it that escaped to the public while he lived were two songs; 1764. in which his own sorrows and hope seemed as legibly written Et.36. as those of the Israelitish women. "To the last moment of his breath Hope, like the gleaming taper's light, And still as darker grows the night The night was very dark round Goldsmith just now, yet the ray was shining steadily too. In few of the years of his life have we more decisive evidence of struggles and distress than in this of 1764; in none did he accomplish so much for an enduring fame. But it is a year very difficult to describe with any accuracy of detail. We have little to guide us beyond the occasional memoranda of publishers and the accounts of Mrs. Elizabeth Fleming. To the Islington lodging he returned at the beginning of April (having paid rent for the retention of " the room," meanwhile, at the rate of about three shillings a week); and his expenses to the end of June are contained in his landlady's bill. They seem to argue fewer enjoyments, and less credit with Mrs. Fleming. No dinners or teas are thrown into the bargain. The sixpence for "sassafras" (a humble decoction which the poet does not seem to have despised, now dealt in by apothecaries chiefly) is always carefully charged. The loans are only four, and of moderate amount; a shilling to "pay the laundress," and ten-pence, one and two-pence, and sixpence "in cash." There are none of the old entries for port wine. Two-pence, See Nichols's Illustrations, vii. 24-5, and post, Book iv. chap. xiii. The verses above quoted are from the original manuscript of the oratorio. The song as appended to The Haunch of Venison, &c. (1776), will be found in Miscell. Works, iv. 120-1. BB 1764. Æt. 36. 66 twice, for "a pint of ale," and two-pence for "opodeldock," * I subjoin the account from the Newbery MSS, Prior, ii. 12-13. To the rent of the room from Dec. 25 to March 29. April 2. A post letter. 3. The stage-coach to London 7. Lent to pay the laundress . 11. A post letter 15. A parcel by the coach 18. A post letter 19. Sassafras 25. Sassafras May 2. Sassafras £1 17 6 3. A post letter 1764. Christian Magazine.* What were not unusual in the previous year, as cash advances of one, two, and even four and Et. 36. five guineas, from the publisher, have now dwindled down to shillings" and "half-crowns;" and it is matter of doubt whether Newbery, to satisfy outstanding claims, did not engage him for some part of his time in work for his juvenile library. The author of Caleb Williams, who had been a child's publisher himself, had always a strong persuasion that Goldsmith wrote Goody Two Shoes (an ingenious living critic has claimed Tom Hickathrift for Fielding); + and if so, the effort belongs to the present year; for Mrs. Margery, radiant with gold and ginger-bread, and rich in pictures as extravagantly ill-drawn as they are dear and wellremembered, made her appearance at Christmas. Other aid was also sought to eke out that of Newbery; and a sum of Brought forward £2 17 11 June 8. 4 Shirts, 4 neckcloths, 1 pair stockings, 1 cap. 0 1 74 * For this, the Life of Christ and Lives of the Fathers, before referred to, appear to have been translated; Goldsmith receiving 217. for the task work. 66 There will perhaps be no harm in now saying that the critic to whom I here referred is Mr. Thackeray. Yet (such are the differences of taste!) Mr. G. S. Carey, author of Chrononhotonthologos, thus writes to Garrick three years after the present date. "I had rather they had laid the History of Tom Hickathrift to my charge, 66 than to say I was the author of The Theatrical Monitor; for, in my opinion, there was never published anything more puerile, invidious, and exceptionable." Garrick Correspondence, i. 276. It may not be out of place to add, that Johnson thought the Tommy Prudent and Goody Two Shoes class of children's books too childish. "Babies do not want," he said to Mrs. Thrale, when he saw these books of Newbery's in her nursery, "to hear about babies. They like to be told of giants and "castles, and of somewhat which can stretch and stimulate their little minds." (Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes, 16.) He would therefore have been more disposed to agree with Mr. Thackeray than with Mr. Carey on the merits of Tom Hickathrift, that redoubtable giant; and such, I must confess, is also my inclining. 