tertainments of no other common people.[101]
Besides, I am afraid there is a tincture of the same savage spirit in
the diversions of those of higher rank, and more refined relish. Rapin
observes, that the English theatre very much delights in bloodshed,
which he likewise represents as an indication of our tempers. I must
own, there is something very horrid in the public executions of an
English tragedy. Stabbing and poisoning, which are performed behind the
scenes in other nations, must be done openly among us, to gratify the
audience.[102]

When poor Sandford[103] was upon the stage, I have seen him groaning
upon a wheel, stuck with daggers, impaled alive, calling his
executioners, with a dying voice, cruel dogs and villains! And all this
to please his judicious spectators, who were wonderfully delighted with
seeing a man in torment so well acted. The truth of it is, the
politeness of our English stage, in regard to decorum, is very
extraordinary. We act murders to show our intrepidity, and adulteries to
show our gallantry: both of them are frequent in our most taking plays,
with this difference only, that the first are done in sight of the
audience, and the other wrought up to such a height upon the stage, that
they are almost put in execution before the actors can get behind the
scenes.

I would not have it thought, that there is just ground for those
consequences which our enemies draw against us from these practices; but
methinks one would be sorry for any manner of occasion for such
misrepresentations of us. The virtues of tenderness, compassion and
humanity, are those by which men are distinguished from brutes, as much
as by reason itself; and it would be the greatest reproach to a nation
to distinguish itself from all others by any defect in these particular
virtues. For which reasons, I hope that my dear countrymen will no
longer expose themselves by an effusion of blood, whether it be of
theatrical heroes, cocks, or any other innocent animals, which we are
not obliged to slaughter for our safety, convenience, or nourishment.
Where any of these ends are not served in the destruction of a living
creature, I cannot but pronounce it a great piece of cruelty, if not a
kind of murder.

[Footnote 95: See No. 112.]

[Footnote 96: See the date of this number.]

[Footnote 97: Sticks used in the game of tip-cat and trap-ball.]

[Footnote 98: Cf. the _Spectator_, No. 343, where Addison refers to Sir
Paul Rycaut'