and have good clothes. The moment are perfectly happy; days which had now come to him "but it is otherwise with man. were not splendid, but neither "His mind anticipates distress, were they starving days; and "and feels the pang of 1770. they had also brought him such "want even before it ar- Æt. respectful hearing, that, of what "rests him. Thus the mind 42. his really starving days had been, "being continually harassed by he could now dare to speak out, "the situation, it at length inin the hope of saving others.*"fluences the constitution, and He lost no opportunity of doing "unfits it for all its functions. it. Not even to his Natural His- "Some cruel disorder, but no tory did he turn, without venting "way like hunger, seizes the unupon this sorrowful theme, in "happy sufferer; so that almost sentences that sounded strangely "all those men who have thus amid his talk of beasts and birds, "long lived by chance, and whose what lay so near his heart. "every day may be considered "The lower race of animals," as an happy escape from "when satisfied, for the instant "famine, are known at last to * His old friend and rival, Kelly, who "die, in reality of a disorder had been already for some months a "caused by hunger, but which, hackwriter for the ministry, was now "in the common language, is struggling hard to get a pension from "often called a broken heart. Lord North; and an unpublished letter of his, written at this time, and acknowledg- "Some of these I have known ing gratefully Garrick's warm assistance, "myself, when very little able to lies before me. It overflows with praise; "relieve them; and I have been yet one reads it with an uneasy feeling that such services as it thanks Garrick "told, by a very active and for, might better have been given by him "worthy magistrate, that the to higher and worthier recipients. Cer-"number of such as die in Lontainly the letter is a strange contrast to 66 all that have been preserved out of the don for want, is much greater correspondence of Garrick and Gold- "than one would imagine - I "Wednesday, 12th Sept. 1770. think he talked of two thou"This day, and not before, I have got some certain intimation of Lord North's "sand in a year." If this was "intention to do handsome things. Mr. already written, as from what "Cooper told me of it in very obliging he afterwards told Langton we 66 terms, adding that what I had done was smith. 66 very much approved, and that you were may infer some portions of the "highly my friend. The first part of the Animated Nature to have been, "intelligence agreeably surprised me, Goldsmith little imagined the "the latter did not in the least; Garrick "I have long known as another term for immortal name which was now "all the virtues, and instead of being to be added to the melancholy "amazed at his readiness to serve the list. The writer of the sanguine "unfriended I should be actually 66 amazed if his generosity had not found letter I have quoted was doomed "that readiness a very considerable to be the next victim. He had "satisfaction. Accept my best acknow- not been in London many days, "ledgments, my dear sir, for all your "goodness to me." *Animated Nature, 11. 6-7. at the time when he so sup- histories of England, and voluposed he had mastered the book-minous histories of London; had sellers; and in little less than written for Magazines, Registers, three months after send- and Museums endless, the London, 1770. ing those hopeful tidings the Town and Country, the MidÆt. 42. home, he yielded up his dlesex Freeholders', the Court and brain to the terrible disorder of City; had composed a musical which Goldsmith had seen so burlesque burletta; had launched much: so unlike hunger, though into politics on both sides; had hunger-bred. Gallantly had he contributed sixteen songs for ten worked in those three mo- and sixpence; had received gladly mentous months: * had projected two shillings for an article; had they have no merit. I subjoin a few ex 66 "London about five o'clock in the even * The language contains few things lived on a half-penny roll, or a more affecting than the brief letters left penny tart and a glass of water a by Chatterton, though as compositions day, enjoying now and then a tracts. On the 26th of April, 1770, he sheep's tongue; had invented all writes to his "dear Mother:" "Here I the while brave letters about his am, safe, and in high spirits. Got into happiness and success to the “ing-called upon Mr. Edmunds, Mr. only creatures that loved him, "Fell, Mr. Hamilton, and Mr. Dodsley. his grandmother, mother, and "Great encouragement from them; all sister at Bristol; had even sent "approved of my design;-shall soon be them, out of his so many daily "settled." On the 6th of May he writes to his "dear Mother" from Shoreditch pence, bits of china, fans, and a the letter already quoted (162), to which he adds, "I have some trifling presents now