s: 'Monthly Review' for July, 1757 (upon which Goldsmith was at


s: this date employed), is a summary, 'from our correspondent at


s: mo.; and his deed and tragedy make a graphic chapter in the


s: remarkable 'Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous', by George


s: In the first edition of 'The Traveller' there are only


s: After having been for some time announced as in preparation, 'The


s: "I am ignorant of that art in which you are


s: said to excel". This modest confession did not prevent Goldsmith


s: from making fun of the contemporary connoisseur. See the letter


s: from the young virtuoso in 'The Citizen of the World', 1762, i.


s: not 'a Cleopatra bathing' but 'a Hercules spinning'; and Charles


s: Primrose's experiences at Paris ('Vicar of Wakefield', 1766, ii.


s: "He is since dead".  Henry Goldsmith died in May, 1768,


s: at the age of forty-five, being then curate of Kilkenny West.


s: "a long poem".  'I might dwell upon such thoughts...were


s: I not afraid of making this preface too tedious; especially


s: since I shall want all the patience of the reader, for having


s: enlarged it with the following verses.' (Tickell's Preface to


s: "the increase of our luxuries".  The evil of luxury was


s: a 'common topick' with Goldsmith. (Birkbeck Hill's 'Boswell',


s: Lismahago, and continuing the quotation on p. 169, was of the


s: opinion that 'the sudden affluence occasioned by trade, forced


s: open all the sluices of luxury, and overflowed the land with


s: every species of profligacy and corruption.' ('Humphry Clinker',


s: that Goldsmith obtained this name from Bennet Langton. There is


s: an Aldbourn or Auburn in Wiltshire, not far from Marlborough,


s: which Prior thinks may have furnished the suggestion.


s: "Seats of my youth".  This alone would imply that


s: Goldsmith had in mind the environment of his Irish home.


s: "The decent church that topp'd the neighbouring hill".


s: This corresponds with the church of Kilkenny West as seen from


s: "The hawthorn bush".  The Rev. Annesley Strean, Henry


s: Goldsmith's successor at Kilkenny West, well remembered the


s: hawthorn bush in front of the village ale-house. It had


s: originally three trunks; but when he wrote in 1807 only one


s: remained, 'the other two having been cut, from time to time, by


s: persons carrying pieces of it away to be made into toys, etc.,


s: in honour of the bard, and of the celebrity of his poem.'


s: previously to 1819; but nevertheless when Prior visited the


s: place in 1830, nothing was apparent but 'a very tender shoot


s: from a sketch made in 1806-9, is to be found at p. 41 of


s: Goldsmith's 'Poetical Works', R. H. Newell's edition, 1811, and


s: "How often have I bless'd the coming day".  Prior,


s: 'Life', 1837, ii. 261, finds in this an allusion 'to the Sundays


s: or numerous holidays, usually kept in Roman Catholic countries.'


s: "Amidst thy bowers the tyrant's hand is seen".  Strean's


s: explanation (Mangin, 'ut supra', pp. 140-1) of this is as


s: follows:--'The poem of 'The Deserted Village', took its origin


s: from the circumstance of general Robert Napper [Napier or


s: Naper], (the grandfather of the gentleman who now  lives


s: in the house, within half a mile of Lissoy, and built by the


s: general) having purchased an extensive tract of the country


s: surrounding Lissoy, or 'Auburn'; in consequence of which many


s: families, here called 'cottiers', were removed, to make room for


s: the intended improvements of what was now to become the wide


s: domain of a rich man, warm with the idea of changing the face of


s: his new acquisition; and were forced, "with fainting steps," to


s: go in search of "torrid tracts" and "distant climes."'


s: Prior ('Life', 1837, i. 40-3) points out that Goldsmith was not


s: the first to give poetical expression to the wrongs of the


s: dispossessed Irish peasantry; and he quotes a long extract from


s: the 'Works' (1741) of a Westmeath poet, Lawrence Whyte, which


s: For their improvements turn'd them out...


s: "The hollow-sounding bittern guards its nest".  'Of all


s: those sounds,' says Goldsmith, speaking of the cries of


s: waterfowl, 'there is none so dismally hollow as the booming of


s: the bittern.' ...'I remember in the place where I was a boy with


s: what terror this bird's note affected the whole village; they


s: considered it as the presage of some sad event; and generally


s: found or made one to succeed it.' ('Animated Nature', 1774, vi.


s: Bewick, who may be trusted to speak of a bird which he has drawn


s: with such exquisite fidelity, refers ('Water Birds', 1847, p.


s: the night, in the breeding season, from its swampy retreats.'


s: Cf. also that close observer Crabbe ('The Borough', Letter xxii,


s: And the loud bittern, from the bull-rush home,


s: Gave from the salt-ditch side the bellowing boom.


s: "Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade;


s: A breath can make them, as a breath has made".


s: Mitford compares 'Confessio Amantis', fol. 152:--


s: and Professor Hales recalls Burns's later line in the 'Cotter's


s: Princes and lords are but the breath of kings.


s: But Prior finds the exact equivalent of the second line in the


s: verses of an old French poet, De. Caux, upon an hour-glass:--


s: Qu'un souffle peut detruire, et qu'un souffle a produit.


s: "A time there was, ere England's griefs began".  Here


s: wherever the locality of Auburn, the author had clearly England


s: in mind. A caustic commentator has observed that the 'time'


s: indicated must have been a long while ago.


s: "opulence".  In the first edition the word is 'luxury.'


s: "And, many a year elapsed, return to view".  'It is


s: strongly contended at Lishoy, that "the Poet," as he is usually


s: called there, after his pedestrian tour upon the Continent of


s: Europe, returned to and resided in the village some time.... It


s: is moreover believed, that the havock which had been made in his


s: absence among those favourite scenes of his youth, affected his


s: mind so deeply, that he actually composed great part of the


s: Deserted Village 'at' Lishoy.' ('Poetical Works, with Remarks',


s: Notwithstanding the above, there is no evidence that Goldsmith


s: ever returned to his native island. In a letter to his


s: brother-in-law, Daniel Hodson, written in 1758, he spoke of


s: hoping to do so 'in five or six years.' ('Percy Memoir', 1801,


s: i. 49). But in another letter, written towards the close of his


s: life, it is still a thing to come. 'I am again,' he says, 'just


s: setting out for Bath, and I honestly say I had much rather it


s: had been for Ireland with my nephew, but that pleasure I hope to


s: have before I die.' (Letter to Daniel Hodson, no date, in


s: possession of the late Frederick Locker Lampson.)


s: "Where once the cottage stood, the hawthorn grew".  Here


s: Here, as with doubtful, pensive steps I range,


s: Trace every scene, and wonder at the change,


s: l. 84.  "In all my griefs--and God has given my share".  Prior


s: notes a slight similarity here to a line of Collins:--


s: Ye mute companions of my toils, that bear,


s: 'In all my griefs', a more than equal share!


s: Goldsmith refers feelingly to 'the neglected author of the


s: Persian eclogues, which, however inaccurate, excel any in our


s: language.' He included four of them in 'The Beauties of English


s: "To husband out", etc.  In the first edition this ran:--


s: My anxious day to husband near the close,


s: And keep life's flame from wasting by repose.


s: "Here to return--and die at home at last".  Forster


s: compares a passage in 'The Citizen of the World', 1762, ii.


s: first had existence, that nothing but it can please; whatever


s: vicissitudes we experience in life, however we toil, or


s: wheresoever we wander, our fatigued wishes still recur to home


s: for tranquillity, we long to die in that spot which gave us


s: birth, and in that pleasing expectation opiate every calamity.'


s: The poet Waller too--he adds--wished to die 'like the stag where


s: "How happy he".  'How blest is he' in the first edition.


s: "And, since 'tis hard to combat, learns to fly".


s: struggling with misfortunes, we are sure to receive some wounds


s: in the conflict. The only method to come off victorious, is by


s: "surly porter".  Mr. J. M. Lobban compares the 'Citizen


s: half opened that some surly porter or footman does not stand


s: "Bends".  'Sinks' in the first edition. "unperceived


s: An age that melts with unperceiv'd decay,


s: "While Resignation", etc.  In 1771 Sir Joshua exhibited


s: a picture of 'An Old Man,' studied from the beggar who was his


s: model for Ugolino. When it was engraved by Thomas Watson in


s: Goldsmith in the following words:--'This attempt to express a


s: Character in 'The Deserted Village', is dedicated to Dr.


s: Goldsmith, by his sincere Friend and admirer, JOSHUA REYNOLDS.'


s: "Up yonder hill".  It has been suggested that Goldsmith


s: was here thinking of the little hill of Knockaruadh (Red Hill)


s: in front of Lissoy parsonage, of which there is a sketch in


s: Newell's 'Poetical Works', 1811. When Newell wrote, it was


s: already known as 'Goldsmith's mount'; and the poet himself


s: refers to it in a letter to his brother-in-law Hodson, dated


s: Dec. 27, 1757:--'I had rather be placed on the little mount


s: before Lishoy gate, and there take in, to me, the most pleasing


s: "And fill'd each pause the nightingale had made".  In


s: nightingale's pausing song would be the proper epithet for this


s: "No cheerful murmurs fluctuate in the gale".  (Cf.


s: Goldsmith's Essay on 'Metaphors' ('British


s: Magazine'):--'Armstrong has used the word 'fluctuate' with


s: admirable efficacy, in his philosophical poem entitled 'The Art


s: Oh!  when the growling winds contend, and all


s: The sounding forest 'fluctuates' in the storm,


s: To sink in warm repose, and hear the din


s: "The sad historian of the pensive plain".  Strean (see


s: note to l. 13) identified the old watercress gatherer as a


s: certain Catherine Giraghty (or Geraghty). Her children (he said)


s: were still living in the neighbourhood of Lissoy in 1807.


s: "The village preacher's modest mansion rose".  'The


s: Rev. Charles Goldsmith is allowed by all that knew him, to have


s: been faithfully represented by his son in the character of the


s: Village Preacher.' So writes his daughter, Catharine Hodson


s: ('Percy Memoir', 1801, p. 3). Others, relying perhaps upon the


s: 'forty pounds a year' of the Dedication to 'The Traveller', make


s: the poet's brother Henry the original; others, again, incline to


s: kindly Uncle Contarine ('vide Introduction'). But as Prior


s: he fixed upon no one individual, but borrowing like all good


s: poets and painters a little from each, drew the character by


s: "with forty pounds a year".  Cf. Dedication to 'The


s: "Unpractis'd".  'Unskilful' in the first edition.


s: "More skilled".  'More bent' in the first edition.


s: "The long remember'd beggar".  'The same persons,' says


s: Prior, commenting upon this passage, 'are seen for a series of


s: years to traverse the same tract of country at certain


s: intervals, intrude into every house which is not defended by the


s: usual outworks of wealth, a gate and a porter's lodge, exact


s: their portion of the food of the family, and even find an


s: occasional resting-place for the night, or from severe weather,


s: in the chimney-corner of respectable farmers.' ('Life', 1837,


s: ii. 269.) Cf. Scott on the Scottish mendicants in the


s: 'Advertisement' to 'The Antiquary', 1816, and Leland's 'Hist. of


s: "The broken soldier".  The disbanded soldier let loose


s: upon the country at the conclusion of the 'Seven Years' War' was


s: a familiar figure at this period. Bewick, in his 'Memoir'


s: ancient campaigners with their battered old uniforms and their


s: endless stories of Minden and Quebec; and a picture of two of


s: them by T. S. Good of Berwick belonged to the late Mr. Locker


s: Lampson. Edie Ochiltree ('Antiquary')--it may be remembered--had


s: "Allur'd to brighter worlds".  Cf. Tickell on


s: Addison--'Saints who taught and led the way to Heaven.'


s: "And fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray".


s: Prior compares the opening lines of Dryden's 'Britannia


s: Our vows are heard betimes, and heaven takes care


s: To grant, before we can conclude the prayer;


s: And sent us back to praise, who came to pray.


