Lines In Defence Of The Stage Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCBB DEBB FGFF HIJJ KLBB BBBB MMFG NOPQ RRBB SSKK BBAA| Good people of high and low degree | A |
| I pray ye all be advised by me | A |
| And don't believe what the clergy doth say | B |
| That by going to the theatre you will be led astray | B |
| - | |
| No in the theatre we see vice punished and virtue rewarded | C |
| The villain either hanged or shot and his career retarded | C |
| Therefore the theatre is useful in every way | B |
| And has no inducement to lead the people astray | B |
| - | |
| Because therein we see the end of the bad men | D |
| Which must appall the audience deny it who can | E |
| Which will help to retard them from going astray | B |
| While witnessing in a theatre a moral play | B |
| - | |
| The theatre ought to be encouraged in every respect | F |
| Because example is better than precept | G |
| And is bound to have a greater effect | F |
| On the minds of theatre goers in every respect | F |
| - | |
| Sometimes in theatres guilty creatures there have been | H |
| Struck to the soul by the cunning of the scene | I |
| By witnessing a play wherein murder is enacted | J |
| They were proven to be murderers they felt so distracted | J |
| - | |
| And left the theatre they felt so much fear | K |
| Such has been the case so says Shakespeare | L |
| And such is my opinion I will venture to say | B |
| That murderers will quake with fear on seeing murder in a play | B |
| - | |
| Hamlet discovered his father's murderer by a play | B |
| That he composed for the purpose without dismay | B |
| And the king his uncle couldn't endure to see that play | B |
| And he withdrew from the scene without delay | B |
| - | |
| And by that play the murder was found out | M |
| And clearly proven without any doubt | M |
| Therefore stage representation has a greater effect | F |
| On the minds of the people than religious precept | G |
| - | |
| We see in Shakespeare's tragedy of Othello which is sublime | N |
| Cassio losing his lieutenancy through drinking wine | O |
| And in delirium and grief he exclaims | P |
| Oh that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains | Q |
| - | |
| A young man in London went to the theatre one night | R |
| To see the play of George Barnwell and he got a great fright | R |
| He saw George Barnwell murder his uncle in the play | B |
| And he had resolved to murder his uncle but was stricken with dismay | B |
| - | |
| But when he saw George Barnwell was to be hung | S |
| The dread of murdering his uncle tenaciously to him clung | S |
| That he couldn't murder and rob his uncle dear | K |
| Because the play he saw enacted filled his heart with fear | K |
| - | |
| And in conclusion I will say without dismay | B |
| Visit the theatre without delay | B |
| Because the theatre is a school of morality | A |
| And hasn't the least tendency to lead to prodigality | A |
William Topaz Mcgonagall
(1)
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