1774.

ministered, one by the servant, Mr. Hawes (the substance of the other by the nurse. The whose brief narrative I resume, nurse was also despatched for an- with such illustrations as other other apothecary, named sources have supplied) did not Maxwell, living near St. see his patient when he called Et. 46. Dunstan's church, who on Saturday morning. "His came, but declined to act as "master was dozing, he lay very matters then stood; and from "quiet," was the announcement that time "the patient followed of Eyles. He called again at "the advice of his physicians." night; when, "with great apHe was too ill to make further "pearance of concern," the man resistance. Such is the sub- told him that everything was stance of the evidence of the worse. Hawes went in, and servants; in which a somewhat found Goldsmith extremely exexaggerated form was given to hausted and reduced, his pulse what might in itself be sub- very quick and small; and on instantially true, yet in no way af- quiring how he did, "he sighed fect the veracity of Mr. Hawes.*" deeply, and in a very low voice If Goldsmith asserted that a "said he wished he had taken wrong powder had been sent, "my friendly advice last night." the sudden impulse to think so To other questions he made no was perhaps not unnatural, after answer. He was so weak and the course he had unwisely per- low that he had neither strength sisted in; but that Hawes really nor spirit to speak. There was made the mistake, is not cre- now, clearly, danger of the worst; dible. Reynolds and Burke made and Fordyce next day proposed later investigation, and wholly to call another physician, named acquitted him; a recent inquirer Dr. Turton, into consultation. and intelligent practitioner, Mr. Goldsmith's consent was obtained White Cooper, confirms strongly to this step at eight o'clock on the opinion on which he seems Monday morning, and Hawes reto have acted; nor did poor tired altogether from attendance. Goldsmith himself very long The patient had again passed a adhere to the charge he had very bad night, "and lay abmade.**

"solutely sunk with weakness." Fordyce and Turton met that

* The various affidavits, as put forth day; and continued their con

by Francis Newbery to vindicate the reputation of his medicine, are reprinted as an appendix to Hawes's Account. "of a purple fever, and I think he might **Horace Walpole is no authority on "have been saved if he had continued such a point, but it may mark the in- "James's powder, which had had much terest which was felt on the question if I "effect, but his physician interposed. add what he wrote to Mason on the third" The poor soul had sometimes day after the fatal termination of the ill-"parts, though never common sense." "The republic of Parnassus has Mitford's Correspondence of Walpole and "lost a member; Dr. Goldsmith is dead Mason, I. 138.

ness.

was over.

sultations twice daily, until all out intermission; he sank rapidly; and at a quarter before five A week passed: the symptoms o'clock on the morning of Monso fluctuating in the course of day, the 4th of April, 1774, 1774. it, and the evidence of active dis- having then lived five Æt. 46. ease so manifestly declining, that months beyond his fortyeven sanguine expectations of fifth year, Oliver Goldsmith recovery would appear to have died.*

been at one time entertained. When Burke was told, he But Goldsmith could not sleep. burst into tears. Reynolds was His reason seemed clear; what in his painting-room when the he said was always perfectly sen- messenger went to him: but at sible; "he was at times even once he laid his pencil aside, "cheerful;" but sleep had de- which in times of great family serted him, his appetite was distress he had not been known gone, and it became obvious, in to do; left his painting-room; the state of weakness to which and did not re-enter it that day. he had been reduced, that want Northcote describes the blow as of sleep might in itself be fatal. the "severest Sir Joshua ever It then occurred to Dr. Turton "received." Nor was the day to put a very pregnant question less gloomy for Johnson. "Poor to his patient. "Your pulse," "Goldsmith is gone" was his he said, "is in greater disorder anticipation of the evil tidings. "than it should be, from the de- "Of poor dear Doctor Gold'gree of fever which you have."smith," he wrote three months "Is your mind at ease?" "No, it later to Boswell, "there is little "is not," was Goldsmith's me- 'more to be told. He died of a lancholy answer. * They are the "fever, I am afraid more violent last words we are to hear him utter in this world. The end ar

