A letter to R. Bryanton, Esq. by Goldsmith, in Elegant Extracts,' edited by Davenport. Vol. v. p. 252. Whittingham, Chiswick. 18mo. Review of the Traveller, by Dr. Johnson, in Critical Review, 1764. Vol. xviii. p. 458. 'Canonbury Castle is an ancient brick tower hard by merry Islington, the remains of a hunting-seat of Queen Elizabeth, where she took the pleasure of the country, when the neighbourhood was all woodland. What gave it particular interest in my eyes was the circumstance that it had been the residence of a poet. It was here Goldsmith resided when he wrote his "Deserted Village." I was shewn the very apartment; it was a relique of the original style of the castle, with panelled wainscots and Gothic windows. I was pleased with its air of antiquity, and with its having been the residence of poor Goldy.'. ·W. Irving's Tales of a Traveller, i. 214. 'Poor Goldsmith! what a time must he have had of it, with his quiet disposition and nervous habits, penned up in this den of noise and vulgarity! How strange, that while every sight and sound was sufficient to embitter the heart, and fill it with misanthropy, his pen should be dropping the honey of Hybla! Yet it is more than probable that he drew many of his inimitable pictures of low life from the scenes which surrounded him in this abode. The circumstance of Mrs. Tibbs being obliged to wash her husband's two shirts in a neighbour's house, who refused to lend her wash-tub, may have been no sport of fancy, but a fact passing under his own eye. His landlady may have sate for the picture, and Beau Tibbs' scanty wardrobe have been a fac-simile of his own.' Ditto, p. 200. On Green Arbour Court, see p. 198, 199. This Green Arbour Court I found to be a small square of tall and miserable houses, the very intestines of which seemed turned inside out, to judge from the old garments and frippery that fluttered from every window. It appeared to be a region of washerwomen, and lines were stretched about the little square on which clothes were dangling to dry. Page 8, 1. 3. Page 10, 1. 3. Page 12, 1. 26. Page 13, 1. 22. Page 15, 1. 17. Yet at her board, with decent plenty blest, See P. Knight's Landscape, p. 89, note. nor the shepherd drive His flock at eve, beneath thy ruins hoar And like a bird, when prying boys molest, Stays not to breed where she had built her nest.' Page 18, 1. 18. c. xxi. Page 19, 1. 6. Page 20, 1. 5. See Casim. Sarbiev. Carmina, p. 93, Lib. ii. Ad litus adelinata levé Equora decubuisse somno.' 'A new creation rises to my sight.' Addison's Ep. from Italy. Fired at the thought, methinks on sacred ground I tread.' Fired with the name." Addison's Letter from Italy. See Goldsmith's Beauties, i. p. 116, and p. 112. Page 24, 1. 20. Through the deep forest's tangled way.' T. Warton's Ode sent to a friend; and see Warton's Milton, p. 270. Page 25, 1. 12. 1. 28. See Gibbon's Roman History, ii. 61. Page 26, 1. 1. Luke's iron crown,' &c. See Steevens's note on Richard III. act iv. sc. 1, note seven; and Gough's Camden, vol. iii. p. 369. Page 34, 1. 23. · DESERTED VILLAGE. vol. vi. p. 149. Page 35, 1. 3. 1. 10. See Todd's Milton, 'A shapeless ruin, and a barren cave.' Tickell's Kens. Gardens.' C'est un verre qui luit, Qu'un souffle peut détruire, et qu'un souffle a produit!' Page 36, 1. 21. The following couplet occurs in the first edi tion: Here as with doubtful, pensive steps I range, Trace every scene, and wonder at the change, Page 37, 1. 3 and 4, variation: My anxious day to husband near the close, Page 39, 1. 6. See Fielding's Pars. Adams, and Mandeville's Fable of the Bees, i. p. 113; and Henry's Hist. of England, vol. xii. 339. Page 40, 1. 20. They which come to spy, or wonder, or gaze, or scoff, have changed their minds before they went home.' -H. Smith's Sermons, p. 647, ed. 1592. Page 41, 1. 11. ειναι τῇ ἄκρα, See Antoninus de Seipso, Lib. iv. 31: "Oμolov &c. 6 Page 48, 1. 20. For then more fierce than cruel tigers lay.' S. Pordage's Poems, p. 31, 1660. Page 55.-HAUNCH OF VENISON. See Boileau's Satire III. vol. i. p. 58, which Goldsmith had in his mind when he wrote this poem. Lord Clare was afterwards Earl Nugent, his only daughter married the Marquis of Buckingham. He wrote a few odes, a stanza in one of which is known to everybody. Alluding to this, Gray said, 'Surely Nugent did not write his own ode,' meaning that to Lord Pulteney Page 63. - RETALIATION. vol. i. No. 18, p. 111. Compare a paper in the World, Page 63, 1. 7. Our dean shall be venison.' On the behaviour of Dr. Johnson to Dean Bernard, which was the occasion of his verses, see Miss Reynolds's Recollections in Boswell's Johnson, ed. Croker, vol. iv. p. 448. Page 65, 1. 12. C To persuade Tommy Townshend to lend him a vote.' In the original copy, another person's name stood in this couplet. It is supposed that Townshend's name was introduced on account of the reflections which he threw out in the house against Johnson's pension; or, as Sir James Mackintosh explains it, from his persisting to clear the gallery of the house against Burke and Fox's remonstrance, when Garrick was present. See Boswell's Johnson, vol. v. p. 214. Page 69, 1. 21. See Davies's Life of Garrick, ii. 140. Page 71, 1. 16. See La Vie de Le Sage, p. xiii. Il faisait usage d'un Cornet qu'il appeloit son bienfaiteur. Quand je trouve, disoit-il, des visages nouveaux, et que j'espère rencontrer des gens d'esprit, je tire mon Cornet; quand ce sont des sots, je le resserve et je les défie de m'ennuyer. Page 72. 'Here Whitefoord reclines.' C. Whitefoord followed his Cross Readings' by a still more witty paper on the Errors of the Press,' preserved in the Foundling Hospital for Wit. Goldsmith was so delighted with those jeux d'esprit, that he declared it would give him more pleasure to have been the author, than of all the works he had ever published of his own. See his poem to Sir Joshua Reynolds, in Northcote's Life, p. 128. Conf. Virg. Æn. i. 630: Haud ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco.' Page 80, 1. 17. This, the only bad stanza in the poem, is not in the French original. Page 108. - EPITAPH ON EDWARD PURDON. from Pope's and Swift's Miscellanies; see vol. xiii. p. 372: Well then, poor G This is taken Scott's Swift, lies under ground, So there's an end of honest Jack; So little justice here he found, 'Tis ten to one he'll ne'er come back.' Page 112.-SONG. Translated by A. Brown into Latin verse. See Arthur Browne's Miscell. Sketches, vol. ii. p. 389. Page 114, 1. 29. See a Greek translation of this poem, by Scaliger. Vide Poemata, p. 91. Page 156, 1. 4. J. Lowin, the original Falstaff, kept the Three Pigeons at Brentford. See Davies's Dram. Miscell. i. p. 325. |