Notwithstanding the condemnation of Shakespeare in the 'Present
State of Polite Learning', and elsewhere, Goldsmith frequently
weaves Shakespearean recollections into his work.
State of Polite Learning', and elsewhere, Goldsmith frequently
weaves Shakespearean recollections into his work.
Oliver Goldsmith
'
l. 14. -----
"a bounce", i. e. a braggart falsehood. Steele, in No.
16 of 'The Lover', 1715, p. 110, says of a manifest piece of
brag, 'But this is supposed to be only a 'Bounce'. '
l. 18. -----
"Mr. Byrne", spelled 'Burn' in the earlier editions, was
a relative of Lord Clare.
l. 24. -----
"M--r--'s. " MONROE's in the first version. 'Dorothy
Monroe,' says Bolton Corney, 'whose various charms are
celebrated in verse by Lord Townshend. '
l. 27. -----
"There's H--d, and C--y, and H--rth, and H--ff". In the
first version --
'There's COLEY, and WILLIAMS, and HOWARD, and HIFF. '
-- Hiff was Paul Hiffernan, M. B. , 1719-77, a Grub Street author
and practitioner. Bolton Corney hazards some conjectures as to
the others; but Cunningham wisely passes them over.
l. 29. -----
"H--gg--ns". Perhaps, suggests Bolton Corney, this was
the Captain Higgins who assisted at Goldsmith's absurd 'fracas'
with Evans the bookseller, upon the occasion of Kenrick's
letter in 'The London Packet' for March 24, 1773. Other
accounts, however, state that his companion was Captain Horneck
(Prior, 'Life', 1837, ii. 411-12). This couplet is not in the
first version
l. 33. -----
"Such dainties to them, etc. " The first version reads:--
Such dainties to them! It 'would' look like a flirt,
Like sending 'em Ruffles when wanting a Shirt.
Cunningham quotes a similar idea from T. Brown's 'Laconics,
Works', 1709, iv. 14. 'To treat a poor wretch with a bottle of
Burgundy, or fill his snuff-box, is like giving a pair of lace
ruffles to a man that has never a shirt on his back. ' But
Goldsmith, as was his wont, had already himself employed the
same figure. 'Honours to one in my situation,' he says in a
letter to his brother Maurice, in January, 1770, when speaking
of his appointment as Professor of Ancient History to the Royal
Academy, 'are something like ruffles to a man that wants a
shirt' ('Percy Memoir', 1801, 87-8). His source was probably,
not Brown's 'Laconics', but those French 'ana' he knew so well.
According to M. J. J. Jusserand ('English Essays from a French
Pen', 1895, pp. 160-1), the originator of this conceit was M.
Samuel de Sorbieres, the traveller in England who was assailed
by Bishop Sprat. Considering himself inadequately rewarded by
his patrons, Mazarin, Louis XIV, and Pope Clement IX, he said
bitterly -- 'They give lace cuffs to a man without a shirt'; a
'consolatory witticism' which he afterwards remodelled into, 'I
wish they would send me bread for the butter they kindly
provided me with. ' In this form it appears in the Preface to the
'Sorberiana', Toulouse, 1691.
"a flirt" is a jibe or jeer. 'He would sometimes. . . cast out a
jesting 'flirt' at me. ' (Morley's 'History of Thomas Ellwood',
1895, p. 104. ) Swift also uses the word.
l. 37. -----
"An under-bred, fine-spoken fellow, etc. " The first
version reads --
A fine-spoken Custom-house Officer he,
Who smil'd as he gaz'd on the Ven'son and me.
l. 44. -----
"but I hate ostentation". Cf. Beau Tibbs:-- 'She was
bred, 'but that's between ourselves', under the inspection of
the Countess of All-night. ' ('Citizen of the World', 1762, i.
238. )
l. 49. -----
"We'll have Johnson, and Burke". Cf. Boileau, 'Sat. '
iii. Ll. 25-6, which Goldsmith had in mind:--
Moliere avec Tartufe y doit jouer son role,
Et Lambert, qui plus est, m'a donne sa parole.
l. 53. -----
"What say you -- a pasty? It shall, and it must". The
first version reads --
I'll take no denial -- you shall, and you must.
Mr. J. H. Lobban, 'Goldsmith, Select Poems', 1900, notes a
hitherto undetected similarity between this and the 'It 'must',
and it 'shall' be a barrack, my life' of Swift's 'Grand Question
Debated'. See also ll. 56 and 91.
l. 56. "No stirring, I beg -- my dear friend -- my dear
friend". In the first edition --
No words, my dear GOLDSMITH! my very good Friend!
Mr. Lobban compares:--
'Good morrow, good captain. ' 'I'll wait on you down,' --
'You shan't stir a foot. ' 'You'll think me a clown. '
l. 60. -----
"'And nobody with me at sea but myself. '" This is
almost a textual quotation from one of the letters of Henry
Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, to Lady Grosvenor, a
correspondence which in 1770 gave great delight to contemporary
caricaturists and scandal-mongers. Other poets besides Goldsmith
seem to have been attracted by this particular lapse of his
illiterate Royal Highness, since it is woven into a ballad
printed in 'The Public Advertiser' for August 2 in the above
year:--
The Miser who wakes in a Fright for his Pelf,
And finds 'no one by him except his own Self', etc.
l. 67. -----
"When come to the place", etc.
Cf. Boileau, 'ut supra', ll. 31-4:--
A peine etais-je entre, que ravi de me voir,
Mon homme, en m'embrassant, m'est venu recevoir;
Et montrant a mes yeux une allegresse entiere,
Nous n'avons, m'a-t-il dit, ni Lambert ni Moliere.
Lambert the musician, it may be added, had the special
reputation of accepting engagements which he never kept.
l. 72. -----
"and t'other with Thrale". Henry Thrale, the Southwark
brewer, and the husband of Mrs. Thrale, afterwards Mrs. Piozzi.
