Editing Jeremy Collier

{{Short description|English theatre critic, non-juror bishop and theologian (1650–1726)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
[[Image:Collier jeremy.jpg|180px|right|Jeremy Collier]]
'''Jeremy Collier''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|ɒ|l|i|ər}}; 23 September 1650 – 26 April 1726) was an English theatre <!--not theatre, he was English--> critic, [[Nonjuring schism|non-juror]] bishop and theologian.

==Life==

Born Jeremiah Collier, 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 of England|James II]], he refused, as a nonjuror (see [[Nonjuring schism]]) to take the oath of allegiance to [[William III of England|William III]] and [[Mary II of England|Mary II]] after the [[Glorious Revolution]]. Furthering his obvious disapproval of the new monarchs, he publicly absolved two [[Jacobitism|Jacobites]] who had conspired to assassinate the King and Queen. In 1713 he was consecrated a non-juror bishop by [[George Hickes (divine)|George Hickes]] and two Scottish bishops, [[Archibald Campbell (bishop)|Archibald Campbell]] and [[James Gadderar]].

==Works==

Collier was the primus of the nonjuring line and a strong supporter of the four usages. (see [[Nonjuring schism]]) 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 also translated the ''[[Meditations]]'' of [[Marcus Aurelius]] into English.

===Collier Controversy===

In the history of English drama, Collier is known for his [[Antitheatricality|anti-theatrical]] 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 (playwright)|William Congreve]], [[John Vanbrugh]], [[John Dryden]], and [[Thomas D'Urfey]]. At the start of the [[English Civil War]] (1642) theatres were closed and in 1647 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 drama]]s by critics of the day. However, these plays were considered vulgar because they mocked and disrespected marriage, morals, and the clergy. Furthermore, [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]] allowed women to act on stage; some of the first actresses 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 theatre to very specific indictments of playwrights of the day.  Collier argued that a venue as influential as the theatre—it was believed then that the theatre should be providing moral instruction—should not have content that is morally detrimental. These pamphlets began a [[Pamphlet wars|pamphlet war]] 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 theatre permanently or substantially changed their approach to writing comedies, Congreve amongst them.

==Aftermath==
Although the theatre styles of the [[Restoration (1660)|Restoration]] lasted a while even after Collier's pamphlets, a new and more restrained theatre 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|neoclassical]] 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 honour in playhouses.

== Dictionary ==

Collier published an early encyclopedia in 1701, ''[[The Great Historical, Geographical, Genealogical and Poetical Dictionary]]''. He freely admitted that the text was based on a number of earlier historians, but especially out of the eighth edition of [[Louis Moréri]]'s  ''[[Grand Dictionnaire Historique]]''. This was issued in two volumes in London from 1701 to 1705 with an appendix covering the time period from 1688 "by another hand" being issued in the latter year. A further appendix was issued in 1721 and a second edition in 1727. The work was not considered a success as Collier's additions were not of the same quality as the source text and it came out during the same period as the ''[[Lexicon Technicum]]''.<ref>Collison, Robert Lewis. ''Encyclopaedias: their history throughout the ages; a bibliographical guide with extensive historical notes to the general encyclopaedias issued throughout the world from 350 B.C. to the present day.'' New York, Hafner, 1966 p.97</ref>

==Death==
Collier died on 26 April 1726 and was buried on 29 April in [[Old St Pancras]] Churchyard.<ref>The Environs of London: Pancras (1795)</ref> The grave is lost but Collier is not listed on the [[Burdett-Coutts Memorial]] to the important graves lost therein.

==References==
{{Reflist}}
*{{cite book|first=Marcus |last=Aurelius |title=Meditations |translator=Jeremy Collier |editor1=T. Gataker |editor2=J. Collier |location=London |publisher=Sare |year=1701}}
*{{cite book|first=Tania |last=Boster |url=http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/10319/ |title="BETTER TO BE ALONE THAN IN ILL COMPANY"JEREMY COLLIER THE YOUNGER: LIFE AND WORKS, 1650–1726 |publisher=Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.|year=2009}}
*{{cite book|first=Jeremy |last=Collier |editor-first=Kaneko |editor-last=Yuji |title=A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English stage. |location=London |publisher=Routledge |year=1996 |orig-year=1698}}
*{{cite book|first=R.D. |last=Cornwall |title=Visible and Apostolic: The Constitution of the Church in High Church Anglican and Non-Juror Thought |publisher=University of Delaware Press|year=1993}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|first=Eric |last=Salmon |title=Collier, Jeremy (1650–1726) |encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=Oxford University Press |year= 2004  |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/5917}} {{subscription required}}
*{{cite DNB|last=Sutton |first=Charles William |title=Collier, Jeremy|volume=11 |pages=341–347|url=https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati11stepuoft#page/341/mode/1up}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|editor=Edward I. Bleiberg|title=The Hanoverian Theater|encyclopedia=The Age of the Baroque and Enlightenment 1600–1800|location=Detroit|publisher=Gale|volume=5|year=2005|pages=431–435|url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3427400945&v=2.1&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=88c2c4c65357dc36fd84db86ef527c34}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|last=Westlake|first=E.J.|title=Drama: Drama and Religion|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Religion|publisher=Macmillan Reference USA|location=Detroit|year=2005|pages=2435–2440|url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3424500826&v=2.1&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=29580479f085031f428117b0cd8ad3ad}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|editor=Dennis Kennedy|volume=1|encyclopedia=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance|title=Collier Jeremy (1650–1726)|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|pages=287–288|url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX1549200826&v=2.1&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=0219df6835425edde57e6e4fb437f14d}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|editor=Edward I. Bleiberg|title=Important Events in Theater|encyclopedia=The Age of the Baroque and Enlightenment 1600–1800|volume=5|location=Detroit|publisher=Gale|year=2005|pages=394–397|url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3427400934&v=2.1&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=05374cf3e9b61497efc9f9bb62f042fd}}
*{{cite journal|title=The proceedings against the three nonjuring clergymen, Mr. Collier, Mr. Cook, and Mr. Snatt, for publicly absolving Sir William Parkyns and Sir John Freind at Tyburn|volume=13|issue=391, column 406|year=1812|journal=A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{wikisource author}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=42855| name=Jeremy Collier}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Jeremy Collier}}
* ''[https://archive.org/details/b30456320_0001/page/n7 The great historical, geographical, genealogical and poetical dictionary]'' Vol. 1
* ''[https://archive.org/details/b30456320_0002/page/n5 The great historical, geographical, genealogical and poetical dictionary]'' Vol. 2
* ''[https://archive.org/details/b30457750/page/n5 A supplement to The great historical, geographical, genealogical and poetical dictionary]''

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Collier, Jeremy}}
[[Category:British nonjuror bishops]]
[[Category:English political writers]]
[[Category:English literary critics]]
[[Category:British theatre critics]]
[[Category:People from South Cambridgeshire District]]
[[Category:1650 births]]
[[Category:1726 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:English male non-fiction writers]]