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connected with it. When Goldsmith commenced his literary career, sentimental comedy had possession of the stage To be solemn was as much the fashion then as is the dreary attempt to be vivacious now. He waged war from the outset with the prevailing taste, and in his "Essay on Polite Learning" vindicated the humorous exposure of absurdities from the imputation of being low. The "Good-natured Man" was a practical attempt to give effect to his theory. At the same period the Hugh Kelly with whom he had promised to dine by way of "doing something for him," a man destitute of acquired knowledge but with fair natural talent, commenced a play in the approved sentimental style. Though by this time they had advanced to considerable intimacy, Goldsmith was filled with jealousy and alarm at what he considered a rival scheme, and, being questioned by somebody as to Kelly's project, he replied, "he knew nothing at all about it. He had heard there was a man of that name about town who wrote in newspapers, but of his talents for comedy, or even for the work he was engaged in, he could not judge." Kelly's piece, under the title of "False Delicacy," was brought out by Garrick at Drury-lane theatre on the 23d of January, six nights before the performance of the Good-natured Man." "All kinds of composition," said Grimm, "are good except the tiresome," and to this kind the sentimental comedy belonged. Great, nevertheless, was the success of "False Delicacy." It was played twenty nights in the season to crowded houses; the sale of it when printed was ten thousand copies; and the bookseller who purchased it, to evince his gratitude, gave the author a public breakfast and a piece of plate. The entire gains of Kelly amounted to more than seven hundred pounds. The fame of the piece was not limited to England. It was translated into German, Portuguese, and French, and was played in Lisbon and Paris with marked applause. These continental honors were perplexing to Goldsmith. He denied at first that any translation had been made, and when the fact was demonstrated beyond dispute, he gravely asserted "it must be done for the purpose of exhibiting it at the booth of foreign fairs, for which it was well enough calculated." He vented his spleen at coffeehouses as well as among his friends, and vowed "he would write no more for the stage whilst the dramatic chair was occupied by such blockheads." In the midst of these pangs of envy he accidentally met Kelly, who

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was no stranger to the abuse he had lavished upon him, in the Green-room of the CoventGarden theatre, and congratulated him faintly on the success of his comedy. "I cannot thank you," said Kelly, "for I cannot believe you." They never spoke again, but, when Goldsmith was buried, Kelly of his own accord joined the funeral procession, and wept bitterly over the grave.

"False Delicacy," like its author, has passed away, and the "Good-natured Man" survives. "It is the best comedy," said Johnson, "that has appeared since the Provoked Husband. There has not of late been any such character exhibited upon the stage as that of Croaker." It was with reason that Johnson was partial to Croaker, for Goldsmith acknowledged that he had borrowed the conception from the Suspirius of the "Rambler." Of the two other prominent personages Honey wood was a repetition of the many portraits from himself, and we cannot but suspect that he also found the germ of Lofty in his own addiction to unfounded boasting. The rest are agents to conduct the plot, and have little that is distinguishing."To delineate character," he said in his preface, "had been his principal aim," and Mrs. Inchbald was of opinion that the design had been attended with conspicuous success. Croaker, Honeywood, and Lofty deserved, she said, the highest praise which could be bestowed upon the creations of the mind. "In fiction they are perfectly original, yet are seen every day in real life." To us, on the contrary, they seem to want nature; a large alloy of the peculiarities of each is common enough in the world, but they never exist in solitary extravagance. Honey wood, Croaker, and Lofty are rather the personifications of qualities than men. The first is all childish benevolence, the second all groundless alarm, and the third a mere mouthpiece for ostentatious lies. The same objection, however, may be urged against several of the masterpieces of Molière. "To exaggerate the features of folly, to render it more thoroughly ridiculous,' was the just principle of comic satire laid down by Goldsmith in his "Essay on Learning." His mistake is to have carried the principle too far, till comedy descends to the lower level of farce. The humor is excellent of its kind. Lofty is entertaining, and the apprehensions of Croaker are ludicrous in the extreme. The misunderstandings, though not always probable, are well contrived for producing mirth, and the piece must have had a triumphant run if the insipid Honey

