1766.

Is not the fashion as well as letters, depressed and at that faction of the time thus reflected time very slowly rising, that his to us vividly? Now, all except- Traveller had obtained for him ing Christopher Anstey are only twenty guineas. Even Daforgotten, of these ad- vid Hume, though now accepted Æt. 38. mired ones; nor is it likely into the higher circles, undisthat even Anstey would have turbed any longer by the "facbeen noticed with anything but "tious barbarians," and somea sneer, if, besides being a what purified of late from history scholar and a wit, he had not and philosophy by employment also been a member of Parlia- as under-secretary of state, had ment. Beyond the benches of not lost that painful sense of the the Houses, too, or the gossip social differences between Paris of St. James's, this influence and London which he expressed reached. It was social rank that twelve months before the prehad helped Anstey, for this poem sent date. "If a man have the of the New Bath Guide, to no less "misfortune in London to attach a sum than two hundred pounds; "himself to letters, even if he it was because Goldsmith had no "succeeds, I know not with other rank than as a man of "whom he is to live, nor how he "is to pass his time in a suitable "society. The little company "of a period in which all arts, all "sciences, are encouraged and "there, that is worth conversing "warded." Mitford's Correspondence of "with, are cold and unsociable, Walpole and Mason, 1. 32. "Indolent" in 'or are warmed only by faction this passage is, I doubt not, a misprint for "insolent; for these letters do not "and cabal; so that a man who appear to have been corrected at all as "plays no part in public affairs they went through the press. As I have becomes altogether insignifitouched upon the subject, it may perhaps be worth quoting another of Wal-"cant, and if he is not rich, he pole's querulous complainings as to the "becomes even contemptible.... utter absence of all merit in the age, its "But in Paris a man that disliterature, history, poetry, eloquence,

"little have they contributed to the glory

re

morality, and statesmanship, since it "tinguishes himself in letters, contains the germ of a more famous and "meets immediately with regard felicitous passage by a celebrated living and attention."* He complains writer. (1852). "For my part, I take

"Europe to be worn out. When Voltaire in another letter that the best 66 dies, we may say, 'Good night!'. company in London are in a "The next Augustan age will dawn on flame of politics; and he de

"the other side of the Atlantic. There

66

“will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at clines an introduction to Mr. Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, Percy because it would be im"in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a New"ton at Peru. practicable for him to cultivate At last, some curious "traveller from Lima will visit England, his friendship, as men of letters "and give a description of the ruins of have in London no place of "St. Paul's, like the editions of Balbee rendezvous, and "and Palmyra," Letters to Mann, II. 297-301,

are indeed

*Burton's Life of Hume, 11, 268,

1766.

Æt. 38.

"sunk and forgot in the general as well as "the blackest and "torrent of the world."* Only "most atrocious villain beyond one such man there was who "comparison that now exists in would not be so sunk and forgot; "the world.” For he had his own unluckily chosen protégé first indicted Hume as the Rousseau. That horrible Eng-leader of the conspiracy, lish habit of indifference, Jean and brought him forward to anJacques conceived to be a con-swer the indictment in the St. spiracy to destroy him (for how James's Chronicle; and next had could he live without being fallen foul of Horace Walpole as talked about?); and straightway Hume's supposed vicious instruhe managed so to conduct him- ment, Bishop Warburton crying self that the friend who but a short all the while with delight to see twelve months before had called ". 'so seraphic a madman" attack him a Socrates, ** and praised his " so insufferable a coxcomb." mildness, modesty, gentleness, Nothing of a literary sort indeed and goodnature, declared him made so much noise or amusenow to have become a compound ment at the close of the year as of whim, affectation, wickedness, the mad libels of Rousseau, and vanity, inquietude, madness, in- the caricatures* issued of them: gratitude, ferocity, and lying, *** unless it were the newspaper cross readings, which, with the

*Burton, II. 385.

**So Hume had written to Blair in witty signature of a real name, December 1765, and to Madame de Papyrius Cursor, that rendered its Boufflers in January 1766 (Private Correspondence, 130), with the reservation aptness so whimsical, Caleb that his friend suffered by the com- Whitefoord published in Decemparison. And see Warburton's Letters, ber (wherein the public were informed that "this morning the "Rt. Hon. the Speaker was con"victed of keeping a disorderly "house," that "Lord Chatham

386-7.

