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diff --git a/18917.txt b/18917.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d410888 --- /dev/null +++ b/18917.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4959 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Goldsmith, by William Black + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Goldsmith + English Men of Letters Series + +Author: William Black + +Editor: John Morley + +Release Date: July 27, 2006 [EBook #18917] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GOLDSMITH *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Sankar Viswanathan, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + English Men of Letters + + EDITED BY JOHN MORLEY + + + + + GOLDSMITH + + + + BY + + + WILLIAM BLACK + + + + London + + MACMILLAN AND CO + + 1878 + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + +INTRODUCTORY + +CHAPTER II. + +SCHOOL AND COLLEGE + +CHAPTER III. + +IDLENESS, AND FOREIGN TRAVEL + +CHAPTER IV. + +EARLY STRUGGLES.--HACK-WRITING + +CHAPTER V. + +BEGINNING OF AUTHORSHIP.--THE BEE + +CHAPTER VI. + +PERSONAL TRAITS + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE CITIZEN OF THE WORLD.--BEAU NASH + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE ARREST + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE TRAVELLER + +CHAPTER X. + +MISCELLANEOUS WRITING + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE GOOD-NATURED MAN + +CHAPTER XIII. + +GOLDSMITH IN SOCIETY + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE DESERTED VILLAGE + +CHAPTER XV. + +OCCASIONAL WRITINGS + +CHAPTER XVI. + +SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER + +CHAPTER XVII. + +INCREASING DIFFICULTIES.--THE END + + * * * * * + + + + +GOLDSMITH + +CHAPTER I. + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +"Innocently to amuse the imagination in this dream of life is wisdom." +So wrote Oliver Goldsmith; and surely among those who have earned the +world's gratitude by this ministration he must be accorded a +conspicuous place. If, in these delightful writings of his, he mostly +avoids the darker problems of existence--if the mystery of the tragic +and apparently unmerited and unrequited suffering in the world is +rarely touched upon--we can pardon the omission for the sake of the +gentle optimism that would rather look on the kindly side of life. +"You come hot and tired from the day's battle, and this sweet minstrel +sings to you," says Mr. Thackeray. "Who could harm the kind vagrant +harper? Whom did he ever hurt? He carries no weapon save the harp on +which he plays to you; and with which he delights great and humble, +young and old, the captains in the tents, or the soldiers round the +fire, or the women and children in the villages, at whose porches he +stops and sings his simple songs of love and beauty." And it is to be +suspected--it is to be hoped, at least--that the cheerfulness which +shines like sunlight through Goldsmith's writings, did not altogether +desert himself even in the most trying hours of his wayward and +troubled career. He had, with all his sensitiveness, a fine +happy-go-lucky disposition; was ready for a frolic when he had a +guinea, and, when he had none, could turn a sentence on the humorous +side of starvation; and certainly never attributed to the injustice or +neglect of society misfortunes the origin of which lay nearer home. + +Of course, a very dark picture might be drawn of Goldsmith's life; and +the sufferings that he undoubtedly endured have been made a whip with +which to lash the ingratitude of a world not too quick to recognise +the claims of genius. He has been put before us, without any brighter +lights to the picture, as the most unfortunate of poor devils; the +heart-broken usher; the hack ground down by sordid booksellers; the +starving occupant of successive garrets. This is the aspect of +Goldsmith's career which naturally attracts Mr. Forster. Mr. Forster +seems to have been haunted throughout his life by the idea that +Providence had some especial spite against literary persons; and that, +in a measure to compensate them for their sad lot, society should be +very kind to them, while the Government of the day might make them +Companions of the Bath or give them posts in the Civil Service. In the +otherwise copious, thorough, and valuable _Life and Times of Oliver +Goldsmith_, we find an almost humiliating insistance on the complaint +that Oliver Goldsmith did not receive greater recognition and larger +sums of money from his contemporaries. Goldsmith is here "the poor +neglected sizar"; his "marked ill-fortune" attends him constantly; he +shares "the evil destinies of men of letters"; he was one of those who +"struggled into fame without the aid of English institutions"; in +short, "he wrote, and paid the penalty." Nay, even Christianity itself +is impeached on account of the persecution suffered by poor Goldsmith. +"There had been a Christian religion extant for seventeen-hundred and +fifty-seven years," writes Mr. Forster, "the world having been +acquainted, for even so long, with its spiritual necessities and +responsibilities; yet here, in the middle of the eighteenth century, +was the eminence ordinarily conceded to a spiritual teacher, to one of +those men who come upon the earth to lift their fellow-men above its +miry ways. He is up in a garret, writing for bread he cannot get, and +dunned for a milkscore he cannot pay." That Christianity might have +been worse employed than in paying the milkman's score is true enough, +for then the milkman would have come by his own; but that +Christianity, or the state, or society should be scolded because an +author suffers the natural consequences of his allowing his +expenditure to exceed his income, seems a little hard. And this is a +sort of writing that is peculiarly inappropriate in the case of +Goldsmith, who, if ever any man was author of his own misfortunes, may +fairly have the charge brought against him. "Men of genius," says Mr. +Forster, "can more easily starve, than the world, with safety to +itself, can continue to neglect and starve them." Perhaps so; but the +English nation, which has always had a regard and even love for +Oliver Goldsmith, that is quite peculiar in the history of literature, +and which has been glad to overlook his faults and follies, and eager +to sympathise with him in the many miseries of his career, will be +slow to believe that it is responsible for any starvation that +Goldsmith may have endured. + +However, the key-note has been firmly struck, and it still vibrates. +Goldsmith was the unluckiest of mortals, the hapless victim of +circumstances. "Yielding to that united pressure of labour, penury, +and sorrow, with a frame exhausted by unremitting and ill-rewarded +drudgery, Goldsmith was indebted to the forbearance of creditors for a +peaceful burial." But what, now, if some foreigner strange to the +traditions of English literature--some Japanese student, for example, +or the New Zealander come before his time--were to go over the +ascertained facts of Goldsmith's life, and were suddenly to announce +to us, with the happy audacity of ignorance, that he, Goldsmith, was a +quite exceptionally fortunate person? "Why," he might say, "I find +that in a country where the vast majority of people are born to +labour, Oliver Goldsmith was never asked to do a stroke of work +towards the earning of his own living until he had arrived at man's +estate. All that was expected of him, as a youth and as a young man, +was that he should equip himself fully for the battle of life. He was +maintained at college until he had taken his degree. Again and again +he was furnished with funds for further study and foreign travel; and +again and again he gambled his opportunities away. The constant +kindness of his uncle only made him the best begging-letter-writer +the world has seen. In the midst of his debt and distress as a +bookseller's drudge, he receives L400 for three nights' performance of +_The Good-Natured Man_; he immediately purchases chambers in Brick +Court for L400; and forthwith begins to borrow as before. It is true +that he died owing L2000, and was indebted to the forbearance of +creditors for a peaceful burial; but it appears that during the last +seven years of his life he had been earning an annual income +equivalent to L800 of English currency.[1] He was a man liberally and +affectionately brought up, who had many relatives and many friends, +and who had the proud satisfaction--which has been denied to many men +of genius--of knowing for years before he died that his merits as a +writer had been recognised by the great bulk of his countrymen. And +yet this strange English nation is inclined to suspect that it treated +him rather badly; and Christianity is attacked because it did not pay +Goldsmith's milkscore." + +[Footnote 1: The calculation is Lord Macaulay's: see his _Biographical_ +_Essays_.] + +Our Japanese friend may be exaggerating; but his position is after all +fairly tenable. It may at least be looked at, before entering on the +following brief _resume_ of the leading facts in Goldsmith's life, if +only to restore our equanimity. For, naturally, it is not pleasant to +think that any previous generation, however neglectful of the claims +of literary persons (as compared with the claims of such wretched +creatures as physicians, men of science, artists, engineers, and so +forth) should so cruelly have ill-treated one whom we all love now. +This inheritance of ingratitude is more than we can bear. Is it true +that Goldsmith was so harshly dealt with by those barbarian ancestors +of ours? + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +SCHOOL AND COLLEGE. + + +The Goldsmiths were of English descent; Goldsmith's father was a +Protestant clergyman in a poor little village in the county of +Longford; and when Oliver, one of several children, was born in this +village of Pallas, or Pallasmore, on the 10th November, 1728, the Rev. +Charles Goldsmith was passing rich on L40 a year. But a couple of +years later Mr. Goldsmith succeeded to a more lucrative living; and +forthwith removed his family to the village of Lissoy, in the county +of Westmeath. + +Here at once our interest in the story begins: is this Lissoy the +sweet Auburn that we have known and loved since our childhood? Lord +Macaulay, with a great deal of vehemence, avers that it is not; that +there never was any such hamlet as Auburn in Ireland; that _The +Deserted Village_ is a hopelessly incongruous poem; and that +Goldsmith, in combining a description of a probably Kentish village +with a description of an Irish ejectment, "has produced something +which never was, and never will be, seen in any part of the world." +This criticism is ingenious and plausible, but it is unsound, for it +happens to overlook one of the radical facts of human nature--the +magnifying delight of the mind in what is long remembered and remote. +What was it that the imagination of Goldsmith, in his life-long +banishment, could not see when he looked back to the home of his +childhood, and his early friends, and the sports and occupations of +his youth? Lissoy was no doubt a poor enough Irish village; and +perhaps the farms were not too well cultivated; and perhaps the +village preacher, who was so dear to all the country round, had to +administer many a thrashing to a certain graceless son of his; and +perhaps Paddy Byrne was something of a pedant; and no doubt pigs ran +over the "nicely sanded floor" of the inn; and no doubt the village +statesmen occasionally indulged in a free fight. But do you think that +was the Lissoy that Goldsmith thought of in his dreary lodgings in +Fleet-Street courts? No. It was the Lissoy where the vagrant lad had +first seen the "primrose peep beneath the thorn"; where he had +listened to the mysterious call of the bittern by the unfrequented +river; it was a Lissoy still ringing with the glad laughter of young +people in the twilight hours; it was a Lissoy for ever beautiful, and +tender, and far away. The grown-up Goldsmith had not to go to any +Kentish village for a model; the familiar scenes of his youth, +regarded with all the wistfulness and longing of an exile, became +glorified enough. "If I go to the opera where Signora Colomba pours +out all the mazes of melody," he writes to Mr. Hodson, "I sit and sigh +for Lissoy's fireside, and _Johnny Armstrong's Last Good Night_ from +Peggy Golden." + +There was but little in the circumstances of Goldsmith's early life +likely to fit him for, or to lead him into, a literary career; in +fact, he did not take to literature until he had tried pretty nearly +everything else as a method of earning a living. If he was intended +for anything, it was no doubt his father's wish that he should enter +the Church; and he got such education as the poor Irish clergyman--who +was not a very provident person--could afford. The child Goldsmith was +first of all taught his alphabet at home, by a maid-servant, who was +also a relation of the family; then, at the age of six, he was sent to +that village school which, with its profound and learned master, he +has made familiar to all of us; and after that he was sent further +a-field for his learning, being moved from this to the other +boarding-school as the occasion demanded. Goldsmith's school-life +could not have been altogether a pleasant time for him. We hear, +indeed, of his being concerned in a good many frolics--robbing +orchards, and the like; and it is said that he attained proficiency in +the game of fives. But a shy and sensitive lad like Goldsmith, who was +eagerly desirous of being thought well of, and whose appearance only +invited the thoughtless but cruel ridicule of his schoolmates, must +have suffered a good deal. He was little, pitted with the small-pox, +and awkward; and schoolboys are amazingly frank. He was not strong +enough to thrash them into respect of him; he had no big brother to +become his champion; his pocket-money was not lavish enough to enable +him to buy over enemies or subsidise allies. + +In similar circumstances it has sometimes happened that a boy +physically inferior to his companions has consoled himself by proving +his mental prowess--has scored off his failure at cricket by the +taking of prizes, and has revenged himself for a drubbing by writing a +lampoon. But even this last resource was not open to Goldsmith. He was +a dull boy; "a stupid, heavy blockhead," is Dr. Strean's phrase in +summing up the estimate formed of young Goldsmith by his +contemporaries at school. Of course, as soon as he became famous, +everybody began to hunt up recollections of his having said or done +this or that, in order to prove that there were signs of the coming +greatness. People began to remember that he had been suspected of +scribbling verses, which he burned. What schoolboy has not done the +like? We know how the biographers of great painters point out to us +that their hero early showed the bent of his mind by drawing the +figures of animals on doors and walls with a piece of chalk; as to +which it may be observed that, if every schoolboy who scribbled verses +and sketched in chalk on a brick wall, were to grow up a genius, poems +and pictures would be plentiful enough. However, there is the +apparently authenticated anecdote of young Goldsmith's turning the +tables on the fiddler at his uncle's dancing-party. The fiddler, +struck by the odd look of the boy who was capering about the room, +called out "AEsop!" whereupon Goldsmith is said to have instantly +replied, + + "Our herald hath proclaimed this saying, + See AEsop dancing and his monkey playing!" + +But even if this story be true, it is worth nothing as an augury; for +quickness of repartee was precisely the accomplishment which the adult +Goldsmith conspicuously lacked. Put a pen into his hand, and shut him +up in a room: then he was master of the situation--nothing could be +more incisive, polished, and easy than his playful sarcasm. But in +society any fool could get the better of him by a sudden question +followed by a horse-laugh. All through his life--even after he had +become one of the most famous of living writers--Goldsmith suffered +from want of self-confidence. He was too anxious to please. In his +eager acquiescence, he would blunder into any trap that was laid for +him. A grain or two of the stolid self-sufficiency of the blockheads +who laughed at him would not only have improved his character, but +would have considerably added to the happiness of his life. + +As a natural consequence of this timidity, Goldsmith, when opportunity +served, assumed airs of magnificent importance. Every one knows the +story of the mistake on which _She Stoops to Conquer_ is founded. +Getting free at last from all the turmoil, and anxieties, and +mortifications of school-life, and returning home on a lent hack, the +released schoolboy is feeling very grand indeed. He is now sixteen, +would fain pass for a man, and has a whole golden guinea in his +pocket. And so he takes the journey very leisurely until, getting +benighted in a certain village, he asks the way to the "best house," +and is directed by a facetious person to the house of the squire. The +squire by good luck falls in with the joke; and then we have a very +pretty comedy indeed--the impecunious schoolboy playing the part of a +fine gentleman on the strength of his solitary guinea, ordering a +bottle of wine after his supper, and inviting his landlord and his +landlord's wife and daughter to join him in the supper-room. The +contrast, in _She Stoops to Conquer_, between Marlow's embarrassed +diffidence on certain occasions and his audacious effrontery on +others, found many a parallel in the incidents of Goldsmith's own +life; and it is not improbable that the writer of the comedy was +thinking of some of his own experiences, when he made Miss Hardcastle +say to her timid suitor: "A want of courage upon some occasions +assumes the appearance of ignorance, and betrays us when we most want +to excel." + +It was, perhaps, just as well that the supper, and bottle of wine, and +lodging at Squire Featherston's had not to be paid for out of the +schoolboy's guinea; for young Goldsmith was now on his way to college, +and the funds at the disposal of the Goldsmith family were not over +abundant. Goldsmith's sister having married the son of a well-to do +man, her father considered it a point of honour that she should have a +dowry: and in giving her a sum of L400 he so crippled the means of the +family, that Goldsmith had to be sent to college not as a pensioner +but as a sizar. It appears that the young gentleman's pride revolted +against this proposal; and that he was won over to consent only by the +persuasions of his uncle Contarine, who himself had been a sizar. So +Goldsmith, now in his eighteenth year, went to Dublin; managed somehow +or other--though he was the last in the list--to pass the necessary +examination; and entered upon his college career (1745.) + +How he lived, and what he learned, at Trinity College, are both +largely matters of conjecture; the chief features of such record as we +have are the various means of raising a little money to which the +poor sizar had to resort; a continual quarrelling with his tutor, an +ill-conditioned brute, who baited Goldsmith and occasionally beat him; +and a chance frolic when funds were forthcoming. It was while he was +at Trinity College that his father died; so that Goldsmith was +rendered more than ever dependent on the kindness of his uncle +Contarine, who throughout seems to have taken much interest in his +odd, ungainly nephew. A loan from a friend or a visit to the +pawnbroker tided over the severer difficulties; and then from time to +time the writing of street-ballads, for which he got five shillings +a-piece at a certain repository, came in to help. It was a +happy-go-lucky, hand-to-mouth sort of existence, involving a good deal +of hardship and humiliation, but having its frolics and gaieties +notwithstanding. One of these was pretty near to putting an end to his +collegiate career altogether. He had, smarting under a public +admonition for having been concerned in a riot, taken seriously to his +studies and had competed for a scholarship. He missed the scholarship, +but gained an exhibition of the value of thirty shillings; whereupon +he collected a number of friends of both sexes in his rooms, and +proceeded to have high jinks there. In the midst of the dancing and +uproar, in comes his tutor, in such a passion that he knocks Goldsmith +down. This insult, received before his friends, was too much for the +unlucky sizar, who, the very next day, sold his books, ran away from +college, and ultimately, after having been on the verge of starvation +once or twice, made his way to Lissoy. Here his brother got hold of +him; persuaded him to go back; and the escapade was condoned somehow. +Goldsmith remained at Trinity College until he took his degree (1749.) +He was again lowest in the list; but still he had passed; and he must +have learned something. He was now twenty-one, with all the world +before him; and the question was as to how he was to employ such +knowledge as he had acquired. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +IDLENESS, AND FOREIGN TRAVEL. + + +But Goldsmith was not in any hurry to acquire either wealth or fame. +He had a happy knack of enjoying the present hour--especially when +there were one or two boon companions with him, and a pack of cards to +be found; and, after his return to his mother's house, he appears to +have entered upon the business of idleness with much philosophical +satisfaction. If he was not quite such an unlettered clown as he has +described in Tony Lumpkin, he had at least all Tony Lumpkin's high +spirits and love of joking and idling; and he was surrounded at the +ale-house by just such a company of admirers as used to meet at the +famous Three Pigeons. Sometimes he helped in his brother's school; +sometimes he went errands for his mother; occasionally he would sit +and meditatively play the flute--for the day was to be passed somehow; +then in the evening came the assemblage in Conway's inn, with the +glass, and the pipe, and the cards, and the uproarious jest or song. +"But Scripture saith an ending to all fine things must be," and the +friends of this jovial young "buckeen" began to tire of his idleness +and his recurrent visits. They gave him hints that he might set about +doing something to provide himself with a living; and the first thing +they thought of was that he should go into the Church--perhaps as a +sort of purification-house after George Conway's inn. Accordingly +Goldsmith, who appears to have been a most good-natured and compliant +youth, did make application to the Bishop of Elphin. There is some +doubt about the precise reasons which induced the Bishop to decline +Goldsmith's application, but at any rate the Church was denied the aid +of the young man's eloquence and erudition. Then he tried teaching, +and through the good offices of his uncle he obtained a tutorship +which he held for a considerable time--long enough, indeed, to enable +him to amass a sum of thirty pounds. When he quarrelled with his +patron, and once more "took the world for his pillow," as the Gaelic +stories say, he had this sum in his pocket and was possessed of a good +horse. + +He started away from Ballymahon, where his mother was now living, with +some vague notion of making his fortune as casual circumstance might +direct. The expedition came to a premature end; and he returned +without the money, and on the back of a wretched animal, telling his +mother a cock-and-bull story of the most amusing simplicity. "If Uncle +Contarine believed those letters," says Mr. Thackeray, "---- if +Oliver's mother believed that story which the youth related of his +going to Cork, with the purpose of embarking for America; of his +having paid his passage-money, and having sent his kit on board; of +the anonymous captain sailing away with Oliver's valuable luggage, in +a nameless ship, never to return; if Uncle Contarine and the mother at +Ballymahon believed his stories, they must have been a very simple +pair; as it was a very simple rogue indeed who cheated them." Indeed, +if any one is anxious to fill up this hiatus in Goldsmith's life, the +best thing he can do is to discard Goldsmith's suspicious record of +his adventures, and put in its place the faithful record of the +adventures of Mr. Barry Lyndon, when that modest youth left his +mother's house and rode to Dublin, with a certain number of guineas in +his pocket. But whether Uncle Contarine believed the story or no, he +was ready to give the young gentleman another chance; and this time it +was the legal profession that was chosen. Goldsmith got fifty pounds +from his uncle, and reached Dublin. In a remarkably brief space of +time he had gambled away the fifty pounds, and was on his way back to +Ballymahon, where his mother's reception of him was not very cordial, +though his uncle forgave him, and was once more ready to start him in +life. But in what direction? Teaching, the Church, and the law had +lost their attractions for him. Well, this time it was medicine. In +fact, any sort of project was capable of drawing forth the good old +uncle's bounty. The funds were again forthcoming; Goldsmith started +for Edinburgh, and now (1752) saw Ireland for the last time. + +He lived, and he informed his uncle that he studied, in Edinburgh for +a year and a half; at the end of which time it appeared to him that +his knowledge of medicine would be much improved by foreign travel. +There was Albinus, for example, "the great professor of Leyden," as he +wrote to the credulous uncle, from whom he would doubtless learn +much. When, having got another twenty pounds for travelling expenses, +he did reach Leyden (1754), he mentioned Gaubius, the chemical +professor. Gaubius is also a good name. That his intercourse with +these learned persons, and the serious nature of his studies, were not +incompatible with a little light relaxation in the way of gambling is +not impossible. On one occasion, it is said, he was so lucky that he +came to a fellow student with his pockets full of money; and was +induced to resolve never to play again--a resolution broken about as +soon as made. Of course he lost all his winnings, and more; and had to +borrow a trifling sum to get himself out of the place. Then an +incident occurs which is highly characteristic of the better side of +Goldsmith's nature. He had just got this money, and was about to leave +Leyden, when, as Mr. Forster writes, "he passed a florist's garden on +his return, and seeing some rare and high-priced flower, which his +uncle Contarine, an enthusiast in such things, had often spoken and +been in search of, he ran in without other thought than of immediate +pleasure to his kindest friend, bought a parcel of the roots, and sent +them off to Ireland." He had a guinea in his pocket when he started on +the grand tour. + +Of this notable period in Goldsmith's life (1755-6) very little is +known, though a good deal has been guessed. A minute record of all the +personal adventures that befell the wayfarer as he trudged from +country to country, a diary of the odd humours and fancies that must +have occurred to him in his solitary pilgrimages, would be of quite +inestimable value; but even the letters that Goldsmith wrote home from +time to time are lost; while _The Traveller_ consists chiefly of a +series of philosophical reflections on the government of various +states, more likely to have engaged the attention of a Fleet-Street +author, living in an atmosphere of books, than to have occupied the +mind of a tramp anxious about his supper and his night's lodging. +Boswell says he "disputed" his way through Europe. It is much more +probable that he begged his way through Europe. The romantic version, +which has been made the subject of many a charming picture, is that he +was entertained by the peasantry whom he had delighted with his +playing on the flute. It is quite probable that Goldsmith, whose +imagination had been captivated by the story of how Baron von Holberg +had as a young man really passed through France, Germany, and Holland +in this Orpheus-like manner, may have put a flute in his pocket when +he left Leyden; but it is far from safe to assume, as is generally +done, that Goldsmith was himself the hero of the adventures described +in Chapter XX. of the _Vicar of Wakefield_. It is the more to be +regretted that we have no authentic record of these devious +wanderings, that by this time Goldsmith had acquired, as is shown in +other letters, a polished, easy, and graceful style, with a very +considerable faculty of humorous observation. Those ingenious letters +to his uncle (they usually included a little hint about money) were, +in fact, a trifle too literary both in substance and in form; we could +even now, looking at them with a pardonable curiosity, have spared a +little of their formal antithesis for some more precise information +about the writer and his surroundings. + +The strangest thing about this strange journey all over Europe was +the failure of Goldsmith to pick up even a common and ordinary +acquaintance with the familiar facts of natural history. The ignorance +on this point of the author of the _Animated Nature_ was a constant +subject of jest among Goldsmith's friends. They declared he could not +tell the difference between any two sorts of barndoor fowl until he +saw them cooked and on the table. But it may be said prematurely here +that, even when he is wrong as to his facts or his sweeping +generalisations, one is inclined to forgive him on account of the +quaint gracefulness and point of his style. When Mr. Burchell says, +"This rule seems to extend even to other animals: the little vermin +race are ever treacherous, cruel, and cowardly, whilst those endowed +with strength and power are generous, brave, and gentle," we scarcely +stop to reflect that the merlin, which is not much bigger than a +thrush, has an extraordinary courage and spirit, while the lion, if +all stories be true, is, unless when goaded by hunger, an abject +skulker. Elsewhere, indeed, in the _Animated Nature_, Goldsmith gives +credit to the smaller birds for a good deal of valour, and then goes +on to say, with a charming freedom,--"But their contentions are +sometimes of a gentler nature. Two male birds shall strive in song +till, after a long struggle, the loudest shall entirely silence the +other. During these contentions the female sits an attentive silent +auditor, and often rewards the loudest songster with her company +during the season." Yet even this description of the battle of the +bards, with the queen of love as arbiter, is scarcely so amusing as +his happy-go-lucky notions with regard to the variability of species. +The philosopher, flute in hand, who went wandering from the canals of +Holland to the ice-ribbed falls of the Rhine, may have heard from time +to time that contest between singing-birds which he so imaginatively +describes; but it was clearly the Fleet-Street author, living among +books, who arrived at the conclusion that intermarriage of species is +common among small birds and rare among big birds. Quoting some lines +of Addison's which express the belief that birds are a virtuous +race--that the nightingale, for example, does not covet the wife of +his neighbour, the blackbird--Goldsmith goes on to observe,--"But +whatever may be the poet's opinion, the probability is against this +fidelity among the smaller tenants of the grove. The great birds are +much more true to their species than these; and, of consequence, the +varieties among them are more few. Of the ostrich, the cassowary, and +the eagle, there are but few species; and no arts that man can use +could probably induce them to mix with each other." + +What he did bring back from his foreign travels was a medical degree. +Where he got it, and how he got it, are alike matters of pure +conjecture; but it is extremely improbable that--whatever he might +have been willing to write home from Padua or Louvain, in order to +coax another remittance from his Irish friends--he would afterwards, +in the presence of such men as Johnson, Burke, and Reynolds, wear sham +honours. It is much more probable that, on his finding those supplies +from Ireland running ominously short, the philosophic vagabond +determined to prove to his correspondents that he was really at work +somewhere, instead of merely idling away his time, begging or +borrowing the wherewithal to pass him from town to town. That he did +see something of the foreign universities is evident from his own +writings; there are touches of description here and there which he +could not well have got from books. With this degree, and with such +book-learning and such knowledge of nature and human nature as he had +chosen or managed to pick up during all those years, he was now called +upon to begin life for himself. The Irish supplies stopped altogether. +His letters were left unanswered. And so Goldsmith somehow or other +got back to London (February 1, 1756), and had to cast about for some +way of earning his daily bread. