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In a letter to his friend Bennet Langton, Esq., dated September 7, 1771, he writes, "The Natural History is about half finished. God knows, I am tired of this kind of finishing, which is but bungling work, and that not so much my fault, as the fault of my scurvy circumstances. For this work, which was not published till 1774 (eight volumes 8vo.) he received £840.2 In 1770, Goldsmith published his beautiful poem, the Deserted Village,' by which he sustained, and even increased, the reputation which he had already gained by the 'Traveller.' But his poetry only added to his fame, without greatly increasing his fortune. He therefore turned his attention once more to the drama, which has always proved one of the most lucrative departments of literature to the successful candidate for its honours; and the success of the 'Good-Natured Man,' though, not equal to its merit, was sufficiently decided to tempt the author to try his fortune in a new comedy. He accordingly produced, in 1773, She Stoops to Conquer.' Colman, then manager of Covent Garden, entertained no great hope of its success; but Goldsmith himself was sanguine, and his high reputation as an author, together with the powerful recommendation of his literary friends, induced the manager to give it a trial, though not without some hesitation, as may be inferred from the following letter from the impatient poet:

3

(No date.)*

"DEAR SIR,-I entreat you'll relieve me from that state of suspense in which I have been kept for a long time. Whatever objections you have made, or shall make, to my play, I will endeavour to remove, and not argue about them. To bring in any new judges either of its merits or faults I can never submit to. Upon a former occasion, when my other play was before Mr. Garrick, he offered to bring me before Mr. Whitehead's tribunal, but I refused the proposal with indignation. I hope I

1 See the 'Letters' at the end of this vol.-ED. 2 See Goldsmith's Memoranda, &c., ibid.-ED.

5

3 He was at this time engaged on his Natural History,' which will account for his publishing less than usual from 1768 to 1773. He also accompanied a party of ladies (the Miss Hornecks and their mother) to Paris, in 1770.

4 This letter was first published in Colman's Posthumous Letters, 1820, p. 180. Its date would be about the middle of January, 1773.-ED. 5 Mr. William Whitehead, the forgotten poet laureate of that time. -ED.

shall not experience as hard treatment from you as from him. I have, as you know, a large sum of money to make up shortly; by accepting my play, I can readily satisfy my creditor that way; at any rate, I must look about to some certainty to be prepared. For God's sake take the play, and let us make the best of it, and let me have the same measure, at least, which you have given as bad plays as mine.—I am your friend and servant, "OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

"George Colman, Esq."

1

The play which the manager was so reluctant to bring on the stage, was attended with distinguished success on its first representation, and still retains its popularity. None of the author's friends, except Cumberland, who gives a humorous but generally deemed untruthful account of the first night's performance, seem to have thought its success greater than its merit, though, from the fashion of the day, which was strongly in favour of sentimental comedy, they might have entertained doubts of its favourable reception Of this play, Dr. Johnson observed, “I know of no comedy for many years that has so much exhilarated an audience, that has answered so much the great end of comedy, -making an audience merry.' This character of comedy, however, is applicable rather to farce; and it must be admitted, that Goldsmith has taken no great pains to avoid the imputation of dealing too freely in farcical situation and broad humour: but what his play wants in dignity, is amply compensated by its excellence in other respects. He has drawn his characters with vigour, and with a considerable portion of originality, though Marlow bears some resemblance to Lord Hardy, in Steele's 'Funeral,' and Tony Lumpkin is a sort of second edition—a decided improvement, we admit-of Humphrey Gubbin, in the same author's 'Tender Husband.' The plot, though said to be founded on fact, is a little too improbable; but the dialogue is throughout full of spirit: genius breathes in every scene, and the incidents are sufficiently interesting to excite and sustain the attention. When the play was first acted, the audience manifested some disapprobation at the extravagance of making Mrs. Hardcastle believe that she was forty miles from home, when she was within a few yards of her own door. The poet, who

6

Davies, 'Life of Garrick;' Boswell's Johnson,' &c.

2 Boswell's Life of Johnson,' vol. iv., p. 276.

could not conceal his uneasiness, ran up to Mr. Colman, and asked what was the meaning of those murmurs ? "Pshaw! Doctor," said the manager in a sarcastic tone, “ don't be terrified at squibs, when we have been sitting these two hours upon a barrel of gunpowder." The acclamations of the audience soon relieved Goldsmith from his uneasiness respecting the fate of his play, but he did not easily forget or forgive the jest of the witty manager.

1

The success of his comedy drew upon Goldsmith the envy of less fortunate writers for the stage." Among others, Dr. Kenrick gave vent to his malice, and, under the signature of Tom Tickle, published, in the 'London Packet,' a scurrilous letter, which contained neither wit nor just criticism, but was a tissue of malignant satire and low abuse. An Irish gentleman, one of those good-natured friends who are ever ready to show their regard in the most disagreeable way, brought the paper to Goldsmith, and hinted to him that he ought to demand satisfaction; thinking, no doubt, as he himself belonged to the military profession, that he could not give his countryman a more unequivocal proof of his attachment than by involving him in a quarrel. The irritable poet immediately proceeded, accompanied by his friend, to the shop of Mr. Evans, the publisher of the 'Packet,' and, introducing himself, complained of the libel which had been published against himself, and a young lady of his acquaintance, Miss H-k. Evans, who was in all probability ignorant of the whole affair, stooped behind the counter for a file of the paper, when the Doctor's friend pointed to the broad shoulders of the publisher as a proper mark for his cane, and Goldsmith, following the hint, began to inflict corporal punishment on the astonished bookseller; but Evans, a hot-blooded Welshman, was not disposed to bear this operation patiently: he soon recovered himself from his stooping posture, and closed with his opponent; a scuffle ensued, during which, it is alleged,

In the Annual Register,' 1774, already referred to, this anecdote is told somewhat differently, and Colman's observation is said to have been made at the rehearsal of the play.

