Lope de Vega, Shakespeare and other Monsters of Nature

Lope de Vega, Cervantes' 'Monster of Nature', wrote a short treatise on the 'New Art of Writing Plays'. In it he described why he chose to write in a popular fashion rather than sticking to classical rules of art. His liberty (or license!) is comparable to the freedom and unrestraint of Shakespeare, and around 1613, Leonard Digges did, in fact, describe Shakespeare as England's 'Lope de Vega':

Will Baker: Knowinge

that M^r Mab: was to

sende you this Booke

of sonets, w^ch with Spaniards

here is accounted of their

lope de Vega as in Englande

we sholde of or: Will

Shakespeare. I colde not

but insert thus much to

you, that if you like

him not, you muste neuer

neuer reade Spanishe Poet

Leo:Digges

^(Leonar

(In 1640, Leonard Digges also provided a poem about Shakespeare for John Benson's volume)

Lope de Vega appears to have suffered many of the same criticisms as Shakespeare. Jonson had accused Shakespeare of making monstrous, ill-formed plays; and it is interesting to think of Shakespeare while reading Lope de Vega's responses to his critics. The Spanish playwright demonstrates ample knowledge of the 'rules' he disregards, claiming that audiences in Spain would never tolerate classical restraint. A number of disparaging terms are discussed - and I am particularly interested in Lope de Vega's acceptance of the opprobrious term 'barbarous'. There have been a number of times in my 'deformed' ramblings that I have tried to link the apparently paradoxical and seemingly unyokeable words 'Shakespeare' and 'barbaric' together. This treatise explains very simply how an author's refusal to submit to the constraints of classical aesthetics can be construed as evidence of his 'barbarism' and his shameless appeal to 'ignorance'.

This is how we should view Jonson's disparaging 'small Latine, less Greeke' remark. Shakespeare knew the rules (he parades them in _Hamlet_ and enacts them (pententially?) in _The Tempest_), but, happily for the world, he chose another way. It is evident that Jonson believed Shakespeare chose the wrong way. IMO, this is the indisputable significance of the Droeshout engraving's two left arms. The figure is incapable of right or dexterous (correct) writing. Shakespeare, like Lope de Vega, may have achieved popular fame and gained the applause of the multitude - but in Jonson's learned opinion it was at the expense of his artistic integrity. And, for Jonson, without virtue there could be no 'good fame'. Only those that embodied virtue should be set up as models or exemplars for others to fashion themselves after.

Lope de Vega freely admits that he has written his plays 'without art', an ironic echo of  Drummond's report that Jonson said Shakespeare "wanted art'. He admits that from a classical perspective his plays are aesthetic monsters (Minotaurs, chimaeras), and yet he suggests that in mixing elements he follows the example of Nature, for it is 'through such variety it [Nature] is beautiful.'

Brander Matthew introduction to "The New Art of Writing Play"s observes its imitation of Horace's Epistle to the Pisos - his 'Art of Poetry' - the text that also provides the main key to Jonson's overt and covert criticisms of Oxford/Shakespeare.

While I do not believe that the opinions of Lope de Vega and those of Shakespeare were identical -  I think he displays a fine, ironical understanding of the opinions of his 'learned' critics. 'Learning's' attacks on 'Ignorance' played out in English dramatic criticism as well, with Ben Jonson leading the charge against Shakespeare and other rude and unruly 'native' dramatists.

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Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount FALKLAND, Jonsonus Virbius

...How in an IGNORANT, and LEARN'D AGE he swaid,

(Of which the first he found, the second made)

How He, when he could know it, reapt his Fame,

And long out-liv'd the envy of his Name:

________________________

John Beaumont , Jonsonus Virbius

...Twas he that found (plac'd) in the seat of wit,

DULL grinning IGNORANCE, and banish'd it;

He on the prostituted stage appears

To make men hear, not by their eyes, but ears;

Who painted virtues, that each one might know,

And point the man, that did such treasure owe :

So that who could in JONSON'S lines be high

Needed not honours, or a riband buy ;

But vice he only shewed us in a glass,

Which by reflection of those rays that pass,

Retains the figure lively, set before,

And that withdrawn, reflects at us no more;

So, he observ'd the like decorum, when

*He whipt the vices, and yet spar'd the men* :

When heretofore, the Vice's only note,

And sign from virtue was his party-coat;

When devils were the last men on the stage,

And pray'd for plenty, and the PRESENT AGE.