Johnson first made his acquaintance in 1765. Strahan complained
to Boswell that, by this connexion, Johnson 'was in a great
measure absorbed from the society of his old friends. ' (Birkbeck
Hill's 'Boswell', 1887, iii. 225. ) Line 72 in the first edition
reads --
The one at the House, and the other with THRALE.
l. 76. -----
"They both of them merry and authors like you". 'They'
should apparently be 'they're. ' The first version reads --
Who dabble and write in the Papers -- like you.
l. 78. -----
"Some think he writes Cinna -- he owns to Panurge".
'Panurge' and 'Cinna' are signatures which were frequently to be
found at the foot of letters addressed to the 'Public
Advertiser' in 1770-1 in support of Lord Sandwich and the
Government. They are said to have been written by Dr. W. Scott,
Vicar of Simonburn, Northumberland, and chaplain of Greenwich
Hospital, both of which preferments had been given him by
Sandwich. In 1765 he had attacked Lord Bute and his policy over
the signature of 'Anti-Sejanus. ' 'Sandwich and his parson
Anti-Sejanus [are] hooted off the stage' -- writes Walpole to
Mann, March 21, 1766. According to Prior, it was Scott who
visited Goldsmith in his Temple chambers, and invited him to
'draw a venal quill' for Lord North's administration.
Goldsmith's noble answer, as reported by his reverend friend,
was -- 'I can earn as much as will supply my wants without
writing for any party; the assistance therefore you offer is
unnecessary to me. ' ('Life', 1837, ii. 278. ) There is a
caricature portrait of Scott at p. 141 of 'The London Museum'
for February, 1771, entitled 'Twitcher's Advocate,' 'Jemmy
Twitcher' being the nickname of Lord Sandwich.
l. 82. -----
"Swinging', great, huge. 'Bishop Lowth has just
finished the Dramas, and sent me word, that although I have paid
him the most 'swinging' compliment he ever received, he likes
the whole book more than he can say. ' ('Memoirs of Hannah More',
1834, i. 236. )
l. 84. -----
"pasty". The first version has 'Ven'son. '
l. 87. -----
"So there I sat, etc. " This couplet is not in the first
version.
l. 91. -----
"And, 'Madam,' quoth he". Mr. Lobban again quotes
Swift's 'Grant Question Debated':--
And 'Madam,' says he, 'if such dinners you give
You'll ne'er want for parsons as long as you live. '
These slight resemblances, coupled with the more obvious
likeness of the 'Raphaels, Correggios, and stuff' of
'Retaliation' (ll. 145-6) to the 'Noveds' and 'Bluturks' and
'Omurs' and stuff' (also pointed out by Mr. Lobban) are
interesting, because they show plainly that Goldsmith remembered
the works of Swift far better than 'The New Bath Guide', which
has sometimes been supposed to have set the tune to the 'Haunch'
and 'Retaliation'.
l. 91. -----
"'may this bit be my poison. '" The gentleman in 'She
Stoops to Conquer', Act i, who is 'obligated to dance a bear. '
Uses the same asseveration. Cf. also Squire Thornhill's
somewhat similar formula in chap. vii of 'The Vicar of
Wakefield', 1766, i. 59.
l. 95. -----
"'The tripe,' quoth the Jew, etc". The first version
reads --
'Your Tripe! ' quoth the 'Jew', 'if the truth I may speak,
I could eat of this Tripe seven days in the week. '
l. 103. -----
"Re-echoed", i. e. 'returned' in the first edition.
l. 104. -----
"thot". This, probably by a printer's error, is
altered to 'that' in the second version. But the first reading
is the more in keeping, besides being a better rhyme.
l. 110. -----
"Wak'd Priam". Cf. 2 'Henry IV', Act I, Sc. 1:--
Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,
So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,
Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night.
And would have told him half his Troy was burnt.
l. 120. -----
"sicken'd over by learning". Cf. 'Hamlet', Act iii,
Sc. 1:
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is 'sicklied o'er' with the pale cast of thought.
Notwithstanding the condemnation of Shakespeare in the 'Present
State of Polite Learning', and elsewhere, Goldsmith frequently
weaves Shakespearean recollections into his work. Cf. 'She
Stoops to Conquer', 1773, Act i, p. 13, 'We wanted no ghost to
tell us that' ('Hamlet', Act i, Sc. 5); and Act i, p. 9, where
he uses Falstaff's words (1 'Henry IV', Act v, Sc. 1):--
Would it were bed-time and all were well.
l. 121. -----
"as very well known". The first version has,
''tis very well known. '
EPITAPH ON THOMAS PARNELL.
This epitaph, apparently never used, was published with 'The Haunch of
Venison', 1776; and is supposed to have been written about 1770. In that
year Goldsmith wrote a 'Life of Thomas Parnell, D. D. ', to accompany an
edition of his poems, printed for Davies of Russell Street. Parnell was
born in 1679, and died at Chester in 1718, on his way to Ireland. He was
buried at Trinity Church in that town, on the 24th of October. Goldsmith
says that his father and uncle both knew Parnell ('Life of Parnell',
1770, p. v), and that he received assistance from the poet's nephew, Sir
John Parnell, the singing gentleman who figures in Hogarth's 'Election
Entertainment'. Why Goldsmith should write an epitaph upon a man who
died ten years before his own birth, is not easy to explain. But Johnson
also wrote a Latin one, which he gave to Boswell. (Birkbeck Hill's
'Life', 1887, iv. 54. )
l. 1. -----
"gentle Parnell's Name". Mitford compares Pope on
Parnell ['Epistle to Harley', 1. iv]:--
With softest manners, gentlest Arts adorn'd.
