66 1759. 1759. * .** *Critical Review, VIII. 89, August ** Ibid, Ix. 214, March 1760. account of those letters he afterwards "learning of the inhabitants; re- my summary must be brief, on "solved to penetrate into coun- the Rev. Mr. Hawkins's Works, "tries as yet little known, and and on the same irritable per"eager to pry into all their son's Impartial Reader's Answer to "secrets, with a heart the said review of those works;* Æt. 31. "not terrified at trifling where Goldsmith thus drily, in dangers; if there could be found the second of his articles, put "a man who could thus unite the difference between himself "true courage with sound learn- and the reverend writer. *** "He "ing, from such a character we "might expect much informa"tion")* on Guicciardini's His*** Parson Hawkins was an Oxford tory of Italy, showing some knowprofessor of poetry, and the author not ledge of Italian literature; **. only of the Thimble, but of a wretched on Montesquieu's Miscellaneous tragedy called the Siege of Aleppo, which Garrick declined to act; and as to which Pieces, justifying, by many ex- the reader may find it worth while to pressions of intelligent interest compare the capital letters in which the in the minor and unacknow-judicious manager met the angry profes ledged works of a man of genius, sor's outraged vanity, with the confused such rapid indication as I now gave in conversation when fluttered and am giving of his own earlier agitated by Johnson's laughter and sarand less known performances ("Cicero observes," he remarks be able to quote a couple of passages in it, "that we behold with trans- from the letter, hitherto unprinted, that 'port and enthusiasm the little accompanied this very tragedy when it first went to Garrick (in the autumn of "barren spot, or ruins of a house, 1771); which will not only amuse the "in which a person celebrated reader, but show him the preposterous "for his wisdom, his valour, or humility and the most friendly profes vanities that, under cover of the utmost "his learning, lived; and when sions of service, were the plague of the "he coasted along the shore of Drury-lane manager's life. In the remark "Greece, all the heroes, states-about Hawkins and Shakespeare on the “men, orators, philosophers, and "poets of those famed republics, "rose in his memory, and were "present to his sight; but how "much more would he have been tion for Shakespeare, and that he was "delighted with any of their "posthumous works, however in"ferior to what he had before 'seen!"); ***—and finally, for 66 1759. casm. See Garrick Correspondence, II. 6, and Boswell, VII. 94-5. I happen myself to same shelf, quoted in my text, Goldsmith had hit the leading weakness of the reverend poet. This letter shows us that he had written his tragedy in express imitation of Shakespeare, that he sent it to Garrick solely because of his admira willing Garrick should have it for a mere nothing expressly because of the obliga tions he had conferred on Shakespeare. "I flatter myself this letter when favoured your perusal will carry its apology 66 with it. As a passionate admirer of Shakespeare it is but natural for me to *Critical Review, VII. 504-12, June "wish to be connected with Mr. Garrick, ** Ibid, vIII. 89, August 1759. *** Ibid, VII. 535, June 1759. 'with "and I hope I shall be understood to 66 mean more than a base compliment "when I add that I really desire this from 1759. "is for putting his own works "a good living; yet we can "upon the same shelf with Mil-"solemnly assure him we are "ton and Shakespeare, and we "quite contented with our pre"are for allowing him an inferior "sent situation in the "situation; he would have the "church, are quite happy "same reader that commends "in a wife and forty pounds "Addison's delicacy to talk with "a year, nor have the least ambi"raptures of the purity of Haw-"tion for pluralities.” * " new, which I have an ambition to re Æt. 31. "kins; and he who praises the Nor should I close this rapid "Rape of the Lock to speak with account of Goldsmith's labours "equal feelings of that richest in the Critical Review, without at "of all poems, Mr. Hawkins's least referring to the unsparing "Thimble. But we, alas! cannot yet not ill-natured satire with "speak of Mr. H. with the same which he laughed at a form of "unrestrained share of panegyric novel which was then beginning “that he does of himself. Per- to be popular; a foreshadowing "haps our motive to malevolence of the insipidities of the Minerva "might have been, that Mr. Press; a kind of fashionable "Hawkins stood between us and family novel with which the motives rather of an honouring than stately mother, and the board"lucrative nature. In short (to give your"self and me as little trouble as may be) ing-school miss, were instructed "the case is this I have a Play by me, to fortify themselves against the "written in imitation of Shakespeare in immoralities of Smollett and of "point of style, but on a plan &c. wholly Fielding. As with Jonathan Wild "commend to your acceptance." Re- in the matter of Cacus, Goldcommend it to his acceptance he accord- smith "knew a better way;" and, ingly proceeds to do, by declaring that the Wartons, Tom and Joe, might be in his witty exposure of Jemima asked to give their opinion of it, by and Louisa, seems to show himwhich he, Hawkins, would willingly be self prepared to make it known. judged. And then he concludes. "If you please I will send the performance The tale professed to be written in a few weeks to yourself, relying by a lady, in a series of letters: cheerfully on your