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Early Struggles.--Hack-writing. + + +Here ensued a very dark period in his life. He was alone in London, +without friends, without money, without introductions; his appearance +was the reverse of prepossessing; and, even despite that medical +degree and his acquaintance with the learned Albinus and the learned +Gaubius, he had practically nothing of any value to offer for sale in +the great labour-market of the world. How he managed to live at all is +a mystery: it is certain that he must have endured a great deal of +want; and one may well sympathise with so gentle and sensitive a +creature reduced to such straits, without inquiring too curiously into +the causes of his misfortunes. If, on the one hand, we cannot accuse +society, or Christianity, or the English government of injustice and +cruelty because Goldsmith had gambled away his chances and was now +called on to pay the penalty, on the other hand, we had better, before +blaming Goldsmith himself, inquire into the origin of those defects of +character which produced such results. As this would involve an +_excursus_ into the controversy between Necessity and Free-will, +probably most people would rather leave it alone. It may safely be +said in any case that, while Goldsmith's faults and follies, of which +he himself had to suffer the consequences, are patent enough, his +character on the whole was distinctly a lovable one. Goldsmith was his +own enemy, and everybody else's friend: that is not a serious +indictment, as things go. He was quite well aware of his weaknesses; +and he was also--it may be hinted--aware of the good-nature which he +put forward as condonation. If some foreigner were to ask how it is +that so thoroughly a commercial people as the English are--strict in +the acknowledgment and payment of debt--should have always betrayed a +sneaking fondness for the character of the good-humoured scapegrace +whose hand is in everybody's pocket, and who throws away other +people's money with the most charming air in the world, Goldsmith +might be pointed to as one of many literary teachers whose own +circumstances were not likely to make them severe censors of the +Charles Surfaces, or lenient judges of the Joseph Surfaces of the +world. Be merry while you may; let to-morrow take care of itself; +share your last guinea with any one, even if the poor drones of +society--the butcher, and baker, and milkman with his score--have to +suffer; do anything you like, so long as you keep the heart warm. All +this is a delightful philosophy. It has its moments of misery--its +periods of reaction--but it has its moments of high delight. When we +are invited to contemplate the "evil destinies of men of letters," we +ought to be shown the flood-tides as well as the ebb-tides. The tavern +gaiety; the brand new coat and lace and sword; the midnight frolics, +with jolly companions every one--these, however brief and +intermittent, should not be wholly left out of the picture. Of course +it is very dreadful to hear of poor Boyse lying in bed with nothing +but a blanket over him, and with his arms thrust through two holes in +the blanket, so that he could write--perhaps a continuation of his +poem on the _Deity_. But then we should be shown Boyse when he was +spending the money collected by Dr. Johnson to get the poor +scribbler's clothes out of pawn; and we should also be shown him, with +his hands through the holes in the blanket, enjoying the mushrooms and +truffles on which, as a little garniture for "his last scrap of beef," +he had just laid out his last half-guinea. + +There were but few truffles--probably there was but little beef--for +Goldsmith during this sombre period. "His threadbare coat, his uncouth +figure, and Hibernian dialect caused him to meet with repeated +refusals." But at length he got some employment in a chemist's shop, +and this was a start. Then he tried practising in a small way on his +own account in Southwark. Here he made the acquaintance of a printer's +workman; and through him he was engaged as corrector of the press in +the establishment of Mr. Samuel Richardson. Being so near to +literature, he caught the infection; and naturally began with a +tragedy. This tragedy was shown to the author of _Clarissa Harlowe_; +but it only went the way of many similar first inspiritings of the +Muse. Then Goldsmith drifted to Peckham, where we find him (1757) +installed as usher at Dr. Milner's school. Goldsmith as usher has been +the object of much sympathy; and he would certainly deserve it, if we +are to assume that his description of an usher's position in the +_Bee_, and in George Primrose's advice to his cousin, was a full and +accurate description of his life at Peckham. "Browbeat by the master, +hated for my ugly face by the mistress, worried by the boys"--if that +was his life, he was much to be pitied. But we cannot believe it. The +Milners were exceedingly kind to Goldsmith. It was at the intercession +of young Milner, who had been his fellow-student at Edinburgh, that +Goldsmith got the situation, which at all events kept him out of the +reach of immediate want. It was through the Milners that he was +introduced to Griffiths, who gave him a chance of trying a literary +career--as a hack-writer of reviews and so forth. When, having got +tired of that, Goldsmith was again floating vaguely on the waves of +chance, where did he find a harbour but in that very school at +Peckham? And we have the direct testimony of the youngest of Dr. +Milner's daughters, that this Irish usher of theirs was a remarkably +cheerful, and even facetious person, constantly playing tricks and +practical jokes, amusing the boys by telling stories and by +performances on the flute, living a careless life, and always in +advance of his salary. Any beggars, or group of children, even the +very boys who played back practical jokes on him, were welcome to a +share of what small funds he had; and we all know how Mrs. Milner +good-naturedly said one day, "You had better, Mr. Goldsmith, let me +keep your money for you, as I do for some of the young gentlemen;" and +how he answered with much simplicity, "In truth, Madam, there is equal +need." With Goldsmith's love of approbation and extreme sensitiveness +he no doubt suffered deeply from many slights, now as at other times; +but what we know of his life in the Peckham school does not incline us +to believe that it was an especially miserable period of his +existence. His abundant cheerfulness does not seem to have at any time +deserted him; and what with tricks, and jokes, and playing of the +flute, the dull routine of instructing the unruly young gentlemen at +Dr. Milner's was got through somehow. + +When Goldsmith left the Peckham school to try hack-writing in +Paternoster Row, he was going further to fare worse. Griffiths the +bookseller, when he met Goldsmith at Dr. Milner's dinner-table and +invited him to become a reviewer, was doing a service to the English +nation--for it was in this period of machine-work that Goldsmith +discovered that happy faculty of literary expression that led to the +composition of his masterpieces--but he was doing little immediate +service to Goldsmith. + +The newly-captured hack was boarded and lodged at Griffiths' house in +Paternoster Row (1757); he was to have a small salary in consideration +of remorselessly constant work; and--what was the hardest condition of +all--he was to have his writings revised by Mrs. Griffiths. Mr. +Forster justly remarks that though at last Goldsmith had thus become a +man-of-letters, he "had gratified no passion and attained no object of +ambition." He had taken to literature, as so many others have done, +merely as a last resource. And if it is true that literature at first +treated Goldsmith harshly, made him work hard, and gave him +comparatively little for what he did, at least it must be said that +his experience was not a singular one. Mr. Forster says that +literature was at that time in a transition state: "The patron was +gone, and the public had not come." But when Goldsmith began to do +better than hack-work, he found a public speedily enough. If, as Lord +Macaulay computes, Goldsmith received in the last seven years of his +life what was equivalent to L5,600 of our money, even the villain +booksellers cannot be accused of having starved him. At the outset of +his literary career he received no large sums, for he had achieved no +reputation; but he got the market-rate for his work. We have around us +at this moment plenty of hacks who do not earn much more than their +board and lodging with a small salary. + +For the rest, we have no means of knowing whether Goldsmith got +through his work with ease or with difficulty; but it is obvious, +looking over the reviews which he is believed to have written for +Griffiths' magazine, that he readily acquired the professional +critic's airs of superiority, along with a few tricks of the trade, no +doubt taught him by Griffiths. Several of these reviews, for example, +are merely epitomes of the contents of the books reviewed, with some +vague suggestion that the writer might, if he had been less careful, +have done worse, and, if he had been more careful, might have done +better. Who does not remember how the philosophic vagabond was taught +to become a cognoscento? "The whole secret consisted in a strict +adherence to two rules: the one always to observe that the picture +might have been better if the painter had taken more pains; and the +other to praise the works of Pietro Perugino." It is amusing to +observe the different estimates formed of the function of criticism by +Goldsmith the critic, and by Goldsmith the author. Goldsmith, sitting +at Griffiths' desk, naturally magnifies his office, and announces his +opinion that "to direct our taste, and conduct the poet up to +perfection, has ever been the true critic's province." But Goldsmith +the author, when he comes to inquire into the existing state of Polite +Learning in Europe, finds in criticism not a help but a danger. It is +"the natural destroyer of polite learning." And again, in the _Citizen +of the World_, he exclaims against the pretensions of the critic. "If +any choose to be critics, it is but saying they are critics; and from +that time forward they become invested with full power and authority +over every caitiff who aims at their instruction or entertainment." + +This at least may be said, that in these early essays contributed to +the _Monthly Review_ there is much more of Goldsmith the critic than +of Goldsmith the author. They are somewhat laboured performances. They +are almost devoid of the sly and delicate humour that afterwards +marked Goldsmith's best prose work. We find throughout his trick of +antithesis; but here it is forced and formal, whereas afterwards he +lent to this habit of writing the subtle surprise of epigram. They +have the true manner of authority, nevertheless. He says of Home's +_Douglas_--"Those parts of nature, and that rural simplicity with +which the author was, perhaps, best acquainted, are not unhappily +described; and hence we are led to conjecture, that a more universal +knowledge of nature will probably increase his powers of description." +If the author had written otherwise, he would have written +differently; had he known more, he would not have been so ignorant; +the tragedy is a tragedy, but why did not the author make it a +comedy?--this sort of criticism has been heard of even in our own day. +However, Goldsmith pounded away at his newly-found work, under the eye +of the exacting bookseller and his learned wife. We find him dealing +with Scandinavian (here called Celtic) mythology, though he does not +adventure on much comment of his own; then he engages Smollett's +_History of England_, but mostly in the way of extract; anon we find +him reviewing _A Journal of Eight Days' Journey_, by Jonas Hanway, of +whom Johnson said that he made some reputation by travelling abroad, +and lost it all by travelling at home. Then again we find him writing +a disquisition on _Some Enquiries concerning the First Inhabitants, +Language, Religion, Learning, and Letters of Europe_, by a Mr. Wise, +who, along with his critic, appears to have got into hopeless +confusion in believing Basque and Armorican to be the remains of the +same ancient language. The last phrase of a note appended to this +review by Goldsmith probably indicates his own humble estimate of his +work at this time. "It is more our business," he says, "to exhibit the +opinions of the learned than to controvert them." In fact he was +employed to boil down books for people who did not wish to spend more +on literature than the price of a magazine. Though he was new to the +trade, it is probable he did it as well as any other. + +At the end of five months, Goldsmith and Griffiths quarrelled and +separated. Griffiths said Goldsmith was idle; Goldsmith said Griffiths +was impertinent; probably the editorial supervision exercised by Mrs. +Griffiths had something to do with the dire contention. From +Paternoster Row Goldsmith removed to a garret in Fleet Street; had his +letters addressed to a coffee-house; and apparently supported himself +by further hack-work, his connection with Griffiths not being quite +severed. Then he drifted back to Peckham again; and was once more +installed as usher, Dr. Milner being in especial want of an assistant +at this time. Goldsmith's lingering about the gates of literature had +not inspired him with any great ambition to enter the enchanted land. +But at the same time he thought he saw in literature a means by which +a little ready money might be made, in order to help him on to +something more definite and substantial; and this goal was now put +before him by Dr. Milner, in the shape of a medical appointment on the +Coromandel coast. It was in the hope of obtaining this appointment, +that he set about composing that _Enquiry into the Present State of +Polite Learning in Europe_, which is now interesting to us as the +first of his more ambitious works. As the book grew under his hands, +he began to cast about for subscribers; and from the Fleet-Street +coffee-house--he had again left the Peckham school--he addressed to +his friends and relatives a series of letters of the most charming +humour, which might have drawn subscriptions from a millstone. To his +brother-in-law, Mr. Hodson, he sent a glowing account of the great +fortune in store for him on the Coromandel coast. "The salary is but +trifling," he writes, "namely L100 per annum, but the other +advantages, if a person be prudent, are considerable. The practice of +the place, if I am rightly informed, generally amounts to not less +than L1,000 per annum, for which the appointed physician has an +exclusive privilege. This, with the advantages resulting from trade, +and the high interest which money bears, viz. 20 per cent., are the +inducements which persuade me to undergo the fatigues of sea, the +dangers of war, and the still greater dangers of the climate; which +induce me to leave a place where I am every day gaining friends and +esteem, and where I might enjoy all the conveniences of life." + +The surprising part of this episode in Goldsmith's life is that he did +really receive the appointment; in fact he was called upon to pay L10 +for the appointment-warrant. In this emergency he went to the +proprietor of the _Critical Review_, the rival of the _Monthly_, and +obtained some money for certain anonymous work which need not be +mentioned in detail here. He also moved into another garret, this time +in Green-Arbour Court, Fleet Street, in a wilderness of slums. The +Coromandel project, however, on which so many hopes had been built, +fell through. No explanation of the collapse could be got from either +Goldsmith himself, or from Dr. Milner. Mr. Forster suggests that +Goldsmith's inability to raise money for his outfit may have been made +the excuse for transferring the appointment to another; and that is +probable enough; but it is also probable that the need for such an +excuse was based on the discovery that Goldsmith was not properly +qualified for the post. And this seems the more likely, that Goldsmith +immediately afterwards resolved to challenge examination at Surgeons' +Hall. He undertook to write four articles for the _Monthly Review_; +Griffiths became surety to a tailor for a fine suit of clothes; and +thus equipped, Goldsmith presented himself at Surgeons' Hall. He only +wanted to be passed as hospital mate; but even that modest ambition +was unfulfilled. He was found not qualified; and returned, with his +fine clothes, to his Fleet-Street den. He was now thirty years of age +(1758); and had found no definite occupation in the world. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +BEGINNING OF AUTHORSHIP.--THE BEE. + + +During the period that now ensued, and amid much quarrelling with +Griffiths and hack-writing for the _Critical Review_, Goldsmith +managed to get his _Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning +in Europe_ completed; and it is from the publication of that work, on +the 2nd of April, 1759, that we may date the beginning of Goldsmith's +career as an author. The book was published anonymously; but Goldsmith +was not at all anxious to disclaim the parentage of his first-born; +and in Grub Street and its environs, at least, the authorship of the +book was no secret. Moreover there was that in it which was likely to +provoke the literary tribe to plenty of fierce talking. The _Enquiry_ +is neither more nor less than an endeavour to prove that criticism has +in all ages been the deadly enemy of art and literature; coupled with +an appeal to authors to draw their inspiration from nature rather than +from books, and varied here and there by a gentle sigh over the loss +of that patronage, in the sunshine of which men of genius were wont to +bask. Goldsmith, not having been an author himself, could not have +suffered much at the hands of the critics; so that it is not to be +supposed that personal feeling dictated this fierce onslaught on the +whole tribe of critics, compilers, and commentators. They are +represented to us as rank weeds, growing up to choke all +manifestations of true art. "Ancient learning," we are told at the +outset, "may be distinguished into three periods: its commencement, or +the age of poets; its maturity, or the age of philosophers; and its +decline, or the age of critics." Then our guide carries us into the +dark ages; and, with lantern in hand, shows us the creatures swarming +there in the sluggish pools--"commentators, compilers, polemic +divines, and intricate metaphysicians." We come to Italy: look at the +affectations with which the Virtuosi and Filosofi have enchained the +free spirit of poetry. "Poetry is no longer among them an imitation of +what we see, but of what a visionary might wish. The zephyr breathes +the most exquisite perfume; the trees wear eternal verdure; fawns, and +dryads, and hamadryads, stand ready to fan the sultry shepherdess, who +has forgot, indeed, the prettiness with which Guarini's shepherdesses +have been reproached, but is so simple and innocent as often to have +no meaning. Happy country, where the pastoral age begins to +revive!--where the wits even of Rome are united into a rural group of +nymphs and swains, under the appellation of modern Arcadians!--where +in the midst of porticoes, processions, and cavalcades, abbes turned +shepherds and shepherdesses without sheep indulge their innocent +_divertimenti_!" + +In Germany the ponderous volumes of the commentators next come in for +animadversion; and here we find an epigram, the quaint simplicity of +which is peculiarly characteristic of Goldsmith. "Were angels to write +books," he remarks, "they never would write folios." But Germany gets +credit for the money spent by her potentates on learned institutions; +and it is perhaps England that is delicately hinted at in these words: +"Had the fourth part of the immense sum above-mentioned been given in +proper rewards to genius, in some neighbouring countries, it would +have rendered the name of the donor immortal, and added to the real +interests of society." Indeed, when we come to England, we find that +men of letters are in a bad way, owing to the prevalence of critics, +the tyranny of booksellers, and the absence of patrons. "The author, +when unpatronized by the great, has naturally recourse to the +bookseller. There cannot perhaps be imagined a combination more +prejudicial to taste than this. It is the interest of the one to allow +as little for writing, and of the other to write as much as possible. +Accordingly, tedious compilations and periodical magazines are the +result of their joint endeavours. In these circumstances the author +bids adieu to fame, writes for bread, and for that only. Imagination +is seldom called in. He sits down to address the venal muse with the +most phlegmatic apathy; and, as we are told of the Russian, courts his +mistress by falling asleep in her lap. His reputation never spreads in +a wider circle than that of the trade, who generally value him, not +for the fineness of his compositions, but the quantity he works off in +a given time. + +"A long habit of writing for bread thus turns the ambition of every +author at last into avarice. He finds that he has written many years, +that the public are scarcely acquainted even with his name; he +despairs of applause, and turns to profit, which invites him. He finds +that money procures all those advantages, that respect, and that ease +which he vainly expected from fame. Thus the man who, under the +protection of the great, might have done honour to humanity, when only +patronized by the bookseller, becomes a thing little superior to the +fellow who works at the press." + +Nor was he afraid to attack the critics of his own day, though he knew +that the two Reviews for which he had recently been writing would have +something to say about his own _Enquiry_. This is how he disposes of +the _Critical_ and the _Monthly_: "We have two literary Reviews in +London, with critical newspapers and magazines without number. The +compilers of these resemble the commoners of Rome; they are all for +levelling property, not by increasing their own, but by diminishing +that of others. The man who has any good-nature in his disposition +must, however, be somewhat displeased to see distinguished reputations +often the sport of ignorance,--to see, by one false pleasantry, the +future peace of a worthy man's life disturbed, and this only because +he has unsuccessfully attempted to instruct or amuse us. Though +ill-nature is far from being wit, yet it is generally laughed at as +such. The critic enjoys the triumph, and ascribes to his parts what is +only due to his effrontery. I fire with indignation, when I see +persons wholly destitute of education and genius indent to the press, +and thus turn book-makers, adding to the sin of criticism the sin of +ignorance also; whose trade is a bad one, and who are bad workmen in +the trade." Indeed there was a good deal of random hitting in the +_Enquiry_, which was sure to provoke resentment. Why, for example, +should he have gone out of his way to insult the highly respectable +class of people who excel in mathematical studies? "This seems a +science," he observes, "to which the meanest intellects are equal. I +forget who it is that says 'All men might understand mathematics if +they would.'" There was also in the first edition of the _Enquiry_ a +somewhat ungenerous attack on stage-managers, actors, actresses, and +theatrical things in general; but this was afterwards wisely excised. +It is not to be wondered at that, on the whole, the _Enquiry_ should +have been severely handled in certain quarters. Smollett, who reviewed +it in the _Critical Review_, appears to have kept his temper pretty +well for a Scotchman; but Kenrick, a hack employed by Griffiths to +maltreat the book in the _Monthly Review_, flourished his bludgeon in +a brave manner. The coarse personalities and malevolent insinuations +of this bully no doubt hurt Goldsmith considerably; but, as we look at +them now, they are only remarkable for their dulness. If Griffiths had +had another Goldsmith to reply to Goldsmith, the retort would have +been better worth reading: one can imagine the playful sarcasm that +would have been dealt out to this new writer, who, in the very act of +protesting against criticism, proclaimed himself a critic. But +Goldsmiths are not always to be had when wanted; while Kenricks can be +bought at any moment for a guinea or two a head. + +Goldsmith had not chosen literature as the occupation of his life; he +had only fallen back on it, when other projects failed. But it is +quite possible that now, as he began to take up some slight position +as an author, the old ambition of distinguishing himself--which had +flickered before his imagination from time to time--began to enter +into his calculations along with the more pressing business of earning +a livelihood. And he was soon to have an opportunity of appealing to a +wider public than could have been expected for that erudite treatise +on the arts of Europe. Mr. Wilkie, a bookseller in St. Paul's +Churchyard, proposed to start a weekly magazine, price threepence, to +contain essays, short stories, letters on the topics of the day, and +so forth, more or less after the manner of the _Spectator_. He asked +Goldsmith to become sole contributor. Here, indeed, was a very good +opening; for, although there were many magazines in the field, the +public had just then a fancy for literature in small doses; while +Goldsmith, in entering into the competition, would not be hampered by +the dulness of collaborateurs. He closed with Wilkie's offer; and on +the 6th of October, 1759, appeared the first number of the _Bee_. + +For us now there is a curious autobiographical interest in the opening +sentences of the first number; but surely even the public of the day +must have imagined that the new writer who was now addressing them, +was not to be confounded with the common herd of magazine-hacks. What +could be more delightful than this odd mixture of modesty, humour, and +an anxious desire to please?--"There is not, perhaps, a more +whimsically dismal figure in nature than a man of real modesty, who +assumes an air of impudence--who, while his heart beats with anxiety, +studies ease and affects good-humour. In this situation, however, a +periodical writer often finds himself upon his first attempt to +address the public in form. All his power of pleasing is damped by +solicitude, and his cheerfulness dashed with apprehension. Impressed +with the terrors of the tribunal before which he is going to appear, +his natural humour turns to pertness, and for real wit he is obliged +to substitute vivacity. His first publication draws a crowd; they part +dissatisfied; and the author, never more to be indulged with a +favourable hearing, is left to condemn the indelicacy of his own +address or their want of discernment. For my part, as I was never +distinguished for address, and have often even blundered in making my +bow, such bodings as these had like to have totally repressed my +ambition. I was at a loss whether to give the public specious +promises, or give none; whether to be merry or sad on this solemn +occasion. If I should decline all merit, it was too probable the hasty +reader might have taken me at my word. If, on the other hand, like +labourers in the magazine trade, I had, with modest impudence, humbly +presumed to promise an epitome of all the good things that ever were +said or written, this might have disgusted those readers I most desire +to please. Had I been merry, I might have been censured as vastly low; +and had I been sorrowful, I might have been left to mourn in solitude +and silence; in short, whichever way I turned, nothing presented but +prospects of terror, despair, chandlers' shops, and waste paper." + +And it is just possible that if Goldsmith had kept to this vein of +familiar _causerie_, the public might in time have been attracted by +its quaintness. But no doubt Mr. Wilkie would have stared aghast; and +so we find Goldsmith, as soon as his introductory bow is made, setting +seriously about the business of magazine-making. Very soon, however, +both Mr. Wilkie and his editor perceived that the public had not been +taken by their venture. The chief cause of the failure, as it appears +to any one who looks over the magazine now, would seem to be the lack +of any definite purpose. There was no marked feature to arrest public +attention, while many things were discarded on which the popularity of +other periodicals had been based. There was no scandal to appeal to +the key-hole and back-door element in human nature; there were no +libels and gross personalities to delight the mean and envious; there +were no fine airs of fashion to charm milliners anxious to know how +the great talked, and posed, and dressed; and there was no solemn and +pompous erudition to impress the minds of those serious and sensible +people who buy literature as they buy butter, by its weight. At the +beginning of No. IV. he admits that the new magazine has not been a +success; and, in doing so, returns to that vein of whimsical, personal +humour with which he had started: "Were I to measure the merit of my +present undertaking by its success or the rapidity of its sale, I +might be led to form conclusions by no means favourable to the pride +of an author. Should I estimate my fame by its extent, every newspaper +and magazine would leave me far behind. Their fame is diffused in a +very wide circle--that of some as far as Islington, and some yet +farther still; while mine, I sincerely believe, has hardly travelled +beyond the sound of Bow Bell; and, while the works of others fly like +unpinioned swans, I find my own move as heavily as a new-plucked +goose. Still, however, I have as much pride as they who have ten times +as many readers. It is impossible to repeat all the agreeable +delusions in which a disappointed author is apt to find comfort. I +conclude, that what my reputation wants in extent is made up by its +solidity. _Minus juvat gloria lata quam magna._ I have great +satisfaction in considering the delicacy and discernment of those +readers I have, and in ascribing my want of popularity to the +ignorance or inattention of those I have not. All the world may +forsake an author, but vanity will never forsake him. Yet, +notwithstanding so sincere a confession, I was once induced to show my +indignation against the public, by discontinuing my endeavours to +please; and was bravely resolved, like Raleigh, to vex them by burning +my manuscript in a passion. Upon recollection, however, I considered +what set or body of people would be displeased at my rashness. The +sun, after so sad an accident, might shine next morning as bright as +usual; men might laugh and sing the next day, and transact business as +before, and not a single creature feel any regret but myself." + +Goldsmith was certainly more at home in this sort of writing, than in +gravely lecturing people against the vice of gambling; in warning +tradesmen how ill it became them to be seen at races; in demonstrating +that justice is a higher virtue than generosity; and in proving that +the avaricious are the true benefactors of society. But even as he +confesses the failure of his new magazine, he seems determined to show +the public what sort of writer this is, whom as yet they have not +regarded too favourably. It is in No. IV. of the _Bee_ that the famous +_City Night Piece_ occurs. No doubt that strange little fragment of +description was the result of some sudden and aimless fancy, striking +the occupant of the lonely garret in the middle of the night. The +present tense, which he seldom used--and the abuse of which is one of +the detestable vices of modern literature--adds to the mysterious +solemnity of the recital:-- + +"The clock has just struck two, the expiring taper rises and sinks in +the socket, the watchman forgets the hour in slumber, the laborious +and the happy are at rest, and nothing wakes but meditation, guilt, +revelry, and despair. The drunkard once more fills the destroying +bowl, the robber walks his midnight round, and the suicide lifts his +guilty arm against his own sacred person. + +"Let me no longer waste the night over the page of antiquity or the +sallies of contemporary genius, but pursue the solitary walk, where +Vanity, ever changing, but a few hours past walked before me--where +she kept up the pageant, and now, like a froward child, seems hushed +with her own importunities. + +"What a gloom hangs all around! The dying lamp feebly emits a yellow +gleam; no sound is heard but of the chiming clock, or the distant +watch-dog. All the bustle of human pride is forgotten; an hour like +this may well display the emptiness of human vanity. + +"There will come a time, when this temporary solitude may be made +continual, and the city itself, like its inhabitants, fade away, and +leave a desert in its room. + +"What cities, as great as this, have once triumphed in existence, had +their victories as great, joy as just and as unbounded; and, with +short-sighted presumption, promised themselves immortality! Posterity +can hardly trace the situation of some; the sorrowful traveller +wanders over the awful ruins of others; and, as he beholds, he learns +wisdom, and feels the transience of every sublunary possession. + +"'Here,' he cries, 'stood their citadel, now grown over with weeds; +there their senate-house, but now the haunt of every noxious reptile; +temples and theatres stood here, now only an undistinguished heap of +ruin. They are fallen, for luxury and avarice first made them feeble. +The rewards of the state were conferred on amusing, and not on useful, +members of society. Their riches and opulence invited the invaders, +who, though at first repulsed, returned again, conquered by +perseverance, and at last swept the defendants into undistinguished +destruction.'" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +PERSONAL TRAITS. + + +The foregoing extracts will sufficiently show what were the chief +characteristics of Goldsmith's writing at this time--the grace and +ease of style, a gentle and sometimes pathetic thoughtfulness, and, +above all, when he speaks in the first person, a delightful vein of +humorous self-disclosure. Moreover, these qualities, if they were not +immediately profitable to the booksellers, were beginning to gain for +him the recognition of some of the well-known men of the day. Percy, +afterwards Bishop of Dromore, had made his way to the miserable garret +of the poor author. Smollett, whose novels Goldsmith preferred to his +History, was anxious to secure his services as a contributor to the +forthcoming _British Magazine_. Burke had spoken of the pleasure given +him by Goldsmith's review of the _Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas +of the Sublime and Beautiful_. But, to crown all, the great Cham +himself sought out this obscure author, who had on several occasions +spoken with reverence and admiration of his works; and so began what +is perhaps the most interesting literary friendship on record. At what +precise date Johnson first made Goldsmith's acquaintance, is not +known; Mr. Forster is right in assuming that they had met before the +supper in Wine-Office Court, at which Mr. Percy was present. It is a +thousand pities that Boswell had not by this time made his appearance +in London. Johnson, Goldsmith, and all the rest of them are only +ghosts until the pertinacious young laird of Auchinleck comes on the +scene to give them colour, and life, and form. It is odd enough that +the very first remarks of Goldsmith's which Boswell jotted down in his +notebook, should refer to Johnson's systematic kindness towards the +poor and wretched. "He had increased my admiration of the goodness of +Johnson's heart by incidental remarks in the course of conversation, +such as, when I mentioned Mr. Levett, whom he entertained under his +roof, 'He is poor and honest, which is recommendation enough to +Johnson'; and when I wondered that he was very kind to a man of whom I +had heard a very bad character, 'He is now become miserable, and that +ensures the protection of Johnson.'" + +For the rest, Boswell was not well-disposed towards Goldsmith, whom he +regarded with a jealousy equal to his admiration of Johnson; but it is +probable that his description of the personal appearance of the +awkward and ungainly Irishman is in the main correct. And here also it +may be said that Boswell's love of truth and accuracy compelled him to +make this admission: "It has been generally circulated and believed +that he (Goldsmith) was a mere fool in conversation; but, in truth, +this has been greatly exaggerated." On this exaggeration--seeing that +the contributor to the _British Magazine_ and the _Public Ledger_ was +now becoming better known among his fellow authors--a word or two may +fitly be said here. It pleased Goldsmith's contemporaries, who were +not all of them celebrated for their ready wit, to regard him as a +hopeless and incurable fool, who by some strange chance could produce +literature, the merits of which he could not himself understand. To +Horace Walpole we owe the phrase which describes Goldsmith as an +"inspired idiot." Innumerable stories are told of Goldsmith's +blunders; of his forced attempts to shine in conversation; of poor +Poll talking nonsense, when all the world was wondering at the beauty +of his writing. In one case we are told he was content to admit, when +dictated to, that this, and not that, was what he really had meant in +a particular phrase. Now there can be no question that Goldsmith, +conscious of his pitted face, his brogue, and his ungainly figure, was +exceedingly nervous and sensitive in society, and was anxious, as such +people mostly are, to cover his shyness by an appearance of ease, if +not even of swagger; and there can be as little question that he +occasionally did and said very awkward and blundering things. But our +Japanese friend, whom we mentioned in our opening pages, looking +through the record that is preserved to us of those blunders which are +supposed to be most conclusive as to this aspect of Goldsmith's +character, would certainly stare. "Good heavens," he would cry, "did +men ever live who were so thick-headed as not to see the humour of +this or that 'blunder'; or were they so beset with the notion that +Goldsmith was only a fool, that they must needs be blind?" Take one +well-known instance. He goes to France with Mrs. Horneck and her two +daughters, the latter very handsome young ladies. At Lille the two +girls and Goldsmith are standing at the window of the hotel, +overlooking the square in which are some soldiers; and naturally the +beautiful young Englishwomen attract some attention. Thereupon +Goldsmith turns indignantly away, remarking that elsewhere he also has +his admirers. Now what surgical instrument was needed to get this +harmless little joke into any sane person's head? Boswell may perhaps +be pardoned for pretending to take the incident _au serieux_; for as +has just been said, in his profound adoration of Johnson, he was +devoured by jealousy of Goldsmith; but that any other mortal should +have failed to see what was meant by this little bit of humorous +flattery is almost incredible. No wonder that one of the sisters +afterwards referring to this "playful jest," should have expressed her +astonishment at finding it put down as a proof of Goldsmith's envious +disposition. But even after that disclaimer, we find Mr. Croker, as +quoted by Mr. Forster, solemnly doubting "whether the vexation so +seriously exhibited by Goldsmith was real or assumed"! + +Of course this is an extreme case; but there are others very similar. +"He affected," says Hawkins, "Johnson's style and manner of +conversation, and, when he had uttered, as he often would, a laboured +sentence, so tumid as to be scarce intelligible, would ask if that was +not truly Johnsonian?" Is it not truly dismal to find such an +utterance coming from a presumably reasonable human being? It is not +to be wondered at that Goldsmith grew shy--and in some cases had to +ward off the acquaintance of certain of his neighbours as being too +intrusive--if he ran the risk of having his odd and grave humours so +densely mistranslated. The fact is this, that Goldsmith was possessed +of a very subtle quality of humour, which is at all times rare, but +which is perhaps more frequently to be found in Irishmen than among +other folks. It consists in the satire of the pretence and pomposities +of others by means of a sort of exaggerated and playful +self-depreciation. It is a most delicate and most delightful form of +humour; but it is very apt to be misconstrued by the dull. Who can +doubt that Goldsmith was good-naturedly laughing at himself, his own +plain face, his vanity, and his blunders, when he professed to be +jealous of the admiration excited by the Miss Hornecks; when he +gravely drew attention to the splendid colours of his coat; or when he +no less gravely informed a company of his friends that he had heard a +very good story, but would not repeat it, because they would be sure +to miss the point of it? + +This vein of playful and sarcastic self-depreciation is continually +cropping up in his essay writing, as, for example, in the passage +already quoted from No. IV. of the _Bee_: "I conclude, that what my +reputation wants in extent, is made up by its solidity. _Minus juvat +gloria lata quam magna_. I have great satisfaction in considering the +delicacy and discernment of those readers I have, and in ascribing my +want of popularity to the ignorance or inattention of those I have +not." But here, no doubt, he remembers that he is addressing the world +at large, which contains many foolish persons; and so, that the +delicate raillery may not be mistaken, he immediately adds, "All the +world may forsake an author, but vanity will never forsake him." That +he expected a quicker apprehension on the part of his intimates and +acquaintances, and that he was frequently disappointed, seems pretty +clear from those very stories of his "blunders." We may reasonably +suspect, at all events, that Goldsmith was not quite so much of a fool +as he looked; and it is far from improbable that when the ungainly +Irishman was called in to make sport for the Philistines--and there +were a good many Philistines in those days, if all stories be +true--and when they imagined they had put him out of countenance, he +was really standing aghast, and wondering how it could have pleased +Providence to create such helpless stupidity. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +The Citizen of the World.--Beau Nash. + + +Meanwhile, to return to his literary work, the _Citizen of the World_ +had grown out of his contributions to the _Public Ledger_, a daily +newspaper started by Mr. Newbery, another bookseller in St. Paul's +Churchyard. Goldsmith was engaged to write for this paper two letters +a week at a guinea a-piece; and these letters were, after a short time +(1760), written in the character of a Chinese who had come to study +European civilisation. It may be noted that Goldsmith had in the +_Monthly Review_, in mentioning Voltaire's memoirs of French writers, +quoted a passage about Montesquieu's _Lettres Persanes_ as follows: +"It is written in imitation of the _Siamese Letters_ of Du Freny and +of the _Turkish Spy_; but it is an imitation which shows what the +originals should have been. The success their works met with was, for +the most part, owing to the foreign air of their performances; the +success of the _Persian Letters_ arose from the delicacy of their +satire. That satire which in the mouth of an Asiatic is poignant, +would lose all its force when coming from an European." And it must +certainly be said that the charm of the strictures of the _Citizen of +the World_ lies wholly in their delicate satire, and not at all in any +foreign air which the author may have tried to lend to these +performances. The disguise is very apparent. In those garrulous, +vivacious, whimsical, and sometimes serious papers, Lien Chi Altangi, +writing to Fum Hoam in Pekin, does not so much describe the aspects of +European civilisation which would naturally surprise a Chinese, as he +expresses the dissatisfaction of a European with certain phases of the +civilisation visible everywhere around him. It is not a Chinaman, but +a Fleet-Street author by profession, who resents the competition of +noble amateurs whose works--otherwise bitter pills enough--are gilded +by their titles:--"A nobleman has but to take a pen, ink, and paper, +write away through three large volumes, and then sign his name to the +title-page; though the whole might have been before more disgusting +than his own rent-roll, yet signing his name and title gives value to +the deed, title being alone equivalent to taste, imagination, and +genius. As soon as a piece, therefore, is published, the first +questions are--Who is the author? Does he keep a coach? Where lies his +estate? What sort of a table does he keep? If he happens to be poor +and unqualified for such a scrutiny, he and his works sink into +irremediable obscurity, and too late he finds, that having fed upon +turtle is a more ready way to fame than having digested Tully. The +poor devil against whom fashion has set its face vainly alleges that +he has been bred in every part of Europe where knowledge was to be +sold; that he has grown pale in the study of nature and himself. His +works may please upon the perusal, but his pretensions to fame are +entirely disregarded. He is treated like a fiddler, whose music, +though liked, is not much praised, because he lives by it; while a +gentleman performer, though the most wretched scraper alive, throws +the audience into raptures. The fiddler, indeed, may in such a case +console himself by thinking, that while the other goes off with all +the praise, he runs away with all the money. But here the parallel +drops; for while the nobleman triumphs in unmerited applause, the +author by profession steals off with--nothing." + +At the same time it must be allowed that the utterance of these +strictures through the mouth of a Chinese admits of a certain +_naivete_, which on occasion heightens the sarcasm. Lien Chi +accompanies the Man in Black to a theatre to see an English play. Here +is part of the performance:--"I was going to second his remarks, when +my attention was engrossed by a new object; a man came in balancing a +straw upon his nose, and the audience were clapping their hands in all +the raptures of applause. 'To what purpose,' cried I, 'does this +unmeaning figure make his appearance? is he a part of the +plot?'--'Unmeaning do you call him?' replied my friend in black; 'this +is one of the most important characters of the whole play; nothing +pleases the people more than seeing a straw balanced: there is a great +deal of meaning in a straw: there is something suited to every +apprehension in the sight; and a fellow possessed of talents like +these is sure of making his fortune.' The third act now began with an +actor who came to inform us that he was the villain of the play, and +intended to show strange things before all was over. He was joined by +another who seemed as much disposed for mischief as he; their +intrigues continued through this whole division. 'If that be a +villain,' said I, 'he must be a very stupid one to tell his secrets +without being asked; such soliloquies of late are never admitted in +China.' The noise of clapping interrupted me once more; a child six +years old was learning to dance on the stage, which gave the ladies +and mandarins infinite satisfaction. 'I am sorry,' said I, 'to see the +pretty creature so early learning so bad a trade; dancing being, I +presume, as contemptible here as in China.'--'Quite the reverse,' +interrupted my companion; 'dancing is a very reputable and genteel +employment here; men have a greater chance for encouragement from the +merit of their heels than their heads. One who jumps up and nourishes +his toes three times before he comes to the ground may have three +hundred a year: he who flourishes them four times, gets four hundred; +but he who arrives at five is inestimable, and may demand what salary +he thinks proper. The female dancers, too, are valued for this sort of +jumping and crossing; and it is a cant word amongst them, that she +deserves most who shows highest. But the fourth act is begun; let us +be attentive.'" + +The Man in Black here mentioned is one of the notable features of this +series of papers. The mysterious person whose acquaintance the +Chinaman made in Westminster Abbey, and who concealed such a wonderful +goodness of heart under a rough and forbidding exterior, is a charming +character indeed; and it is impossible to praise too highly the vein +of subtle sarcasm in which he preaches worldly wisdom. But to assume +that any part of his history which he disclosed to the Chinaman was a +piece of autobiographical writing on the part of Goldsmith, is a very +hazardous thing. A writer of fiction must necessarily use such +materials as have come within his own experience; and Goldsmith's +experience--or his use of those materials--was extremely limited: +witness how often a pet fancy, like his remembrance of _Johnny +Armstrong's Last Good Night_, is repeated. "That of these simple +elements," writes Professor Masson, in his _Memoir of Goldsmith_, +prefixed to an edition of his works, "he made so many charming +combinations, really differing from each other, and all, though +suggested by fact, yet hung so sweetly in an ideal air, proved what an +artist he was, and was better than much that is commonly called +invention. In short, if there is a sameness of effect in Goldsmith's +writings, it is because they consist of poetry and truth, humour and +pathos, from his own life, and the supply from such a life as his was +not inexhaustible." + +The question of invention is easily disposed of. Any child can invent +a world transcending human experience by the simple combination of +ideas which are in themselves incongruous--a world in which the horses +have each five feet, in which the grass is blue and the sky green, in +which seas are balanced on the peaks of mountains. The result is +unbelievable and worthless. But the writer of imaginative literature +uses his own experiences and the experiences of others, so that his +combination of ideas in themselves compatible shall appear so natural +and believable that the reader--although these incidents and +characters never did actually exist--is as much interested in them as +if they had existed. The mischief of it is that the reader sometimes +thinks himself very clever, and, recognising a little bit of the story +as having happened to the author, jumps to the conclusion that such +and such a passage is necessarily autobiographical. Hence it is that +Goldsmith has been hastily identified with the Philosophic Vagabond in +the _Vicar of Wakefield_, and with the Man in Black in the _Citizen of +the World_. That he may have used certain experiences in the one, and +that he may perhaps have given in the other a sort of fancy sketch of +a person suggested by some trait in his own character, is possible +enough; but further assertion of likeness is impossible. That the Man +in Black had one of Goldsmith's little weaknesses is obvious enough: +we find him just a trifle too conscious of his own kindliness and +generosity. The Vicar of Wakefield himself is not without a spice of +this amiable vanity. As for Goldsmith, every one must remember his +reply to Griffiths' accusation: "No, sir, had I been a sharper, _had I +been possessed of less good nature and native generosity_, I might +surely now have been in better circumstances." + +The Man in Black, in any case, is a delightful character. We detect +the warm and generous nature even in his pretence of having acquired +worldly wisdom: "I now therefore pursued a course of uninterrupted +frugality, seldom wanted a dinner, and was consequently invited to +twenty. I soon began to get the character of a saving hunks that had +money, and insensibly grew into esteem. Neighbours have asked my +advice in the disposal of their daughters; and I have always taken +care not to give any. I have contracted a friendship with an alderman, +only by observing, that if we take a farthing from a thousand pounds +it will be a thousand pounds no longer. I have been invited to a +pawnbroker's table, by pretending to hate gravy; and am now actually +upon treaty of marriage with a rich widow, for only having observed +that the bread was rising. If ever I am asked a question, whether I +know it or not, instead of answering, I only smile and look wise. If a +charity is proposed I go about with the hat, but put nothing in +myself. If a wretch solicits my pity, I observe that the world is +filled with impostors, and take a certain method of not being deceived +by never relieving. In short, I now find the truest way of finding +esteem, even from the indigent, is to give away nothing, and thus have +much in our power to give." This is a very clever piece of writing, +whether it is in strict accordance with the character of the Man in +Black, or not. But there is in these _Public Ledger_ papers another +sketch of character, which is not only consistent in itself, and in +every way admirable, but is of still further interest to us when we +remember that at this time the various personages in the _Vicar of +Wakefield_ were no doubt gradually assuming definite form in +Goldsmith's mind. It is in the figure of Mr. Tibbs, introduced +apparently at haphazard, but at once taking possession of us by its +quaint relief, that we find Goldsmith showing a firmer hand in +character-drawing. With a few happy dramatic touches Mr. Tibbs starts +into life; he speaks for himself; he becomes one of the people whom we +know. And yet, with this concise and sharp portraiture of a human +being, look at the graceful, almost garrulous, ease of the style:-- + + "Our pursuer soon came up and joined us with all the + familiarity of an old acquaintance. 'My dear Drybone,' cries + he, shaking my friend's hand, 'where have you been hiding + this half a century? Positively I had fancied you were gone + to cultivate matrimony and your estate in the country.' + During the reply I had an opportunity of surveying the + appearance of our new companion: his hat was pinched up with + peculiar smartness; his looks were pale, thin, and sharp; + round his neck he wore a broad black riband, and in his + bosom a buckle studded with glass; his coat was trimmed with + tarnished twist; he wore by his side a sword with a black + hilt; and his stockings of silk, though newly washed, were + grown yellow by long service. I was so much engaged with the + peculiarity of his dress, that I attended only to the latter + part of my friend's reply, in which he complimented Mr. + Tibbs on the taste of his clothes and the bloom in his + countenance. 'Pshaw, pshaw, Will,' cried the figure, 'no + more of that, if you love me: you know I hate flattery,--on + my soul I do; and yet, to be sure, an intimacy with the + great will improve one's appearance, and a course of venison + will fatten; and yet, faith, I despise the great as much as + you do; but there are a great many damn'd honest fellows + among them, and we must not quarrel with one half, because + the other wants weeding. If they were all such as my Lord + Mudler, one of the most good-natured creatures that ever + squeezed a lemon, I should myself be among the number of + their admirers. I was yesterday to dine at the Duchess of + Piccadilly's. My lord was there. "Ned," says he to me, + "Ned," says he, "I'll hold gold to silver, I can tell you + where you were poaching last night." "Poaching, my lord?" + says I: "faith, you have missed already; for I staid at home + and let the girls poach for me. That's my way: I take a fine + woman as some animals do their prey--stand still, and, + swoop, they fall into my mouth."' 'Ah, Tibbs, thou art a + happy fellow,' cried my companion, with looks of infinite + pity; 'I hope your fortune is as much improved as your + understanding, in such company?' 'Improved!' replied the + other: 'you shall know,--but let it go no farther--a great + secret--five hundred a year to begin with--my lord's word of + honour for it. His lordship took me down in his own chariot + yesterday, and we had a _tete-a-tete_ dinner in the country, + where we talked of nothing else.'--'I fancy you forget, + sir,' cried I; 'you told us but this moment of your dining + yesterday in town.'--'Did I say so?' replied he, coolly; 'to + be sure, if I said so, it was so. Dined in town! egad, now I + do remember, I did dine in town; but I dined in the country + too; for you must know, my boys, I ate two dinners. By the + bye, I am grown as nice as the devil in my eating. I'll tell + you a pleasant affair about that: we were a select party of + us to dine at Lady Grogram's,--an affected piece, but let it + go no farther--a secret.--Well, there happened to be no + asafoetida in the sauce to a turkey, upon which, says I, + I'll hold a thousand guineas, and say done, first, + that--But, dear Drybone, you are an honest creature; lend me + half-a-crown for a minute or two, or so, just till ----; but + hearkee, ask me for it the next time we meet, or it may be + twenty to one but I forget to pay you.'" + +Returning from those performances to the author of them, we find him a +busy man of letters, becoming more and more in request among the +booksellers, and obtaining recognition among his fellow-writers. He +had moved into better lodgings in Wine Office Court (1760-2); and it +was here that he entertained at supper, as has already been mentioned, +no less distinguished guests than Bishop, then Mr., Percy, and Dr., +then Mr., Johnson. Every one has heard of the surprise of Percy, on +calling for Johnson, to find the great Cham dressed with quite unusual +smartness. On asking the cause of this "singular transformation," +Johnson replied, "Why, sir, I hear that Goldsmith, who is a very great +sloven, justifies his disregard of cleanliness and decency by quoting +my practice; and I am desirous this night to show him a better +example." That Goldsmith profited by this example--though the tailors +did not--is clear enough. At times, indeed, he blossomed out into the +splendours of a dandy; and laughed at himself for doing so. But +whether he was in gorgeous or in mean attire, he remained the same +sort of happy-go-lucky creature; working hard by fits and starts; +continually getting money in advance from the booksellers; enjoying +the present hour; and apparently happy enough when not pressed by +debt. That he should have been thus pressed was no necessity of the +case; at all events we need not on this score begin now to abuse the +booksellers or the public of that day. We may dismiss once for all the +oft-repeated charges of ingratitude and neglect. + +When Goldsmith was writing those letters in the _Public Ledger_--with +"pleasure and instruction for others," Mr. Forster says, "though at +the cost of suffering to himself"--he was receiving for them alone +what would be equivalent in our day to L200 a year. No man can affirm +that L200 a year is not amply sufficient for all the material wants of +life. Of course there are fine things in the world that that amount of +annual wage cannot purchase. It is a fine thing to sit on the deck of +a yacht on a summer's day, and watch the far islands shining over the +blue; it is a fine thing to drive four-in-hand to Ascot--if you can do +it; it is a fine thing to cower breathless behind a rock and find a +splendid stag coming slowly within sure range. But these things are +not necessary to human happiness: it is possible to do without them +and yet not "suffer." Even if Goldsmith had given half of his +substance away to the poor, there was enough left to cover all the +necessary wants of a human being; and if he chose so to order his +affairs as to incur the suffering of debt, why, that was his own +business, about which nothing further needs be said. It is to be +suspected, indeed, that he did not care to practise those excellent +maxims of prudence and frugality which he frequently preached; but the +world is not much concerned about that now. If Goldsmith had received +ten times as much money as the booksellers gave him, he would still +have died in debt. And it is just possible that we may exaggerate +Goldsmith's sensitiveness on this score. He had had a life-long +familiarity with duns and borrowing; and seemed very contented when +the exigency of the hour was tided over. An angry landlady is +unpleasant, and an arrest is awkward; but in comes an opportune +guinea, and the bottle of Madeira is opened forthwith. + +In these rooms in Wine Office Court, and at the suggestion or +entreaty of Newbery, Goldsmith produced a good deal of miscellaneous +writing--pamphlets, tracts, compilations, and what not--of a more or +less marketable kind. It can only be surmised that by this time he may +have formed some idea of producing a book not solely meant for the +market, and that the characters in the _Vicar of Wakefield_ were +already engaging his attention; but the surmise becomes probable +enough when we remember that his project of writing the _Traveller_, +which was not published till 1764, had been formed as far back as +1755, while he was wandering aimlessly about Europe, and that a sketch +of the poem was actually forwarded by him then to his brother Henry in +Ireland. But in the meantime this hack-work, and the habits of life +connected with it, began to tell on Goldsmith's health; and so, for a +time, he left London (1762), and went to Tunbridge and then to Bath. +It is scarcely possible that his modest fame had preceded him to the +latter place of fashion; but it may be that the distinguished folk of +the town received this friend of the great Dr. Johnson with some small +measure of distinction; for we find that his next published work, _The +Life of Richard Nash, Esq._, is respectfully dedicated to the Right +Worshipful the Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen, and Common Council of the +City of Bath. The Life of the recently deceased Master of Ceremonies +was published anonymously (1762); but it was generally understood to +be Goldsmith's; and indeed the secret of the authorship is revealed in +every successive line. Among the minor writings of Goldsmith there is +none more delightful than this: the mock-heroic gravity, the +half-familiar contemptuous good-nature with which he composes this +Funeral March of a Marionette, are extremely whimsical and amusing. +And then what an admirable picture we get of fashionable English +society in the beginning of the eighteenth century, when Bath and Nash +were alike in the heyday of their glory--the fine ladies with their +snuff-boxes, and their passion for play, and their extremely effective +language when they got angry; young bucks come to flourish away their +money, and gain by their losses the sympathy of the fair; sharpers on +the look-out for guineas, and adventurers on the look-out for +weak-minded heiresses; duchesses writing letters in the most doubtful +English, and chair-men swearing at any one who dared to walk home on +foot at night. + +No doubt the _Life of Beau Nash_ was a bookseller's book; and it was +made as attractive as possible by the recapitulation of all sorts of +romantic stories about Miss S----n, and Mr. C----e, and Captain +K----g; but throughout we find the historian very much inclined to +laugh at his hero, and only refraining now and again in order to +record in serious language traits indicative of the real goodness of +disposition of that fop and gambler. And the fine ladies and +gentlemen, who lived in that atmosphere of scandal, and intrigue, and +gambling, are also from time to time treated to a little decorous and +respectful raillery. Who does not remember the famous laws of polite +breeding written out by Mr. Nash--Goldsmith hints that neither Mr. +Nash nor his fair correspondent at Blenheim, the Duchess of +Marlborough, excelled in English composition--for the guidance of the +ladies and gentlemen who were under the sway of the King of Bath? "But +were we to give laws to a nursery, we should make them childish +laws," Goldsmith writes gravely. "His statutes, though stupid, were +addressed to fine gentlemen and ladies, and were probably received +with sympathetic approbation. It is certain they were in general +religiously observed by his subjects, and executed by him with +impartiality; neither rank nor fortune shielded the refractory from +his resentment." Nash, however, was not content with prose in +enforcing good manners. Having waged deadly war against the custom of +wearing boots, and having found his ordinary armoury of no avail +against the obduracy of the country squires, he assailed them in the +impassioned language of poetry, and produced the following "Invitation +to the Assembly," which, as Goldsmith remarks, was highly relished by +the nobility at Bath on account of its keenness, severity, and +particularly its good rhymes. + + "Come, one and all, to Hoyden Hall, + For there's the assembly this night; + None but prude fools + Mind manners and rules; + We Hoydens do decency slight. + Come, trollops and slatterns, + Cocked hats and white aprons, + This best our modesty suits; + For why should not we + In dress be as free + As Hogs-Norton squires in boots?" + +The sarcasm was too much for the squires, who yielded in a body; and +when any stranger through inadvertence presented himself in the +assembly-rooms in boots, Nash was so completely master of the +situation that he would politely step up to the intruder and suggest +that he had forgotten his horse. + +Goldsmith does not magnify the intellectual capacity of his hero; but +he gives him credit for a sort of rude wit that was sometimes +effective enough. His physician, for example, having called on him to +see whether he had followed a prescription that had been sent him the +previous day, was greeted in this fashion: "Followed your +prescription? No. Egad, if I had, I should have broken my neck, for I +flung it out of the two pair of stairs window." For the rest, this +diverting biography contains some excellent warnings against the vice +of gambling; with a particular account of the manner in which the +Government of the day tried by statute after statute to suppress the +tables at Tunbridge and Bath, thereby only driving the sharpers to new +subterfuges. That the Beau was in alliance with sharpers, or, at +least, that he was a sleeping partner in the firm, his biographer +admits; but it is urged on his behalf that he was the most generous of +winners, and again and again interfered to prevent the ruin of some +gambler by whose folly he would himself have profited. His constant +charity was well known; the money so lightly come by was at the +disposal of any one who could prefer a piteous tale. Moreover he made +no scruple about exacting from others that charity which they could +well afford. One may easily guess who was the duchess mentioned in the +following story of Goldsmith's narration:-- + + "The sums he gave and collected for the Hospital were great, + and his manner of doing it was no less admirable. I am told + that he was once collecting money in Wiltshire's room for + that purpose, when a lady entered, who is more remarkable + for her wit than her charity, and not being able to pass by + him unobserved, she gave him a pat with her fan, and said, + 'You must put down a trifle for me, Nash, for I have no + money in my pocket.' 