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wood had been replaced by a character of more sterling worth or more comic effect. As it is he provokes less laughter than contempt, and is too complete an illustration of the proverb that "every man's friend is every man's fool" for the serious hero of a play. Shuter selected the piece for his benefit, and the author, says Mr. Forster, "in a fit of extravagant good nature sent him ten guineas for a box ticket." In this instance we think that the gratuity of Goldsmith was the discharge of a debt, for, by saving his comedy from being damned, Shuter had brought him fifty times the sum. On the first night of the play he told the actor that he had exceeded his own idea of the character, and that the fine comic richness of the coloring made it appear almost as new to him as to the audience. The bulk of the proceeds from the " Good-natured Man" was spent in purchasing, and furnishing with elegance, a set of chambers in Brick Court, in the Temple, for which he gave four hundred pounds. Having emptied out his pockets the instant they were filled, he had still his daily bread to earn, and for this he trusted to a "History of Rome" in two volumes which he was compiling for Davies. It was commenced in 1767, and published in May, 1769. The price paid for the copyright was two hundred and fifty guineas. This was the work which Johnson very erroneously contended placed Goldsmith above Robertson as a writer of history. Goldsmith, he said, had put into his book as much as it would hold-had told briefly, plainly, and agreeably all that the reader wanted to know; while Robertson was fanciful, cumbrous, and diffuse. "Goldsmith's abridgement," he went on, "is better than that of Lucius Florus or Eutropius; and I will venture to say that, if you compare him with Vertot in the same places of Roman History, you will find that he excels Vertot. Sir, he has the art of compiling, and of saying everyhing he has to say in a pleasing manner." Though there is broad truth in the commenlation of Johnson, it conveys an exaggerated otion of the merit of the book, which is not nly destitute of exact scholarship, but bears n the style innumerable marks of the careess haste with which it was composed.

The credit he derived from his English nd Roman Histories, coupled with his genral fame, procured him, in December, 1769, e distinction of being nominated Professor 7 History in the newly-created Royal Acamy of Painting, at the same time that

GOLDSMITH.

money continued to be bestowed upon artful impostors, or upon persons whose circumstances were not so bad as his own. Once, as Mr. Forster relates, when he had recently performed a piece of literary taskwork for the sake of two guineas, he made over seven and a half to a vagabond Frenchman as a subscription to a pretended History of Eng land in fifteen volumes. Two or three poor authors and several widows and housekeepers were his constant pensioners." He was so humane in his disposition," says Mr. Cooke, "that his last guinea was the general boundary of his beneficence." Nay, he carried it further still, for, when he had no money to bestow upon his regular dependants, he would give them clothes, and sometimes his food. "Now, let me only suppose," he would say with a smile of satisfaction after sweeping the meal on his table into their laps, "that I have eaten a heartier breakfast than usual, ard I am nothing out of pocket."

Observers remarked that his benevolence, real as it was, was stimulated by ostentation, and, from his imputing the motive to the characters which he drew from himself, he was evidently conscious of the weakness. The odd simplicity which pervaded his proceedings was especially conspicuous in relation to money. He borrowed a guinea when he was destitute himself to lend it to Mr. Cooke, and endeavored in his absence to thrust it under his door. His friend, in thanking him, remarked that somebody else might have been first at the chambers, and picked up. "In truth, my dear fellow," he replied, "I did not think of that." acquaintance remonstrated with him for Another leaving money in an unlocked drawer, from which an occasional servant took what he pleased for the casual expenses of his master. "What, my dear friend," exclaimed Goldsmith, "do you take Dennis for a thief?"

