If I think this country
ought to make war on any other country, then, so long as war
remains lawful, I claim full liberty to write and perform a play
inciting the country to that war without interference from the
ambassadors of the menaced country. I may "give pain to many
worthy people, and pleasure to none," as the Censor's pet phrase
puts it: I may even make Europe a cockpit and Asia a shambles: no
matter: if preachers and politicians, statesmen and soldiers, may
do these things--if it is right that such things should be done,
then I claim my share in the right to do them. If the proposed
Committee is meant to prevent me from doing these things whilst
men of other professions are permitted to do them, then I protest
with all my might against the formation of such a Committee. If
it is to protect me, on the contrary, against the attacks that
bigots and corrupt pornographers may make on me by appealing to
the ignorance and prejudices of common jurors, then I welcome it;
but is that really the object of its proposers? And if it is,
what guarantee have I that the new tribunal will not presently
resolve into a mere committee to avoid unpleasantness and keep
the stage "in good taste"? It is no more possible for me to do my
work honestly as a playwright without giving pain than it is for
a dentist. The nation's morals are like its teeth: the more
decayed they are the more it hurts to touch them. Prevent
dentists and dramatists from giving pain, and not only will our
morals become as carious as our teeth, but toothache and the
plagues that follow neglected morality will presently cause more
agony than all the dentists and dramatists at their worst
have caused since the world began.
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