'Yes, madam,' says he, 'that I will + with pleasure, if your grace will tell me when to stop;' + then taking an handful of guineas out of his pocket, he + began to tell them into his white hat--' One, two, three, + four, five ----' 'Hold, hold!' says the duchess, 'consider + what you are about.' 'Consider your rank and fortune, + madam,' says Nash, and continues telling--'six, seven, + eight, nine, ten.' Here the duchess called again, and seemed + angry. 'Pray compose yourself, madam,' cried Nash, 'and + don't interrupt the work of charity,--eleven, twelve, + thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.' Here the duchess stormed, and + caught hold of his hand. 'Peace, madam,' says Nash, 'you + shall have your name written in letters of gold, madam, and + upon the front of the building, madam,--sixteen, seventeen, + eighteen, nineteen, twenty.' 'I won't pay a farthing more,' + says the duchess. 'Charity hides a multitude of sins,' + replies Nash,--'twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, + twenty-four, twenty-five.' 'Nash,' says she, 'I protest you + frighten me out of my wits. L--d, I shall die!' 'Madam, you + will never die with doing good; and if you do, it will be + the better for you,' answered Nash, and was about to + proceed; but perceiving her grace had lost all patience, a + parley ensued, when he, after much altercation, agreed to + stop his hand and compound with her grace for thirty + guineas. The duchess, however, seemed displeased the whole + evening, and when he came to the table where she was + playing, bid him, 'Stand farther, an ugly devil, for she + hated the sight of him.' But her grace afterwards having a + run of good luck, called Nash to her. 'Come,' says she, 'I + will be friends with you, though you are a fool; and to let + you see I am not angry, there is ten guineas more for your + charity. But this I insist on, that neither my name nor the + sum shall be mentioned.'" + +At the ripe age of eighty-seven the "beau of three generations" +breathed his last (1761); and, though he had fallen into poor ways, +there were those alive who remembered his former greatness, and who +chronicled it in a series of epitaphs and poetical lamentations. "One +thing is common almost with all of them," says Goldsmith, "and that is +that Venus, Cupid, and the Graces are commanded to weep, and that Bath +shall never find such another." These effusions are forgotten now; and +so would Beau Nash be also, but for this biography, which, no doubt +meant merely for the book-market of the day, lives and is of permanent +value by reason of the charm of its style, its pervading humour, and +the vivacity of its descriptions of the fashionable follies of the +eighteenth century. _Nullum fere genus scribendi non tetigit. Nullum +quod tetigit non ornavit._ Who but Goldsmith could have written so +delightful a book about such a poor creature as Beau Nash? + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +The Arrest. + + +It was no doubt owing to Newbery that Goldsmith, after his return to +London, was induced to abandon, temporarily or altogether, his +apartments in Wine Office Court, and take lodgings in the house of a +Mrs. Fleming, who lived somewhere or other in Islington. Newbery had +rooms in Canonbury House, a curious old building that still exists; +and it may have occurred to the publisher that Goldsmith, in this +suburban district, would not only be nearer him for consultation and +so forth, but also might pay more attention to his duties than when he +was among the temptations of Fleet Street. Goldsmith was working +industriously in the service of Newbery at this time (1763-4); in +fact, so completely was the bookseller in possession of the hack, that +Goldsmith's board and lodging in Mrs. Fleming's house, arranged for at +L50 a year, was paid by Newbery himself. Writing prefaces, revising +new editions, contributing reviews--this was the sort of work he +undertook, with more or less content, as the equivalent of the modest +sums Mr. Newbery disbursed for him or handed over as pocket-money. In +the midst of all this drudgery he was now secretly engaged on work +that aimed at something higher than mere payment of bed and board. +The smooth lines of the _Traveller_ were receiving further polish; the +gentle-natured _Vicar_ was writing his simple, quaint, tender story. +And no doubt Goldsmith was spurred to try something better than +hack-work by the associations that he was now forming, chiefly under +the wise and benevolent friendship of Johnson. + +Anxious always to be thought well of, he was now beginning to meet +people whose approval was worthy of being sought. He had been +introduced to Reynolds. He had become the friend of Hogarth. He had +even made the acquaintance of Mr. Boswell, from Scotland. Moreover, he +had been invited to become one of the original members of the famous +Club of which so much has been written; his fellow-members being +Reynolds, Johnson, Burke, Hawkins, Beauclerk, Bennet Langton, and Dr. +Nugent. It is almost certain that it was at Johnson's instigation that +he had been admitted into this choice fellowship. Long before either +the _Traveller_ or the _Vicar_ had been heard of, Johnson had +perceived the literary genius that obscurely burned in the uncouth +figure of this Irishman; and was anxious to impress on others +Goldsmith's claims to respect and consideration. In the minute record +kept by Boswell of his first evening with Johnson at the Mitre Tavern, +we find Johnson saying, "Dr. Goldsmith is one of the first men we now +have as an author, and he is a very worthy man too. He has been loose +in his principles, but he is coming right." Johnson took walks with +Goldsmith; did him the honour of disputing with him on all occasions; +bought a copy of the _Life of Nash_ when it appeared--an unusual +compliment for one author to pay another, in their day or in ours; +allowed him to call on Miss Williams, the blind old lady in Bolt +Court; and generally was his friend, counsellor, and champion. +Accordingly, when Mr. Boswell entertained the great Cham to supper at +the Mitre--a sudden quarrel with his landlord having made it +impossible for him to order the banquet at his own house--he was +careful to have Dr. Goldsmith of the company. His guests that evening +were Johnson, Goldsmith, Davies (the actor and bookseller who had +conferred on Boswell the invaluable favour of an introduction to +Johnson), Mr. Eccles, and the Rev. Mr. Ogilvie, a Scotch poet who +deserves our gratitude because it was his inopportune patriotism that +provoked, on this very evening, the memorable epigram about the +high-road leading to England. "Goldsmith," says Boswell, who had not +got over his envy at Goldsmith's being allowed to visit the blind old +pensioner in Bolt-court, "as usual, endeavoured with too much +eagerness to _shine_, and disputed very warmly with Johnson against +the well-known maxim of the British constitution, 'The king can do no +wrong.'" It was a dispute not so much about facts as about +phraseology; and, indeed, there seems to be no great warmth in the +expressions used on either side. Goldsmith affirmed that "what was +morally false could not be politically true;" and that, in short, the +king could by the misuse of his regal power do wrong. Johnson replied, +that, in such a case, the immediate agents of the king were the +persons to be tried and punished for the offence. "The king, though he +should command, cannot force a judge to condemn a man unjustly; +therefore it is the judge whom we prosecute and punish." But when he +stated that the king "is above everything, and there is no power by +which he can be tried," he was surely forgetting an important chapter +in English history. "What did Cromwell do for his country?" he himself +asked, during his subsequent visit to Scotland, of old Auchinleck, +Boswell's father. "God, Doctor," replied the vile Whig, "_he garred +kings ken they had a lith in their necks_." + +For some time after this evening Goldsmith drops out of Boswell's +famous memoir; perhaps the compiler was not anxious to give him too +much prominence. They had not liked each other from the outset. +Boswell, vexed by the greater intimacy of Goldsmith with Johnson, +called him a blunderer, a feather-brained person; and described his +appearance in no flattering terms. Goldsmith, on the other hand, on +being asked who was this Scotch cur that followed Johnson's heels, +answered, "He is not a cur: you are too severe--he is only a bur. Tom +Davies flung him at Johnson in sport, and he has the faculty of +sticking." Boswell would probably have been more tolerant of Goldsmith +as a rival, if he could have known that on a future day he was to have +Johnson all to himself--to carry him to remote wilds and exhibit him +as a portentous literary phenomenon to Highland lairds. It is true +that Johnson, at an early period of his acquaintance with Boswell, did +talk vaguely about a trip to the Hebrides; but the young Scotch +idolater thought it was all too good to be true. The mention of Sir +James Macdonald, says Boswell, "led us to talk of the Western Islands +of Scotland, to visit which he expressed a wish that then appeared to +me a very romantic fancy, which I little thought would be afterwards +realised. He told me that his father had put Martin's account of +those islands into his hands when he was very young, and that he was +highly pleased with it; that he was particularly struck with the St. +Kilda man's notion that the high church of Glasgow had been hollowed +out of a rock; a circumstance to which old Mr. Johnson had directed +his attention." Unfortunately Goldsmith not only disappears from the +pages of Boswell's biography at this time, but also in great measure +from the ken of his companions. He was deeply in debt; no doubt the +fine clothes he had been ordering from Mr. Filby in order that he +might "shine" among those notable persons, had something to do with +it; he had tried the patience of the booksellers; and he had been +devoting a good deal of time to work not intended to elicit immediate +payment. The most patient endeavours to trace out his changes of +lodgings, and the fugitive writings that kept him in daily bread, have +not been very successful. It is to be presumed that Goldsmith had +occasionally to go into hiding to escape from his creditors; and so +was missed from his familiar haunts. We only reach daylight again, to +find Goldsmith being under threat of arrest from his landlady; and for +the particulars of this famous affair it is necessary to return to +Boswell. + +Boswell was not in London at that time; but his account was taken down +subsequently from Johnson's narration; and his accuracy in other +matters, his extraordinary memory, and scrupulous care, leave no doubt +in the mind that his version of the story is to be preferred to those +of Mrs. Piozzi and Sir John Hawkins. We may take it that these are +Johnson's own words:-- "I received one morning a message from poor +Goldsmith that he was in great distress, and, as it was not in his +power to come to me, begging that I would come to him as soon as +possible. I sent him a guinea, and promised to come to him directly. I +accordingly went as soon as I was dressed, and found that his landlady +had arrested him for his rent, at which he was in a violent passion. I +perceived that he had already changed my guinea, and had got a bottle +of Madeira and a glass before him. I put the cork into the bottle, +desired he would be calm, and began to talk to him of the means by +which he might be extricated. He then told me that he had a novel +ready for the press, which he produced to me. I looked into it, and +saw its merit; told the landlady I should soon return; and, having +gone to a bookseller, sold it for L60. I brought Goldsmith the money, +and he discharged his rent, not without rating his landlady in a high +tone for having used him so ill." + +We do not know who this landlady was--it cannot now be made out +whether the incident occurred at Islington, or in the rooms that +Goldsmith partially occupied in the Temple; but even if Mrs. Fleming +be the landlady in question, she was deserving neither of Goldsmith's +rating nor of the reprimands that have been bestowed upon her by later +writers. Mrs. Fleming had been exceedingly kind to Goldsmith. Again +and again in her bills we find items significantly marked L0 0_s._ +0_d._ And if her accounts with her lodger did get hopelessly into +arrear; and if she was annoyed by seeing him go out in fine clothes to +sup at the Mitre; and if, at length, her patience gave way, and she +determined to have her rights in one way or another, she was no worse +than landladies--who are only human beings, and not divinely appointed +protectresses of genius--ordinarily are. Mrs. Piozzi says that when +Johnson came back with the money, Goldsmith "called the woman of the +house directly to partake of punch, and pass their time in merriment." +This would be a dramatic touch; but, after Johnson's quietly corking +the bottle of Madeira, it is more likely that no such thing occurred; +especially as Boswell quotes the statement as an "extreme inaccuracy." + +The novel which Johnson had taken away and sold to Francis Newbery, a +nephew of the elder bookseller, was, as every one knows, the _Vicar of +Wakefield_. That Goldsmith, amidst all his pecuniary distresses, +should have retained this piece in his desk, instead of pawning or +promising it to one of his bookselling patrons, points to but one +conclusion--that he was building high hopes on it, and was determined +to make it as good as lay within his power. Goldsmith put an anxious +finish into all his better work; perhaps that is the secret of the +graceful ease that is now apparent in every line. Any young writer who +may imagine that the power of clear and concise literary expression +comes by nature, cannot do better than study, in Mr. Cunningham's big +collection of Goldsmith's writings, the continual and minute +alterations which the author considered necessary even after the first +edition--sometimes when the second and third editions--had been +published. Many of these, especially in the poetical works, were +merely improvements in sound as suggested by a singularly sensitive +ear, as when he altered the line + + "Amidst the ruin, heedless of the dead," + +which had appeared in the first three editions of the _Traveller_, +into + + "There in the ruin, heedless of the dead," + +which appeared in the fourth. But the majority of the omissions and +corrections were prompted by a careful taste, that abhorred everything +redundant or slovenly. It has been suggested that when Johnson carried +off the _Vicar of Wakefield_ to Francis Newbery, the manuscript was +not quite finished, but had to be completed afterwards. There was at +least plenty of time for that. Newbery does not appear to have +imagined that he had obtained a prize in the lottery of literature. He +paid the L60 for it--clearly on the assurance of the great father of +learning of the day, that there was merit in the little +story--somewhere about the end of 1764; but the tale was not issued to +the public until March, 1766. "And, sir," remarked Johnson to Boswell, +with regard to the sixty pounds, "a sufficient price too, when it was +sold; for then the fame of Goldsmith had not been elevated, as it +afterwards was, by his _Traveller_; and the bookseller had such faint +hopes of profit by his bargain, that he kept the manuscript by him a +long time, and did not publish it till after the _Traveller_ had +appeared. Then, to be sure, it was accidentally worth more money." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE TRAVELLER. + + +This poem of the _Traveller_, the fruit of much secret labour and the +consummation of the hopes of many years, was lying completed in +Goldsmith's desk when the incident of the arrest occurred; and the +elder Newbery had undertaken to publish it. Then, as at other times, +Johnson lent this wayward child of genius a friendly hand. He read +over the proof-sheets for Goldsmith; was so kind as to put in a line +here or there where he thought fit; and prepared a notice of the poem +for the _Critical Review_. The time for the appearance of this new +claimant for poetical honours was propitious. "There was perhaps no +point in the century," says Professor Masson, "when the British Muse, +such as she had come to be, was doing less, or had so nearly ceased to +do anything, or to have any good opinion of herself, as precisely +about the year 1764. Young was dying; Gray was recluse and indolent; +Johnson had long given over his metrical experimentations on any +except the most inconsiderable scale; Akenside, Armstrong, Smollett, +and others less known, had pretty well revealed the amount of their +worth in poetry; and Churchill, after his ferocious blaze of what was +really rage and declamation in metre, though conventionally it was +called poetry, was prematurely defunct. Into this lull came +Goldsmith's short but carefully finished poem." "There has not been so +fine a poem since Pope's time," remarked Johnson to Boswell, on the +very first evening after the return of young Auchinleck to London. It +would have been no matter for surprise had Goldsmith dedicated this +first work that he published under his own name to Johnson, who had +for so long been his constant friend and adviser; and such a +dedication would have carried weight in certain quarters. But there +was a finer touch in Goldsmith's thought of inscribing the book to his +brother Henry; and no doubt the public were surprised and pleased to +find a poor devil of an author dedicating a work to an Irish parson +with L40 a year, from whom he could not well expect any return. It +will be remembered that it was to this brother Henry that Goldsmith, +ten years before, had sent the first sketch of the poem; and now the +wanderer, + + "Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow." + +declares how his heart untravelled + + "Still to my brother turns, with ceaseless pain, + And drags at each remove a lengthening chain." + +The very first line of the poem strikes a key-note--there is in it a +pathetic thrill of distance, and regret, and longing; and it has the +soft musical sound that pervades the whole composition. It is +exceedingly interesting to note, as has already been mentioned, how +Goldsmith altered and altered these lines until he had got them full +of gentle vowel sounds. Where, indeed, in the English language could +one find more graceful melody than this?-- + + "The naked negro, panting at the line, + Boasts of his golden sands and palmy wine, + Basks in the glare, or stems the tepid wave, + And thanks his gods for all the good they gave." + +It has been observed also that Goldsmith was the first to introduce +into English poetry sonorous American--or rather Indian--names, as +when he writes in this poem, + + "Where wild Oswego spreads her swamps around, + And Niagara stuns with thundering sound," + +--and if it be charged against him that he ought to have known the +proper accentuation of Niagara, it may be mentioned as a set-off that +Sir Walter Scott, in dealing with his own country, mis-accentuated +"Glenaladale," to say nothing of his having made of Roseneath an +island. Another characteristic of the _Traveller_ is the extraordinary +choiceness and conciseness of the diction, which, instead of +suggesting pedantry or affectation, betrays on the contrary nothing +but a delightful ease and grace. + +The English people are very fond of good English; and thus it is that +couplets from the _Traveller_ and the _Deserted Village_ have come +into the common stock of our language, and that sometimes not so much +on account of the ideas they convey, as through their singular +precision of epithet and musical sound. It is enough to make the +angels weep, to find such a couplet as this-- + + "Cheerful at morn, he wakes from short repose, + Breasts the keen air, and carols as he goes," + +murdered in several editions of Goldsmith's works by the substitution +of the commonplace "breathes" for "breasts"--and that, after Johnson +had drawn particular attention to the line by quoting it in his +Dictionary. Perhaps, indeed, it may be admitted that the literary +charm of the _Traveller_ is more apparent than the value of any +doctrine, however profound or ingenious, which the poem was supposed +to inculcate. We forget all about the "particular principle of +happiness" possessed by each European state, in listening to the +melody of the singer, and in watching the successive and delightful +pictures that he calls up before the imagination. + + "As in those domes where Caesars once bore sway, + Defaced by time, and tottering in decay, + There in the ruin, heedless of the dead, + The shelter-seeking peasant builds his shed; + And, wondering man could want the larger pile, + Exults, and owns his cottage with a smile." + +Then notice the blaze of patriotic idealism that bursts forth when he +comes to talk of England. What sort of England had he been familiar +with when he was consorting with the meanest wretches--the poverty +stricken, the sick, and squalid--in those Fleet-Street dens? But it is +an England of bright streams and spacious lawns of which he writes; +and as for the people who inhabit the favoured land-- + + "Stern o'er each bosom reason holds her state, + With daring aims irregularly great; + Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, + I see the lords of human kind pass by." + +"Whenever I write anything," Goldsmith had said, with a humorous +exaggeration which Boswell, as usual, takes _au serieux_, "the public +_make a point_ to know nothing about it." But we have Johnson's +testimony to the fact that the _Traveller_ "brought him into high +reputation." No wonder. When the great Cham declares it to be the +finest poem published since the time of Pope, we are irresistibly +forced to think of the _Essay on Man_. What a contrast there is +between that tedious and stilted effort, and this clear burst of +bird-song! The _Traveller_, however, did not immediately become +popular. It was largely talked about, naturally, among Goldsmith's +friends; and Johnson would scarcely suffer any criticism of it. At a +dinner given long afterwards at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, and fully +reported by the invaluable Boswell, Reynolds remarked, "I was glad to +hear Charles Fox say it was one of the finest poems in the English +language." "Why were you glad?" said Langton. "You surely had no doubt +of this before?" Hereupon Johnson struck in: "No; the merit of the +_Traveller_ is so well established, that Mr. Fox's praise cannot +augment it, nor his censure diminish it." And he went on to +say--Goldsmith having died and got beyond the reach of all critics and +creditors some three or four years before this time "Goldsmith was a +man who, whatever he wrote, did it better than any other man could do. +He deserved a place in Westminster Abbey; and every year he lived +would have deserved it better." + +Presently people began to talk about the new poem. A second edition +was issued; a third; a fourth. It is not probable that Goldsmith +gained any pecuniary benefit from the growing popularity of the little +book; but he had "struck for honest fame," and that was now coming to +him. He even made some slight acquaintance with "the great;" and here +occurs an incident which is one of many that account for the love that +the English people have for Goldsmith. It appears that Hawkins, +calling one day on the Earl of Northumberland, found the author of the +_Traveller_ waiting in the outer room, in response to an invitation. +Hawkins, having finished his own business, retired, but lingered about +until the interview between Goldsmith and his lordship was over, +having some curiosity about the result. Here follows Goldsmith's +report to Hawkins. "His lordship told me he had read my poem, and was +much delighted with it; that he was going to be Lord-lieutenant of +Ireland; and that, hearing that I was a native of that country, he +should be glad to do me any kindness." "What did you answer?" says +Hawkins, no doubt expecting to hear of some application for pension or +post. "Why," said Goldsmith, "I could say nothing but that I had a +brother there, a clergyman, that stood in need of help,"--and then he +explained to Hawkins that he looked to the booksellers for support, +and was not inclined to place dependence on the promises of great men. +"Thus did this idiot in the affairs of the world," adds Hawkins, with +a fatuity that is quite remarkable in its way, "trifle with his +fortunes, and put back the hand that was held out to assist him! Other +offers of a like kind he either rejected or failed to improve, +contenting himself with the patronage of one nobleman, whose mansion +afforded him the delights of a splendid table and a retreat for a few +days from the metropolis." It is a great pity we have not a +description from the same pen of Johnson's insolent ingratitude in +flinging the pair of boots down stairs. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +MISCELLANEOUS WRITING. + + +But one pecuniary result of this growing fame was a joint offer on the +part of Griffin and Newbery of L20 for a selection from his printed +essays; and this selection was forthwith made and published, with a +preface written for the occasion. Here at once we can see that +Goldsmith takes firmer ground. There is an air of confidence--of +gaiety, even--in his address to the public; although, as usual, +accompanied by a whimsical mock-modesty that is extremely odd and +effective. "Whatever right I have to complain of the public," he says, +"they can, as yet, have no just reason to complain of me. If I have +written dull Essays, they have hitherto treated them as dull Essays. +Thus far we are at least upon par, and until they think fit to make me +their humble debtor by praise, I am resolved not to lose a single inch +of my self-importance. Instead, therefore, of attempting to establish +a credit amongst them, it will perhaps be wiser to apply to some more +distant correspondent; and as my drafts are in some danger of being +protested at home, it may not be imprudent, upon this occasion, to +draw my bills upon Posterity. + + "MR. POSTERITY, + + "SIR,--Nine hundred and ninety-nine years after sight hereof + pay the bearer, or order, a thousand pounds worth of praise, + free from all deductions whatsoever, it being a commodity + that will then be very serviceable to him, and place it to + the account of, &c." + +The bill is not yet due; but there can in the meantime be no harm in +discounting it so far as to say that these Essays deserve very decided +praise. They deal with all manner of topics, matters of fact, matters +of imagination, humorous descriptions, learned criticisms; and then, +whenever the entertainer thinks he is becoming dull, he suddenly tells +a quaint little story and walks off amidst the laughter he knows he +has produced. It is not a very ambitious or sonorous sort of +literature; but it was admirably fitted for its aim--the passing of +the immediate hour in an agreeable and fairly intellectual way. One +can often see, no doubt, that these Essays are occasionally written in +a more or less perfunctory fashion, the writer not being moved by much +enthusiasm in his subject; but even then a quaint literary grace +seldom fails to atone, as when, writing about the English clergy, and +complaining that they do not sufficiently in their addresses stoop to +mean capacities, he says--"Whatever may become of the higher orders of +mankind, who are generally possessed of collateral motives to virtue, +the vulgar should be particularly regarded, whose behaviour in civil +life is totally hinged upon their hopes and fears. Those who +constitute the basis of the great fabric of society should be +particularly regarded; for in policy, as in architecture, ruin is most +fatal when it begins from the bottom." There was, indeed, throughout +Goldsmith's miscellaneous writing much more common sense than might +have been expected from a writer who was supposed to have none. + +As regards his chance criticisms on dramatic and poetical literature, +these are generally found to be incisive and just; while sometimes +they exhibit a wholesome disregard of mere tradition and authority. +"Milton's translation of Horace's Ode to Pyrrha," he says, for +example, "is universally known and generally admired, in our opinion +much above its merit." If the present writer might for a moment +venture into such an arena, he would express the honest belief that +that translation is the very worst translation that was ever made of +anything. But there is the happy rendering of _simplex munditiis_, +which counts for much. + +By this time Goldsmith had also written his charming ballad of _Edwin +and Angelina_, which was privately "printed for the amusement of the +Countess of Northumberland," and which afterwards appeared in the +_Vicar of Wakefield_. It seems clear enough that this quaint and +pathetic piece was suggested by an old ballad beginning, + + "Gentle heardsman, tell to me, + Of curtesy I thee pray, + Unto the towne of Walsingham + Which is the right and ready way," + +which Percy had shown to Goldsmith, and which, patched up, +subsequently appeared in the _Reliques_. But Goldsmith's ballad is +original enough to put aside all the discussion about plagiarism which +was afterwards started. In the old fragment the weeping pilgrim +receives directions from the herdsman, and goes on her way, and we +hear of her no more; in _Edwin and Angelina_ the forlorn and +despairing maiden suddenly finds herself confronted by the long-lost +lover whom she had so cruelly used. This is the dramatic touch that +reveals the hand of the artist. And here again it is curious to note +the care with which Goldsmith repeatedly revised his writings. The +ballad originally ended with these two stanzas:-- + + "Here amidst sylvan bowers we'll rove, + From lawn to woodland stray; + Blest as the songsters of the grove, + And innocent as they. + + "To all that want, and all that wail, + Our pity shall be given, + And when this life of love shall fail, + We'll love again in heaven." + +But subsequently it must have occurred to the author that, the +dramatic disclosure once made, and the lovers restored to each other, +any lingering over the scene only weakened the force of the climax; +hence these stanzas were judiciously excised. It may be doubted, +however, whether the original version of the last couplet: + + "And the last sigh that rends the heart + Shall break thy Edwin's too," + +was improved by being altered into + + "The sigh that rends thy constant heart + Shall break thy Edwin's too." + +Meanwhile Goldsmith had resorted to hack-work again; nothing being +expected from the _Vicar of Wakefield_, now lying in Newbery's shop, +for that had been paid for, and his expenses were increasing, as +became his greater station. In the interval between the publication of +the _Traveller_ and of the _Vicar_, he moved into better chambers in +Garden Court; he hired a man-servant, he blossomed out into very fine +clothes. Indeed, so effective did his first suit seem to be--the +purple silk small-clothes, the scarlet roquelaure, the wig, sword, and +gold-headed cane--that, as Mr. Forster says, he "amazed his friends +with no less than three similar suits, not less expensive, in the next +six months." Part of this display was no doubt owing to a suggestion +from Reynolds that Goldsmith, having a medical degree, might just as +well add the practice of a physician to his literary work, to magnify +his social position. Goldsmith, always willing to please his friends, +acceded; but his practice does not appear to have been either +extensive or long-continued. It is said that he drew out a +prescription for a certain Mrs. Sidebotham which so appalled the +apothecary that he refused to make it up; and that, as the lady sided +with the apothecary, he threw up the case and his profession at the +same time. If it was money Goldsmith wanted, he was not likely to get +it in that way; he had neither the appearance nor the manner fitted to +humour the sick and transform healthy people into valetudinarians. If +it was the esteem of his friends and popularity outside that circle, +he was soon to acquire enough of both. On the 27th March, 1766, +fifteen months after the appearance of the _Traveller_, the _Vicar of +Wakefield_ was published. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. + + +The _Vicar of Wakefield_, considered structurally, follows the lines +of the Book of Job. You take a good man, overwhelm him with successive +misfortunes, show the pure flame of his soul burning in the midst of +the darkness, and then, as the reward of his patience and fortitude +and submission, restore him gradually to happiness, with even larger +flocks and herds than before. The machinery by which all this is +brought about is, in the _Vicar of Wakefield_, the weak part of the +story. The plot is full of wild improbabilities; in fact, the +expedients by which all the members of the family are brought together +and made happy at the same time, are nothing short of desperate. It is +quite clear, too, that the author does not know what to make of the +episode of Olivia and her husband; they are allowed to drop through; +we leave him playing the French horn at a relation's house; while she, +in her father's home, is supposed to be unnoticed, so much are they +all taken up with the rejoicings over the double wedding. It is very +probable that when Goldsmith began the story he had no very definite +plot concocted; and that it was only when the much-persecuted Vicar +had to be restored to happiness, that he found the entanglements +surrounding him, and had to make frantic efforts to break through +them. But, be that as it may, it is not for the plot that people now +read the _Vicar of Wakefield_; it is not the intricacies of the story +that have made it the delight of the world. Surely human nature must +be very much the same when this simple description of a quiet English +home went straight to the heart of nations in both hemispheres. + +And the wonder is that Goldsmith of all men should have produced such +a perfect picture of domestic life. What had his own life been but a +moving about between garret and tavern, between bachelor's lodgings +and clubs? Where had he seen--unless, indeed, he looked back through +the mist of years to the scenes of his childhood--all this gentle +government, and wise blindness; all this affection, and consideration, +and respect? There is as much human nature in the character of the +Vicar alone as would have furnished any fifty of the novels of that +day, or of this. Who has not been charmed by his sly and quaint +humour, by his moral dignity and simple vanities, even by the little +secrets he reveals to us of his paternal rule. "'Ay,' returned I, not +knowing well what to think of the matter, 'heaven grant they may be +both the better for it this day three months!' This was one of those +observations I usually made to impress my wife with an opinion of my +sagacity; for if the girls succeeded, then it was a pious wish +fulfilled; but if anything unfortunate ensued, then it might be looked +on as a prophecy." We know how Miss Olivia was answered, when, at her +mother's prompting, she set up for being well skilled in +controversy:-- + +"'Why, my dear, what controversy can she have read?' cried I. 'It does +not occur to me that I ever put such books into her hands: you +certainly overrate her merit.'--'Indeed, papa,' replied Olivia, 'she +does not; I have read a great deal of controversy. I have read the +disputes between Thwackum and Square; the controversy between Robinson +Crusoe and Friday, the savage; and I am now employed in reading the +controversy in Religious Courtship.'--'Very well,' cried I, 'that's a +good girl; I find you are perfectly qualified for making converts, and +so go help your mother to make the gooseberry pie.'" + +It is with a great gentleness that the good man reminds his wife and +daughters that, after their sudden loss of fortune, it does not become +them to wear much finery. "The first Sunday, in particular, their +behaviour served to mortify me. I had desired my girls the preceding +night to be dressed early the next day; for I always loved to be at +church a good while before the rest of the congregation. They +punctually obeyed my directions; but when we were to assemble in the +morning at breakfast, down came my wife and daughters, dressed out in +all their former splendour; their hair plastered up with pomatum, +their faces patched to taste, their trains bundled up in a heap +behind, and rustling at every motion. I could not help smiling at +their vanity, particularly that of my wife, from whom I expected more +discretion. In this exigence, therefore, my only resource was to order +my son, with an important air, to call our coach. The girls were +amazed at the command; but I repeated it with more solemnity than +before. 'Surely, my dear, you jest,' cried my wife; 'we can walk it +perfectly well: we want no coach to carry us now.'--'You mistake, +child,' returned I, 'we do want a coach; for if we walk to church in +this trim, the very children in the parish will hoot after +us.'--'Indeed,' replied my wife, 'I always imagined that my Charles +was fond of seeing his children neat and handsome about him.'--'You +may be as neat as you please,' interrupted I, 'and I shall love you +the better for it; but all this is not neatness, but frippery. These +rufflings, and pinkings, and patchings will only make us hated by all +the wives of our neighbours. No, my children,' continued I, more +gravely, 'those gowns may be altered into something of a plainer cut; +for finery is very unbecoming in us, who want the means of decency. I +do not know whether such flouncing and shredding is becoming even in +the rich, if we consider, upon a moderate calculation, that the +nakedness of the indigent world might be clothed from the trimmings of +the vain.' + +"This remonstrance had the proper effect: they went with great +composure, that very instant, to change their dress; and the next day +I had the satisfaction of finding my daughters, at their own request, +employed in cutting up their trains into Sunday waistcoats for Dick +and Bill, the two little ones; and, what was still more satisfactory, +the gowns seemed improved by this curtailing." And again when he +discovered the two girls making a wash for their faces:--"My daughters +seemed equally busy with the rest; and I observed them for a good +while cooking something over the fire. I at first supposed they were +assisting their mother, but little Dick informed me, in a whisper, +that they were making a wash for the face. Washes of all kinds I had a +natural antipathy to; for I knew that, instead of mending the +complexion, they spoil it. I therefore approached my chair by sly +degrees to the fire, and grasping the poker, as if it wanted mending, +seemingly by accident overturned the whole composition, and it was too +late to begin another." + +All this is done with such a light, homely touch, that one gets +familiarly to know these people without being aware of it. There is no +insistance. There is no dragging you along by the collar; confronting +you with certain figures; and compelling you to look at this and study +that. The artist stands by you, and laughs in his quiet way; and you +are laughing too, when suddenly you find that human beings have +silently come into the void before you; and you know them for friends; +and even after the vision has faded away, and the beautiful light and +colour and glory of romance-land have vanished, you cannot forget +them. They have become part of your life; you will take them to the +grave with you. + +The story, as every one perceives, has its obvious blemishes. "There +are an hundred faults in this Thing," says Goldsmith himself, in the +prefixed Advertisement. But more particularly, in the midst of all the +impossibilities taking place in and around the jail, when that +chameleon-like _deus ex machina_, Mr. Jenkinson, winds up the tale in +hot haste, Goldsmith pauses to put in a sort of apology. "Nor can I go +on without a reflection," he says gravely, "on those accidental +meetings, which, though they happen every day, seldom excite our +surprise but upon some extraordinary occasion. To what a fortuitous +concurrence do we not owe every pleasure and convenience of our lives! +How many seeming accidents must unite before we can be clothed or fed! +The peasant must be disposed to labour, the shower must fall, the wind +fill the merchant's sail, or numbers must want the usual supply." This +is Mr. Thackeray's "simple rogue" appearing again in adult life. +Certainly, if our supply of food and clothing depended on such +accidents as happened to make the Vicar's family happy all at once, +there would be a good deal of shivering and starvation in the world. +Moreover it may be admitted that on occasion Goldsmith's fine instinct +deserts him; and even in describing those domestic relations which are +the charm of the novel, he blunders into the unnatural. When Mr. +Burchell, for example, leaves the house in consequence of a quarrel +with Mrs. Primrose, the Vicar questions his daughter as to whether she +had received from that poor gentleman any testimony of his affection +for her. She replies No; but remembers to have heard him remark that +he never knew a woman who could find merit in a man that was poor. +"Such, my dear," continued the Vicar, "is the common cant of all the +unfortunate or idle. But I hope you have been taught to judge properly +of such men, and that it would be even madness to expect happiness +from one who has been so very bad an economist of his own. Your mother +and I have now better prospects for you. The next winter, which you +will probably spend in town, will give you opportunities of making a +more prudent choice." Now it is not at all likely that a father, +however anxious to have his daughter well married and settled, would +ask her so delicate a question in open domestic circle, and would then +publicly inform her that she was expected to choose a husband on her +forthcoming visit to town. + +Whatever may be said about any particular incident like this, the +atmosphere of the book is true. Goethe, to whom a German translation +of the _Vicar_ was read by Herder some four years after the +publication in England, not only declared it at the time to be one of +the best novels ever written, but again and again throughout his life +reverted to the charm and delight with which he had made the +acquaintance of the English "prose-idyll," and took it for granted +that it was a real picture of English life. Despite all the machinery +of Mr. Jenkinson's schemes, who could doubt it? Again and again there +are recurrent strokes of such vividness and naturalness that we yield +altogether to the necromancer. Look at this perfect picture--of human +emotion and outside nature--put in in a few sentences. The old +clergyman, after being in search of his daughter, has found her, and +is now--having left her in an inn--returning to his family and his +home. "And now my heart caught new sensations of pleasure, the nearer +I approached that peaceful mansion. As a bird that had been frighted +from its nest, my affections outwent my haste, and hovered round my +little fireside with all the rapture of expectation. I called up the +many fond things I had to say, and anticipated the welcome I was to +receive. I already felt my wife's tender embrace, and smiled at the +joy of my little ones. As I walked but slowly, the night waned apace. +The labourers of the day were all retired to rest; the lights were +out in every cottage; no sounds were heard but of the shrilling cock, +and the deep-mouthed watch-dog at hollow distance. I approached my +little abode of pleasure, and, before I was within a furlong of the +place, our honest mastiff came running to welcome me." "_The +deep-mouthed watch-dog at hollow distance_;"--what more perfect +description of the stillness of night was ever given? + +And then there are other qualities in this delightful _Vicar of +Wakefield_ than merely idyllic tenderness, and pathos, and sly humour. +There is a firm presentation of the crimes and brutalities of the +world. The pure light that shines within that domestic circle is all +the brighter because of the black outer ring that is here and there +indicated rather than described. How could we appreciate all the +simplicities of the good man's household, but for the rogueries with +which they are brought in contact? And although we laugh at Moses and +his gross of green spectacles, and the manner in which the Vicar's +wife and daughter are imposed on by Miss Wilhelmina Skeggs and Lady +Blarney, with their lords and ladies and their tributes to virtue, +there is no laughter demanded of us when we find the simplicity and +moral dignity of the Vicar meeting and beating the jeers and taunts of +the abandoned wretches in the prison. This is really a remarkable +episode. The author was under the obvious temptation to make much +comic material out of the situation; while another temptation, towards +the goody-goody side, was not far off. But the Vicar undertakes the +duty of reclaiming these castaways with a modest patience and +earnestness in every way in keeping with his character; while they, on +the other hand, are not too easily moved to tears of repentance. His +first efforts, it will be remembered, were not too successful. "Their +insensibility excited my highest compassion, and blotted my own +uneasiness from my mind. It even appeared a duty incumbent upon me to +attempt to reclaim them. I resolved, therefore, once more to return, +and, in spite of their contempt, to give them my advice, and conquer +them by my perseverance. Going, therefore, among them again, I +informed Mr. Jenkinson of my design, at which he laughed heartily, but +communicated it to the rest. The proposal was received with the +greatest good humour, as it promised to afford a new fund of +entertainment to persons who had now no other resource for mirth but +what could be derived from ridicule or debauchery. + +"I therefore read them a portion of the service with a loud, +unaffected voice, and found my audience perfectly merry upon the +occasion. Lewd whispers, groans of contrition burlesqued, winking and +coughing, alternately excited laughter. However, I continued with my +natural solemnity to read on, sensible that what I did might mend +some, but could itself receive no contamination from any. + +"After reading, I entered upon my exhortation, which was rather +calculated at first to amuse them than to reprove. I previously +observed, that no other motive but their welfare could induce me to +this; that I was their fellow-prisoner, and now got nothing by +preaching. I was sorry, I said, to hear them so very profane; because +they got nothing by it, but might lose a great deal: 'For be assured, +my friends,' cried I,--'for you are my friends, however the world may +disclaim your friendship,--though you swore twelve thousand oaths in +a day, it would not put one penny in your purse. Then what signifies +calling every moment upon the devil, and courting his friendship, +since you find how scurvily he uses you? He has given you nothing +here, you find, but a mouthful of oaths and an empty belly; and, by +the best accounts I have of him, he will give you nothing that's good +hereafter. + +"'If used ill in our dealings with one man, we naturally go elsewhere. +Were it not worth your while, then, just to try how you may like the +usage of another master, who gives you fair promises at least to come +to him? Surely, my friends, of all stupidity in the world, his must be +the greatest, who, after robbing a house, runs to the thief-takers for +protection. And yet, how are you more wise? You are all seeking +comfort from one that has already betrayed you, applying to a more +malicious being than any thief-taker of them all; for they only decoy +and then hang you; but he decoys and hangs, and, what is worst of all, +will not let you loose after the hangman has done.' + +"When I had concluded, I received the compliments of my audience, some +of whom came and shook me by the hand, swearing that I was a very +honest fellow, and that they desired my further acquaintance. I +therefore promised to repeat my lecture next day, and actually +conceived some hopes of making a reformation here; for it had ever +been my opinion, that no man was past the hour of amendment, every +heart lying open to the shafts of reproof, if the archer could but +take a proper aim." + +His wife and children, naturally dissuading him from an effort which +seemed to them only to bring ridicule upon him, are met by a grave +rebuke; and on the next morning he descends to the common prison, +where, he says, he found the prisoners very merry, expecting his +arrival, and each prepared to play some gaol-trick on the Doctor. + +"There was one whose trick gave more universal pleasure than all the +rest; for, observing the manner in which I had disposed my books on +the table before me, he very dexterously displaced one of them, and +put an obscene jest-book of his own in the place. However, I took no +notice of all that this mischievous group of little beings could do, +but went on, perfectly sensible that what was ridiculous in my attempt +would excite mirth only the first or second time, while what was +serious would be permanent. My design succeeded, and in less than six +days some were penitent, and all attentive. + +"It was now that I applauded my perseverance and address, at thus +giving sensibility to wretches divested of every moral feeling, and +now began to think of doing them temporal services also, by rendering +their situation somewhat more comfortable. Their time had hitherto +been divided between famine and excess, tumultuous riot and bitter +repining. Their only employment was quarrelling among each other, +playing at cribbage, and cutting tobacco-stoppers. From this last mode +of idle industry I took the hint of setting such as choose to work at +cutting pegs for tobacconists and shoemakers, the proper wood being +bought by a general subscription, and, when manufactured, sold by my +appointment; so that each earned something every day--a trifle indeed, +but sufficient to maintain him. + +"I did not stop here, but instituted fines for the punishment of +immorality, and rewards for peculiar industry. Thus, in less than a +fortnight I had formed them into something social and humane, and had +the pleasure of regarding myself as a legislator who had brought men +from their native ferocity into friendship and obedience." + +Of course, all this about gaols and thieves was calculated to shock +the nerves of those who liked their literature perfumed with +rose-water. Madame Riccoboni, to whom Burke had sent the book, wrote +to Garrick, "Le plaidoyer en faveur des voleurs, des petits larrons, +des gens de mauvaises moeurs, est fort eloigne de me plaire." +Others, no doubt, considered the introduction of Miss Skeggs and Lady +Blarney as "vastly low." But the curious thing is that the literary +critics of the day seem to have been altogether silent about the +book--perhaps they were "puzzled" by it, as Southey has suggested. Mr. +Forster, who took the trouble to search the periodical literature of +the time, says that, "apart from bald recitals of the plot, not a word +was said in the way of criticism about the book, either in praise or +blame." The _St. James's Chronicle_ did not condescend to notice its +appearance, and the _Monthly Review_ confessed frankly that nothing +was to be made of it. The better sort of newspapers, as well as the +more dignified reviews, contemptuously left it to the patronage of +_Lloyd's Evening Post_, the _London Chronicle_, and journals of that +class; which simply informed their readers that a new novel, called +the _Vicar of Wakefield_, had been published, that "the editor is +Doctor Goldsmith, who has affixed his name to an introductory +Advertisement, and that such and such were the incidents of the +story." Even his friends, with the exception of Burke, did not seem +to consider that any remarkable new birth in literature had occurred; +and it is probable that this was a still greater disappointment to +Goldsmith, who was so anxious to be thought well of at the Club. +However, the public took to the story. A second edition was published +in May; a third in August. Goldsmith, it is true, received no +pecuniary gain from this success, for, as we have seen, Johnson had +sold the novel outright to Francis Newbery; but his name was growing +in importance with the booksellers. + +There was need that it should, for his increasing expenses--his fine +clothes, his suppers, his whist at the Devil Tavern--were involving +him in deeper and deeper difficulties. How was he to extricate +himself?--or rather the question that would naturally occur to +Goldsmith was how was he to continue that hand-to-mouth existence that +had its compensations along with its troubles? Novels like the _Vicar +of Wakefield_ are not written at a moment's notice, even though any +Newbery, judging by results, is willing to double that L60 which +Johnson considered to be a fair price for the story at the time. There +was the usual resource of hack-writing; and, no doubt, Goldsmith was +compelled to fall back on that, if only to keep the elder Newbery, in +whose debt he was, in a good humour. But the author of the _Vicar of +Wakefield_ may be excused if he looked round to see if there was not +some more profitable work for him to turn his hand to. It was at this +time that he began to think of writing a comedy. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE GOOD-NATURED MAN. + + +Amid much miscellaneous work, mostly of the compilation order, the +play of the _Good-natured Man_ began to assume concrete form; insomuch +that Johnson, always the friend of this erratic Irishman, had promised +to write a Prologue for it. It is with regard to this Prologue that +Boswell tells a foolish and untrustworthy story about Goldsmith. Dr. +Johnson had recently been honoured by an interview with his Sovereign; +and the members of the Club were in the habit of flattering him by +begging for a repetition of his account of that famous event. On one +occasion, during this recital, Boswell relates, Goldsmith "remained +unmoved upon a sofa at some distance, affecting not to join in the +least in the eager curiosity of the company. He assigned as a reason +for his gloom and seeming inattention that he apprehended Johnson had +relinquished his purpose of furnishing him with a Prologue to his +play, with the hopes of which he had been flattered; but it was +strongly suspected that he was fretting with chagrin and envy at the +singular honour Doctor Johnson had lately enjoyed. At length the +frankness and simplicity of his natural character prevailed. He +sprang from the sofa, advanced to Johnson, and, in a kind of flutter, +from imagining himself in the situation which he had just been hearing +described, exclaimed, 'Well, you acquitted yourself in this +conversation better than I should have done; for I should have bowed +and stammered through the whole of it.'" It is obvious enough that the +only part of this anecdote which is quite worthy of credence is the +actual phrase used by Goldsmith, which is full of his customary +generosity and self-depreciation. All those "suspicions" of his envy +of his friend may safely be discarded, for they are mere guesswork; +even though it might have been natural enough for a man like +Goldsmith, conscious of his singular and original genius, to measure +himself against Johnson, who was merely a man of keen perception and +shrewd reasoning, and to compare the deference paid to Johnson with +the scant courtesy shown to himself. + +As a matter of fact, the Prologue was written by Dr. Johnson; and the +now complete comedy was, after some little arrangement of personal +differences between Goldsmith and Garrick, very kindly undertaken by +Reynolds, submitted for Garrick's approval. But nothing came of +Reynolds's intervention. Perhaps Goldsmith resented Garrick's airs of +patronage towards a poor devil of an author; perhaps Garrick was +surprised by the manner in which well-intentioned criticisms were +taken; at all events, after a good deal of shilly-shallying, the play +was taken out of Garrick's hands. Fortunately, a project was just at +this moment on foot for starting the rival theatre in Covent Garden, +under the management of George Colman; and to Colman Goldsmith's play +was forthwith consigned. The play was accepted; but it was a long time +before it was produced; and in that interval it may fairly be presumed +the _res angusta domi_ of Goldsmith did not become any more free and +generous than before. It was in this interval that the elder Newbery +died; Goldsmith had one patron the less. Another patron who offered +himself was civilly bowed to the door. This is an incident in +Goldsmith's career which, like his interview with the Earl of +Northumberland, should ever be remembered in his honour. The +Government of the day were desirous of enlisting on their behalf the +services of writers of somewhat better position than the mere +libellers whose pens were the slaves of anybody's purse; and a Mr. +Scott, a chaplain of Lord Sandwich, appears to have imagined that it +would be worth while to buy Goldsmith. He applied to Goldsmith in due +course; and this is an account of the interview. "I found him in a +miserable set of chambers in the Temple. I told him my authority; I +told him I was empowered to pay most liberally for his exertions; and, +would you believe it! he was so absurd as to say, 'I can earn as much +as will supply my wants without writing for any party; the assistance +you offer is therefore unnecessary to me.' And I left him in his +garret." Needy as he was, Goldsmith had too much self-respect to +become a paid libeller and cutthroat of public reputations. + +On the evening of Friday, the 29th of January, 1768, when Goldsmith +had now reached the age of forty, the comedy of _The Good-natured Man_ +was produced at Covent Garden Theatre. The Prologue had, according to +promise, been written by Johnson; and a very singular prologue it was. +Even Boswell was struck by the odd contrast between this sonorous +piece of melancholy and the fun that was to follow. "The first lines +of this Prologue," he conscientiously remarks, "are strongly +characteristical of the dismal gloom of his mind; which, in his case, +as in the case of all who are distressed with the same malady of +imagination, transfers to others its own feelings. Who could suppose +it was to introduce a comedy, when Mr. Bensley solemnly began-- + + "'Pressed with the load of life, the weary mind + Surveys the general toil of humankind'? + +But this dark ground might make Goldsmith's humour shine the more." +When we come to the comedy itself, we find but little bright humour in +the opening passages. The author is obviously timid, anxious, and +constrained. There is nothing of the brisk, confident vivacity with +which _She Stoops to Conquer_ opens. The novice does not yet +understand the art of making his characters explain themselves; and +accordingly the benevolent uncle and honest Jarvis indulge in a +conversation which, laboriously descriptive of the character of young +Honeywood, is spoken "at" the audience. With the entrance of young +Honeywood himself, Goldsmith endeavours to become a little more +sprightly; but there is still anxiety hanging over him, and the +epigrams are little more than merely formal antitheses. + + "_Jarvis._ This bill from your tailor; this from your + mercer; and this from the little broker in Crooked Lane. He + says he has been at a great deal of trouble to get back the + money you borrowed. + + _Hon._ That I don't know; but I'm sure we were at a great + deal of trouble in getting him to lend it. + + _Jar._ He has lost all patience. + + _Hon._ Then he has lost a very good thing. + + _Jar._ There's that ten guineas you were sending to the poor + gentleman and his children in the Fleet. I believe that + would stop his mouth for a while at least. + + _Hon._ Ay, Jarvis, but what will fill their mouths in the + mean time?" + +This young Honeywood, the hero of the play, is, and remains +throughout, a somewhat ghostly personage. He has attributes; but no +flesh or blood. There is much more substance in the next character +introduced--the inimitable Croaker, who revels in evil forebodings and +drinks deep of the luxury of woe. These are the two chief characters; +but then a play must have a plot. And perhaps it would not be fair, so +far as the plot is concerned, to judge of _The Good-natured Man_ +merely as a literary production. Intricacies that seem tedious and +puzzling on paper appear to be clear enough on the stage: it is much +more easy to remember the history and circumstances of a person whom +we see before us, than to attach these to a mere name--especially as +the name is sure to be clipped down from _Honeywood_ to _Hon._ and +from _Leontine_ to _Leon._ However, it is in the midst of all the +cross-purposes of the lovers that we once more come upon our old +friend Beau Tibbs--though Mr. Tibbs is now in much better +circumstances, and has been re-named by his creator Jack Lofty. +Garrick had objected to the introduction of Jack, on the ground that +he was only a distraction. But Goldsmith, whether in writing a novel +or a play, was more anxious to represent human nature than to prune a +plot, and paid but little respect to the unities, if only he could +arouse our interest. And who is not delighted with this Jack Lofty and +his "duchessy" talk--his airs of patronage, his mysterious hints, his +gay familiarity with the great, his audacious lying? + + "_Lofty._ Waller? Waller? Is he of the house? + + _Mrs. Croaker._ The modern poet of that name, sir. + + _Lof._ Oh, a modern! We men of business despise the moderns; + and as for the ancients, we have no time to read them. + Poetry is a pretty thing enough for our wives and daughters; + but not for us. Why now, here I stand that know nothing of + books. I say, madam, I know nothing of books; and yet, I + believe, upon a land-carriage fishery, a stamp act, or a + jag-hire, I can talk my two hours without feeling the want + of them. + + _Mrs. Cro._ The world is no stranger to Mr. Lofty's eminence + in every capacity. + + _Lof._ I vow to gad, madam, you make me blush. I'm nothing, + nothing, nothing in the world; a mere obscure gentleman. To + be sure, indeed, one or two of the present ministers are + pleased to represent me as a formidable man. I know they are + pleased to bespatter me at all their little dirty levees. + Yet, upon my soul, I wonder what they see in me to treat me + so! Measures, not men, have always been my mark; and I vow, + by all that's honourable, my resentment has never done the + men, as mere men, any manner of harm--that is, as mere men. + + _Mrs. Cro._ What importance, and yet what modesty! + + _Lof._ Oh, if you talk of modesty, madam, there, I own, I'm + accessible to praise: modesty is my foible: it was so the + Duke of Brentford used to say of me. 