histrionic art, and everything connected with the theatre,
discreditable, they thought fit that all men of that
description should not only be deprived of the honors
belonging to the rest of the citizens, but should also be
deprived of their franchise by the sentence of the censors."

And what the ancient Romans thought on this subject Cicero
informs us, in those books which he wrote on the
Commonwealth, where Scipio argues and says * * *

Comedies could never (if it had not been authorized by the common
customs of life) have made theatres approve of their scandalous
exhibitions. And the more ancient Greeks provided a certain correction
for the vicious taste of the people, by making a law that it should be
expressly defined by a censorship what subjects comedy should treat,
and how she should treat them.

Whom has it not attacked? or, rather, whom has it not wounded? and whom
has it spared? In this, no doubt, it sometimes took the right side, and
lashed the popular demagogues and seditious agitators, such as Cleon,
Cleophon, and Hyperbolus. We may tolerate that; though indeed the
censure of the magistrate would, in these cases, have been more
efficacious than the satire of the poet. But when Pericles, who
governed the Athenian Commonwealth for so many years with the highest
authority, both in peace and war, was outraged by verses, and these
were acted on the stage, it was hardly more decent than if, among us,
Plautus and Naevius had attacked Publius and Cnaeus, or Caecilius had
ventured to revile Marcus Cato.

Our laws of the Twelve Tables, on the contrary--so careful to attach
capital punishment to a very few crimes only--have included in this
class of capital offences the offence of composing or publicly reciting
verses of libel, slander, and defamation, in order to cast dishonor and
infamy on a fellow-citizen. And they have decided wisely; for our life
and character should, if suspected, be submitted to the sentence of
judicial tribunals and the legal investigations of our magistrates, and
not to the whims and fancies of poets. Nor should we be exposed to any
charge of disgrace which we cannot meet by legal process, and openly
refute at the bar.

In our laws, I admire the justice of their expressions, as well as
their decisions. Thus the word _pleading_ signifies rather an amicable
suit between friends than a quarrel between enemies.

It is not easy to resist a powerful