The Actors, we
may safely conclude, are not restrain'd by such rigorous Precepts
of Vertue, but that they will always be inclin'd to present those
Performances which will best fill the House and promote their
Interest; and therefore they will readily humour the vitiated Taste of
the Audience, by acting the most immoral Plays, while they find their
account in doing so: And that which confirms this Observation is, that
they never, as far as I have heard, rejected any Comedy merely for
its Looseness, tho I believe they have refus'd many for want of
that entertaining Quality. Now were the Comick Writers provided of a
Subsistence some other way, they would be deliver'd from the Necessity
of complying with their Actors, by writing such Plays as they
shall bespeak, or at least approve, as the most likely to invite a
profitable Audience.
It would prove an effectual Remedy for this Evil, if the Ladies would
discountenance these loose Comedies, by expressing their dislike, and
refusing to be present when they are acted: And this no doubt they
would do, were they inform'd, that the Comedies which they encourage
by their Appearance at the Theatre, are full of wanton Sentiments,
obscene Allusions, and immodest Ideas, contain'd in Expressions of
a double Meaning: for it cannot be imagin'd they would bear with
Unconcernedness, much less with Pleasure, Discourses in Publick, which
they detest as unsufferable in private Convention, if they knew them
to be unchast.
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