With all his recklessness of expenditure no man had a store of cheaper tastes, or was more easily entertained. His favorite festivity, his holiday of holidays, was to have three or four intimate friends to breakfast with him at ten o'clock, to start at eleven for a walk through the fields to Highbury Barn, where they dined at an ordinary, frequented by authors, Templars, and retired citizens, for 10d, a head, to return at six and drink tea at White Conduit House, and to end the evening with a supper at the Grecian or Temple Exchange Coffeehouse. "The whole expense," says Mr. Cooke, "of the day's fête never exceeded a crown, and oftener from

[Jan.,

three and sixpence to four shillings, for which the party obtained good air, good living, and good conversation." He had weary of the hopeless attempt to keep up his dignity, and was again willing to be happy in the secondary society where he was alone at his ease. Mr. Forster has tracked him in particular to a club of good fellows at the Globe Tavern, called the Wednesday Club from its day of meeting, and where a principal part of the pleasure was to sing songs after supper. The sort of company he met there, and the terms on which he stood with them, are amusingly exhibited in members, and, piquing himself on his famithe fact that a pig-butcher was one of the liarity with the celebrated Goldsmith, always said in drinking to him, "Come, Noll, here's my service to you, old boy." Glover, an Irish adventurer, and who had been, in succession, physician, actor, and author, maliciously whispered to Noll, after one of these such liberties from a pig-butcher. "Let him salutations, that he wondered he permitted alone," said Goldsmith," and you'll see how civilly I'll let him down." With this design he called out, at the first pause in the conversation, "Mr. B., I have the honor of drinking your good health;" to which the pig-butcher answered briskly, "Thankee, thankee, Noll." "Well, where now," inquired and the baffled Noll had nothing to reply, Glover, "is the advantage of your reproof?" except that "he ought to have known before that there was no putting a pig in the right way." Trivial as are these anecdotes, they are worth repeating, because they throw plain why he was "the jest and riddle," as light upon the character of the man, and exwell as the "glory," of his friends.

could freely give way to his natural impulses His enjoyment in all societies where he was immense. "He was always cheerful and boisterous in his mirth." He went to a dance animated," says Mr. Day, "often indeed at Macklin's, and was brought to such a pitch of ecstacy by this "frisking light in frolic measures," that he threw up his wig to the ceiling, exclaiming that " never so much like men as when they looked like boys." He prided himself on his dancing, which was not so graceful as it was hearty, and an Irish family of the name of Seguin, who were intimate with him at this period, were thrown into uncontrollable fits of laughter by seeing him go through a minuet.

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from it to Goldsmith. An anecdote was told of his having returned a part of the hundred pounds which Griffin had paid him for the copyright, in consequence of his having discovered that it amounted to "near five shillings a couplet, which was more than any bookseller could afford, or indeed more than any modern poetry was worth." Mr. Forster rejects the tale on the ground that it was a very improbable act in a man who, a little before, had taken five hundred guineas from the same publisher on the faith of a book he had hardly begun. Mr. Cooke, however, a very trustworthy authority, and who was certainly in a situation to be privy to the transaction, says that the story was "strictly true," a phrase which implies both that it had been called in question, and that he knew it to be a fact. Testimony so distinct must weigh, we think, against speculative improbabilities, which amount to very little in the case of Goldsmith, who was a creature of impulse, and who in money matters especially would meanly borrow one minute what he generously gave the next. The rapid sale of the poem, it is added, removed his scruples, and he ultimately accepted payment in full. Even at this price he was only remunerated in fame for the lengthened labor he had bestowed upon the work, and he replied to Lord Lisburne, who urged him. at an Academy dinner to persevere in witing verse, "I cannot afford to court the muses; they would let me starve; but by my

other labors I can make shift to eat and drink, and have good clothes."

"What true and pretty pastoral images has Goldsmith in his Deserted Village," says Burke in a letter quoted by Mr. Forster. "They beat all: Pope and Phillips, and Spenser too, in my opinion-that is in the pastoral, for I go no farther." In no other rural piece is there so much poetry and reality combined. The pictures of Auburnits pastor, its schoolmaster, and all its other accessories-are

as exact as anything in Crabbe, but they are painted under their best and softest aspect; and while "The Parish Register" pains and depresses Goldsmith throws a hue of enchantment in the "Deserted Village" over all he describes. The very titles of the poems are characteristic of their contents, and seem one to promise the prose, the other the poetry of life. "The Deserted Village" has the advantage over the "Traveller," of treating upon topics which lie closer to our doors, and touch our The verse is a sympathies more nearly. ontinuous succession of felicites without a

GOLDSMITH.

