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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 7 page paper which examines how Jeremy Collier’s pamphlet, “A Short View on Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage” (1698) led to intense censorship of Restoration comedies and dramas that were performed on the English stage, culminating in the Licensing Act of 1737. Bibliography lists 6 sources.
Page Count:
7 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGprofane.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
with manners and prevailing standards of the time (Krutch 2). The typical formula was a London setting and the protagonists were titled aristocrats that possessed little in the way
of morality or virtue (Krutch 2). If a country setting was introduced into the landscape, this was only for purposes of broad parody (Krutch 2). From there, the
scenes were staged in rather confined or limited quarters - such as the drawing room, the park, or even the bedchamber - perhaps symbolic of the way in which social
conventions placed constraints upon behavior (Krutch 2). The cast of characters commonly consisted of a young rake, or scoundrel of inherited wealth whose love of debauchery was leading him
down the path of ethical and financial ruin, an adulterous wife, a deceived husband, and perhaps a na?ve young woman (Krutch 2). These were broad satires in which there
were no sacred cows because Restoration playwrights were not moralists in any sense of the word. These dramatists were not championing virtue because they "had no great faith in
it" themselves (Krutch 44). However, the days of this intense freedom of expression onstage were soon numbered when an English bishop by the name of Jeremy Collier (1650-1726) embarked upon
his own personal crusade to censor these works on religious grounds. The publication of his pamphlet entitled, A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage,
in March of 1698 ignited a firestorm of righteous indignation that was dubbed, "the Collier Controversy" (Nettleton and Case 388). Colliers diatribe targeted Restoration copies in particular, and his
pamphlet, subdivided into six long and often-verbose chapters, savagely criticized "the contemporary stage," and the playwrights that were especially popular at the time, such as William Wycherley (1640-1716), William Congreve
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