23 September 1650 A.D. Jeremy Collier Born—Non-Juror Anglican Bishop
23 September 1650 A.D. Jeremy Collier
Born—Non-Juror Anglican Bishop
Jeremy Collier (23
September 1650 – 26 April 1726) was an English theatre critic, non-juror bishop and theologian.
Contents
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1 Life
Life
Born in Stow cum Quy, Cambridgeshire, Collier was educated at Caius College, University of Cambridge, receiving the BA (1673) and MA (1676). A supporter of James II, he refused to take the oath
of allegiance to William and Mary after the Glorious Revolution. Furthering his obvious
disapproval of the new monarchs, he publicly absolved two Jacobites who had conspired to assassinate the King and Queen. In
1713 he was consecrated a non-juror bishop by George Hickes and two Scottish bishops, Archibald Campbell and James Gadderar.
Works
Collier was the primus of the nonjuring line and a strong
supporter of the four usages. In the years following the Revolution he wrote a
series of tracts questioning the legitimacy of the new monarchs and the
deprival of the Non-juror bishops. He was well known for his Ecclesiastical
History of Great Britain, 1708–1714, which was attacked for its tendentious
political and theological comments, but nevertheless widely used. His Reasons
for restoring some prayers and directions, as they stand in the
communion-service of the first English reform’d liturgy, 1717 was the first
salvo in the usages debate. His Essays were popular in his own day but are now
little read. Collier wrote anti-theatrical polemic but was a high-church monarchist, unlike the many Puritans who wrote in this genre as well.
Collier Controversy
In the history of English drama, Collier is known for his attack on the comedy of the 1690s in his Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage (1698), which draws for its ammunition mostly on the plays of William Congreve, John Vanbrugh, John Dryden, and Thomas D'Urfey. At the start of the English Civil War (1642) theaters were closed and in 1947 a law was passed to punish anyone who participated in or viewed drama. After the war, and during the English Interregnum, the Puritans, under Oliver Cromwell, had control of most of the English government. They placed heavy restrictions on entertainment and entertainment venues that were perceived as being pagan or immoral. In the English Restoration (1660), playwrights reacted against the Puritanical restrictions with much more decadent plays. The plays produced in the Restoration drew comparisons to the great Elizabethan dramas by critics of the day. However, these plays were considered vulgar because they mocked and disrespected marriage, morals, and the clergy. Furthermore, King Charles II allowed women to act on stage and most women actors at that time were of ill-repute. Collier's pamphlets sought to stem the spread of vice but turned out to be the sparks that kindled a controversial flame between like-minded Puritans and Restoration dramatists.
Collier devotes nearly 300 pages to decry what he
perceived as profanity and moral degeneration in the stage productions of the
era. This ranged from general attacks on the morality of Restoration theater to
very specific indictments of playwrights of the day. Collier argued that a
venue as influential as the theater—it was believed then that the theater
should be providing moral instruction—should not have content that is morally
detrimental. These pamphlets began a pamphlet war (see:Pamphlet wars) between Collier and some playwrights like Vanbrugh. Many of the playwrights responded with equally vehement
attacks, but some were so deeply affected, they withdrew from theater
permanently, William Congreve amongst them.
Collier's copious writings included the second English
edition of Louis Moréri's Grand Dictionnaire Historique. The first
English edition of this famous encyclopedia was published in 1694 under the
title The Great Historical, Geographical, Genealogical and Poetical
Dictionary. Collier greatly enlarged and revised this work in 1701 (2
volumes) with 2 supplementary volumes following 1705 and 1721. It became a
precursor to later encyclopedic works, such as that of Ephraim Chambers.
Aftermath
Although the theater styles of the Restoration lasted a while
even after Collier's pamphlets, a new and more restrained theater began to
develop due, in part, to Collier's critiques. Due to the strict morals of the Puritans as well as others such as Collier, neoclassism drama began to emerge even while Restoration drama was
still flourishing. During Collier's time, Societies for the Reformation of
Manners dedicated themselves to maintaining honor in playhouses.
References
·
Boster, Tania (2009). "BETTER TO BE ALONE THAN IN ILL COMPANY"JEREMY
COLLIER THE YOUNGER: LIFE AND WORKS, 1650-1726. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
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Collier, Jeremy (1996) [1698]. Yuji, Kaneko, ed. A Short View of the
Immorality and Profaneness of the English stage. London: Routledge.
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Cornwall, R.D. (1993). Visible and Apostolic: The Constitution of the
Church in High Church Anglican and Non-Juror Thought. University of
Delaware Press.
·
Salmon, Eric (2004). "Collier, Jeremy (1650–1726)". Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5917. (subscription required)
·
Sutton, Charles William
(1887). "Collier,
Jeremy". In Stephen, Leslie. Dictionary of National Biography 11. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
pp. 341–347.
·
Edward I. Bleiberg, ed. (2005). "The Hanoverian
Theater". The Age of the Baroque and Enlightenment 1600-1800 5
(Detroit: Gale). pp. 431–435.
·
Westlake, E.J. (2005). "Drama: Drama and
Religion". Encyclopedia of Religion (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA). pp. 2435–2440.
·
Dennis Kennedy, ed. (2003). "Collier Jeremy
(1650-1726)". The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance 1 (New
York: Oxford University Press). pp. 287–288.
·
Edward I. Bleiberg, ed. (2005). "Important Events in
Theater". The Age of the Baroque and Enlightenment 1600-1800 5
(Detroit: Gale). pp. 394–397.
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