The title of my book doth promise much, the volume you see is very little: and sithens I can not beare out my follie by authoritie, like an Emperour; I will craue pardon for my Phrenzie, by submission, as your woorshippes too commaunde. How full are Poets works of Bucklers, Battails, Lances, Dartes, Bowes, Quiuers, Speares, Iauelins, Swoordes, slaughters, Runners, Wrestlers, Chariots, Horse, and men at armes? These are the Cuppes of Circes, that turne reasonable creatures into brute Beastes, the balles of Hippomenes, that hinder the course of Atalanta; and the blocks of the Diuel that are cast in our wayes, to cut off the rase of toward wittes. It should seeme that the abuse of such places was so great, that for any chaste liuer to haunt them was a black swan, and a white crowe. Clitomachus the wrestler geuen altogether to manly exercise, if hee had hearde any talke of loue, in what company soeuer he had bin, would forsake his seat, and bid them adue. Mandare literis cogitationes, nec delectatione a- liqua allicere Lectorem, hominis est in- temperanter abutentis, et otio, et literis. Euripides holdes not him onely a foole, that beeing well at home, wil gad abrode, that hath a Conduite within doore, and fetcheth water without: but all suche beside, as haue sufficient in them selues, to make them selues merry with pleasaunte talke, tending too good, and mixed with the Grecians glee, yet will they seeke when they neede not, to be sported abrode at playes and Pageauntes. Experto crede, I haue seene somewhat, and therefore I thinke may say the more.
If you will bee good Scholars, and profite well in the Arte of Musicke, shutte your Fidels in their cases, and looke vp to heauen: the order of the Spheres, the vnfallible motion of the Planets, the iuste course of the yeere, and varietie of seasons, the concorde of the Elementes and their qualyties, Fyre, Water, Ayre, Earth, Heate, Colde, Moysture and Drought concurring togeather to the constitution of earthly bodies and sustenance of euery creature. In his essay, Sidney integrates a number of classical and Italian precepts on. Writing Pleasant Quippes for Upstart New-fangled Gentlewomen 1595 , a coarse satiric poem, is also ascribed to Gosson. The significance of the nobility of poetry is its power to move readers to virtuous action. After this manner were the Boeotians trained from rudenesse to ciuilitie, The Lacedemonians instructed by Terteæus verse, The Argiues by the melody of Telesilla, And the Lesbians by Alcæus Odes.
Marius in the assembly of the whole Senate at Rome, in a somlemne oration, giueth an account of his bringing vp: he sheweth that he hath beene taught to lye on the ground, to suffer all weathers, to leade men, to strike his foe, to feare nothing but an euill name: and chalengeth praise vnto him selfe, in that hee neuer learned the Greeke tongue, neither ment to be instructed in it heerafter, either that he thought it too farre a iourney to fetche learning beyonde the fielde, or because he doubted the abuses of those Schooles, where Poets were euer the head Maisters. Gosson offers what is in essence an attack on imaginative literature Griffiths 5. The Countryeman is more affrayde of the Serpente that is hid in the grasse, then the wilde beaste that openly feeds vpon the mountains: The Marriner is more indaungered by Priuie shelues, then knowen Rockes; The Souldier is sooner killed with a little Bullet, then a longe Swoorde; There is more perill in close Fistoloes, then outwarde sores; in secret ambushe, then maine battels; in vndermining, then playne assaulting; in ciuill discorde, then forraine warres. Botolph's rectory house 13 Feb. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc. However this may be, he seems to have experienced a sudden and violent conversion, which led him to give up the theatre, to take a tutorship, and then to take orders.
Poetry, in Apology, becomes an art that requires the noble stirring of courage. Anthony à Wood places this earlier and assigns the termination of his tutorship indirectly to his animosity against the stage, which apparently wearied his patron of his company. The utilitarian view of rhetoric can be traced from , , and humanists to Sidney. What must these women first address when defending their right to a public voice, and what effect does this have on their work? Whether their harts be hardened, which vse that exercise, or God giue them ouer I know not well: I haue reade of none good that practiced it muche. Epaminondas minde on his Buckler. About 1579 his views of the stage underwent a complete change.
