1773.

short, he has to justify his general ill opinion of the piece by Æt. 45. remarking that a play may make you laugh very much indeed, and yet be a very wretched comedy. Goldsmith was not indisposed, nevertheless, to be 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 require;" and the author promised him half-a-dozen 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

playing the agreeable Rattle, and keeping it up with Mrs. Mantrap and old Miss Biddy Buckskin till three in the morning. "I forgot to tell your ladyship," writes Walpole to Lady Ossory, "that Miss Lloyd is in the new play by the name "of Rachael Buckskin, though he has altered it in the printed copies. Somebody "wrote for her a very sensible reproof to him, only it ended with an indecent 66 grossièreté. However, the fool took it seriously, and wrote a most dull and "scurrilous answer; but, luckily for him, Mr. Beauclerc and Mr. Garrick "intercepted it." Walpole's Ossory Letters, i. 60.

"A party went from Sir Joshua's to support it. The present title was not "fixed upon till that morning. Northcote went with Ralph, Sir Joshua's man, "into the gallery, to see how it went off; and after the second act there was no "doubt of its success." Northcote's Conversations, 41. In a subsequent passage (196), he says that a gross expression fell from one of the actors, which "the gallery" promptly suppressed.

+ Life of Reynolds, i. 286.

+ To author's nights (or days) Pope alludes in a celebrated passage :

+

"Here she beholds the chaos dark and deep

Where nameless somethings in their causes sleep,

Till genial Jacob, or a warm third day,

Call forth each mass, a poem or a play."

Dunciad, i, 55-60.

1773.

acted it in the summer at the Haymarket, and it was resumed in winter with the re-opening of Covent Garden. Again it Et. 45. 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 continues to add its yearly sum to the harmless stock of public pleasure. Goldsmith had meanwhile printed it with all dispatch, and dedicated it to Johnson. "In inscribing this slight per"formance to you," he said, "I do not mean so much to compliment you as myself. It may do me some honour to "inform the public, that I have lived many years in intimacy 66 with you. It may serve the interests of mankind also to "inform them, that the greatest wit may be found in a "character, without impairing the most unaffected piety.'

Boswell is good enough to remark on this: "Goldsmith, though his vanity "often excited him to occasional competition, had a very high regard for Johnson, "which he at this time expressed in the strongest manner in the dedication of "his comedy." In quitting the comedy, let me add another sort of tribute which its success brought upon him. Percy found the subjoined among poor Goldsmith's papers after his death; and that Mrs. John Oakman received an answer perfectly satisfactory, and, in Mr. Oakman's view, creditable to his "good sense," I cannot entertain a doubt. It is entitled "On Dr. Goldsmith's comedy She Stoops to "Conquer."

"Quite sick in her bed Thalia was laid,

A sentiment puke had quite kill'd the sweet maid,
Her bright eyes lost all of their fire:

When a regular Doctor, one Goldsmith by name,
Found out her disorder as soon as he came,

And has made her (for ever 'twill crown all his fame)
As lively as one can desire.

"Oh! Doctor, assist a poor bard who lies ill,
Without e'er a nurse, e'er a potion, or pill;

From your kindness he hopes for some ease.
You're a Good Natur'd Man all the world does allow,
O would your good nature but shine forth just now,
In a manner-I'm sure your good sense will tell how,

Your servant most humbly 'twould please.

"The bearer is the author's wife, and an answer from Dr. Goldsmith by her, "will be ever gratefully acknowledged by his Humble Servant, JOHN OAKMAN. "Orange Court, Swallow Street, Carnaby Market. Saturday, March 27, 1773."

CHAPTER XVI.

1773.

Æt. 45.

THE SHADOW AND THE SUNSHINE.

1773.

ONE dark shadow fell upon Goldsmith in the midst of the success of She Stoops to Conquer, and it came as usual from Kenrick. Nine days after the appearance of the comedy, a personal attack by that professional libeller appeared in an evening paper called the London Packet.* It was not more

* Percy thought this worth preserving in a note to the first Memoir (103-5), and it may therefore perhaps be best to retain it here, if only as a specimen of the vulgar trash with which every successful man may look to be pelted, from some quarter or other. It is addressed "To Dr. Goldsmith;" and has for its motto "Vous vous noyez par vanité." Thus it runs: "SIR,-The happy knack which you have learnt of puffing your own compositions provokes me to come forth. "You have not been the editor of newspapers and magazines, not to discover the "trick of literary humbug. But the gauze is so thin, that the very foolish part "of the world see through it, and discover the doctor's monkey face and cloven "foot. Your poetic vanity is as unpardonable as your personal; would man "believe it, and will woman bear it, to be told that for hours the great Goldsmith "will stand surveying his grotesque Oranhotan's figure in a pier-glass? Was but "the lovely H-k as much enamoured, you would not sigh, my gentle swain, in "vain. But your vanity is preposterous. How will this same bard of Bedlam 'ring the changes in praise of Goldy! But what has he to be either proud or "vain of? The Traveller is a flimsy poem, built upon false principles; principles diametrically opposite to liberty. What is the Good-Natured Man but a poor, 66 water-gruel dramatic dose? What is the Deserted Village, but a pretty poem, "of easy numbers, without fancy, dignity, genius, or fire? And pray what may "be the last speaking pantomime, so praised by the doctor himself, but an "incoherent piece of stuff, the figure of a woman with a fish's tail, without plot, "incident, or intrigue? We are made to laugh at stale, dull jokes, wherein we

