'The Tempest' would place its final composition after late November,
1703, and it was in print in time to be distributed at the churches on
January 19 and also to be advertised in the 'Daily Courant' for January
20 under the heading "This present day is publish'd." The fact that it
quickly attained three editions during 1704 may be partially accounted
for by its being given to churchgoers, for it seems unlikely that the
pamphlet would have a tremendous sale, even if one allows for the strong
opposition to the stage which persisted in the minds of many people at
the turn of the century. The author of the tract is unknown, although
Sister Rose Anthony in 'The Jeremy Collier Stage Controversy, 1698-1726'
(Milwaukee, 1937), pages 194-209, ascribed it to Jeremy Collier, an
attribution which E. N. Hooker, in a review of the book in 'Modern
Language Notes', LIV (1939), 388, and also in 'The Critical Works of
John Dennis', I, 501, has deemed unlikely.

Advertised also in the 'Daily Courant' for January 20, 1704, under the
heading "This present day is publish'd" and in the same paragraph with
the advertisement of 'A Representation', 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