being written is pretty evident to such as are acquainted with the history of the time by internal evidence alone, chiefly from the allusions made to temporary topics of conversation. Thus the phrase quoted in the following passage is from the love letters of the Duke of Cumberland, whose orthography and style furnished abundant matter for amusement to the newspapers of the day * "Left alone to reflect, having emptied my shelf, The writers who are alluded to in the lines ; "They're both of them merry and Authors like you; The one writes the Snarler, the other the Scourge; Some think he writes Cinna- he owns to Panurge" occupied the columns of the Public Advertiser almost daily during the end of the year 1770 and the spring of 1771. † As supposed organs of the ministry, they became topics of conversation, and as such are mentioned by Goldsmith writing at the moment; for their compositions possessed no principle of prolonged vitality, and were not likely to have been resuscitated by him when the occasion that produced them had passed away. Several variations appear between the first and subsequent impressions, besides an addition of ten new lines, there being in the former one hundred * Vide Public Advertiser, passim, 1770, 1771. See the months of September, October, November, December, 1770. and fourteen and in the latter one hundred and twenty-four. And as death had removed the author before the period of publication (1776) the MS. copy first furnished to the press, must have been one of his early transcripts, and therefore less correct than further research supplied. The additional lines are— "Though my stomach was sharp I could scarce help regretting To spoil such a delicate picture by eating." "Some lords, my acquaintance, that settle the nation, Are pleased to be kind—but I hate ostentation." "So there I sat stuck like a horse in a pound, While the bacon and liver went merrily round." "There's a pasty "—" A pasty " returned the Scot; “I don't care if I keep a corner for that," he has converted into four in the amended copy "There's a pasty "-" A pasty" repeated the Jew, In considering how he shall dispose of the neck and the breast of venison, he recalls as proper objects of the gift the names of the authors who found a frequent resource in his generosity. To the general reader these are now become unintelligible by the first and last letters only of each being printed; a degree of reserve scarcely necessary at any time, and continued perhaps only from the persons being forgotten. No such delicacy was evinced in the first edition, where we find them given at length : "There's Coley, and Williams, and Howard and Hiff, Your very good mutton 's a very good treat; Such dainties to them! it would seem like a flirt, Like sending them ruffles when wanting a shirt." Wanting genius or industry, these writers have left nothing by which to be remembered, fulfilling the remark of Roger Ascham, applied by Dr. Johnson to many of what he termed his Grub Street acquaintance-"Who lived unknown men knew not how, and died obscure men marked not when." Of one only of the four named in the poem is any remembrance preserved, who proved an annoyance for some years to managers and dramatists, and a terror to the inferior actors in whose art he professed to be deeply versed. This was Paul (or Dr. Paul) Hiffernan or Heffernan, one of those eccentric and irregular characters who with some learning and conversational talents, assume literature as a profession but do it no honour. He was born in the county of Dublin, educated for a Roman Catholic Priest in France, but disliking the clerical office, took the degree of Bachelor of Medicine, and commenced the prac tice of physic in Dublin. Here the theatre, politics, and convivial societies, proved more attractive to one of his habits than the duller routine of a profession; he therefore made no progress in medical practice; a few pieces written on popular topics, familiarity with continental scenes and manners which he rendered very amusing in description, and stories told with some vivacity and effect, made him acceptable to such as wanted merely a companion; a kind of ambition in which few who indulge are ever likely to ascend to any thing great or useful. Some account of him at this time appears in a letter of Mr. (afterwards the Rev.) William Dennis, who has already been introduced to the reader as the college friend and companion of Edmund Burke; the notices of Hiffernan, though new, are of inferior moment to the particulars we incidentally glean of the juvenile pursuits and studies of Burke, who when little more than seventeen years old, was with a few companions, more zealous than informed or discreet, endeavouring to correct or control the management of the Dublin stage under the elder Sheridan. No apology will be necessary for the introduction of this curious memorial. It should be observed that among other frequenters of the theatre, several students of Trinity College took upon themselves to be dissatisfied with the taste or conduct of the manager; and in trying to amend what they considered wrong young Burke, and Hiffernan who was much his senior, although personally unknown to each other, agreed; the former as it would seem with the design of forcing the play of one of his young friends forward for representation. The result of their juvenile plots was a riot well known in theatrical history, which had the effect of driving Sheridan from Dublin. The letter, like that in a preceding page, and communicated by the same friend, is addressed to Shackleton, the son of their schoolmaster at Ballitore, with whom they were in constant correspondence. "Dublin, Jan. 14th, 1747.- 8 o'clock. "Arma virumque cano-bella horrida bella. Nothing else to do, we the triumvirate* talk of nothing but the subversion of the present theatrical tyranny; lend us your pen; you have often drawn it for your own and friends' entertainment; now do it for their assistance and the establishing taste in spite of Sheridan's arrogance or his tasteless adherents. Don't think this gasconade, for we love liberty and consequently hate French customs. No, we tread on firm ground with Irish resolution and perseverance, resolving to pull down Baal from the high places, and that by (what is esteemed uncommon) the force of Irish genius, and establish Irish productions in the place of the English trash comedies and French frippery of dances and harlequins, which have been the public entertainments this winter. * Burke, Brennan, and the writer of the letter, Dennis. |