Pope published Parnell's 'Poems' in 1722, and his sending them
to Harley, Earl of Oxford, after the latter's disgrace and
retirement, was the occasion of the foregoing epistle, from
which the following lines respecting Parnell may also be cited:--
For him, thou oft hast bid the World attend,
Fond to forget the statesman in the friend;
For SWIFT and him despis'd the farce of state,
The sober follies of the wise and great;
Dext'rous the craving, fawning crowd to quit,
And pleas'd to 'scape from Flattery to Wit.
l. 3. -----
"his sweetly-moral lay". Cf. 'The Hermit', the 'Hymn to
Contentment', the 'Night Piece on Death' -- which Goldsmith
certainly recalled in his own 'City Night-Piece'. Of the
last-named Goldsmith says ('Life of Parnell', 1770, p. xxxii),
not without an obvious side-stroke at Gray's too-popular
'Elegy', that it 'deserves every praise, and I should suppose
with very little amendment, might be made to surpass all those
night pieces and church yard scenes that have since appeared. '
This is certainly (as Longfellow sings) to
. . . . . rustling hear in every breeze
The laurels of Miltiades.
Of Parnell, Hume wrote ('Essays', 1770, i. 244) that 'after the
fiftieth reading; [he] is as fresh as at the first. ' But Gray
(speaking -- it should be explained -- of a dubious volume of
his posthumous works) said: 'Parnell is the dung-hill of Irish
Grub Street' (Gosse's Gray's 'Works', 1884, ii. 372). Meanwhile,
it is his fate to-day to be mainly remembered by three words
(not always attributed to him) in a couplet from what Johnson
styled 'perhaps the meanest' of his performances, the 'Elegy --
to an Old Beauty':--
And all that's madly wild, or oddly gay,
We call it only 'pretty Fanny's way'.
THE CLOWN'S REPLY.
This, though dated 'Edinburgh 1753,' was first printed in 'Poems
and Plays', 1777, p. 79.
l. 1. -----
"John Trott" is a name for a clown or commonplace
character. Miss Burney ('Diary', 1904, i. 222) says of Dr.
Delap:-- 'As to his person and appearance, they are much in the
'John-trot' style. ' Foote, Chesterfield, and Walpole use the
phrase; Fielding Scotticizes it into 'John Trott-Plaid, Esq. ';
and Bolingbroke employs it as a pseudonym.
l. 6. -----
"I shall ne'er see your graces". 'I shall never see a
Goose again without thinking on Mr. 'Neverout',' -- says the
'brilliant Miss Notable' in Swift's 'Polite Conversation', 1738,
p. 156.
EPITAPH ON EDWARD PURDON.
The occasion of this quatrain, first published as Goldsmith's* in 'Poems
and Plays', 1777, p. 79, is to be found in Forster's 'Life and Times of
Oliver Goldsmith', 1871, ii. 60. Purdon died on March 27, 1767
('Gentleman's Magazine', April, 1767, p. 192). '"Dr. Goldsmith made this
epitaph," says William Ballantyne [the author of 'Mackliniana'], "in his
way from his chambers in the Temple to the Wednesday evening's club at
the Globe. 'I think he will never come back', I believe he said. I was
sitting by him, and he repeated it more than twice. 'I think he will
never come back. "' Purdon had been at Trinity College, Dublin, with
Goldsmith; he had subsequently been a foot soldier; ultimately he became
a 'bookseller's hack. ' He wrote an anonymous letter to Garrick in 1759,
and translated the 'Henriade' of Voltaire. This translation Goldsmith is
supposed to have revised, and his own life of Voltaire was to have
accompanied it, though finally the Memoir and Translation seem to have
appeared separately. (Cf. prefatory note to 'Memoirs of M. de Voltaire'
in Gibbs's 'Works of Oliver Goldsmith', 1885, iv. 2. )
[footnote] *It had previously appeared as an extempore by a
correspondent in the 'Weekly Magazine', Edin. , August 12, 1773 ('Notes
and Queries', February 14, 1880).
Forster says further, in a note, 'The original. . . is the epitaph on "La
Mort du Sieur Etienne":--
Il est au bout de ses travaux,
Il a passe, le Sieur Etienne;
En ce monde il eut tant des maux
Qu'on ne croit pas qu'il revienne.
With this perhaps Goldsmith was familiar, and had therefore less scruple
in laying felonious hands on the epigram in the 'Miscellanies' (Swift,
xiii. 372):--
Well, then, poor G___ lies underground!
So there's an end of honest Jack.
So little justice here he found,
'Tis ten to one he'll ne'er come back. '
Mr. Forster's 'felonious hands' recalls a passage in Goldsmith's 'Life
of Parnell', 1770, in which, although himself an habitual sinner in this
way, he comments gravely upon the practice of plagiarism:-- 'It was the
fashion with the wits of the last age, to conceal the places from whence
they took their hints or their subjects. A trifling acknowledgment would
have made that lawful prize, which may now be considered as plunder' (p.
xxxii).
EPILOGUE FOR LEE LEWES'S BENEFIT.
This benefit took place at Covent Garden on May 7, 1773, the pieces
performed being Rowe's 'Lady Jane Grey', and a popular pantomimic
after-piece by Theobald, called 'Harlequin Sorcerer', Charles Lee Lewes
(1740-1803) was the original 'Young Marlow' of 'She Stoops to Conquer'.
When that part was thrown up by 'Gentleman' Smith, Shuter, the 'Mr.
Hardcastle' of the comedy, suggested Lewes, who was the harlequin of the
theatre, as a substitute, and the choice proved an admirable one.
Goldsmith was highly pleased with his performance, and in consequence
wrote for him this epilogue. It was first printed by Evans, 1780, i.
112-4.
l. 9. -----
"in thy black aspect", i. e. the half-mask of harlequin,
in which character the Epilogue was spoken.
l. 18. -----
"rosined lightning", stage-lightning, in which rosin is
an ingredient.