But when the whole rabble of Poets, Pipers, Players, Iugglers, Iesters, and dauncers were receiued againe, Rome was reported to bee fuller of fooles then of wise men. And Plutarch is of an opinion that the instruments of 3. For my parte I am neither so fonde a Phisition, nor so bad a Cooke, but I can allowe my patient a cup of wine to meales, although it be hotte; and pleasaunt sauces to driue downe his meate, if his stomake bee queasie. As for his own work, it is rather a pity that the whole extant part of it, which is not bulky and which hangs pretty closely together, has never been reprinted together, while part of it is still difficult to get at. Among the Scythians no man was permitted to drink of their festiuall Cuppe, which had not manfully killed an enemie in fight. The meane must labor to serue the mightie, the mightie must studye to defende the meane.
For nonprofit and educational uses only. Abstract Stephen Gosson's similes, particularly in 1579's The Schoole of Abuse, commend affective restraint, value stasis over motion, and idealize immobility. Beseeching you, though I bidde you to Dinner, not to looke for a feaste fit for the curious taste of a perfect Courtier: but too imitate Philip of Macedon, who beeing inuited to a Farmers house, when hee came from Hunting, brought a greater trayne than the poore man looked for: When they were sette, the good Philip perceiuing his Hoste sorowfull, for want of meate to satisfie so many, exhorted his friends to keepe their stomackes for the seconde course: whereupon euery man fedde modestly on that whiche stoode before him, and lefte meate inough at the taking vppe of the table. Take heed of the foxefurd nightcap, I meene those schoolemen, that cry out vpon Mars calling him the bloody God, the angry God, the furious god, the mad God, the tearethirsty God. To shew y e abuses of these vnthrifty scholers that despise y e good rules of their ancient masters and run to the shop of their owne deuises, defacing olde stampes, forging newe Printes, and coining strange precepts, Phoercrates a Comicall Poet, bringeth in Musicke and Iustice vpon the stage: Musicke with her clothes tottered, her fleshe torne, her face deformed, her whole bodie mangled and dismembred: Iustice, viewing her well, and pitying her case, questioneth with her howe shee came in that plight: to whom Musick replyes, that Melanippides, Phrynis, Timotheus, and such fantasticall heades, haue so disfiguered her lookes, defaced her beautie, so hacked her, Musicke sore wounded.
As in euery perfect common wealth there ought to be good lawes established, right mainteined, wrong repressed, vertue rewarded, vice punished, and all maner of abuses thoroughly purged: So ought there such schooles for the furtherance of the same to be aduaunced, that young men may bee taught that in greene yeeres, that becomes them to practise in gray haires. And Plutarch reporteth that as Chiron was a wise man, a learned Poet, a skilful Musition, so was hee also a teacher of iustice, by shewing what Princes ought to doe, and a Reader of Phisicke, by opening the natures of many simples. The Schoole of Abuse and Apologie were edited 1868 by in his English Reprints. Commodus the Emperour, so delighted in it, that oftentimes hee slewe one or other at home to keepe Commodus a Fencer and exercised in murder. The fact that the comedy often stages cheating, cuckolding, and deriding only contributes to hinge laughter to sin ibid. There is more in them then we perceive, the Devil stands at our elbow when we see not, speak when we hear him not, strikes when we feel not, and woundeth sore when he raiseth no skin nor rends the flesh.
The Antitheatrical Criticism of Stephen Gosson, Literature Compass
A bad excuse is better, they say then none at all. We haue robbed Greece of Gluttonie, Italy of wantonnesse, Spaine of pride, Fraunce of deceite, and Dutchland of quaffing. Common Bowling Allyes, are priuy Mothes, that eate vppe the credite of many idle Citizens: whose gaynes at home, are not able to weighe downe theyr losses abroade, whose Shoppes are so farre from maintaining their play, that their Wiues and Children cry out for bread, and go to bedde supperlesse ofte in the yeere. There is she so intreated with wordes, and receiued with curtesie, that euery back roome in the house is at her commaundement. But we which haue both sense, reason, wit, and vnderstanding, are euer ouerlashing, passing our boundes, going beyonde our limites, neuer keeping our selues within compasse, nor once looking after the place from whence we came, and whither we muste in spighte of our hartes. Let vs but shut vppe our eares to Poets, Pypers and Players, pull our feete back from resort to Theaters, and turne away our eyes from beholding of vanitie, the greatest storme of abuse will be ouerblowen, and a fayre path troden to amendment of life.