'I love Jack Lofty,' he + used to say: 'no man has a finer knowledge of things; quite + a man of information; and when he speaks upon his legs, by + the Lord he's prodigious, he scouts them; and yet all men + have their faults; too much modesty is his,' says his grace. + + _Mrs. Cro._ And yet, I dare say, you don't want assurance + when you come to solicit for your friends. + + _Lof._ Oh, there indeed I'm in bronze. Apropos! I have just + been mentioning Miss Richland's case to a certain personage; + we must name no names. When I ask, I am not to be put off, + madam. No, no, I take my friend by the button. A fine girl, + sir; great justice in her case. A friend of mine--borough + interest--business must be done, Mr. Secretary.--I say, Mr. + Secretary, her business must be done, sir. That's my way, + madam. + + _Mrs. Cro._ Bless me! you said all this to the Secretary of + State, did you? + + _Lof._ I did not say the Secretary, did I? Well, curse it, + since you have found me out, I will not deny it. It was to + the Secretary." + +Strangely enough, what may now seem to some of us the very best scene +in the _Good-natured Man_--the scene, that is, in which young +Honeywood, suddenly finding Miss Richland without, is compelled to +dress up the two bailiffs in possession of his house and introduce +them to her as gentlemen friends--was very nearly damning the play on +the first night of its production. The pit was of opinion that it was +"low;" and subsequently the critics took up the cry, and professed +themselves to be so deeply shocked by the vulgar humours of the +bailiffs that Goldsmith had to cut them out. But on the opening night +the anxious author, who had been rendered nearly distracted by the +cries and hisses produced by this scene, was somewhat reassured when +the audience began to laugh again over the tribulations of Mr. +Croaker. To the actor who played the part he expressed his warm +gratitude when the piece was over; assuring him that he had exceeded +his own conception of the character, and that "the fine comic richness +of his colouring made it almost appear as new to him as to any other +person in the house." + +The new play had been on the whole favourably received; and, when +Goldsmith went along afterwards to the Club, his companions were +doubtless not at all surprised to find him in good spirits. He was +even merrier than usual; and consented to sing his favourite ballad +about the Old Woman tossed in a Blanket. But those hisses and cries +were still rankling in his memory; and he himself subsequently +confessed that he was "suffering horrid tortures." Nay, when the other +members of the Club had gone, leaving him and Johnson together, he +"burst out a-crying, and even swore by ---- that he would never write +again." When Goldsmith told this story in after-days, Johnson was +naturally astonished; perhaps--himself not suffering much from an +excessive sensitiveness--he may have attributed that little burst of +hysterical emotion to the excitement of the evening increased by a +glass or two of punch, and determined therefore never to mention it. +"All which, Doctor," he said, "I thought had been a secret between you +and me; and I am sure I would not have said anything about it for the +world." Indeed there was little to cry over, either in the first +reception of the piece or in its subsequent fate. With the offending +bailiffs cut out, the comedy would seem to have been very fairly +successful. The proceeds of three of the evenings were Goldsmith's +payment; and in this manner he received L400. Then Griffin published +the play; and from this source Goldsmith received an additional L100; +so that altogether he was very well paid for his work. Moreover he had +appealed against the judgment of the pit and the dramatic critics, by +printing in the published edition the bailiff scene which had been +removed from the stage; and the _Monthly Review_ was so extremely kind +as to say that "the bailiff and his blackguard follower appeared +intolerable on the stage, yet we are not disgusted with them in the +perusal." Perhaps we have grown less scrupulous since then; but at all +events it would be difficult for anybody nowadays to find anything but +good-natured fun in that famous scene. There is an occasional "damn," +it is true; but then English officers have always been permitted that +little playfulness, and these two gentlemen were supposed to "serve in +the Fleet;" while if they had been particularly refined in their +speech and manner, how could the author have aroused Miss Richland's +suspicions? It is possible that the two actors who played the bailiff +and his follower may have introduced some vulgar "gag" into their +parts; but there is no warranty for anything of the kind in the play +as we now read it. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +GOLDSMITH IN SOCIETY. + + +The appearance of the _Good-natured Man_ ushered in a halcyon period +in Goldsmith's life. The _Traveller_ and the _Vicar_ had gained for +him only reputation: this new comedy put L500 in his pocket. Of course +that was too big a sum for Goldsmith to have about him long. +Four-fifths of it he immediately expended on the purchase and +decoration of a set of chambers in Brick Court, Middle Temple; with +the remainder he appears to have begun a series of entertainments in +this new abode, which were perhaps more remarkable for their mirth +than their decorum. There was no sort of frolic in which Goldsmith +would not indulge for the amusement of his guests; he would sing them +songs; he would throw his wig to the ceiling; he would dance a minuet. +And then they had cards, forfeits, blind-man's-buff, until Mr. +Blackstone, then engaged on his _Commentaries_ in the rooms below, was +driven nearly mad by the uproar. These parties would seem to have been +of a most nondescript character--chance gatherings of any obscure +authors or actors whom he happened to meet; but from time to time +there were more formal entertainments, at which Johnson, Percy, and +similar distinguished persons were present. Moreover, Dr. Goldsmith +himself was much asked out to dinner too; and so, not content with the +"Tyrian bloom, satin grain and garter, blue-silk breeches," which Mr. +Filby had provided for the evening of the production of the comedy, he +now had another suit "lined with silk, and gold buttons," that he +might appear in proper guise. Then he had his airs of consequence too. +This was his answer to an invitation from Kelly, who was his rival of +the hour: "I would with pleasure accept your kind invitation, but to +tell you the truth, my dear boy, my _Traveller_ has found me a home in +so many places, that I am engaged, I believe, three days. Let me see. +To-day I dine with Edmund Burke, to-morrow with Dr. Nugent, and the +next day with Topham Beauclerc; but I'll tell you what I'll do for +you, I'll dine with you on Saturday." Kelly told this story as against +Goldsmith; but surely there is not so much ostentation in the reply. +Directly after _Tristram Shandy_ was published, Sterne found himself +fourteen deep in dinner engagements: why should not the author of the +_Traveller_ and the _Vicar_ and the _Good-natured Man_ have his +engagements also? And perhaps it was but right that Mr. Kelly, who was +after all only a critic and scribbler, though he had written a play +which was for the moment enjoying an undeserved popularity, should be +given to understand that Dr. Goldsmith was not to be asked to a +hole-and-corner chop at a moment's notice. To-day he dines with Mr. +Burke; to-morrow with Dr. Nugent; the day after with Mr. Beauclerc. If +you wish to have the honour of his company, you may choose a day +after that; and then, with his new wig, with his coat of Tyrian bloom +and blue silk breeches, with a smart sword at his side, his +gold-headed cane in his hand, and his hat under his elbow, he will +present himself in due course. Dr. Goldsmith is announced, and makes +his grave bow; this is the man of genius about whom all the town is +talking; the friend of Burke, of Reynolds, of Johnson, of Hogarth; +this is not the ragged Irishman who was some time ago earning a crust +by running errands for an apothecary. + +Goldsmith's grand airs, however, were assumed but seldom; and they +never imposed on anybody. His acquaintances treated him with a +familiarity which testified rather to his good-nature than to their +good taste. Now and again, indeed, he was prompted to resent this +familiarity; but the effort was not successful. In the "high jinks" to +which he good-humouredly resorted for the entertainment of his guests +he permitted a freedom which it was afterwards not very easy to +discard; and as he was always ready to make a butt of himself for the +amusement of his friends and acquaintances, it came to be recognised +that anybody was allowed to play off a joke on "Goldy." The jokes, +such of them as have been put on record, are of the poorest sort. The +horse-collar is never far off. One gladly turns from these dismal +humours of the tavern and the club to the picture of Goldsmith's +enjoying what he called a "Shoemaker's Holiday" in the company of one +or two chosen intimates. Goldsmith, baited and bothered by the wits of +a public-house, became a different being when he had assumed the +guidance of a small party of chosen friends bent on having a day's +frugal pleasure. We are indebted to one Cooke, a neighbour of +Goldsmith's in the Temple, not only for a most interesting description +of one of those shoemaker's holidays, but also for the knowledge that +Goldsmith had even now begun writing the _Deserted Village_, which was +not published till 1770, two years later. Goldsmith, though he could +turn out plenty of manufactured stuff for the booksellers, worked +slowly at the special story or poem with which he meant to "strike for +honest fame." This Mr. Cooke, calling on him one morning, discovered +that Goldsmith had that day written these ten lines of the _Deserted +Village_:-- + + "Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease, + Seats of my youth, when every sport could please, + How often have I loitered o'er thy green, + Where humble happiness endeared each scene! + How often have I paused on every charm, + The sheltered cot, the cultivated farm, + The never-failing brook, the busy mill, + The decent church, that topt the neighbouring hill, + The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade, + For talking age and whispering lovers made!" + +"Come," said he, "let me tell you this is no bad morning's work; and +now, my dear boy, if you are not better engaged, I should be glad to +enjoy a shoemaker's holiday with you." "A shoemaker's holiday," +continues the writer of these reminiscences, "was a day of great +festivity to poor Goldsmith, and was spent in the following innocent +manner. Three or four of his intimate friends rendezvoused at his +chambers to breakfast about ten o'clock in the morning; at eleven they +proceeded by the City Road and through the fields to Highbury Barn to +dinner; about six o'clock in the evening they adjourned to White +Conduit House to drink tea; and concluded by supping at the Grecian or +Temple Exchange coffee-house or at the Globe in Fleet Street. There +was a very good ordinary of two dishes and pastry kept at Highbury +Barn about this time at tenpence per head, including a penny to the +waiter; and the company generally consisted of literary characters, a +few Templars, and some citizens who had left off trade. The whole +expenses of the day's fete never exceeded a crown, and oftener were +from three-and-sixpence to four shillings; for which the party +obtained good air and exercise, good living, the example of simple +manners, and good conversation." + +It would have been well indeed for Goldsmith had he been possessed of +sufficient strength of character to remain satisfied with these simple +pleasures, and to have lived the quiet and modest life of a man of +letters on such income as he could derive from the best work he could +produce. But it is this same Mr. Cooke who gives decisive testimony as +to Goldsmith's increasing desire to "shine" by imitating the +expenditure of the great; the natural consequence of which was that he +only plunged himself into a morass of debt, advances, contracts for +hack-work, and misery. "His debts rendered him at times so melancholy +and dejected, that I am sure he felt himself a very unhappy man." +Perhaps it was with some sudden resolve to flee from temptation, and +grapple with the difficulties that beset him, that he, in conjunction +with another Temple neighbour, Mr. Bott, rented a cottage some eight +miles down the Edgware Road; and here he set to work on the _History +of Rome_, which he was writing for Davies. Apart from this hack-work, +now rendered necessary by his debt, it is probable that one strong +inducement leading him to this occasional seclusion was the progress +he might be able to make with the _Deserted Village_. Amid all his +town gaieties and country excursions, amid his dinners and suppers and +dances, his borrowings, and contracts, and the hurried literary +produce of the moment, he never forgot what was due to his reputation +as an English poet. The journalistic bullies of the day might vent +their spleen and envy on him; his best friends might smile at his +conversational failures; the wits of the tavern might put up the +horse-collar as before; but at least he had the consolation of his +art. No one better knew than himself the value of those finished and +musical lines he was gradually adding to the beautiful poem, the +grace, and sweetness, and tender, pathetic charm of which make it one +of the literary treasures of the English people. + +The sorrows of debt were not Goldsmith's only trouble at this time. +For some reason or other he seems to have become the especial object +of spiteful attack on the part of the literary cut-throats of the day. +And Goldsmith, though he might listen with respect to the wise advice +of Johnson on such matters, was never able to cultivate Johnson's +habit of absolute indifference to anything that might be said or sung +of him. "The Kenricks, Campbells, MacNicols, and Hendersons," says +Lord Macaulay--speaking of Johnson, "did their best to annoy him, in +the hope that he would give them importance by answering them." But +the reader will in vain search his works for any allusion to Kenrick +or Campbell, to MacNicol or Henderson. One Scotchman, bent on +vindicating the fame of Scotch learning, defied him to the combat in a +detestable Latin hexameter-- + + 'Maxime, si tu vis, cupio contendere tecum.' + +But Johnson took no notice of the challenge. He had learned, both from +his own observation and from literary history, in which he was deeply +read, that the place of books in the public estimation is fixed, not +by what is written about them, but by what is written in them; and +that an author whose works are likely to live, is very unwise if he +stoops to wrangle with detractors whose works are certain to die. He +always maintained that fame was a shuttlecock which could be kept up +only by being beaten back, as well as beaten forward, and which would +soon fall if there were only one battledore. No saying was oftener in +his mouth than that fine apophthegm of Bentley, that no man was ever +written down but by himself. + +It was not given to Goldsmith to feel "like the Monument" on any +occasion whatsoever. He was anxious to have the esteem of his friends; +he was sensitive to a degree; denunciation or malice, begotten of envy +that Johnson would have passed unheeded, wounded him to the quick. +"The insults to which he had to submit," Thackeray wrote with a quick +and warm sympathy, "are shocking to read of--slander, contumely, +vulgar satire, brutal malignity perverting his commonest motives and +actions: he had his share of these, and one's anger is roused at +reading of them, as it is at seeing a woman insulted or a child +assaulted, at the notion that a creature so very gentle, and weak, +and full of love should have had to suffer so." Goldsmith's revenge, +his defence of himself, his appeal to the public, were the +_Traveller_, the _Vicar of Wakefield_, the _Deserted Village_; but +these came at long intervals; and in the meantime he had to bear with +the anonymous malignity that pursued him as best he might. No doubt, +when Burke was entertaining him at dinner; and when Johnson was openly +deferring to him in conversation at the Club; and when Reynolds was +painting his portrait, he could afford to forget Mr. Kenrick and the +rest of the libelling clan. + +The occasions on which Johnson deferred to Goldsmith in conversation +were no doubt few; but at all events the bludgeon of the great Cham +would appear to have come down less frequently on "honest Goldy" than on +the other members of that famous coterie. It could come down heavily +enough. "Sir," said an incautious person, "drinking drives away care, +and makes us forget whatever is disagreeable. Would not you allow a man +to drink for that reason?" "Yes, sir," was the reply, "if he sat next +_you_." Johnson, however, was considerate towards Goldsmith, partly +because of his affection for him, and partly because he saw under what +disadvantages Goldsmith entered the lists. For one thing, the +conversation of those evenings would seem to have drifted continually +into the mere definition of phrases. Now Johnson had spent years of his +life, during the compilation of his Dictionary, in doing nothing else +but defining; and, whenever the dispute took a phraseological turn, he +had it all his own way. Goldsmith, on the other hand, was apt to become +confused in his eager self-consciousness. "Goldsmith," said Johnson to +Boswell, "should not be for ever attempting to shine in conversation; he +has not temper for it, he is so much mortified when he fails.... When he +contends, if he gets the better, it is a very little addition to a man +of his literary reputation: if he does not get the better, he is +miserably vexed." Boswell, nevertheless, admits that Goldsmith was +"often very fortunate in his witty contests, even when he entered the +lists with Johnson himself," and goes on to tell how Goldsmith, relating +the fable of the little fishes who petitioned Jupiter, and perceiving +that Johnson was laughing at him, immediately said, "Why, Dr. Johnson, +this is not so easy as you seem to think; for if you were to make little +fishes talk, they would talk like WHALES." Who but Goldsmith would have +dared to play jokes on the sage? At supper they have rumps and kidneys. +The sage expresses his approval of "the pretty little things;" but +profoundly observes that one must eat a good many of them before being +satisfied. "Ay, but how many of them," asks Goldsmith, "would reach to +the moon?" The sage professes his ignorance; and, indeed, remarks that +that would exceed even Goldsmith's calculations; when the practical +joker observes, "Why, _one_, sir, if it were long enough." Johnson was +completely beaten on this occasion. "Well, sir, I have deserved it. I +should not have provoked so foolish an answer by so foolish a question." + +It was Johnson himself, moreover, who told the story of Goldsmith and +himself being in Poets' Corner; of his saying to Goldsmith + + "Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis," + +and of Goldsmith subsequently repeating the quotation when, having +walked towards Fleet Street, they were confronted by the heads on +Temple Bar. Even when Goldsmith was opinionated and wrong, Johnson's +contradiction was in a manner gentle. "If you put a tub full of blood +into a stable, the horses are like to go mad," observed Goldsmith. "I +doubt that," was Johnson's reply. "Nay, sir, it is a fact well +authenticated." Here Thrale interposed to suggest that Goldsmith +should have the experiment tried in the stable; but Johnson merely +said that, if Goldsmith began making these experiments, he would never +get his book written at all. Occasionally, of course, Goldsmith was +tossed and gored just like another. "But, sir," he had ventured to +say, in opposition to Johnson, "when people live together who have +something as to which they disagree, and which they want to shun, they +will be in the situation mentioned in the story of Bluebeard, 'You may +look into all the chambers but one.' But we should have the greatest +inclination to look into that chamber, to talk of that subject." Here, +according to Boswell, Johnson answered in a loud voice, "Sir, I am not +saying that _you_ could live in friendship with a man from whom you +differ as to one point; I am only saying that _I_ could do it." But +then again he could easily obtain pardon from the gentle Goldsmith for +any occasional rudeness. One evening they had a sharp passage of arms +at dinner; and thereafter the company adjourned to the Club, where +Goldsmith sate silent and depressed. "Johnson perceived this," says +Boswell, "and said aside to some of us, 'I'll make Goldsmith forgive +me'; and then called to him in a loud voice, 'Dr. Goldsmith, something +passed to-day where you and I dined: I ask your pardon.' Goldsmith +answered placidly, 'It must be much from you, sir, that I take ill.' +And so at once the difference was over, and they were on as easy terms +as ever, and Goldsmith rattled away as usual." For the rest, Johnson +was the constant and doughty champion of Goldsmith as a man of +letters. He would suffer no one to doubt the power and versatility of +that genius which he had been amongst the first to recognise and +encourage. "Whether, indeed, we take him as a poet, as a comic writer, +or as an historian," he announced to an assemblage of distinguished +persons met together at dinner at Mr. Beauclerc's, "_he stands in the +first class_." And there was no one living who dared dispute the +verdict--at least in Johnson's hearing. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +The Deserted Village. + + +But it is time to return to the literary performances that gained for +this uncouth Irishman so great an amount of consideration from the +first men of his time. The engagement with Griffin about the _History +of Animated Nature_ was made at the beginning of 1769. The work was to +occupy eight volumes; and Dr. Goldsmith was to receive eight hundred +guineas for the complete copyright. Whether the undertaking was +originally a suggestion of Griffin's, or of Goldsmith's own, does not +appear. If it was the author's, it was probably only the first means +that occurred to him of getting another advance; and that +advance--L500 on account--he did actually get. But if it was the +suggestion of the publisher, Griffin must have been a bold man. A +writer whose acquaintance with animated nature was such as to allow +him to make the "insidious tiger" a denizen of the backwoods of +Canada,[2] was not a very safe authority. But perhaps Griffin had +consulted Johnson before making this bargain; and we know that +Johnson, though continually remarking on Goldsmith's extraordinary +ignorance of facts, was of opinion that the _History of Animated +Nature_ would be "as entertaining as a Persian tale." However, +Goldsmith--no doubt after he had spent the five hundred +guineas--tackled the work in earnest. When Boswell subsequently went +out to call on him at another rural retreat he had taken on the +Edgware Road, Boswell and Mickle, the translator of the _Lusiad_, +found Goldsmith from home; "but, having a curiosity to see his +apartment, we went in and found curious scraps of descriptions of +animals scrawled upon the wall with a black-lead pencil." Meanwhile, +this _Animated Nature_ being in hand, the _Roman History_ was +published, and was very well received by the critics and by the +public. "Goldsmith's abridgment," Johnson declared, "is better than +that of Lucius Florus or Eutropius; and I will venture to say that if +you compare him with Vertot, in the same places of the _Roman +History_, you will find that he excels Vertot. Sir, he has the art of +compiling, and of saying everything he has to say in a pleasing +manner." + +[Footnote 2: See _Citizen of the World_, Letter XVII.] + +So thought the booksellers too; and the success of the _Roman History_ +only involved him in fresh projects of compilation. By an offer of +L500 Davies induced him to lay aside for the moment the _Animated +Nature_ and begin "An History of England, from the Birth of the +British Empire to the death of George the Second, in four volumes +octavo." He also about this time undertook to write a Life of Thomas +Parnell. Here, indeed, was plenty of work, and work promising good +pay; but the depressing thing is that Goldsmith should have been the +man who had to do it. He may have done it better than any one else +could have done--indeed, looking over the results of all that +drudgery, we recognise now the happy turns of expression which were +never long absent from Goldsmith's prose-writing--but the world could +well afford to sacrifice all the task-work thus got through for +another poem like the _Deserted Village_ or the _Traveller_. Perhaps +Goldsmith considered he was making a fair compromise when, for the +sake of his reputation, he devoted a certain portion of his time to +his poetical work, and then, to have money for fine clothes and high +jinks, gave the rest to the booksellers. One critic, on the appearance +of the _Roman History_, referred to the _Traveller_, and remarked that +it was a pity that the "author of one of the best poems that has +appeared since those of Mr. Pope, should not apply wholly to works of +imagination." We may echo that regret now; but Goldsmith would at the +time have no doubt replied that, if he had trusted to his poems, he +would never have been able to pay L400 for chambers in the Temple. In +fact he said as much to Lord Lisburn at one of the Academy dinners: "I +cannot afford to court the draggle-tail muses, my Lord; they would let +me starve; but by my other labours I can make shift to eat, and drink, +and have good clothes." And there is little use in our regretting now +that Goldsmith was not cast in a more heroic mould; we have to take +him as he is; and be grateful for what he has left us. + +It is a grateful relief to turn from these booksellers' contracts and +forced labours to the sweet clear note of singing that one finds in +the _Deserted Village_. This poem, after having been repeatedly +announced and as often withdrawn for further revision, was at last +published on the 26th of May, 1770, when Goldsmith was in his +forty-second year. The leading idea of it he had already thrown out in +certain lines in the _Traveller_:-- + + "Have we not seen, round Britain's peopled shore, + Her useful sons exchanged for useless ore? + Seen all her triumphs but destruction haste, + Like flaring tapers brightening as they waste? + Seen opulence, her grandeur to maintain, + Lead stern depopulation in her train, + And over fields where scattered hamlets rose + In barren solitary pomp repose? + Have we not seen at pleasure's lordly call + The smiling long-frequented village fall? + Beheld the duteous son, the sire decayed, + The modest matron, and the blushing maid, + Forced from their homes, a melancholy train, + To traverse climes beyond the western main; + Where wild Oswego spreads her swamps around, + And Niagara stuns with thundering sound?" + +--and elsewhere, in recorded conversations of his, we find that he had +somehow got it into his head that the accumulation of wealth in a +country was the parent of all evils, including depopulation. We need +not stay here to discuss Goldsmith's position as a political +economist; even although Johnson seems to sanction his theory in the +four lines he contributed to the end of the poem. Nor is it worth +while returning to that objection of Lord Macaulay's which has already +been mentioned in these pages, further than to repeat that the poor +Irish village in which Goldsmith was brought up, no doubt looked to +him as charming as any Auburn, when he regarded it through the +softening and beautifying mist of years. It is enough that the +abandonment by