s: "As some tall cliff", etc.  Lucan, Statius, and


s: Claudian have been supposed to have helped Goldsmith to this


s: fine and deservedly popular simile. But, considering his obvious


s: familiarity with French literature, and the rarity of his


s: 'obligations to the ancients,' it is not unlikely that, as


s: suggested by a writer in the 'Academy' for Oct. 30, 1886, his


s: source of suggestion is to be found in the following passage of


s: an Ode addressed by Chapelain (1595-1674) to Richelieu:--


s: Et laisses contre toi murmurer cette terre;


s: Ainsi le haut Olympe, a son pied sablonneux,


s: Laisse fumer la foudre et gronder le tonnerre,


s: Et garde son sommet tranquille et lumineux.


s: Or another French model--indicated by Mr. Forster ('Life', 1871,


s: ii. 115-16) by the late Lord Lytton--may have been these lines


s: Au milieu cependant de ces peines cruelles


s: De notre triste hiver, compagnes trop fideles,


s: Je suis tranquille et gai.  Quel bien plus precieux


s: Puis-je esperer jamais de la bonte des dieux!


s: Sur son front eleve regne une paix profonde,


s: On the other hand, Goldsmith may have gone no further than


s: Young's 'Complaint: Night the Second', 1742, p. 42, where, as


s: Mitford points out, occur these lines:--


s: As some tall Tow'r, or lofty Mountain's Brow,


s: Detains the Sun, Illustrious from its Height,


s: While rising Vapours, and descending Shades,


s: With Damps, and Darkness drown the Spatious Vale:


s: Undampt by Doubt, Undarken'd by Despair,


s: 'Philander', thus, augustly rears his Head.


s: 'Animated Nature', 1774, i. 145, derived from Ulloa, which


s: perhaps served as the raw material of the simile.


s: "Full well they laugh'd", etc.  Steele, in 'Spectator',


s: No. 49 (for April 26, 1711) has a somewhat similar


s: thought:--'"Eubulus" has so great an Authority in his little


s: Diurnal Audience, that when he shakes his Head at any Piece of


s: publick News, they all of them appear dejected; and, on the


s: contrary, go home to their Dinners with a good Stomach and


s: chearful Aspect, when "Eubulus" seems to intimate that Things go


s: "Yet he was kind", etc.  For the rhyme of 'fault' and


s: 'aught' in this couplet Prior cites the precedent of Pope:--


s: Before his sacred name flies ev'ry fault,


s: And each exalted stanza teems with thought!


s: He might also have cited Waller, who elides the 'l':--


s: Were we but less indulgent to our fau'ts,


s: And patience had to cultivate our thoughts.


s: Goldsmith uses a like rhyme in 'Edwin and Angelina',


s: Cf. also 'Retaliation', ll. 73-4.  Perhaps--as indeed Prior


s: suggests--he pronounced 'fault' in this fashion.


s: "That one small head could carry all he knew".  Some of


s: the traits of this portrait are said to be borrowed from


s: Goldsmith's own master at Lissoy:--'He was instructed in


s: reading, writing, and arithmetic'--says his sister Catherine,


s: Mrs. Hodson--'by a schoolmaster in his father's village, who had


s: been a quartermaster in the army in Queen Anne's wars, in that


s: detachment which was sent to Spain: having travelled over a


s: considerable part of Europe and being of a very romantic turn,


s: he used to entertain Oliver with his adventures; and the


s: impressions these made on his scholar were believed by the


s: family to have given him that wandering and unsettled turn which


s: so much appeared in his future life.' ('Percy Memoir', 1801, pp.


s: "Near yonder thorn".  See note to l. 13.


s: "The chest contriv'd a double debt to pay".  Cf. the


s: 'Description of an Author's Bedchamber', p. 48, l. ult. :--


s: l. 232.  "The twelve good rules".  'A constant one' (i.e.


s: picture) 'in every house was "King Charles' Twelve Good Rules."'


s: broadside, surmounted by a rude woodcut of the King's execution,


s: is still prized by collectors. The rules, as 'found in the study


s: Prior, 'Misc. Works', 1837, iv. 63, points out that Crabbe also


s: makes the 'Twelve Good Rules' conspicuous in the 'Parish


s: Who proved Misfortune's was the best of schools.


s: Her late Majesty, Queen Victoria, kept a copy of these rules in


s: "the royal game of goose".  The 'Royal and Entertaining Game of


s: the Goose' is described at length in Strutt's 'Sports and


s: Pastimes', bk. iv, ch. 2 (xxv). It may be briefly defined as a


s: game of compartments with different titles through which the


s: player progresses according to the numbers he throws with the


s: dice. At every fourth or fifth compartment is depicted a goose,


s: and if the player's cast falls upon one of these, he moves


s: "While broken tea-cups".  Cf. the 'Description of an


s: And five crack'd teacups dress'd the chimney board.


s: Mr. Hogan, who repaired or rebuilt the ale-house at Lissoy, did


s: not forget, besides restoring the 'Royal Game of Goose' and the


s: 'Twelve Good Rules,' to add the broken teacups, 'which for


s: better security in the frail tenure of an Irish publican, or the


s: doubtful decorum of his guests, were embedded in the mortar.'


s: "Shall kiss the cup.".  Cf. Scott's 'Lochinvar':--


s: The bride kissed the goblet:  the knight took it up,


s: He quaff'd off the wine and he threw down the cup.


s: Cf. also 'The History of Miss Stanton' ('British Magazine',


s: July, 1760).--'The earthen mug went round. 'Miss touched the


s: cup', the stranger pledged the parson.' etc.


s: "Between a splendid and a happy land".  Prior compares


s: 'The Citizen of the World', 1762, i. 98:--'Too much commerce may


s: injure a nation as well as too little; and...there is a wide


s: difference between a conquering and a flourishing empire.'


s: "To see profusion that he must not share".  Cf.


s: 'Animated Nature', iv. p. 43:--'He only guards those luxuries he


s: "To see those joys".  Up to the third edition the words


s: "There the black gibbet glooms beside the way".  The


s: gallows, under the savage penal laws of the eighteenth century,


s: by which horse-stealing, forgery, shop-lifting, and even the


s: cutting of a hop-bind in a plantation were punishable with


s: death, was a common object in the landscape. Cf. 'Vicar of


s: Wakefield', 1706, ii. 122:--'Our possessions are paled up with


s: new edicts every day, and hung round with gibbets to scare every


s: who wrote eloquently on capital punishment in 'The Rambler' for


s: April 20, 1751, No. 114, also refers to the ceaseless executions


s: Scarce can our fields, such crowds at Tyburn die,


s: With hemp the gallows and the fleet supply.


s: Propose your schemes, ye senatorian band,


s: Whose ways and means support the sinking land:


s: Lest ropes be wanting in the tempting spring,


s: "Where the poor houseless shivering female lies".


s: Mitford compares Letter cxiv of 'The Citizen of the World',


s: happier days, and been flattered into beauty. They have been


s: prostituted to the gay luxurious villain, and are now turned out


s: to meet the severity of winter. Perhaps now lying at the doors


s: of their betrayers, they sue to wretches whose hearts are


s: insensible, or debauchees who may curse, but will not relieve


s: "Near her betrayer's door", etc.  Cf. the foregoing


s: "wild Altama", i.e. the Alatamaha, a river in Georgia,


s: North America. Goldsmith may have been familiar with this name


s: in connexion with his friend Oglethorpe's expedition of 1733.


s: "crouching tigers", a poetical licence, as there are no


s: tigers in the locality named. But Mr. J. H. Lobban calls


s: attention to a passage from 'Animated Nature' [1774, iii. 244],


s: in which Goldsmith seems to defend himself:--'There is an animal


s: of America, which is usually called the Red Tiger, but Mr.


s: Buffon calls it the Cougar, which, no doubt, is very different


s: from the tiger of the east. Some, however, have thought proper


s: to rank both together, and I will take leave to follow their


s: "The good old sire".  Cf. 'Threnodia Augustalis', ll.


s: The good old sire, unconscious of decay,


s: The modest matron, clad in homespun gray


s: "a father's".  'Her father's' in the first edition.


s: "silent".  'Decent' in the first edition.


s: "On Torno's cliffs, or Pambamarca's side".  'Torno' =


s: Tornea, a river which falls into the Gulf of Bothnia; Pambamarca


s: is a mountain near Quito, South America. 'The author'--says


s: Bolton Corney--'bears in memory the operations of the French


s: philosophers in the arctic and equatorial regions, as described


s: in the celebrated narratives of M. Maupertuis and Don Antonio de


s: ll. 427-30.  "That trade's proud empire", etc.  These last four


s: lines are attributed to Johnson on Boswell's authority:--'Dr.


s: Johnson...favoured me by marking the lines which he furnished to


s: Goldsmith's 'Deserted Village', which are only the 'last four'.'


s: Necessitas, cujus cursus transversi impetum


s: Voluerunt multi effugere, pauci potuerunt,


s: Quo me detrusit paene extremis sensibus?


s: Quem nulla ambitio, nulla umquam largitio,


s: Nullus timor, vis nulla, nulla auctoritas


s: Ecce in senecta ut facile labefecit loco


s: Etenim ipsi di negare cui nihil potuerunt,


s: Then was the time the obedient plant to strain


s: When life was warm in every vigorous vein,


s: To mould young nature to thy plastic skill,


s: So might I hope applauding crowds to hear,


s: Catch the quick smile, and HIS attentive ear.


s: But ah!  for what has thou reserv'd my age?


s: Say, how can I expect the approving stage;


s: Fled is the bloom of youth -- the manly air --


s: The vigorous mind that spurn'd at toil and care;


s: Gone is the voice, whose clear and silver tone


s: The enraptur'd theatre would love to own.


s: As clasping ivy chokes the encumber'd tree,


s: Thou, and the tomb, Laberius, art the same,


s: Empty within, what hast thou but a name?


s: This quatrain, the original of which does not appear to have been


s: LUMINE Acon dextro capta est Leonida sinistro


s: Parve puer lumen quod habes concede puellae


s: Lumine Acon dextro, capta est Leonilla sinistro,


s: Et potis est forma vincere uterque Deos.


s: Blande puer, lumen quod habes concede sorori;


s: Sic tu caecus Amor, sic erit illa Venus;


s: "I'll give thee".  See an anecdote 'a propos' of this


s: anticlimax in Trevelyan's 'Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay',


s: ed. 1889, p. 600:--'There was much laughing about Mrs. Beecher


s: Stowe [then (16th March, 1853) expected in England], and what we


s: were to give her. I referred the ladies to Goldsmith's poems for


s: what I should give. Nobody but Hannah understood me; but some of


s: them have since been thumbing Goldsmith to make out the riddle.'


s: Parnell', 1770, p. 3:--'His imagination might have been too warm


s: to relish the cold logic of Burgersdicius, or the dreary


s: subtleties of 'Smiglesius'; but it is certain that as a


s: classical scholar, few could equal him.' Martin Smiglesius or


s: Smigletius, a Polish Jesuit, theologian and logician, who died


s: in 1618, appears to have been a special 'bete noire' to


s: Goldsmith; and the reference to him here would support the


s: ascription of the poem to Goldsmith's pen, were it not that


s: Swift seems also to have cherished a like antipathy:--'He told


s: me that he had made many efforts, upon his entering the College


s: treatises on logic writ by 'Smeglesius', Keckermannus,


s: Burgersdicius, etc., and that he never had patience to go


s: through three pages of any of them, he was so disgusted at the


s: stupidity of the work.' (Sheridan's 'Life of Swift', 2nd ed.,


s: "Than reason-boasting mortal's pride".  So in 'The Busy


s: Body'. Some editors--Mitford, for example--print the line:--


s: "Deus est anima brutorum".  Cf. Addison in 'Spectator',


s: Brutes delivers the same Opinion [i.e.--That Instinct is the


s: immediate direction of Providence], tho' in a bolder form of


s: words where he says 'Deus est Anima Brutorum', God himself is


s: the Soul of Brutes.' There is much in 'Monsieur Bayle' on this


s: theme. Probably Addison had in mind the following passage of the


s: cites from M. Bernard:--'Il me semble d'avoir lu quelque part


s: cette These, 'Deus est anima brutorum': l'expression est un peu


s: dure; mais elle peut recevoir un fort bon sens.'


s: "B-b"=Bob, i.e. Sir Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister,


s: for whom many venal 'quills were drawn' 'circa' 1715-42. Cf.


