reference. At p. 373, the passage at the opening of the second note is taken from Percival Stockdale's Memoirs, ii. 152-154; Newton's letter, quoted in the note at p. 376, should have been referred to the Garrick Correspondence, i. 7; and in the came note I have understated the distance to Goodman's-fields. P. 377. The branch of the Fox family to which Lady Susan belonged took the name of Strangways, on her father's marriage with an heiress so called. Of O'Brien it is said in Taylor's Records of his life (i. 177) "He was, I have heard, a fencing "master in Dublin, or the son of a fencing master, but with manners so easy and so "sprightly, that he was admitted into the best company, and was a member of several "of the most fashionable clubs at the west end of the town." In the peerages you see him entered as Wm. O'Brien, of Stinsford, Co. Dorset, Esq. At p. 378, in the first line of the note referring to him, "afterwards" should be "also." Cross Purposes was not played till after his return from America. P. 379. To the note at the bottom of the page, the following extract from the Piozzi Letters (i. 185), might have been added" Mr. M- - was robbed going home two nights ago, and had a comical conversation with the highwayman about behaving "like a gentleman. He paid four guineas for it!" Mrs. Thrale to Dr. Johnson, Oct. 1773. At the bottom of p. 383, insert "Boswell, vii. 57." P. 398. In the passage respecting Charles Fox, "one of the first," should be " one "of the finest." An earlier opinion as to the Traveller, written by Fox while yet a boy, will be found at p. 39 of my second volume. P. 400. Newbery's account, here quoted, is written at the back of a more elaborate memorandum, headed "Settle the following Accounts," of which the sixteenth item runs thus: "Ms. Brookes's, and charge for alterations made in the Plates, and the "printed copy y' was obliged to be cancelled, 267, and to Dr. Goldsmith writing Prefaces "and correcting the work, 30l, in all 56l." I need not remind the reader that the success of his " prefaces" to this dull book, led to his engagement to write the Animated Nature. See Percy Memoir, 83. "He P. 402. An error is committed in saying that Goldsmith's ballad received the title of the Hermit in the Vicar of Wakefield, it having been transferred to the novel without any title. At p. 403-405, I ought to have quoted the remark which Percy makes (Memoir, 74-75) upon Goldsmith's denial of having copied him in this ballad. "justly vindicated the priority of his own poem; but in asserting that the plan of the "other was taken from his (in nothing else have they the most distant resemblance), "and in reporting the conversation on this subject, his memory must have failed him ; "for the story in them both was evidently taken from a very ancient ballad in that "collection beginning thus, Gentle heardsman, &c.' as any one will be convinced "who will but compare them." "For Burke's opinion of him, see Correspondence, iv. P. 415. Add to first note. "526-531, and Addenda, 549-552." P. 419. In speaking of Garrick's finessing and trick, reference should have been made to Colman's Posthumous Letters, 271-278, where Colman receives instructions to puff 66 our little stage heroe" in his absence, from the little stage hero himself. "Davies," at the bottom of the page, should be "Davies's." For the anecdote at the close of p. 423, told on the relation of Mrs. Gwyn, reference should have been made to Prior, ii. 105. P. 426. At eighth line from top, "decently" ought to be "comfortably;" at p. 429-430, the authority of " Wooll's Warton, 312-313," should have been given for the letter which I have only partially quoted; and at p. 432, in connection with what is said of Johnson and Garrick, the following may be added from Colman's Posthumous Letters, 290. "Who," asks Garrick, "wrote the Answer to Kenrick's Review? "Johnson sent it to me through Steevens last week-but mum-it is not quite the "thing by J.'s fondness for it, he must have felt K- What things we are! and "how little are we known!" Yet, on the other hand, see Boswell, iv. 305, for Johnson's amusing and contemptuous reiteration about "the boy" who answered Kenrick. P. 439. I quote from the Newbery MSS. in Mr. Murray's possession. "Received " from Mr. Newbery eleven guineas which I promise to pay. OLIVER GOLDSMITH, "January 8th, 1766." VOLUME II. Pages 15, 16. To the note I would add that there is also a passage in Mrs. Piozzi's Letters (i. 247), which shows how Johnson must have talked of this among the set. "Well!" she writes to Johnson, 24th June 1775, "Croesus promised a reward, you "remember, for him who should produce a new delight; but the prize was never "obtained, for nothing that was new proved delightful; and Dr. Goldsmith, 3000 "years afterwards, found out, that whoever did a new thing did a bad thing, and "whoever said a new thing, said a false thing." P. 16. The passage quoted from Goethe will be found in Mr. Oxenford's translation, i. 368; and at p. 18, the remark as to Fielding being contented with "the husk❞ of life, while Richardson had picked "the kernel," is in Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes, 198. P. 20. Eighth line from the top, "which even Johnson thought," should be, "which Johnson himself thought." In speaking of