a number of poor people of the homes in which they and +theirs have lived their lives, is one of the most pathetic facts in +our civilisation; and that out of the various circumstances +surrounding this forced migration Goldsmith has made one of the most +graceful and touching poems in the English language. It is clear +bird-singing; but there is a pathetic note in it. That imaginary +ramble through the Lissoy that is far away has recalled more than his +boyish sports; it has made him look back over his own life--the life +of an exile. + + "I still had hopes, my latest hours to crown, + Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down; + To husband out life's taper at the close, + And keep the flame from wasting by repose: + I still had hopes, for pride attends us still, + Amidst the swains to show my book-learned skill, + Around my fire an evening group to draw, + And tell of all I felt, and all I saw; + And, as a hare whom hounds and horns pursue + Pants to the place from whence at first he flew, + I still had hopes, my long vexations past, + Here to return--and die at home at last." + +Who can doubt that it was of Lissoy he was thinking? Sir Walter Scott, +writing a generation ago, said that "the church which tops the +neighbouring hill," the mill and the brook were still to be seen in +the Irish village; and that even + + "The hawthorn bush with seats beneath the shade + For talking age and whispering lovers made," + +had been identified by the indefatigable tourist, and was of course +being cut to pieces to make souvenirs. But indeed it is of little +consequence whether we say that Auburn is an English village, or +insist that it is only Lissoy idealised, as long as the thing is true +in itself. And we know that this is true: it is not that one sees the +place as a picture, but that one seems to be breathing its very +atmosphere, and listening to the various cries that thrill the "hollow +silence." + + "Sweet was the sound, when oft at evening's close + Up yonder hill the village murmur rose. + There, as I past with careless steps and slow, + The mingling notes came softened from below; + The swain responsive as the milk-maid sung, + The sober herd that lowed to meet their young, + The noisy geese that gabbled o'er the pool, + The playful children just let loose from school, + The watch-dog's voice that bayed the whispering wind, + And the loud laugh that spake the vacant mind." + +Nor is it any romantic and impossible peasantry that is gradually +brought before us. There are no Norvals in Lissoy. There is the old +woman--Catherine Geraghty, they say, was her name--who gathered +cresses in the ditches near her cabin. There is the village preacher +whom Mrs. Hodson, Goldsmith's sister, took to be a portrait of their +father; but whom others have identified as Henry Goldsmith, and even +as the uncle Contarine: they may all have contributed. And then comes +Paddy Byrne. Amid all the pensive tenderness of the poem this +description of the schoolmaster, with its strokes of demure humour, is +introduced with delightful effect. + + "Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way, + With blossom'd furze unprofitably gay, + There, in his noisy mansion, skilled to rule, + The village master taught his little school. + A man severe he was, and stern to view; + I knew him well, and every truant knew: + Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace + The day's disasters in his morning face; + Full well they laughed with counterfeited glee + At all his jokes, for many a joke had he; + Full well the busy whisper circling round + Conveyed the dismal tidings when he frowned. + Yet he was kind, or, if severe in aught, + The love he bore to learning was in fault; + The village all declared how much he knew: + 'Twas certain he could write, and cipher too: + Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage, + And e'en the story ran that he could gauge: + In arguing, too, the parson owned his skill; + For e'en though vanquished, he could argue still; + While words of learned length and thundering sound + Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around; + And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew + That one small head could carry all he knew." + +All this is so simple and natural that we cannot fail to believe in +the reality of Auburn, or Lissoy, or whatever the village may be +supposed to be. We visit the clergyman's cheerful fireside; and look +in on the noisy school; and sit in the evening in the ale house to +listen to the profound politics talked there. But the crisis comes. +Auburn _delenda est_. Here, no doubt, occurs the least probable part +of the poem. Poverty of soil is a common cause of emigration; land +that produces oats (when it can produce oats at all) three-fourths +mixed with weeds, and hay chiefly consisting of rushes, naturally +discharges its surplus population as families increase; and though the +wrench of parting is painful enough, the usual result is a change from +starvation to competence. It more rarely happens that a district of +peace and plenty, such as Auburn was supposed to see around it, is +depopulated to add to a great man's estate. + + "The man of wealth and pride + Takes up a space that many poor supplied; + Space for his lake, his park's extended bounds, + Space for his horses, equipage, and hounds: + + * * * * * + + His seat, where solitary sports are seen, + Indignant spurns the cottage from the green:" + +--and so forth. This seldom happens; but it does happen; and it has +happened, in our own day, in England. It is within the last twenty +years that an English landlord, having faith in his riches, bade a +village be removed and cast elsewhere, so that it should no longer be +visible from his windows: and it was forthwith removed. But any +solitary instance like this is not sufficient to support the theory +that wealth and luxury are inimical to the existence of a hardy +peasantry; and so we must admit, after all, that it is poetical +exigency rather than political economy that has decreed the +destruction of the loveliest village of the plain. Where, asks the +poet, are the driven poor to find refuge, when even the fenceless +commons are seized upon and divided by the rich? In the great +cities?-- + + "To see profusion that he must not share; + To see ten thousand baneful arts combined + To pamper luxury and thin mankind." + +It is in this description of a life in cities that there occurs an +often-quoted passage, which has in it one of the most perfect lines in +English poetry:-- + + "Ah, turn thine eyes + Where the poor houseless shivering female lies. + She once, perhaps, in village plenty blest, + Has wept at tales of innocence distrest; + Her modest looks the cottage might adorn, + Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn; + Now lost to all; her friends, her virtue fled, + Near her betrayer's door she lays her head. + And, pinch'd with cold, and shrinking from the shower, + With heavy heart deplores that luckless hour, + When idly first, ambitious of the town, + She left her wheel and robes of country brown." + +Goldsmith wrote in a pre-Wordsworthian age, when, even in the realms +of poetry, a primrose was not much more than a primrose; but it is +doubtful whether, either before, during, or since Wordsworth's time +the sentiment that the imagination can infuse into the common and +familiar things around us ever received more happy expression than in +the well-known line, + + "_Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn._" + +No one has as yet succeeded in defining accurately and concisely what +poetry is; but at all events this line is surcharged with a certain +quality which is conspicuously absent in such a production as the +_Essay on Man_. Another similar line is to be found further on in the +description of the distant scenes to which the proscribed people are +driven: + + "Through torrid tracts with fainting steps they go, + _Where wild Altama murmurs to their woe._" + +Indeed, the pathetic side of emigration has never been so powerfully +presented to us as in this poem-- + + "When the poor exiles, every pleasure past, + Hung round the bowers, and fondly looked their last, + And took a long farewell, and wished in vain + For seats like these beyond the western main, + And shuddering still to face the distant deep, + Returned and wept, and still returned to weep. + + * * * * * + + Even now, methinks, as pondering here I stand, + I see the rural virtues leave the land. + Down where yon anchoring vessel spreads the sail, + That idly waiting flaps with every gale, + Downward they move a melancholy band, + Pass from the shore, and darken all the strand. + Contented toil, and hospitable care, + And kind connubial tenderness are there; + And piety with wishes placed above, + And steady loyalty, and faithful love." + +And worst of all, in this imaginative departure, we find that Poetry +herself is leaving our shores. She is now to try her voice + + "On Torno's cliffs or Pambamarca's side;" + +and the poet, in the closing lines of the poem, bids her a passionate +and tender farewell:-- + + "And thou, sweet Poetry, thou loveliest maid, + Still first to fly where sensual joys invade; + Unfit in these degenerate times of shame + To catch the heart, or strike for honest fame; + Dear charming nymph, neglected and decried, + My shame in crowds, my solitary pride; + Thou source of all my bliss, and all my woe, + That found'st me poor at first, and keep'st me so; + Thou guide by which the nobler arts excel, + Thou nurse of every virtue, fare thee well! + Farewell, and O! where'er thy voice be tried, + On Torno's cliffs, or Pambamarca's side, + Whether where equinoctial fervours glow, + Or winter wraps the polar world in snow, + Still let thy voice, prevailing over time, + Redress the rigours of the inclement clime; + Aid slighted truth with thy persuasive strain; + Teach erring man to spurn the rage of gain: + Teach him, that states of native strength possest, + Though very poor, may still be very blest; + That trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay, + As ocean sweeps the laboured mole away; + While self-dependent power can time defy, + As rocks resist the billows and the sky." + +So ends this graceful, melodious, tender poem, the position of which +in English literature, and in the estimation of all who love English +literature, has not been disturbed by any fluctuations of literary +fashion. We may give more attention at the moment to the new +experiments of the poetic method; but we return only with renewed +gratitude to the old familiar strain, not the least merit of which is +that it has nothing about it of foreign tricks or graces. In English +literature there is nothing more thoroughly English than these +writings produced by an Irishman. And whether or not it was Paddy +Byrne, and Catherine Geraghty, and the Lissoy ale-house that +Goldsmith had in his mind when he was writing the poem, is not of much +consequence: the manner and language and feeling are all essentially +English; so that we never think of calling Goldsmith anything but an +English poet. + +The poem met with great and immediate success. Of course everything +that Dr. Goldsmith now wrote was read by the public; he had not to +wait for the recommendation of the reviews; but, in this case, even +the reviews had scarcely anything but praise in the welcome of his new +book. It was dedicated, in graceful and ingenious terms, to Sir Joshua +Reynolds, who returned the compliment by painting a picture and +placing on the engraving of it this inscription: "This attempt to +express a character in the _Deserted Village_ is dedicated to Dr. +Goldsmith by his sincere friend and admirer, Sir Joshua Reynolds." +What Goldsmith got from Griffin for the poem is not accurately known; +and this is a misfortune, for the knowledge would have enabled us to +judge whether at that time it was possible for a poet to court the +draggle-tail muses without risk of starvation. But if fame were his +chief object in the composition of the poem, he was sufficiently +rewarded; and it is to be surmised that by this time the people in +Ireland--no longer implored to get subscribers--had heard of the proud +position won by the vagrant youth who had "taken the world for his +pillow" some eighteen years before. + +That his own thoughts had sometimes wandered back to the scenes and +friends of his youth during this labour of love, we know from his +letters. In January of this year, while as yet the _Deserted Village_ +was not quite through the press, he wrote to his brother Maurice; and +expressed himself as most anxious to hear all about the relatives from +whom he had been so long parted. He has something to say about himself +too; wishes it to be known that the King has lately been pleased to +make him Professor of Ancient History "in a Royal Academy of Painting +which he has just established;" but gives no very flourishing account +of his circumstances. "Honours to one in my situation are something +like ruffles to a man that wants a shirt." However, there is some +small legacy of fourteen or fifteen pounds left him by his uncle +Contarine, which he understands to be in the keeping of his cousin +Lawder; and to this wealth he is desirous of foregoing all claim: his +relations must settle how it may be best expended. But there is not a +reference to his literary achievements, or the position won by them; +not the slightest yielding to even a pardonable vanity; it is a +modest, affectionate letter. The only hint that Maurice Goldsmith +receives of the esteem in which his brother is held in London, is +contained in a brief mention of Johnson, Burke, and others as his +friends. "I have sent my cousin Jenny a miniature picture of myself, +as I believe it is the most acceptable present I can offer. I have +ordered it to be left for her at George Faulkenor's, folded in a +letter. The face, you well know, is ugly enough; but it is finely +painted. I will shortly also send my friends over the Shannon some +mezzotinto prints of myself, and some more of my friends here, such as +Burke, Johnson, Reynolds, and Colman. I believe I have written an +hundred letters to different friends in your country, and never +received an answer from any of them. I do not know how to account for +this, or why they are unwilling to keep up for me those regards which +I must ever retain for them." The letter winds up with an appeal for +news, news, news. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +OCCASIONAL WRITINGS. + + +Some two months after the publication of the _Deserted Village_, when +its success had been well assured, Goldsmith proposed to himself the +relaxation of a little Continental tour; and he was accompanied by +three ladies, Mrs. Horneck and her two pretty daughters, who doubtless +took more charge of him than he did of them. This Mrs. Horneck, the +widow of a certain Captain Horneck, was connected with Reynolds, while +Burke was the guardian of the two girls; so that it was natural that +they should make the acquaintance of Dr. Goldsmith. A foolish attempt +has been made to weave out of the relations supposed to exist between +the younger of the girls and Goldsmith an imaginary romance; but there +is not the slightest actual foundation for anything of the kind. +Indeed the best guide we can have to the friendly and familiar terms +on which he stood with regard to the Hornecks and their circle, is the +following careless and jocular reply to a chance invitation sent him +by the two sisters:-- + + "Your mandate I got, + You may all go to pot; + Had your senses been right, + You'd have sent before night; + As I hope to be saved, + I put off being shaved; + For I could not make bold, + While the matter was cold, + To meddle in suds, + Or to put on my duds; + So tell Horneck and Nesbitt + And Baker and his bit, + And Kauffman beside, + And the Jessamy bride; + With the rest of the crew, + The Reynoldses two, + Little Comedy's face + And the Captain in lace. + + * * * * * + + Yet how can I when vext + Thus stray from my text? + Tell each other to rue + Your Devonshire crew, + For sending so late + To one of my state. + But 'tis Reynolds's way + From wisdom to stray, + And Angelica's whim + To be frolic like him. + But, alas! your good worships, how could they be wiser, + When both have been spoiled in to-day's _Advertiser_?" + + * * * * * + +"The Jessamy Bride" was the pet nickname he had bestowed on the +younger Miss Horneck--the heroine of the speculative romance just +mentioned; "Little Comedy" was her sister; "the Captain in lace" their +brother, who was in the Guards. No doubt Mrs. Horneck and her +daughters were very pleased to have with them on this Continental +trip so distinguished a person as Dr. Goldsmith; and he must have been +very ungrateful if he was not glad to be provided with such charming +companions. The story of the sudden envy he displayed of the +admiration excited by the two handsome young Englishwomen as they +stood at a hotel-window in Lille, is so incredibly foolish that it +needs scarcely be repeated here; unless to repeat the warning that, if +ever anybody was so dense as not to see the humour of that piece of +acting, one had better look with grave suspicion on every one of the +stories told about Goldsmith's vanities and absurdities. + +Even with such pleasant companions, the trip to Paris was not +everything he had hoped. "I find," he wrote to Reynolds from Paris, +"that travelling at twenty and at forty are very different things. I +set out with all my confirmed habits about me, and can find nothing on +the Continent so good as when I formerly left it. One of our chief +amusements here is scolding at everything we meet with, and praising +every thing and every person we left at home. You may judge therefore +whether your name is not frequently bandied at table among us. To tell +you the truth, I never thought I could regret your absence so much, as +our various mortifications on the road have often taught me to do. I +could tell you of disasters and adventures without number, of our +lying in barns, and of my being half poisoned with a dish of green +peas, of our quarrelling with postilions and being cheated by our +landladies, but I reserve all this for a happy hour which I expect to +share with you upon my return." The fact is that although Goldsmith +had seen a good deal of foreign travel, the manner of his making the +grand tour in his youth was not such as to fit him for acting as +courier to a party of ladies. However, if they increased his troubles, +they also shared them; and in this same letter he bears explicit +testimony to the value of their companionship. "I will soon be among +you, better pleased with my situation at home than I ever was before. +And yet I must say, that if anything could make France pleasant, the +very good women with whom I am at present would certainly do it. I +could say more about that, but I intend showing them this letter +before I send it away." Mrs. Horneck, Little Comedy, the Jessamy +Bride, and the Professor of Ancient History at the Royal Academy, all +returned to London; the last to resume his round of convivialities at +taverns, excursions into regions of more fashionable amusement along +with Reynolds, and task-work aimed at the pockets of the booksellers. + +It was a happy-go-lucky sort of life. We find him now showing off his +fine clothes and his sword and wig at Ranelagh Gardens, and again shut +up in his chambers compiling memoirs and histories in hot haste; now +the guest of Lord Clare, and figuring at Bath, and again delighting +some small domestic circle by his quips and cranks; playing jokes for +the amusement of children, and writing comic letters in verse to their +elders; everywhere and at all times merry, thoughtless, good-natured. +And, of course, we find also his humorous pleasantries being mistaken +for blundering stupidity. In perfect good faith Boswell describes how +a number of people burst out laughing when Goldsmith publicly +complained that he had met Lord Camden at Lord Clare's house in the +country, "and he took no more notice of me than if I had been an +ordinary man." Goldsmith's claiming to be a very extraordinary person +was precisely a stroke of that humorous self-depreciation in which he +was continually indulging; and the Jessamy Bride has left it on record +that "on many occasions, from the peculiar manner of his humour, and +assumed frown of countenance, what was often uttered in jest was +mistaken by those who did not know him for earnest." This would appear +to have been one of those occasions. The company burst out laughing at +Goldsmith's having made a fool of himself; and Johnson was compelled +to come to his rescue. "Nay, gentlemen, Dr. Goldsmith is in the right. +A nobleman ought to have made up to such a man as Goldsmith; and I +think it is much against Lord Camden that he neglected him." + +Mention of Lord Clare naturally recalls the _Haunch of Venison_. +Goldsmith was particularly happy in writing bright and airy verses; +the grace and lightness of his touch has rarely been approached. It +must be confessed, however, that in this direction he was somewhat of +an Autolycus; unconsidered trifles he freely appropriated; but he +committed these thefts with scarcely any concealment, and with the +most charming air in the world. In fact some of the snatches of verse +which he contributed to the _Bee_ scarcely profess to be anything else +than translations, though the originals are not given. But who is +likely to complain when we get as the result such a delightful piece +of nonsense as the famous Elegy on that Glory of her Sex, Mrs. Mary +Blaize, which has been the parent of a vast progeny since Goldsmith's +time? + + "Good people all, with one accord + Lament for Madam Blaize, + Who never wanted a good word, + From those who spoke her praise. + + "The needy seldom passed her door, + And always found her kind; + She freely lent to all the poor,-- + Who left a pledge behind. + + "She strove the neighbourhood to please, + With manners wondrous winning; + And never followed wicked ways,-- + Unless when she was sinning. + + "At church, in silks and satins new, + With hoop of monstrous size, + She never slumbered in her pew,-- + But when she shut her eyes. + + "Her love was sought, I do aver, + By twenty beaux and more; + The king himself has followed her,-- + When she has walked before. + + "But now her wealth and finery fled, + Her hangers-on cut short all; + The doctors found, when she was dead,-- + Her last disorder mortal. + + "Let us lament, in sorrow sore, + For Kent Street well may say, + That had she lived a twelvemonth more,-- + She had not died to-day." + +The _Haunch of Venison_, on the other hand, is a poetical letter of +thanks to Lord Clare--an easy, jocular epistle, in which the writer +has a cut or two at certain of his literary brethren. Then, as he is +looking at the venison, and determining not to send it to any such +people as Hiffernan or Higgins, who should step in but our old friend +Beau Tibbs, or some one remarkably like him in manner and speech?-- + + "While thus I debated, in reverie centred, + An acquaintance, a friend as he called himself, entered; + An under-bred, fine-spoken fellow was he, + And he smiled as he looked at the venison and me. + 'What have we got here?--Why this is good eating! + Your own, I suppose--or is it in waiting?' + 'Why, whose should it be?' cried I with a flounce; + 'I get these things often'--but that was a bounce: + 'Some lords, my acquaintance, that settle the nation, + Are pleased to be kind--but I hate ostentation.' + 'If that be the case then,' cried he, very gay, + 'I'm glad I have taken this house in my way. + To-morrow you take a poor dinner with me; + No words--I insist on't--precisely at three; + We'll have Johnson, and Burke; all the wits will be there; + My acquaintance is slight, or I'd ask my Lord Clare. + And now that I think on't, as I am a sinner! + We wanted this venison to make out the dinner. + What say you--a pasty? It shall, and it must, + And my wife, little Kitty, is famous for crust. + Here, porter! this venison with me to Mile End; + No stirring--I beg--my dear friend--my dear friend!' + Thus, snatching his hat, he brushed off like the wind, + And the porter and eatables followed behind." + +We need not follow the vanished venison--which did not make its +appearance at the banquet any more than did Johnson or Burke--further +than to say that if Lord Clare did not make it good to the poet he did +not deserve to have his name associated with such a clever and +careless _jeu d'esprit_. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER. + + +But the writing of smart verses could not keep Dr. Goldsmith alive, +more especially as dinner-parties, Ranelagh masquerades, and similar +diversions pressed heavily on his finances. When his _History of +England_ appeared, the literary cut-throats of the day accused him of +having been bribed by the Government to betray the liberties of the +people:[3] a foolish charge. What Goldsmith got for the _English +History_ was the sum originally stipulated for, and now no doubt all +spent; with a further sum of fifty guineas for an abridgment of the +work. Then, by this time, he had persuaded Griffin to advance him the +whole of the eight hundred guineas for the _Animated Nature_, though +he had only done about a third part of the book. At the instigation of +Newbery he had begun a story after the manner of the _Vicar of +Wakefield_; but it appears that such chapters as he had written were +not deemed to be promising; and the undertaking was abandoned. The +fact is, Goldsmith was now thinking of another method of replenishing +his purse. The _Vicar of Wakefield_ had brought him little but +reputation; the _Good-natured Man_ had brought him L500. It was to the +stage that he now looked for assistance out of the financial slough in +which he was plunged. He was engaged in writing a comedy; and that +comedy was _She Stoops to Conquer_. + +[Footnote 3: "God knows I had no thought for or against liberty in my +head; my whole aim being to make up a book of a decent size that, as +Squire Richard says, 'would do no harm to nobody.'"--Goldsmith to +Langton, September, 1771.] + +In the Dedication to Johnson which was prefixed to this play on its +appearance in type, Goldsmith hints that the attempt to write a comedy +not of the sentimental order then in fashion, was a hazardous thing; +and also that Colman, who saw the piece in its various stages, was of +this opinion too. Colman threw cold water on the undertaking from the +very beginning. It was only extreme pressure on the part of +Goldsmith's friends that induced--or rather compelled--him to accept +the comedy; and that, after he had kept the unfortunate author in the +tortures of suspense for month after month. But although Goldsmith +knew the danger, he was resolved to face it. He hated the +sentimentalists and all their works; and determined to keep his new +comedy faithful to nature, whether people called it low or not. His +object was to raise a genuine, hearty laugh; not to write a piece for +school declamation; and he had enough confidence in himself to do the +work in his own way. Moreover he took the earliest possible +opportunity, in writing this piece, of poking fun at the sensitive +creatures who had been shocked by the "vulgarity" of _The Good-natured +Man_. "Bravo! Bravo!" cry the jolly companions of Tony Lumpkin, when +that promising buckeen has finished his song at the Three Pigeons; +then follows criticism:-- + + "_First Fellow._ The squire has got spunk in him. + + _Second Fel._ I loves to hear him sing, bekeays he never + gives us nothing that's low. + + _Third Fel._ O damn anything that's low, I cannot bear it. + + _Fourth Fel._ The genteel thing is the genteel thing any + time: if so be that a gentleman bees in a concatenation + accordingly. + + _Third Fel._ I likes the maxum of it, Master Muggins. What, + though I am obligated to dance a bear, a man may be a + gentleman for all that. May this be my poison, if my bear + ever dances but to the very genteelest of tunes; 'Water + Parted,' or the 'The Minuet in Ariadne.'" + +Indeed, Goldsmith, however he might figure in society, was always +capable of holding his own when he had his pen in his hand. And even +at the outset of this comedy one sees how much he has gained in +literary confidence since the writing of the _Good-natured Man_. Here +there is no anxious stiffness at all; but a brisk, free conversation, +full of point that is not too formal, and yet conveying all the +information that has usually to be crammed into a first scene. In +taking as the groundwork of his plot that old adventure that had +befallen himself--his mistaking a squire's house for an inn--he was +hampering himself with something that was not the less improbable +because it had actually happened; but we begin to forget all the +improbabilities through the naturalness of the people to whom we are +introduced, and the brisk movement and life of the piece. + +Fashions in dramatic literature may come and go; but the wholesome +good-natured fun of _She Stoops to Conquer_ is as capable of +producing a hearty laugh now, as it was when it first saw the light in +Covent Garden. Tony Lumpkin is one of the especial favourites of the +theatre-going public; and no wonder. With all the young cub's jibes +and jeers, his impudence and grimaces, one has a sneaking love for the +scapegrace; we laugh with him, rather than at him; how can we fail to +enjoy those malevolent tricks of his when he so obviously enjoys them +himself? And Diggory--do we not owe an eternal debt of gratitude to +honest Diggory for telling us about Ould Grouse in the gunroom, that +immortal joke at which thousands and thousands of people have roared +with laughter, though they never any one of them could tell what the +story was about? The scene in which the old squire lectures his +faithful attendants on their manners and duties, is one of the truest +bits of comedy on the English stage: + + "_Mr. Hardcastle._ But you're not to stand so, with your + hands in your pockets. Take your hands from your pockets, + Roger; and from your head, you blockhead you. See how + Diggory carries his hands. They're a little too stiff, + indeed, but that's no great matter. + + _Diggory._ Ay, mind how I hold them. I learned to hold my + hands this way when I was upon drill for the militia. And so + being upon drill--. + + _Hard._ You must not be so talkative, Diggory. You must be + all attention to the guests. You must hear us talk, and not + think of talking; you must see us drink, and not think of + drinking; you must see us eat, and not think of eating. + + _Dig._ By the laws, your worship, that's parfectly + unpossible. Whenever Diggory sees yeating going forward, + ecod, he's always wishing for a mouthful himself. + + _Hard._ Blockhead! Is not a bellyfull in the kitchen as good + as a bellyfull in the parlour? Stay your stomach with that + reflection. + + _Dig._ Ecod, I thank your worship, I'll make a shift to stay + my stomach with a slice of cold beef in the pantry. + + _Hard._ Diggory, you are too talkative.--Then, if I happen + to say a good thing, or tell a good story at table, you must + not all burst out a-laughing, as if you made part of the + company. + + _Dig._ Then ecod your worship must not tell the story of + Ould Grouse in the gunroom: I can't help laughing at + that--he! he! he!--for the soul of me. We have laughed at + that these twenty years--ha! ha! ha! + + _Hard._ Ha! ha! ha! The story is a good one. Well, honest + Diggory, you may laugh at that--but still remember to be + attentive. Suppose one of the company should call for a + glass of wine, how will you behave? A glass of wine, sir, + if-you please (_to_ DIGGORY).