s: And never laugh--for all my life to come?


s: Seen him I have, but in his happier hour


s: Of Social Pleasure, ill-exchang'd for Pow'r;


s: Seen him, uncumber'd with the Venal tribe,


s: Smile without Art, and win without a Bribe.


s: "A courtier any ape surpasses".  Cf. Gay's 'Fables,


s: passim'. Indeed there is more of Gay than Swift in this and the


s: lines that follow. Gay's life was wasted in fruitless


s: expectations of court patronage, and his disappointment often


s: "And footmen, lords and dukes can act".  Cf. 'Gil Blas',


s: portions des santes a tous moments, en nous donnant les uns aux


s: autres les surnoms de nos maitres. Le valet de don Antonio


s: appeloit Gamboa celui de don Fernand, et le valet de don Fernand


s: appeloit Centelles celui de don Antonio. Ils me nommoient de


s: meme Silva; et nous nous enivrions peu a peu sous ces noms


s: empruntes, tout aussi bien que les seigneurs qui les portoient


s: veritablement.' But Steele had already touched this subject in


s: Servants,' a paper supposed to have afforded the hint for


s: Townley's farce of 'High Life below Stairs', which, about a


s: fortnight after 'The Logicians Refuted' appeared, was played for


s: the first time at Drury Lane, not much to the gratification of


s: the gentlemen's gentlemen in the upper gallery. Goldsmith


s: himself wrote 'A Word or two on the late Farce, called 'High


s: Life below Stairs',' in 'The Bee' for November 3, 1759, pp.


s: This little piece first appears in 'The Bee' for October 20,


s: only accurate in so far as it is 'a little song.' Bolton Corney


s: affirms that it is imitated from the French of Saint-Pavin (i.e.


s: Denis Sanguin de Saint-Pavin, d. 1670), whose works were edited


s: in 1759, the year in which Goldsmith published the collection of


s: essays and verses in which it is to be found. The text here


s: followed is that of the 'new edition' of 'The Bee', published by


s: W. Lane, Leadenhall Street, no date, p. 94. Neither by its


s: motive nor its literary merits--it should be added--did the


s: original call urgently for translation; and the poem is here


s: included solely because, being Goldsmith's, it cannot be omitted


s: This and the following line in the first version run:--


s: "Who left a pledge behind".  Caldecott cleverly converted


s: this line into the keynote of the poem, by making the heroine a


s: "When she has walk'd before".  Cf. the French:--


s: "Her last disorder mortal".  Cf. the French:--


s: "Kent Street", Southwark, 'chiefly inhabited,' said


s: Strype, 'by Broom Men and Mumpers'; and Evelyn tells us ('Diary'


s: fifth husband, of a Mrs. Castle, who was 'the daughter of one


s: Burton, a broom-man...in Kent Street' who had become not only


s: rich, but Sheriff of Surrey. It was a poor neighbourhood


s: corresponding to the present 'old Kent-road, from Kent to


s: Southwark and old London Bridge' (Cunningham's London*).


s: Goldsmith himself refers to it in 'The Bee' for October 20,


s: 'Madam Blaize' first appeared:--'You then, O ye beggars of my


s: acquaintance, whether in rags or lace; whether in 'Kent-street'


s: or the Mall; whether at the Smyrna or St. Giles's, might I


s: advise as a friend, never seem in want of the favour which you


s: solicit' (p. 72). Three years earlier he had practised as 'a


s: physician, in a humble way' in Bankside, Southwark, and was


s: probably well acquainted with the humours of Kent Street.


s: *[footnote] In contemporary maps Kent (now Tabard) Street is


s: shown extending between the present New Kent Road and Blackman


s: The window, patch'd with paper, lent a ray,


s: That feebly shew'd the state in which he lay.


s: The sanded floor, that grits beneath the tread:


s: The humid wall with paltry pictures spread;


s: The game of goose was there expos'd to view


s: And the twelve rules the royal martyr drew:


s: The seasons, fram'd with listing, found a place,


s: And Prussia's monarch shew'd his lamp-black face


s: The morn was cold; he views with keen desire,


s: An unpaid reck'ning on the frieze was scor'd,


s: And five crack'd tea-cups dress'd the chimney board.


s: And now imagine after his soliloquy, the landlord to make his


s: appearance, in order to dun him for the reckoning:--


s: Not with that face, so servile and so gay,


s: That welcomes every stranger that can pay,


s: With sulky eye he smoak'd the patient man,


s: Then pull'd his breeches tight, and thus began, etc.


s: All this is taken, you see, from nature.  It is a good remark of


s: The verses then follow as they are printed in this volume; but


s: "Where Calvert's butt, and Parsons' black champagne".  The


s: Calverts and Humphrey Parsons were noted brewers of 'entire butt


s: beer' or porter, also known familiarly as 'British Burgundy' and


s: 'black Champagne.' Calvert's 'Best Butt Beer' figures on the


s: "The humid wall with paltry pictures spread".  Bewick gives the


s: names of some of these popular, if paltry, decorations:--'In


s: cottages everywhere were to be seen the "Sailor's Farewell" and


s: "The royal game of goose was there in view".  (See note, p. 188,


s: "And the twelve rules the royal martyr drew".  (See note, p.


s: "The Seasons, fram'd with listing".  See note to l. 10 above, as


s: to 'The Seasons.' Listing, ribbon, braid, or tape is still used


s: as a primitive 'encadrement'. In a letter dated August 15, 1758,


s: to his cousin, Mrs. Lawder (Jane Contarine), Goldsmith again


s: refers to this device. Speaking of some 'maxims of frugality'


s: with which he intends to adorn his room, he adds--'my landlady's


s: daughter shall frame them with the parings of my black


s: "And brave Prince William".  William Augustus, Duke of


s: Cumberland, 1721-65. The 'lamp-black face' would seem to imply


s: that the portrait was a silhouette. In the letter quoted on p.


s: "With beer and milk arrears".  See the lines relative to the


s: landlord in Goldsmith's above-quoted letter to his brother. In


s: another letter of August 14, 1758, to Robert Bryanton, he


s: describes himself as 'in a garret writing for bread, and


s: expecting to be dunned for a milk score.' Hogarth's 'Distrest


s: Poet', 1736, it will be remembered, has already realized this


s: "A cap by night--a stocking all the day".  'With this last


s: author] seemed so much elated, that he was unable to proceed:


s: "There gentlemen, cries he, there is a description for you;


s: Rab[e]lais's bed-chamber is but a fool to it:


s: 'A cap by night--a stocking all the day!'


s: There is sound and sense, and truth, and nature in the trifling


s: compass of ten little syllables."' (Letter xxix.) Cf. also 'The


s: A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day.


s: If Goldsmith's lines did not belong to 1759, one might suppose


s: he had in mind the later 'Pauvre Diable' of his favourite


s: These verses, intended for a specimen of the newspaper Muse, are


s: from Letter lxxxii of 'The Citizen of the World', 1762, ii. 87,


s: first printed in 'The Public Ledger', October 21, 1760.


s: From Letter ciii of 'The Citizen of the World', 1762, ii. 164,


s: first printed in 'The Public Ledger', March 4, 1761. The verses


s: are given as a 'specimen of a poem on the decease of a great


s: man.' Goldsmith had already used the trick of the final line of


s: the quatrain in 'An Elegy on Mrs. Mary Blaize', ante, p. 198.


s: first printed in 'The Public Ledger', April 14, 1761. It had,


s: however, already been printed in the 'Ledger', ten days before.


s: Goldsmith's animosity to Churchill (cf. note to l. 41 of the


s: dedication to 'The Traveller') was notorious; but this is one of


s: "bounty".  'Settled at One Shilling--the Price of the Poem'


s: From the same letter as the preceding.  George Colman and Robert


s: Lloyd of the 'St. James's Magazine' were supposed to have helped


s: Churchill in 'The Rosciad', the 'it' of the epigram.


s: From Letter cxiii of 'The Citizen of the World', 1762, ii. 209,


s: first printed in 'The Public Ledger', May 13, 1761.


s: 'The Double Transformation' first appeared in 'Essays:  By Mr.


s: Goldsmith", 1765, where it figures as Essay xxvi, occupying pp.


s: Essay xxviii, pp. 241-45. This is the text here followed. The


s: poem is an obvious imitation of what its author calls ('Letters


s: from a Nobleman to his Son', 1764, ii. 140) that 'French elegant


s: easy manner of telling a story,' which Prior had caught from La


s: Fontaine. But the inherent simplicity of Goldsmith's style is


s: curiously evidenced by the absence of those illustrations and


s: ingenious allusions which are Prior's chief characteristic. And


s: although Goldsmith included 'The Ladle' and 'Hans Carvel' in his


s: 'Beauties of English Poesy', 1767, he refrained wisely from


s: The version of 1765 reads 'liv'd' for 'led.'


s: Here in the first version the paragraph closes,


s: and a fresh one is commenced as follows:--


s: The fifth line was probably a reminiscence of the college riot


s: in which Goldsmith was involved in May, 1747, and for his part


s: in which he was publicly admonished. (See 'Introduction', p. xi,


s: "usage".  This word, perhaps by a printer's error, is


s: "Skill'd in no other arts was she".  Cf. Prior:--


s: "Five greasy nightcaps wrapp'd her head".  Cf.


s: 'Spectator', No. 494--'At length the Head of the


s: Colledge came out to him, from an inner Room, with half


s: a Dozen Night-Caps upon his Head.' See also Goldsmith's


s: Mr. Grogan speaks of his wife as habitually 'mobbed up


s: in flannel night caps, and trembling at a breath of


s: "By day, 'twas gadding or coquetting".  The first version after


s: 'coquetting' begins a fresh paragraph with--


s: "Thus as her faults each day were known".  First version:


s: "Now, to perplex".  The first version has 'Thus.'


s: But the alteration in line 61 made a change necessary.


s: "condemn'd to hack", i.e. to hackney, to plod.


s: usher and then Master at the Charterhouse. In the latter


s: capacity he succeeded Thomas Walker, the master of Addison and


s: Steele. His 'Pantheon', a revised translation from the Latin of


s: the Jesuit, Francis Pomey, was a popular school-book of


s: "Wings upon either side--mark that".  The petasus of


s: Mercury, like his sandals (l. 24), is winged.


s: "No poppy-water half so good".  Poppy-water, made by


s: boiling the heads of the white, black, or red poppy, was a


s: favourite eighteenth-century soporific:--'Juno shall give her


s: peacock 'poppy-water', that he may fold his ogling tail.'


s: "With this he drives men's souls to hell".


s: l. 57.  "Moreover, Merc'ry had a failing".


s: Goldsmith, it will be observed, rhymes 'failing' and 'stealing.'


s: That Jelly's rich, this Malmsey healing,


s: Pray dip your Whiskers and your tail in.


s: ('Imitation of Horace', Bk. ii, Sat. vi.)


s: Unless this is to be explained by poetical licence, one of these


s: words must have been pronounced in the eighteenth century as it


s: The text of 1765 reads 'our scribling bards.'


s: 'The Vicar of Wakefield', first edition, has --


s: "All".  'Vicar of Wakefield', first edition, 'For.'


s: "Man wants but little here below".  Cf. Young's 'Complaint',


s: recollection. According to Prior ('Life', 1837, ii. 83), they


s: were printed as a quotation in the version of 1765. Young's line


s: Man wants but Little; nor that Little, long.


s: "modest".  'Vicar of Wakefield', first edition, 'grateful.'


s: "Far in a wilderness obscure".  First version, and 'Vicar of


s: "The wicket, opening with a latch".  First version, and 'Vicar


s: "And now, when busy crowds retire".  First version, and 'Vicar


s: "But nothing, etc."  In the first version this stanza runs as


s: "modern". 'Vicar of Wakefield', first edition, reads 'haughty.'


s: "His love-lorn guest betray'd".  First version, and 'Vicar of


s: "Surpris'd, he sees, etc."  First version, and 'Vicar of


s: Like clouds that deck the morning skies,


s: "The bashful look, the rising breast".  First version,


s: and 'Vicar of Wakefield', first edition:--


s: Her looks, her lips, her panting breast.


