them, as Dares did the whirlbats of Eryx, when they were thrown before him by Entellus. Yet from that preface he plainly took his hint: for he began immediately upon the ftory; tho' he had the bafeness not to acknowledge his benefactor; but inftead of it, to traduce me in a libel. I fhall fay the lefs of Mr. Collier, because in many things he has taxed me juftly; and I have pleaded guilty to all thoughts and expreffions of mine, which can be truly argued of obscenity, profanenefs, or immorality; and retract them. If he be my enemy, let him triumph; if he be my friend, as I have given him no perfonal occafion to be otherwife, he will be glad of my repentance. It becomes me not to draw my pen in the defence of a bad caufe, when I have fo often drawn it for a good one. Yet it were not difficult to prove, that in many places he has perverted my meaning by his gloffes; and interpreted my words into blafphemy and baudry, of which they were not guilty; befides that he is too much given to horse-play in his raillery; and comes to battle like a dictator from the plough. I will not fay, The zeal of God's house has eaten him up; but I am sure it has devoured fome part of his good-manners and civility. It might alfo be doubted whether it were altogether zeal, which prompted him to this rough manner of proceeding; perhaps it became not one of his function to rake into the rubbish of ancient and modern plays; a divine might have employed his pains to better purpose, than in the naftinefs of Plautus and Ariftophanes; whofe examples, as they excuse not me, so it might be poffibly fuppofed, that he read them not without fome pleafare. They who have written commentaries on thofe poets, or on Horace, Juvenal, and Martial, have explained fome vices, vices, which without their interpretation had been unknown to modern times. Neither has he judged impartially betwixt the former age and us. There is more baudry in one Play of Fletcher's call'd The Cuftom of the Country, than in all ours together. Yet this has been often acted on the stage in my remembrance. Are the times fo much more reformed now, than they were five and twenty years ago? If they are, I congratulate the amendment of our morals. But I am not to prejudice the cause of my fellow-poets, tho' I abandon my own defence : they have fome of them anfwered for themselves, and neither they nor I can think Mr. Collier fo formidable an enemy, that we should fhun him. He has loft ground at the latter end of the day, by purfuing his point too far, like the prince of Conde at the battle of Senneph: from immoral plays, to no plays; ab abufu ad ufum, non valet confequentia. But being a party, I am not to erect myself into a judge. As for the rest of those who have written against me, they are fuch fcoundrels, that they deferve not the leaft notice to be taken of them. Blackmore and Milbourn are only diftinguished from the crowd, by being remembered to their infamy. Demetri, Teque Tigelli Difcipulorum inter jubeo plorare cathedras. TALES |