Bannatyne Club > Philotus

PREFACE. xi
literal. Here we clearly perceive such corrections and changes as
may be supposed to have proceeded from the author ; nor is it ne-
cessary to discuss the hasty conclusion of Mr Pinkerton, which he
himself deliberately abandoned, that Philotus must have been writ-
ten long before the date of the first impression, that it must have
been written during the reign of James the Fifth.
The indecency of this early drama rendered it a matter of no
small doubt and hesitation, whether we could venture to reprint
it without suppressing the most flagrant passages ; of which we do
not feel inclined to adopt the defence urged by a learned writer,
to whom we have already referred. " The recent editor of a
Biographia Dramatica" he states, " has attacked this piece vio-
lently on the score of immodesty. This writer's philosophy, it
would seem, is exactly equal to his learning. Had he the smallest
share of philosophy, he would know that our bashfulness, so re-
markable to foreigners, is a weakness, and not a virtue ; and that
it is this bashfulness alone which makes us so nice about matters so
freely discoursed by other nations. If the generation of man be a
matter of shame and infamy, it follows that man is the child of
shame and infamy. Now nothing excites vice so much as low
ideas of human nature ; and those nice writers, while they are
preaching virtue, are from mere ignorance opening the door to
every vice. Had this writer any learning, he would know that
the comedies of Aristophanes, written in the brightest period of