I shall say the less of Mr. Collier, [Footnote: His _Short View of the
Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage_ (1698) was largely
directed against Dryden. See the account of it given in Macaulay's
_Comic Dramatists of the Restoration_.] because in many things he has
taxed me justly, and I have pleaded guilty to all thoughts and
expressions of mine which can be truly argued of obscenity, profaneness,
or immorality, and retract them. If he be my enemy, let him triumph;
if he be my friend, as I have given him no personal occasion to be
otherwise, he will be glad of my repentance. It becomes me not to draw
my pen in the defence of a bad cause when I have so 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 glosses, and interpreted my words into
blasphemy and bawdry, of which they were not guilty--besides that he
is too much given to horseplay in his raillery, and comes to battle
like a dictator from the plough. I will not say the zeal of God's house
has eaten him up, but I am sure it has devoured some part of his good
manners and civility.
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