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 gun'powder.' 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 6 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

continues to add its yearly sum to the harmless stock of public pleasure. Goldsmith had printed it with all dispatch, and dedicated it to Johnson. In inscribing this 'slight performance 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 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.'

One dark shadow fell upon him in the midst of his success, and 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 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-natur'd Man water-gruel,' and She Stoops to Conquer a speaking 'pantomime.' Harmless abuse enough, and such as plays the shadow to all success. 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 the signum fatale Minervæ 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 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. Shakespeare 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. Would man believe 'it,' he asked, 'and will woman bear it, to be told that for 'hours, the great Goldsmith will stand surveying his gro'tesque ourang-outang figure in a pier-glass. 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. brother, accompanied him to the office of the London Packet, but in ignorance of his precise intention.

Captain Horneck, the lady's

Thomas Evans was the publisher (from a note found among his papers, Goldsmith at first seems to have thought