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by Percy, is incorrect. It was in a more extensive comEt. 38. pilation of Beauties of English Poetry Selected, published in the following year, and for the gathering together of which Griffin the bookseller gave him fifty pounds, that he made that questionable choice of the "Ladle" and "Hans Carvel," which for once interdicted from general reading a book with his name upon its title-page. This was unlucky: for the selection in other respects, making allowance for a limited acquaintance with the earlier English poets, was a reasonably good one; and in this, as well as in its preface and brief notices of the pieces quoted, though without any claim to originality or critical depth, was not undeserving of what he claimed generally on behalf of books of the kind as entitling them to fair reward.* He used to point to them as illustrating, better than any other kind of compilations, "the art of profession" in authorship. "Judgment," he said, "is to be paid for in "such selections; and a man may be twenty years of his "life cultivating his judgment." But he has also, with its help, to be mindful of changes in the public taste, to which he may himself have contributed. Nothing is more frequent than these, and few things so sudden. Staid wives will shrink with abhorrence in their fortieth autumn, from what

His old friend Griffiths nevertheless laid hold of it to assail him in the Monthly Review, which had the good taste thus to speak of the now avowed author of The Citizen of the World, The Vicar of Wakefield, and The Traveller. “Though "Mr. Goldsmith hath written some little pieces that have been read and approved 'of, yet, from his preface, notes, and introductions to these poems, one would "almost be inclined to think he had never written before." Monthly Review, xxxvi. 490, June 1767. The reviewer's wrath was greatly excited by Goldsmith's having said of Shenstone's Schoolmistress that it was "one of those happinesses in which a "poet excels himself"-but is it not true? Which of the Pastorals has survived with it in the love and admiration of the readers of poetry?

+ Europ. Mag. xxiv. 94. Cooke tells us that his own account of this selection was "that he did nothing but mark the particular passages with a red lead pencil, "and for this got 2007." He only got a fourth of that sum, as we see; the rest perhaps was a little braggadocio for admirers at the Wednesday club,

they read with delight in their twentieth summer; and it 1766. was now even less than twenty years since that faultless. Et. 38. "family expositor," Doctor Doddridge (as we learn from the letters of the holy divine), thought it no sin to read the Wife of Bath's Tale to young Nancy Moore, and take his share in the laugh it raised.* Doctor Johnson himself had not forgotten those habits and ways of his youth; and amazed Boswell, some ten years later, by asserting that Prior was a lady's book, and that no lady was ashamed to have it standing in her library.

The Doctor could hardly have taken part in the present luckless selection, however, for through all the summer and autumn months of the year he had withdrawn from his old haunts and friends, and taken refuge with the Thrales. For the latter, happening to visit him in Johnson's-court one day at the close of spring, found him on his knees in such a passion of morbid melancholy, beseeching God to continue to him the use of his understanding, and proclaiming such

• Memoirs and Correspondence of Doddridge, iv. 182. Walter Scott was acquainted with an old lady of family, who assured him that, in her younger days, Mrs. Behn's novels were as currently upon the toilet as the works of Miss Edgeworth at present; and described with some humour her own surprise, when, the book falling into her hands after a long interval of years, and when its contents were quite forgotten, she found it altogether impossible to endure, at the age of fourscore, what at fifteen she, like all the fashionable world of the time, had perused without an idea of impropriety. Scott has also recorded, on the authority of his friend John Kemble, that there existed a distinct oral tradition of a conversation having passed between a lady of high rank seated in a box in the theatre, and Mr. Congreve the celebrated dramatist, who was placed at some distance; which was so little fit for modern ears, that a rake of common outward decency would hardly employ such language in a brothel. Two years before the present date Horace Walpole printed, at Strawberry-hill, a small volume of Poems by Lady Temple, of which some are too grossly indelicate to be now reproduced. See Grenville Correspondence, ii. 257. And as I have frequent occasion to exhibit Walpole in the course of this volume as a critic of Goldsmith, let me here give a glimpse of him as the critic of Lady Temple. "To do real justice to these poems, "they should be compared with the first thoughts and sketches of other great poets. "Mr. Addison, with infinite labour, accomplished a few fine poems; but what does your ladyship think were his rough draughts?" Risum teneatis?

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sins of which he supposed himself guilty, that poor sober Et. 38. solid Thrale was fain to "lift up one hand to shut his mouth," and the worthy pair bore him off, by a sort of kindly force, to their hospitable home. With cheerfulness, health returned after some few months; he passed a portion of the summer with them at Brighton ;* and from that time, says Murphy, Johnson became almost resident in the family. "He went "occasionally to the club in Gerrard-street, but his headquarters were fixed at Streatham." Goldsmith had rightly foreseen how ill things were going with him, when not even a new play could induce him to attend the theatre.

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In his own attendance at the theatre he was just now more zealous than ever, and had doubtless "assisted" at some recent memorable nights there. When all the world went to see Rousseau, for example, including the King and Queen; when their majesties, though Garrick exhibited all his powers in Lusignan and Lord Chalkstone, looked more at the philosopher than the player; and when poor Mrs. Garrick, who had exalted him on a seat in her box (rewarded for her pains by his laughing at Lusignan and crying at Lord Chalkstone, not understanding a word of either), held him back by the skirts of his coat all night, in continual terror that "the recluse philosopher" would tumble over the front of the box into the pit, from his eager anxiety to show himself,t-Goldsmith could hardly have stayed away.