EPILOGUE INTENDED FOR 'SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER. '
This epilogue was first printed at pp. 82-6, vol. ii, of the
'Miscellaneous Works of' 1801. Bolton Corney says it had been given to
Percy by Goldsmith. It is evidently the 'quarrelling Epilogue' referred
to in the following letter from Goldsmith to Cradock ('Miscellaneous
Memoirs', 1826, i. 225-6):--
'MY DEAR SIR,
The Play ['She Stoops to Conquer'] has met with a success much beyond
your expectations or mine. I thank you sincerely for your Epilogue,
which, however could not be used, but with your permission, shall be
printed*. The story in short is this; Murphy sent me rather the outline
of an Epilogue than an Epilogue, which was to be sung by Mrs. Catley,
and which she approved. Mrs. Bulkley hearing this, insisted on throwing
up her part, unless according to the custom of the theatre, she were
permitted to speak the Epilogue. In this embarrassment I thought of
making a quarrelling Epilogue between Catley and her, debating who
should speak the Epilogue, but then Mrs. Catley refused, after I had
taken the trouble of drawing it out. I was then at a loss indeed; an
Epilogue was to be made, and for none but Mrs. Bulkley. I made one, and
Colman thought it too bad to be spoken; I was obliged therefore to try a
fourth time, and I made a very mawkish thing, as you'll shortly see.
Such is the history of my Stage adventures, and which I have at last
done with. I cannot help saying that I am very sick of the stage; and
though I believe I shall get three tolerable benefits, yet I shall upon
the whole be a loser, even in a pecuniary light; my ease and comfort I
certainly lost while it was in agitation.
I am, my dear Cradock,
Your obliged, and obedient servant,
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
P. S. -- Present my most humble respects to Mrs. Cradock. '
[footnote] *It is so printed with the note -- 'This came too late to be
Spoken. '
According to Prior ('Miscellaneous Works', 1837, iv. 154), Goldsmith's
friend, Dr. Farr, had a copy of this epilogue which still, when Prior
wrote, remained in that gentleman's family.
l. 21. -----
"Who mump their passion", i. e. grimace their passion.
l. 31. -----
"ye macaroni train". The Macaronies were the foplings,
fribbles, or beaux of Goldsmith's day. Walpole refers to them as
early as 1764; but their flourishing time was 1770-3, when the
print-shops, and especially Matthew Darly's in the Strand, No.
39, swarmed with satirical designs of which they were the
subject. Selwyn, March -- many well-known names -- are found in
their ranks. Richard Cosway figured as 'The Macaroni Painter';
Angelica Kauffmann as 'The Paintress of Maccaroni's'; Thrale as
'The Southwark Macaroni. ' Another caricature ('The Fluttering
Macaroni') contains a portrait of Miss Catley, the singing
actress of the present epilogue; while Charles Horneck, the
brother of 'The Jessamy Bride' (see p. 251, l. 14) is twice
satirized as 'The Martial Macaroni' and 'The Military Macaroni. '
The name, as may be guessed, comes from the Italian dish first
made fashionable by the 'Macaroni Club,' being afterwards
applied by extension to 'the younger and gayer part of our
nobility and gentry, who, at the same time that they gave in to
the luxuries of eating, went equally into the extravagancies of
dress. ' ('Macaroni and Theatrical Magazine', Oct. 1772. ) Cf. Sir
Benjamin Backbite's later epigram in 'The School for Scandal',
1777, Act ii, Sc. 2:--
Sure never was seen two such beautiful ponies;
Other horses are clowns, but these 'macaronies':
To give them this title I'm sure can't be wrong,
Their legs are so slim and their tails are so long.
l. 36. -----
"Their hands are only lent to the Heinel". See note to
l. 28, p. 85.
EPILOGUE INTENDED FOR 'SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER. '
This epilogue, given by Goldsmith to Dr. Percy in MS. , was first
published in the 'Miscellaneous Works' of 1801, ii. 87-8, as 'An
Epilogue intended for Mrs. Bulkley'. Percy did not remember for what
play it was intended; but it is plainly (see note to l. 40) the second
epilogue for 'She Stoops to Conquer' referred to in the letter printed
in this volume.
l. 1. -----
"There is a place, so Ariosto sings". 'The poet
alludes to the thirty-fourth canto of 'The Orlando furioso'.
Ariosto, as translated by Mr. Stewart Rose, observes of the
'lunar world';
There thou wilt find, if thou wilt thither post,
Whatever thou on earth beneath hast lost.
Astolpho undertakes the journey; discovers a portion of his
own sense; and, in an ample flask, the lost wits of Orlando. '
(Bolton Corney. ) Cf. also 'Rape of the Lock',
Canto v, ll. 113-14:
Some thought it mounted to the Lunar sphere,
Since all things lost on earth are treasur'd there.
Lord Chesterfield also refers to the 'happy extravagancy'
of Astolpho's journey in his 'Letters', 1774, i. 557.
l. 9. -----
"at Foote's Alone". 'Foote's' was the Little Theatre in
the Haymarket, where, in February, 1773, he brought out what he
described as a 'Primitive Puppet Show,' based upon the Italian
Fantoccini, and presenting a burlesque sentimental Comedy called
'The Handsome Housemaid; or, Piety in Pattens', which did as
much as 'She Stoops' to laugh false sentiment away. Foote warned
his audience that they would not discover 'much wit or humour'
in the piece, since 'his brother writers had all agreed that it
was highly improper, and beneath the dignity of a mixed
assembly, to show any signs of joyful satisfaction; and that
creating a laugh was forcing the higher order of an audience to
a vulgar and mean use of their muscles' -- for which reason, he
explained, he had, like them, given up the sensual for the
sentimental style. And thereupon followed the story of a maid of
low degree who, 'by the mere effects of morality and virtue,
raised herself [like Richardson's 'Pamela'], to riches and
honours. ' The public, who for some time had acquiesced in the
new order of things under the belief that it tended to the
reformation of the stage, and who were beginning to weary of the
'moral essay thrown into dialogue,' which had for some time
supplanted humorous situation, promptly came round under the
influence of Foote's Aristophanic ridicule, and the 'comedie
larmoyante' received an appreciable check. Goldsmith himself had
prepared the way in a paper contributed to the 'Westminster
Magazine' for December, 1772 (vol. I. p. 4), with the title of
'An Essay on the Theatre; or, A Comparison between Laughing and
Sentimental Comedy. ' The specific reference in the Prologue is
to the fact that Foote gave morning performances of 'The
Handsome Housemaid'. There was one, for instance, on Saturday,
March 6, 1773.
l. 14. -----
"a bounce", i. e. a braggart falsehood. Steele, in No.
