With beer and milk arrears, the frieze was scor'd, And five crack'd tea-cups dress'd the chimney board; A night-cap deck'd his brows instead of bay, A cap by night a stocking all the day! THE THE FOLLOWING LETTER, ADDRESSED TO THE PRINTER OF THE ST. JAMES'S CHRONICLE, APPEARED IN THAT PAPER IN JUNE, M DCC LXVII. SIR, AS there is nothing I dislike so much as newsTM paper controversy, particularly upon trifles, permitme to be as concise as possible in informing a correspondent of yours, that I recommended Blainville's Travels, because I thought the book was a good one; and I think so still. I said, I was told by the bookseller that it was then first published; but in that, it seems, I was mis-informed, and my reading was not extensive enough to set me right. * Another correspondent of yours accuses me of having taken a ballad, I published some time ago, from one by the ingenious Mr. Percy. I do not think there is any great resemblance between the two pieces in question. If there be any, his ballad is taken from mine. I read it to Mr. Percy some * The Friar of Orders Gray. "Reliq. of Anc. Poetry." Vol· I. Book 2. No. 18. VOL. II. C years years ago; and he (as we both considered these things as trifles at best) told me with his usual good humour, the next time I saw him, that he had taken my plan to form the fragments of Shakspeare into a ballad of his own. He then read me his little Cento, if I may so call it, and I highly approved it. Such petty anecdotes as these are scarcely worth printing and, were it not for the busy disposition of some of your correspondents, the public should never have known that he owes me the hint of his ballad, or that I am obliged to his friendship and learning for communications of a much more important nature. I am, Sir, Yours, &c. OLIVER GOLDSMITH. Note, On the subject of the preceding letter, the reader is desire to consult "The Life of Dr. Goldsmith," under the year 1765. |