A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage
1699, the fourth edition of Jeremy Collier's scathing attack on the theatre
Author
Publisher
Printing Details
Fourth edition. Hardback, full leather (original boards, later leather spine with gilt titling). 19.5 × 12cm. [16], 288pp.
Full title: A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage: Together with The Sense of Antiquity Upon this Argument.
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) was an English theatre critic, non-juring Anglican bishop, and pamphleteer. His Short View is arguably the most influential anti-theatrical treatise of the late 17th century, famously sparking the Collier Controversy. Here, Collier launched a devastating, highly detailed assault on Restoration comedy, specifically attacking playwrights like William Congreve, William Wycherley, John Vanbrugh, and Thomas D'Urfey, accusing them of profanity, blasphemy, indecency, and portraying vice as rewarded while virtue was mocked. The pamphlet caused a huge public sensation. It forced playwrights like Congreve and Vanbrugh into publishing immediate printed defenses. Ultimately, Collier's crusade shifted public taste and official tolerance, signalling the decline of licentious Restoration comedy and paving the way for 18th-century sentimental comedy and stricter stage censorship.
Condition
Fair. Whilst the text is complete and readable, the front board and endpapers are detached, the leather boards rubbed. Some offsetting to the first page of text where a scrap of paper was used as a bookmark. Previous owner's inscription opposite the tile page (The gift of the Rev Thomas Hill to his nephew Thomas Leonard Hill, Liverpool, Clarence Street, 16 January 1824), and an earlier owner has handwritten a list of the plays quoted.
As of July 2026, books remain duty-free. The price of the book incurs no extra US import fees.
Price
£60.00
