1774. was gone to spend the evening in Gerrard-street ("where," Et. 46. poor Goldsmith added, "I should also have been if I "had not been indisposed "); and at last reluctantly consented. "Well, you may send for him, if you will." Hawes dispatched the note to Gerrard-street; and Fordyce, arriving soon after Hawes had left, seems to have given Goldsmith a warning against the fever-medicine as strong, but as unavailing. Hawes sent medicine and leeches soon after twelve; and, in the hope that Fordyce would have succeeded where he had failed, did not send the fever-powders ordered. But Goldsmith continued obsti nate. The leeches were applied, the medicine rejected, and the lad who brought them from Hawes's surgery was sent back for a packet of the powders. So far, in substance, is the narrative of Hawes; which there is no ground for disputing. I omit everything which is not strictly descriptive of the illness; but the good surgeon had evidently a strong regard for his patient.* Other Hawes spoke from experience of his help in many humane projects. I quote the concluding passages of his pamphlet: “It may not be improper to observe "(as a kind of Apology for some particulars which are before related to have passed "between me and Dr. Goldsmith), that he was bred a Physician, and therefore it was natural to converse with him on the subject of his disorder in a medical 66 manner; but his attention had been so wholly absorbed by polite literature, that "it prevented him from making any great progress in medical studies. As an "elegant Writer, he will always be held in the highest esteem by all persons of "true taste. His Traveller and Deserted Village are deservedly numbered among "the best poetical productions of the present age; and some of his essays, and "other pieces, are very advantageously distinguished by genuine wit and native "humour. It should also be remembered, that he was not only an excellent "writer, but a most amiable man. His humanity and generosity greatly exceeded "the narrow limits of his fortune; and those who were no judges of the literary "merit of the Author, could not but love the Man for that benevolence by which "he was so strongly characterised. . . . . N.B. As my late respected and ingenious "friend, Dr. Goldsmith, was pleased to honour Dr. Cogan and myself with his 66 patronage and assistance in the Undertaking for the Recovery of persons appa“rently dead by Drowning, and other sudden accidents, now on the point of being "established in this kingdom; I think I cannot shew a greater proof of my 1774. facts, in what remains to be told, appeared in formal statements subsequently published by Francis Newbery, the pro- Et. 46. prietor of the fever-powders, to vindicate the fame of his medicine. These were made and signed by Goldsmith's servant, John Eyles; his laundress, Mary Ginger; and a night nurse, Sarah Smith, called in on the second day of the illness. As soon as Goldsmith took the powder sent him from the Strand, he protested it was the wrong powder; was very angry with Hawes; threatened to pay his bill next day, and have done with him; and certainly dispatched Eyles, in the afternoon of that day, for a fresh packet from Newbery's. He sent at the same time for his laundress (she was wife of the head-porter of the Temple), to "come and sit by him, "until John returned;" described himself, when she arrived, as worse; and damned Hawes (" those were his "very words ") for the mistake he had made. In the afternoon and night of Saturday, two of the fresh powders were administered, one by the servant, the other by the nurse. The nurse was also dispatched for another apothecary, named Maxwell, living near St. Dunstan's church, who came, but declined to act as matters then stood; and from that time "the patient followed the advice of his physicians." was too ill to make further resistance. Such is the substance of the evidence of the servants; in which a somewhat exaggerated form was given to what might in itself be substantially true, yet in no way affect the veracity of Mr. Hawes.* If Goldsmith asserted that a wrong powder had been sent, the sudden impulse to think so was not perhaps unnatural, He "esteem for the deceased, than by applying the profits of this publication (if any "should arise) to an institution, the design of which was favoured with his "approbation." 15-16. * The various affidavits, as put forth by Francis Newbery to vindicate the reputation of his medicine, are reprinted as an appendix to Hawes's Account. 1774. after the course he had unwisely persisted in; but that Et. 46. Hawes really made the mistake, is not credible. Reynolds and Burke made later investigation, and wholly acquitted him; a recent inquirer and intelligent practitioner, Mr. White Cooper, confirms strongly the opinion on which he seems to have acted; nor did poor Goldsmith himself very long adhere to the charge he had made.