The Cry

Jane Collier's and Sarah Fielding's The Cry: A New Dramatic Fable (1754) was Fielding's sixth and Collier's second and final work. The work is an allegorical and satirical dramatic dialogue which was never performed. Collier and Fielding had worked together previously when Fielding wrote The Governess and when Collier wrote An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting, but The Cry is the only work that can be positively ascribed to the two together. Collier died the year after its publication. The piece was originally produced in three volumes and divided into five parts. The work involves many stories told through the character Portia to an audience consisting of Una, an allegorical figure representing truth, and "the Cry," a chorus that responds in turn. Background It is likely that by 1751, Fielding and Collier were living together. In 1753, Fielding published The Adventures of David Simple. Volume the Last, and Collier published An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting. Their joint effort The Cry was published in March 1754. After Collier died in 1755, Richardson encouraged Fielding to revise the work and print a second edition. Originally, Collier planned "A book called The Laugh on the same plan as The Cry", but was never able to complete it before she died. After working on The Cry, Fielding began to focus on the lives of women and the conditions that they live, which later influenced her work within the Bath community. The community was a group of female writers that challenged the traditional ideas of female education and the role of women in society.