_______________________

...Thou taughtest the RUDER AGE,

To speake by Grammer; and reformd'st the Stage:

thy Comick sock induc'd such purged sense,

A Lucrece might have heard without offence.

Henry King, Jonsonus Virbius

-----------------------------------

Who first reform'd our Stage with Justest Lawes,

And was the first best Judge in your owne Cause?

Who (when his Actors trembled for Applause)

Could (with a noble Confidence) preferre

His owne, by right, to a whole Theater;

From Principles which he knew could not erre...

L.Cl. Jonsonus Virbius

__________________________

...Never did so much strength, or such a spell

Of Art, and eloquence of papers dwell.

For whil'st he in colours, full and true,

Mens natures, fancies, and their humours drew

In method, order, matter, sence and grace,

Fitting each person to his time and place;

Knowing to move, to slacke, or to make haste,

Binding the middle with the first and last:

He fram'd all minds, and did all passions stirre,

And with a BRIDLE guide the Theater.

Shackerley Marmion, Jonsonus Virbius

_____________________________

Jonson on Shakespeare

 He was, indeed, honest, and of an open and free

nature, had an excellent phantasy, brave notions, and gentle

expressions, wherein he flowed with that facility that sometimes it

was necessary he should be *stopped*.  "Sufflaminandus erat," as

Augustus said of Haterius.  His wit was in his own power; would the

*rule* of it had been so, too.

____________________________

To the Deceased Author of these Poems (William Cartwright)

Jasper Mayne

For thou to Nature had’st joyn’d Art, and skill.

In Thee Ben Johnson still *HELD* Shakespeare’s Quill:

A Quill, *RUL'D* by sharp Judgement, and such Laws,

As a well studied Mind, and Reason draws.

Thy Lamp was cherish’d with suppolied of Oyle,

Fetch’d from the Romane and the Graecian soyle.

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The New Art of Writing Plays

BY 

LOPE DE VEGA 

TRANSLATED BY 

WILLIAM T. BREWSTER 

THE NEW ART OF MAKING PLAYS 
IN THIS AGE 

Addressed to the Academy at Madrid. 

1. You command me, noble spirits, flow- 
er of Spain, who in this congress and re- 
nowned academy will in short space of time 
surpass not only the assemblies of Italy 
which Cicero, envious of Greece, made fa- 
mous with his own name, hard by the Lake 
of Avernus, but also Athens where in the 
Lyceum of Plato was seen high conclave of 
philosophers, to write you an art of the 
play which is today acceptable to the taste of 
the crowd. 

2. Easy seems this subject, and easy it 
would be for anyone of you who had written 
very few comedies, and who knows more 

out the art of writing them and of all these 
things; for what condemns me in this task is

that I have written them without art. 

3. Not because I was ignorant of the pre- 
cepts; thank God, even while I was a tyro in 
grammar, I went through the books which 
treated the subject, before I had seen the sun 
run its course ten times from the Ram to the 
Fishes; 

4.  But because, in fine, I found that com- 
edies were not at that time, in Spain, as their 
first devisers in the world thought that they 
should be written; but rather as many rude 
fellows managed them, who confirmed the 
crowd in its own crudeness; and so they were 
introduced in such wise that he who now 
writes them artistically dies without fame 
and guerdon; for custom can do more 
among those who lack light of art than reason

and force.

5. True it is that I have sometimes writ- 
ten in accordance with the art which few 
know; but, no sooner do I see coming from 
some other source the monstrosities full of 
painted scenes where the crowd congregates 
and the women who canonize this sad busi- 
ness, than I return to that same barbarous 
habit; and when I have to write a comedy I 
lock in the precepts with six keys, I banish 
Terence and Plautus from my study that they 
may not cry out at me; for truth, even in 
dumb books, is wont to call aloud; and I 
write in accordance with that art which they 
devised who aspired to the applause of the 
crowd; for, since the crowd pays for the 
comedies, it is fitting to talk foolishly to it to 
satisfy its taste. 

6. Yet true comedy has its end estab- 
lished like every kind of poem or poetic art,  
and that has always been to imitate the ac-  
tions of men and to paint the customs of their 
age. Furthermore, all poetic imitation what- 
soever is composed of three things, which 
are discourse, agreeable verse, harmony, that 
is to say music, which so far was common 
also to tragedy; comedy being different from 
tragedy in that it treats of lowly and plebeian 
actions, and tragedy of royal and great ones. 
Look whether there be in our comedies few 
failings. 
 

