It

assembled (putting in poor Fitzherbert as a guest, though he had already destroyed himself), but, in giving every body a ludicrous air of patronising superiority to Goldsmith, and declaring their only desire to have been to obtain a triumph 'not only over Colman's judgment but 'their own,' he has so unblushingly misstated the known opinions of Johnson and the rest in connection with the play, that his whole scene proclaims itself romance. is a Sir Fretful good-humouredly describing the success of a brother dramatist. He says that he and his friends had little hope of success, but were perfectly determined to struggle hard for their author; that they assembled their strength at the Shakespeare Tavern (it is much more likely to have been the St. James's Coffee House), where Johnson took the chair at the head of a long table, and was the life 'and soul of the corps'; that though his jokes, and his raillery of Goldsmith, were the better comedy of the two, and much the most attractive, they started in good time for their duty at the theatre, taking with them a band of determined North British claqueurs; that they distributed themselves at separate and allotted posts, with preconcerted signals for applause, elaborately communicating each with the other; that his own station was as flapper to a simple Scotch worthy with a most contagious roar of a laugh, but with no notion how to use it, who, from laughing upon signal where he found no joke, proceeded to find a joke and a roar on his own account in almost everything said; and that though these mal-a-propos bursts of friendly

thunder gave umbrage now and then to the pit, the success of (not the comedy, but) 'our manœuvres' was complete, and the curtain fell to a triumph. Alas! while Cumberland, writing more than thirty years after the event, would have us thus believe that hardly anybody was laughing but himself and his friends, the papers of the day report to have seen him as manifestly miserable in one box, as Hugh Kelly and Ossian Macpherson showed themselves in another: not only when Woodward came on, in mourning, to speak Garrick's satirical prologue against the sentimentalists, but while the laughter as the comedy went on seemed to peal the death knell of their school; and particularly when one hearty shout went up for Tony's friend at the Jolly Pigeons, the bear-leader who never danced his bear but to the very genteelest of tunes, Water Parted or the Minuet in Ariadne. Mr. Day was present, and gives the weight of his judicial authority against Cumberland. He says that he and some friends, knowing the adverse expectations entertained of the comedy, had assembled in great force in the pit to protect it; but they found no difficulty to encounter, for it was 'received throughout with the greatest 'acclamations.' Indeed all the probabilities are against Cumberland's account; and only one sentence in it, confirmed by every other authority, can be pronounced unquestionable. All eyes were upon Johnson,' he says, 'who 'sat in a front row in a side box; and when he laughed, 'everybody thought himself warranted to roar.'

Goldsmith had not come with his friends to the theatre.

During the dinner, as Sir Joshua afterwards told Northcote, not only did he hardly speak a word, but was so choked that he could not swallow a mouthful;' and when the party left for the theatre, he went an opposite way. A friend found him sauntering between seven and eight o'clock in the Mall of St. James's Park (struggling to be brave, it may be, with the reflection of what an illustrious line of Ben Jonsons, Websters, Fletchers, Dekkers, Drydens, Congreves, and Fieldings, are comprised in the company of 'stage-damned'); and it was only on that friend's earnest representation of how useful his presence might be, should sudden alteration be found necessary in any scene, he was prevailed upon to go to the theatre. He entered the stage door at the opening of the fifth act, and heard a solitary hiss at the improbability of Mrs. Hardcastle, in her own garden, supposing herself forty miles off on Crackscull common (a trick, nevertheless, which Sheridan actually played off on Madame de Genlis). What's that?' he cried out, alarmed not a little at the sound. Psha! Doctor,' said Colman, who was standing at the side-scene, doubtless well pleased to have even so much sanction for all his original forebodings, 'don't be afraid of a squib, when we 'have been sitting these two hours on a barrel of gunpowder. Cooke, who gives the best version of this anecdote, corrects assertions elsewhere made that it had happened at the last rehearsal; tells us Goldsmith himself had related it to him; and adds that he never forgave it to Colman to the last hour of his life.' To all the

actors his gratitude was profuse. So thankful had the Tony Lumpkin, in making Quick's fortune, made him, that he altered a translation of Sedley's from Bruey's comedy of Le Grondeur, adapted it as a farce, and suffered it to be played with his name for the benefit of Quick, before the season closed; and so pleased was he with the exertions of Lee Lewes, that on the occasion of his benefit (the night preceding Quick's), he wrote him an occasional epilogue, in his pleasantest vein.

The hiss seems to have been really a solitary one; for no difference is to be found in any reliable account, either public or private, as to the comedy's absolute success, or the extraordinary 'acclamations' that rang through the theatre'when it was given out for the author's benefit.' Indeed the hiss was so notedly exceptional, that one paper gives it to Cumberland, another to Kelly, and a third, in a parody on Ossian, to Macpherson (who had strong reason for hostility to all the Johnson 'clique'). Dumb the sullen 'sat. . till at last burst faintly a timorous hiss . . turn ' him out, toss him over, was the voice of the crowd. . the manager grumbled within. . the people sat laughing 'amain.' It became the manager's turn to be afraid of squibs; for never with more galling effect had they played round any poor mortal's head, than now, for some weeks to come, they rattled round that of Colman. Even Wilkes left his graver brawls to try his hand at them. The sentimentalist leaders were hit heavily on all sides; but the evilboding manager, to use his own expression, was put upon

the rack. He ran away to Bath to escape the torture, but it followed him even there, and to Goldsmith himself he at last interceded for mercy. Colman is so distressed ' with abuse,' writes Johnson to Mrs. Thrale, 'that he has 'solicited Goldsmith to take him off the rack of the news'papers.' Johnson's subsequent judgment of the comedy need hardly be quoted. I know of no comedy for many 'years that has so much exhilarated an audience; that ' has answered so much the great end of comedy, making an ' audience merry.' Goldsmith was quite contented with that test. 'Did it make you laugh ?' he asked Northcote, who had applauded lustily in the gallery in company with Ralph, Sir Joshua's confidential man; but was too modest to offer an opinion of his own, when asked next day. Exceedingly,' was the answer. 'Then that is all I re'quire;' and the author gave him some box tickets for his first benefit night.

This night, and its two successors, are supposed to have realised between four and five hundred pounds; and the comedy ran to the end of the season, with only such interruptions as holidays and benefit nights interposed. The tenth night was by royal command, and the twelfth was the season's closing night, on the 31st of May. But Foote acted it in the summer at the Haymarket, and it was resumed in winter with the re-opening of Covent Garden. Again it had the compliment of a royal command; ran many merry nights that second season; has made thousands of honest people merry, every season since; and still