This speech was delivered by Joseph Tisdale who approved of the effort to bring professional theater to Boston. Admitting that he has never actually seen a play, Tisdale emphasizes the instructive value and moral virtue of the theater. He also attacks the Puritan clergy for standing against theater, arguing that in so doing they are seeking to maintain their own authority. Tisdale insists that theater will more effectively promote the “sentiment of virtue and religion” than the Puritans ever could. The speech, however, fails to address the central issue behind the 1767 law: the idea that theater, as a British institution, was dangerous to American culture.

Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society