7. Auto was the name given to them, for 
they imitate the actions and the doings of 
the crowd. Lope de Rueda was an example 
in Spain of these principles, and today are 
to be seen in print prose comedies of his so 
lowly that he introduces into them the doings 
of mechanics and the love of the daughter 
of a smith; whence there has remained the 
custom of calling the old comedies entre- 
meses [enterludes], where the art persists in all its force, 

there being one action and that between ple- 
beian people ; for an entremes with a king has 
never been seen. And thus it is shown how 
the art, for very lowness of style, came to be 
held in great disrepute, and the king in the 
comedy to be introduced for the ignorant. 

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 Davies of Hereford's epigram "To Our English Terence, Mr. Will: Shake- 
 speare", published in 1610 in Davies's The Scourge of Folly. 
 

Some say (good Will) which I, in sport, do sing, 
 Had'st thou not played some Kingly parts in sport, 
 Thou hadst been a companion for a King; 
 And been a King among the meaner sort. 
 Some others rail; but, rail as they think fit, 
 Thou hast no railing, but, a reigning Wit: 
     And HONESTY thou sow'st, which they do reap; 
     So, to increase their stock which they do keep. 

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Author: Cooper, Thomas, 1517?-1594.
Title: Thesaurus linguae Romanae & Britannicae

• Ludus,
ludi, m. g. Cic. Play in actes: mirth in wordes: sport: game: pastime.

Ludus pro ioco accipitur quandoque.
Terent.
Iesting in wordes: sport.

Ludo, Ablatiuus.
Virg.
In sport or pastime.

¶Ludi, in plurali.
Cic.
Common games, sightes, or pageants to delight the people.

Lusus, huius lusus, m. g.
Quint.
A play or sport: dalying: pastime: recreation.

 Ludius, ludij, m. g.
Cic.
A player in enterludes: a dauncer.

Ludo, ludis, lusi, lusum lúdere.
Plaut.
To playe: to mocke, or deceyue: to laugh to scorne: to iest: to make disport: to daly: to finde pastime: to sport: to play as one doth on instrume~ts.

Ars lucra.
Quintil.
A dalying and tryfling art as playing with puppets and such lyke.

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Jonson, Staple of News, Prologue for the Court

The P R O L O G U E for the C O U R T.

A

Work not smelling of the Lamp, to night,

   But fitted for your Majesty's Disport,

   And writ to the MERIDIAN of Your Court,

We bring; and hope it may produce Delight:

The rather, being offered as a Rite,

            To Scholars, that can judge, and fair report

            The Sense they hear, above the VULGAR SORT

Of Nut-crackers, that only come for SIGHT...

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Lope de Vega, con't.

12. But now I perceive that you are 
saying that this is merely translating books 
and wearying you with painting this mixed- 
up affair. Believe me there has been a rea- 
son why you should be reminded of some of 
these things; for you see that you ask me 
to describe the art of writing plays in Spain, 
where whatever is written is in defiance of 
art; and to tell how they are now written 
contrary to the ancient rule and to what is 
founded on reason, is to ask me to draw on 
my experience, not on art, for art speaks 
truth which the ignorant crowd gainsays. 

13. If then, you desire art, I beseech 
you, men of genius, to read the very learned 
Robortello of Udine and you will see in what 
he says concerning Aristotle and especially 
in what he writes about comedy, as much as 
is scattered among many books; for every- 
thing of today is in a state of confusion. 

14. If you wish to have my opinion of 
the comedies which now have the upper hand 
and to know why it is necessary that the

crowd with its laws should maintain the vile 
chimera of this comic monster, I will tell you 
what I hold, and do you pardon me, since I 
must obey whoever has power to command 
me, that, gilding the error of the crowd, I 
desire to tell you of what sort I would have 
them; for there is no recourse but to follow 
art observing a mean between the two ex- 
tremes. 

15. "Let the subject be chosen and do not 
be amused, may you excuse these precepts ! 
if it happens to deal with kings; tho, 
for that matter, I understand that Philip 
the Prudent, King of Spain and our lord, 
was offended at seeing a king in them ; either 
because the matter was hostile to art or be- 
cause the royal authority ought not to be 
represented among the lowly and the vulgar. 

1 6. This is merely turning back to the 
Old Comedy, where we see that Plautus in- 
troduced gods, as in his 'Amphitryon' he rep- 
resents Jupiter. God knows that I have dif- 
ficulty in giving this my approbation, since 
Plutarch, speaking of Menander, does not 
highly esteem Old Comedy. But since we 
are so far away from art and in Spain do it 

a thousand wrongs, let the learned this once 

close their lips. 

