STATE OF ENGLAND IN 1685 .

395

But the very quintessence of that spirit will be found in thecomic drama. The play-houses, shut by the meddling fanatic -in the day of his power, were again crowded. To their oldattractions new and more powerful attractions had beenadded. Scenery, dresses, and decorations such as wouldnow be thought mean or absurd, but such as would have beenesteemed incredibly magnificent by those who, early in theseventeenth century, sate on the filthy benches of the Hope,or under the thatched roof of the Rose, dazzled the eyes ofthe multitude. The fascination of sex was called in to aid thefascination of art: and the young spectator saw, with emo-tions unknown to the contemporaries of Sliakspeare and Jon-son, tender and sprightly heroines personated by lovelywomen. From the day on which the theatres were reopenedthey became seminaries of vice; and the evil propagated itself.The profligacy of the representations soon drove away soberpeople. The frivolous and dissolute who remained requiredevery year stronger and stronger stimulants. Thus the artistscorrupted the spectators, and the spectators the artists, tillthe turpitude of the drama became such as must astonish allwho are not aware that extreme relaxation is the natural effectof extreme restraint, and that an age of hypocrisy is, in theregular course of things, followed by an age of impudence.

Nothing is more characteristic of the times than the carewith which the poets contrived to put all their loosest versesinto the mouths of women. The compositions in which thegreatest license was taken were the epilogues. They werealmost always recited by favourite actresses; and nothingcharmed the depraved audience so much as to hear linesgrossly indecent repeated by a beautiful girl, who was sup-posed to have not yet lost her innocence.*

Our theatre was indebted in that age for many plots and

* Jeremy Collier has censured this odious practice wilh his usualforce and keenness.

CHAP.

iil.