--Eh, why don't you move? + + _Dig._ Ecod, your worship, I never have courage till I see + the eatables and drinkables brought upo' the table, and then + I'm as bauld as a lion. + + _Hard._ What, will nobody move? + + _First Serv._ I'm not to leave this pleace. + + _Second Serv._ I'm sure it's no pleace of mine. + + _Third Serv._ Nor mine, for sartain. + + _Dig._ Wauns, and I'm sure it canna be mine." + +No doubt all this is very "low" indeed; and perhaps Mr. Colman may be +forgiven for suspecting that the refined wits of the day would be +shocked by these rude humours of a parcel of servants. But all that +can be said in this direction was said at the time by Horace Walpole, +in a letter to a friend of his; and this criticism is so amusing in +its pretence and imbecility that it is worth quoting at large. "Dr. +Goldsmith has written a comedy," says this profound critic, "--no, it +is the lowest of all farces; it is not the subject I condemn, though +very vulgar, but the execution. The drift tends to no moral, no +edification of any kind--the situations, however, are well imagined, +and make one laugh in spite of the grossness of the dialogue, the +forced witticisms, and total improbability of the whole plan and +conduct. But what disgusts me most is, that though the characters are +very low, and aim at low humour, not one of them says a sentence that +is natural, or marks any character at all." Horace Walpole sighing for +edification--from a Covent Garden comedy! Surely, if the old gods have +any laughter left, and if they take any notice of what is done in the +literary world here below, there must have rumbled through the courts +of Olympus a guffaw of sardonic laughter, when that solemn criticism +was put down on paper. + +Meanwhile Colman's original fears had developed into a sort of stupid +obstinacy. He was so convinced that the play would not succeed, that +he would spend no money in putting it on the stage; while far and wide +he announced its failure as a foregone conclusion. Under this gloom of +vaticination the rehearsals were nevertheless proceeded with--the +brunt of the quarrels among the players falling wholly on Goldsmith, +for the manager seems to have withdrawn in despair; while all the +Johnson confraternity were determined to do what they could for +Goldsmith on the opening night. That was the 15th of March, 1773. His +friends invited the author to dinner as a prelude to the play; Dr. +Johnson was in the chair; there was plenty of gaiety. But this means +of keeping up the anxious author's spirits was not very successful. +Goldsmith's mouth, we are told by Reynolds, became so parched "from +the agitation of his mind, that he was unable to swallow a single +mouthful." Moreover, he could not face the ordeal of sitting through +the play; when his friends left the tavern and betook themselves to +the theatre, he went away by himself; and was subsequently found +walking in St. James's Park. The friend who discovered him there, +persuaded him that his presence in the theatre might be useful in case +of an emergency; and ultimately got him to accompany him to Covent +Garden. When Goldsmith reached the theatre, the fifth act had been +begun. + +Oddly enough, the first thing he heard on entering the stage-door was +a hiss. The story goes that the poor author was dreadfully frightened; +and that in answer to a hurried question, Colman exclaimed, "Psha! +Doctor, don't be afraid of a squib, when we have been sitting these +two hours on a barrel of gunpowder." If this was meant as a hoax, it +was a cruel one; if meant seriously, it was untrue. For the piece had +turned out a great hit. From beginning to end of the performance the +audience were in a roar of laughter; and the single hiss that +Goldsmith unluckily heard was so markedly exceptional, that it became +the talk of the town, and was variously attributed to one or other of +Goldsmith's rivals. Colman, too, suffered at the hands of the wits for +his gloomy and falsified predictions; and had, indeed, to beg +Goldsmith to intercede for him. It is a great pity that Boswell was +not in London at this time; for then we might have had a description +of the supper that naturally would follow the play, and of Goldsmith's +demeanour under this new success. Besides the gratification, moreover, +of his choice of materials being approved by the public, there was +the material benefit accruing to him from the three "author's nights." +These are supposed to have produced nearly five hundred pounds--a +substantial sum in those days. + +Boswell did not come to London till the second of April following; and +the first mention we find of Goldsmith is in connection with an +incident which has its ludicrous as well as its regrettable aspect. +The further success of _She Stoops to Conquer_ was not likely to +propitiate the wretched hole-and-corner cut-throats that infested the +journalism of that day. More especially was Kenrick driven mad with +envy; and so, in a letter addressed to the _London Packet_, this poor +creature determined once more to set aside the judgment of the public, +and show Dr. Goldsmith in his true colours. The letter is a wretched +production, full of personalities only fit for an angry washerwoman, +and of rancour without point. But there was one passage in it that +effectually roused Goldsmith's rage; for here the Jessamy Bride was +introduced as "the lovely H----k." The letter was anonymous; but the +publisher of the print, a man called Evans, was known; and so +Goldsmith thought he would go and give Evans a beating. If he had +asked Johnson's advice about the matter, he would no doubt have been +told to pay no heed at all to anonymous scurrility--certainly not to +attempt to reply to it with a cudgel. When Johnson heard that Foote +meant to "take him off," he turned to Davies and asked him what was +the common price of an oak stick; but an oak stick in Johnson's hands, +and an oak stick in Goldsmith's Lands, were two different things. +However, to the bookseller's shop the indignant poet proceeded, in +company with a friend; got hold of Evans; accused him of having +insulted a young lady by putting her name in his paper; and, when the +publisher would fain have shifted the responsibility on to the editor, +forthwith denounced him as a rascal, and hit him over the back with +his cane. The publisher, however, was quite a match for Goldsmith; and +there is no saying how the deadly combat might have ended, had not a +lamp been broken overhead, the oil of which drenched both the +warriors. This intervention of the superior gods was just as +successful as a Homeric cloud; the fray ceased; Goldsmith and his +friend withdrew; and ultimately an action for assault was compromised +by Goldsmith's paying fifty pounds to a charity. Then the howl of the +journals arose. Their prerogative had been assailed. "Attacks upon +private character were the most liberal existing source of newspaper +income," Mr. Forster writes; and so the pack turned with one cry on +the unlucky poet. There was nothing of "the Monument" about poor +Goldsmith; and at last he was worried into writing a letter of defence +addressed to the public. "He has indeed done it very well," said +Johnson to Boswell, "but it is a foolish thing well done." And further +he remarked, "Why, sir, I believe it is the first time he has _beat_; +he may have _been beaten_ before. This, sir, is a new plume to him." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +INCREASING DIFFICULTIES.--THE END. + + +The pecuniary success of _She Stoops to Conquer_ did but little to +relieve Goldsmith from those financial embarrassments which were now +weighing heavily on his mind. And now he had less of the old high +spirits that had enabled him to laugh off the cares of debt. His +health became disordered; an old disease renewed its attacks, and was +grown more violent because of his long-continued sedentary habits. +Indeed, from this point to the day of his death--not a long interval, +either--we find little but a record of successive endeavours, some of +them wild and hopeless enough, to obtain money anyhow. Of course he +went to the Club, as usual; and gave dinner-parties; and had a laugh +or a song ready for the occasion. It is possible, also, to trace a +certain growth of confidence in himself, no doubt the result of the +repeated proofs of his genius he had put before his friends. It was +something more than mere personal intimacy that justified the rebuke +he administered to Reynolds, when the latter painted an allegorical +picture representing the triumph of Beattie and Truth over Voltaire +and Scepticism. "It very ill becomes a man of your eminence and +character," he said, "to debase so high a genius as Voltaire before so +mean a writer as Beattie. Beattie and his book will be forgotten in +ten years, while Voltaire's fame will last for ever. Take care it does +not perpetuate this picture, to the shame of such a man as you." He +was aware, too, of the position he had won for himself in English +literature. He knew that people in after-days would ask about him; and +it was with no sort of unwarrantable vainglory that he gave Percy +certain materials for a biography which he wished him to undertake. +Hence the _Percy Memoir_. + +He was only forty-five when he made this request; and he had not +suffered much from illness during his life; so that there was +apparently no grounds for imagining that the end was near. But at this +time Goldsmith began to suffer severe fits of depression; and he grew +irritable and capricious of temper--no doubt another result of failing +health. He was embroiled in disputes with the booksellers; and, on one +occasion, seems to have been much hurt because Johnson, who had been +asked to step in as arbiter, decided against him. He was offended with +Johnson on another occasion because of his sending away certain dishes +at a dinner given to him by Goldsmith, as a hint that these +entertainments were too luxurious for one in Goldsmith's position. It +was probably owing to some temporary feeling of this sort--perhaps to +some expression of it on Goldsmith's part--that Johnson spoke of +Goldsmith's "malice" towards him. Mrs. Thrale had suggested that +Goldsmith would be the best person to write Johnson's biography. "The +dog would write it best, to be sure," said Johnson, "but his +particular malice towards me, and general disregard of truth, would +make the book useless to all and injurious to my character." Of course +it is always impossible to say what measure of jocular exaggeration +there may not be in a chance phrase such as this: of the fact that +there was no serious or permanent quarrel between the two friends we +have abundant proof in Boswell's faithful pages. + +To return to the various endeavours made by Goldsmith and his friends +to meet the difficulties now closing in around him, we find, first of +all, the familiar hack-work. For two volumes of a _History of Greece_ +he had received from Griffin L250. Then his friends tried to get him a +pension from the Government; but this was definitely refused. An +expedient of his own seemed to promise well at first. He thought of +bringing out a _Popular Dictionary of Arts and Sciences_, a series of +contributions mostly by his friends, with himself as editor; and among +those who offered to assist him were Johnson, Reynolds, Burke, and Dr. +Burney. But the booksellers were afraid. The project would involve a +large expense; and they had no high opinion of Goldsmith's business +habits. Then he offered to alter _The Good-natured Man_ for Garrick; +but Garrick preferred to treat with him for a new comedy, and +generously allowed him to draw on him for the money in advance. This +last help enabled him to go to Barton for a brief holiday; but the +relief was only temporary. On his return to London even his nearest +friends began to observe the change in his manner. In the old days +Goldsmith had faced pecuniary difficulties with a light heart; but +now, his health broken, and every avenue of escape apparently closed, +he was giving way to despair. His friend Cradock, coming up to town, +found Goldsmith in a most despondent condition; and also hints that +the unhappy author was trying to conceal the true state of affairs. "I +believe," says Cradock, "he died miserable, and that his friends were +not entirely aware of his distress." + +And yet it was during this closing period of anxiety, despondency, and +gloomy foreboding, that the brilliant and humorous lines of +_Retaliation_ were written--that last scintillation of the bright and +happy genius that was soon to be extinguished for ever. The most +varied accounts have been given of the origin of this _jeu d'esprit_; +and even Garrick's, which was meant to supersede and correct all +others, is self-contradictory. For according to this version of the +story, which was found among the Garrick papers, and which is printed +in Mr. Cunningham's edition of Goldsmith's works, the whole thing +arose out of Goldsmith and Garrick resolving one evening at the St. +James's Coffee House to write each other's epitaph. Garrick's +well-known couplet was instantly produced: + + "Here lies Nolly Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll, + Who wrote like an angel, but talked like poor Poll." + +Goldsmith, according to Garrick, either would not or could not retort +at the moment; "but went to work, and some weeks after produced the +following printed poem, called _Retaliation_." But Garrick himself +goes on to say, "The following poems in manuscript were written by +several of the gentlemen on purpose to provoke the Doctor to an +answer, which came forth at last with great credit to him in +_Retaliation_." The most probable version of the story, which may be +pieced together from various sources, is that at the coffee-house +named this business of writing comic epitaphs was started some evening +or other by the whole company; that Goldsmith and Garrick pitted +themselves against each other; that thereafter Goldsmith began as +occasion served to write similar squibs about his friends, which were +shown about as they were written; that thereupon those gentlemen, not +to be behindhand, composed more elaborate pieces in proof of their +wit; and that, finally, Goldsmith resolved to bind these fugitive +lines of his together in a poem, which he left unfinished, and which, +under the name of _Retaliation_, was published after his death. This +hypothetical account receives some confirmation from the fact that the +scheme of the poem and its component parts do not fit together well; +the introduction looks like an after-thought; and has not the freedom +and pungency of a piece of improvisation. An imaginary dinner is +described, the guests being Garrick, Reynolds, Burke, Cumberland, and +the rest of them, Goldsmith last of all. More wine is called for, +until the whole of his companions have fallen beneath the table: + + "Then, with chaos and blunders encircling my head, + Let me ponder, and tell what I think of the _dead_." + +This is a somewhat clumsy excuse for introducing a series of epitaphs; +but the epitaphs amply atone for it. That on Garrick is especially +remarkable as a bit of character-sketching; its shrewd hints--all in +perfect courtesy and good humour--going a little nearer to the truth +than is common in epitaphs of any sort:-- + + "Here lies David Garrick, describe me who can; + An abridgment of all that was pleasant in man. + As an actor, confessed without rival to shine: + As a wit, if not first, in the very first line: + Yet, with talents like these, and an excellent heart, + The man had his failings, a dupe to his art. + Like an ill-judging beauty, his colours he spread, + And beplastered with rouge his own natural red. + On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting; + 'Twas only that, when he was off, he was acting. + With no reason on earth to go out of his way, + He turned and he varied full ten times a day: + Though secure of our hearts, yet confoundedly sick + If they were not his own by finessing and trick; + He cast off his friends, as a huntsman his pack, + For he knew when he pleased he could whistle them back. + Of praise a mere glutton, he swallowed what came; + And the puff of a dunce, he mistook it for fame; + Till his relish grown callous, almost to disease, + Who peppered the highest was surest to please. + But let us be candid, and speak out our mind: + If dunces applauded, he paid them in kind. + Ye Kenricks, ye Kellys, and Woodfalls so grave, + What a commerce was yours, while you got and you gave! + How did Grub Street re-echo the shouts that you raised, + While he was be-Rosciused, and you were bepraised. + But peace to his spirit, wherever it flies, + To act as an angel and mix with the skies: + Those poets who owe their best fame to his skill + Shall still be his flatterers, go where he will; + Old Shakespeare receive him with praise and with love, + And Beaumonts and Bens be his Kellys above." + +The truth is that Goldsmith, though he was ready to bless his "honest +little man" when he received from him sixty pounds in advance for a +comedy not begun, never took quite so kindly to Garrick as to some of +his other friends. There is no pretence of discrimination at all, for +example, in the lines devoted in this poem to Reynolds. All the +generous enthusiasm of Goldsmith's Irish nature appears here; he will +admit of no possible rival to this especial friend of his:-- + + "Here Reynolds is laid, and to tell you my mind, + He has not left a wiser or better behind." + +There is a tradition that the epitaph on Reynolds, ending with the +unfinished line + + "By flattery unspoiled ..." + +was Goldsmith's last piece of writing. One would like to believe that, +in any case. + +Goldsmith had returned to his Edgware lodgings, and had, indeed, +formed some notion of selling his chambers in the Temple, and living +in the country for at least ten months in the year, when a sudden +attack of his old disorder drove him into town again for medical +advice. He would appear to have received some relief; but a nervous +fever followed; and on the night of the 25th March, 1774, when he was +but forty-six years of age, he took to his bed for the last time. At +first he refused to regard his illness as serious; and insisted on +dosing himself with certain fever-powders from which he had received +benefit on previous occasions; but by and by as his strength gave way, +he submitted to the advice of the physicians who were in attendance on +him. Day after day passed; his weakness visibly increasing, though, +curiously enough, the symptoms of fever were gradually abating. At +length one of the doctors, remarking to him that his pulse was in +greater disorder than it should be from the degree of fever, asked him +if his mind was at ease. "No, it is not," answered Goldsmith; and +these were his last words. Early in the morning of Monday, April 4, +convulsions set in; these continued for rather more than an hour; then +the troubled brain and the sick heart found rest for ever. + +When the news was carried to his friends, Burke, it is said, burst +into tears, and Reynolds put aside his work for the day. But it does +not appear that they had visited him during his illness; and neither +Johnson, nor Reynolds, nor Burke, nor Garrick followed his body to the +grave. It is true, a public funeral was talked of; and, among others, +Reynolds, Burke, and Garrick were to have carried the pall; but this +was abandoned; and Goldsmith was privately buried in the ground of the +Temple Church on the 9th of April, 1774. Strangely enough, too, +Johnson seems to have omitted all mention of Goldsmith from his +letters to Boswell. It was not until Boswell had written to him, on +June 24th, "You have said nothing to me about poor Goldsmith," that +Johnson, writing on July 4, answered as follows:--"Of poor dear Dr. +Goldsmith there is little to be told, more than the papers have made +public. He died of a fever, made, I am afraid, more violent by +uneasiness of mind. His debts began to be heavy, and all his resources +were exhausted. Sir Joshua is of opinion that he owed not less than +two thousand pounds. Was ever poet so trusted before?" + +But if the greatest grief at the sudden and premature death of +Goldsmith would seem to have been shown at the moment by certain +wretched creatures who were found weeping on the stairs leading to his +chambers, it must not be supposed that his fine friends either forgot +him, or ceased to regard his memory with a great gentleness and +kindness. Some two years after, when a monument was about to be +erected to Goldsmith in Westminster Abbey, Johnson consented to write +"the poor dear Doctor's epitaph;" and so anxious were the members of +that famous circle in which Goldsmith had figured, that a just tribute +should be paid to his genius, that they even ventured to send a round +robin to the great Cham desiring him to amend his first draft. Now, +perhaps, we have less interest in Johnson's estimate of Goldsmith's +genius--though it contains the famous _Nullum quod tetigit non +ornavit_--than in the phrases which tell of the honour paid to the +memory of the dead poet by the love of his companions and the +faithfulness of his friends. It may here be added that the precise +spot where Goldsmith was buried in the Temple churchyard is unknown. +So lived and so died Oliver Goldsmith. + + * * * * * + +In the foregoing pages the writings of Goldsmith have been given so +prominent a place in the history of his life that it is unnecessary to +take them here collectively and endeavour to sum up their distinctive +qualities. As much as could be said within the limited space has, it +is hoped, been said about their genuine and tender pathos, that never +at any time verges on the affected or theatrical; about their quaint +delicate, delightful humour; about that broader humour that is not +afraid to provoke the wholesome laughter of mankind by dealing with +common and familiar ways, and manners, and men; about that choiceness +of diction, that lightness and grace of touch, that lend a charm even +to Goldsmith's ordinary hack-work. + +Still less necessary, perhaps, is it to review the facts and +circumstances of Goldsmith's life; and to make of them an example, a +warning, or an accusation. That has too often been done. His name has +been used to glorify a sham Bohemianism--a Bohemianism that finds it +easy to live in taverns, but does not find it easy, so far as one +sees, to write poems like the _Deserted Village_. His experiences as +an author have been brought forward to swell the cry about neglected +genius--that is, by writers who assume their genius in order to prove +the neglect. The misery that occasionally befell him during his +wayward career has been made the basis of an accusation against +society, the English constitution, Christianity--Heaven knows what. It +is time to have done with all this nonsense. Goldsmith resorted to the +hack-work of literature when everything else had failed him; and he +was fairly paid for it. When he did better work, when he "struck for +honest fame," the nation gave him all the honour that he could have +desired. With an assured reputation, and with ample means of +subsistence, he obtained entrance into the most distinguished society +then in England--he was made the friend of England's greatest in the +arts and literature--and could have confined himself to that society +exclusively if he had chosen. His temperament, no doubt, exposed him +to suffering; and the exquisite sensitiveness of a man of genius may +demand our sympathy; but in far greater measure is our sympathy +demanded for the thousands upon thousands of people who, from illness +or nervous excitability, suffer from quite as keen a sensitiveness +without the consolation of the fame that genius brings. + +In plain truth, Goldsmith himself would have been the last to put +forward pleas humiliating alike to himself and to his calling. Instead +of beseeching the State to look after authors; instead of imploring +society to grant them "recognition;" instead of saying of himself "he +wrote, and paid the penalty;" he would frankly have admitted that he +chose to live his life his own way, and therefore paid the penalty. +This is not written with any desire of upbraiding Goldsmith. He did +choose to live his own life his own way, and we now have the splendid +and beautiful results of his work; and the world--looking at these +with a constant admiration, and with a great and lenient love for +their author--is not anxious to know what he did with his guineas, or +whether the milkman was ever paid. "He had raised money and squandered +it, by every artifice of acquisition and folly of expense. BUT LET NOT +HIS FRAILTIES BE REMEMBERED: HE WAS A VERY GREAT MAN." This is +Johnson's wise summing up; and with it we may here take leave of +gentle Goldsmith. + + +THE END. + + * * * * * + + + + +ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. + +EDITED BY JOHN MORLEY. + + +_These Short Books are addressed to the general public with a view +both to stirring and satisfying an interest in literature and its +great topics in the minds of those who have to run as they read. An +immense class is growing up, and must every year increase, whose +education will have made them alive to the importance of the masters +of our literature, and capable of intelligent curiosity as to their +performances. The Series is intended to give the means of nourishing +this curiosity, to an extent that shall be copious enough to be +profitable for knowledge and life, and yet be brief enough to serve +those whose leisure is scanty._ + +_The following are arranged for:--_ + + +_SPENSER The Dean of St. Paul's._ + +_HUME Professor Huxley._ [_Ready._ + +_BUNYAN James Anthony Froude._ + +_JOHNSON Leslie Stephen._ [_Ready._ + +_GOLDSMITH William Black._ [_Ready._ + +_MILTON Mark Pattison._ + +_WORDSWORTH Goldwin Smith._ + +_SWIFT John Morley._ + +_BURNS Principal Shairp._ [_Ready._ + +_SCOTT Richard H. Hutton._ [_Ready._ + +_SHELLEY J. A. Symonds._ [_Ready._ + +_GIBBON J. C. Morison._ [_Ready._ + +_BYRON Professor Nichol._ + +_DEFOE W. Minto._ [_In the Press._ + +_GRAY John Morley._ + +_HAWTHORNE Henry James, Jnr._ + +_CHAUCER A. W. Ward._ + +[_OTHERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED._] + + * * * * * + +OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. + + "The new series opens well with Mr. Leslie Stephen's sketch + of Dr. Johnson. It could hardly have been done better; and + it will convey to the readers for whom it is intended a + juster estimate of Johnson that either of the two essays of + Lord Macaulay."--_Pall Mall Gazette._ + + "We have come across few writers who have had a clearer + insight into Johnson's character, or who have brought to the + study of it a better knowledge of the time in which Johnson + lived and the men whom he knew."--_Saturday Review._ + + "We could not wish for a more suggestive introduction to + Scott and his poems and novels."--_Examiner._ + + "The tone of the volume is excellent + throughout."--_Athenaeum_ Review of "Scott." + + "As a clear, thoughtful, and attractive record of the life + and works of the greatest among the world's historians, it + deserves the highest praise."--_Examiner_ Review of + "Gibbon." + + "The lovers of this great poet (Shelley) are to be + congratulated at having at their command so fresh, clear, + and intelligent a presentment of the subject, written by a + man of adequate and wide culture."--_Athenaeum._ + + * * * * * + +MACMILLAN'S GLOBE LIBRARY. + +_Beautifully printed on toned paper, price_ 3_s_. 6_d_. _Also kept in a +variety of calf and morocco bindings, at moderate prices._ + + * * * * * + +_The _SATURDAY REVIEW_ says: "The Globe Editions are admirable for +their scholarly editing, their typographical excellence, their +compendious form, and their cheapness." The _BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW_ +says: "In compendiousness, elegance, and scholarliness the Globe +Editions of Messrs. Macmillan surpass any popular series of our +classics hitherto given to the public. As near an approach to +miniature perfection as has ever been made."_ + + * * * * * + + +Shakespeare's Complete Works. Edited by W. G. CLARK, M. A., and W. +ALDIS WRIGHT, M. A., Editors of the "Cambridge Shakespeare." With +Glossary, pp. 1075. + +_The _ATHENAEUM_ says this edition is "a marvel of beauty, cheapness, +and compactness.... For the busy man, above all for the working +student, this is the best of all existing Shakespeares."_ + + +Spenser's Complete Works. Edited from the Original Editions and +Manuscripts, by R. MORRIS, with a Memoir by J. W. HALES, M. A. With +Glossary, pp. lv., 736. + +_"Worthy--and higher praise it needs not--of the beautiful 'Globe +Series.'"_--DAILY NEWS. + + +Sir Walter Scott's Poetical Works. Edited, with a Biographical and +Critical Memoir, by FRANCIS TURNER PALGRAVE, and Copious Notes, pp. +xliii., 559. + +_"We can almost sympathise with a middle-aged grumbler, who, after +reading Mr. Palgrave's Memoir and Introduction, should exclaim, 'Why was +there not such an edition of Scott when I was a schoolboy?'"_--GUARDIAN. + + +Complete Works of Robert Burns. Edited from the best Printed and +Manuscript authorities, with Glossarial Index, Notes, and a +Biographical Memoir by ALEXANDER SMITH, pp. lxii., 636. + +_"Admirable in all respects."_--SPECTATOR. + + +Robinson Crusoe. Edited after the Original Editions, with a +Biographical Introduction by HENRY KINGSLEY. pp. xxxi., 607. + +_"A most excellent and in every way desirable edition."_--COURT +CIRCULAR. + + +Goldsmith's Miscellaneous Works. Edited with Biographical +Introduction, by Professor MASSON. pp. lx., 695. + +_"Such an admirable compendium of the facts of Goldsmith's life, and +so careful and minute a delineation of the mixed traits of his +peculiar character as to be a very model of a literary biography in +little."_--SCOTSMAN. + + +Pope's Poetical Works. Edited, with Notes, and Introductory Memoir by +A. W. WARD, M. A., Professor of History in Owens College Manchester, +pp. lii., 508. + +_The _LITERARY CHURCHMAN_ remarks: "The Editor's own notes and +introductory memoir are excellent, the memoir alone would be cheap and +well worth buying at the price of the whole volume."_ + + +Dryden's Poetical Works. Edited, with a Memoir, Revised Text, and +Notes, by W. D. CHRISTIE, M. A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, pp. +lxxxvii., 662. + +_"An admirable edition, the result of great research and of a careful +revision of the text."_--PALL MALL GAZETTE. + + +Cowper's Poetical Works. Edited, with Notes and Biographical +Introduction, by WILLIAM BENHAM, Vicar of Margate, pp. lxxiii., 536. + +_"Mr. Benham's edition of Cowper is one of permanent +value."_--SATURDAY REVIEW. + + +Morte d'Arthur.--SIR THOMAS MALORY'S BOOK OF KING ARTHUR AND OF HIS +NOBLE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE. The original Edition of CAXTON, +revised for Modern Use. With an Introduction by Sir EDWARD STRACHEY, +Bart. pp. xxxvii., 509. + +_"It is with perfect confidence that we recommend this edition of the +old romance to every class of readers."_--PALL MALL GAZETTE. + + +The Works of Virgil. Rendered into English Prose, with Introductions, +Notes, Running Analysis, and an Index. By JAMES LONSDALE, M. A., and +SAMUEL LEE, M. A. pp. 228. + +_"A more complete Edition of Virgil in English it is scarcely possible +to conceive than the scholarly work before us."_--GLOBE. + + +The Works of Horace. Rendered into English Prose, with Introductions, +Running Analysis, Notes, and Index. By JOHN LONSDALE, M. A., and +SAMUEL LEE, M. A. + +_The _STANDARD_ says, "To classical and non-classical readers it will +be invaluable."_ + + +Milton's Poetical Works.--Edited, with Introductions, by Professor +MASSON. + +_"In every way an admirable book."_--PALL MALL GAZETTE. + + * * * * * + + +MACMILLAN & CO., LONDON. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Goldsmith, by William Black + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GOLDSMITH *** + +***** This file should be named 18917.txt or 18917.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/9/1/18917/ + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Sankar Viswanathan, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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