*** So wrote Hume to Adam Smith in

of George 111, 1. 231. The same thing is repeated in other terms in Hume's Private Correspondence, 225-6, 241-2, and 246.

October 1766. The reader will find more than enough of this quarrel in the fifth volume of Walpole's Letters; in the Private Correspondence of Hume (4to. 1820), particularly at pp. 142-67, 169-208, and 212-230; in the 2nd vol. (295-380) of Mr. Burton's Life of Hume; in the same editor's Letters of Eminent Persons to Hume (1849), passim; and in the preface to Hume's Philosophical Works (Ed. 1825, "There is even a print engraved of I. XXIX-CXIX): but the most brief and "it," writes Hume to the Countess de compact account of Hume's conduct in it, Boufflers. "M. Rousseau is represented with a very pleasing sketch of his general "as a Yahoo, newly caught in the woods; character, is, I think, in Hardy's Life of "I am represented as a farmer, who Lord Charlemont, 120-124. I may add that,"caresses him and offers him some oats a year or two after his return to France,"to eat, which he refuses in a rage; Rousseau admitted that he had been to "Voltaire and d'Alembert are whipping blame in the quarrel, and charac-"him up behind; and Horace Walpole teristically ascribed it to a mental afflic-"making him horns of papier maché. The tion produced by the foggy climate of "idea is not altogether absurd." Priv England. See Brougham's Men of Letters Cor. 234.

CHAPTER XVI.

"took his seat and was severely the 6th of January, "lent Dr. “handled by the populace,” and “Goldsmith one pound one. that "yesterday Doctor Jones "JOHN NEWBERY."* "preached at St. James's 1766. "and performed it with At. 38. ease in less than fifteen "minutes" with other as surprising items of information), and at which the town is described to have wept with laughter. *

66

Theatres Royal Covent-Garden and

Drury-Lane.

1767.

Æt. 39.

THE opening, then, of 1767. Goldsmith envied nothing the twelfth year of Oliver so much, we are assured, as the Goldsmith's career as a authorship of this humorous man of letters, which finds him sally; and would gladly have ex- author of the Citizen of the World, changed for it his own most suc- the Traveller, and the Vicar of cessful writings.** Half sad, Wakefield, finds him also writing and half satirical, perhaps he a short English grammar for five thus contrasted its reception with guineas, and borrowing of his theirs. publisher the sum of one pound The young German student to one. But thus scantily eking out whom allusion has been made, his necessities with hack emspeaking from his judgment of ployment and parsimonious lendthe book that so enchanted him, ings, his dramatic labour had had thought its author must have meanwhile been in progress. reason thankfully to acknow- The venture I have described as "ledge he was an Englishman, in the dawn, was now about to "and to reckon highly the ad- struggle into day. He had taken "vantages which his country and for his model the older Eng"nation afforded him.” But lish comedy. He thought Conwould Goethe without limitation greve's astonishing wit too exhave said this, if there had lain uberant for the stage; and for before him the two entries from truth to nature, vivacity, life, and a bookseller's papers wherewith spirit, placed Farquhar first. the biographer of the author of With what was called the genteel the Vicar of Wakefield must close or sentimental school that had the year 1766 and open the year since prevailed, and of which 1767? "Received from Mr. New-Steele was the originator, he felt "bery," says the first, dated the no sympathy; and cared chiefly 28th of December, "five guineas for the Jealous Wife and the "for writing a short English gram"mar. OLIVER GOLDSMITH." "To "cash," says the second, d dated

*Coll. Lett. v. 175. **Northcote's Life of Reynolds, 1. 217.

66

"Received from Mr. Newbery five "guineas for writing a short English grammar. OLIVER GOLDSMITH. Decr. 28, 1766." "Dr. Goldsmith. Dr. To "Cash lent Jan. 6, 1767, 17. 1s. Od." Newbery MSS.

Clandestine Marriage because they club reunited its members; and, had shown the power to break once more in the society of through those trammels. What Reynolds, Johnson, and Burke, his countryman Farquhar had Goldsmith was eager to 1767. done, he resolved to attempt; forget his carking poverty, and in that hearty hope had and to count up his growplanned his play. With the help ing pretensions to greatness and of nature, humour, and charac-esteem.