16 of 'The Lover', 1715, p. 110, says of a manifest piece of
brag, 'But this is supposed to be only a 'Bounce'. '
l. 18. -----
"Mr. Byrne", spelled 'Burn' in the earlier editions, was
a relative of Lord Clare.
l. 24. -----
"M--r--'s. " MONROE's in the first version. 'Dorothy
Monroe,' says Bolton Corney, 'whose various charms are
celebrated in verse by Lord Townshend. '
l. 27. -----
"There's H--d, and C--y, and H--rth, and H--ff". In the
first version --
'There's COLEY, and WILLIAMS, and HOWARD, and HIFF. '
-- Hiff was Paul Hiffernan, M. B. , 1719-77, a Grub Street author
and practitioner. Bolton Corney hazards some conjectures as to
the others; but Cunningham wisely passes them over.
l. 29. -----
"H--gg--ns". Perhaps, suggests Bolton Corney, this was
the Captain Higgins who assisted at Goldsmith's absurd 'fracas'
with Evans the bookseller, upon the occasion of Kenrick's
letter in 'The London Packet' for March 24, 1773. Other
accounts, however, state that his companion was Captain Horneck
(Prior, 'Life', 1837, ii. 411-12). This couplet is not in the
first version
l. 33. -----
"Such dainties to them, etc. " The first version reads:--
Such dainties to them! It 'would' look like a flirt,
Like sending 'em Ruffles when wanting a Shirt.
Cunningham quotes a similar idea from T. Brown's 'Laconics,
Works', 1709, iv. 14. 'To treat a poor wretch with a bottle of
Burgundy, or fill his snuff-box, is like giving a pair of lace
ruffles to a man that has never a shirt on his back. ' But
Goldsmith, as was his wont, had already himself employed the
same figure. 'Honours to one in my situation,' he says in a
letter to his brother Maurice, in January, 1770, when speaking
of his appointment as Professor of Ancient History to the Royal
Academy, 'are something like ruffles to a man that wants a
shirt' ('Percy Memoir', 1801, 87-8). His source was probably,
not Brown's 'Laconics', but those French 'ana' he knew so well.
According to M. J. J. Jusserand ('English Essays from a French
Pen', 1895, pp. 160-1), the originator of this conceit was M.
Samuel de Sorbieres, the traveller in England who was assailed
by Bishop Sprat. Considering himself inadequately rewarded by
his patrons, Mazarin, Louis XIV, and Pope Clement IX, he said
bitterly -- 'They give lace cuffs to a man without a shirt'; a
'consolatory witticism' which he afterwards remodelled into, 'I
wish they would send me bread for the butter they kindly
provided me with. ' In this form it appears in the Preface to the
'Sorberiana', Toulouse, 1691.
"a flirt" is a jibe or jeer. 'He would sometimes. . . cast out a
jesting 'flirt' at me. ' (Morley's 'History of Thomas Ellwood',
1895, p. 104. ) Swift also uses the word.
l. 37. -----
"An under-bred, fine-spoken fellow, etc. " The first
version reads --
A fine-spoken Custom-house Officer he,
Who smil'd as he gaz'd on the Ven'son and me.
l. 44. -----
"but I hate ostentation". Cf. Beau Tibbs:-- 'She was
bred, 'but that's between ourselves', under the inspection of
the Countess of All-night. ' ('Citizen of the World', 1762, i.
238. )
l. 49. -----
"We'll have Johnson, and Burke". Cf. Boileau, 'Sat. '
iii. Ll. 25-6, which Goldsmith had in mind:--
Moliere avec Tartufe y doit jouer son role,
Et Lambert, qui plus est, m'a donne sa parole.
l. 53. -----
"What say you -- a pasty? It shall, and it must". The
first version reads --
I'll take no denial -- you shall, and you must.
Mr. J. H. Lobban, 'Goldsmith, Select Poems', 1900, notes a
hitherto undetected similarity between this and the 'It 'must',
and it 'shall' be a barrack, my life' of Swift's 'Grand Question
Debated'. See also ll. 56 and 91.
l. 56. "No stirring, I beg -- my dear friend -- my dear
friend". In the first edition --
No words, my dear GOLDSMITH! my very good Friend!
Mr. Lobban compares:--
'Good morrow, good captain. ' 'I'll wait on you down,' --
'You shan't stir a foot. ' 'You'll think me a clown. '
l. 60. -----
"'And nobody with me at sea but myself. '" This is
almost a textual quotation from one of the letters of Henry
Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, to Lady Grosvenor, a
correspondence which in 1770 gave great delight to contemporary
caricaturists and scandal-mongers. Other poets besides Goldsmith
seem to have been attracted by this particular lapse of his
illiterate Royal Highness, since it is woven into a ballad
printed in 'The Public Advertiser' for August 2 in the above
year:--
The Miser who wakes in a Fright for his Pelf,
And finds 'no one by him except his own Self', etc.
l. 67. -----
"When come to the place", etc.
Cf. Boileau, 'ut supra', ll. 31-4:--
A peine etais-je entre, que ravi de me voir,
Mon homme, en m'embrassant, m'est venu recevoir;
Et montrant a mes yeux une allegresse entiere,
Nous n'avons, m'a-t-il dit, ni Lambert ni Moliere.
Lambert the musician, it may be added, had the special
reputation of accepting engagements which he never kept.
l. 72. -----
"and t'other with Thrale". Henry Thrale, the Southwark
brewer, and the husband of Mrs. Thrale, afterwards Mrs. Piozzi.
