1760. Æt. 32. The allusion however, implies no ous historian of crotchets and "low;" a little tired of Polly and quavers. It seems more than Macheath;* not at all interested probable, notwithstanding, that by the famous and fortunate there is not a syllable of tumbler, who, between the acts truth in the story.* of tragedies as well as farces, So passed the thought- balances a straw upon his less life of Goldsmith in his first nose; ** and zigzagging his way year of success: if so may be called the scanty pittance which served to expose his foibles, but envy of the popularity of this piece of genuine wit, as unfriendly critics have not to protect him from their implied. The complaint expressly is that consequence. So may his life be singing women, instead of singing for the "sing at read in these Letters to the public, should be allowed to "each other," and nothing but the same Public Ledger; and still with the song. "What! Polly and the Pickpocket comment of pleasure and instruc-to-night, Polly and the Pickpocket totion for others, though at the "pocket again!' I want patience. I will "morrow night, and Polly and the Pickcost of suffering to himself. His "hear no more." Goldsmith took no habits as well as thoughts are in part whatever in a graver outcry which them. He is at the theatre, en-masterpiece, and which at last, the year was afterwards levelled against Gay's joying Garrick's Abel Drugger, before his death, took the form of an apand laughing at all who call it plication from the magistrates of Bowstreet to request the managers of Drury *I quote an address "to the Philologi-lane and Covent-garden "not to exhibit "cal Society of London," on Sir John "this opera, deeming it productive of Hawkins's Life of Johnson, published in "mischief to society.' (Peake's Memoirs May 1787. 'The writer of this is ac- of the Colmans, I. 317.) To which, let me "quainted with a gentleman who knew add, Colman's reply was very spirited. "Goldsmith well, and has often requested He declined, on behalf of Covent-garden, "him to play different pieces from music to be a party to the consent which Gar"which he laid before him; and this, rick timidly had given for Drury-lane; "Goldsmith has done with accuracy and and "for his own part cannot help differ"precision, while the gentleman, who is "ing in opinion with the magistrates, "himself musical, looked over him: a "thinking that the theatre is one of the "circumstance utterly impossible, if we "very few houses in the neighbourhood admit the foolish story related by Sir" that does not contribute to increase the "John Hawkins of Roubiliac's imposition "number of thieves." Post. Let. 194. "on Goldsmith." Nor can I help think- **"A singing-woman," he says, with a ing that this explicit contradiction is sarcastic humour that may be forgiven strongly countenanced by his essay on him in his garret, "shall collect subscripthe different schools of music (written "tions in her own coach-and-six; a fellow for Smollett's magazine in 1760), and still "shall make a fortune by tossing a straw more by the notes which ("in so much"from his toe to his nose; one in parrespect were his talents then held, "ticular has found that eating fire was "though he had not obtained celebrity, "the most ready way to live; and an "but lived in an obscure lodging in" other who gingles several bells fixed to "Green-arbour-court," &c.) Smollett per- "his cap, is the only man that I know of mitted him to append to the remonstrance "who has received emolument from the of a correspondent against that essay."labours of his head." Letter XLV. The The notes (Miscell. Works, 1. 176) possess chance of encouragement, he had before great merit, and show a larger amount of remarked, lay not in the head, but the knowledge in ready use than Goldsmith heels. "One who jumps up and flourishes was always able to display. "his toes three times before he comes to 1760. Æt. 32. home, after all is over, through a short-sightedness of statesmen. hundred obstacles from coach- "Instead of complaining that wheels and palanquin-poles, "like "writers are over-paid, when "a bird in its flight through the "their works procure them "branches of a forest." He is a "a bare subsistence, I visitor at the humble pothouse "should imagine it the clubs, whose follies and enjoy-"duty of a state, not only to enments he moralises with touch-"courage their numbers, but ing pleasantry. "Were I to be "their industry... Whatever be "angry at men for being fools, I "the motives which induce men "could here have found ample "to write, whether avarice or "room for declamation; but, "fame, the country becomes "alas! I have been a fool myself, "most wise and happy in which "and why should I be angry with "they most serve for instructors. "them for being something so "The countries where sacerdotal "natural to every child of "instruction alone is permitted, "humanity?" Unsparing histo- "remain in ignorance, superstirian of this folly of his own, he "tion, and hopeless slavery. In conceals his imprudence as little "England, where there are as as his poverty; and his kind "many new books published as heart he has not the choice to "in all the rest of Europe togeConceal. Everywhere it betrays "ther, a spirit of freedom and itself. In hours of depression, "reason reigns among the people: recalling the disastrous fate of "they have been often known to men of genius, and "mighty "act like fools, they are generally "poets in their misery dead;" in "found to think like men."