The Theater as a Public Brothel
Novatian has just described the shame of the circus and now turns to the stage plays, detailing their obscene content and the shame of Christians who attend them.
But now let me turn to the immodest jests of the stage. I am ashamed to repeat what is said there, ashamed even to accuse what is done: the tricks of arguments, the deceits of adulterers, the shamelessness of women, the buffoonish jokes, the filthy parasites, and even the fathers of families in their togas—now stupid, now obscene, in everything dull-witted, and shameless in their very names. And although no person, no class, no profession is spared by this wicked talk, everyone still gathers for the show. The common disgrace pleases them, of course—either to recognize their own idleness or to learn it. They rush together into that brothel of public modesty, into a school of obscenity, so that nothing is done in private less than what is learned in public. And in the very presence of the laws, whatever the laws forbid is taught. What is a faithful Christian doing in the midst of this—a person who is not permitted even to think about vices? Why does he take pleasure in images of lust, so that with his modesty laid aside in them he becomes bolder for crimes? He learns to do while he grows accustomed to watch. Yet those women whom their misfortune has prostituted into the slavery of public lust are hidden by their place, and they console their disgrace in concealment: even those who have sold their modesty blush to be seen. But this public monstrosity is carried on before all who watch, and the obscenity of prostitutes is surpassed. The question is how adultery might be admitted through the eyes. To this disgrace a disgrace worthy of it is added: a man broken in all his limbs and dissolved beyond womanly softness into effeminacy, whose art is to express words with his hands. And for the sake of one person—I know not whether man or woman—the whole city is stirred up so that the fabled lusts of antiquity are danced out. Thus whatever is not permitted is loved so much that what even age had hidden, memory brings back before the eyes.
Latin
Sed ut ad scenae iam sales muerecundos transitum faciam, pudet referre quae dicuntur, pudet etiam accusare quae fiunt, argumentorum strophas, adulterorum fallacias, mulierum impudicitias, scurriles iocos, parasitos sordidos, ipsos quoque patres familias togatos modo stupidos modo obscoenos, in omnibus stolidos, certis nominibus inuerecundos. et cum nulli hominum aut generi aut professioni ab improbis isto sermone parcatur, ab omnibus tamen ad spectaculum conuenitur. commune dedecus delectat uidelicet uel recognoscere otia uel discere. concurritur in illud pudoris publici lupanarium, ad obscoenitatis magisterium, ne quid secreto minus agatur quam quod in publico discitur: et inter ipsas leges docetur quicquid legibus interdicitur. quid inter haec christianus fidelis facit cui uitia non licet nec cogitare, quid oblectatur simulacris libidinis, ut in ipsis deposita uerecundia audacior fiat ad crimina? discit et facere dum consuescit uidere. illas tamen quas infelicitas sua in seruitutem prostituit libidinis publicae occultat locus et dedecus suum de latebris consolantur : erubescunt uideri etiam quae pudorem uendiderunt. at istud publicum monstrum omnibus uidentibus geritur et prostitutarum transitur obscoenitas: quaesitum est quomodo adulterium ex oculis admitteretur. huic dedecori condignum dedecus superducitur, homo fractus omnibus membris et uir ultra muliebrem mollitiem dissolutus, cui ars sit uerba manibus expedire: et propter unum nescio quem nec uirum nec feminam commouetur ciuitas tota ut desaltentur fabulosae antiquitatum libidines. ita amatur quicquid non licet ut quae etiam aetas absconderat, sub oculos memoria reducat.