*

Æt. 39.

ter, should these be in his reach, What Boswell calls "one of he would invoke the spirit of "the most remarkable incidents laughter, happy, unrestrained, "of Johnson's life," was now and cordial: all the more surely, matter of conversation at the as he reckoned, if with Garrick's club. In February, the King had help, and King's, and Yates's; taken occasion to see and hold though without them, if so com- some conversation with him on pelled. For not in their names, one of his visits to the royal or after Garrick's fashion, had library, where by permission of he set down his exits and en- the librarian he frequently contrances, nor to suit peculiarities sulted books. The effect proof theirs were his mirthful in- duced by the incident is a social cidents devised. Upon no stage curiosity of the time. Endless picture of the humorous, how- was the interest of it; the marvel ever vivid, but upon what he of it never to be done with. had seen and known himself, of "He loved to relate it with all the humorous in actual life, he "its circumstances," says Boswas determined to venture all; well, "when requested by his believing that what was real in "friends:" and "Come now, manners, however broad or low, "this is an interesting matter; if in decency endurable and point-"do favour us with it," was the ing to no illiberal moral, could cry of every friend in turn. So, never be justly condemned as often was the story repeated. vulgar. And for this he had How the King had asked JohnJohnson's approval. Indifferent son if he was then writing anyto nothing that affected his thing, and he had answered he friend, nor ever sluggish where was not, for he had pretty well help was wanted or active kind- told the world what he knew, ness needed to be done, John- and must now read to acquire son promised to write a pro- more knowledge. How the King logue to the comedy. For again said he did not think Johnson had he lately shown himself in borrowed much from anybody; Gerrard-street; again had the and the other venturing to think he had done his part as a writer, demnation of the practice, see the Citizen would have thought so too, was handsomely assured "Í

* See ante, 4-5. And for a strong con

of the World, Letter LXXIX,

sir,

if

"you had not written so well." | sonorous voice, and never in that How his majesty next observed subdued tone which is comthat he supposed he must al- monly used at the levee and in ready have read a great the drawing-room. And how, at 1767. deal, to which Johnson re- the end of it, the flattered sage Et. 39. plied that he thought more protested that the manners of the than he read, and for instance bucolic young sovereign, "let had not read much, compared "them talk of them as they will," with Dr. Warburton; whereto were those of as fine a gentlethe King rejoined that he heard man as Louis the Fourteenth or Dr. Warburton was a man of Charles the Second could have such general knowledge that his been.* "Ah!" said the charmed learning resembled Garrick's act- and charming Sévigné, when her ing in its universality. How his King had danced with her, majesty afterwards asked if there "c'est le plus grand roi du were any other literary journals "monde!"

66

published in the kingdom, ex- "And did you say nothing, sir," cept the Monthly Review and Criti- asked one of the circle who cal Review, and being told there stood round Johnson at Mr. Reywas no other, inquired which of nolds's when he detailed the inthem was best; whereupon John-terview there, "to the King's son replied that the Monthly Re-"high compliment on your writview was done with most care, "ing?" "No, sir," answered and the Critical upon the best Johnson, with admirable taste. principles, for that the authors "When the King had said it, it of the Monthly were enemies to was to be so. It was not for the church: which the King said "me to bandy civilities with my he was sorry to hear. How his "Sovereign." Highly characmajesty talked of the university teristic of him was what he added libraries, of Sir John Hill's as his opinion of the advantage veracity, and of Lord Lyttelton's of such an interview. "I found," history; and how he proposed he said, in answer to the frank that the literary biography of the and lively questioning of Joseph country should be undertaken by Warton, "his majesty wished I Johnson, who thereupon signified "should talk, and I made it my his readiness to comply with the "business to talk. I find it does royal wishes (of which he never "a man good to be talked to by heard another syllable). How, "his Sovereign. In the first during the whole of the inter-"place a man cannot be in a pasview, to use the description "sion-"** Here he was stopped; given to Boswell by the librarian, but he had said enough. The Johnson talked to his majesty consciousness of his own too with profound respect, but still

66

*Boswell, III. 22-27.

in his firm manly manner, with a ** Ibid, 111, 27.