Modesty, and fell a
making of Plackets.
'Let him be in Misery and be damn'd.
'And a Pox on thee for't.
'Prithee Dress and be damn'd.
'Pox on 'em: Pox on you all Whores.
'Pox take him.
'Rot me.
'Let him Plague you, Pox you, and damn you; I don't care and be
damn'd.
_The following Expressions are transcribed out of the Plays that have
been Acted and Printed since they were Indicted for the horrid Passages
above-recited._

_In the Comedy call'd, 'The False Friend. 1702'._
Pag. 7. 'Pox take ye. Pag. 12 'The Devil fetch me, &c.
Pag. 22. 'Heaven's Blessing must needs fall upon so dutiful a Son; but I
don't know how its Judgments may deal with so indifferent a Lover.
Pag. 28. 'Say that 'tis true, you are married to another, and that a----
Twou'd be a Sin to think of any Body but your Husband, and that ----
You are of a timorous Nature, and afraid of being damn'd.
'How have I lov'd, to Heaven I appeal; but Heaven does now permit
that Love no more.
'Why does it then permit us Life and Thought? Are we deceiv'd in its
Omnipotence? Is it reduc'd to find its Pleasure in its Creature's Pain?
Pag. 33. '_Leonora_'s Charms turn Vice to Virtue, Treason into Truth;
Nature, who has made her the Supream Object of our Desires must