lodging at Mrs. Angel's the sack"for mother, sister," &c. On the 14th of maker, in Brook-street, Holborn. From May he writes: "I am invited to treat that place, on the 20th of July, he again "with a Doctor of Music, on the footing writes to his sister. "I am now about "of a composer, for Ranelagh and the "an Oratorio, which, when finished, will "Gardens. Bravo, hey boys, up we go! "purchase you a gown." On the 12th of "Let my sister improve in copying music, August he writes to Mr. Catcott. "I in"and in drawing," &c. On the 30th of "tend going abroad as a surgeon. Mr. May he writes from "Tom's coffee-"Barrett has it in his power to assist me "house" to his "dear Sister:" "I will "greatly, by his giving me a physical "send you two silks this summer; and "character. I hope he will. I trouble 'expect, in answer to this, what colours "you with a copy of an Essay I intend "you prefer. My mother shall not be "publishing." These were the last "forgotten. My employment will be in thoughts which connected him with life writing a voluminous History of Lon- or its hopes, and they were precisely "don .. as this will not, like writing what had visited Goldsmith in an only "political essays, oblige me to go to the less sore extremity. He wished to escape "coffee-house, I shall be able to serve you as a surgeon to the coast of Africa, and "the more by it." On the 19th of June to help himself to go by means of an he writes to his mother. "I send you in essay he had written. But it was not to "the box, six cups and saucers with two be. Exactly twelve days after the date "basins for my sister. If a China tea-pot of this letter he was found dead in his "and cream-pot is in your opinion neces- wretched lodging. (For an amusing ac"sary, I will send them Two fans-count of the way in which Catcott, here "the silver one is more grave than the named, attended on Johnson and Bos"other, which would suit my sister best. well at their visit to Bristol, see Boswell, "But that I leave to you both." He was vi. 171-3). 66 1 CHAPTER VIII. A Visit to Paris. 1770, Æt. 42. gown: : and then, one fatal morning, after many bitter disappointments (one of them precisely what Goldsmith had himself undergone in as desperate distress, just as one of his exGOLDSMITH had quitted pedients for escape, by "going London on a visit to Paris "abroad as a surgeon," had in the middle of July. been also what Goldsmith tried), "The Professor of History," having passed some three days writes Mary Moser, the daughter without food and refused his of the keeper of the Academy, poor landlady's invitation to din- telling Fuseli at Rome how disner, he was found dead in his appointed the literary people miserable room, the floor thickly connected with the new institustrewn with scraps of the manu- tion had been not to receive scripts he had destroyed, a diplomas of membership like the pocket-book memorandum lying painters, "is comforted by the near him to the effect that the 'success of his Deserted Village, booksellers owed him eleven "which is a very pretty poem, pounds, and the cup which had "and has lately put himself under held arsenic and water still "the conduct of Mrs. Horneck grasped in his hand. It was in "and her fair daughters, and is a wretched little street out of "gone to France; and Doctor Holborn; the body was taken to "Johnson sips his tea, and cares the bone-house of St. Andrew's, "not for the vanity of the but no one came to claim it; "world."* Goldsmith himself, and in due time the with most pleasant humour, has pauperdescribed in a letter to Sir burial-ground of Shoe-lane received what remained of Chat- Joshua Reynolds what happened terton. "The marvellous boy! to the party up to their lodg"The sleepless soul who perished ment in Calais, at the Hôtel "in his pride!" He was not d'Angleterre. They had not ar eighteen. The tragedy had been all acted out before Goldsmith heard of any of its incidents. I am even glad to think, that, during the whole of the month which preceded the catastrophe, he was absent from England. 66 rived many hours when he sent over this fragment of a despatch, to satisfy Reynolds merely of the safe arrival of Mrs. Horneck, the young ladies, and himself: "My "dear Friend," he wrote, "We "had a very quick passage from "Dover to Calais, which we per"formed in three hours and "twenty minutes, all of us ex"tremely sea-sick, which must * Knowles's Life of Fuseli, 1. 36. 66 "necessarily have happened, as| cause he spoke English, and "my machine to prevent sea-"because he wanted it. I can"sickness was not completed. "not help mentioning another 1770. "We were glad to leave "circumstance. I bought a new "Dover, because we hated "ribbon for my wig at CanterEt. 