66 91 It the poetry is wholly original. It has been alleged that this ballad is merely a translation of an ancient French poem, entitled "Raimond et Angeline.' The discussion that took place on the subject may be seen in the Monthly Review for September, 1797, and the European Magazine for 1802. appeared in an obscure little volume called the Quiz," in 1767. That only one of these poems can claim originality is clear, but speaking with diffidence on a production in a foreign language, I should the French, in pronounce of its parts, to have the air of a translation; there is a coldness and flatness in some of the lines; and it is certainly very inferior in beauty and spirit to the English. This at least is certain, that no such poem, in its present dress, could have appeared in an ancient French novel, for it is in the language and style of Florian and the writers of that day, a little altered and disguised. many About this time Goldsmith hired a country house on the Edgeware Road, which he called the shoemaker's paradise. Here he wrote his History of England in a series of letters, which Johnson, in the warmth of argument, and with a bias invariably 1 In an old scarce French romance, "Les Deux Habitants de Lozanne." I shall here add that another fraud on Goldsmith's reputation has been practised in France. At the end of a volume in 1774 is the following title, "Histoire de Françoise Wills, ou la Triomphe de la Bienfaisance, par l'auteur du Ministre de Wakefield. Traduction de l'Anglais." See Southey's Omniana, i. 296. p. 2 This French poem was republished in a volume of Travels, called "Tales of other Realms." The correspondent in the European Magazine was Dr. James Kennedy of Glasgow. unfavourable to Scottish writers, pronounced superior to the verbiage of Robertson or the foppery of Dalrymple, and indeed ranked among the best histories in the language. It was attributed to Lord Lyttelton, and by others to the Earl of Orrery, neither of whom was known to disavow the work. Goldsmith had in his literary career exhibited talents no less versatile than splendid: he had distinguished himself as a novelist, a poet, a critic, and historian; he now showed a still greater variety of powers, by producing his comedy of the "Good Natured Man."1 It was first offered to Garrick, with Johnson and Burke's recommendation; and when he, doubting of its success, declined it, it was given to Colman, who produced it in January, 1768. Johnson wrote the prologue, and Shuter threw his own rich and peculiar colouring of humour over the character of Croaker; but the play was not very successful. It was withdrawn after a run of nine nights, but 2 The joke in act v. of the Landlady, "Pipes and tobacco for the Lamb.” "The Angel has been outrageous this half hour," is taken from "Brome's Covent Garden Weeded," p. 34. Second volume of plays, 8vo. 2 In Johnson's prologue to the "Good Natured Man," after the fourth line: "And social sorrow loses half its pain," the following couplet was inserted : 66 Amidst the toils of this returning year These lines were omitted, lest they should give offence, and little altered to anxious. 3 Goldsmith owned that he was indebted for his first conception of the character of Croaker to Johnson's Suspirius in the Rambler. Croaker's reading the incendiary letter in the fourth act was received with a roar of approbation. not till it had produced £500 to the author; the greater part of which Goldsmith spent in furnishing his chambers, and increasing his establishment. Some part of it went, without doubt, in charity; for one of his biographers,1 who was well acquainted with him, asserts that at this time, “our doctor, as he was now universally called, had a constant levee of his distressed countrymen, whose wants, as far as he was able, he always relieved, and he has often been known to leave himself even without a guinea, in order to supply the necessities of others." While Goldsmith was composing his comedy, he was also earning considerable sums of money by compiling popular histories for the booksellers. The History of Rome is one; the History of Greece, published after his death, it is said, cannot with certainty be ascribed to him. For his History of England he received £500, and for his abridgment of the Roman History, £50. The chief merit of these works lies in the grace and elegance of their style. The facts are often incorrectly and super 1 Mr. T. Evans, p. xvi. of his Memoir. 2 "Goldsmith's Poetical Dictionary.'-It has not been noticed by any of Goldsmith's biographers that, in addition to The Art of Poetry,' in 2 vols. 12mo., 1762, published by Newbery, and The Beauties of the English Poets,' in 2 vols. 12mo., 1767, published by Griffin; he also edited for Newbery an useful work entitled 'A Poetical Dictionary, or the Beauties of the English Poets alphabetically displayed,' in 4 vols., 1761, 12mo. The Preface is evidently written by Goldsmith, and with his usual elegance and spirit, and the selection which follows is one of the best which has ever yet been made. It certainly deserves more notice than it seems hitherto to have received; and were it only that it contains Goldsmith's favourite passages, and may possibly have been ficially stated. Histories of those two great nations, eminent above all others for their polity, their genius, and their power, are not to be written without that extensive research, and that store of recondite learning, which an author like Goldsmith had neither leisure, nor inclination to acquire. Our writers were compiling histories, when they should have been employed in the more useful, though humble occupation of collecting materials, and arranging information. The labours of the critic and the antiquary must precede and prepare the tale of the historian :-a History of Greece or Rome is not to be formed from the text of Herodotus or Livy. The half-eaten medal, and the mouldering inscription, the long buried manuscript, and the forgotten scholiast; the poetry of the stage, and the superstition of the temple, will often be the only guide to truth; and the painful labours of many a diligent scholar must prepare for us those rich materials on which the comprehensive mind and philosophical powers of some future writer I will build his work. When time has thus been called upon to unroll his treasures, and to display his pages of truth, many of the sweet and seductive histories of antiquity will lose all but their charm of eloquence. a preparation and incentive to the composition of the 'Traveller,' and the 'Deserted Village,' it ought not to be forgotten in the list of his compilations. In examining it I have frequently been struck by the appearance of lines and passages, and sometimes epithets, which were evidently in Goldsmith's mind when he wrote his two beautiful poems. Some, but not all, have been quoted as parallel passages by his editors." JAMES CROSSLEY, in Notes and Queries. Goldsmith was often called on to contribute prefaces and dedications to the works of other authors, namely, to Guthrie's "History of the World," and to Brooke's "System of Natural History." The attention which he bestowed on the latter work afterwards led to the compilation of his own “ History of the Earth and Animated Nature," which was written as a means of livelihood. "Pay no regard to the muses (he said to a friend), I have always found productions in prose more sought after and better paid for "-and again: "by courting the muses I shall starve; but by my other labours I shall eat, drink, have good clothes, and enjoy the luxuries of life.” Amidst the drudgery of such compilations, when the hand of genius might well be weary of its taskwork, Goldsmith seized some happier hours in which he composed his delightful poem of the "Deserted Village" second only to the "Traveller" in merit. It has been very justly remarked,1 "that the former abounds with couplets and single lines so simply beautiful in point of sentiment, so musical in cadence, and so perfect in expression, that the ear is delighted to retain them for their melody,? the mind treasures them for their truth, while their tone of tender melancholy, and their touching pa 1 See the narrative, p. 130, prefixed to his works. 2 "One day I met the poet Harding at Oxford, a half crazy creature, as poets generally are, with a huge broken brick and some bits of thatch upon the crown of his hat; on my asking him for a solution of this Prosopopeia, 'Sir,' said he, to-day is the anniversary of the celebrated Dr. Goldsmith's death, and I am now in the character of his 'Deserted Village." "-COLMAN'S Ran. Records, i. 307. |