628 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
Playes, may perhapps of a wantonnes have as it weare pricked owte 
quayles eyes, that is, may have offended in some small matter, 
yet in my conscience, I thinke it a bitter doome, to condemne them 
therfor to hatefull infamye, a thinge to all honest myndes more 
intolerable, then deathe it selfe. 
In your answere to my defence of owre not mysspendinge tyme 
aboute Playes, I must needes saye, you spare us not a whitt. if 
you had but sayde that owre playes, are toyes, vnnecessarye, 
vayne, or suche like; it had byn no more perhapps then in 1 strictnes, 
trwe. because Vnum modo necessarium; and hie that had tryde 1 
all thinges, of his owne wise experience pronouncethe, Vanitas 
vanitatum, Sc omnia vanitas , yea evne learninge, and wisdome, 
and all thinges ells, excepte the feare of God, which endurethe 
for ever, and I have harde a godly, and a learned preacher, whome 
you knowe, in the pulpitt affirme, that owre declamations, op¬ 
positions, suppositions, and suche scholasticall exercises, are no 
better then vayne thinges. but to compare owre Playes, to ye 
wickednes of a foole committed in pastyme, to a madd mann’s castinge 
of fyrebrandes , arrowes , and mortall thinges, as you doe before; 
or to the hauntinge of a dycinge house , or taverne , or stwes, as in this 
place; or to a schollers playinge at stooleball amonge wenches, at 
mumchance , at Mawe with idell lost companions , at Trunkes in 
Guile-halls, dansinge aboute Maypoles, riflinge in alehouses , car- 
rowsinge in taverns, stealinge of deere , or robbinge of orchardes, as 
afterwarde; I say to compare owre Playes to no better then thes 
thinges, it exceedethe the cumpasse of any tolerable resemblance. 
I cowlde have wisht that suche comparisons had byn forborne, 
if not for the Playes them selves, (thoughe also thay ought for 
the Playes them selves, beinge thinges that savor of some witt, 
learninge, and iudgment, approved vnto vs by longe continwance, 
recommended by owre cheefest governors, and donne in a learned, 
grave, worshipfull, and somtyme honorable presence, with suche 
convenient sollemnytye, honest preparation, ingenuous <|p. 59> 
expectation, dwe regarde, modest reverence, silent attention, and 
the generall, as it weare, simmetrye and seemly carriage in them) 
yet in respecte of the actors, and owre whole House; of the specta¬ 
tors that sawe them, and hartely approved them, to whome it 
weare a foule shame, but to stand by as lookers on of thinges of 
suche nature; and lastly, of thos reverend, famous, and excellent 
men, for life, and learninge, and their places in the Churche of God, 
bothe of owre house, and otherwise of the Vniuersitye, that have 
byn, and nowe are lyvinge, with vs, and abrode, whoe have byn 
not only wryters of suche thinges them selves, but also actors 2 
1 A rubbing of the manuscript renders the reading of these words doubtful. 
2 It is interesting to note that both Rainolds himself and Thornton had 
appeared as actors upon the stage. See Boas, p. 232. 