66

66

I quote the obituary from the public rived suddenly and unexpectedly. regretted, at his chambers in Brickjournals: "DIED.] Much and deservedly He lay in the sound and calm " court, in the Temple, Dr. Oliver Gold. sleep which so anxiously had " smith, Author of the Poems of the Trabeen looked for, at midnight on "genious works in prose. He was seized "veller and Deserted Village, and many inSunday, the 3rd of April; his re- 66 on Friday se'nnight with a nervous spiration was easy and natural, "fever in his brain, which occasioned "his death."-"Dr. Goldsmith is dead, his skin warm and moist, and "and my cousin Mrs. Harris," is the dry the favourable turn was thought mention of Horace Walpole to Lady Osto have come. But at four o'clock sory (Ossory Letters, 1. 133), the day but in the morning, the apothecary he had written to the same lady of an illone after the event. A few days before Maxwell was called up in haste, and found him in strong convulsions. These continued with*Boswell, VI. 305-6.

ness affecting his favourite lap-dog, "I "have been out of bed twenty times "every night, have had no sleep, and sat 'up with her till three this morning." 1. 77.

1774.

"by uneasiness of mind. His "your wild genius, poor Doctor "debts began to be heavy, and "Goldsmith, is dead," wrote "all his resources were ex- Mrs. Carter to Mrs. Vesey. "He "hausted. Sir Joshua is "was just going to publish a "of opinion that he owed "book called Animated Nature. I Et. 46. "not less than two thou-"believe a compilation of Na"sand pounds. Was ever poet "tural History. He died of a "so trusted before?" He spoke "fever, poor man. I am sincerely of the loss for years, as with the "glad to hear he has no family, tenderness of a recent grief; and "so his loss will not be felt in in his little room hung round "domestic life." The respecwith portraits of his favourite table and learned old lady could friends, even as Swift's was not possibly know in what other adorned with the "just half-a- undomestic ways it might be felt. "dozen"** that he really loved The staircase of Brick-court is away from Laracor, Goldsmith said to have been filled with had a place of honour. *** "So, mourners, the reverse of domestic; women without a home, * Boswell, v. 188. The day after, he without domesticity of any kind, wrote to Langton: "Chambers, you find, "is gone far" (he had set out for India), with no friend but him they had "and poor Goldsmith is gone much come to weep for; outcasts of "farther. He died of a fever, exaspe- that great, solitary, wicked city, "rated, as I believe, by the fear of dis

"tress. He had raised money," &c. (ante, to whom he had never forgotten 309). "I wrote the following tetrastich to be kind and charitable. ** "on poor Goldsmith," &c. (post, 334). And he had domestic mourners

Boswell, v. 189.

**Journal to Stella, Feb. 27, 1712-13 too. His coffin was re-opened (Works, III. 122.) "Lord Bolingbroke and at the request of Miss Horneck "Lady Masham have promised to sit for

"me; but I despair of lord-treasurer; own, "You will do me a great favour if "only I hope he will give me a copy, and "you will buy for me the prints of Mr. "then I shall have all the pictures of" 'Burke, Mr. Dyer, and Dr. Goldsmith, "those I really love here; just half-a-"as you know good impressions." Bos"dozen; only I will make lord-keeper well, VII. 297. give me his print in a frame."

66

*Letters, IV. 110. 4th May, 1774. ***"We were shown," says Boswell, ** See ante, 118. "I was in his chamdescribing a visit to Lord Scarsdale's "bers in Brick-court the other day," seat at Kiddlestone, by Johnson and him- writes a friend, with whom I afterwards self, three years after Goldsmith's death, visited them, and cannot better describe "a pretty large library. In his Lord them than in the few simple words of his "ship's dressing-room lay Johnson's letter. "The bed-room is a closet with"small dictionary: he showed it to me, "out any light in it. It quite pains one "with some eagerness, saying: 'Look "to think of the kind old fellow dying off "ye! Quæ regio in terris nostri non "there. There is some good carved work 66 6 'plena laboris.' He observed, also,"in the rooms: and one can fancy him "Goldsmith's Animated Nature; and said, "with General Oglethorpe and Topham "Here's our friend! The poor Doctor "Beauclerc, and the fellow coming in "would have been happy to hear of "with the screw of tea and sugar. What ""this." " Boswell, VI. 302. He wrote to "a fine picture Leslie would make of Miss Reynolds five years after Gold-"it!" (The writer was Mr. Thackeray. smith's death, and only five before his 1870.)

*

*

1774.