[Jan.,

my whole aim being to make up a book of decent size, that, as Squire Richard says, would do harm to nobody. However, they

quently an honest man. When you come to
look at any part of it, you'll say that I am a
sour Whig." Goldsmith's political creed
was of so extreme a kind that he was even
opposed to the Hanoverian succession, and
affirmed that it never would be well with
our constitution until another" happy revo-
lution" should rectify the injury done by the
settlement of 1688.
with Johnson to visit Westminster Abbey,
and, while they were surveying poet's corner,
He had once gone
his friend exclaimed-

When they reached Temple Bar Goldsmith
Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis.
pointed to the bony remains of the rebel's
their mutual Jacobite predilections-
heads, and slily whispered, in allusion to

single forced conceit. The vividness of the descriptive passages, the skill with which the details are selected, the magical language in which they are expressed, the pensive sweet-set me down as an arrant Tory, and conseness which prevades the piece, unite to make it one of the most perfect little poems in the world. In the midst of the blaze of reputation which attended the publication of "The Deserted Village," Goldsmith started in July for France, attended by Mrs. Horneck and her two pretty daughters-a Devonshire family whose acquaintance he had made in the house of Reynolds. To travel had once been his supreme delight. The love for every place, except that in which they resided, is mentioned by himself as a Goldsmith characteristic." But travelling at twenty and at forty are," he said, " very different things. I set out with all my confirmed habits about me, and can find nothing on the continent so good as when I left it." Not meeting with the pleasure he anticipated, and his literary undertakings weighing upon his mind, he was glad to get back to his old quarters, after an absence of two months. He was no sooner home than he added to his already oppressive engagements by agreeing for a payment of fifty guineas to abridge his Roman History. A slight sketch of Parnell, which contained two or three graceful paragraphs, was published in the summer with some success; and a "Life of Bolingbroke," to be prefixed to his "Dissertation on Parties," which was calculated might obtain a fresh lease of popularity in the political heats of that fiery time, was now to be provided without delay. It was the first completed of his pending projects, and is one of the flimsiest tracts which ever proceeded from his pen-flat and feeble in style, as well as destitute of thought and knowledge. In August, 1771, came forth the "History of England," in four volumes, which has all the characteristics of his former compilations of the same kind. He avowedly took his information in at secondhand, and only engaged to furnish what he more than accomplished "a plain, unaffected narrative of facts, with just ornament enough to keep attention awake, and with reflection barely sufficient to set the reader upon thinking." He was accused, by men who were themselves overflowing with party-spirit, of being the tool of the ministry, and of making history subservient to political passions. "I have been a good deal abused," he remarked, writing to Langton, "for betraying the liberties of the people. God knows I had no thought for or against liberty in my head;

Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur ISTIS. But notwithstanding his indulgence in these obsolete theories, his practical interest in passing politics, during the hottest ebullitions of factious rage, appears to have been extremely slight, and there were few subjects, we imagine, upon which he read, thought, or understood less. A year or two before, Dr. Scott, the chaplain of Lord Sandwich, endeavored to engage him to devote his pen to the support of the administration, and informed him that he was empowered to pay him liberally for his services; but poor as Goldsmith was, he was not to be tempted much as will supply my wants without writby the offer. "I can earn," he said, ing for any party; the assistance you offer is therefore unnecessary to me."

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Goldsmith into contact with his countryman The fame of "The Traveller" brought Mr. Nugent, who had now become Lord Clare. He was much with him at the close of 1770 at his seat of Gosfield Park, and in the spring of 1771 accompanied him to Bath. Oliver is said by Mr. Cooke to have been liable to fits of absence, and an instance occurred during the present visit when he strayed into the house of the Duke of Northumberland, who lived next door to Lord Clare, and threw himself down on the sofa just as the Duke and the Duchess, who were acquainted with him, were sitting down to breakfast. Conjecturing that he had made a mistake, they endeavored to put him at his ease and inquired the news of the day; but it was not until they invited him to join

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