h amongst his Party; but if this be his way of
Reproving the Stage, and Teaching the Town Modesty, he will have fewer
Pupils, I believe, than he imagines.

But to do that Gentleman Broom-stick Rider some Justice, and because we
shall want a Name hereafter to Christen the t'other, as he has given the
Name of _Relapser_, so I think that of the _Absolver_ will be a very
proper one to distinguish our Switcher, by which the Reader may observe,
that we are civiller to him than he to us however. And first then, I
desire all Persons to observe, that in other places of the same Chapter
of his Book, our _Absolver_, for all his detestation of the Stage, and
of Poetry in general, yet takes a huge deal of pains in taking to
pieces, and mending the Comedy of the _Relapse_; nay, and to shew how
transcendent his own Skill in these things is, he has help'd the Author
to a better Name for his Play, and says, _The Younger Brother_, or, _The
Fortunate Cheat_, had been much properer. [Footnote: Collier, p. 210.]
This shews some good will he has to the Comick Trade however; and I
doubt not, but if his Closet were Ransack'd, we might find a divertive
Scene or two, effects of his idle Non-preaching hours, where Modesty,
Wit, and good Behaviour, would be shewn in perfection.

And yet, as to his own humour, we find it to be, by his Book, more
fickle than even the Wind, or Feminine frailty in its highest
Inconstancy. One while he's for Instructing our Stage, Modelling our
Plays, Correcting the Drama, the Unity, Time and Place, and acts as very
a Poet as ever writ an ill Play, or slept at an ill Sermon; and then,
presently after, wheiw, in the twinkling of an Ejaculution, as Parson
_Say-grace_ has it, he's summoning together a Convocation of old
Fathers, to prove the Stage in past Ages exploded, and all Plays
horrible, abominable Debauchers of youth, and not to be encourag'd in a
Civil Government. What can we think of this, especialiy when I find him
in this Paragraph of his Book * raving on at this rate, and quoting to
us, That St. _Cyprian_, or the Author _de Spectaculis_, argues thus
against those who thought the Play-House no unlawful diversion; 'tis too
tedious to recite all, but enough of St. _Cyprian_ for my purpose runs
thus:

What business has a Christian at such Places as these? A Christian
who has not the liberty so much as to think of an ill thing, why
does he entertain himself with lewd Representations? Has he a mind
to dis