1764. thirteen guineas is acknowledged from Mr. Griffin (the Et. 36. publisher of the Essays in the following year), but without mention of the labours it rewarded. That, in all these memoranda, the entire labours of the year cannot yet be accounted for, it is hardly necessary to add. We are left to guess what other work was in progress, for which advances were not available; and in this, an anecdote told by Reynolds will offer some assistance. He went out to call upon Goldsmith, he says, not having seen him for some time; and no one answering at his door, he opened it without announcement, and walked in. His friend was at his desk, but with hand uplifted, and a look directed to another part of the room; where a little dog sat with difficulty on his haunches, looking imploringly at his teacher, whose rebuke for toppling over he had evidently just received. Reynolds advanced, and looked past Goldsmith's shoulder at the writing on his desk. It seemed to be some portions of a poem. He looked more closely, and was able to read a couplet which had been that instant written. "By sports like these are all their cares beguil'd; The This visit of Reynolds is one of the few direct evidences which the year affords of his usual intercourse with his more distinguished friends. There is no reason to doubt, however, that he had been pretty constant in his attendance at the club during the past winter; he was a member of the Society of Arts, and had been often at their meetings, of which the only trace now left is the record of loans of money begged from Newbery there;* and his miseries and neces Several of the entries in the memorandum subjoined (Newbery MSS, Prior, ii: 100) are entered in pencil. "Lent Dr. Goldsmith for his instrument (in sities must have been great indeed, that would have kept him long a stranger to the theatre. The last season had been one of peculiar interest. The year 1763 had opened with evil omen to Garrick. For the first time since the memorable night at which I left him in my narrative of his triumphs at Goodman's Fields, when, in the midst of unexampled enthusiasm, his eye fell upon a little deformed figure in a side box, was met by the approving glance of an eye as bright as his own, and, in the admiration of Alexander Pope, his heart swelled with the sense of fame, Garrick, at the commencement of that year, felt his influence shaken and his ground insecure. On a question of prices, the Fribble whom Churchill has gibbetted in the Rosciad led a riotous opposition in his theatre, to which he was compelled to offer a modified submission; and not many weeks later, after appearing in a comedy by Mrs. Sheridan and giving 66 66 pencil) 10s. 6d. Doctor Goldsmith, Dr. Money lent at the Society of Arts "(in pencil), 31. 38. Feb. 14, Lent Dr. Goldsmith (in pencil), 17. 18. March 5, "Dr. Goldsmith, 157. 158. May 1, Lent Dr. Goldsmith, 10s. 6d. Ditto, 2s. 6d. July 14, Dr. Goldsmith, 297. 83. Aug. 15, Ditto. 41. 48. Sept. 1, Ditto, 5l. 58. "Nov. 17, Lent Dr. Goldsmith, 58. 3d. July 7, 1764, Lent Dr. Goldsmith (in pencil), 28. Lent before (in pencil), 2s. 6d. April 30, 1765, Lent Dr. Goldsmith "at the Society (in pencil), 31. 38." "As I opened the part I saw our little poetical hero, dressed in black, seated "in a side box near the stage, and viewing me with a serious and earnest attention. "His look shot and thrilled like lightning through my frame, and I had some "hesitation in proceeding, from anxiety and from joy. As Richard gradually "blazed forth, the house was in a roar of applause, and the conspiring hand of "Pope shadowed me with laurels." Such was Garrick's own account of the greatest triumph of the opening of his career; and, at the close of it, after an interval of six-and-thirty years of uninterrupted success, he told a friend with what emotion he had seen Charles Fox in one of the side boxes, as he rushed off the stage at the close of the second act of Lear, holding up his hands with animated gesture expressive of the wonder of his admiration. It is very pleasing, let me add, to discover repeated evidences, in this not very reverential age, of the deep respect, the feeling akin to awe, with which Pope was regarded towards the close of his life. Even Johnson has his personal pride connected with him, and often "told us "with high satisfaction, the anecdote of Pope's inquiring who was the author "of his London, and saying he will be soon deterré." (Boswell, iii. 86.) Reynolds, too, like Johnson and Garrick, had his story to tell of the great little monarch, the 1764. Æt. 36. |