s: "But let a maid, etc."  For this, and the next two stanzas,


s: Their chief pretence my flatter'd charms,


s: "a mercenary crowd".  'Vicar of Wakefield', first edition, has:--


s: "Amongst the rest young Edwin bow'd".  First version:--


s: "Wisdom and worth, etc."  First version, and 'Vicar of


s: "And when beside me, etc."  For this 'additional stanza,' says


s: the 'Percy Memoir', p. 76, 'the reader is indebted to Richard


s: Archdal, Esq., late a member of the Irish Parliament, to whom it


s: was presented by the author himself.' It was first printed in


s: the 'Miscellaneous Works', 1801, ii. 25. In Prior's edition of


s: the 'Miscellaneous Works', 1837, iv. 41, it is said to have been


s: 'written some years after the rest of the poem.'


s: "The blossom opening to the day, etc."  For this and the next


s: two stanzas the first version substitutes:--


s: "For still I tried each fickle art, etc."  Percy finds the


s: prototype of this in the following stanza of 'Gentle Herdsman':--


s: "Till quite dejected with my scorn, etc."  The first edition


s: reads this stanza and the first two lines of the next thus:--


s: "And sought a solitude forlorn".  Cf. 'Gentle Herdsman:--


s: "And there forlorn, despairing, hid, etc."  The first edition


s: for this and the next two stanzas substitutes the following:--


s: 'Thou shalt not thus,' the Hermit cried,


s: The astonish'd fair one turned to chide, --


s: "'Twas so for me, etc."  Cf. 'Gentle Herdsman':--


s: "Forbid it, Heaven."  'Vicar of Wakefield', first edition,


s: like the version of 1765, has 'Thou shalt not thus.'


s: "My life."  'Vicar of Wakefield', first edition, has 'O thou.'


s: "No, never from this hour, etc."  The first edition reads:--


s: These couplets, with certain alterations in the first and last


s: lines, are to be found in the version printed in 'Poems for


s: "In Islington there was a man".  Goldsmith had lodgings at Mrs.


s: Elizabeth Fleming's in Islington (or 'Isling town' as the


s: earlier editions have it) in 1763-4; and the choice of the


s: locality may have been determined by this circumstance. But the


s: date of the composition of the poem is involved in the general


s: obscurity which hangs over the 'Vicar' in its unprinted state.


s: "The dog, to gain some private ends".  The first edition reads


s: "The dog it was that died".  This catastrophe suggests the


s: Kappadoken pot exidna kake daken alla kai aute


s: Goldsmith, however, probably went no farther back


s: paragraphist in the 'St. James's Gazette' for January 28th, 1889,


s: Lorsqu'une femme, apres trop de tendresse,


s: "As puffing quacks".  Goldsmith had devoted a Chinese


s: "No, no:  I've other contests, etc."  This couplet is


s: not in the first version. The old building of the College of


s: Physicians was in Warwick Lane; and the reference is to the


s: long-pending dispute, occasionally enlivened by personal


s: collision, between the Fellows and Licentiates respecting the


s: exclusion of certain of the latter from Fellowships. On this


s: theme Bonnell Thornton, himself an M.B. like Goldsmith, wrote a


s: satiric additional canto to Garth's 'Dispensary', entitled 'The


s: Battle of the Wigs', long extracts from which are printed in


s: 'The Gentleman's Magazine' for March, 1768, p. 132. The same


s: number also reviews 'The Siege of the Castle of Aesculapius, an


s: heroic Comedy, as it is acted in Warwick-Lane'. Goldsmith's


s: couplet is, however, best illustrated by the title of one of


s: Sayer's caricatures, 'The March of the Medical Militants to the


s: Siege of Warwick-Lane-Castle in the Year' 1767. The quarrel was


s: finally settled in favour of the college in June, 1771.


s: "Go, ask your manager".  Colman, the manager of Covent


s: Garden, was not a prolific, although he was a happy writer of


s: The quotation is from 'King Lear', Act iii, Sc. 4.


s: In the first version the last line runs:--


s: And view with favour, the 'Good-natur'd Man.'


s: Thanks to yr muse a foreign copper shines


s: Turn'd in to gold, and coin'd in sterling lines.


s: You have done to much honour to an old sick man of eighty.


s: I am with the most sincere esteem and gratitude


s: The text of the prologue is here given as printed in Cradock's


s: "In these bold times, etc."  The reference is to Cook,


s: who, on June 12, 1771, had returned to England in the


s: 'Endeavour', after three years' absence, having gone to Otaheite


s: "Botanists".  Mr. (afterward Sir Joseph) Banks and Dr.


s: Solander, of the British Museum, accompanied Cook.


s: "go simpling", i.e. gathering simples, or herbs.  Cf.


s: 'Merry Wives of Windsor', Act iii, Sc. 3:--


s: smell like Bucklersbury in 'simple'-time.'


s: In the caricatures of the day Solander figured as 'The


s: "With Scythian stores".  The scene of the play was laid


s: "to make palaver", to hold a parley, generally with the


s: intention of cajoling. Two of Goldsmith's notes to Garrick in


s: "mercenary".  Cradock gave the profits of 'Zobeide' to


s: Mrs. Yates. 'I mentioned the disappointment it would be to you'


s: -- she says in a letter to him dated April 26, 1771 --' as you


s: had generously given the emoluments of the piece to me.'


s: Princess's benefactions are not exaggerated. 'She had paid off


s: the whole of her husband's debts, and she had given munificent


s: sums in charity. More than 10,000'l.' a year were given away by


s: her in pensions to individuals whom she judged deserving, very


s: few of whom were aware, until her death, whence the bounty came.


s: The whole of her income she spent in England, and very little on


s: herself' ('Augusta: Princess of Wales', by W. H. Wilkins,


s: "There faith shall come".  This, and the three lines


s: that follow, are borrowed from Collins's 'Ode written in the


s: The towers of Kew".  'The embellishments of


s: Kew palace and gardens, under the direction of [Sir William]


s: Chambers, and others, was the favourite object of her [Royal


s: "Along the billow'd main".  Cf. 'The Captivity', Act ii,


s: "Oswego's dreary shores".  Cf. 'The Traveller', l. 411.


s: "And with the avenging fight".  Varied from Collins's


s: "Its earliest bloom".  Cf. Collins's 'Dirge in Cymbeline'.


s: I loves to hear him sing, bekeays he never gives us nothing


s: "When Methodist preachers, etc."  Tony Lumpkin's


s: utterance accurately represents the view of this sect taken by


s: some of his contemporaries. While moderate and just spectators


s: of the Johnson type could recognize the sincerity of men, who,


s: like Wesley, travelled 'nine hundred miles in a month, and


s: preached twelve times a week' for no ostensibly adequate reward,


s: there were others who saw in Methodism, and especially in the


s: extravagancies of its camp followers, nothing but cant and


s: duplicity. It was this which prompted on the stage Foote's


s: in literature the 'New Bath Guide' of Anstey (1766), the


s: 'Spiritual Quixote' of Graves, 1772, and the sarcasms of Sterne,


s: It is notable that the most generous contemporary portrait of


s: these much satirised sectaries came from one of the originals of


s: the 'Retaliation' gallery. Scott highly praises the character of


s: Ezekiel Daw in Cumberland's 'Henry', 1795, adding, in his large


s: impartial fashion, with reference to the general practice of


s: different feeling is due to many, perhaps to most, of this


s: enthusiastic sect; nor is it rashly to be inferred, that he who


s: makes religion the general object of his life, is for that sole


s: reason to be held either a fool or an impostor.' (Scott's


s: "But of all the birds in the air".  Hypercriticism may


s: object that 'the hare' is not a bird. But exigence of rhyme has


s: to answer for many things. Some editors needlessly read 'the


s: 'gay' birds' to lengthen the line. There is no sanction for this


s: This epilogue was spoken by Mrs. Bulkley in the character of


s: Miss Hardcastle. It is probably the epilogue described by


s: Goldsmith to Cradock, in the letter quoted at p. 246, as 'a very


s: mawkish thing,' a phrase not so incontestable as Bolton Corney's


s: remark that it is 'an obvious imitation of Shakespere.'


s: "That pretty Bar-maids have done execution".  Cf. 'The


s: Vicar of Wakefield', 1766, i. 7:-- 'Sophia's features were not


s: so striking at first; but often did more certain execution.'


s: "coquets the guests".  Johnson explains this word 'to


s: entertain with compliments and amorous tattle,' and quotes the


s: following illustration from Swift, 'You are 'coquetting' a maid


s: of honour, my lord looking on to see how the gamesters play, and


s: "Nancy Dawson".  Nancy Dawson was a famous 'toast' and


s: horn-pipe dancer, who died at Haverstock Hill, May 27, 1767, and


s: was buried behind the Foundling, in the burial-ground of St.


s: George the Martyr. She first appeared at Sadler's Wells, and


s: speedily passed to the stage of Covent Garden, where she danced


s: in the 'Beggar's Opera'. There is a portrait of her in the


s: Garrick Club, and there are several contemporary prints. She was


s: the heroine of a popular song, here referred to, beginning:--


s: The black, the fair, the red, the brown,


s: She foots, she trips, she looks so sweet,


s: Its tune -- says J. T. Smith ('Book for a Rainy Day', Whitten's


s: ed., 1905, p. 10) was 'as lively as that of "Sir Roger de


s: "Che faro", i.e. 'Che faro senza Euridice', the lovely lament


s: "the Heinel of Cheapside".  The reference is to


s: Mademoiselle Anna-Frederica Heinel, 1752-1808, a beautiful


s: Prussian, subsequently the wife of Gaetano Apollino Balthazar


s: Vestris, called 'Vestris the First.' After extraordinary success


s: as a 'danseuse' at Stuttgard and Paris, where Walpole saw her in


s: to London; and, at this date, was the darling of the Macaronies


s: (cf. the note on p. 247, l. 31), who, from their club, added a


s: 'regallo' (present) of six hundred pounds to the salary allowed


s: her at the Haymarket. On April 1, 1773, Metastasio's 'Artaserse'


s: was performed for her benefit, when she was announced to dance a


s: minuet with Monsieur Fierville, and 'Tickets were to be hand, at


s: her house in Piccadilly, two doors from Air Street.'


s: the game of Ombre. Cf. Swift's 'Journal of a Modern Lady in a


s: "Bayes".  The chief character in Buckingham's


s: 'Rehearsal', 1672, and intended for John Dryden. Here the name


s: is put for the 'poet' or 'dramatist.' Cf. Murphy's Epilogue to


s: Not e'en poor 'Bayes' within must hope to be


s: Free from the lash:-- His Play he writ for me


s: 'Tis true -- and now my gratitude you'll see;


s: and Colman's Epilogue to 'The School for Scandal', 1777:--


s: So wills our virtuous bard -- the motley 'Bayes'


s: Here lies NOLLY Goldsmith, for shortness call'd Noll,


s: Who wrote like an angel, but talk'd like poor Poll.


s: Goldsmith, upon the company's laughing very heartily, grew very


s: admired, and gone through several editions.' This account, though


s: author 'inter alia' of the 'Roman Comique', 1651-7, upon a


s: translation of which Goldsmith was occupied during the last


s: months of his life. It was published by Griffin in 1776.


s: "Each guest brought his dish".  'Chez Scarron,' -- says


s: his editor, M. Charles Baumet, when speaking of the poet's


s: entertainments, -- 'venait d'ailleurs l'elite des dames, des


s: courtisans & des hommes de lettres. On y dinait joyeusement.


s: 'Chacun apportait son plat'.' ('Oeuvres de Scarron', 1877, i.


s: viii.) Scarron's company must have been as brilliant as


s: Goldsmith's. Villarceaux, Vivonne, the Marechal d'Albret,


s: figured in his list of courtiers; while for ladies he had


s: Sevigne, to say nothing of Ninon de Lenclos and Marion Delorme.


s: "If our landlord".  The 'explanatory note' to the second


s: edition says -- 'The master of the St. James's coffee-house,


s: where the Doctor, and the friends he has characterized in this


s: Poem, held an occasional club.' This, it should be stated, was


s: not the famous 'Literary Club,' which met at the Turk's Head


s: Tavern in Gerrard Street. The St. James's Coffee-house, as


s: familiar to Swift and Addison at the beginning, as it was to


s: Goldsmith and his friends at the end of the eighteenth century,


s: was the last house but one on the south-west corner of St.


