Representation of the Impiety and Immorality of the English Stage | Page 5

needs have design'd her the Regulator of our Morals.
'There he goes I'faith; he seem'd as if he had a Qualm just now; but he
never goes without a Dram of Conscience-water about him to set
Matters right again.
Pag. 43. 'Speak, or by all the Flame and Fire of Hell eternal; speak, or
thou art dead.
_In the 'Inconstant', or the 'Way to Win him. 1702'._
Pag. 10. 'My Blessing! Damn ye, you young Rogue.
Pag. 20. 'What do you pray for? Why, for a Husband; that is, you
implore Providence to assist you in the just and pious Design of making
the wisest of his Creatures a Fool, and the Head of the Creation a Slave.
Pag. 43. 'But don't you think there is a great deal of Merit in dedicating
a beautiful Face to the Service of Religion?
'Not half so much as devoting them to a pretty Fellow. If our Femality
had no Business in this World, why was it sent hither? Let's dedicate
our beautiful Minds to the Service of Heaven: And for our handsom
Persons, they become a Box at the Play, as well as a Pew in the Church.
_In the 'Modish Husband'._
Pag. 12. 'She's mad with the Whimsies of Virtue and the Devil.
Pag. 28. 'I think Wit the most impertinent thing that belongs to a
Woman, except Virtue.
Pag. 47. 'The Devil fetch him.
Pag. 50. 'I'm going towards Heaven, Sirrah; it must be the Way to my
Mistress.

_In the Play call'd, 'Vice Reclaim'd', &c._
Pag. 15. 'Now the Devil take that dear false agreeable; what shall I call
him, Wilding. But I'll go home and pray heartily we may meet again to
morrow.
'By Heaven, &c.
Pag. 24. 'By Heaven it becomes you.
Pag. 27. 'The Devil take me.
Pag. 31. 'Lightning blast him! Thunder rivet him to the Earth! That
Vulture, Conscience, prey upon his Heart, and rack him to Despair!
Pag. 32. 'Grant me, ye Powers, one lucky Hint for Mischief.
Pag. 43. 'Then damn me, if I don't, &c.
Pag. 47. 'Rot me and be damn'd.
Pag. 52. 'By Heaven, &c.
Pag. 60. 'Well, the Devil take me.
_In the 'Different Widows'._
Pag. 1. 'Damn'd Lies, by Jupiter and Juno, and the rest of the Heathen
Gods and Goddesses; for I remember I paid two Guinea's for swearing
Christian Oaths last Night.
Pag. 2. 'Pox take him. Pag. 24. 'Ye immortal Gods, who the Devil am I?
Pag. 61. 'May the Devil, Curses, Plagues and Disappointments light
upon you.
_In the 'Fickle Shepherdess'._
Pag. 17. 'Bid Charon instantly prepare his Boat, I'd row to Hell.
Ibid. 'O Ceres, can thy all-seeing Eye behold this Object, and yet
restrain thy Pity?
Pag. 32. 'Fly hence to Hell; there hide thy Head lower than Darkness.
Wou'd thou hadst been acting Incest, Murder, Witchcraft, when thou
cam'st to pray: Thou hadst in any thing sinn'd less than in this
Devotion.
Pag. 36. 'Where Love's blind, God sends forth continual Arrows.
Pag. 42. 'Ceres, to whom we all things owe.
Pag. 46. 'Almighty Ceres.
_In the Play called, 'Marry or do Worse, 1704'._
Pag. 4. 'Pox on me. Rot the World.
Pag. 6. 'Pox on him.
Pag. 8. 'A Plague on her.
'The Devil take you for a Witch. The Devil take you for a Fool.

Pag. 12. 'No Matrimony; the Devil danced at the first Wedding there
was, and Cuckoldom has been in Fashion ever since.
'The Devil take you for me.
Pag. 12 & 13. 'The Devil's in't if he been't fit for Heaven, when my
Master has writ Cuckoldom there.
'The Devil take me &c.
Pag. 18. 'A Plague choak you,
Pag. 21. 'A smart Jade by Heaven.
Pag. 33. 'Now the Devil take him &c.
Pag. 37. 'A Plague on my Master.
Pag. 44. 'The Devil take me, &c.
Pag. 47. 'I pity him, and yet a Pox on him too.
Pag. 51. 'That dear damn'd Virtue of hers tempts me strangely.
Pag. 54. 'The Devil take me, &c.
Pag. 64. 'By Heaven.
It must be again remembred, that the detestable lewd Expressions
contained in the abovementioned Plays, which seem to be the most
pernicious part of our Comedies, are not here recited, least they should
debauch the Minds and corrupt the Manners of the Reader, and do the
same Mischief, in some degree, as they do in the greatest when used
upon the Stage, tho' mentioned with never so great Indignation. And it
must be likewise taken notice of, that these Instances of the prophane
Language of Plays, which the good Christian will read with Horror,
would not have been put together, and laid before the World, had not
the Incorrigibleness of the Players made it necessary for the Ends
abovementioned.
_And now may not these