ABSTRACT
BUT it is also generally known to everyone how degrading it is for princes, or for those who are greedy of praise, to be commended by those whose chief business it is to knock about with disreputable fellows, and to corrupt someone's good character by evil conversation, render ing it effeminate, lecherous, and extravagant. Moreover in the role of comedians they perform or sing about adultery and debauchery, from which arises a congenial habit of watching them and a ruinous licence to enact all the foulest deeds; in the end, however, they fall silent at the criticism and argument of any serious man.
