and _mimas_ in Pantomime, their
dress, or rather lack of dress, Pantomimes were denounced, not only by
the early Christian writers, but also by some of the Pagan writers, like
Juvenal, as being very prejudicial to morality.

It has, however, always been a favourite topic of the Prynne's, the
Jeremy Collier's and the Dr. Style's, and such like opponents of the
theatre, to contrast the English stage with the purity of the Grecian
and Roman Theatres. Now, without stopping to enquire whether this has
any particular connection with the subject of their dissertations, or
whether it is not in fact quite irrelevant to the question, it is
impossible not to remark the crass ignorance which these assertions
display of the manners and customs of the theatres of either the Greeks
or the Romans. Without wearying the reader by entering into a long
discussion upon the subject, it will be sufficient to recall certain
passages in Aristophanes, Xenophon, Plautus, and Terence to induce them
to hesitate in assenting to such vague assertions of the purity of
either the Grecian or Roman dramatic writers. William Prynne, the
English Puritan writer, in his violent attack on the stage in the
"_Histrio-Mastix_" or "Players Scourge"--which book, by the way, for
some unfavourable comments therein on the Queen of Charles I., and the
ladies of her Court, for attending theatrical representations, was
debarred his rooms (he was a barrister), by the Court of Star Chamber,
sentenced to be imprisoned for life, fined L5,000, committed to the
Tower, placed in the pillory, both ears cut off, and his book burnt by
the common hangman; yet after undergoing all these pains and penalties,
he published a _recantation of all that he had previously written in his
"Histrio-Mastix_"--says "It seems that the Grecian actors did now and
then to refresh the spectators, bring a kind of cisterne on the stage,
wherein naked women did swim and bathe themselves between the acts and
scenes; which wicked, impudent, and execrable practice the holy father
Chrysostom doth sharpely and excellently declaime against."

Xenophon mentions the tale of "Bacchus and Ariadne," Pantomimically
played, and Martial tells us he saw the whole story of "Pasiphae,"
minutely represented on the stage of the _Mimis_, and Plautus, in his
epilogue to "Casina," has--

"Nunc vos aequim est, manibus meritis,
Meritam mercedem dare.
Qui faxit, clam uxorem, ducat scortum
Semper quod volet.