candour and im- and thus he described it. "partiality. Having only to say farther, "that in case it be honoured with your "The female muse, it must be owned, "acceptance, the copy shall be at your has of late been tolerably fruitful. Novels "service upon your own terms of pur- written by ladies, poems, morality, es"chase. These I shall leave with the says, and letters, all written by ladies, most implicit confidence to your honor, shew that this beautiful sex are resolved "as I choose for many reasons to be con- to be, one way or other, the joyful mo"cerned in this business rather as an thers of children. Happy it is that the "Author than Proprietor; and as (to say same conveyance which brings an heir "the truth honestly) I have herein prin- to a family, shall at the same time pro"cipally in view the cultivation of a duce a book to mend his manners, or correspondence, and give me leave to teach him to make love, when ripe for say and hope a friendship, with a gen- the occasion. Yet let not the ladies carry tleman to whom the Immortal Shake speare is confessedly under infinite "vbligations." * Critical Review, IX. 217, March 1760. 1759. Æt. 31. off all the glories of the late productions | at last returns, the sharper and his acascribed to them; it is plain by the style, complices hang or drown themselves, her and a nameless somewhat in the manner, lover dies, and she, oh tragical! keeps that pretty fellows, coffee-critics, and her chamber? However, to console us dirty shirted dunces, have some- for this calamity, there are two or three times a share in the achieve- other very good matches struck up; a ment. We have detected so many great deal of money, a great deal of of these impostors already, that beauty, a world of love, and days and for the future it is resolved to look upon nights as happy as heart could desire; every publication that shall be ascribed the old butt-end of a modern romance. to a lady as the work of one of this amphibious fraternity. Thus, by wholesome severity, many a fair creature may be prevented from writing, that cannot spell; and many a blockhead may be deterred from commencing author, that never thought. The plan of the work is as follows: That was his last contribution either to Smollett or to Mr. Griffiths. And so Goldsmith's adieu *Critical Review, VIII. 165-6, August 1759. Let me here add that our knowledge of Goldsmith's labours in the Cri"Two Misses, just taken home from tical Review is mainly derived from the the boarding-school, are prodigious great fact mentioned in a letter by George friends, and so they tell each other their Stevens (Sept. 3, 1797) giving information secrets by way of letter. In the first about "our little poet's works" to Bishop letter, Miss Jemima Courtly, or Mima for Percy, then engaged in preparing the shortness' sake, lets her old and intimate edition delayed by so many mischances. friend know that her mother died when After remarking that several pieces of she was eight years old; that she had one "the Doctor's are still in MS. in the brother and one sister, with several other "hands of various people" (this could secrets of this kind, all delivered in the hardly be news to the bishop, who had confidence of friendship. In the progress himself more than one unpublished piece, of this correspondence we find she has which he lost), he continues: "The late been taken from home for carrying on an "Mr. Wright, the printer, who had been intrigue with Horatio, a gentleman of "either apprentice to or in the service of the neighbourhood, and by means of her "Mr. Hamilton, at a time when Goldsister's insinuations, for she happens to "smith composed numerous essays for be her enemy, confined to her chamber, "Magazines, articles for Reviews, &c. &c. her father at the same time making an "preserved a list of those fugitive pieces, express prohibition against her writing "which are now reprinting, and love-letters for the future. This com- "make their appearance in the course of mand Miss Mima breaks, and of con- "next winter. Goldsmith likewise began sequence is turned out of doors; so up "a periodical paper, which being unsucshe gets behind a servant without a pil-"cessful, was laid aside, after a few lion, and is set down at Mrs. Weller's "numbers of it had been issued out." house, the mother of her friend Miss Nichols's Illustrations, VII. 25. I cannot Fanny. Here, then, we shall leave, or help doubting, however, if the true rather forget her, only observing that she source has been at all times pointed out is happily married, as we are told in a by Mr. Wright to the editor of these refew words towards the conclusion. We printed articles (Mr. Isaac Reed, ed. are next served up with the history of 1798). Certainly the reviews of Formey's Miss Louisa Blyden, a story no way con- Philosophical Miscellanies, Van Egmont's nected with the former. Louisa is going Travels into Asia, Murphy's Orphan of to be married to Mr. Evanion; the China, and Marriott's Female Conduct, or nuptials, however, are interrupted by the Art of Pleasing, assigned to numbers of death of Louisa's father, and at last the Critical Review for 1759, do not all apbroke off by means of a sharper, who pear as stated. (The plan since adopted, pretends to be miss's uncle, and takes in Mr. Murray's edition of the Works, of her concerns under his direction. What printing all the unacknowledged essays need we tell as how the young lovier runs in a type distinct from the text, is the mad, Miss is spirited away into France, only safe one. 1870.) will to both Reviews was said, and he left them to fight out their quarrels with each other. Mr. Griffiths might accuse Smollett of selling his praise for a fat buck, and Smollett might retort per CHAPTER VII. An Appeal for Authors by Profession. 