drama it was not vigorous enough successfully to combat. She Stoops to Conquer, more lusty with forces of laughter, effectively demolished the old comedy, and assumed an abiding place on the English stage.

To the student of drama it seems strange that there did not proceed from these plays of Goldsmith a new school of dramatists to do for drama what the romanticists were to do for poetry. For here certainly were the clear insight, the honest judgment, the sympathy with nature, the constructive imagination, that are essential to great literary movements. But Goldsmith was not the father of a school. It was his lot to stand as one of the last figures in an outgoing era, rather than as a prophet of the new age. In his verse there were keen, unmotived strains of a new romantic uplift Yet he accepted without question the formulas of the age of Johnson. In drama he was an isolated reformer whose task was destined never to be completed. And so it chances that the dramatic movement of which he was a part must be considered as the last flowering of a literary epoch which was even then coming to a close. Not since the death of Congreve had the promise for comedy been brighter than in 1773. But Goldsmith died before he could write another play, and Sheridan, after writing two comedies, went to pieces, and he had no successor.

THE GOOD-NATURED MAN

PREFACE

WHEN I undertook to write a comedy, I confess I was strongly prepossessed in favor of the poets of the last age,1 and strove to imitate them. The term, genteel comedy, was then unknown amongst us, and little more was desired by an audience, than nature and humor, in whatever walks of life they were most conspicuous. The author of the following scenes never imagined that more would be expected of him, and therefore to delineate character has been his principal aim. Those who know anything of composition, are sensible that, in pursuing humor, it will sometimes lead us into the recesses of the mean; I was even tempted to look for it in the master of a sponging-house; 2 but in deference to the public taste, grown of late, perhaps, too delicate, the scene of the bailiffs was retrenched in the representation. In deference also to the judgment of a few friends, who think in a particular way, the scene is here restored. The author submits it to the reader in his closet; and hopes that too much refinement will not banish humor and character from ours, as it has already done from the French theatre. Indeed, the French comedy is now become so very elevated and sentimental, that it has not only banished humor and Molière from the stage, but it has banished all spectators too.

Upon the whole, the author returns his thanks to the public for the favorable reception which the Good-Natured Man has met with; and to Mr. Colman in particular, for his kindness to it. It may not also be improper to assure any, who shall hereafter write for the theatre, that merit, or supposed merit, will ever be a sufficient passport to his protection.

1 poets of the last age: In Letter xl of The Citizen of the World Goldsmith states the grounds of his preference for the "poets of the last age." Here "poets " includes "dramatists."

2 sponging-house: A victualing house where prisoners for debt were kept pending settlement.

& to Mr. Colman ... for his kindness: Here Goldsmith can hardly be sincere, as it is well known he felt little gratitude to Colman.

PROLOGUE1

WRITTEN BY DR. JOHNSON, SPOKEN BY MR. BENSLEY.2

PRESS'D by the load of life, the weary mind
Surveys the general toil of human kind;
With cool submission joins the laboring train,
And social sorrow loses half its pain:
Our anxious bard, without complaint, may share
This bustling season's epidemic care,
Like Cæsar's pilot,3 dignified by fate,

Toss'd in one common storm with all the great;
Distress'd alike, the statesman and the wit,
When one a borough courts, and one the pit.
The busy candidates for power and fame,
Have hopes, and fears, and wishes, just the same;
Disabled both to combat, or to fly,

Must hear all taunts, and hear without reply.
Uncheck'd, on both loud rabbles vent their rage,
As mongrels bay the lion in a cage.

1 Prologue: This prologue, which reveals unusual melancholy; was the only piece of Johnson's work given to the public in 1768. As first printed the fifth line read "our little bard," but at Goldsmith's request these words were changed. Writers of prologues were not always complimentary. So Garrick refers to an author's play as "his poetic brat." (Prologue to Eugenia.)

2 Mr. Bensley: Robert Bensley (1738-1817) was given his first engagement by Garrick at Drury Lane in 1765. He then went over to Covent Garden. His Iago and Malvolio were said to be very good.

3 Cæsar's pilot: The reference is to a story told by Plutarch of Cæsar's voyage across the Adriatic before making battle with Pompey.

Th' offended burgess hoards his angry tale,
For that blest year when all that vote may rail;
Their schemes of spite the poet's foes dismiss,

Till that glad night when all that hate may hiss. 56 This day the powder'd curls and golden coat," Says swelling Crispin,1 "begg'd a cobbler's vote." "This night, our wit," the pert apprentice cries, "Lies at my feet - I hiss him, and he dies."

The great, 't is true, can charm th' electing tribe;
The bard may supplicate, but cannot bribe.
Yet, judged by those whose voices ne'er were sold,
He feels no want of ill-persuading gold;

But, confident of praise, if praise be due,
Trusts without fear, to merit, and to you.

1 Crispin A Christian martyr of Rome who became the patron saint of shoemakers. The term is here synonymous with "shoemaker."