" {51}
No, perchance, it is the comic; {52} whom naughty play-makers and
stage-keepers have justly made odious. To the arguments of abuse I
will after answer; only thus much now is to be said, that the comedy
is an imitation of the common errors of our life, which he
representeth in the most ridiculous and scornful sort that may be;
so as it is impossible that any beholder can be content to be such a
one. Now, as in geometry, the oblique must be known as well as the
right, and in arithmetic, the odd as well as the even; so in the
actions of our life, who seeth not the filthiness of evil, wanteth a
great foil to perceive the beauty of virtue. This doth the comedy
handle so, in our private and domestical matters, as, with hearing
it, we get, as it were, an experience of what is to be looked for,
of a niggardly Demea, of a crafty Davus, of a flattering Gnatho, of
a vain-glorious Thraso; and not only to know what effects are to be
expected, but to know who be such, by the signifying badge given
them by the comedian. And little reason hath any man to say, that
men learn the evil by seeing it so set out; since, as I said before,
there is no man living, but by the force truth hath in nature, no
sooner seeth these men play their parts, but wisheth them in
"pistrinum;" {53} although, perchance, the sack of his own faults
lie so behind his back, that he seeth not himself to dance in the
same measure, whereto yet nothing can more open his eyes than to see
his own actions contemptibly set forth; so that the right use of
comedy will, I think, by nobody be blamed.
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