Johnson first made his acquaintance in 1765. Strahan complained
to Boswell that, by this connexion, Johnson 'was in a great
measure absorbed from the society of his old friends. ' (Birkbeck
Hill's 'Boswell', 1887, iii. 225. ) Line 72 in the first edition
reads --
The one at the House, and the other with THRALE.
l. 76. -----
"They both of them merry and authors like you". 'They'
should apparently be 'they're. ' The first version reads --
Who dabble and write in the Papers -- like you.
l. 78. -----
"Some think he writes Cinna -- he owns to Panurge".
'Panurge' and 'Cinna' are signatures which were frequently to be
found at the foot of letters addressed to the 'Public
Advertiser' in 1770-1 in support of Lord Sandwich and the
Government. They are said to have been written by Dr. W. Scott,
Vicar of Simonburn, Northumberland, and chaplain of Greenwich
Hospital, both of which preferments had been given him by
Sandwich. In 1765 he had attacked Lord Bute and his policy over
the signature of 'Anti-Sejanus. ' 'Sandwich and his parson
Anti-Sejanus [are] hooted off the stage' -- writes Walpole to
Mann, March 21, 1766. According to Prior, it was Scott who
visited Goldsmith in his Temple chambers, and invited him to
'draw a venal quill' for Lord North's administration.
Goldsmith's noble answer, as reported by his reverend friend,
was -- 'I can earn as much as will supply my wants without
writing for any party; the assistance therefore you offer is
unnecessary to me. ' ('Life', 1837, ii. 278. ) There is a
caricature portrait of Scott at p. 141 of 'The London Museum'
for February, 1771, entitled 'Twitcher's Advocate,' 'Jemmy
Twitcher' being the nickname of Lord Sandwich.
l. 82. -----
"Swinging', great, huge. 'Bishop Lowth has just
finished the Dramas, and sent me word, that although I have paid
him the most 'swinging' compliment he ever received, he likes
the whole book more than he can say. ' ('Memoirs of Hannah More',
1834, i. 236. )
l. 84. -----
"pasty". The first version has 'Ven'son. '
l. 87. -----
"So there I sat, etc. " This couplet is not in the first
version.
l. 91. -----
"And, 'Madam,' quoth he". Mr. Lobban again quotes
Swift's 'Grant Question Debated':--
And 'Madam,' says he, 'if such dinners you give
You'll ne'er want for parsons as long as you live. '
These slight resemblances, coupled with the more obvious
likeness of the 'Raphaels, Correggios, and stuff' of
'Retaliation' (ll. 145-6) to the 'Noveds' and 'Bluturks' and
'Omurs' and stuff' (also pointed out by Mr. Lobban) are
interesting, because they show plainly that Goldsmith remembered
the works of Swift far better than 'The New Bath Guide', which
has sometimes been supposed to have set the tune to the 'Haunch'
and 'Retaliation'.
l. 91. -----
"'may this bit be my poison. '" The gentleman in 'She
Stoops to Conquer', Act i, who is 'obligated to dance a bear. '
Uses the same asseveration. Cf. also Squire Thornhill's
somewhat similar formula in chap. vii of 'The Vicar of
Wakefield', 1766, i. 59.
l. 95. -----
"'The tripe,' quoth the Jew, etc". The first version
reads --
'Your Tripe! ' quoth the 'Jew', 'if the truth I may speak,
I could eat of this Tripe seven days in the week. '
l. 103. -----
"Re-echoed", i. e. 'returned' in the first edition.
l. 104. -----
"thot". This, probably by a printer's error, is
altered to 'that' in the second version. But the first reading
is the more in keeping, besides being a better rhyme.
l. 110. -----
"Wak'd Priam". Cf. 2 'Henry IV', Act I, Sc. 1:--
Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,
So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,
Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night.
And would have told him half his Troy was burnt.
l. 120. -----
"sicken'd over by learning". Cf. 'Hamlet', Act iii,
Sc. 1:
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is 'sicklied o'er' with the pale cast of thought.
Notwithstanding the condemnation of Shakespeare in the 'Present
State of Polite Learning', and elsewhere, Goldsmith frequently
weaves Shakespearean recollections into his work. Cf. 'She
Stoops to Conquer', 1773, Act i, p. 13, 'We wanted no ghost to
tell us that' ('Hamlet', Act i, Sc. 5); and Act i, p. 9, where
he uses Falstaff's words (1 'Henry IV', Act v, Sc. 1):--
Would it were bed-time and all were well.
l. 121. -----
"as very well known". The first version has,
''tis very well known. '
EPITAPH ON THOMAS PARNELL.
This epitaph, apparently never used, was published with 'The Haunch of
Venison', 1776; and is supposed to have been written about 1770. In that
year Goldsmith wrote a 'Life of Thomas Parnell, D. D. ', to accompany an
edition of his poems, printed for Davies of Russell Street. Parnell was
born in 1679, and died at Chester in 1718, on his way to Ireland. He was
buried at Trinity Church in that town, on the 24th of October. Goldsmith
says that his father and uncle both knew Parnell ('Life of Parnell',
1770, p. v), and that he received assistance from the poet's nephew, Sir
John Parnell, the singing gentleman who figures in Hogarth's 'Election
Entertainment'. Why Goldsmith should write an epitaph upon a man who
died ten years before his own birth, is not easy to explain. But Johnson
also wrote a Latin one, which he gave to Boswell. (Birkbeck Hill's
'Life', 1887, iv. 54. )
l. 1. -----
"gentle Parnell's Name". Mitford compares Pope on
Parnell ['Epistle to Harley', 1. iv]:--
With softest manners, gentlest Arts adorn'd.
Pope published Parnell's 'Poems' in 1722, and his sending them
to Harley, Earl of Oxford, after the latter's disgrace and
retirement, was the occasion of the foregoing epistle, from
which the following lines respecting Parnell may also be cited:--
For him, thou oft hast bid the World attend,
Fond to forget the statesman in the friend;
For SWIFT and him despis'd the farce of state,
The sober follies of the wise and great;
Dext'rous the craving, fawning crowd to quit,
And pleas'd to 'scape from Flattery to Wit.
l. 3. -----
"his sweetly-moral lay". Cf. 'The Hermit', the 'Hymn to
Contentment', the 'Night Piece on Death' -- which Goldsmith
certainly recalled in his own 'City Night-Piece'. Of the
last-named Goldsmith says ('Life of Parnell', 1770, p. xxxii),
not without an obvious side-stroke at Gray's too-popular
'Elegy', that it 'deserves every praise, and I should suppose
with very little amendment, might be made to surpass all those
night pieces and church yard scenes that have since appeared. '
This is certainly (as Longfellow sings) to
. . . . . rustling hear in every breeze
The laurels of Miltiades.
