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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=539610" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Lines in Defence of the Stage</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Good people of high and low degree,<br>I pray ye all be advised by me,<br>And don't believe what the clergy doth say,<br>That by going to the theatre you will be led astray. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">No, in the theatre we see vice punished and virtue rewarded,<br>The villain either hanged or shot, and his career retarded;<br>Therefore the theatre is useful in every way,<br>And has no inducement to lead the people astray. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Because therein we see the end of the bad men,<br>Which must appall the audience - deny it who can<br>Which will help to retard them from going astray,<br>While witnessing in a theatre a moral play. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The theatre ought to be encouraged in every respect,<br>Because example is better than precept,<br>And is bound to have a greater effect<br>On the minds of theatre-goers in every respect. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sometimes in theatres, guilty creatures there have been<br>Struck to the soul by the cunning of the scene;<br>By witnessing a play wherein murder is enacted,<br>They were proven to be murderers, they felt so distracted, </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And left the theatre, they felt so much fear,<br>Such has been the case, so says Shakespeare.<br>And such is my opinion, I will venture to say,<br>That murderers will quake with fear on seeing murder in a play. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Hamlet discovered his father's murderer by a play<br>That he composed for the purpose, without dismay,<br>And the king, his uncle, couldn't endure to see that play,<br>And he withdrew from the scene without delay. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And by that play the murder was found out,<br>And clearly proven, without any doubt;<br>Therefore, stage representation has a greater effect<br>On the minds of the people than religious precept. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">We see in Shakespeare's tragedy of Othello, which is sublime,<br>Cassio losing his lieutenancy through drinking wine;<br>And, in delirium and grief, he exclaims -<br>&quot;Oh, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains!&quot; </div><div style="margin:10px 0">A young man in London went to the theatre one night<br>To see the play of George Barnwell, and he got a great fright;<br>He saw George Barnwell murder his uncle in the play,<br>And he had resolved to murder his uncle, but was stricken with dismay. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">But when he saw George Barnwell was to be hung<br>The dread of murdering his uncle tenaciously to him clung,<br>That he couldn't murder and rob his uncle dear,<br>Because the play he saw enacted filled his heart with fear. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And, in conclusion, I will say without dismay,<br>Visit the theatre without delay,<br>Because the theatre is a school of morality,<br>And hasn't the least tendency to lead to prodigality.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=William+Topaz+McGonagall">William Topaz McGonagall</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=539610" data-title="Lines in Defence of the Stage de William Topaz McGonagall" data-description="Good people of high and low degree,
I pray ye all be advised by me,
And don't believe what the clergy doth say,
That by going to the theatre you will be led astray. 

No, in the theatre we see vice punished and virtue rewarded,
The villain either ..."></div>
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