Æt. 46.

and her sister (such was the effect; and the fifth day after regard he was known to have his death was appointed for the for them), that a lock might be ceremony. Reynolds's nephew, cut from his hair. It was in Palmer (afterwards Dean Mrs. Gwyn's possession when of Cashel), attended as she died, after nearly seventy chief mourner: and was years. accompanied by Mr. Day, afterA public funeral was at first wards Sir John Day and judge proposed; and Lords Shelburne advocate-general at Bengal; by and Louth, Reynolds, Burke, his relative and namesake hereBeauclerc, and Garrick were to tofore mentioned, Robert Day, have borne the pall; but it was who became the Irish judge; and afterwards felt that a private by Mr. Hawes, and his friend ceremony would better become Mr. Etherington. These were unthe circumstances in which he expectedly joined on the mornhad died. All the goods he pos- And also, by the request of Reysessed, with such small frag-nolds, afterwards managed the disposiments of property as he had left tion and sale of the furniture and books, at the Edgeware cottage, were small writing-desk, a fragment saved which took place in July. The poet's of course in due time sold by from the wreck, is still (1853) in the pospublic auction, including his session of Mr. Hawes's grandson, the "large, valuable, and well-chosen under-secretary-at-war, who justly values it. It will not be inappropriate here to "library of curious and scarce quote the letter which Maurice Gold"books," his "household furni- smith addressed to Mr. Hawes on leaving "ture and other effects": ** but London. His manners may have been Bott, Griffin, and others, still remained with unsatisfied claims; and his brother Maurice, who had come over to London in the month preceding the sale for the purpose of "administer"ing" to what had been left, soon saw how hopeless it was to expect that his brother's debts would not absorb every- diligence with respect to my brother, I am also conthing, and therefore, even be- "Doctor Goldsmith. "vinced that, as his affairs were put into fore the sale took place, went 66 'your hands by Sir Joshua Reynolds, he back empty-handed as he came."could have chose no one who would For the funeral Burke and Reynolds directed all arrangements; Hawes saw them carried into

*Northcote's Life of Reynolds, I. 326, and Conversations, 169. ** See Appendix B.

homely and uncouth, but he could ex

press an honest feeling in plain and simple language, and at any rate deserved a better fate than that which the reader will find described in Appendix A to this volume. The letter is printed in Mr. Hawes's pamphlet (22): "London, "June 10, 1774. MR. HAWES. In a few "hours I purpose leaving town, and now "return you most sincere thanks for "your kind behaviour to me since my ar"vinced of your care, assiduity, and "rival here. I also am thoroughly con

"have acted with more caution and dis"for which you have my sincere wishes "interestedness than you have done; "for the welfare of you and yours. I am, "sir, with thanks and respects to your "family,

"Your much obliged humble servant,

"MAURICE GOLDSMITH."

ing of the funeral by Hugh was subsequently placed in the Kelly, who in the presence of area of a pointed arch, between that great sorrow had only re- the monuments of Gay and the

membered happier and Duke of Argyll. It consisted of 1774- more friendly days, and a medallion portrait and tablet. Æt. 46. was seen still standing Nollekens was the sculptor; and, weeping at the grave as the two years after Goldsmith's others moved away. So, at five death, the inscription was written o'clock on the evening of Satur- by Johnson. "I send you the day, the 9th of April, the remains "poor dear Doctor's epitaph,” of Oliver Goldsmith were com- he writes to Reynolds, with grief mitted to their final resting-place apparently as fresh as though in the burial ground of the their loss had been of yesterday. Temple Church. No memorial "Read it first yourself; and if indicates the grave to the pilgrim "you then think it right, show it or the stranger, nor is it possible "to the club." The principal any longer to identify the spot members of the club, with other which received all that was mor- friends, dined soon after at Reytal of this delightful writer.

nolds's:* and so many objections were started on its being read that it was resolved to subThe notion of a monument in mit them to Johnson in the form Westminster Abbey was the sug- of a round robin, such as sailors gestion of Reynolds; and he adopt at sea when a matter of selected the spot over the south grievance is started, and no one door in poets' corner, where it wishes to stand first or last in remonstrance with the captain.

*I believe this to have been a genuine feeling on the part of Kelly. Yet it was made the subject of an attack at the

After stating the great pleaSure with which the intended epitaph had been read, and the admiration it had created for its elegant composition and masterly style "considered abstracted"ly," this round robin, which was dictated by Burke, went on to say that its circumscribers were yet of opinion that the character of Goldsmith as a writer, particularly as a poet, was not perhaps delineated with all the exactness which Dr. Johnson was capable of giving it; and that

So, Boswell. Cumberland (1. 371) says it was at the house of Beauclerc.