patent the Duke of York had left the theatre.* It may have obtained for him (some compen- been partisanship, but it was also sation for the accident at Lord very pardonable wit. 1767. Mexborough's the preced- Nor, if partisanship may be ing summer, when a prac- justified at any time, was it here Et. 39 tical joke of the Duke's without its excuses. He had cost Foote his leg), and with help reason to think Colman emof the two great reinforcements barked in a good work, and for already secured for Drury-lane, which, whether knowingly or not, of Barry and his betrothed Mrs. he had made an unexampled Dancer, afterwards his wife. sacrifice. On the death of stingy They played in a poor and some- old Lord Bath three years bewhat absurd tragedy called the fore, he had left his enormous Countess of Salisbury, which had wealth of a million and a quarter made a vast sensation in Dublin; sterling to an old brother he and it is related of Goldsmith, despised, with a sort of injuncas an instance of the zeal tion that his nephew was to have with which he had embarked part in its ultimate disposition; against the Drury-lane party, and the Covent-garden arrangethat he took whimsical occa- ments had not long been comsion during its performance of pleted when this brother (General turning a crowded and till then Pulteney) died, leaving Colman favourable audience suddenly a simple four-hundred a year. against the tragical Countess His connection with Miss Ford and her representative, by ludi- the actress had been displeasing crous allusion to another kind to the general; but the unparof actress then figuring on a donable offence was his having wider stage. He had sat out secretly turned manager of a four foolish acts with great calm-theatre.** Miss Ford was the ness and apparent temper; but mother of the younger Colman, as the plot thickened in the fifth, now a child, yet already old and the scene became filled with enough to feel, as he remem"blood" and "slaughter," he got bered when he wrote his Random up from his seat in a great hurry, Records, the impression at this cried out very audibly, "Brown-time made upon him by the "rigg! Brownrigg! by God!" and poet's simple and playful manplays, at that time a highly fashionable ners, and by that love of chilamusement. I copy from a newspaper of dren which had attended Gold15th December, 1720, the announcement smith through life, which was of its first opening: "At the New Theatre noted everywhere, and made it"in the Haymarket, between Little Suf"folk-street and James-street, which is self felt at even the small dinner now completely finished, will be per- parties of pompous Hawkins. "formed a French comedy, as soon as "the rest of the actors arrive from "Paris." Davies's Life of Garrick, II. 156. ** Walpole's Letters to Mann, I. 366. Æt. 39. "I little thought what I should varying salutation of "blow your "have to boast," says Miss Haw-"nose, child," was to him half kins, describing her experiences so humorous as Goldsmith, of when she used to sit upon the whose tenderness of course 1767. carpet in the drawing-room till he had nothing. The poet dinner was announced, "when would at any time, for "Goldsmith taught me to play amusement of the nursery, dance "Fack and Gill by two bits of a mock minuet, sing a song, or "paper on his fingers." This play the flute; and thought little lady observed, too, a distinction of even putting on his best wig between Johnson's and Garrick's the wrong side foremost. One way with children,** which the of these childish reminiscences younger Colman partly confirms will bear relating in detail. in contrasting Goldsmith's with Drinking coffee one evening with Garrick's. The one, he tells us, Colman, at one of his first visits played to please the boy, the to Richmond, Goldsmith took other as though to please him- little George upon his knee to self;* *** and not even Foote, amuse him; and being rewarded with his knowing broad grin, his for his pains by a spiteful slap snuff-begrimed face, and his un- in the face, summary paternal punishment was inflicted by soli* Miss Hawkins's Anecdotes, (1822), 7. ** "Garrick had a frown, and spoke tary confinement in an adjoining "impetuously-Johnson was slow and room. But here, when matters "kind in his way to children." Miss seemed desperate with the howlHawkins's Anecdotes, 23. It is in an earlier part of the same book (not hering and screaming little priMemoirs, which were not published till a soner, the door was unexpectedly few years later) she describes very plea- unlocked and opened. "It was santly her childish recollection of Gar-the tender-hearted Doctor himrick: "I see him now, in a dark blue coat, the button-holes bound