Excerpt from Amendments of Mr. Collier's False and Imperfect Citations (1698)

I have been told by some that they should think me very idle if I threw away any time in taking notice even of so much of Mr. Collier's late treatise of the Immorality, etc. of the English stage as related to myself, in respect of some plays written by me; for that his malicious and strained interpretations of my words were so gross and palpable that any indifferent and unprejudiced reader would immediately condemn him upon his own evidence and acquit me before I could make any defense.

On the other hand, I have been taxed of laziness, and too much security, in neglecting thus long to do my self a necessary right, which might be effected with so very little pains; since very little more is requisite in my vindication than to represent truly and at length those passages which Mr. Collier has shown imperfectly and for the most part by halves. I would rather be thought idle than lazy; and so the last advice prevailed with me.

I have no intention to examine all the absurdities and falsehoods in Mr. Collier's book; to use the gentleman's own metaphor in his preface, an inventory of such a warehouse would be a large work. My detection of his malice and ignorance, of his sophistry and vast assurance, will lie within a narrow compass, and only bear a proportion to so much of his book as concerns myself.

Least of all would I undertake to defend the corruptions of the stage; indeed if I were so inclined, Mr. Collier has given me no occasion, for the greater part of those examples which he has produced are only demonstrations of his own impurity, they only savor of his utterance, and were sweet enough till tainted by his breath.


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