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Page 1
Photo-Lithoprint Reproduction
EDWARDS BROTHERS, INC.
Lithoprinters
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN
INTRODUCTION
Within two or three years after the appearance in 1698 of Jeremy
Collier's 'A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English
Stage', the bitter exchanges of reply and counter-reply to the charges
of gross licentiousness in the London theaters had subsided. The
controversy, however, was by no means ended, and around 1704 it flared
again in a resurgence of attacks upon the stage. Among the tracts
opposing the theaters was an anonymous pamphlet entitled 'A
Representation of the Impiety and Immorality of the English Stage', a
piece which was published early in 1704 and which appeared in three
editions before the end of that year.
The author reveals within his tract some of the reasons for its
appearance at that time. He remarks upon the obvious failure of the
opponents of the theater to end "the outragious and insufferable
Disorders of the STAGE." He stresses the brazenness of the players in
presenting, soon after the devastating storm of the night of November
26-27, 1703, two plays, 'Macbeth' and 'The Tempest', "as if they
design'd to Mock the Almighty Power of God, _who alone commands the
Winds and the Seas_." ('Macbeth' was acted at Drury Lane on Saturday,
November 27, as the storm was subsiding, but, because it was advertised
in the 'Daily Courant' on Friday, November 26, for the following
evening, it would appear that, unless the players possessed the even
more formidable power of foreseeing the storm, their presentation of
'Macbeth' at that time was pure coincidence. No performance of 'The
Tempest' in late November appears in the extant records, but there was
probably one at Lincoln's Inn Fields, which was not regularly
advertising its offerings.) The author also emphasizes the propriety,
before the approaching Fast Day of January 19, 1704, of noting once more
the Impiety of the stage and the desirability of either suppressing it
wholly or suspending its operations for a considerable period.
Apparently the author hoped to arouse in religious persons a renewed
zeal for closing the theaters, for the tract was distributed at the
churches as a means of giving it wider circulation among the populace.
('The Critical Works of John Dennis' [Baltimore, 1939], I, 501, refers
to a copy listed in Magga catalogue. No. 563, Item 102, with a note:
"19th Janry, Fast Day. This Book was given me at ye Church dore, and was
distributed at most Churches.")
Except for the author's ingenuity in seizing upon the fortuitous
circumstances of the storm, the acting of 'Macbeth' and 'The Tempest',
and the proclamation of the Fast Day (which was ordered partly because
of the ravages of the storm), there is nothing greatly original in the
work. The author was engaged, in fact, in bringing up to date some of
the accusations which earlier controversialists had made. For example,
he reviews the indictments of the players in 1699 and 1701 for uttering
profane remarks upon the stage, and he culls from several plays and
prints the licentious expressions which had resulted in the indictments.
Like Jeremy Collier before him and Arthur Bedford in 'The Evil and
Danger of Stage-Plays' later (1706), he adds similar expressions from
plays recently acted, as proof, presumably, of the failure of the
theaters to reform themselves in spite of the publicity previously given
to their shortcomings. In so doing, he damns the stage and plays by
excerpts, usually brief ones, containing objectionable phrases. To this
material he adds a section consisting of seventeen questions, a not
uncommon device, addressed to those who might frequent the playhouses.
The questions again stress the great difficulty involved in attending
plays and remaining truly good Christians.
The pamphlet must have been completed late in 1703 or very early in
1704. The references to the storm and the performances of 'Macbeth' and
'The Tempest' would place its final composition after late November,
1703, and it was in print in time to be distributed at the churches on
January 19 and also to be advertised in the 'Daily Courant' for January
20 under the heading "This present day is publish'd." The fact that it
quickly attained three editions during 1704 may be partially accounted
for by its being given to churchgoers, for it seems unlikely that the
pamphlet would have a tremendous sale, even if one allows for the strong
opposition to the stage which persisted in the minds of many people at
the turn of the century. The author of the tract is unknown, although
Sister Rose Anthony in 'The Jeremy Collier Stage Controversy, 1698-1726'
(Milwaukee, 1937), pages 194-209, ascribed it to Jeremy Collier, an
attribution which E. N. Hooker, in a review of the book in 'Modern
Language Notes', LIV (1939), 388, and also in 'The Critical Works of
John Dennis', I, 501, has deemed unlikely.
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