s: James's Street. It now no longer exists. Cradock ('Memoirs',


s: Street' with Goldsmith, Percy, the two Burkes ('v. infra'),


s: Johnson, Garrick, Dean Barnard, and others. 'We sat very late;'


s: he adds in conclusion, 'and the conversation that at last


s: ensued, was the direct cause of my friend Goldsmith's poem,


s: "Our Dean".  Dr. Thomas Barnard, an Irishman, at this


s: time Dean of Derry. He died at Wimbledon in 1806. It was Dr.


s: Barnard who, in reply to a rude sally of Johnson, wrote the


s: charming verses on improvement after the age of forty-five,


s: If I have thoughts, and can't express them,


s: Gibbon shall teach me how to dress them,


s: also gave him [Goldsmith] an epitaph, and Sir Joshua illuminated


s: the dean's verses with a sketch of his bust in pen and ink


s: inimitably caricatured.' What would collectors give for that


s: sketch and epitaph! Unfortunately in Cumberland's septuagenarian


s: recollections the 'truth severe' is mingled with an unusual


s: amount of 'fairy fiction.' However Sir Joshua 'did' draw


s: caricatures, for a number of them were exhibited at the


s: Grosvenor Gallery (by the Duke of Devonshire) in the winter of


s: "Our Will".  'Mr. William Burke, late Secretary to


s: General Conway, and member for Bedwin, Wiltshire' (Note to


s: second edition). He was a kinsman of Edmund Burke, and one of


s: the supposed authors of Junius's 'Letters'. He died in 1798. 'It


s: is said that the notices Goldsmith first wrote of the Burkes


s: were so severe that Hugh Boyd persuaded the poet to alter them,


s: and entirely rewrite the character of William, for he was sure


s: that if the Burkes saw what was originally written of them the


s: peace of the Club would be disturbed.' (Rev. W. Hunt in 'Dict.


s: brother. He was for some years Collector to the Customs at


s: Grenada, being on a visit to London when 'Retaliation' was


s: "Our Cumberland's sweetbread".  Richard Cumberland, the


s: poet, novelist, and dramatist, 1731-1811, author of 'The West


s: more or less sentimental plays. In his 'Memoirs', 1807, i.


s: which adds a few dubious particulars to that of Garrick. But it


s: was written from memory long after the events it records.


s: "Douglas".  'Dr. Douglas, since Bishop of Salisbury,'


s: says Cumberland. He died in 1807 ('v. infra').


s: "Ridge".  'Counsellor John Ridge, a gentleman belonging


s: to the Irish Bar' (Note to second edition). 'Burke,' says Bolton


s: Corney, 'in 1771, described him as "one of the honestest and


s: best-natured men living, and inferior to none of his profession


s: in ability."' (See also note to line 125.)


s: "Hickey".  The commentator of the second edition of


s: 'Retaliation' calls this gentleman 'honest Tom Hickey'. His


s: Christian name, however, was 'Joseph' (Letter of Burke, November


s: the legal adviser of both Burke and Reynolds. Indeed it was


s: Hickey who drew the conveyance of the land on which Reynolds's


s: house 'next to the Star and Garter' at Richmond (Wick House) was


s: built by Chambers the architect. Hickey died in 1794. Reynolds


s: painted his portrait for Burke, and it was exhibited at the


s: H. Burke. Sir Joshua also painted Miss Hickey in 1769-73. Her


s: father, not much to Goldsmith's satisfaction, was one of the


s: Paris party in 1770. See also note to l. 125.


s: (Reynolds's 'Works', second edition, 1801, i. xc), Goldsmith


s: intended to have concluded with his own character.


s: afterwards first Viscount Sydney. He died in 1800. Junius says


s: Bolton Corney, gives a portrait of him as 'still life'. His


s: presence in 'Retaliation' is accounted for by the fact that he


s: had commented in Parliament upon Johnson's pension. 'I am well


s: assured,' says Boswell, 'that Mr. Townshend's attack upon


s: Johnson was the occasion of his "hitching in a rhyme"; for, that


s: in the original copy of Goldsmith's character of Mr. Burke, in


s: his 'Retaliation' another person's name stood in the couplet


s: where Mr. Townshend is now introduced.' (Birkbeck Hill's


s: "too deep for his hearers".  'The emotion to which he


s: commonly appealed was that too rare one, the love of wisdom, and


s: he combined his thoughts and knowledge in propositions of wisdom


s: so weighty and strong, that the minds of ordinary hearers were


s: not on the instant prepared for them.' (Morley's 'Burke', 1882,


s: "And thought of convincing, while they thought of


s: dining". For the reason given in the previous note, many of


s: Burke's hearers often took the opportunity of his rising to


s: speak, to retire to dinner. Thus he acquired the nickname of the


s: "To eat mutton cold".  There is a certain resemblance


s: between this character and Gray's lines on himself written in


s: Gray and Goldsmith may have been thinking of a line in the once


s: Too dull for a wit, too grave for a joker.


s: "honest William", i.e. William Burke ('v. supra').


s: "Now breaking a jest, and now breaking a limb".  A note


s: to the second edition says -- 'The above Gentleman [Richard


s: Burke, 'v. supra'] having slightly fractured one of his arms and


s: legs, at different times, the Doctor [i.e. Goldsmith] has


s: rallied him on those accidents, as a kind of 'retributive'


s: justice for breaking his jests on other people.'


s: "Here Cumberland lies".  According to Boaden's 'Life of


s: Kemble', 1825, i. 438, Mrs. Piozzi rightly regarded this


s: portrait as wholly ironical; and Bolton Corney, without much


s: expenditure of acumen, discovers it to have been written in a


s: spirit of 'persiflage'. Nevertheless, Cumberland himself


s: ('Memoirs', 1807, i. 369) seems to have accepted it in good


s: faith. Speaking of Goldsmith he says -- I conclude my account of


s: him with gratitude for the epitaph he bestowed on me in his poem


s: called 'Retaliation'.' From the further details which he gives


s: of the circumstances, it would appear that his own performance,


s: of which he could recall but one line --


s: was conceived in a less malicious spirit than those of the


s: others, and had predisposed the sensitive bard in his favour.


s: But no very genuine cordiality could be expected to exist


s: between the rival authors of 'The West Indian' and 'She Stoops


s: "And Comedy wonders at being so fine".  It is


s: instructive here to transcribe Goldsmith's serious opinion of


s: the kind of work which Cumberland essayed:-- 'A new species of


s: Dramatic Composition has been introduced, under the name of


s: 'Sentimental' Comedy, in which the virtues of Private Life are


s: exhibited, rather than the Vices exposed; and the Distresses


s: rather than the Faults of Mankind, make our interest in the


s: piece.... In these Plays almost all the Characters are good, and


s: exceedingly generous; they are lavish enough of their 'Tin'


s: Money on the Stage, and though they want Humour, have abundance


s: of Sentiment and Feeling. If they happen to have Faults or


s: Foibles, the Spectator is taught not only to pardon, but to


s: applaud them, in consideration of the goodness of their hearts;


s: so that Folly, instead of being ridiculed, is commended, and the


s: Comedy aims at touching our Passions without the power of being


s: the 'Preface to The Good Natur'd Man', where he 'hopes that too


s: much refinement will not banish humour and character from our's,


s: as it has already done from the French theatre. Indeed the


s: French comedy is now become so very elevated and sentimental,


s: that it has not only banished humour and 'Moliere' from the


s: stage, but it has banished all spectators too.'


s: "The scourge of impostors, the terror of quacks".  Dr.


s: John Douglas ('v. supra') distinguished himself by his exposure


s: of two of his countrymen, Archibald Bower, 1686-1766, who, being


s: secretly a member of the Catholic Church, wrote a 'History of


s: the Popes'; and William Lauder 1710-1771, who attempted to prove


s: Milton a plagiarist. Cf. Churchill's 'Ghost', Bk. ii:--


s: By TRUTH inspir'd when 'Lauder's' spight


s: 'Lauder on Milton' is one of the books bound to the


s: trunk-maker's in Hogarth's 'Beer Street', 1751. He imposed on


s: Johnson, who wrote him a 'Preface' and was consequently trounced


s: by Churchill ('ut supra') as 'our Letter'd POLYPHEME.'


s: "Our Dodds shall be pious".  The reference is to the


s: Rev. Dr. William Dodd, who three years after the publication of


s: 'Retaliation' (i.e. June 27, 1777) was hanged at Tyburn for


s: forging the signature of the fifth Earl of Chesterfield, to whom


s: he had been tutor. His life previously had long been scandalous


s: enough to justify Goldsmith's words. Johnson made strenuous and


s: humane exertions to save Dodd's life, but without avail. (See


s: account of Dodd's execution at the end of vol. i of Angelo's


s: "our Kenricks".  Dr. William Kenrick -- say the earlier


s: annotators -- who 'read lectures at the Devil Tavern, under the


s: Title of "The School of Shakespeare."' The lectures began


s: January 19, 1774, and help to fix the date of the poem.


s: Goldsmith had little reason for liking this versatile and


s: unprincipled Ishmaelite of letters, who, only a year before, had


s: penned a scurrilous attack upon him in 'The London Packet'.


s: lately, from the mere 'force of his style', wrote down the first


s: poet of all antiquity.' (Note to second edition.) This was


s: Erse epics by a prose translation of Homer, which brought him


s: little but opprobrium. 'Your abilities, since your Homer, are


s: not so formidable,' says Johnson in the knockdown letter which


s: he addressed to him in 1775. (Birkbeck Hill's 'Boswell', 1887,


s: "New Lauders and Bowers".  See note to l. 80.


s: "And Scotchman meet Scotchman, and cheat in the dark".


s: Mitford compares Farquhar's 'Love and a Bottle', 1699, Act iii--


s: But gods meet gods and jostle in the dark.


s: But Farquhar was quoting from Dryden and Lee's 'Oedipus', 1679,


s: "Here lies David Garrick".  'The sum of all that can be


s: said for and against Mr. Garrick, some people think, may be


s: found in these lines of Goldsmith,' writes Davies in his 'Life


s: hesitating in its verdict. 'The lines on Garrick,' says Forster,


s: 'Life of Goldsmith', 1871, ii. 409, 'are quite perfect writing.


s: Without anger, the satire is finished, keen, and uncompromising;


s: the wit is adorned by most discriminating praise; and the truth


s: is only the more unsparing for its exquisite good manners and


s: for Wives', 1774, and other 'sentimental dramas,' is here


s: referred to. His first play, which is described in Garrick's


s: prologue as a 'Sermon,' 'preach'd in Acts,' was produced at


s: Drury Lane just six days before Goldsmith's comedy of 'The Good


s: Natur'd Man' appeared at Covent Garden, and obtained a success


s: which it ill deserved. 'False Delicacy' -- said Johnson truly


s: of character,' -- a crushing accusation to make against a drama.


s: But Garrick, for his private ends, had taken up Kelly as a rival


s: to Goldsmith; and the 'comedie serieuse' or 'larmoyante' of La


s: Chaussee, Sedaine, and Diderot had already found votaries in


s: England. 'False Delicacy', weak, washy, and invertebrate as it


s: was, completed the transformation of 'genteel' into


s: 'sentimental' comedy, and establishing that 'genre' for the next


s: humour and character which Goldsmith had tried to promote by


s: 'The Good Natur'd Man'. (See note to l. 66.)


s: "Woodfalls".  'William Woodfall' -- says Bolton Corney --


s: 'successively editor of 'The London Packet' and 'The Morning


s: Chronicle', was matchless as a reporter of speeches, and an able


s: theatrical critic. He made lofty pretensions to editorial


s: impartiality -- but the actor [i.e. Garrick] was not 'always'


s: satisfied.' He died in 1803. He must not be confounded with


s: Henry Sampson Woodfall, the editor of Junius's 'Letters'. (See


s: "To act as an angel".  There is a sub-ironic touch in


s: this phrase which should not be overlooked. Cf. l. 102.