17. Tragedy mixed with comedy and 
Terence with Seneca, tho it be like another 
minotaur of Pasiphae, will render one part 
grave, the other ridiculous; for this variety 
causes much delight. Nature gives us good 
example, for through such variety it is beau- 
tiful. 

(snip)

28. But of all, nobody can I call more 
barbarous than myself, since in defiance of 
art I dare to lay down precepts, and I allow 
myself to be borne along in the vulgar cur- 
rent, wherefore Italy and France call me 
ignorant. But what can I do if I have writ- 
ten four hundred and eighty-three comedies, 
along with one which I have finished this 
week? For all of these, except six, gravely 
sin against art. Yet, in fine, I defend what I 
have written, and I know that, tho they 
might have been better in another manner, 
they would not have had the vogue which 
they have had; for sometimes that which is 
contrary to what is just, for that very reason, 
pleases the taste. 

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Shakespeare may have written after his own manner to please himself and to please his audience. After all, it was the duty of the courtier to please. Jonson's strident, pedantic manner must have been an unpleasant experience for many. And yet Shakespeare was 'of the court' - and as Jonson knew and wrote in _Cynthia's Revels_ the court was the fountainhead of manners, and the whole country looked to imitate the behaviours that had their origins there.

_Cynthia's Revels_

"Princes that would their People should do well,

"Must at themselves begin, as at the Head;

"For Men, by their EXAMPLE, pattern out

"Their Imitations, and regard of Laws:

"A vertuous Court a World to Vertue draws.

At the time of _Cynthia's Revels_, Jonson seems to have been able to attack Oxford/Shakespeare/Amorphus quite openly by employing the stratagem of two 'races' at court - a 'better' race and, presumably, an inferior one. What before might have been construed as an attack on the court and possibly the Queen herself was now presented as an attempt to 'reform' certain undesirables at court whose manners and morals had the potential to bring the entire court into disrepute. If these unruly courtiers could not be reformed or restrained, Jonson/Crites has Cynthia herself declare their fate:

"Dear Arete, and Crites, to you two

We give the Charge; impose what Pains you please:

TH' INCURABLE CUT OFF, the rest REFORM,

Remembring ever what we first decreed,

Since Revels were proclaim'd, let now none bleed."

The chief of these 'unauthorized' courtiers is Amorphus:

...first I'll give ye the others Character, which may

make his the clearer. He that is with him is Amorphus

a Traveller, one so made out of the mixture and shreds

of forms, that himself is truly deform'd.(Jonson)

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E  P  I  G  R  A  M  S . Jonson

LVI. — ON POET-APE.

Poor POET-APE, that would be thought our chief,

   Whose works are e'en the frippery of wit,

From brokage is become so bold a thief,

   As we, the robb'd, leave rage, and pity it.

At first he made low shifts, would pick and glean,

   Buy the reversion of old plays ;  now grown

To a little wealth, and credit in the scene,

   He takes up all, makes each man's wit his own :

And, told of this, he slights it.  Tut, such crimes

   The sluggish gaping auditor devours ;

He marks not whose 'twas first : and after-times

   May judge it to be his, as well as ours.

Fool !  as if half eyes will not know a fleece

   From locks of wool, or shreds from the whole piece ?

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Against Amorphus' and Poet-Ape's shapeless 'mixtures and shreds of forms', (mirroring the minotaurs and chimaeras  of Lope de Vega), Jonson invokes an image of rectitude and integrity - a classical 'even and proportioned body'. Jonson presents his art as virtuous and transformative,  possessing the power to  '[make men's] minds like the things he writes':

Timber, Jonson

(In the difference of wits, note 10) Not. 10.—

It cannot but come to pass that these men who commonly seek to do more than enough may sometimes happen on something that is good and great; but very seldom:  and when it comes it doth not recompense the rest of their ill.  For their jests, and their sentences (which they only and ambitiously seek for) stick out, and are more eminent, because all is sordid and vile about them; as lights are more discerned in a thick darkness than a faint shadow. Now, because they speak all they can (however unfitly), they are thought to have the greater copy; where the learned use ever election and a mean, they look back to what they intended at first, and *make all an even and proportioned body*.

