production of Goldsmith, and they have in consequence been included in some late editions of his works, though the authority being anonymous they are not admitted into that which accompanies these volumes.

"E'en have you seen, bath'd in the morning dew,
The budding rose, its infant bloom display;
When first its virgin tints unfold to view,

It shrinks, and scarcely trusts the blaze of day.

"So soft, so delicate, so sweet she came,

Youth's damask glow, just dawning on her cheek,
I gaz'd, I sigh'd, I caught the tender flame,

Felt the fond pang, and droop'd with passion weak.”

The author of this communication being unknown, all we have to guide us is internal evidence, which if of any weight in such matters, is against its reputed origin. In the construction of the verses, there is a want of skill which Goldsmith, even in his careless moments, seldom displayed; words are introduced little better than expletives; and the free use made of epithets he not only never practised, but in his critical strictures condemned, as one of the most objectionable peculiarities of modern poetry. This may be seen in the remarks introducing his ballad in the Vicar of Wakefield,

The previous communication alluded to, was signed "C. D." dated Portchester, and inclosed the song "Oh, Memory! thou fond intruder!" the latter word should be deceiver; but the reason of the communication does not appear, for the song had been printed in all the editions of his works, and was therefore as well known as his other printed pieces.

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and those in the Beauties of English Poesy, prefixed to Gray's Elegy, which he characterises as a fine poem, but overloaded with epithets." Neither has he, as far as we know, written any thing else in the elegiac measure, excepting the stanzas on the taking of Quebec.

The succeeding piece is claimed in Ireland for Goldsmith; and in England for Charles Wyndham, Earl of Egremont, who died in 1763.* Its Irish history is as follows. About the year 1769, or 1770, a Mr. Robert Nugent, from Westmeath, a relation it is believed of Lord Clare, being in London, received a copy of it from Goldsmith, who had written the lines upon a young lady, their mutual acquaintance, whom the former particularly admired.

This gentleman on his return to Ireland some time afterwards, met his death by accident, when this among other papers fell into the hands of a person living in the house, but unconnected with the family, and thence passing into those of others, came at length into possession of the late Mr. Edkins, of Dublin. He published it in a collection of inedited Irish poetry, in which is also to be found an early poem of Edmund Burke, which the

* By a correspondent of the European Magazine, as the writer was informed by the Rev. Alexander Dyce, whose acquaintance with poetry is known to be extensive; it was thence copied into Park's "Royal and Noble Authors." On examining the Magazine, the copy was found deficient in the two first lines; so consequently is the work just mentioned into which it was introduced.

present writer who procured it from another quarter has printed elsewhere; and a few others of some merit by writers unknown in England. The claim for Goldsmith will be at once disproved if it be found in print before 1757; it resembles his livelier manner, and appears to come from a practised pen, having more finish than an occasional writer of verses, if Lord Egremont was really such, would probably give it.

"THE FAIR THIEF.

“I tell, and tell with truth and grief,
That Chloe is an arrant thief;
Before the urchin well could go,
She stole the whiteness of the snow;
And more, that whiteness to adorn,
She stole the blushes of the morn;
Stole all the sweetness Æther sheds
On primrose banks or violet beds.
Still to conceal her artful wiles,
She stole the Graces' silken smiles;
'Twas quickly seen she robbed the sky
To plant a star in either eye;
She stole Aurora's balmy breath,
And pilfered orient pearls for teeth;
The cherry dipp'd in morning dew,
Gave moisture to her lips and hue.

"These were the infant spoils; a store
To which in time she pilfered more;
At twelve she stole from Cyprus' Queen
Her air and love-commanding mien ;
Stole Juno's dignity, and stole

From Pallas sense to charm the soul.
She sung; the Syrens all appear'd,
And warbling-she stole all she heard.
She play'd; the Muses from their hill

Wonder'd who thus had stolen their skill.

When

The following verses rest chiefly on the authority of the late Mr. Quick, the comedian. applied to a few years ago on the subject of Goldsmith, he mentioned, among other things, the Poet having written two or three songs for Mrs. Pinto, formerly Miss Brent, between 1766 and 1768, which he had seen printed in a magazine, and also in a collection of songs published as he believed by one of the Newberys; one of these publications has been traced, but it may be doubted whether either of the pieces stand as he wrote them.

SONG.

"Love's a fever of the mind,

Kindling fierce consuming fires,
Sweet its first approach we find,
Raising new and soft desires.
"Soon it fills with hopes and fears,

Sighs and tremblings break the rest,

Glowing wishes, wasting tears,

Night and day distract the breast."

SONG.

"How softly the zephyrs awaken the grove,

In this season, the Spring both of nature and love;

Yet let no delights on our moments intrude,

But such as are simple and such as are good.

"Far hence be the love that's by wantonness bred,
Or pleasures by folly or vanity fed;

But joys which both reason and virtue approve,
We hail as the charm and the pride of the grove."

Of a still more apocryphal character are the verses first printed in 1774 in an Irish magazine, it is believed Exshaw's (for the work, since the transcription was made, has been mislaid), and said to have been transmitted to a friend in that country in 1769. They seem a tissue of imitations, disconnected and obscure in subject, thrown out as the germ of thoughts rather than thoughts developed, or made intelligible; and this probably gave origin to the rumour of their having constituted part of the first rude draught of portions of the Deserted Village, altered by the author nearly as soon as written, but afterwards strung together by some admirer of more zeal than judgment who saved the manuscript. An examination of these lines can leave no doubt they are spurious; but being published as his, the reader might be tempted to suppose, were he to meet them elsewhere, that the omission arose from being unknown to the writer. They will be found beneath. *

* "VERSES

"Addressed to a Friend in 1769;

"BY OLIVER GOLDSMITH, M. B.

"O firm in virtue, as of soul sincere,

Lov'd by the Muse to friendship ever dear!
Among the thousand ills of thousand climes,
To name the worst that loads the worst of times,