* imaginary interviews with book- The close of the same paper sellers, laughing at their sordid becomes almost pathetic while mistakes; in remonstrances with it pleads for those who have thus his own class, warning them of served and instructed England; the danger of despising each men "whom nature has blest other; and in rarer periods of "with talents above the rest of perfect self-reliance, rising above "mankind, men capable of think the accidents around him, assert- "ing with precision and impressing the power as well as claims "ing their thoughts with rapidity, of writers, and denouncing the "beings who diffuse those re"the ground, may have three hundred a| "gards upon mankind which "year; he who flourishes them four "others contract and settle upon times, gets four hundred; but he who "themselves. These deserve "arrives at five is inestimable, and may "every honour from that comdemand what salary he think proper. "munity of which they are more "The female dancers, too, are valued for this sort of jumping and crossing; and "peculiarly the children; to such "it is a cant word among them that "I would give my heart, since to she deserves most who shows highest." *Citizen of the World. Letter LXXV. Letter XXI. "them I am indebted for its hu-earlier dared to entertain. He "manity!" In another letter the resumed his connection with the subject is more calmly resumed, Lady's Magazine, and became its with frank admission that editor: publishing in it, among 1760. old wrongs are at length other writings known and unAt. 32. in the course of coming known, what he had written of right. "At present, the few poets his Life of Voltaire; and retiring "of England no longer depend from its editorship at the close "on the great for subsistence; of a year, when he had raised its "they have now no other patrons circulation (if Mr. Wilkie's ad"but the public, and the public, vertisements are to be believed) "collectively considered, is a to three thousand three hundred. "good and a generous master. He continued his contributions, “It is, indeed, too frequently meanwhile, to the British Maga"mistaken as to the merits of zine; from which he was not "every candidate for favour; but wholly separated till two months "to make amends, it is never before poor Smollett, pining for "mistaken long. A man of the loss of his only daughter, "letters at present, whose works went upon the continent (in "are valuable, is perfectly sen- 1763) never to return to a fixed "sible of their value. Every or settled residence in London. "polite member of the com- He furnished other booksellers "munity, by buying what he with occasional compilation-pre"writes, contributes to reward faces;* and he gave some papers "him. The ridicule therefore of (among them a Life of Christ and "living in a garret, might have Lives of the Fathers, republished "been wit in the last age, but with his name in shilling pam"continues such no longer, be- phlets a few months after his "cause no longer true."* death) to a so-called Christian The quiet composure of this Magazine, undertaken by Newpassage exhibits the healthiest bery in connection with the aspect of his mind. Bookseller and public are confronted calm- *Of course these prefaces were ally, and the consequences fairly nect them in any way with the work preways strictly taskwork. To seek to conchallenged. It is indeed very faced, would be generally labour in vain. obvious, at the close of this first The moral of them is in a remark of year of the Public Ledger, that in-Johnson's, when Boswell, admiring greatcreasing opportunities of employment (to say nothing of the constant robbery of his writings by pirate magazine-men) were really teaching him his value, and suggesting hopes he had not *Citizen of the World. Letter LXXXIV. man, and never read the book. The ly his preface to Rolt's Dictionary of Trade I "knew very well what such a Dictionary macaroni parson Dodd, and con- smith had so taken possession in ducted by that villainous pre- Wine-office-court, which must tender as an organ of fashionable have endeared it always to his divinity.