a relative of a noble Irish family, addressed to Garrick, dated August 4, 1773.* "I shall dine at Twickenham to-morrow, and if I should not hear from you to the contrary, I shall set out from thence towards Hampton in my phaeton on Friday morning at nine o'clock; and if I should meet you or her Majesty† on the Common shall be happy to take up one or both in my vehicle, or shall be glad to descend and accompany you on foot to Hampton. I am just going with Sir Joshua and Doctor Goldsmith to Vauxhall, which will be my first exit from home this day. I don't find myself the better for my confinement of late. My best compliments, &c. &c. attend the best of Queens and her companion, my favourite Mrs. Flasby. "Yours most sincerely and affectionately, &c. "THOMAS FITZMAURICE." CHAPTER XXIV. Embarrassments.-Table Talk.-His Conversation.-Wit. IMPRUDENCE in the management of his pecuniary concerns, produced at this time its frequent result, serious uneasiness of mind. To disappointment in the project of the Dictionary, was added failure by a few of his friends in efforts made to secure some provision for him from Government; he found difficulty in raising further supplies, and as a necessary consequence, of repaying sums already borrowed; while the calls of publishers compelled him to labour upon works for which the remuneration had been received and spent. His spirits became depressed, his health impaired, and short starts of irritability to which he had been occasionally subject, increased; a jest would disconcert him, and he was seen to take offence in mixed societies from trifling causes. As none of his acquaintance were informed of the extent of these embarrassments, they understood not certain inconsistencies, or as they were termed, absurdities, in his behaviour, assumed no doubt often to throw off unpleasant recollections. From seeming absence or gravity, he would fly to the extremes of mirth and jollity; and from silence, would commence talking incessantly and inconsiderately on all subjects; just as he was formerly seen, when by his own. account nearly suffocating with vexation at the reception of his play, singing a song of "an old woman tossed in a blanket seventeen times as high as the moon." Unwilling to be suspected of wishing to tax the generosity of his friends, or too proud to seem as poor as he really was, a few only suspected his situation; to these he exhibited the assumed gayety of despair. • In the collection of William Upcott, Esq. About this period one of those friends with whom there existed much mutual esteem* saw him in London, and in his Recollections has given some particulars which from corroborating circumstances are no doubt substantially true. He had come to town out of the usual season for country visiters, in order to place his lady under the care of a popular dentist, and took lodgings in the vicinity of the Temple. With him the poet seems to have used no disguise, and the relation is not without interest. "Goldsmith," writes this gentleman, "I found much altered and at times very low; and I devoted almost all my mornings to his immediate service. He wished me to look over and revise some of his works; but with a select friend or two, I was pressing that he should publish by subscription, his two celebrated poems of the Traveller' and the Deserted Village' with notes; for he was well aware that I was no stranger to Johnson's having made some little addition to the one, and possibly had suggested some corrections at least for the other; but the real meaning was to give some great persons an opportunity of conveying pecuniary relief of which the Doctor at that time was particularly in need. Goldsmith readily gave up to me his private copies and said, 'Pray do what you please with them.' But whilst he sat near me he rather submitted to, than encouraged my zealous proceedings. "I one morning called upon him however and found him infinitely better than I expected, and in a kind of exulting style he exclaimed, 'Here are some of my best prose writings; I have been hard at work since midnight and I desire you to examine them.' These,' said I, are excellent indeed.' They are,' he replied, "intended as an introduction to a body of arts and sciences.' *** "The day before I was to set out for Leicestershire I insisted upon his dining with us. He replied 'I will, but on one condition that you will not ask me to eat any thing.' 'Nay,' said I, 'this answer is absolutely unkind, for I had hoped as we are supplied from the Crown and Anchor that you would have named something you might have relished.' 