2 His profits from this comedy amounted to £800. He had previously received £500 for the Good-Natured Man.'

3 For some account of Dr. Kenrick see the Poems, vol. ii., p. 55.

4 In some accounts, Captain Horneck; according to other and more reliable reports, Captain Higgins. See Haunch of Venison,' vol. ii., p. 47; and for Capt. Horneck see Poems, p. 94.-ED.

5 Probably Miss Horneck, "the lovely H- -k," as the libel had it.

the military gentleman decamped. The affray, in which it is said the poet came by the worst,' was at last terminated by the interference of Dr. Kenrick, the real libeller, who, happening to be in the house at the time, now came forward, and affecting much sympathy with Goldsmith, conducted him home in a coach. This foolish affair threatened to end in a prosecution, but matters were at length made up between the parties—not, however, without affording much merriment to the town, and furnishing fresh matter of abuse against Goldsmith, for attempting to beat a man in his own house. This induced him to publish in the 'Daily Advertiser,' 31st March, 1773, the following vindication of his conduct:

"Lest it may be supposed that I have been willing to correct in others an abuse of which I have been guilty myself, I beg leave to declare, that, in all my life, I never wrote, or dictated, a single paragraph, letter, or essay in a newspaper, except a few moral essays, under the character of a Chinese, about ten years ago, in the 'Ledger;' and a letter, to which I signed my name, in the 'St. James's Chronicle.' If the liberty of the press, therefore, has been abused, I have had no hand in it.

"I have always considered the press as the protector of our freedom, as a watchful guardian, capable of uniting the weak against the encroachments of power. What concerns the public most, properly admits of a public discussion. But of late, the

press has turned from defending public interest, to making inroads upon private life-from combating the strong, to overwhelming the feeble. No condition is now too obscure for its abuse, and the protector is become the tyrant of the people. In this manner the freedom of the press is beginning to sow the seeds of its own dissolution; the great must oppose it from principle, and the weak from fear, till, at last, every rank of mankind shall be found to give up its benefits, content with security from its insults.

'Nichols' 'Literary Anecdotes;' where is the account of Harris, Evans's apprentice (and afterwards the bookseller who succeeded to the business of the Newberys in St. Paul's Churchyard), who witnessed the assault. Nichols, by-the-way, says the letter "To the Public" appeared in the Chronicle.-ED.

2 See also the fragment of a statement by Goldsmith on this subject with the Letters.-ED.

"How to put a stop to this licentiousness, by which all are indiscriminately abused, and by which vice consequently escapes in the general censure, I am unable to tell; all I could wish is, that, as the law gives us no protection against the injury, so it should give calumniators no shelter after having provoked correction. The insults which we receive before the public, by being more open, are the more distressing. By treating them with silent contempt, we do not pay a sufficient deference to the opinion of the world; by recurring to legal redress, we too often expose the weakness of the law, which only serves to increase our mortification by failing to relieve us. In short, every man should singly consider himself as a guardian of the liberty of the press, and, as far as his influence can extend, should endeavour to prevent its licentiousness becoming at last the grave of its freedom. "OLIVER GOLDSMITH."

Of this vindication Dr. Johnson said, "He has indeed done it very well; but it is a foolish thing well done."1 In the course of this year, he finished his 'History of the Earth and Animated Nature,' which was not published, however, till the year following.

About this time he began to be ashamed of his professional appellation; he dropped the title of Doctor, to which, indeed, he had no farther claim than common courtesy allows to every medical practitioner: he even discarded his gold-headed cane, and other external badges of his profession, and openly disregarded the reputation of wisdom in his eager desire to be

The letter was considered to be so much in the style of Dr. Johnson himself, who was in the frequent habit of writing prefaces, dedications, and apologies for his friends, that he was suspected of being the author. "Sir," replied Johnson, when Boswell hinted to him this suspicion," Dr. Goldsmith would no more have asked me to write such a thing as that for him, than he would have asked me to feed him with a spoon, or to do any thing else that denoted his imbecility. I as much believe that he wrote it, as if I had seen him do it. Sir, had he shown it to any one friend, he would not have been allowed to publish it. He has, indeed, done it very well; but it is a foolish thing well done. I suppose he has been so much elated with the success of his new comedy, that he has thought everything that concerned him must be of importance to the public." ."-BOSWELL: "I fancy, Sir, this is the first time that he has been engaged in such an adventure."-JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, I believe it is the first time he has beat; he may have been beaten before. This, Sir, is a new plume to him."-Boswell's 'Life of Johnson,' vol. iii., p. 247.