Of Parnell, Hume wrote ('Essays', 1770, i. 244) that 'after the
fiftieth reading; [he] is as fresh as at the first. ' But Gray
(speaking -- it should be explained -- of a dubious volume of
his posthumous works) said: 'Parnell is the dung-hill of Irish
Grub Street' (Gosse's Gray's 'Works', 1884, ii. 372). Meanwhile,
it is his fate to-day to be mainly remembered by three words
(not always attributed to him) in a couplet from what Johnson
styled 'perhaps the meanest' of his performances, the 'Elegy --
to an Old Beauty':--
And all that's madly wild, or oddly gay,
We call it only 'pretty Fanny's way'.
THE CLOWN'S REPLY.
This, though dated 'Edinburgh 1753,' was first printed in 'Poems
and Plays', 1777, p. 79.
l. 1. -----
"John Trott" is a name for a clown or commonplace
character. Miss Burney ('Diary', 1904, i. 222) says of Dr.
Delap:-- 'As to his person and appearance, they are much in the
'John-trot' style. ' Foote, Chesterfield, and Walpole use the
phrase; Fielding Scotticizes it into 'John Trott-Plaid, Esq. ';
and Bolingbroke employs it as a pseudonym.
l. 6. -----
"I shall ne'er see your graces". 'I shall never see a
Goose again without thinking on Mr. 'Neverout',' -- says the
'brilliant Miss Notable' in Swift's 'Polite Conversation', 1738,
p. 156.
EPITAPH ON EDWARD PURDON.
The occasion of this quatrain, first published as Goldsmith's* in 'Poems
and Plays', 1777, p. 79, is to be found in Forster's 'Life and Times of
Oliver Goldsmith', 1871, ii. 60. Purdon died on March 27, 1767
('Gentleman's Magazine', April, 1767, p. 192). '"Dr. Goldsmith made this
epitaph," says William Ballantyne [the author of 'Mackliniana'], "in his
way from his chambers in the Temple to the Wednesday evening's club at
the Globe. 'I think he will never come back', I believe he said. I was
sitting by him, and he repeated it more than twice. 'I think he will
never come back. "' Purdon had been at Trinity College, Dublin, with
Goldsmith; he had subsequently been a foot soldier; ultimately he became
a 'bookseller's hack. ' He wrote an anonymous letter to Garrick in 1759,
and translated the 'Henriade' of Voltaire. This translation Goldsmith is
supposed to have revised, and his own life of Voltaire was to have
accompanied it, though finally the Memoir and Translation seem to have
appeared separately. (Cf. prefatory note to 'Memoirs of M. de Voltaire'
in Gibbs's 'Works of Oliver Goldsmith', 1885, iv. 2. )
[footnote] *It had previously appeared as an extempore by a
correspondent in the 'Weekly Magazine', Edin. , August 12, 1773 ('Notes
and Queries', February 14, 1880).
Forster says further, in a note, 'The original. . . is the epitaph on "La
Mort du Sieur Etienne":--
Il est au bout de ses travaux,
Il a passe, le Sieur Etienne;
En ce monde il eut tant des maux
Qu'on ne croit pas qu'il revienne.
With this perhaps Goldsmith was familiar, and had therefore less scruple
in laying felonious hands on the epigram in the 'Miscellanies' (Swift,
xiii. 372):--
Well, then, poor G___ lies underground!
So there's an end of honest Jack.
So little justice here he found,
'Tis ten to one he'll ne'er come back. '
Mr. Forster's 'felonious hands' recalls a passage in Goldsmith's 'Life
of Parnell', 1770, in which, although himself an habitual sinner in this
way, he comments gravely upon the practice of plagiarism:-- 'It was the
fashion with the wits of the last age, to conceal the places from whence
they took their hints or their subjects. A trifling acknowledgment would
have made that lawful prize, which may now be considered as plunder' (p.
xxxii).
EPILOGUE FOR LEE LEWES'S BENEFIT.
This benefit took place at Covent Garden on May 7, 1773, the pieces
performed being Rowe's 'Lady Jane Grey', and a popular pantomimic
after-piece by Theobald, called 'Harlequin Sorcerer', Charles Lee Lewes
(1740-1803) was the original 'Young Marlow' of 'She Stoops to Conquer'.
When that part was thrown up by 'Gentleman' Smith, Shuter, the 'Mr.
Hardcastle' of the comedy, suggested Lewes, who was the harlequin of the
theatre, as a substitute, and the choice proved an admirable one.
Goldsmith was highly pleased with his performance, and in consequence
wrote for him this epilogue. It was first printed by Evans, 1780, i.
112-4.
l. 9. -----
"in thy black aspect", i. e. the half-mask of harlequin,
in which character the Epilogue was spoken.
l. 18. -----
"rosined lightning", stage-lightning, in which rosin is
an ingredient.