the foreign translations of the Vicar of Wakefield, which are singularly numerous, and in almost every spoken language, I might have added one or two examples of the more recent which I have myself seen. "Le Ministre de Wakefield. Precédée d'un Essay sur la vie et les ecrits "d'Oliver Goldsmith. Par M. Hennequin. Paris, Brédrip, 1825." This is very careful and good. "Le Vicaire de Wakefield. Traduit par Charles Nodier. Paris, "Gorselin, 1841." The notice by Nodier prefixed to this is charming. "Der Laud"prediger von Wakefield. Leipsic, 1835." Here a number of illustrations are reproduced from Westall. Another published in the same city, six years later, has an abundant series of delightful woodcuts by Louis Richter, very humorous and pleasant. P. 32. The reference in the third note is to the 1774 edition of the Animated Nature. The words in the text do not appear in the later editions. P. 65. For further notices of this theatrical dispute, and much curious matter in reference to the management, see Foot's Life of Murphy, 346, &c. P. 97. There is nothing more impressive in Johnson than the way in which he always speaks of poverty. "Poverty, my dear friend, is so great an evil, and "pregnant with so much temptation and so much misery, that I cannot but earnestly "enjoin you to avoid it." To Boswell. March 28, 1782. "Poverty takes away so "many means of doing good, and produces so much inability to resist evil, both "natural and moral, that it is by all virtuous means to be avoided." To Boswell. June 3, 1782. "Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys "liberty; and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult." To Boswell. Dec. 7, 1782. P. 102. The reference to Forbes's Life of Beattie, should be iii. 49. I will add the whole passage. It is in a letter of Beattie to Forbes, July 10, 1788. "What "she" [Mrs. Piozzi in her letters] "says of Goldsmith is perfectly true. He was the "only person I ever knew who acknowledged himself to be envious. In Johnson's presence, &c. He even envied the dead; he could not bear that Shakspeare P. 237. In mentioning the 1836 Edinburgh edition of Gldsmith, I might have added that it is a very careful and good little book. The editor, I believe, was Mr. Hamilton Buchanan. P. 243. The reader will find an amusing account of Catcot's attendance on Johnson and Boswell in their visit to Bristol, in Boswell, vi. 171-173. P. 291. "H-rth" is supposed to have been a surgeon named Hogarth living in Leicester-square at the time; but this is doubtful. It has been conjectured that by 'C—y" (Coley), George Colman was intended-a quite incredible supposition. P. 265. Of the Game of Chess, Lowndes gives a list of seven versions in English; by James Rowbotham, 1562; George Jeffreys, 1736; W. Erskine, 1736; Samuel Pullin (Dublin), 1750; Anon, Eton 1769; Anon, Oxford 1778; and Murphy, 1786. The latter is to be found in his Works, vii. 67. But though the date of Murphy's translation is given by Lowndes as 1786 (when for the first time it was printed) it was in reality a production of his youth. I quote the preface to it. "For translating so "ingenious a piece, the present writer, after saying that it is the production of his "earliest years, will make no apology." See Foot's Life, 323-324. Whether the fact of the existence of this translation by Murphy became known to Goldsmith, and led to the suppression of his own, can only now be matter of conjecture. P. 276. The sons of the Duke of Orleans were in England after his death, on the 4th August 1797, and the occurrence called forth this singular remark from Southey, then in the "Lot youth" of his republicanism. "Should there ever again be a king "in France (which God forbid !) it will be the elder of these young men. He will be happier and a better man as an American farmer." Common Place Book, iv. 516. P. 287. Add to the last note. "Johnson," says Mrs. Piozzi, "used to say that "the size of a man's understanding might always be justly measured by his mirth; "and his own was never contemptible. He would laugh at a stroke of genuine "humour, or sudden sally of odd absurdity, as heartily and freely as I ever yet saw 66 any man; and though the jest was often such as few felt besides himself, yet his "laugh was irresistible, and was observed immediately to produce that of the (6 company, not merely from the notion that it was proper to laugh when he did, but "purely out of want of power to forbear it." Anecdotes, 298-299. P. 329. Second note, line thirteen, insert after "used to it" vii. 255. P. 335-336. Boswell's belief in ghosts receives amusing illustration in one of Johnson's letters from the Hebrides. "The chapel is thirty-eight feet long, and "eighteen broad. Boswell, who is very pious, went into it at night to perform his "devotions, but came back in haste for fear of spectres." Piozzi Letters, i. 173. At line twenty of the note following, instead of "I might have added others to show," read "I might here add other passages to show." P. 341. The reference in the first line of the third note should be i. 225. P. 347. For Murphy's parody on Hamlet with alterations, see Foot's Life, 256-274. P. 377. In ninth line of note, "ingenious" should be "ingenuous." P. 429. At the close of the note insert a reference to European Magazine, lv. 443. |