s: "Here Hickey reclines".  See note to l. 15.  In


s: Cumberland's 'Poetical Epistle to Dr. Goldsmith; or Supplement


s: Hickey's genial qualities are thus referred to:--


s: "a special attorney".  A special attorney was merely an


s: attorney who practised in one court only. The species is now


s: "burn ye".  The annotator of the second edition,


s: apologizing for this 'forced' rhyme to 'attorney,' informs the


s: English reader that the phrase of 'burn ye' is 'a familiar


s: method of salutation in Ireland amongst the lower classes of the


s: "Here Reynolds is laid".  This shares the palm with the


s: admirable epitaphs on Garrick and Burke. But Goldsmith loved


s: Reynolds, and there are no satiric strokes in the picture. If we


s: are to believe Malone (Reynolds's 'Works', second edition, 1801,


s: i. xc), 'these were the last lines the author wrote.'


s: "bland".  Malone ('ut supra', lxxxix) notes this word


s: as 'eminently happy, and characteristick of his [Reynolds's]


s: easy and placid manners.' Boswell (Dedication of 'Life of


s: Johnson') refers to his 'equal and placid temper.' Cf. also Dean


s: Barnard's verses (Northcote's 'Life of Reynolds', 2nd ed., 1819,


s: i. 220), and Mrs. Piozzi's lines in her 'Autobiography', 2nd


s: "He shifted his trumpet".  While studying Raphael in


s: the Vatican in 1751, Reynolds caught so severe a cold 'as to


s: occasion a deafness which obliged him to use an ear-trumpet for


s: the remainder of his life.' (Taylor and Leslie's 'Reynolds',


s: which he painted for Thrale about 1775. See also Zoffany's


s: picture of the 'Academicians gathered about the model in the


s: Life School at Somerset House,' 1772, where he is shown


s: employing it to catch the conversation of Wilton and Chambers.


s: "and only took snuff".  Sir Joshua was a great snuff-taker.  His


s: snuff-box, described in the Catalogue as the one 'immortalized


s: in Goldsmith's 'Retaliation',' was exhibited, with his


s: spectacles and other personal relics, at the Grosvenor Gallery


s: in 1883-4. In the early editions this epitaph breaks off


s: abruptly at the word 'snuff.' But Malone says that half a line


s: more had been written. Prior gives this half line as 'By


s: flattery unspoiled --,' and affirms that among several erasures


s: in the manuscript sketch devoted to Reynolds it 'remained


s: "Here Whitefoord reclines".  The circumstances which


s: led to the insertion of these lines in the fifth edition are


s: detailed in the prefatory words of the publisher given at p. 92.


s: There is more than a suspicion that Whitefoord wrote them


s: himself; but they have too long been accepted as an appendage to


s: the poem to be now displaced. Caleb Whitefoord (born 1734) was a


s: Scotchman, a wine-merchant, and an art connoisseur, to whom J.


s: several pages. He was one of the party at the St. James's


s: Coffee-house. He died in 1810. There is a caricature of him in


s: 'Connoisseurs inspecting a Collection of George Morland,'


s: was a reminiscence of a visit which, when he first came to


s: London, he paid to Whitefoord. He was also painted by Reynolds


s: and Stuart. Hewins's 'Whitefoord Papers', 1898, throw no light


s: "a grave man".  Cf. 'Romeo and Juliet', Act iii, Sc. 1:


s: -- 'Ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me 'a grave man'.'


s: This Shakespearean recollection is a little like Goldsmith's


s: way. (See note to 'The Haunch of Venison', l. 120.)


s: "and rejoic'd in a pun".  'Mr. W. is so notorious a


s: punster, that Doctor Goldsmith used to say, it was impossible to


s: keep him company, without being 'infected' with the 'itch of


s: '"if the table he set on a roar".'  Cf. 'Hamlet', Act


s: "Woodfall", i.e. Henry Sampson Woodfall, printer of


s: 'The Public Advertiser'. He died in 1805. (See note to l. 115.)


s: Over the 'nom de guerre' of 'Papyrius Cursor,' a real Roman


s: name, but as happy in its applicability as Thackeray's 'Manlius


s: Pennialinus,' Whitefoord contributed many specimens of this


s: mechanic wit to 'The Public Advertiser'. The 'Cross Readings'


s: were obtained by taking two or three columns of a newspaper


s: horizontally and 'onwards' instead of 'vertically' and


s: it unhappily missed fire and the villain made off,


s: when the honour of knighthood was conferred on him


s: Goldsmith was hugely delighted with Whitefoord's 'lucky


s: inventions' when they first became popular in 1766. 'He


s: declared, in the heat of his admiration of them, it would have


s: given him more pleasure to have been the author of them than of


s: all the works he had ever published of his own' (Northcote's


s: remarkable is, that Johnson spoke of Whitefoord's performances


s: as 'ingenious and diverting' (Birkbeck Hill's 'Boswell', 1887,


s: iv. 322); and Horace Walpole laughed over them till he cried


s: (Letter to Montagu, December 12, 1766). To use Voltaire's


s: witticism, he is 'bien heureux' who can laugh now. It may be


s: added that Whitefoord did not, as he claimed, originate the


s: 'Cross Readings.' They had been anticipated in No. 49 of


s: . We hear that his Majestys Ship 'Newcastle' will soon


s: have a new figurehead, the old one being almost worn out.' The


s: 'Mistakes of the Press' explain themselves. (See also Smith's


s: Hospital for Wit', 1784, vol. ii, and 'Gentleman's Magazine',


s: "That a Scot may have humour, I had almost said wit".


s: Goldsmith, -- if he wrote these verses, -- must have forgotten


s: that he had already credited Whitefoord with 'wit' in l. 153.


s: "Thou best humour'd man with the worst humour'd muse".


s: Cf. Rochester of Lord Buckhurst, afterwards Earl of Dorset:--


s: The best good man, with the worst-natur'd muse.


s: Whitefoord's contribution to the epitaphs on Goldsmith is said


s: to have been unusually severe, -- so severe that four only of


s: its eight lines are quoted in the 'Whitefoord Papers', 1898, the


s: rest being 'unfit for publication' (p. xxvii). He afterwards


s: addressed a metrical apology to Sir Joshua, which is printed at


s: Boswell, to whom we are indebted for the preservation of this


s: To brighten the gay, and kindle the loving;


s: By harmony's laws alone are kept moving, etc.


s: What tho' the good, the brave, the wise,


s: "The fat was so white, etc."  The first version reads --


s: 'The white was so white, and the red was so ruddy.'


s: "Though my stomach was sharp, etc."  This couplet is not


s: "One gammon of bacon".  Prior compared a passage from


s: Goldsmith's 'Animated Nature', 1774, iii. 9, 'a propos' of a


s: similar practice in Germany, Poland, and Switzerland. 'A piece


s: of beef,' he says, 'hung up there, is considered as an elegant


s: piece of furniture, which, though seldom touched, at least


s: argues the possessor's opulence and ease.'


s: "a bounce", i.e. a braggart falsehood.  Steele, in No.


s: brag, 'But this is supposed to be only a 'Bounce'.'


s: "Mr. Byrne", spelled 'Burn' in the earlier editions, was


s: "M--r--'s."  MONROE's in the first version.  'Dorothy


s: Monroe,' says Bolton Corney, 'whose various charms are


s: 'There's COLEY, and WILLIAMS, and HOWARD, and HIFF.'


s: -- Hiff was Paul Hiffernan, M.B., 1719-77, a Grub Street author


s: and practitioner. Bolton Corney hazards some conjectures as to


s: the others; but Cunningham wisely passes them over.


s: "H--gg--ns".  Perhaps, suggests Bolton Corney, this was


s: the Captain Higgins who assisted at Goldsmith's absurd 'fracas'


s: with Evans the bookseller, upon the occasion of Kenrick's


s: letter in 'The London Packet' for March 24, 1773. Other


s: accounts, however, state that his companion was Captain Horneck


s: "Such dainties to them, etc."  The first version reads:--


s: Such dainties to them!  It 'would' look like a flirt,


s: Like sending 'em Ruffles when wanting a Shirt.


s: Cunningham quotes a similar idea from T. Brown's 'Laconics,


s: Works', 1709, iv. 14. 'To treat a poor wretch with a bottle of


s: Burgundy, or fill his snuff-box, is like giving a pair of lace


s: ruffles to a man that has never a shirt on his back.' But


s: Goldsmith, as was his wont, had already himself employed the


s: same figure. 'Honours to one in my situation,' he says in a


s: letter to his brother Maurice, in January, 1770, when speaking


s: of his appointment as Professor of Ancient History to the Royal


s: Academy, 'are something like ruffles to a man that wants a


s: not Brown's 'Laconics', but those French 'ana' he knew so well.


s: According to M. J. J. Jusserand ('English Essays from a French


s: Samuel de Sorbieres, the traveller in England who was assailed


s: by Bishop Sprat. Considering himself inadequately rewarded by


s: his patrons, Mazarin, Louis XIV, and Pope Clement IX, he said


s: bitterly -- 'They give lace cuffs to a man without a shirt'; a


s: 'consolatory witticism' which he afterwards remodelled into, 'I


s: wish they would send me bread for the butter they kindly


s: provided me with.' In this form it appears in the Preface to the


s: "a flirt" is a jibe or jeer.  'He would sometimes...cast out a


s: jesting 'flirt' at me.' (Morley's 'History of Thomas Ellwood',


s: "An under-bred, fine-spoken fellow, etc."  The first


s: Who smil'd as he gaz'd on the Ven'son and me.


s: "but I hate ostentation".  Cf. Beau Tibbs:-- 'She was


s: bred, 'but that's between ourselves', under the inspection of


s: the Countess of All-night.' ('Citizen of the World', 1762, i.


s: "We'll have Johnson, and Burke".  Cf. Boileau, 'Sat.'


s: iii. Ll. 25-6, which Goldsmith had in mind:--


s: Moliere avec Tartufe y doit jouer son role,


s: Et Lambert, qui plus est, m'a donne sa parole.


s: "What say you -- a pasty?  It shall, and it must".  The


s: I'll take no denial -- you shall, and you must.


s: Mr. J. H. Lobban, 'Goldsmith, Select Poems', 1900, notes a


s: hitherto undetected similarity between this and the 'It 'must',


s: and it 'shall' be a barrack, my life' of Swift's 'Grand Question


s: l. 56.  "No stirring, I beg -- my dear friend -- my dear


s: No words, my dear GOLDSMITH! my very good Friend!


s: 'Good morrow, good captain.'  'I'll wait on you down,' --


s: 'You shan't stir a foot.'  'You'll think me a clown.'


s: "'And nobody with me at sea but myself.'"  This is


s: almost a textual quotation from one of the letters of Henry


s: correspondence which in 1770 gave great delight to contemporary


s: caricaturists and scandal-mongers. Other poets besides Goldsmith


s: seem to have been attracted by this particular lapse of his


s: illiterate Royal Highness, since it is woven into a ballad


s: printed in 'The Public Advertiser' for August 2 in the above


s: The Miser who wakes in a Fright for his Pelf,


s: And finds 'no one by him except his own Self', etc.


s: A peine etais-je entre, que ravi de me voir,


s: Mon homme, en m'embrassant, m'est venu recevoir;


s: Et montrant a mes yeux une allegresse entiere,


s: Nous n'avons, m'a-t-il dit, ni Lambert ni Moliere.


s: Lambert the musician, it may be added, had the special


s: reputation of accepting engagements which he never kept.


s: "and t'other with Thrale".  Henry Thrale, the Southwark


s: brewer, and the husband of Mrs. Thrale, afterwards Mrs. Piozzi.


s: Johnson first made his acquaintance in 1765. Strahan complained


s: to Boswell that, by this connexion, Johnson 'was in a great


s: measure absorbed from the society of his old friends.' (Birkbeck


s: The one at the House, and the other with THRALE.


s: "They both of them merry and authors like you".  'They'


s: should apparently be 'they're.' The first version reads --


s: Who dabble and write in the Papers -- like you.


s: "Some think he writes Cinna -- he owns to Panurge".


