Polly Honeycombe #1

"But why need an English Author put himself to that trouble, when the learned and impartial gentlemen of the Reviews are so ready to take it off his hands, unless it were, like Dryden, to turn the thunder of the Critkck's own artillery against himself, and to confute it anticipate his censures, by proving the Fable, Characters, Sentiments, and Language, to be excellent, or, if indeed there were some parts of it inferior to the rest, such parts were purposely underwritten, in order to set off the superior to more advantage? This, indeed, Dryden has often done, and done so inimitably; that I shall not attempt it after him. To the Gentlemen, therefore, above mentioned, the self-impannelled Jury of the English Court of Criticism, without Challenge, I put myself on my Trial for the High Crime of writing for the Stage, trusting that their candour will send me a good deliverance."

"The Good Gentleman, hurt at the confusion, and in pain for my success, tells me with much warmth, and as dogmatically as any Male Critick could possibly do, that She is astonished at my attempting to violate the received laws of the Drama-That the Catastrophe (that was really her word) is directly contrary to all known rules-That the several Characters, instead of being dismissed, one by one, should have been industriously kept together, to make a bow to the audience at the dropping of the curtain-That, not withstanding any confusion, created by the Girl's whimsical passion for Novels, in the course of the Piece, all parties should be perfectly reconciled to each other at last."

On Preface, pg. 59-60
"Polly Honeycombe"
George Colman the Elder
Edited by David A. Brewer
Broadview edition, 2012