* Mr. Hawes (the substance of whose brief narrative I resume, with such illustrations as other sources have supplied) did. not see his patient when he called on Saturday morning. "His master was dozing, he lay very quiet," was the announcement of Eyles. He called again at night; when, "with great appearance of concern," the man told him that everything was worse. Hawes went in, and found Goldsmith extremely exhausted and reduced, his pulse very quick and small; and on inquiring how he did, "he sighed deeply, " and in a very low voice said he wished he had taken my "friendly advice last night." To other questions he made so weak and low that he had neither strength nor spirit to speak. There was now, clearly, danger of the worst; and Fordyce next day proposed to call another physician, naming Doctor Turton, into consultation. Goldsmith's consent was obtained to this step at eight o'clock on Monday morning, and Hawes retired altogether from attendance. The patient had again passed a very bad night," and lay absolutely "sunk with weakness." Fordyce and Turton met that no answer. He was Horace Walpole is no authority on such a point, but it may mark the interest which was felt on the question if I add what he wrote to Mason on the third day after the fatal termination of the illness. "The republic of Parnassus has lost a member; Dr. Goldsmith is dead of a purple fever, and I think might have "been saved if he had continued James's powder, which had had much effect, but "his physician interposed. . . . . The poor soul had sometimes parts, though never common sense." Mitford's Correspondence of Walpole and Mason, i. 138. day; and continued their consultations twice daily, till all was over. A week passed: the symptoms so fluctuating in the course of it, and the evidence of active disease so manifestly declining, that even sanguine expectations of recovery would appear to have been at one time entertained. But Goldsmith could not sleep. His reason seemed clear; what he said was always perfectly sensible; "he was at times even cheerful ; but sleep had deserted him, his appetite was gone, and it became obvious, in the state of weakness to which he had been reduced, that want of sleep might in itself be fatal. It then occurred to Doctor Turton to put a very pregnant question to his patient. "Your pulse," he said, "is in greater "disorder than it should be, from the degree of fever which you have. 66 " 66 Is your mind at ease? 'No, it is not," was Goldsmith's melancholy answer.* They are the last words we are to hear him utter in this world. The end arrived suddenly and unexpectedly. He lay in the sound and calm sleep which so anxiously had been looked for, at midnight on Sunday the 3rd of April; his respiration was easy and natural, his skin warm and moist, and the favourable turn was thought to have come. But at four o'clock in the morning, the apothecary Maxwell was called up in haste, and found him in strong convulsions. These continued without intermission; he sank rapidly; and at a quarter before five o'clock on the morning of Monday the 4th of April 1774, having then lived five months beyond his forty-fifth year, Oliver Goldsmith died.t * Boswell, vi. 305-6. + I quote the obituary from the public journals: "DIED.] Much and deservedly regretted, at his chambers in Brick-court, in the Temple, Dr. Oliver Goldsmith, "Author of the Poems of the Traveller and Deserted Village, and many ingenious "works in prose. He was seized on Friday se'nnight with a nervous fever in his VOL. II. HH 1774. Et. 46. 1774. Et. 46. When Burke was told, he burst into tears. Reynolds was in his painting-room when the messenger went to him: but at once he laid his pencil aside, which in times of great family distress he had not been known to do; left his painting-room; and did not re-enter it that day. Northcote describes the blow as the "severest Sir Joshua ever "received." Nor was the day less gloomy for Johnson. "Poor Goldsmith is gone" was his anticipation of the evil tidings. "Of poor dear Doctor Goldsmith," he wrote three months later to Boswell," there is little more to be told. He “died of a fever, I am afraid more violent by uneasiness of "mind. His debts began to be heavy, and all his resources "were exhausted. Sir Joshua is of opinion that he owed "not less than two thousand pounds. Was ever poet so "trusted before? He spoke of the loss for years, as with the tenderness of a recent grief; and in his little room hung round with portraits of his favourite friends, even as Swift had his adorned with the "just half-a-dozen "t that he really loved away from Laracor, Goldsmith had a place of honour.. "So, your wild genius, poor Doctor Goldsmith, is brain, which occasioned his death."-"Dr. Goldsmith is dead, and my "cousin, Mrs. Harris," is the dry mention of Horace Walpole to Lady Ossory (Ossory Letters, i. 133), the day but one after the event. A few days before he had written to the same lady of an illness affecting his favourite lap-dog, "I have been out of bed twenty times every night, have had no sleep, and "sat up with her till three this morning." i. 77. "Chambers, you * Boswell, v. 188. The day after, he wrote to Langton: find, is gone far" (he had set out for India), "and poor Goldsmith is gone much "further. He died of a fever, exasperated, as I believe, by the fear of distress. "He had raised money, &c." (ante, 437). "I wrote the following tetrastich 66 on poor Goldsmith," &c. Boswell, v. 189. "Lord Bolingbroke + Journal to Stella, Feb. 27, 1712-13 (Works, iii. 122.) "and Lady Masham have promised to sit for me; but I despair of lord-treasurer; "only I hope he will give me a copy, and then I shall have all the pictures of "those I really love here; just half-a-dozen; only I will make lord-keeper give me his print in a frame." "We were shown," says Boswell, describing a visit to Lord Scarsdale's seat at Kiddlestone, three years after Goldsmith's death, "a pretty large library. In |