6. But now to pass from this to the shameless corruption of the stage. I am ashamed to tell what things are said; I am even ashamed to denounce the things that are done—the tricks of arguments, the cheatings of adulterers, the immodesties of women, the scurrile jokes, the sordid parasites, even the toga’d fathers of families themselves, sometimes stupid, sometimes obscene, but in all cases dull, in all cases immodest.  And though no individual, or family, or profession, is spared by the discourse10    [It is painful to recognise, in the general licence of the press in our country, this very feature of a corrupt civilization,—a delight in scandal, and in the invasion of homes and private affairs, for the gratification of the popular appetite.] of these reprobates, yet every one flocks to the play. The general infamy is delightful to see or to recognise; it is a pleasure, nay, even to learn it. People flock thither to the public disgrace of the brothel for the teaching of obscenity, that nothing less may be done in secret than what is learnt in public; and in the midst of the laws themselves is taught everything that the laws forbid. What does a faithful Christian do among these things, since he may not even think upon wickedness? Why does he find pleasure in the representations of lust, so as among them to lay aside his modesty and become more daring in crimes? He is learning to do, while he is becoming accustomed to see. Nevertheless, those women whom their misfortune has introduced and degraded to this slavery, conceal their public wantonness, and find consolation for their disgrace in their concealment. Even they who have sold their modesty blush to appear to have done so. But that public prodigy is transacted in the sight of all, and the obscenity of prostitutes is surpassed.  A method is sought to commit adultery with the eyes. To this infamy an infamy fully worthy of it is super added: a human being broken down in every limb, a man melted to something beneath the effeminacy of a woman, has found the art to supply language with his hands; and on behalf of one—I know not what, but neither man nor woman—the whole city is in a state of commotion, that the fabulous debaucheries of antiquity may be represented in a ballet. Whatever is not lawful is so beloved, that what had even been lost sight of by the lapse of time is brought back again into the recollection of the eyes.

VI. Sed, ut de hoc scenae inquinamento inverecundo jam transitum faciam, pudet referre quae dicuntur, pudet etiam accusare quae fiunt, argumentorum strophas, adulterorum fallacias, mulierum impudicitias, scurriles jocos, parasitos sordidos, ipsos quoque patresfamilias togatos modo stupidos, modo obscoenos, in omnibus stolidos, in omnibus inverecundos. 0784C Et cum nulli hominum aut generi aut professioni ab improborum istorum sermone parcatur, ab omnibus tamen ad spectaculum convenitur. Commune dedecus delectat, videre vel recognoscere otia vel discere. Concurritur illic ad pudorem publicum lupanaris, ad obscoenitatis magisterium, ne quid secreto minus agatur quam quod in publico discitur; et inter ipsas leges docetur quidquid legibus interdicitur. Quid inter haec Christianus fidelis facit cui vitia non licet nec cogitare? quid oblectatur simulacris libidinis, ut in ipsis deposita verecundia audacior fiat ad crimina? Discit et facere dum consuescit videre. Illae tamen quas infelicitas sua ad servitutem inseruit et prostravit, libidines publicas occultant, et dedecus suum de latebris consolantur. Erubescunt 0784D videri etiam quae pudorem vendiderunt. At istud publicum 0785A monstrum omnibus videntibus geritur, et prostitutarum transitur obscoenitas. Quaesitum est quomodo adulterium oculis admitteretur. Huic dedecori condignum dedecus superducitur. Homo fractus omnibus membris, et vir ultra muliebrem mollitiem dissolutus, cui ars sit verba manibus expedire; et propter unum nescio quem nec virum nec feminam, commovetur civitas tota, ut desaltentur fabulosae antiquitatum libidines. Ita amatur quidquid non licet, ut quae etiam aetas absconderat, sub oculorum memoriam reducantur.