Young—William Gager's Defence of Academic Stage. 625 
betweene vs, and Nero with his Sporus or Heliogabalus with hym 
selfe, or the Canangtes , Jwes , Corinthians , or them that cause their 
pages to weare longe heare like weemen, or Critobulus , kissinge 
the fayre sonne of Alcibiades , or any suche doggs. we hartely 
abhorr them; and if I coulde suspecte any suche thinge to growe 
by owre Playes, I woulde be the first that should hate them, and 
detest my selfe, for gyvinge suche occasion, you say owte of 
Quintilian , nimium est quod intelligitur 1 ', and I may say, nimium 
est quod dicitur. we thanke God owre youthe doe not practyse 
suche thinges, thay thinke not of them, thay knowe them not. 
neyther can any man lyvinge, the rather for owre Playes, charge 
any one of vs with the leste suspition, of any suche abomynation. 
I have byn often moved by owre Playes to laughter, and somtyme 
to teares; but I can not accuse eyther my selfe, or any other of 
any such beastly thought, styrred vp by them, and therfore we 
should most vncharytably be wronged, if owre puttinge on of 
womanly rayment, or imytatinge of suche gesture, should eyther 
directly or indirectly be referred to the com/nandement, Thou 
shalte not commit adulterge. and yet if owre Eurymachus had kissed 
owre Melantho , thoughe Socrates had stood by, (and I would 
Socrates had stood by) he would perhapps have sayde he had done 
amysse, but not so dangerously as Critobulus did 2 , because he might 
evydently perceyve, that no suche poyson of incontinencye could 
be instilled therby. As for the danger to the spectators in heeringe 
and seeinge thinges lyvely expressed, and to the actors in the 
ernest meditation and studye to represent them; I grant that bad 
effectes doe fall owte in thos Playes, agaynst the which suche argu¬ 
ments are iustly to be amplyfyde; but there is no suche myscheefe 
to be feared to enswe of owres. wherin for owre penninge, we are 
base and meane as you see; and specialy for womanly behaviour, we 
1 Among the kindes of adulterous lewdnesse howe filthie and monstrous 
a sinne against nature mens naturall corruption and vitiousnes is prone to; 
the Scrip [p. 11] ture witnesseth it in Cananites, Jewes, Corinthians, other in 
other nations, & one with speciall caution Nimium est quod intelligitur: thirdlie, 
what sparkles of lust to that vice the putting of wemens attire on men may 
kindle in vncleane affections, as Nero shewed in Sporus, Heliogabalus in him 
selfe; yea certaine, who grew not to such excesse of impudencie, yet arguing 
the same in causing their boyes to weare long heare like wemen: if we consider 
these things, I say, we shall perceiue that hee, who condemneth the female 
hoore and male, and, detesting speciallie the male by terming him a dogge, 
reiecteth both their offeringes with these wordes that they both are abomination 
to the Lorde thy God, might well controll likewise the meanes and occasions 
whereby men are transformed into dogges, the sooner, to cutt off all incite¬ 
ments to that beastlie filthines, or rather more then beastlie. [ Overthrow , 
pp. 10-11.] 
2 When Critobulus kissed the sonne of Alcibiades, a beautiful boy, Socrates 
saide he had done amisse and very dangerously: because, as certaine spiders, 
if they doe but touch men onely with their mouthe, they put them to wonderfull 
paine and make them madde: so beautiful boyes by kissing doe sting and powre 
secretly in a kinde of poyson, the poyson of incontinencie. [ Overthrow , p. 18.] 
