Murders
on their stage are quite decorous and cleanly. Few gentlemen and
ladies die by violence who would not have died by exhaustion. 'For
they rant and rave until their voice fails them, one after another;
and those who do not die of it die consumptive. They cannot bear to
see cruelty; they would rather see any image than their own.' These
are not my observations, but were made by Sir Everard Starkeye, who
likewise did remark to Monsieur Dubois, that 'cats, if you hold them
up to the looking-glass, will scratch you terribly; and that the
same fierce animal, as if proud of its cleanly coat and velvety paw,
doth carefully put aside what other animals of more estimation take
no trouble to conceal.'
"'Our people,' said Sir Everard, 'must see upon the stage what they
never could have imagined; so the best men in the world would
earnestly take a peep of hell through a chink, whereas the worser
would skulk away.'
"Do not thou be their caterer, William! Avoid the writing of
comedies and tragedies. To make people laugh is uncivil, and to
make people cry is unkind. And what, after all, are these comedies
and these tragedies? They are what, for the benefit of all future
generations, I have myself described them, -
'The whimsies of wantons and stories of dread,
That make the stout-hearted look under the bed.
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