dramatick-poet

Updated: May 5, 2025

Writings for the Stage are of late so very much perverted by the Violence of Party, that the finest Performance, without Scandal, cannot be supported; Shakespear and Ben Johnson, were they, now living, would be wholly at a Loss in the Composure of a Play suitable to the Taste of the Town; without a promiscuous heap of Scurrility to expose a Party, or, what is more detestable, perhaps a particular Person, no Play will succeed, and the most execrable Language, in a Comedy, produc'd at this Time, shall be more applauded than the most beautiful Turns in a Love for Love: Such are the Hardships a Dramatick-Poet has to struggle with, that either Obscenity, Party, or Scandal must be his Theme, and after he has performed his utmost in either of these Ways, without a powerful Interest, he'll have more Difficulty in the bringing his Play upon the Theatre than in the Writing, and sometimes never be able to accomplish it.

Daniel Defoe - A Vindication of the Press