1769.

The nature of Goldsmith's labour and pains of his verse inemployments at the close of terlined with countless altera1769 is indicated in the ad- tions; but in prose as in poetry vertising columns of the he aimed at the like effects, and papers of the day. His obtained them. He knew that Et. 41. English History occupied no picture will stand, if the him chiefly, his History of Animated colours are bad, ill-chosen, or Nature occasionally; he had un-indiscreetly combined; and that dertaken to write a life of his not chaos, but order, is creation. countryman, Parnell, for a new It is a pity that men, though of edition of his poems (this being perhaps greater genius, who a subject in which, as he re- have lived since his time, should marks in the biography itself, not more carefully have ponwhat he remembered having col-dered such lessons as his writlected in boyhood "from my ings bequeath to us. It is a pity "father and uncle, who knew that the disposition to rush into "him," had doubtless given him print should be so general; for a personal interest); and the few men have ever repented of speedy publication of the De- publishing too late. Goldsmith, serted Village was twice announced alas! never found himself within the Public Advertiser. But it out the excuse which the sucwas not published speedily. Still cessful poet, supreme in his it was paused over, altered, power and mastery over the polished, and refined. Bishop town, threw out for the instant Percy has mentioned the de- needs and pressing necessities of lightful facility with which his less fortunate men. prose flowed forth unblotted

"Keep your piece nine years.” with erasure, as a contrast to the "Nine_years!" cries he, who, high in

Dr. Johnson knew Goldsmith early and whilst he was struggling with his poverty, and always thought as respectfully of

his heart as of his talents.

Rhymes ere he wakes, and prints before
Term ends,

Obliged by hunger and request of
friends.*

*Memoir, 113. "His elegant and en"chanting style in prose flowed from "him with such facility, that in whole Yet neither at the request of "quires of his Histories, Animated Na

66

"ture, &c. he had seldom occasion to cor- friends, nor at the more urgent "rect or alter a single word; but in his call of hunger, did Goldsmith 66 verses, especially his two great ethic peril his chances of being poems, nothing could exceed the pa"tient and incessant revisal which he cherished as a poet by future "bestowed upon them. To save himself generations. Pope's own method "the trouble of transcription, he wrote of sending forth a part of a poem "the lines in his first copy very wide,

"and would so fill up the intermediate one winter and promising its space with reiterated corrections, that completion for the winter follow

"scarcely a word of his first effusions

66 was left unaltered."

Prol. to Satires, 40-44.

to

Æt.

42.

ing, which Mr. Rogers has often shows little change since earlier enlarged upon to me as the only days. His Irish friends and true method, would be laughed family are as they then were. at nowadays: yet extremely few They do not seem to have 1770. are the thoughts "conceived with answered many recent "rapture and with fire begot," communications sent compared with those that may them; he now learns for the first be carefully brought forth, be-time that Charles is no longer in comingly and charmingly habited, Ireland; his brother-in-law, Hodand introduced by the Graces. son, has been as silent as the Men of the more brilliant order rest; his sister Hodson he never of fancy and imagination should mentions, some early disagreebe always distrustful of their ment remaining still unsettled; powers. Spar and stalactite are and he sends cousin Jenny his bad materials for the foundation portrait, in memory of an original "almost forgot." The letter is

of solid edifices.

"DEAR BROTHER, I should have an

The year 1770 opens directed to "Mr. Maurice Gold1770. with a glimpse into the "smith, at James Lawder's, Esq, Æt. 42. old fireside at Kilmore. "at Kilmore, near Carrick-onThe Lawders do not seem to "Shannon," and bears the date have communicated with him of "January 1770." since his uncle Contarine's death; and a legacy of £15, left him by swered your letter sooner, but in truth I that generous friend, remained am not fond of thinking of the necessities unappropriated in their hands. of those I love, when it is so very little in His brother Maurice, still with- my power to help them. I am sorry to find you are still every way unprovided out calling or employment, and for; and what adds to my uneasiness is, apparently living on such of his that I have received a letter from my relatives as from time to time sister Johnson, by which I learn that she is pretty much in the same circumwere willing to afford him a stances. As to myself, I believe I could home, probably heard this legacy get both you and my poor brother-in-law mentioned while he made one of something like that which you desire, his self-supporting visits, for he little things, nor exhaust any little instraightway wrote to Oliver. The terest I may have until I can serve you, money would help him to an yet no opportunity has offered, but I behim, and myself more effectually. As outfit, if his famous brother lieve you are pretty well convinced that could help him to an appoint- I will not be remiss when it arrives. The king has lately been pleased to make ment; and to express his earnest me Professor of Ancient History in a hopes in this direction, was the royal Academy of Painting, which he drift of the letter. His sister has just established, but there is no Johnson wrote soon after, for her salary annexed; and I took it rather as a husband, in a precisely similar compliment to the institution than any strain; and to these letters Gold

but I am determined never to ask for

The "Jenny" of a former letter; see smith's reply has been kept. It ante, 1. 122.

Oliver Goldsmith's Life and Times. II,

9

1770. Æt.

