Chorus of ISRAELITES.

Down with them, Lord, to lick the dust;
Thy vengeance be begun :

Serve them as they have serv'd the just,

And let thy will be done.

First PRIEST.

Recitative.

All, all is lost. The Syrian army fails,
Cyrus, the conqueror of the world, prevails!
The ruin smokes, the torrent pours along,—
How low the proud, how feeble are the strong!
Save us, O Lord! to thee, though late, we pray,
And give repentance but an hour's delay.

First and Second PRIEST.

Thrice happy, who in happy hour
To heaven their praise bestow,
And own his all-consuming power
Before they feel the blow.

First PROPHET.

Recitative.

Now, now's our time! ye wretches bold and blind,
Brave but to God, and cowards to mankind;

Too late you seek that power unsought before,
Your wealth, your pride, your kingdom, are no more.

Air.

O, Lucifer, thou son of morn,

Alike of Heaven and man the foe;

Heaven, men, and all,

Now press thy fall,

And sink thee lowest of the low.

First PROPHET.

O, Babylon, how art thou fallen!

Thy fall more dreadful from delay!
Thy streets forlorn

To wilds shall turn,

Where toads shall pant and vultures prey.

Second PROPHET.

Recitative.

Such be her fate! But listen! from afar

The clarion's note proclaims the finish'd war.
Cyrus, our great restorer, is at hand,
And this way leads his formidable band.
Give, give your songs of Zion to the wind,
And hail the benefactor of mankind:
He comes pursuant to divine decree,
To chain the strong, and set the captive free.

Chorus of YOUTHS.

Rise to transports past expressing,
Sweeter from remember'd woes;
Cyrus comes, our wrongs redressing,
Comes to give the world repose.

Chorus of VIRGINS.

Cyrus comes, the world redressing,
Love and pleasure in his train;
Coines to heighten every blessing,
Comes to soften every pain.

Semi-Chorus.

Hail to him with mercy reigning,
Skill'd in every peaceful art;
Who from bonds our limbs unchaining,
Only binds the willing heart.

Last Chorus.

But chief to Thee, our God, defender, friend,
Let praise be given to all eternity;

O Thou, without beginning, without end,
Let us, and all, begin and end in Thee.

RETALIATION.

A Poem.

Printed for G. Kearsly, at No. 46 in Fleet Street, 1774.

4to.

As the cause of writing the following printed poem called Retaliation has not yet been fully explained, a person concerned in the business begs leave to give the following just and minute account of the whole affair.

At a meeting of a company of gentlemen, who were well known to each other, and diverting themselves, among many other things, with the peculiar oddities of Dr. Goldsmith, who never would allow a superior in any art, from writing poetry down to dancing a hornpipe, the Dr. with great eagerness insisted upon trying his epigrammatic powers with Mr. Garrick, and each of them was to write the other's epitaph. Mr. Garrick immediately said that his epitaph was finished, and spoke the following distich extempore :

Here lies NOLLY Goldsmith, for shortness call'd Noll,
Who wrote like an angel, but talk'd like poor Poll.

Goldsmith, upon the company's laughing very heartily, grew very thoughtful, and either would not, or could not, write anything at that time: however, he went to work, and some weeks after produced the following printed poem called Retaliation, which has been much admired, and gone through several editions. The publick in general have been mistaken in imagining that this poem was written in anger by the Doctor; it was just the contrary; the whole on all sides was done with the greatest good humour; and the following poems in manuscript were written by several of the gentlemen on purpose to provoke the Doctor to an answer, which came forth at last with great credit to him in Retaliation.

D. GARRICK [MS.].

For this highly interesting account (now first printed, or even referred to, by any biographer or editor of Goldsmith) I am indebted to my friend Mr. George Daniel, of Islington, who allowed me to transcribe it from the original in Garrick's own handwriting discovered among the Garrick papers, and evidently designed as a preface to a collected edition of the poems which grew out of Goldsmith's trying his epigrammatic powers with Garrick. I may observe also that Garrick's epitaph or distich on Goldsmith is (through this very paper) for the first time printed as it was spoken by its author.

"Retaliation" was the last work of Goldsmith and a posthumous publication ---appearing for the first time on the 18th of April, 1774.

1 At the St. James's Coffee House in St. James's Street. See Art. "James's (St.) Coffee House," in Cunningham's Hand-Book of London. 2nd. ed. 1850, p. 254.

RETALIATION.

י

Or old, when Scarron his companions invited,
Each guest brought his dish, and the feast was united;
If our landlord' supplies us with beef, and with fish,
Let each guest bring himself-and he brings the best dish
Our Dean shall be venison, just fresh from the plains;
Our Burke' shall be tongue, with the garnish of brains;
Our Will' shall be wild fowl of excellent flavour,

3

6

And Dick with his pepper shall heighten the savour;
Our Cumberland's' sweet-bread its place shall obtain,
And Douglas is pudding, substantial and plain;

8

Our Garrick's a sallad; for in him we see

Oil, vinegar, sugar, and saltness agree:
To make out the dinner, full certain I am,

That Ridge" is anchovy, and Reynolds " is lamb;

1 Paul Scarron, a popular French writer of burlesque. Died 1660.

2 The landlord of the St. James's coffee-house.

3 Thomas Barnard, then (1774) Dean of Derry; afterwards (1780) Bishop of Killaloe, and in 1794, Bishop of Limerick. He died in 1806, in his eightieth year.

4 The Right Hon. Edmund Burke.

5 Mr. William Burke, a kinsman of Edmund Burke. Died 1798.

6 Mr. Richard Burke, a barrister, and younger brother of Edmund Burke. He died, Recorder of Bristol, in 1794.

7 Richard Cumberland, the dramatist. Died 1811.

8 John Douglas, a Scotchman by birth, then (1774) canon of Windsor; afterwards (1787) Bishop of Carlisle, and (1791) Bishop of Salisbury. He died in 1807. 9 David Garrick.

10 John Ridge, a member of the Irish bar.

11 Sir Joshua Reynolds.