Cunningham)
'evidently designed as a preface to a collected edition of the poems
which grew out of Goldsmith's trying his epigrammatic powers with
Garrick.
'evidently designed as a preface to a collected edition of the poems
which grew out of Goldsmith's trying his epigrammatic powers with
Garrick.
Oliver Goldsmith
gathering simples, or herbs.
Cf.
'Merry Wives of Windsor', Act iii, Sc. 3:--
'-- These lisping hawthorn buds that. . .
smell like Bucklersbury in 'simple'-time. '
In the caricatures of the day Solander figured as 'The
'simpling' Macaroni. ' (See note, p. 247, l. 31. )
l. 11. -----
"With Scythian stores". The scene of the play was laid
in Scythia ('v. supra').
l. 28. -----
"to make palaver", to hold a parley, generally with the
intention of cajoling. Two of Goldsmith's notes to Garrick in
1773 are endorsed by the actor -- 'Goldsmith's parlaver. '
(Forster's 'Life', 1871, ii. 397. )
l. 32. -----
"mercenary". Cradock gave the profits of 'Zobeide' to
Mrs. Yates. 'I mentioned the disappointment it would be to you'
-- she says in a letter to him dated April 26, 1771 --' as you
had generously given the emoluments of the piece to me. '
('Memoirs', 1828, iv. 211. )
THRENODIA AUGUSTALIS.
Augusta, widow of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and mother of George the
Third, died at Carlton House, February 8, 1772. This piece was spoken
and sung in Mrs. Teresa Cornelys's Great Room in Soho Square, on the
Thursday following (the 20th), being sold at the door as a small quarto
pamphlet, printed by William Woodfall. The author's name was not given;
but it was prefaced by this 'advertisement,' etc. :--
'The following may more properly be termed a compilation than a poem.
It was prepared for the composer in little more than two days: and may
be considered therefore rather as an industrious effort of gratitude
than of genius. In justice to the composer it may likewise be right to
inform the public, that the music was adapted in a period of time
equally short.
SPEAKERS.
'Mr. Lee and Mrs. Bellamy'.
SINGERS.
'Mr. Champnes, Mr. Dine, and Miss Jameson; with twelve chorus singers.
The music prepared and adapted by Signor Vento. '
It is -- as Cunningham calls it -- a 'hurried and unworthy off-spring of
the muse of Goldsmith. '
(Part I).
l. 122 "-----
Celestial-like her bounty fell". The
Princess's benefactions are not exaggerated. 'She had paid off
the whole of her husband's debts, and she had given munificent
sums in charity. More than 10,000'l. ' a year were given away by
her in pensions to individuals whom she judged deserving, very
few of whom were aware, until her death, whence the bounty came.
The whole of her income she spent in England, and very little on
herself' ('Augusta: Princess of Wales', by W. H. Wilkins,
'Nineteenth Century', October, 1903, p. 675).
l. 132. -----
"There faith shall come". This, and the three lines
that follow, are borrowed from Collins's 'Ode written in the
beginning of the year' 1746.
(Part II).
l. 22 "-----
The towers of Kew". 'The embellishments of
Kew palace and gardens, under the direction of [Sir William]
Chambers, and others, was the favourite object of her [Royal
Highness's] widowhood' (Bolton Corney).
l. 77. -----
"Along the billow'd main". Cf. 'The Captivity', Act ii,
I. 18.
l. 83. -----
"Oswego's dreary shores". Cf. 'The Traveller', l. 411.
l. 91. -----
"And with the avenging fight". Varied from Collins's
'Ode on the Death of Colonel Charles Ross at Fontenoy'.
l. 177. -----
"Its earliest bloom". Cf. Collins's 'Dirge in Cymbeline'.
SONG
FROM 'SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER. '
This thoroughly characteristic song, for a parallel to which one must go
to Congreve, or to the 'Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen' of 'The
School for Scandal', has one grave defect, -- it is too good to have
been composed by Tony Lumpkin, who, despite his inability to read
anything but 'print-hand,' declares, in Act i. Sc. 2 of 'She Stoops to
Conquer', 1773, that he himself made it upon the ale-house ('The Three
Pigeons') in which he sings it, and where it is followed by the annexed
comments, directed by the author against the sentimentalists, who, in
'The Good Natur'd Man' of five years before, had insisted upon the
omission of the Bailiff scene:--
'OMNES.
Bravo, bravo!
'First' FELLOW.
The 'Squire has got spunk in him.
'Second' FELLOW.
I loves to hear him sing, bekeays he never gives us nothing
that's 'low'. . .
'Fourth' FELLOW.
The genteel thing is the genteel thing at any time. If so be that a
gentleman bees in a concatenation accordingly.
'Third' FELLOW.
