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The Shows, or De Spectaculis

Tertullian

Chapter 17

About this work

Author: Tertullian

Are we not, in like manner, enjoined to put

‹ Chapter 16 Chapter 18 ›

away

from

us

all

immodesty

?

On

this

ground

,

again

,

we

are

excluded

from

the

theatre

,

which

is

immodesty’s

own

peculiar

abode

,

where

nothing

is

in

repute

but

what

elsewhere

is

disreputable

.

So

the

best

path

to

the

highest

favour

of

its

god

is

the

vileness

which

the

Atellan

gesticulates

,

which

the

buffoon

in

woman’s

clothes

exhibits

,

destroying

all

natural

modesty

,

so

that

they

blush

more

readily

at

home

than

at

the

play

,

which

finally

is

done

from

his

childhood

on

the

person

of

the

pantomime

,

that

he

may

become

an

actor

.

The

very

harlots

,

too

,

victims

of

the

public

lust

,

are

brought

upon

the

stage

,

their

misery

increased

as

being

there

in

the

presence

of

their

own

sex

,

from

whom

alone

they

are

wont

to

hide

themselves

:

they

are

paraded

publicly

before

every

age

and

every

rank

—

their

abode

,

their

gains

,

their

praises

,

are

set

forth

,

and

that

even

in

the

hearing

of

those

who

should

not

hear

such

things

.

I

say

nothing

about

other

matters

,

which

it

were

good

to

hide

away

in

their

own

darkness

and

their

own

gloomy

caves

,

lest

they

should

stain

the

light

of

day

.

Let

the

Senate

,

let

all

ranks

,

blush

for

very

shame

!

Why

,

even

these

miserable

women

,

who

by

their

own

gestures

destroy

their

modesty

,

dreading

the

light

of

day

,

and

the

people’s

gaze

,

know

something

of

shame

at

least

once

a

year

.

But

if

we

ought

to

abominate

all

that

is

immodest

,

on

what

ground

is

it

right

to

hear

what

we

must

not

speak

?

For

all

licentiousness

of

speech

,

nay

,

every

idle

word

,

is

condemned

by

God

.

Why

,

in

the

same

way

,

is

it

right

to

look

on

what

it

is

disgraceful

to

do

?

How

is

it

that

the

things

which

defile

a

man

in

going

out

of

his

mouth

,

are

not

regarded

as

doing

so

when

they

go

in

at

his

eyes

and

ears

—

when

eyes

and

ears

are

the

immediate

attendants

on

the

spirit

—

and

that

can

never

be

pure

whose

servants

-

in

-

waiting

are

impure

?

You

have

the

theatre

forbidden

,

then

,

in

the

forbidding

of

immodesty

.

If

,

again

,

we

despise

the

teaching

of

secular

literature

as

being

foolishness

in

God’s

eyes

,

our

duty

is

plain

enough

in

regard

to

those

spectacles

,

which

from

this

source

derive

the

tragic

or

comic

play

.

If

tragedies

and

comedies

are

the

bloody

and

wanton

,

the

impious

and

licentious

inventors

of

crimes

and

lusts

,

it

is

not

good

even

that

there

should

be

any

calling

to

remembrance

the

atrocious

or

the

vile

.

What

you

reject

in

deed

,

you

are

not

to

bid

welcome

to

in

word

.

Notes

1
[The ludi Atellani were so called from Atella, in Campania, where a vast amphitheatre delighted the inhabitants. Juvenal, Sat. vi. 71. The like disgrace our times.]