42.

benefit to myself. Honours to one in my mind to oblige me, you will write often situation are something like ruffles to a whether I answer you or not. Let me man that wants a shirt.* You tell me particularly have the news of our family that there are fourteen or fifteen pounds and old acquaintances. For instance, left me in the hands of my you may begin by telling me about the cousin Lawder, and you ask me family where you reside, how they spend what I would have done with their time, and whether they ever make them. My dear brother, I would mention of me. Tell me about my by no means give any directions to my mother, my brother Hodson, and his son; dear worthy relations at Kilmore, how my brother Harry's son and daughter, to dispose of money, which is, properly my sister Johnson, the family of Balspeaking, more theirs than mine. Allyoughter, what is become of them, that I can say is, that I entirely, and this where they live, and how they do. You letter will serve to witness, give up any talked of being my only brother, I don't right and title to it; and I am sure they understand you-Where is Charles? A will dispose of it to the best advantage. sheet of paper occasionally filled with To them I entirely leave it: whether news of this kind, would make me very they or you may think the whole neces- happy, and would keep you nearer my sary to fit you out, or whether our poor mind. As it is, my dear brother, believe sister Johnson may not want the half, me to be yours, most affectionately, leave entirely to their and your discre- OLIVER GOLDSMITH."* tion. The kindness of that good couple to our poor shattered family demands our sincerest gratitude, and though they

The writer's weakness is here, have almost forgot me yet, if good too, as of old. He believes he things at last arrive, I hope one day to could get, for his poor, idle,

be left for her at George Faulkenor's.

friends over the Shannon some mezzo

return, and encrease their good humour thriftless petitioners, exactly what by adding to my own. I have sent my cousin Jenny a miniature picture of my- they want; though ruffles, minus self, as I believe it is the most acceptable the shirt, are the sum of his own present I can offer. I have ordered it to acquisitions. But he will wait; folded in a letter. The face, you well and they must wait; and good know, is ugly enough, but it is finely things are sure to arrive; and painted. I will shortly also send my they will one day be all in goodtinto prints of myself, and some more of humour again. The old, hopemy friends here, such as Burke, John- ful, sanguine, unreflecting story! son, Reynolds, and Colman. I believe 1 have written an hundred letters to dif- Nevertheless Maurice soon tired ferent friends in your country, and of waiting, as his wealthier renever received an answer from any of latives tired of helping him to them. I do not know how to account for wait; and he is shortly afterup for me those regards which I must wards discovered again comever retain for them. If then you have a plaining to his brother, that really he finds it difficult to live

this, or why they are unwilling to keep

He uses the same comparison in one like a gentleman. Oliver replies of his essays, and again introduces it in the Haunch of Venison. Yet it belongs to upon this in somewhat plainer Tom Brown, who in his Laconics (pointed fashion; recommending him by out to me by Mr. Peter Cunningham) says that "to treat a poor wretch with a "bottle of Burgundy, or fill his snuff-box, "is like giving a pair of lace ruffles to a 66 man that has never a shirt on his back. "Put something into his pocket." Works, Ed. 1709, IV. 14.

*Percy Memoir, 86-89. .To the original is annexed a receipt which shows that the sum of 15 was paid to Maurice Goldsmith for a legacy bequeathed to Oliver Goldsmith by the late Rev. Thomas Contarine. Dated 4th Feb. 1770.

1770.

42.

all means to quit the unpro- uncle Oliver's death, as a penfitable calling, and betake him- sioner on his scanty resources. self to some handicraft employ- He resembled Oliver in some ment, if no better can be found: thoughtless peculiarities whereupon Maurice bound him- of character, and in his Æt. self to a cabinet-maker in odd vicissitudes of good Drumsna in the county of Lei- and evil fortune, for he once paid trim, in which calling, several a small debt with an undrawn years after his brother's death, lottery ticket which turned out a he kept a shop in Dublin. Mean-prize of £20,000. During his rewhile Oliver's inquiry after bro-sidence in London, he practised ther-in-law Hodson's son had the occasionally, without any regular effect, soon after his letter qualification, as an apothecary reached Athlone, of bringing in Newman-street; but he ultiback to London a very unsettled mately ended his days as a prosand somewhat eccentric youth: perous Irish gentleman, farming who had formerly visited Gold-a patrimonial estate. * smith, after abruptly quitting Goldsmith died, half the unpaid Dublin University, leaving at bill he owed to Mr. William Filby, that time obscure traces of the and which amounted in all to extent to which his celebrated only £79, was for clothes suprelative had befriended him; and plied to this nephew Hodson. who now, having occupied the Yet it does not appear that the interval chiefly in foreign travel bill was paid by this very genuine during which he had turned to young branch of the old, careaccount certain half- finished less, idle, improvident Goldmedical studies, lived for the smith stock.** most part in London, until his

When

* His son, Oliver Goldsmith Hodson, when Dr. Annesley Strean was writing to Mr. Mangin from Athlone at the close of 1807, had inherited and was living "on an "estate of about 700l. a year, eight miles from this town." Mangin's Essay, 148. I have to add that one of the descendants of these connections of Goldsmith, who has resumed the original spelling of the name, is my solicitor and valued friend, Mr. G. F. Hudson of Bucklersbury, in whose genial literary tastes, enjoyment of doing good, and a turn for humorous observation applied to the kindliest use, the good-hearted poet himself might have acknowledged no unworthy kinsman.

** I here give, from Mr. Filby's ledger, that account with the worthy citizen during the last three years of Goldsmith's life which was the last ever delivered to him. The balance will be given hereafter, as it stood at the period of his death.

1770.

CHAPTER VI.

Dinners and Talk.

1770.

|himself, and of such friends of his as Burke, Johnson, Reynolds, and Colman. The fact thus indicated has its proper biographical significance. The head of

IN Goldsmith's letter to the author of the Traveller now his brother Maurice, it figured in the print-shops. ReyÆt. 42. will have been observed nolds had painted his portrait. that the writer's friends over the "In poetry we may be said to Shannon were told shortly to ex-"have nothing new," says a letpect some mezzotinto prints of ter-writer of the day;* "but we

(Of this, 50l. was paid the 5th April, and 607. the 14th September, 1773, leaving a balance against Goldsmith of 48l. 4s. 4d.)

*To Smollett,