* It was here, or as Mrs. Thrale calls it, "at Brighthelmstone," that on the man who "dipped people in the sea seeing Mr. Johnson swim in the year 1766, "Why, sir,' says the dipper, 'you must have been a stout-hearted gentleman "forty years ago."" Anecdotes, 113. Another compliment of this date he always remembered with pride. I think, says Mrs. Thrale, no praise ever went so close to his heart. It was when "Mr. Hamilton called out one day, upon Brighthelmstone Downs, 'Why, Johnson rides as well, for aught I see, as "the most illiterate fellow in England.'" Ibid, 206-7.

+ Cradock's Memoirs, i. 205. And see a very amusing passage in Hume's Private Correspondence, 143-4.

Nor is he likely to have been absent when the Drury Lane 1766. players (with many of whom, especially Mr. and Mrs. Yates, Et. 38. he had now formed acquaintance) made the great rally for their rival fund; and in defiance of his outlawry, Wilkes unexpectedly showed himself in the theatre, more bent on seeing Garrick's Kitely than keeping faith with the ministry, to whom, through Burke, he had the day before promised to go back to Paris more secretly and quickly than he had come to London.* Least of all could Goldsmith have been absent when the last new comedy was played, of which all the town was talking still; and which seems to have this year turned his thoughts for the first time to the theatre, with serious intention to try his own fortune there.

The Clandestine Marriage, the great success of the year, and for the strength and variety of its character deservedly so, had been the joint work of Colman and Garrick; whose respective shares in its authorship have been much disputed, but now seem clear and ascertainable enough. The idea of the comedy originated with Colman, as he was looking at the first plate in Hogarth's immortal series of Mariage à la Mode; but he admits that it was Garrick who, on being taken into counsel, suggested that important alteration of Hogarth's "proud lord" into an amiable old ruin of a fop, descending to pin his noble decayed skirts to the frock of a tradesman's daughter, but still aspiring to the hopes and submitting to the toils of conquest, which gave to the stage its favourite Lord Ogleby. These leading ideas determined on, rough hints for the construction and conduct of the plot, of which Colman's was made public by his son three-and-thirty

* Garr. Corr. i. 272-3.

+ See Garrick Correspondence, i. 210-216; and a note to the latter page. See also Murphy's Life of Garrick, ii. 27-30; Peake's Memoirs of the Colman Family, i. 159-73; and Colman's Posthumous Letters, 327-47.

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years ago, and Garrick's did not see the light till the other Et. 38. day,* were exchanged between the friends; and from these it is manifest that, in addition to what Colman in his letters somewhat scantily admits to have been Garrick's contributions, namely, the first suggestion of Lord Ogleby, his opening levee scene, and the fifth act which he closes with such handsome gallantry, the practised actor had mapped out more clearly than Colman, though he may not have written

* They were published in the Observer newspaper. I subjoin some curious and noteworthy extracts. The original draught of the characters was thus sketched "Men. GARRICK-An old Beau, vain, &c; YATES-His Brother; "O'BRIEN-Their Nephew; KING-An old flattering Servant of Garrick's. "Women. CLIVE-Aunt of the two Sisters; BRIDE-Elder Sister; POPE-The youngest, a fibbing, mischief-making girl; BRADSHAW-An old, flattering, toad"eater of the Aunt's." The younger and elder sister afterwards changed characters, and Miss Bride gave way to Mrs. Palmer in Fanny. Subjoined are the principal points of Garrick's outline.

man.

"ACT I. SCENE I. Enter Bride and O'Brien.

"Enter Bride and O'Brien (who are secretly married), complaining how unhappy "she is, and how disagreeably situated she is on account of their concealing "the marriage. In this scene must be artfully set forth the situation and "business of the dramatis persona. The audience must learn that Mrs. Clive, "the aunt, has two nieces, co-heiresses, and one of them is to be married to 'O'Brien, the son of Garrick and nephew to Yates. They are met at the aunt's, "I suppose, to see which of the young ladies will be most agreeable to the young (Query-whether there may not be a design to have a double match, the "father with the aunt?) The youngest sister, Pope, and the aunt, fall in love "with him, and all three pay their court to Garrick on account of his son, which ❝he interprets as love to himself. Yates, Garrick's brother, who lives in the country -a rough, laughing, hearty fellow-is come to approve of one of the young ladies "for his nephew, and to see this grand family business settled. Bride declares "her distresses at seeing that her sister and aunt are in love with her husband, and "that his father takes their different attentions to him for passion. She seems "to think that nothing but an avowal of their marriage will set all to rights; but "O'Brien gives reasons for still concealing it, and says that their future welfare 'depends upon keeping the secret. N.B. In this scene the characters of the "two brothers, Garrick and Yates, should be told, with a hint of Garrick's flat'tering servant, King.

"SCENE V. Garrick and King.

"Garrick appears at his toilet preparing for the conquest of the day. His "servant and he, by their conversation, are positive that all the females are in "love with Garrick, which he readily believes and acts accordingly.