I like the maxum of it, Master Muggins. What, tho' I am obligated to
dance a bear, a man may be a gentleman for all that. May this be my
poison if my bear ever dances but to the very genteelest of tunes.
'Water parted'*, or the minuet in 'Ariadne'. '
[footnote] *i. e. Arne's 'Water Parted from the Sea', -- the song of
Arbaces in the opera of 'Artaxerxes, 1762. The minuet in 'Ariadne' was
by Handel. It came at the end of the overture, and is said to have been
the best thing in the opera.
l. 9. -----
"When Methodist preachers, etc. " Tony Lumpkin's
utterance accurately represents the view of this sect taken by
some of his contemporaries. While moderate and just spectators
of the Johnson type could recognize the sincerity of men, who,
like Wesley, travelled 'nine hundred miles in a month, and
preached twelve times a week' for no ostensibly adequate reward,
there were others who saw in Methodism, and especially in the
extravagancies of its camp followers, nothing but cant and
duplicity. It was this which prompted on the stage Foote's
'Minor' (1760) and Bickerstaffe's 'Hypocrite' (1768); in art the
'Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism' of Hogarth (1762); and
in literature the 'New Bath Guide' of Anstey (1766), the
'Spiritual Quixote' of Graves, 1772, and the sarcasms of Sterne,
Smollett and Walpole.
It is notable that the most generous contemporary portrait of
these much satirised sectaries came from one of the originals of
the 'Retaliation' gallery. Scott highly praises the character of
Ezekiel Daw in Cumberland's 'Henry', 1795, adding, in his large
impartial fashion, with reference to the general practice of
representing Methodists either as idiots or hypocrites, 'A very
different feeling is due to many, perhaps to most, of this
enthusiastic sect; nor is it rashly to be inferred, that he who
makes religion the general object of his life, is for that sole
reason to be held either a fool or an impostor. ' (Scott's
'Miscellaneous Prose Works', 1834, iii. 222. )
l. 23. -----
"But of all the birds in the air". Hypercriticism may
object that 'the hare' is not a bird. But exigence of rhyme has
to answer for many things. Some editors needlessly read 'the
'gay' birds' to lengthen the line. There is no sanction for this
in the earlier editions.
EPILOGUE TO 'SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER. '
This epilogue was spoken by Mrs. Bulkley in the character of
Miss Hardcastle. It is probably the epilogue described by
Goldsmith to Cradock, in the letter quoted at p. 246, as 'a very
mawkish thing,' a phrase not so incontestable as Bolton Corney's
remark that it is 'an obvious imitation of Shakespere. '
l. 6. -----
"That pretty Bar-maids have done execution". Cf. 'The
Vicar of Wakefield', 1766, i. 7:-- 'Sophia's features were not
so striking at first; but often did more certain execution. '
l. 16. -----
"coquets the guests". Johnson explains this word 'to
entertain with compliments and amorous tattle,' and quotes the
following illustration from Swift, 'You are 'coquetting' a maid
of honour, my lord looking on to see how the gamesters play, and
I railing at you both. '
l. 26. -----
"Nancy Dawson". Nancy Dawson was a famous 'toast' and
horn-pipe dancer, who died at Haverstock Hill, May 27, 1767, and
was buried behind the Foundling, in the burial-ground of St.
George the Martyr. She first appeared at Sadler's Wells, and
speedily passed to the stage of Covent Garden, where she danced
in the 'Beggar's Opera'. There is a portrait of her in the
Garrick Club, and there are several contemporary prints. She was
the heroine of a popular song, here referred to, beginning:--
Of all the girls in our town,
The black, the fair, the red, the brown,
Who dance and prance it up and down,
There's none like Nancy Dawson:
Her easy mien, her shape so neat,
She foots, she trips, she looks so sweet,
Her ev'ry motion is complete;
I die for Nancy Dawson.
Its tune -- says J. T. Smith ('Book for a Rainy Day', Whitten's
ed. , 1905, p. 10) was 'as lively as that of "Sir Roger de
Coverley. "'
"Che faro", i. e. 'Che faro senza Euridice', the lovely lament
from Gluck's 'Orfeo', 1764.