The true artificer will not run away from Nature as he were afraid of her, or depart from life and the likeness of truth, but speak to the capacity of his hearers.  And though his language differ from the vulgar somewhat, it shall not fly from all humanity, with the Tamerlanes and Tamer- chains of the late age, which had nothing in them but the scenical strutting and furious vociferation to warrant them to the ignorant gapers.  He knows it is his only art so to carry it, as none but artificers perceive it.  In the meantime, perhaps, he is called barren, dull, lean, a poor writer, or by what contumelious word can come in their cheeks, by these men who, without labour, judgment, knowledge, or almost sense, are received or preferred before him. He gratulates them and their fortune.  Another age, or juster men, will acknowledge the virtues of his studies, his wisdom in dividing,his subtlety in arguing, with what strength he doth inspire his readers, with what sweetness he strokes them; in inveighing, what sharpness; in jest, what urbanity he uses; how he doth reign in men's affections; how invade and break in upon them, and makes their minds like the thing he writes.  Then in his elocution to behold what word is proper, which hath ornaments, which height, what is beautifully translated, where figures are fit, which gentle, which strong, to show the composition manly; and how he hath avoided faint, obscure, obscene, sordid, humble, improper, or effeminate phrase; which is not only praised of the most, but commended (which is worse), especially for that it is naught.

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Author: Cooper, Thomas, 1517?-1594.
Title: Thesaurus linguae Romanae & Britannicae 

·  Monstrum, monstri, n. g.
Cic.
A monster: that exceedeth, lacketh, or is disordred in natural forme. Any thing done against the course of nature. A token or shewing: a thing that signifieth.

Monstra narrare, siue nuntiare.
Ci.
To tell meruaylous and straunge things against the course of nature and reason.

Monstróse, pen. pro. Aduerbium.
Ci.

Monstrously: straungelye: contrarie to nature.

·  Monstrífice, pen. cor. Aduerbium. Monstrously: straungely: in wonderfull maner.

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Jonson, _Bartholomew Fair_ (1614), Ind., ed. Herford & Simpson vi (1938), pp. 16f:

If there be never a Servant-monster I’ the Fayre; who can help it? He sayes; nor a nest of ANTIQUES? He is loth to make Nature afraid in his Playes, like those that beget Tales, Tempests, and such like Drolleries, to mixe his head with other mens heeles, let the concupiscence of Jigges and Dances, raigne as strong as it will amongst you: yet if the Puppets will please any body, they shall be entreated to come in.

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Ars lucra.
Quintil.
A dalying and tryfling art as playing with puppets and such lyke.

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"Science and the Secrets of Nature"

by William Eamon

The distinguishing mark of the courtier, according to Castiglione, was grazia, or grace, "a seasoning without which all the other properties and good qualities would be of little worth."  Essentially identical with elegance, urbanity, and refinement, grace was the highest achievement of culture.  Grazia may be displayed in any action, but the key to it was an art for which Castiglione coined the term sprezzatura, a kind of smoothness and nonchalance that hides the effort that goes into a difficult performance.  However, "nonchalance" conveys only part of the meaning of sprezzatura.  The root of this untranslatable word is the verb sprezzare, meaning to SCORN or despise.  Chen Castiglione demands that the courtier act with "una certa sprezzatura" toward what is unimportant, he implies acting with an attitude of disdain and scorn for normal human limitations or physical necessities.  Castiglione put it down as a "universal rule" of courtly behavior that to achieve gracefulness one must "practice in all things a certain sprezzatura, so as to conceal all art and make whatever is done or said appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it."  The more difficult the performance, the greater the possibility of manifesting sprezzatura, the art that makes what is difficult seem simple and natural.  This is why, when a courtier accomplishes an action with sprezzatura, his behavior elicits another characteristic courtly response, meraviglia, or wonder: "because everyone knows the difficulty of things that are rare and well done; wherefore facility in such things causes the greatest wonder."

Courtly virtuosity, with its feigned disregard for normal limitations and the high esteem it attached to wonderment, fostered - indeed idealized - a dilettantish approach to intellectual and cultural pursuits. The accomplished courtier did not pursue learning with the diligence of a scholar, nor play the lute like a professional, nor fight like a condottiere.  He performed everything with sprezzatura, which made his actions appear as a pastime, success as a matter of course.  *Feigning his accomplishments as natural* made the courtier seem to to be the master of himself, of society's rules, and even of physical laws.  Holding himself above the common crowd, disdaining the obvious and merely useful, he turned his curiosity toward what was obscure, rare, and "marvelous."

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Lineamenta animi.
Cic.
The fashion and shape of the minde.

A Strange Sign:

 Ludos aliquem facere.
Plaut.
To dally and scoffe at one: to make a mocking stocke.