with gold, "self," pursues the teller of the a small cocked-hat laced with gold, his story, "with a lighted candle in "waistcoat very open, and his coun-"his hand, and a smile upon his "tenance never at rest, and, indeed, sometimes sit- "countenance, which was still "ting on a table, and then, if he saw "partially red from the effects of "my brothers at a distance on the lawn, I sulked and "seldom his person "shooting off like an arrow out of a bow "my petulance. "in a spirited chase of them round the "sobbed, and he fondled and "garden." Anecdotes, 23. "soothed, till I began to brighten. "Goldsmith, who in regard to "children was like the Village "Preacher he has so beautifully described, for 'their welfare *** "All this was very kind and con"descending, but it wanted the bon"hommie of Goldsmith, who played to 66 "did in a theatre ... he diverted and please the boy, whereas Garrick always seemed playing to please himself, as he “dazzled me, but never made me love "pleased him, and their cares "him; and I had always this feeling for "him, though I was too young to define "it." George Colman's Random Records, 1. 117-118. "distressed,' seized the pro"pitious moment of returning "good humour; so he put down 1767. "the candle, and began to con- and a half earlier he had enter"jure. He placed three hats tained Mrs. Garrick with a whole "which happened to be in the "budget" of stories and songs, "room, upon the carpet, had delivered the ditty of the "and a shilling under each: Chimney Sweep with exquisite taste Æt. 39. "the shillings, he told me, as a solo, and, in the form of a were England, France, and duet with Garrick himself, Old 'Spain. Hey, presto, cockolorum! Rose and Burn the Bellows. * "cried the Doctor; and lo! on shall be perfectly safe therefore “uncovering the shillings, which in accepting it on his authority "had been dispersed each be- that Oliver Goldsmith in 1767 "neath a separate hat, they were was neither more nor less than "all found congregated under a conjurer. 66 66 66 one. I was no Politician at five 66 66 CHAPTER XVII. The Wednesday-Club. We His 'years old, and therefore might "not have wondered at the sud"den revolution which brought “England, France, and Spain all "under one crown; but as I was "also no Conjuror, it amazed me BUT more serious affairs than "beyond measure. Astonishment conjuring again claim Gold"might have amounted to awe smith's attention, and ours. "for one who appeared to me comedy cannot, in the most 'gifted with the power of per- favourable expectation, appear "forming miracles, if the good- before Christmas; and his neces"nature of the man had not ob- sities are hardly less pressing, "viated my dread of the magi- meanwhile, than in his most "cian; but from that time, when-destitute time. The utmost he "ever the Doctor came to visit received this year from the elder 'my father 'I pluck'd his gown Newbery for his usual task-work "to share the good man's would seem to have been about "smile,' a game of romps con- ten pounds for a compilation "stantly ensued, and we were al- on a historical subject (The "ways cordial friends and merry British Empire). The concurrent "playfellows.": The little hero advance of another ten pounds of the incident was a child of on his promissory note, though only five years old, but we have side by side with the ominous evidence in the letters of Garrick shadow of the yet unpaid note to his father that he used at this of four years preceding, shows time to imitate Garrick showing their friendly relations subsisting Charles Dibdin how to act Lord *Letter dated 15th July, 1766, in Ogleby, and that even a full year Peake's Memoirs of the Colman Family, 1. Colman's Random Records, 1. 110- 186-7. And see Colman's Posthumous | Letters, 296-7. still;* but the present illness of "certainty. It seems they were the publisher, from which he "writ by Lord Cork." All this never recovered, had for some sort of gossip (with no more months interrupted the ordinary foundation in the latter 1767. course of his business, and its case than that Lord Cork management was gradually de- and Orrery had addressed Et. 39. volving on his nephew. No less to his son a translation of Pliny's a person than Tom Davies, how- as well as other letters, and was ever, came to Goldsmith's re- no longer alive to contradict the lief. rumour) was better known to Tom's business had thriven Davies than to any one; and the since he left the stage, and he sensible suggestion occurred to determined to speculate in a his- him of a History of Rome from the tory. Goldsmith's anonymous same hand, in the same easy, Letters from a Nobleman to his Son popular, unlearned manner. An continued to sell, and still