632 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
meaninge of the musick, together with the healthe, and activytye 
of bodye followinge therof; that I see no cause in reason, charytye, 
or Christian libertye, why dansinge shoulde simply be condemned; 
thoughe also I doe not thinke, it a meete recreation for schollers, 
commonly to be vsed. but be it as it may (for what have I to doe 
to defende it?) yet to applye eyther the dansinge of thos noble 
Romans , whom Nero inforced to danse so publickly; or Samsons 
dansinge amonge the Philistine’s; or the note of Arius Montanus, 
agaynst owre dansinge only of twoe sober measures, is a comparison 
withowte all measure. 1 
Like to it, is the bringinge in of your example of the Prodigall 
sonne, to elude my defence of owre charge bestowed on owre 
Playes 2 . for what simylitude is there, or can there be, betweene 
hym, that in suche a sorte, as he did, spent all, and brought hym 
selfe to the extremest myserye; and betweene owre expence? or 
howe coulde he so well have vsed my wordes agaynst any man, 
that had reprehended hym for his ryott, as thay weare vsed agaynst 
Momusses vnseasonable carpinge? the mony bestowde on owre 
Playes, was not, to add watstfullnes to wantonnes , but to procure 
honest recreation, with convenient expence, surely if the Prodigall 
sonne, had byn as moderatt, and as thriftye, in his spendinge at 
his boorde, as we weare in owre Playes, he might well inoughe 
have sayde, to any niggarde, that shoulde have vnwisely fownde 
falte with hym, as muche as you make hym to saye, not with the 
note of a prodigall, but with the commendation of an ingenuous, 
and a liberall disposition. 
Wheras it is replyde to Momus obiectinge, that the monye had 
byn better bestowed on the poore, that for any charge we wear 
at, nemo .propterea minus Fouebit inopes, absque eo nemo magis 
Leuabit; you thinke it weakely mett with. Why so? because, say 
you, Nero peraduenture was eyther less able , or less willinge, to helpe 
the poore, by reason of fyve or sixe thousande powndes spent for a 
1 In so much that the Romans, whom Nero enforced, if they could doe no 
other service on the stage, to danse there at least, pronounced the dead happy, 
who by departure out of life had escaped that shame. The Philistines ac¬ 
counted it a meet dishonor for their greatest enemie, when they put Samson 
to it: if yet the playing & sporting before them, which they put him too, were 
so ignominious. All auncient lawes almost (as a learned man doeth note upon 
occasion of that concerning Samson ) yea, and reason it selfe doe brande with a 
marke of dishonestie and infamie, those that daunse publikelie; and persons 
of such showes and spectacles. [Overthrow, p. 23.] 
2 Now, these things standing thus, what need I spend wordes in prooving 
of the fourth reason, namelie, that the charge of setting foorth such playes 
is mony cast away, and addeth wastfulnes to wantonnes, when your owne 
aunswere doeth strengthen it sufficientlie? For in that you say, there is a time 
of sparing, a time of honest spending, [Side-note, from Momus, lines 191-192: 
Est, ubi parcas, locus, suus est honesto sumptui] you graunt that vnhonest 
expense is still vnlawfull: as you haue cause to doe, seeing it is of riott con¬ 
demned by our Sauiour in the prodigall sonne. [ Overthrow, p. 24.] 
