Representation of the Impiety and Immorality of the English Stage (1704); Some Thoughts Concerning the Stage in a Letter to a Lady (1704)

by Unknown

It seems clear that the publication and distribution of these books was a feature in the activities of the Societies for Reformation of Manners. The anonymous Account of the Progress of the Reformation of Manners (13th ed., 1705) boasted that the Societies had enlarged their design by causing books to be written which aimed at "laying open to the World the outragious Disorders and execrable Impieties of our most Scandalous Play-Houses, with the fatal Effects of them to the Nation in general, and the manifest Sin and Danger of particular Persons frequenting of them" (p. 2). Defoe's Review (III, no. 93, for August 3, 1706) pointed out that thousands of Collier's books had been distributed at the church doors by the Societies for Reformation of Manners and the founders of the Charity Schools. Obviously the Societies did not restrict themselves to the works of Collier. Incidentally, the habit of Collier and his followers of giving excerpts to illustrate the profaneness and immorality of the stage produced an unexpected effect in at least one quarter. The same issue of the Review tells us that the Rev. Dr. William Lancaster, archdeacon of Middlesex, objected strongly to the dispersal of anti-stage tracts at the door of his church, on the grounds that they tended "to teach the ignorant People to swear and curse."

Some Thoughts Concerning the Stage in a Letter to a Lady was ascribed by Halkett and Laing to Josiah Woodward, who was associated with the Society for the Reformation of Manners, and the ascription has been referred to by later writers on the controversy over the immorality of the stage. According to Sister Rose Anthony (op. cit., pp. 203-209), Jeremy Collier may have issued a pamphlet as a supplement to his Dissuasive from the Play-House, which was first published late in 1703; and it has been conjectured (cf. Critical Works of John Dennis, I, 501, 505) that Some Thoughts might be that work, especially since Dennis, at the end of The Person of Quality's Answer to Mr. Collier's Letter, refers to a quotation from Tillotson which appears on pages 8-9 of Some Thoughts and begins his reference to the pamphlet by designating it as a "Letter written by you [Collier], tho' without Name." In any event, both A Representation and Some Thoughts stem from the renewed opposition to the stage which arose in the winter of 1703-1704 and were activated in part by the belief that the great storm of 1703 was a judgment brought on England by, among other faults, the licentiousness of the stage.

Both of the items printed in this issue are reproduced, with permission, from copies in the library of the University of Michigan.

Emmett L. Avery
State College of Washington

A
REPRESENTATION
OF THE
Impiety & Immorality
OF THE
English Stage,

WITH

Reasons for putting a Stop thereto: and some Questions Addrest to those who frequent the Play-Houses.

The Third Edition.

LONDON,
Printed, and are to be Sold by J. Nutt near Stationers-Hall, 1704.