42. to be imposed upon; so "bury, and the barber at Calais "were in high spirits at coming "broke it in order to gain six"to Calais, where we were told " pence by buying me a new "that a little money would go a "one." "'* "great way. Upon landing two This was not a very promising "little trunks, which was all we beginning; but the party, con"carried with us, we were sur-tinuing to carry with them the "prised to see fourteen or fifteen national enjoyment of scolding "fellows all running down to the everything they met with, passed "ship to lay their hands upon on through Flanders, and to "them; four got under each Paris by way of Lisle. The "trunk, the rest surrounded, and latter city was the scene of an "held the hasps; and in this incident afterwards absurdly "manner our little baggage was misrelated. Standing at the win"conducted, with a kind of dow of their hotel to see a com"funeral solemnity, till it was pany of soldiers in the square, "safely lodged at the custom- the beauty of the sisters Horneck "house. We were well enough drew such marked admiration, "pleased with the people's civi- that Goldsmith, heightening his "lity till they came to be paid: drollery with that air of solemnity "when every creature that had so generally a point in his hu"the happiness of but touching mour and so often more solemnly "our trunks with their finger, misinterpreted, turned off from "expected sixpence; and had so the window with the remark that "pretty civil a manner of de- elsewhere he, too, could have his "manding it, that there was no admirers. The Jessamy Bride, "refusing them. When we had Mrs. Gwyn, was asked about the "done with the porters, we had occurrence not many years ago; "next to speak with the custom-remembered it as a playful jest; "house officers, who had their and said how shocked she had "pretty civil way too. We were subsequently been "to see it ad"directed to the Hôtel d'Angle-❝duced in print as a proof of "terre, where a valet de place "his envious disposition." The "came to offer his service; and readers of Boswell will remem"spoke to me ten minutes be- ber that it is so related by him. "fore I once found out that he "When accompanying two beau"was speaking English. We had "no occasion for his service, so was first printed in the Percy Memoir, *This delightful fragment of a letter "we gave him a little money be- 90-91. 1770. Æt. 42. "tiful young ladies with their their arrival, dated from Paris "mother on a tour in France, he on the 29th of July. He is was seriously angry that more anxious to get back to what "attention was paid to them than Gibbon, when he became "to him!"* a member of the Club, At Lisle another letter to Rey-called the relish of manly nolds was begun, but laid aside, conversation and the society of because everything they had the brown table. He is getting seen was so dull that the descrip- nervous about his arrears of tion would not be worth reading. work. He dares not think of anNor had matters much improved other holiday yet, though Reywhen they got to Paris. Alas! nolds had proposed, on his reGoldsmith had discovered a turn, a joint excursion into Devonchange in himself since he shire. He is already planning traversed those scenes with only new labour. He is even thinking his youth and his poverty for of another comedy; and therecompanions. Lying in a barn fore glad that Colman's suit in was no disaster then. Then, chancery has ended in confirmthere were no postillions to ing his right as acting manager quarrel with, no landladies to be (the whole quarrel was made up cheated by, no silk coat to tempt the following year by Mr. Harris's him into making himself look quarrel with Mrs. Lessingham). like a fool. The world was his But here is the letter, as printed oyster in those days, which with from the original in possession his flute he opened. He ex- of Mr. Singer; and how pleasant pressed all this very plainly in a are its little references to those letter to Reynolds soon after weaknesses of his own which he well knew had never such kindly *Life of Johnson, II. 191. Northcote, interpretation as from Reynolds, with less excuse, has repeated it (Life of as where he whimsically protests Reynolds, 1. 250); but in later years he that it never can be natural in apologised for having too hastily done so, having since been better informed by himself to be stupid, where he Mrs. Gwyn. And see Moore's Diary, vi. reports himself saying as a good 114-15. On the other hand, Mr. Croker, thing a thing which was not notes for his Boswell, is careful to remind understood, and where he deus that "the good-natured construction scribes the silk coat he has pur"which the kind old lady was willing, chased which makes him look "after a lapse of above sixty years, to who had received from Mrs. Gwyn some "put on Goldsmith's behaviour, she did like a fool! "MY DEAR FRIEND, I began a long letter to you from Lisle giving a description of all that we had done and seen, but finding it very dull, and knowing that you would show it again, I threw it aside and it was lost. You see by the top of this letter that we are at Paris, |