'Well,' was the reply, if you will but explain it to Mrs. Cradock I will certainly wait upon you.' "The Doctor found as usual at my apartments newspapers and pamphlets, and with a pen and ink he amused himself as well as he could. I had ordered from the tavern some fish, a roasted joint of lamb, and a tart; and the Doctor either sat down or walked about just as he pleased. After dinner he took some wine with biscuits, but I was obliged soon to leave him for a while, as I had matters to settle for my next day's journey. On my return coffee was ready, and the Doctor appeared more cheerful (for Mrs. Cradock was always rather a favourite with him) and in the course of the evening he endeavoured to talk and remark as usual, but all was force. He stayed till midnight, and I insisted on seeing him safe home, and we most cordially shook hands at the Temple gate. He did not live The late Joseph Cradock, Esq. long after our return into Leicestershire; and I have often since regretted that I did not remain longer in town at every inconvenience." Besides the literary societies of London, he was occasionally known to mingle in circles of higher rank and pretension, though like Johnson, this was a sphere he neither much sought nor enjoyed. He probably found it, as most men of observation find it, without heart or cordiality. Fashionable society, although sought after by such as know it not, is very far from being the best society in London; it is too frequently parade without pleasure, the forms of intercourse without its substance; where little sincerity is found, and few friendships are formed; and where slight differences in rank become a bar to that intercourse which best exercises the understanding. At Lansdowne House* as the writer has been informed, at the house of Lord Clare, of Lord Charlemont when he was in London, of Beauclerk, Burke, Langton, General Oglethorpe, Garrick and others, as well as previously at that of Mrs. Montagu, he had an opportunity of forming an extensive acquaintance, but found that his acknowledged talents and celebrity did not always ensure notice from men of distinguished rank, though he was unreserved enough to avow his sense of being overlooked. "Goldsmith in his diverting simplicity," writes Boswell, "complained one day in a mixed company of Lord Camden. "I met him," said he," at Lord Clare's house in the country, and he took no more notice of me than if I had been an ordinary man." The company having laughed heartily, Johnson stood forth in defence of his friend. "Nay, gentlemen, Dr. Goldsmith is in the right. A nobleman ought to have made up to such a man as Goldsmith; and I think it is much against Lord Camden that he neglected him." The feelings of Goldsmith and of Johnson on this assumed-for it can scarcely have been otherwise than assumed-distance, or indifference of one who had been himself but recently raised to the peerage, are not unreasonable. It is right that rank should notice and encourage talent, and that talent in return be taught to respect rank; this mutual feeling cannot arise unless there be that degree of intercourse necessary to create it, and rank therefore having the power so to do, should make those advances without which intimacy cannot begin. If from the want of this intercourse, a feeling of hostility, as we have sometimes seen, be engendered between such powerful interests, the results as experience has taught us in other countries, A dedication to Lord Shelburne of "The Beauties of Goldsmith," published in 1782 by an Editor who signs the initials W. H. thus alludes to the supposed regard of his Lordship for the Poet. "MY LORD, "Your friendship for Dr. Goldsmith is a sufficient inducement for one to inscribe his Beauties to you. In all ages the illustrious and the learned have been courted in the highest strain of panegyric to take the offspring of Genius under their patronage. This I am prevented doing here, for the writings from which this cento of excellence is taken have long since found innumerable admirers in every polished society. My sole motive for addressing your Lordship, arises from your esteem for the author whose moral and sentimental writings have given birth to a volume every way meriting your Lordship's countenance." are commonly unfavourable to rank, which can rarely contend successfully with the fierce and sometimes unscrupulous energy of abilities when excited by a sense of neglect or discouragement. Aristocracy whenever bitterly assailed by its enemies, has no surer means of subduing them than by condescension and kindness; and no more effectual whetstone to animosity than the appearance of contempt or indifference. But exclusive of the impolicy of men in elevated station wantonly offending a body that so much influences the reading and thinking part of mankind, there is in it something likewise of bad taste by the slur thus indirectly cast upon their own origin; for we are willing to believe, and it may not be safe to destroy the illusion, that rank owes its existence in nations to the display of some description of talents. A few notices of his conversation, nearly all that remain to us of this period, it would be improper to omit. At a dinner at General Paoli's where Martinelli who had written a History of England in Italian was present, a debate took place whether he should continue it down to that day. Goldsmith. 