" Now here are three damned lies
crowded together into a very little room; first, that I assumed any
part of it to myself, which I had not written; wherein I appeal, not
only to my particular acquaintance, but to the whole company of
actors, who will witness for me, that, in all the rehearsals, I never
pretended to any one scene of Mr Lee's, but did him all imaginable
right, in his title to the greater part of it. I hope I may, without
vanity, affirm to the world, that I never stood in need of borrowing
another man's reputation; and I have been as little guilty of the
injustice, of laying claim to any thing which was not my own. Nay, I
durst almost refer myself to some of the angry poets on the other
side, whether I have not rather countenanced and assisted their
beginnings, than hindered them from rising.[3] The two other falsities
are, the "ill success of the play," and "my disowning it." The former
is manifestly without foundation; for it succeeded beyond my very
hopes, having been frequently acted, and never without a considerable
audience; and then it is a thousand to one, that, having no ground to
disown it, I did not disown it; but the universe to a nutshell that I
did not disown it for want of success, when it succeeded so much
beyond my expectation. But my malignant adversaries are the more
excusable for this coarse method of breaking in upon truth and good
manners, because it is the only way they have to gratify the genius
and the interest of the faction together; and never so much pains
taken neither, to so very, very little purpose.
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