The window, patched with paper, lent a ray, An unpaid reckoning on the frieze was scored, And now imagine after his soliloquy, the landlord to make his appearance, in order to dun him for the reckoning; Not with that face, so servile and so gay, It is a All this is taken, you see, from nature. good remark of Montaigne's, that the wisest men often have friends with whom they do not care Take my present Poetry is a much how much they play the fool. follies as instances of regard. easier, and more agreeable species of composition than prose; and could a man live by it, it were no unpleasant employment to be a poet. I am resolved to leave no space, though I should fill it up by only telling you, what you very well know already, I mean that I am your most affectionate Friend and Brother, OLIVER GOLDSMITH. The reason which led to the abandonment of this design is not precisely known; but it is sup posed to have been set aside in consequence of the impossibility of raising the necessary sum for his equipments; or more probably from his circumstances rapidly improving by the increasing patronage of the booksellers. The purity and elegance of his style, the clearness of the language, and the happiness of the expression ensured a ready sale for his productions. He published the Bee--the Essays in the British Magazine afterwards collected—and various Criticisms in Reviews and Newspapers. His toil, though very laborious, was now becoming profitable. He wrote regularly for Mr. Griffiths in the Monthly Review from nine till two every day;1 his engagement was for board, lodging, and a handsome salary; but it is probable that Goldsmith found the drudgery too irksome, for at the end of seven or eight months the agreement made for a year was dissolved. He then wrote for Newbery, at a salary of £100 a year, and contributed his Chinese Letters to the Public Ledger. His Criticism on Massey's Translation of Ovid's Faști 2 had introduced him also to the notice of Smollett, who warmly interested himself in his welfare, and he assisted that eminent man in the conduct of the British Magazine and Critical Review. 1 "Goldsmith never publicly avowed what he had written in the Monthly Review, any more than the Roman Poet talked of the millstones he had turned in his days of hunger. All he stated was that all he wrote was tampered with by Griffiths and his wife."- Forster. 2 Dr. Aikin says that Goldsmith reviewed "Ovid's Epistles, translated by a Mr. Barrett, Master of the Grammar School at Ashford, Kent; " but I believe he is mistaken, his review of Massey is in his collected works. 1 He had now hired lodgings in Green Arbour Court, Old Bailey; 1 a description of them not very flattering is to be found in an anecdote related by one of his literary friends. "I called on Goldsmith at his lodgings," said he, "in March, 1759, and found him writing his Inquiry in a miserable dirty-looking room, in which there was but one chair; and when from civility he resigned it to me, he was himself obliged to sit on the window. While we were conversing together, some one gently tapped at the door, and being desired to come in, a poor ragged little girl of a very becoming demeanour entered the room, and dropping a curtsey said, 'My mamma sends her compliments, and begs the favour of you to lend her a chamber-pot full of coals."" Goldsmith's life had now reached its crisis. From this humble and almost heart-breaking situation, by the exertion of his powers, the in 'An engraving of the house, illustrated by a description, was given in the European Magazine, vol. xliii. p. 7, 8. The steep flight of stairs leading from the door of his lodging-house in Green Arbour Court to Fleet Market, was called Break Neck Steps. 2 "The Danish writer, Baron de Holberg, was much talked of at this time, as a celebrated person recently dead. His career impressed Goldsmith. It was that of a man of obscure origin, to whom literature, other sources having failed, had given great fame, and high worldly station.”—Forster. 3 "George Langton told me, that he was present one day when Goldsmith, in a circle of good company, began with, When I lived among the beggars of Axe Lane'-every one present was well acquainted with the varied habits of Goldsmith's life, and with the naïveté of his character; but this sudden trait of simplicity could not but cause a momentary surprise.”—Best's Personal Recollections, p. 76. dustry of his pen, and certainly the splendour of his talents, under great disadvantages, he rapidly rose to literary eminence, to the possession of a handsome income, and to the society and friendship of men distinguished by their rank, their talents, and their virtue: the poor unknown writer in his squalid garret was soon to be raised, by the force of his own genius, to be the companion of Burke, the friend of Johnson, and the guest of Reynolds.' 2 In 1761, he removed from Green Arbour Court to Wine Office Court, in Fleet Street; where (according to the writer of his Life) he occupied genteel apartments, received visits of ceremony, and gave entertainments to his friends. tune now (says one of his biographers) seemed to take notice of a man she had long neglected: "For 1 "When Northcote first came to Sir Joshua, he wished very much to see Goldsmith; and one day, Sir Joshua, on introducing him, asked why he had been so anxious to see him. 'Because,' said Northcote, he is a notable man.' This expression notable, in its ordinary sense, was so contrary to Goldsmith's character, that they both burst out alaughing very heartily."- Conversations of Northcote, by W. Hazlitt, p. 40-1. In his Life of Reynolds Northcote adds:-" He appeared to me to be very unaffected and good-natured; but he was totally ignorant of the art of painting, and this he often confessed with much gaiety." 2 "He now made his appearance in a professional manner, in a scarlet great coat, buttoned close under the chin, a physical wig and cane, and declined visiting many of those public places which formerly were so convenient to him in point of expense. In truth, he said, one sacrifices something for the sake of good company; for here am I shut out of several places where I used to play the fool very agreeably."-Anderson's Life, p. 207. the simplicity of his character, the integrity of his heart, and the merit of his productions, made his company very acceptable to a number of respectable persons." Johnson understood and appreciated his powers, and in a conversation with Boswell asserted "that Goldsmith was one of the first men then existing as an author." It is not exactly ascertained at what time the intimacy between these great men commenced; but on the 31st May, 1761, Johnson was at supper in Goldsmith's lodgings in Wine Office Court,' with other literary persons. Doctor Percy, who was of the party, was surprised at the great lexicographer's unusual spruceness and elegance of dress; which Johnson accounted for by saying, "that Goldsmith justified his disregard of cleanliness and decency by quoting his practice, and he was determined to set him a better example." The friendship of Johnson to any man was no common blessing; to Goldsmith it might have been beyond all value, for under that forbidding exterior was a most feeling heart, a warm and affectionate disposition, and the most unbending principles of virtue and religion. He was as kind. and generous to others, as he was himself wise and prudent in the economy of life. Dr. Percy 1 Goldsmith, on being visited by Johnson one day in the Temple, said to him with a little jealousy of the appearance of his accommodation, "I shall soon be in better chambers than these." Johnson at the same time checked him, and paid him a handsome compliment, wishing that a man of his talents should be above attention to such distinctions. "Nay, Sir, never mind that," "Nil te quæsiveris extra." v. Bosw. Johnson, vol. iv. p. 359. |