66 To be sure he should." Johnson. "No, Sir; he would give great offence. He would have to tell of almost all the living great what they do not wish told." Goldsmith. "It may, perhaps, be necessary for a native to be more cautious; but a foreigner who comes among us without prejudice may be considered as holding the place of a judge, and may speak his mind freely." Johnson. "Sir, a foreigner, when he sends a work from the press, ought to be on his guard against catching the error and mistaken enthusiasm of the people among whom he happens to be." Goldsmith." Sir, he wants only to sell his history, and to tell truth; one an honest, the other a laudable motive." Johnson. "Sir, they are both laudable motives. It is laudable in a man to wish to live by his labours; but he should write so as he may live by them, not so as he may be knocked on the head. I would advise him to be at Calais before he publishes his history of the present age. A foreigner who attaches himself to a political party in this country, is in the worst state that can be imagined; he is looked upon as a mere intermeddler. A native may do it from interest." Boswell. "Or principle." Goldsmith." There are people who tell a hundred political lies every day, and are not hurt by it. Surely then, one may tell truth with perfect safety." Johnson. "Why, Sir, in the first place, he who tells a hundred lies has disarmed the force of his lies. But besides ; a man had rather have a hundred lies told of him, than one truth which he does not wish to be told." Goldsmith. "For my part, I'd tell truth, and shame the devil." Johnson. "Yes, Sir, but the devil will be angry. I wish to shame the devil as much as you do, but I should choose to be out of the reach of his claws." Goldsmith. "His claws can do you no hurt where you have the shield of truth." It having been observed that there was little hospitality in London; Johnson. "Nay, Sir, any man who has a name or who has the power of pleasing, will be very generally invited in London. "The man, Sterne, I have been told, has had engagements for three months." Goldsmith. "And a very dull fellow." Johnson. "Why no, Sir." The party talked of the King's coming to see Goldsmith's new play. "I wish he would," said Goldsmith; adding however with an affected indifference, "Not that it would do me the least good." Johnson. "Well, then, Sir, let us say it would do him good (laughing.) No, Sir, this affectation will not pass,-it is mighty idle. In such a state as ours, who would not wish to please the chief magistrate?" Goldsmith. "I do wish to please him. I remember a line in Dryden, 'And every poet is the monarch's friend.' It ought to be reversed." Johnson. "Nay, Sir, there are finer lines in Dryden on this subject. 66 'For colleges on bounteous kings depend, General Paoli observed, that successful rebels might. Martinelli. Happy rebellions." Goldsmith. "We have no such phrase." General Paoli. "But have you not the thing?" Goldsmith. "Yes, all are happy revolutions. They have hurt our constitution, and will hurt it, till we mend it by another happy revolution." I never before discovered that my friend Goldsmith had so much of the old prejudice in him. General Paoli, talking of Goldsmith's new play, said, “Il a fait un compliment très-gracieux à une certain grande dame;" meaning a duchess of the first rank.* I expressed a doubt, says Boswell, whether Goldsmith intended it, in order that I might hear the truth from himself. It, perhaps, was not quite fair to endeavour to bring him to a confession, as he might not wish to avow positively his taking part against the court. He smiled and hesitated. The General at once relieved him by this beautiful image, "Monsieur Goldsmith est comme la mer, qui jette des perles et beaucoup d'autres belles choses, sans s'en appercevoir." Goldsmith. "Très-bien dit, et très-élégamment." Speaking of suicide Johnson said, "I have often thought, that after a man has taken the resolution to kill himself, it is not courage in him to do any thing, however desperate, because he has nothing to fear." Goldsmith. "I don't see that." Johnson. " Nay, but my dear Sir, why should you not see what every one else sees?" Goldsmith. "It is in fear of something that he has resolved to kill himself; and will not that timid disposition restrain him?" Johnson. "It does not signify that the fear of something made him resolve; it is upon the state of his mind after the resolution is taken that I argue." An opinion of his, hazarded more than once in conversation was, that vanity constituted one of the chief springs of human action. • This speech has been noticed in a previous page as applying to the Duchess of Gloucester. |