Immorality, Debauchery, and Profa[ne]ness Exposed.
Random attacks, however, turned to concentrated
assault in Jeremy Collier A Short View of the Im-
morality, and Profaneness of the English Stage ( 1698).
With much of the Puritan spirit whose intolerant ex-
pression had brought disaster to William Prynne, Col-
lier set himself squarely against prevalent immorality
in drama. It should be said, at the outset, that not
Jeremy Collier alone, but the power of public opinion,
carried the day. Not in the virulence of his invective,
but in the essential soundness of his cause, lay Col-
lier's real strength. It was his good fortune to voice
audibly the growing convictions of many. The soil
was ready for good seed. A generation earlier he
might have raised the voice of protest with no more
effect than the blind poet who had fallen upon evil
days. Yet if Collier is not to be regarded as the
single-handed reformer of the stage, it is idle to ignore
the outspoken, though ill-balanced, energy with which
he formulated a more or less intangible public senti-
ment. To the slowly gathering force of moral re-
form he gave direct impetus. His definite challenge
to Restoration dramatists could not be evaded.
The number and energy of the replies evoked from
his adversaries, and the confessions of their leader,
Dryden, show that he had struck home.

Before entering upon a more detailed examination
of Collier's work and its effect upon the tone of
English drama, it will be well to resume the course
of dramatic history with some account of the later
dramatists whose careers began before the bursting
of the storm, and who maintained even to the end

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