d appreciate and present appropriate types. Now even the
good society for which Congreve wrote had its merits, but certainly its
refinement left much to be desired. One condition, as Mr. Meredith again
remarks, of the finer comedy is such an equality of the sexes as may
admit the refining influence of women. The women of the Restoration time
hardly exerted a refining influence. They adopted the ingenious
compromise of going to the play, but going in masks. That is, they
tacitly implied that the brutality was necessary, and they submitted to
what they could not openly approve. Throughout the eighteenth century a
contempt for women was still too characteristic of the aristocratic
character. Nor was there any marked improvement in the tastes of the
playgoing classes. The plays denounced by Collier continued to hold the
stage, though more or less expurgated, throughout the century. Comedy
did not become decent. In 1729 Arthur Bedford carried on Collier's
assault in a 'Remonstrance against the horrid blasphemies and
improprieties which are still used in the English playhouses,' and
collected seven thousand immoral sentiments from the plays (chiefly) of
the last four years. I have not verified his statements. The inference,
however, seems to be clear. Collier's attack could not reform the
stage. The evolution took the form of degeneration. He could, indeed,
give utterance to the disapproval of the stage in general, which we call
Puritanical, though it was by no means confined to Puritans or even to
Protestants. Bossuet could denounce the stage as well as Collier.
Collier was himself a Tory and a High Churchman, as was William Law, of
the _Serious Call_, who also denounced the stage. The sentiment was, in
fact, that of the respectable middle classes in general. The effect was
to strengthen the prejudice which held that playgoing was immoral in
itself, and that an actor deserved to be treated as a 'vagrant'--the
class to which he legally belonged. During the next half-century, at
least, that was the prevailing opinion among the solid middle-class
section of society.

The denunciations of Collier and his allies certainly effected a reform,
but at a heavy price. They did not elevate the stage or create a better
type, but encouraged old prejudices against the theatre generally; the
theatre was left more and more to a section of the 'town,' and to the
section which was not too particular about decency. When Congreve
retired, and Va