l. 28. -----
"the Heinel of Cheapside". The reference is to
Mademoiselle Anna-Frederica Heinel, 1752-1808, a beautiful
Prussian, subsequently the wife of Gaetano Apollino Balthazar
Vestris, called 'Vestris the First. ' After extraordinary success
as a 'danseuse' at Stuttgard and Paris, where Walpole saw her in
1771 (Letter to the Earl of Strafford 25th August), she had come
to London; and, at this date, was the darling of the Macaronies
(cf. the note on p. 247, l. 31), who, from their club, added a
'regallo' (present) of six hundred pounds to the salary allowed
her at the Haymarket. On April 1, 1773, Metastasio's 'Artaserse'
was performed for her benefit, when she was announced to dance a
minuet with Monsieur Fierville, and 'Tickets were to be hand, at
her house in Piccadilly, two doors from Air Street. '
l. 31. -----
"spadille", i. e. the ace of spades, the first trump in
the game of Ombre. Cf. Swift's 'Journal of a Modern Lady in a
Letter to a Person of Quality', 1728:--
She draws up card by card, to find
Good fortune peeping from behind;
With panting heart, and earnest eyes,
In hope to see 'spadillo' rise;
In vain, alas! her hope is fed;
She draws an ace, and sees it red.
l. 35. -----
"Bayes". The chief character in Buckingham's
'Rehearsal', 1672, and intended for John Dryden. Here the name
is put for the 'poet' or 'dramatist. ' Cf. Murphy's Epilogue to
Cradock's 'Zobeide', 1771:--
Not e'en poor 'Bayes' within must hope to be
Free from the lash:-- His Play he writ for me
'Tis true -- and now my gratitude you'll see;
and Colman's Epilogue to 'The School for Scandal', 1777:--
So wills our virtuous bard -- the motley 'Bayes'
Of crying epilogues and laughing plays!
RETALIATION.
'Retaliation: A Poem. By Doctor Goldsmith. Including Epitaphs on the
Most Distinguished Wits of this Metropolis', was first published by G.
Kearsly in April, 1774, as a 4to pamphlet of 24 pp. On the title-page is
a vignette head of the author, etched by James Basire, after Reynolds's
portrait; and the verses are prefaced by an anonymous letter to the
publisher, concluding as follows:-- 'Dr. Goldsmith 'belonged to a Club
of' Beaux Esprits, 'where Wit sparkled sometimes at the Expence of
Good-nature. It was proposed to write Epitaphs on the Doctor; his
Country, Dialect and Person, furnished Subjects of Witticism. -- The
Doctor was called on for' Retaliation, 'and at their next Meeting
produced the following Poem, which I think adds one Leaf to his immortal
Wreath. ' This account seems to have sufficed for Evans, Percy, and the
earlier editors. But in vol. i. p. 78 of his edition of Goldsmith's
'Works', 1854, Mr. Peter Cunningham published for the first time a
fuller version of the circumstances, derived from a manuscript lent to
him by Mr. George Daniel of Islington; and (says Mr.
Cunningham)
'evidently designed as a preface to a collected edition of the poems
which grew out of Goldsmith's trying his epigrammatic powers with
Garrick. ' It is signed 'D. Garrick. ' 'At a meeting' -- says the writer
-- 'of a company of gentlemen, who were well known to each other, and
diverting themselves, among many other things, with the peculiar
oddities of Dr. Goldsmith, who would never allow a superior in any art,
from writing poetry down to dancing a horn-pipe, the Dr. with great
eagerness insisted upon trying his epigrammatic powers with Mr. Garrick,
and each of them was to write the other's epitaph. Mr. Garrick
immediately said that his epitaph was finished, and spoke the following
distich extempore:--
Here lies NOLLY Goldsmith, for shortness call'd Noll,
Who wrote like an angel, but talk'd like poor Poll.
Goldsmith, upon the company's laughing very heartily, grew very
thoughtful, and either would not, or could not, write anything at that
time: however, he went to work, and some weeks after produced the
following printed poem called 'Retaliation', which has been much
admired, and gone through several editions. ' This account, though
obviously from Garrick's point of view, is now accepted as canonical,
and has superseded those of Davies, Cradock, Cumberland, and others, to
which some reference is made in the ensuing notes.
A few days after the publication of the first edition, which appeared on
the 18th or 19th of April, a 'new' or second edition was issued, with
four pages of 'Explanatory Notes, Observations, etc. ' At the end came
the following announcement:-- 'G. Kearsly, the Publisher, thinks it his
duty to declare, that Dr. Goldsmith wrote the Poem as it is here
printed, a few errors of the press excepted, which are taken notice of
at the bottom of this page. ' From this version 'Retaliation' is here
reproduced. In the third edition, probably in deference to some wounded
susceptibilities, the too comprehensive 'most Distinguished Wits of the
Metropolis' was qualified into ''some of the most' Distinguished Wits,'
etc. , but no further material alteration was made in the text until the
suspicious lines on Caleb Whitefoord were added to the fifth edition.
With the exception of Garrick's couplet, and the fragment of Whitefoord
referred to at p. 234, none of the original epitaphs upon which
Goldsmith was invited to 'retaliate' have survived. But the unexpected
ability of the retort seems to have prompted a number of 'ex post facto'
performances, some of which the writers would probably have been glad to
pass off as their first essays. Garrick, for example, produced three
short pieces, one of which ('Here, Hermes! says Jove, who with nectar
was mellow') hits off many of Goldsmith's contradictions and foibles
with considerable skill ('v'. Davies's 'Garrick', 2nd ed. , 1780, ii.