s: 'Panurge' and 'Cinna' are signatures which were frequently to be


s: found at the foot of letters addressed to the 'Public


s: Advertiser' in 1770-1 in support of Lord Sandwich and the


s: Government. They are said to have been written by Dr. W. Scott,


s: Vicar of Simonburn, Northumberland, and chaplain of Greenwich


s: Hospital, both of which preferments had been given him by


s: Sandwich. In 1765 he had attacked Lord Bute and his policy over


s: the signature of 'Anti-Sejanus.' 'Sandwich and his parson


s: Anti-Sejanus [are] hooted off the stage' -- writes Walpole to


s: visited Goldsmith in his Temple chambers, and invited him to


s: 'draw a venal quill' for Lord North's administration.


s: Goldsmith's noble answer, as reported by his reverend friend,


s: was -- 'I can earn as much as will supply my wants without


s: writing for any party; the assistance therefore you offer is


s: caricature portrait of Scott at p. 141 of 'The London Museum'


s: for February, 1771, entitled 'Twitcher's Advocate,' 'Jemmy


s: Twitcher' being the nickname of Lord Sandwich.


s: "Swinging', great, huge.  'Bishop Lowth has just


s: finished the Dramas, and sent me word, that although I have paid


s: him the most 'swinging' compliment he ever received, he likes


s: the whole book more than he can say.' ('Memoirs of Hannah More',


s: "pasty".  The first version has 'Ven'son.'


s: "So there I sat, etc."  This couplet is not in the first


s: "And, 'Madam,' quoth he".  Mr. Lobban again quotes


s: And 'Madam,' says he, 'if such dinners you give


s: You'll ne'er want for parsons as long as you live.'


s: These slight resemblances, coupled with the more obvious


s: likeness of the 'Raphaels, Correggios, and stuff' of


s: 'Retaliation' (ll. 145-6) to the 'Noveds' and 'Bluturks' and


s: 'Omurs' and stuff' (also pointed out by Mr. Lobban) are


s: interesting, because they show plainly that Goldsmith remembered


s: the works of Swift far better than 'The New Bath Guide', which


s: has sometimes been supposed to have set the tune to the 'Haunch'


s: "'may this bit be my poison.'"  The gentleman in 'She


s: Stoops to Conquer', Act i, who is 'obligated to dance a bear.'


s: Uses the same asseveration.  Cf. also Squire Thornhill's


s: somewhat similar formula in chap. vii of 'The Vicar of


s: I could eat of this Tripe seven days in the week.'


s: "Re-echoed", i.e. 'returned' in the first edition.


s: "thot".  This, probably by a printer's error, is


s: altered to 'that' in the second version. But the first reading


s: is the more in keeping, besides being a better rhyme.


s: Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,


s: So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,


s: Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night.


s: And would have told him half his Troy was burnt.


s: "sicken'd over by learning".  Cf. 'Hamlet', Act iii,


s: Is 'sicklied o'er' with the pale cast of thought.


s: Notwithstanding the condemnation of Shakespeare in the 'Present


s: State of Polite Learning', and elsewhere, Goldsmith frequently


s: weaves Shakespearean recollections into his work. Cf. 'She


s: Stoops to Conquer', 1773, Act i, p. 13, 'We wanted no ghost to


s: tell us that' ('Hamlet', Act i, Sc. 5); and Act i, p. 9, where


s: he uses Falstaff's words (1 'Henry IV', Act v, Sc. 1):--


s: Would it were bed-time and all were well.


s: "as very well known".  The first version has,


s: "gentle Parnell's Name".  Mitford compares Pope on


s: With softest manners, gentlest Arts adorn'd.


s: Pope published Parnell's 'Poems' in 1722, and his sending them


s: to Harley, Earl of Oxford, after the latter's disgrace and


s: retirement, was the occasion of the foregoing epistle, from


s: which the following lines respecting Parnell may also be cited:--


s: For him, thou oft hast bid the World attend,


s: Fond to forget the statesman in the friend;


s: For SWIFT and him despis'd the farce of state,


s: The sober follies of the wise and great;


s: Dext'rous the craving, fawning crowd to quit,


s: And pleas'd to 'scape from Flattery to Wit.


s: "his sweetly-moral lay".  Cf. 'The Hermit', the 'Hymn to


s: Contentment', the 'Night Piece on Death' -- which Goldsmith


s: certainly recalled in his own 'City Night-Piece'. Of the


s: last-named Goldsmith says ('Life of Parnell', 1770, p. xxxii),


s: not without an obvious side-stroke at Gray's too-popular


s: 'Elegy', that it 'deserves every praise, and I should suppose


s: with very little amendment, might be made to surpass all those


s: night pieces and church yard scenes that have since appeared.'


s: This is certainly (as Longfellow sings) to


s: fiftieth reading; [he] is as fresh as at the first.' But Gray


s: (speaking -- it should be explained -- of a dubious volume of


s: his posthumous works) said: 'Parnell is the dung-hill of Irish


s: it is his fate to-day to be mainly remembered by three words


s: (not always attributed to him) in a couplet from what Johnson


s: styled 'perhaps the meanest' of his performances, the 'Elegy --


s: And all that's madly wild, or oddly gay,


s: This, though dated 'Edinburgh 1753,' was first printed in 'Poems


s: "John Trott" is a name for a clown or commonplace


s: Delap:-- 'As to his person and appearance, they are much in the


s: 'John-trot' style.' Foote, Chesterfield, and Walpole use the


s: phrase; Fielding Scotticizes it into 'John Trott-Plaid, Esq.';


s: and Bolingbroke employs it as a pseudonym.


s: "I shall ne'er see your graces".  'I shall never see a


s: Goose again without thinking on Mr. 'Neverout',' -- says the


s: 'brilliant Miss Notable' in Swift's 'Polite Conversation', 1738,


s: "in thy black aspect", i.e. the half-mask of harlequin,


s: in which character the Epilogue was spoken.


s: "rosined lightning", stage-lightning, in which rosin is


s: This epilogue was first printed at pp. 82-6, vol. ii, of the


s: P.S. -- Present my most humble respects to Mrs. Cradock.'


s: "Who mump their passion", i.e. grimace their passion.


s: "ye macaroni train".  The Macaronies were the foplings,


s: fribbles, or beaux of Goldsmith's day. Walpole refers to them as


s: early as 1764; but their flourishing time was 1770-3, when the


s: print-shops, and especially Matthew Darly's in the Strand, No.


s: subject. Selwyn, March -- many well-known names -- are found in


s: their ranks. Richard Cosway figured as 'The Macaroni Painter';


s: Angelica Kauffmann as 'The Paintress of Maccaroni's'; Thrale as


s: 'The Southwark Macaroni.' Another caricature ('The Fluttering


s: Macaroni') contains a portrait of Miss Catley, the singing


s: actress of the present epilogue; while Charles Horneck, the


s: brother of 'The Jessamy Bride' (see p. 251, l. 14) is twice


s: satirized as 'The Martial Macaroni' and 'The Military Macaroni.'


s: The name, as may be guessed, comes from the Italian dish first


s: made fashionable by the 'Macaroni Club,' being afterwards


s: applied by extension to 'the younger and gayer part of our


s: nobility and gentry, who, at the same time that they gave in to


s: the luxuries of eating, went equally into the extravagancies of


s: dress.' ('Macaroni and Theatrical Magazine', Oct. 1772.) Cf. Sir


s: Benjamin Backbite's later epigram in 'The School for Scandal',


s: Sure never was seen two such beautiful ponies;


s: Other horses are clowns, but these 'macaronies':


s: To give them this title I'm sure can't be wrong,


s: Their legs are so slim and their tails are so long.


s: "Their hands are only lent to the Heinel".  See note to


s: This epilogue, given by Goldsmith to Dr. Percy in MS., was first


s: published in the 'Miscellaneous Works' of 1801, ii. 87-8, as 'An


s: "There is a place, so Ariosto sings".  'The poet


s: alludes to the thirty-fourth canto of 'The Orlando furioso'.


s: Ariosto, as translated by Mr. Stewart Rose, observes of the


s: There thou wilt find, if thou wilt thither post,


s: Whatever thou on earth beneath hast lost.


s: Astolpho undertakes the journey; discovers a portion of his


s: own sense; and, in an ample flask, the lost wits of Orlando.'


s: (Bolton Corney.) Cf. also 'Rape of the Lock',


s: Some thought it mounted to the Lunar sphere,


s: Since all things lost on earth are treasur'd there.


s: Lord Chesterfield also refers to the 'happy extravagancy'


s: "at Foote's Alone".  'Foote's' was the Little Theatre in


s: the Haymarket, where, in February, 1773, he brought out what he


s: described as a 'Primitive Puppet Show,' based upon the Italian


s: Fantoccini, and presenting a burlesque sentimental Comedy called


s: 'The Handsome Housemaid; or, Piety in Pattens', which did as


s: much as 'She Stoops' to laugh false sentiment away. Foote warned


s: his audience that they would not discover 'much wit or humour'


s: in the piece, since 'his brother writers had all agreed that it


s: was highly improper, and beneath the dignity of a mixed


s: assembly, to show any signs of joyful satisfaction; and that


s: creating a laugh was forcing the higher order of an audience to


s: a vulgar and mean use of their muscles' -- for which reason, he


s: explained, he had, like them, given up the sensual for the


s: sentimental style. And thereupon followed the story of a maid of


s: low degree who, 'by the mere effects of morality and virtue,


s: raised herself [like Richardson's 'Pamela'], to riches and


s: honours.' The public, who for some time had acquiesced in the


s: new order of things under the belief that it tended to the


s: reformation of the stage, and who were beginning to weary of the


s: 'moral essay thrown into dialogue,' which had for some time


s: supplanted humorous situation, promptly came round under the


s: influence of Foote's Aristophanic ridicule, and the 'comedie


s: larmoyante' received an appreciable check. Goldsmith himself had


s: prepared the way in a paper contributed to the 'Westminster


s: Magazine' for December, 1772 (vol. I. p. 4), with the title of


s: 'An Essay on the Theatre; or, A Comparison between Laughing and


s: Sentimental Comedy.' The specific reference in the Prologue is


s: to the fact that Foote gave morning performances of 'The


s: Handsome Housemaid'. There was one, for instance, on Saturday,


s: "The Mohawk".  This particular species of the genus


s: 'rake' belongs more to Swift's than Goldsmith's time, though the


s: race is eternal. There is an account of the 'Mohock Club' in


s: "Still stoops among the low to copy nature".  This line,


s: one would think, should have helped to convince Percy that the


s: epilogue was intended for 'She Stoops to Conquer', and for no


s: Act i.  This song had been published in the first


s: edition of 'The Haunch of Venison', 1776, with the second stanza


s: Thou, like the world, th' opprest oppressing,


s: Act ii.  This song also had appeared in the first edition


s: of 'The Haunch of Venison', 1776, in a different form:--


s: Mitford, who printed 'The Captivity' from Newbery's version,


s: records a number of 'first thoughts' afterwards altered or


s: improved by the author in his MS. Modern editors have not


s: reproduced them, and their example has been followed here. 'The


s: Captivity' is not, in any sense, one of Goldsmith's important


s: "Horneck", i.e. Mrs. Hannah Horneck -- the 'Plymouth


s: Beauty' -- widow of Captain Kane William Horneck, grandson of


s: Dr. Anthony Horneck of the Savoy, mentioned in Evelyn's 'Diary',


s: for whose 'Happy Ascetick', 1724, Hogarth designed a


s: frontispiece. Mrs. Horneck died in 1803. Like Sir Joshua, the


s: Hornecks came from Devonshire; and through him, had made the


s: "Nesbitt".  Mr. Nesbitt was the husband of one of Mr. Thrale's


s: handsome sisters. He was a member of the Devonshire Club, and


s: twice (1759-61) sat to Reynolds, with whom he was intimate. He


s: died in 1779, and his widow married a Mr. Scott.