1759. MEANWHILE the Dods 1759. Æt. 31. a very upon Mrs. Griffiths that an an-leys had issued their adtiquated Sappho sat ill in the vertisements, and the Lonchair of Aristarchus; but this in- don Chronicle of the 3rd of April, terchange of abuse will in future 1759, announced the appearance, cease to have a bitterness the day before, of An Enquiry sonal to Goldsmith's fortunes. into the Present State of Polite LearnWe are gradually now to following in Europe. It was him, and them, to "a more re- respectable, well-printed duo"moved ground." Yet not until decimo; was without the author's the scene of life shall entirely name on the title-page, though close, will it be permitted him to Goldsmith was anxious to have forget that he once toiled in the authorship widely known; humiliating bondage at the sign and had two mottoes in the of the Dunciad in Paternoster-learned languages. The Greek row, and was paid retainer and signified that the writer esteemed "those significant philosophers, but was no friend "emblems, the owl and the long- to sophists; and the Latin, that "ear'd animal, which," to say of those only should destroy buildthem what Smollett said, "Mr. ings who could themselves build. "Griffiths so sagely displays for "the mirth and information of been seen; as it grew consol"mankind." ingly, like the plant in the Picciola, from between the hard and servant to terised as The first idea of the work has "begot by rancour under the canopy of * Critical Review, IV. 471, November Stony environments of a des11. See also VIII. 82-3, July 1759. In perate fortune. Some modificathe latter, the Monthly Review is charac- tions it received, as the prospects "that repository of dulness and "malevolence, replenished by the inde- of the writer were subjected to "fatigable care of the industrious nightman R-h G-s, and his spouse." Smollett, or his writer, is speaking of a "ignorance. Purge your choler, goody; translation of Ariosto attacked by the "have recourse to your apothecary in praised; and characterises this review as Monthly reviewers, which he had himself "this adust weather, who will keep you "cool and temperate. Meanwhile, you "an instance of presumption in an il-"and your obsequious spouse may confer "literate bookseller and his wife, which "together on your vain importance, like "can scarcely be paralleled in the annals "the two owls in the fable, .... Ha! ha! "of dulness and effrontery .., "ha! who is this venerable Aristarchus, "who mounts the chair of criticism? No "Aristarchus "Sibyl, or rather a Pope Joan in taste and literature, pregnant with abuse but an antiquated Sappho, "Husband, you reason well, replies 1759. change; and its title was much bad critics and sordid booktoo large for the limited mate- sellers, learning has to contend rials, both of reading and ex- with her worst enemies. When perience, brought to its Goldsmith has described at the composition. But it was outset the wise reverence for Æt. 31. in advance of any similar letters which prevailed in the effort in that day. No one was old Greek time, when "learning prepared, in a treatise so grave, "was encouraged, protected, for a style so enchantingly grace-"honoured, and in its turn ful. To combine liveliness with "adorned, strengthened, and even the shows of learning, is "harmonised the community," thought something of a heresy he turns to the sophists and cristill. tics for the day of its decline. By With any detailed account of them the ancient polite learning this well-known Enquiry I do not was in his view "separated from propose to detain the reader, but "common sense, and made the for illustration of the course I "proper employment of speculahave taken in this memoir, some "tive idlers... The wiser part of striking passages should not be "mankind would not be imposed overlooked, and others will throw "upon by unintelligible jargon, light forward on new scenes that "nor, like the knight in Panawait us. The contents of the "tagruel, swallow a chimera for a treatise, too, as found in the "breakfast, though even cooked current collections, are wanting "by Aristotle."* In this way he in much that gives interest to distinguishes three periods in the the duodecimo now lying before history of ancient learning: its me, the first of the Dodsley edi- commencement, or the age of tions. For it is not, in these days poets; its maturity, or the age of at least, with any remarkable philosophers; and its decline, or concern for the state of polite the age of critics. Corruptissima learning in Europe that we turn respublica, plurimæ leges. In like to its pages. We may feel its manner, when he turns to the title to be so far a misnomer that consideration of the decay of to substitute, for Europe, the modern letters, critics are again more confined area of Mr. Grif- brought up for judgment as the fiths's shop, would more correctly principal offenders; and as he describe its contents; but it is too manifestly thinks of the this very fact, and the personal starving scribblers whom Mr. interest derived from it, which Griffiths had at hand to do his constitute now for us the book's bidding, it is with a melancholy principal and great attraction. consciousness that he must himself stand at the same bar. "This decay which criticism pro Manifest throughout it is one overruling feeling, under various forms; the conviction that, in| * Chap. II. |