EPILOGUE INTENDED FOR 'SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER. '
This epilogue was first printed at pp. 82-6, vol. ii, of the
'Miscellaneous Works of' 1801. Bolton Corney says it had been given to
Percy by Goldsmith. It is evidently the 'quarrelling Epilogue' referred
to in the following letter from Goldsmith to Cradock ('Miscellaneous
Memoirs', 1826, i. 225-6):--
'MY DEAR SIR,
The Play ['She Stoops to Conquer'] has met with a success much beyond
your expectations or mine. I thank you sincerely for your Epilogue,
which, however could not be used, but with your permission, shall be
printed*. The story in short is this; Murphy sent me rather the outline
of an Epilogue than an Epilogue, which was to be sung by Mrs. Catley,
and which she approved. Mrs. Bulkley hearing this, insisted on throwing
up her part, unless according to the custom of the theatre, she were
permitted to speak the Epilogue. In this embarrassment I thought of
making a quarrelling Epilogue between Catley and her, debating who
should speak the Epilogue, but then Mrs. Catley refused, after I had
taken the trouble of drawing it out. I was then at a loss indeed; an
Epilogue was to be made, and for none but Mrs. Bulkley. I made one, and
Colman thought it too bad to be spoken; I was obliged therefore to try a
fourth time, and I made a very mawkish thing, as you'll shortly see.
Such is the history of my Stage adventures, and which I have at last
done with. I cannot help saying that I am very sick of the stage; and
though I believe I shall get three tolerable benefits, yet I shall upon
the whole be a loser, even in a pecuniary light; my ease and comfort I
certainly lost while it was in agitation.
I am, my dear Cradock,
Your obliged, and obedient servant,
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
P. S. -- Present my most humble respects to Mrs. Cradock. '
[footnote] *It is so printed with the note -- 'This came too late to be
Spoken. '
According to Prior ('Miscellaneous Works', 1837, iv. 154), Goldsmith's
friend, Dr. Farr, had a copy of this epilogue which still, when Prior
wrote, remained in that gentleman's family.
l. 21. -----
"Who mump their passion", i. e. grimace their passion.
l. 31. -----
"ye macaroni train". The Macaronies were the foplings,
fribbles, or beaux of Goldsmith's day. Walpole refers to them as
early as 1764; but their flourishing time was 1770-3, when the
print-shops, and especially Matthew Darly's in the Strand, No.
39, swarmed with satirical designs of which they were the
subject. Selwyn, March -- many well-known names -- are found in
their ranks. Richard Cosway figured as 'The Macaroni Painter';
Angelica Kauffmann as 'The Paintress of Maccaroni's'; Thrale as
'The Southwark Macaroni. ' Another caricature ('The Fluttering
Macaroni') contains a portrait of Miss Catley, the singing
actress of the present epilogue; while Charles Horneck, the
brother of 'The Jessamy Bride' (see p. 251, l. 14) is twice
satirized as 'The Martial Macaroni' and 'The Military Macaroni. '
The name, as may be guessed, comes from the Italian dish first
made fashionable by the 'Macaroni Club,' being afterwards
applied by extension to 'the younger and gayer part of our
nobility and gentry, who, at the same time that they gave in to
the luxuries of eating, went equally into the extravagancies of
dress. ' ('Macaroni and Theatrical Magazine', Oct. 1772. ) Cf. Sir
Benjamin Backbite's later epigram in 'The School for Scandal',
1777, Act ii, Sc. 2:--
Sure never was seen two such beautiful ponies;
Other horses are clowns, but these 'macaronies':
To give them this title I'm sure can't be wrong,
Their legs are so slim and their tails are so long.
l. 36. -----
"Their hands are only lent to the Heinel". See note to
l. 28, p. 85.
EPILOGUE INTENDED FOR 'SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER. '
This epilogue, given by Goldsmith to Dr. Percy in MS. , was first
published in the 'Miscellaneous Works' of 1801, ii. 87-8, as 'An
Epilogue intended for Mrs. Bulkley'. Percy did not remember for what
play it was intended; but it is plainly (see note to l. 40) the second
epilogue for 'She Stoops to Conquer' referred to in the letter printed
in this volume.
l. 1. -----
"There is a place, so Ariosto sings". 'The poet
alludes to the thirty-fourth canto of 'The Orlando furioso'.
Ariosto, as translated by Mr. Stewart Rose, observes of the
'lunar world';
There thou wilt find, if thou wilt thither post,
Whatever thou on earth beneath hast lost.
Astolpho undertakes the journey; discovers a portion of his
own sense; and, in an ample flask, the lost wits of Orlando. '
(Bolton Corney. ) Cf. also 'Rape of the Lock',
Canto v, ll. 113-14:
Some thought it mounted to the Lunar sphere,
Since all things lost on earth are treasur'd there.
Lord Chesterfield also refers to the 'happy extravagancy'
of Astolpho's journey in his 'Letters', 1774, i. 557.
l. 9. -----
"at Foote's Alone". 'Foote's' was the Little Theatre in
the Haymarket, where, in February, 1773, he brought out what he
described as a 'Primitive Puppet Show,' based upon the Italian
Fantoccini, and presenting a burlesque sentimental Comedy called
'The Handsome Housemaid; or, Piety in Pattens', which did as
much as 'She Stoops' to laugh false sentiment away. Foote warned
his audience that they would not discover 'much wit or humour'
in the piece, since 'his brother writers had all agreed that it
was highly improper, and beneath the dignity of a mixed
assembly, to show any signs of joyful satisfaction; and that
creating a laugh was forcing the higher order of an audience to
a vulgar and mean use of their muscles' -- for which reason, he
explained, he had, like them, given up the sensual for the
sentimental style. And thereupon followed the story of a maid of
low degree who, 'by the mere effects of morality and virtue,
raised herself [like Richardson's 'Pamela'], to riches and
honours. ' The public, who for some time had acquiesced in the
new order of things under the belief that it tended to the
reformation of the stage, and who were beginning to weary of the
'moral essay thrown into dialogue,' which had for some time
supplanted humorous situation, promptly came round under the
influence of Foote's Aristophanic ridicule, and the 'comedie
larmoyante' received an appreciable check. Goldsmith himself had
prepared the way in a paper contributed to the 'Westminster
Magazine' for December, 1772 (vol. I. p. 4), with the title of
'An Essay on the Theatre; or, A Comparison between Laughing and
Sentimental Comedy. ' The specific reference in the Prologue is
to the fact that Foote gave morning performances of 'The
Handsome Housemaid'. There was one, for instance, on Saturday,
March 6, 1773.