s: She had come to London in 1766. At the close of 1767 she had


s: been cajoled into a marriage with an impostor, Count de Horn,


s: and had separated from him in 1768. In 1769 she painted a 'weak


s: and uncharacteristic' portrait of Reynolds for Mr. Parker of


s: Saltram (afterwards Baron Boringdon), which is now in the


s: possession of the Earl of Morley. It was exhibited at the Royal


s: Academy in the winter of 1876, and is the portrait referred to


s: "the Jessamy Bride".  This was Goldsmith's pet-name for


s: Mary, the elder Miss Horneck. After Goldsmith's death she


s: married Colonel F. E. Gwyn (1779). She survived until 1840. 'Her


s: own picture with a turban,' painted by Reynolds, was left to her


s: in his will ('Works' by Malone, 2nd ed., 1798, p. cxviii). She


s: was also painted by Romney and Hoppner. 'Jessamy,' or 'jessimy,'


s: with its suggestion of jasmine flowers, seems in


s: eighteenth-century parlance to have stood for 'dandified,'


s: 'superfine,' 'delicate,' and the whole name was probably coined


s: after the model of some of the titles to Darly's prints, then


s: "The Reynoldses two", i.e. Sir Joshua and his sister,


s: "Little Comedy's face".  'Little Comedy' was Goldsmith's


s: name for the younger Miss Horneck, Catherine, and already


s: engaged to H. W. Bunbury ('v. supra'), to whom she was married


s: in 1771. She died in 1799, and had also been painted by


s: "the Captain in lace".  This was Charles Horneck, Mrs.


s: Horneck's son, an officer in the Foot-guards. He afterwards


s: "to-day's Advertiser".  The lines referred to are said


s: While fair Angelica, with matchless grace,


s: Paints Conway's lovely form and Stanhope's face;


s: Our hearts to beauty willing homage pay,


s: We praise, admire, and gaze our souls away.


s: But when the likeness she hath done for thee,


s: Forced to submit, with all our pride we own,


s: Such strength, such harmony, excell'd by none,


s: They probably appeared in the newspaper at some date between


s: 'Little Comedy' was married, after which time Goldsmith would


s: scarcely speak of her except as 'Mrs. Bunbury' (see p. 132, l.


s: This letter, which contains some of the brightest and easiest of


s: "your spring velvet coat".  Goldsmith's pronounced


s: taste in dress, and his good-natured simplicity, made his


s: costume a fertile subject for playful raillery, -- sometimes,


s: for rather discreditable practical jokes. (See next note.)


s: "a wig, that is modish and gay".  'He always wore a


s: wig' -- said the 'Jessamy Bride' in her reminiscences to Prior


s: -- 'a peculiarity which those who judge of his appearance only


s: from the fine poetical head of Reynolds, would not suspect; and


s: on one occasion some person contrived to seriously injure this


s: important adjunct to dress. It was the only one he had in the


s: country, and the misfortune seemed irreparable until the


s: services of Mr. Bunbury's valet were called in, who however


s: performed his functions so indifferently that poor Goldsmith's


s: appearance became the signal for a general smile' (Prior's


s: "Loo", i.e. Lanctre- or Lanterloo, a popular


s: eighteenth-century game, in which 'Pam', l. 6, the knave of


s: clubs, is the highest card. Cf. Pope, 'Rape of the Lock', 1714,


s: Ev'n might 'Pam', that Kings and Queens o'erthrew,


s: And mow'd down armies in the fights of Lu;


s: and Colman's epilogue to 'The School for Scandal', 1777:--


s: That pants for 'loo', or flutters at a vole?


s: Fielding's blind half-brother, who succeeded him as a Justice of


s: knighted in 1761. There are two portraits of him by Nathaniel


s: "by quinto Elizabeth, Death without Clergy".  Legal


s: authorities affirm that the Act quoted should be 8 Eliz. cap.


s: iv, under which those who stole more than twelvepence 'privately


s: from a man's person' were debarred from benefit of clergy. But


s: 'quint. Eliz.' must have offered some special attraction to


s: poets, since Pope also refers to it in the 'Satires and


s: Consult the Statute: 'quart'. I think, it is,


s: 'Edwardi sext.' or 'prim. et quint. Eliz.'


s: "With bunches of fennel, and nosegays before 'em".  This


s: was a custom dating from the fearful jail fever of 1750, which


s: carried off, not only prisoners, but a judge (Mr. Justice Abney)


s: 'and many jurymen and witnesses.' 'From that time up to this day


s: the prisoner's dock, to prevent infection.' (Lawrence's 'Life of


s: Henry Fielding', 1855, p. 296.) The close observation of


s: Cruikshank has not neglected this detail in the Old Bailey plate


s: "mobs".  The mob was a loose undress or 'deshabille',


s: sometimes a hood. 'When we poor souls had presented ourselves


s: with a contrition suitable to our worthlessness, some pretty


s: young ladies in 'mobs', popped in here and there about the


s: "yon solemn-faced".  Cf. 'Introduction', p. xxvii.


s: According to the 'Jessamy Bride,' Goldsmith sometimes aggravated


s: his plainness by an 'assumed frown of countenance' (Prior,


s: "Sir Charles", i.e. Sir Thomas Charles Bunbury, Bart.,


s: M. P., Henry Bunbury's elder brother. He succeeded to the title


s: in 1764, and died without issue in 1821. Goldsmith, it may be


s: observed, makes 'Charles' a disyllable. Probably, like many of


s: his countrymen, he so pronounced it. (Cf. Thackeray's


s: 'Pendennis', 1850, vol. ii, chap. 5 [or xliii], where this is


s: humorously illustrated in Captain Costigan's 'Sir 'Chorlus', I


s: saw your neem at the Levee.' Perhaps this accounts for 'failing'


s: and 'stealing,' -- 'day on' and 'Pantheon,' in the 'New Simile'.


s: Goldsmith 'rather cultivated (than endeavoured to get rid of)


s: "dy'd in grain", i.e. fixed, ineradicable.  To 'dye in


s: grain' means primarily to colour with the scarlet or purple dye


s: produced by the 'kermes' insect, called 'granum' in Latin, from


s: its similarity to small seeds. Being what is styled a 'fast' dye


s: the phrase is used by extension to signify permanence.


s: 'Introduction.' It was scraped in mezzotint in 1770 by Reynolds's


s: indecisive chin, and long protruding upper lip, -- awkward,


s: published, I should not have suffered an hour to elapse without


s: This south-west view was taken from the road, which passes by the


s: In this sketch 'the decent church,' at the top of the hill in the


s: And the long grass o'ertops the mould'ring wall.


s: So chaste, yet so bewitching all the while!


s: Plot, and elopement, passion, rape, and rapture,


s: The total sum of ev'ry dear -- dear -- Chapter.


s: The shouting army cry'd with joy extreme,


s: He sure must conquer, who himself can tame!


s: The next is also from Homer, and is proposed as an


s: They knew and own'd the monarch of the main:


s: The sea subsiding spreads a level plain:


s: The curling waves before his coursers fly:


s: The parting surface leaves his brazen axle dry.


s: From the same source comes number three,


s: Say heavenly muse, their youthful frays rehearse;


s: Exulting rocks have crown'd the power of song!


s: And rivers listen'd as they flow'd along.


s: Another is a couplet from Ovid, the fish


s: referred to being the 'scarus' or bream:--


s: Of all the fish that graze beneath the flood,


s: translation of Scarron's 'Roman Comique':--


s: masterpieces in the former, and his 'Essays' published in the


s: To 'The Beauties of English Poesy', 2 vols., 1767, Goldsmith


s: prefixed, in each case, 'short introductory criticisms.' They


s: are, as he says, 'rather designed for boys than men'; and aim


s: only at being 'obvious and sincere'; but they carry his views on


s: the subject somewhat farther than the foregoing account from the


s: This seems to be Mr. Pope's most finished production, and is,


s: perhaps, the most perfect in our language. It exhibits stronger


s: powers of imagination, more harmony of numbers, and a greater


s: knowledge of the world, than any other of this poet's works; and


s: it is probable, if our country were called upon to show a


s: specimen of their genius to foreigners, this would be the work


s: This poem is held in just esteem, the versification being


s: chaste, and tolerably harmonious, and the story told with


s: perspicuity and conciseness. It seems to have cost great labour,


s: both to Mr. Pope and Parnell himself, to bring it to this


s: perfection.* It may not be amiss to observe that the fable is


s: taken from one of Dr. Henry More's Dialogues.


s: I have heard a very judicious critic say, that he had an higher


s: idea of Milton's style in poetry, from the two following poems


s: It is certain the imagination shown in them is correct and


s: strong. The introduction to both in irregular measure is


s: borrowed from the Italian, and hurts an English ear.


s: This is a very fine poem, but overloaded with epithet.*  The


s: heroic measure with alternate rhyme is very properly adapted to


s: the solemnity of the subject, as it is the slowest movement that


s: our language admits of. The latter part of the poem is pathetic


s: whose own 'Hermit', as was pointed out to the present Editor by


s: the late Mr. Kegan Paul, is certainly open to this impeachment.


s: This poem of Mr. Johnson's is the best imitation of the original


s: that has appeared in our language, being possessed of all the


s: force and satirical resentment of Juvenal. Imitation gives us a


s: much truer idea of the ancients than even translation could do.


s: This poem is one of those happinesses in which a poet excels


s: himself, as there is nothing in all Shenstone which in any way


s: approaches it in merit; and, though I dislike the imitations of


s: our old English poets in general, yet, on this minute subject,


s: the antiquity of the style produces a very ludicrous solemnity.


s: This poem, by Denham, though it may have been exceeded by later


s: attempts in description, yet deserves the highest applause, as


s: it far surpasses all that went before it: the concluding part,


s: though a little too much crowded, is very masterly.


s: The harmony of numbers in this poem is very fine.  It is rather


s: drawn out to too tedious a length, although the passions vary


s: with great judgement. It may be considered as superior to


s: anything in the epistolary way; and the many translations which


s: have been made of it into the modern languages, are in some


s: The opening of this poem is incomparably fine.  The latter part


s: Few poems have done more honour to English genius than this.


s: There is in it a strain of political thinking that was, at that


s: time, new in our poetry. Had the harmony of this been equal to


s: that of Pope's versification, it would be incontestably the


s: finest poem in our language; but there is a dryness in the


s: numbers which greatly lessens the pleasure excited both by the


s: This ode [by Mr. Dryden] has been more applauded, perhaps, than


s: it has been felt, however, it is a very fine one, and gives its


s: beauties rather at a third, or fourth, than at a first perusal.


s: This ode [by Mr. Pope] has by many been thought equal to the


s: former. As it is a repetition of Dryden's manner, it is so far


s: inferior to him. The whole hint of Orpheus, and many of the


s: lines, have been taken from an obscure Ode upon Music, published


s: 'Mr. Wilson',' which appears at p. 401 of Tate's Collection of


s: These are Mr. Gay's principal performances.  They were


s: originally intended, I suppose, as a burlesque on those of


s: the true spirit of pastoral poetry. In fact, he more resembles


s: Theocritus than any other English pastoral writer whatsoever.


s: There runs through the whole a strain of rustic pleasantry which


s: should ever distinguish this species of composition; but how far


s: the antiquated expressions used here may contribute to the


s: humour, I will not determine; for my own part, I could wish the


s: simplicity were preserved, without recurring to such obsolete


s: antiquity for the manner of expressing it.


s: The severity of this satire, and the excellence of its


s: versification give it a distinguished rank in this species of


s: composition. At present, an ordinary reader would scarce suppose


s: that Shadwell, who is here meant by Mac Flecknoe, was worth


s: being chastised, and that Dryden's descending to such game was


s: like an eagle's stooping to catch flies.* The truth however is,


s: Shadwell, at one time, held divided reputation with this great


s: poet. Every age produces its fashionable dunces, who, by


s: following the transient topic, or humour, of the day, supply


s: talkative ignorance with materials for conversation.


s: Here follows one of the best versified poems in our language,


s: and the most masterly production of its author. The severity


s: with which Walpole is here treated, was in consequence of that


s: minister having refused to provide for Swift in England, when


s: applied to for that purpose in the year 1725 (if I remember


s: right). The severity of a poet, however, gave Walpole very


s: little uneasiness. A man whose schemes, like this minister's,


s: seldom extended beyond the exigency of the year, but little


s: This poem, as Mr. Pope tells us himself, cost much attention and


s: labour; and, from the easiness that appears in it, one would be


s: This sixth canto of the 'Dispensary', by Dr. Garth, has more


s: merit than the whole preceding part of the poem, and, as I am


s: told, in the first edition of this work it is more correct than


s: as here exhibited; but that edition I have not been able to


s: find. The praises bestowed on this poem are more than have been