* remembrance; but more 1761. Æt. 33. It seems to follow as of course deeply associated with the upon these engagements, that wretched habitation he had the room in Green-arbour-court left behind him in Green-arbourshould at last be exchanged for court, were days of a most one of greater comfort. He had forlorn misery as well as of a left that place in the later months manly resolution, and, round of 1760, and gone into what were that beggarly dwelling ("the called respectable lodgings in "shades," as he used to call it in Wine-office-court, Fleet-street. the more prosperous aftertime), The house belonged to a relative and all connected with it, there of Newbery's, and he occupied crowded to the last the kindest two rooms in it for nearly two memories of his gentle and true years. CHAPTER V. 1761-1762. A CIRCUMSTANCE occurred in the new abode of which Gold* Here I had stated, in my last edition, on the authority of Mr. Crossley Notes and Queries, 1st Series, v. 534), that another of Newbery's compilations issued at this time in four duodecimos, A Poeti nature. Thus, when bookseller Davies tells us, after his death, how tender and compassionate he was; how no unhappy person ever sued to him for relief without obtaining it, if he had anything to give; and how he would borrow, rather than not relieve the distressed, - he adds that "the poor woman with whom "he had lodged during his ob'scurity several years in Greencal Dictionary; or the Beauties of the Eng- "arbour-court, by his death lost lish Poets alphabetically displayed, was also "an excellent friend; for the Goldsmith's; but this is a mistake. It Doctor often supplied her with was by his friend and countryman, Derrick; though, short of the "evidently by "food from his own table, and deserve all that Mr. Crossley says of "sole purpose to be kind to "Goldsmith," both preface and selection "visited her frequently, with the them. George Faulkner writes from London on the 14th February, 1761, to Der- "her." As little, in connection rick (then on a visit to Dublin): "I sent with Wine-office-court, was he "over your Poetical Dictionary, which I suppose you have seen before this time, likely ever to forget that Johnson and assure you it is in good reputation, now first visited him there. 66 as you may judge, Mr. Johnson speak- They had probably met before. "ing very well of it." I quote from Derrick's unpublished correspondence, I have shown how frequently the formerly belonging to Mr. Croker and thoughts of Goldsmith vibrated now in my possession, which further to that great Grub-street figure shows that he was at this time collecting of independence and manhood, materials for Lives of the Poets, placed afterwards in Johnson's hands. *Life of Garrick, 11. 169, which, in an age not remarkable son at Inner-Temple-lane, and for either, was undoubtedly pre- found him, to his great astonishsented in the person of the author ment, in a marked condition of 1761. of the English Dictionary. studied neatness; without his One of the last Chinese rusty brown suit or his soiled Æt. 33. Letters had again alluded shirt, his loose knee-breeches, to the "Johnsons and Smolletts" his unbuckled shoes, or his old as veritable poets, though they little shrivelled unpowdered wig; might never have made a verse and not at all likely, as Miss in their whole lives; and among |Reynolds tells us his fashion in the earliest greetings of the new these days was, to be mistaken essay-writer, I suspect that John- for a beggarman. He had been son's would be found. The seen in no such respectable garb opinion expressed in his gene- since he appeared behind Garrous question of a few years later rick's scenes on the first of the ("Is there a man, sir, now, who nine nights of Irene, in a scarlet can pen an essay with such ease gold-laced waistcoat, and rich "and elegance as Goldsmith?"*) gold-laced hat. In fact, says he was not the man to wait for Percy, "he had on a new suit the world to help him to. Him-"of clothes, a new wig nicely self connected with Newbery, "powdered, and everything about and engaged in like occupation, "him so perfectly dissimilar the new adventurer wanted his "from his usual habits and aphelping word, and would be "pearance, that his companion therefore sure to have it; nor, if "could not help enquiring the it had not been a hearty one, is "cause of this singular transMr. Percy likely to have busied "formation. 'Why, sir,' said himself to bring about the pre- "Johnson, I hear that Goldsent meeting. It was arranged "smith, who is a very great by that learned divine; and this "sloven, justifies his disregard was the first time, he says, he "of cleanliness and decency by had seen them together. The "quoting my practice; and I day fixed was the 31st of May "am desirous this night to show 1761, and Goldsmith gave a supper in Wine-office-court in honour of his visitor. Percy called to take up John ""him a better example.'"* The example was not lost, as extracts from tailors' bills will shortly show; and the anecdote, which offers pleasant proof of the interest already felt by Johnwhen, in answer to a sneer which had son for his new acquaintance, is fallen from Mr. (afterwards Lord) Eliot, our only record connected with he heard Johnson fire up in defence that memorable supper. It had of his absent friend, and use, among no Boswell-historian, and is gone others, the expression in the text. Prior, Doctor Farr was dining with Rey nolds the year before Goldsmith's death, 1. 367. *Percy Memoir, 62, 63, |