A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage

work by Collier

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In 1698, Jeremy Collier published A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage. This work was a significant critique of the English theater of the Restoration period, targeting playwrights like John Dryden and William Congreve. Collier argued that the stage was indecent, used profane language, undermined public morality by sympathizing with vice, and attacked the clergy.12

Collier's attack sparked a considerable pamphlet war that lasted for years. His critique was based on specific examples from published play texts, particularly concerning blasphemy. The English theater of the era, influenced by the Renaissance, had developed a unique style but also faced restrictions and criticism regarding its content and perceived immorality.123

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Jeremy Collier
In his notorious A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage (1698), Collier attacks William Wycherley, John Dryden, William Congreve, John Vanbrugh, and Thomas D’Urfey, censuring them for indecency, for profane language, for abusing the clergy, and for undermining public morality by sympathetic presentation…
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In his notorious A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage (1698), Collier attacks William Wycherley, John Dryden, William Congreve, John Vanbrugh, and Thomas D’Urfey, censuring them for indecency, for profane language, for abusing the clergy, and for undermining public morality by sympathetic presentation…
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comedy
Sentimental comedy of the 17th and 18th centuries
Jeremy Collier’s Short view of the Profaneness and Immorality of the English Stage, published in 1698, signaled the public opposition to the real or fancied improprieties of plays staged during the previous three decades. “The business of plays is to recommend Vertue, and discountenance Vice”: so runs…
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Jeremy Collier’s Short view of the Profaneness and Immorality of the English Stage, published in 1698, signaled the public opposition to the real or fancied improprieties of plays staged during the previous three decades. “The business of plays is to recommend Vertue, and discountenance Vice”: so runs…
Read More

English literature
Dryden
…scourge in Jeremy Collier, whose A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage (1698) comprehensively indicted the Restoration stage tradition. The theoretical frame of Collier’s tract is crude, but his strength lay in his dogged citation of evidence from published play texts, especially when the charge…
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…scourge in Jeremy Collier, whose A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage (1698) comprehensively indicted the Restoration stage tradition. The theoretical frame of Collier’s tract is crude, but his strength lay in his dogged citation of evidence from published play texts, especially when the charge…
Read More