But if these fair Expectations should be blasted in the Bloom, and
notwithstanding the vigorous Efforts which will be made by this
Reformer, Immorality shall maintain its ground and keep Possession
of the Theatre, some other Expedients may be suggested to procure
a Regulation. It might, perhaps be desirable, that a few Persons
of Importance, Men of Learning, Gravity, and good Taste, might be
commission'd by Authority, as a Check upon the Actors, to censure
and suppress any Dramatick Entertainments that shall offend against
Religion, Sobriety of Manners, or the Publick Peace; and all Persons
should be encourag'd to send them such loose or profane Passages which
they hear from the Stage, or read in the printed Plays: Nor will it
be less expedient, that they should be instructed to peruse the Plays
already publish'd, and which are now publickly acted, and to expunge
all offensive and criminal Mixtures, that hereafter they may become
a clean and innocent Diversion. Besides, this End would the more
effectually be accomplish'd, if the Writers of Comedy, Farce, and
Interludes, were rewarded and supported by Means independent on the
Actors: For while the Poets, who write for a Maintenance, are paid by
the Theatre, they will be under a great Temptation to write as desir'd
and directed by the Actors, which was the Complaint of _Cervantes_
above-cited, concerning the Comick Poets of _Spain_.
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