[From Prologue to Roister Doister (? 1566-7).]
What Creature is in health, eyther yong or olde,
But som mirth with modestie wil be glad to use
As we in thys Enterlude shall now unfolde,
Wherin all scurilitie we utterly refuse,
Avoiding such mirth wherin is abuse:
Knowing nothing more comendable for a mans recreation
Than Mirth which is used in an honest fashion:
For Myrth prolongeth lyfe, and causeth health.
Mirth recreates our spirites and voydeth pensivenesse,
Mirth increaseth amitie, not hindring our wealth,
Mirth is to be used both of more and lesse,
Being mixed with vertue in decent comlynesse.
As we trust no good nature can gainsay the same:
Which mirth we intende to use, avoidyng all blame.
The wyse Poets long time heretofore,
Under merrie Comedies secretes did declare,
Wherein was contained very vertuous lore,
With mysteries and forewarnings very rare.
Suche to write neither Plautus nor Terence dyd spare,
Whiche among the learned at this day beares the bell:
These with such other therein dyd excell.
v. 1551. Martin Bucer.
[From De honestis ludis, a section of De Regno Christi, presented to
Edward VI by Bucer, who was then Regius Professor of Divinity at
Cambridge, on 1 Jan. 1551, printed in 1557, and again in Scripta Anglicana
(1577), ii. 54.]
Poterit iuuentus etiam exerceri agendo comoedias et tragoedias:
populisque his honesta, et ad augendam pietatem non inutilis exhiberi
oblectatio: sed piis, et ad regnum Christi doctis atque sapientibus
viris opus fuerit, qui comoedias eas atque tragoedias componant: in
quibus nimirum eiusmodi imitatio repraesentetur, consiliorum, actionum,
atque euentuum humanorum, siue communium et vulgarium,
vt fit in comoediis: sive singularium et qui sint maioris admirationis,
quod proprium est tragoediae, quae ad certam morum correctionem,
et piam conserat vitae institutionem.
Vt si comoedia repraesentetur iurgium pastorum Abrahae et Lot, atque horum a se inuicem discessio. . . . In huiusmodi comoedia tractari possent, et vtili ad piam institutionem oblectatione repraesentari, hi loci. . . . Ad eundem modum suppeditet piae comoediae vberem sane et aedificandae pietati peridoneam materiam, historia quaesitae, obtentae et adductae Isaaco sponsae Ribkae: ex hac enim historia queat describi pia parentum cura, quaerendi liberis suis religiosa connubia: fides bona et officiositas proborum seruorum. . . .
