them, remains in a whimsical epistle in verse, of which the following was the occasion. A dinner was to be given to their family by a Dr. Baker, a friend of their mother's, at which Reynolds and Angelica Kauffman were to be present. The young ladies were eager to have Goldsmith of the party, and their intimacy with Dr. Baker allowing them to take the liberty, they wrote a joint invitation to the poet at the last moment. It came too late, and drew from him the following reply; on the top of which was scrawled, "This is a poem! This is a copy of verses!"

"Your mandate I got,

You may all go to pot;
Had your senses been right,
You'd have sent before night:
So tell Horneck and Nesbitt,
And Baker and his bit,
And Kauffman beside,

And the Jessamy Bride,

With the rest of the crew,

The Reynoldses too,

Little Comedy's face,

And the Captain in Lace,—
Tell each other to rue
Your Devonshire crew,
For sending so late
To one of my state.
But 'tis Reynolds's way
From wisdom to stay,
And Angelica's whim

To befrolic like him;

But alas! your good worships, how could they be wiser,

When both have been spoil'd in to-day's 'Advertiser'?”*

*The following lines had appeared in that day's "Advertiser," on the portrait of Sir Joshua by Angelica Kauffman:

"While fair Angelica, with matchless grace,

Paints Conway's burly form and Stanhope's face:
Our hearts to beauty willing homage pay,
We praise, admire, and gaze our souls away.
But when the likeness she hath done for thee,
O Reynolds! with astonishment we see,
Forced to submit, with all our pride we own,
Such strength, such harmony, excelled by none,
And thou art rivalled by thyself alone."

THE JESSAMY BRIDE.

269

It has been intimated that the intimacy of poor Goldsmith with the Miss Hornecks, which began in so sprightly a vein, gradually assumed something of a more tender nature, and that he was not insensible to the fascinations of the younger sister. This may account for some of the phenomena which about this time appeared in his wardrobe and toilet. During the first year of his acquaintance with these lovely girls, the tell-tale book of his tailor, Mr. William Filby, displays entries of four or five full suits, besides separate articles of dress. Among the items we find a green half-trimmed frock and breeches, lined with silk; a queen's-blue dress suit; a half-dress suit of ratteen, lined with satin; a pair of silk stocking-breeches, and another pair of a bloom-color. Alas! poor Goldsmith! how much of this silken finery was dictated, not by vanity, but humble consciousness of thy defects; how much of it was to atone for the uncouthness of thy person, and to win favor in the eyes of the Jessamy Bride!

CHAPTER XXVL

GOLDSMITH IN THE TEMPLE.-JUDGE DAY AND GRATTAN.--LABOR AND DISSI PATION.-PUBLICATION OF THE ROMAN HISTORY.-OPINIONS OF IT.-"HISTORY OF ANIMATED NATURE. - TEMPLE ROOKERY. — ANECDOTES OF A SPIDER.

-

N the winter of 1768-69 Goldsmith occupied himself at his quarters in the Temple, slowly

"building up" his Roman History. We have pleasant views of him in this learned and half-cloistered retreat of wits and lawyers and legal students, in the reminiscences of Judge Day of the Irish Bench, who, in his advanced age, delighted to recall the days of his youth, when he was a Templar, and to speak of the kindness with which he and his fellow-student, Grattan, were treated by the poet. "I was just arrived from college,' said he, "full freighted with academic gleanings, and our author did not disdain to receive from me some opinions and hints towards his Greek and Roman histories. Being then a young man, I felt much flattered by the notice of so celebrated a person. He took great delight in the conversation of Grattan, whose brilliancy in the morning of life furnished full earnest of the unrivalled splendor which awaited his meridian; and finding us dwelling to

LABOR AND DISSIPATION.

271

gether in Essex Court, near himself, where he frequently visited my immortal friend, his warm heart became naturally prepossessed towards the associate of one whom he so much admired."

The Judge goes on, in his reminiscences, to give a picture of Goldsmith's social habits, similar in style to those already furnished. He frequented much the Grecian Coffee-House, then the favorite resort of the Irish and Lancashire Templars. He delighted in collecting his friends around him at evening parties at his chambers, where he entertained them with a cordial and unostentatious hospitality. "Occasionally," adds the Judge, "he amused them with his flute, or with whist, neither of which he played well, particularly the latter, but, on losing his money, he never lost his temper. In a run of bad luck and worse play, he would fling his cards upon the floor and exclaim, 'Byefore George, I ought forever to renounce thee, fickle, faithless fortune.""

The Judge was aware, at the time, that all the learned labor of poor Goldsmith upon his Roman History was mere hack-work to recruit his exhausted finances. "His purse replenished," adds he, "by labors of this kind, the season of relaxation and pleasure took its turn, in attending the theatres, Ranelagh, Vauxhall, and other scenes af gayety and amusement. Whenever his funds were dissipated, and they fled more rapidly from being the dupe of many artful persons, male and female, who practised upon his benevolence, he returned to his literary

labors, and shut himself up from society to provide fresh matter for his bookseller, and fresh supplies for himself.” How completely had the young student discerned the characteristics of poor, genial, generous, drudging, holiday-loving Goldsmith; toiling, that he might play; earning his bread by the sweat of his brains, and then throwing it out of the window.

The Roman History was published in the middle of May, in two volumes of five hundred pages each. It was brought out without parade or pretension, and was announced as for the use of schools and colleges; but, though a work written for bread, not fame, such is its ease, perspicuity, good sense, and the delightful simplicity of its style, that it was well received by the critics, commanded a prompt and extensive sale, and has ever since remained in the hands of young and old.

Johnson, who, as we have before remarked, rarely praised or dispraised things by halves, broke forth in a warm eulogy of the author and the work, in a conversation with Boswell, to the great astonishment of the latter. "Whether we take Goldsmith," said he, "as a poet, as a comic writer, or as an historian, he stands in the first class." Boswell.-"An historian! My dear sir, you surely will not rank his compilation of the Roman History with the works of other historians of this age.' Johnson.-" Why, who are before him?" Boswell."Hume-Robertson-Lord Lyttelton." Johnson (his antipathy against the Scotch beginning to rise).-"I have