gross than former favours from the same hand had been.
All his writings were denounced in it. The Traveller was
flimsy," the Deserted Village" without fancy or fire," the
Good-natured Man "water-gruel," and She Stoops to Conquer
a speaking pantomime." Harmless abuse enough, and
such as plays the shadow to all success; for even the libeller
is compelled to admit that "it is now the ton to go and see "
the comedy he so elaborately abuses. Swift's sign of a genius
is, that the dunces are in confederacy against him; and there
is always a large and active class of them in literature. To the
end of the chapter, the Dryden will have his Shadwell, and
the Pope his Dennis; and still the signum fatale Minerva will
be a signal for the huic date, the old cry of attack.* “Give it
"him" is the sentence, if he shows signs of life in genius or

"mistake pleasantry for wit, and grimace for humour-wherein every scene is
"unnatural, and inconsistent with the rules, the laws of nature, and of drama,
"viz. Two gentlemen come to a man of fortune's house, eat, drink, sleep, &c,
"and take it for an inn. The one is intended as a lover to the daughter; he talks
"with her for some hours, and, when he sees her again in a different dress, he
"treats her as a bar-girl, and swears she squinted. He abuses the master of the
"house, and threatens to kick him out of his own doors. The Squire, whom we
66 are told is to be a fool, proves the most sensible being of the piece; and he
"makes out a whole act by bidding his mother lie close behind a bush, persuading
"her that his father, her own husband, is a highwayman, and that he has come
"to cut their throats; and to give his cousin an opportunity to go off, he drives
"his mother over hedges, ditches, and through ponds. There is not, sweet,
"sucking Johnson, a natural stroke in the whole play, but the young fellow's
"giving the stolen jewels to the mother, supposing her to be the landlady. That
"Mr. Colman did no justice to this piece, I honestly allow; that he told all his
"friends it would be damned, I positively aver; and from such ungenerous
"insinuations, without a dramatic merit, it rose to public notice, and it is now
"the ton to go and see it, though I never saw a person that either liked it or
"approved it, any more than the absurd plot of the Home's tragedy of Alonzo.
“Mr. Goldsmith, correct your arrogance, reduce your vanity; and endeavour to
"believe, as a man, you are of the plainest sort; and, as an author, but a mortal.
"piece of mediocrity.

'Brise le miroir infidèle

1773.

Et. 45.

*

"Somebody produced a newspaper in which was a letter of stupid abuse of "Sir Joshua Reynolds, of which Johnson himself came in for a share. Pray,

VOL. II.

сс

1773.

Æt. 45.

learning; and the execution seldom fails. But a man who enters literature, enters it on this condition. He has to reflect, that, sooner or later, he will be stamped for as much as he is worth; and meanwhile has to think that probably his height, dimensions, and prowess might not be so well discerned, if less men than himself did not thus surround and waylay him at his starting. Without extenuation of the unjust assailant, so much is fairly to be said; without in the least agitating the question whether a petty larceny or a petty libel be the more immoral, or whether it be the more criminal to filch a purse or a good name. Shakspeare has decided that. But the present libel in the London Packet went far beyond the bounds indicated; and to which allusion has only been made, that the incident now to be related may be judged correctly. Goldsmith had patiently suffered worse public abuse; and would doubtless here have suffered as patiently, if baser matter had not been introduced. But the libeller had invaded private life, and dragged in the Jessamy Bride. "Was but the lovely "H-k as much enamoured, you would not sigh, my

gentle swain, in vain." Having read this, he felt it was his duty to resent it. Captain Charles Horneck, the lady's brother, is said to have accompanied him to the office of the London Packet, but in ignorance of his precise intention.*

“said he, ‘let us have it read aloud from beginning to end ;' which being done, "he, with a ludicrous earnestness, and not directing his look to any particular 'person, called out, 'Are we alive after all this satire?"" Langton's collectanea in Boswell, vii. 376.

* This, however, could hardly be, if Cradock's statement is to be believed. "The "Doctor unfortunately went to dine with the family in Westminster just after they "had read this insulting article, and they were all most highly indignant at it. The "Doctor agonised all dinner time; but as soon as possible afterwards he stole 'away, &c. &c." The truth is, that the initials only (Captain H) of the friend who accompanied Goldsmith, appeared afterwards in the papers, and they