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Jonson, _Every Man in his Humour_

COME,

wrong not the quality of your desert, with looking

downward, Couz; but hold up your Head, so: and

let the IDEA of what you are, be portray'd i' your FACE,

that Men may read i' your Physnomy, (Here, within

this place is to be seen the TRUE, RARE, and accomplish'd MONSTER, or

MIRACLE of Nature, which is all one.) 

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All action is of the MIND and the mirror of the mind is the FACE, its index the eyes.-- Cicero

I can refell [refute] that Paradox of those, which hold the face to be the Index of the minde.
[1601 Jonson Cynthia's Revels - Amorphus the Deformed]

Cf. [Cicero Orator lx.] ut imago est animi voltus sic indices oculi, *the face is a picture of the mind* as the eyes are its interpreter; L. vultus est index animi (also oculus animi index), the face (also, eye) is the index of the mind.

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Author: Cooper, Thomas, 1517?-1594.
Title: Thesaurus linguae Romanae & Britannicae

·  Prodigium, prodigij, n. g.
Virg.
A thing seldome seene, which signifieth that some great good or ill shall followe: a thyng monstrous or against nature.

Prodigio simile.
Plinius.
A monstrous thyng: a wonderous matter.

 

·  Prodigiôsus, pen. prod. Adiect.
Plin.
That giueth a straunge signe or token: that is monstrous contrary to the common course of nature.

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Macbeth
Act V
Scene VIII

 

Macduff.  Then yield thee, coward,
And live to be the show and gaze o' the time.         

We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
Painted upon a pole,  and underwrit,
"Here may you see the tyrant."
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Prodigy/Gazingstock:

Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870-1938). Roget's International Thesaurus.
1922.

872. Prodigy.

NOUN:   PRODIGY, phenomenon, wonder, wonderment, marvel, miracle; freak,
freak of nature, lusus naturOE [L.], monstrosity; monster
(unconformity) [See Unconformity]; curiosity, infant prodigy, lion,
sight, spectacle; jeu -, coup- de théâtre [F.]; GAZINGSTOCK; sign; St.
Elmo's -fire, - light; portent [See Omen].
  what no words can paint; wonders of the world; annus mirabilis [L.];
dignus vindice nodus [L.].
  DETONATION; bursting of a -shell, - bomb, - mine; volcanic eruption,
peal of thunder; thunderclap, thunderbolt, thunderstone [obs. or dial.
Eng.].

QUOTATIONS:

   1. Natura il fece e poi roppe la stampa.
   2. A schoolboy's tale, the wonder of an hour!--Byron
   3. Stones have been known to move and trees to speak.--Macbeth
   4. 'Twas strange, 'twas passing strange; 'Twas pitiful, 'twas
wondrous pitiful.--Othello 

 

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PETRUCHIO.  Were it better, I should rush in thus.

But where is Kate? where is my lovely bride?
How does my father? Gentles, methinks you frown:
And wherefore GAZE this goodly company,
As if they saw some wondrous monument,
Some comet, or unusual PRODIGY?


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GAZING-STOCK [ISBE]

GAZING-STOCK - gaz'-ing-stok: This obsolete word occurs twice: (1) in Nah 3:6, as the translation of ro'i, "a sight" or "spectacle" (from ra'ah, "to look," "see," also "to look down upon," "despise,"); "I will .... make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazing-stock," as one set up to be gazed at, mocked and despised--a form of punishment in olden times; compare "mocking stock" (2 Macc 7:7), and "laughing- stock" still in use. The Hebrew word occurs only here and in Gen 16:13; 1 Sam 16:12; Job 7:8; 33:21, in which places it does not have the same bad meaning; for a similar threatening compare Isa 14:16; Jer 51:37. (2) In Heb 10:33, it is the translation of theatrizo, "to bring upon the theater," "to be made a spectacle of," "made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions"; compare 1 Cor 4:9, theatron ginomai, where Paul says the apostles were "made a spectacle unto the world," the King James Version margin "(Greek) theater." The reference in both instances is to the custom of exhibiting criminals, and especially gladiators, men doomed to death, in theaters. "In the morning men are exposed to lions and bears; at mid-day to their spectators; those that kill are exposed to one another; the victor is detained for another slaughter; the conclusion of the fight is death" (Seneca, Ep. vii, quoted by Dr. A. Clarke on 1 Cor 4:9). We are apt to forget what the first preachers and professors of Christianity had to endure.
W. L. Walker