and at times it
seemed as though the zeal of the Lord had eaten him up. But he was no
enthusiast without plan or reason. A man of some learning, he used it
for all it was worth to confound the playwrights and the critics.

Collier was careful to make good use of accepted and honored critical
principles. He contended that the purpose of the stage is to instruct;
he argued for poetic justice; he discussed the unities; he spoke of
propriety of manners and language; and he warned of the danger of
fancy's overriding judgment--"the Fancy may be gain'd, and the Guards
corrupted, and Reason suborn'd against itself." Unfortunately for
Collier, however, such argument from reason and critical theory was
only part of his book. He pretended to be attacking the current
excesses, but a reading of his entire book gives the definite
impression that he was really opposing the stage as an institution.
His enemies were quick to point this out. He also weakened his
argument by finding bawdry where there was none, overlooking the many
unquestionably off-color passages in the Restoration plays.
Furthermore he was extremely touchy about the clergy, arguing
violently that no priest should ever be satirized. In short, Collier
weakened a strong position by immoderate demands and contentions.

After a short, uneasy silence, the defenders of the stage began to
answer. By the end of the summer, ten rejoinders had appeared, among
which was the anonymous _A Letter to A.H. Esq; Concerning the Stage_.
The initials in the title have been identified as those of Anthony
Hammond, pamphleteer, small poet, and politician, whom Bolingbroke
characterized as "silver-tongued Hammond." Charles Hopkins has been
suggested as the probable author of the pamphlet (E.N. Hooker, _Modern
Language Notes_, LIV [1939], 388). Hopkins was a wit, a friend of
Hammond, as of Dryden, Congreve, Dorset, Southerne, and Wycherley, a
clever fellow who loved the bottle and the ladies so much that,
according to Giles Jacob, he died at 36, "a Martyr to the cause." _His
Epistolary Poems_, published in 1694, had been dedicated to Hammond
and had included an effusive poem addressed to him. Some other wit
among Hammond's friends might have been the author of the pamphlet,
however, for Hammond yearned for immortality through the works of
others and frequently asked writers of his acquaintance to mention
him.

Whoever the author was, he spotted the weaknesses in Collier's
arguments, at the