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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'.

'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 , 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 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 , 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.

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

And is not the dangerous and expensive War we are engaged in, together with the present Posture of Affairs, a sufficient Reason for this, tho' the Play-Houses were less mischievous to the Nation than they are?

And if we go on to countenance such open and flagrant Defiances of Almighty God, have we not great Reason to fear his heavy Judgments will consume us?

The abominable obscene Expressions which so frequently occur in our Plays, as if the principal Design of them was to gratifie the lewd and vicious part of the Audience, and to corrupt the virtuously dispos'd, are in this black Collection wholly omitted; lest thereby fresh Poison should be administred instead of an Antidote.

'But more than all that, you must know I was afraid of being damn'd in those Days; for I kept sneaking, cowardly Company, Fellows that went to Church, and said Grace to their Meat, and had not the least Tincture of Quality about em.

'Damn 'em both, with all my Heart, and every thing else that daggles a Petticoat; except four generous Whores, with Betty Sands at the Head of 'em, who were drunk with my Lord Rake and I, ten times in a Fortnight.

'Sure, if Woman had been ready created, the Devil, instead of being kick'd down into Hell, had been married.

'Pox of my Family.

'Pox of her Virtue.

'He has married me, and be damn'd to him

'Pox of the Parson.

'Damn Morality, and damn the Watch.

'Let me speak and be damn'd.

'And you and your Wife may be damn'd.

'Stand off and be damn'd.

'Damn me, if you han't.

'Lord! What Notions have we silly Women from these old Philosophers of Virtue, for Virtue is this, and Virtue is that, and Virtue has its own Reward; Virtue, Virtue is an Ass, and a Gallant is worth forty on't.

'If I should play the Wife and Cuckold him.

'That would be playing the down-right Wife indeed.

'If there were a House of Lords you might.

'If you should see your Mistress at a Coronation, dragging her Peacocks Train, with all her State and Insolence about her, it would strike you with all the awful Thoughts that Heaven it self could pretend to, from you.

'Madam, to oblige your Ladyship, he shall speak Blasphemy.

'In hopes thou'lt give me up thy Body, I resign thee up my Soul.

'A Villain, but a repenting Villain; Stuff which Saints in all Ages have been made of.

In the Humour of the Age.

'Marriage, that was only contriv'd for the meaner Rank; tell me of Marriage, commend me to a Whore.

'Every serious Thought, was so much Time lost.

'We address you with the same awful Reverence we petition Heaven.

'Nay, his Salvation is a Looking-Glass, for there he finds his eternal Happiness, Surly's Heaven, at least his Priest is his Claret-Glass, for to that he confesses all his Sins, and from it receives Absolution and Comfort. But his Damnation is a Looking-Glass, for there he finds an eternal Fire in his Nose.

'Let him be in Misery and be damn'd.

'And a Pox on thee for't.

'Prithee Dress and be damn'd.

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