to ex- agreement was accordingly drawn cite curiosity whether or not up, in which Goldsmith underLord Lyttelton had really written took to write such a book in them. "I asked Lord L. him- two volumes, and if possible to "self," writes the learned Mrs. complete it in two years, for the Carter to the less learned Mrs. sum of two hundred and fifty Vesey, "who assured me guineas: an undertaking of a "that he had never read them somewhat brighter complexion through, and moreover seemed than has yet appeared in these "to be very clearly of opinion pages; rife with future promise, "that he did not write them. it may be, in that respect; and "Seriously, you may deny his certainly very creditable to Da"being the author with the fullest vies.* It is alleged by Seward and Isaac Reed, that, shortly be*Here (Newbery MSS.) is the memo- fore this agreement, Goldsmith's randum to which I refer: "1764, Oct. 29. necessities had induced him to "Dr. Goldsmith on account of English "Lives, 8l. 8s. Taylor's Works, 12s. apply for the Gresham lecture"1765, Sept. 12th, for half the copy of ship on Civil Law; an office of "Essays, 10l. 10s. 1767, July 13th, for small remuneration and smaller "British Empire, 10l. Promissory note, 66 ** the same date, the following interesting "Oct. 11th, 1763, 487. 1s. 6d. Ditto, responsibility, which the death "July 7th, 1767, 107. [Total] 877. 11s. 6d." of a Mr. Mace had vacated and In a subsequent memorandum of nearly to which a Mr. Jeffries was doubt occurs: "Query -Whether the elected; but his name does not "money had at the Society was 41. 4s." seem to have been formally enAnd in a separate paper, in Goldsmith's tered as a candidate, and it is hand, I find the following: "I promise to 66 pay to John Newbery or order ten more certain that shortly after "pounds on demand for value received. the agreement with Davies he "OLIVER GOLDSMITH. July 7, 1767." had again taken lodgings in his * Percy Memoir, 78, ** Mrs. Carter's Letters (Feb. 19th, 1766), ш. 274-5, favourite Islington, and was busy | Bedford in Covent-garden. But writing there. what most consoled him for the Goldsmith's resource, in the surrendered haunts of his obmidst of labour as in his scurer days was a minor club 1767. brief intervals of leisure, (known afterwards by his own Æt. 39. was still the country-haunt, name) at the Globe-tavern in the club, and the theatre; nor Fleet-street; where he attended should what was called his Wed- every Wednesday as regularly nesday-club, which has hitherto as on the Mondays or Fridays in escaped all his biographers, fail Gerrard-street, and seems to to find commemoration here. have "played the fool" as agreeThe social dignities of Gerrard- ably as when he had no reputastreet had not sufficed for his tion to be damaged by the folly. "clubable" propensities. Wholly Songs sung after supper were at his ease there, he could not the leading attraction at this always be; and it will happen to club; and I derive my principal even those who are greatest with knowledge of it from a collection their great friends, to find them- of songs and poems of the time selves pleasantest with their which belonged to one of its least. The very year before Dr. members, a hanger-on at the Johnson died he expressed his theatres familiarly known by most own strong sense of this, in of the actors, and to whom we founding the modest club to owe a little book called Mackliwhich he invited Reynolds ("the niana. This worthy "William "terms are lax, and the expenses "Ballantyne" had solaced his "light... we meet thrice a week, old age with manuscript notes "and he who misses forfeits two- on the amusements of his youth; "pence"); * and, if it were a and the book, so annotated, want to Johnson to have occa- passed into the possession of my sional admixture of inferior in- friend Mr. Bolton Corney, who tellects to be at ease with, how placed it at my disposal. much more to Goldsmith! His Whether Macklin belonged to shilling-rubber club at the Devil- the club appears to be doubtful, tavern, scene of that earliest of but among the least obscure clubs for which Ben Jonson wrote members were King the comehis Latin rules, has been already dian (whose reputation Lord named; and he frequented an- Ogleby had established); little other of the same modest pre- Hugh Kelly, a young Irishman tension, in the parlour of the of eight-and-twenty, who had Letters to Sir Joshua, dated Dec. 4, 1783. I regret that Reynolds declined. Among the members was Cooke, so often quoted in this memoir. See Boswell, VIII. 250. lately shown some variety of cleverness and superficial talent, and now occupied chambers near Goldsmith's in the Temple; Edward Thompson, whom Garrick |