esentation', was another short pamphlet,
'Some Thoughts Concerning the Stage in a Letter to a Lady'. (Immediately
below this notice of publication was a re-advertisement of Jeremy
Collier's 'Dissuasive from the Play-House', with the result that, on the
day following the Fast Day, three of the pamphlets attacking the stage
and referring to the performances of plays representing tempests soon
after the destructive storm of November 26-27, 1703, were brought
simultaneously to the attention of the public.)

It seems clear that the publication and distribution of these books was
a feature in the activities of the Societies for Reformation of Manners.
The anonymous 'Account of the Progress of the Reformation of Manners'
(13th ed., 1705) boasted that the Societies had enlarged their design
by causing books to be written which aimed at "laying open to the World
the outragious Disorders and execrable Impieties of our most Scandalous
Play-Houses, with the fatal Effects of them to the Nation in general,
and the manifest Sin and Danger of particular Persons frequenting of
them" (p. 2). Defoe's 'Review' (III, no. 93, for August 3, 1706) pointed
out that thousands of Collier's books had been distributed at the church
doors by the Societies for Reformation of Manners and the founders of
the Charity Schools. Obviously the Societies did not restrict themselves
to the works of Collier. Incidentally, the habit of Collier and his
followers of giving excerpts to illustrate the profaneness and
immorality of the stage produced an unexpected effect in at least one
quarter. The same issue of the 'Review' tells us that the Rev. Dr.
William Lancaster, archdeacon of Middlesex, objected strongly to the
dispersal of anti-stage tracts at the door of _his_ church, on the
grounds that they tended "to teach the ignorant People to swear and
curse."

'Some Thoughts Concerning the Stage in a Letter to a Lady' was ascribed
by Halkett and Laing to Josiah Woodward, who was associated with the
Society for the Reformation of Manners, and the ascription has been
referred to by later writers on the controversy over the immorality of
the stage. According to Sister Rose Anthony (op. cit., pp. 203-209),
Jeremy Collier may have issued a pamphlet as a supplement to his
'Dissuasive from the Play-House', which was first published late in
1703; and it has been conjectured (cf. 'Critical Works of John Dennis',
I, 501, 505) that 'Some Thoughts' might be that work, especia