: Representation of the Impiety and Immorality of the English Stage (1704); Some Thoughts Concerning the Stage in a Letter to a Lady (1704) by Avery Emmett Langdon Author Of Introduction Etc Woodward Josiah Contributor - Theater Moral and ethical aspects Ear

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Series Three: Essays on the Stage

No. 2 Anon., Representation of the Impiety and Immorality of the English Stage and Anon., Some thoughts Concerning the Stage

With an Introduction by Emmett L. Avery and a Bibliographical Note

Announcement of Publications for the Second Year

The Augustan Reprint Society March, 1947 Price: 75c

General Editors: Richard C. Boys, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Edward N. Hooker, H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., University of California, Los Angeles 24, California.

Membership in the Augustan Reprint Society entitles the subscriber to six publications issued each year. The annual membership fee is .50. Address subscriptions and communications to the Augustan Reprint Society, in care of one of the General Editors.

Photo-Lithoprint Reproduction EDWARDS BROTHERS, INC. Lithoprinters ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN

INTRODUCTION

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 , 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 , 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' , 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 , 388, and also in 'The Critical Works of John Dennis', I, 501, has deemed unlikely.

Advertised also in the 'Daily Courant' for January 20, 1704, under the heading "This present day is publish'd" and in the same paragraph with the advertisement of 'A Representation', was another short pamphlet, 'Some Thoughts Concerning the Stage in a Letter to a Lady'.

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