157). Cumberland ('v. Gent. Mag'. , Aug. 1778, p. 384) parodied the
poorest part of 'Retaliation', the comparison of the guests to dishes,
by likening them to liquors, and Dean Barnard in return rhymed upon
Cumberland. He wrote also an apology for his first attack, which is said
to have been very severe, and conjured the poet to set his wit at
Garrick, who, having fired his first shot, was keeping out of the way:--
On him let all thy vengeance fall;
On me you but misplace it:
Remember how he called thee 'Poll' --
But, ah! he dares not face it.
For these, and other forgotten pieces arising out of 'Retaliation',
Garrick had apparently prepared the above-mentioned introduction. It may
be added that the statement, prefixed to the first edition, that
'Retaliation', as we now have it, was produced at the 'next meeting' of
the Club, is manifestly incorrect. It was composed and circulated in
detached fragments, and Goldsmith was still working at it when he was
seized with his last illness.
l. 1. -----
"Of old, when Scarron, etc. " Paul Scarron (1610-60), the
author 'inter alia' of the 'Roman Comique', 1651-7, upon a
translation of which Goldsmith was occupied during the last
months of his life. It was published by Griffin in 1776.
l. 2. -----
"Each guest brought his dish". 'Chez Scarron,' -- says
his editor, M. Charles Baumet, when speaking of the poet's
entertainments, -- 'venait d'ailleurs l'elite des dames, des
courtisans & des hommes de lettres. On y dinait joyeusement.
'Chacun apportait son plat'. ' ('Oeuvres de Scarron', 1877, i.
viii. ) Scarron's company must have been as brilliant as
Goldsmith's. Villarceaux, Vivonne, the Marechal d'Albret,
figured in his list of courtiers; while for ladies he had
Mesdames Deshoulieres, de Scudery, de la Sabliere, and de
Sevigne, to say nothing of Ninon de Lenclos and Marion Delorme.
(Cf. also Guizot, 'Corneille et son Temps', 1862, 429-30. )
l. 3. -----
"If our landlord". The 'explanatory note' to the second
edition says -- 'The master of the St. James's coffee-house,
where the Doctor, and the friends he has characterized in this
Poem, held an occasional club. ' This, it should be stated, was
not the famous 'Literary Club,' which met at the Turk's Head
Tavern in Gerrard Street. The St. James's Coffee-house, as
familiar to Swift and Addison at the beginning, as it was to
Goldsmith and his friends at the end of the eighteenth century,
was the last house but one on the south-west corner of St.
James's Street. It now no longer exists. Cradock ('Memoirs',
1826, i. 228-30) speaks of dining 'at the bottom of St. James's
Street' with Goldsmith, Percy, the two Burkes ('v. infra'),
Johnson, Garrick, Dean Barnard, and others. 'We sat very late;'
he adds in conclusion, 'and the conversation that at last
ensued, was the direct cause of my friend Goldsmith's poem,
called "Retaliation. "'
l. 5. -----
"Our Dean". Dr. Thomas Barnard, an Irishman, at this
time Dean of Derry. He died at Wimbledon in 1806. It was Dr.
Barnard who, in reply to a rude sally of Johnson, wrote the
charming verses on improvement after the age of forty-five,
which end --
If I have thoughts, and can't express them,
Gibbon shall teach me how to dress them,
In terms select and terse;
Jones teach me modesty and Greek,
Smith how to think, Burke how to speak,
And Beauclerk to converse.
Let Johnson teach me how to place
In fairest light, each borrow'd grace,
From him I'll learn to write;
Copy his clear, familiar style,
And from the roughness of his file
Grow like himself -- polite.
(Northcote's 'Life of Reynolds', 2nd ed. , 1819, i. 221. )
According to Cumberland ('Memoirs', 1807, i. 370), 'The dean
also gave him [Goldsmith] an epitaph, and Sir Joshua illuminated
the dean's verses with a sketch of his bust in pen and ink
inimitably caricatured. ' What would collectors give for that
sketch and epitaph! Unfortunately in Cumberland's septuagenarian
recollections the 'truth severe' is mingled with an unusual
amount of 'fairy fiction. ' However Sir Joshua 'did' draw
caricatures, for a number of them were exhibited at the
Grosvenor Gallery (by the Duke of Devonshire) in the winter of
1883-4.
l. 6. -----
"Our Burke". The Right Hon. Edmund Burke, 1729-97.
l. 7. -----
"Our Will". 'Mr. William Burke, late Secretary to
General Conway, and member for Bedwin, Wiltshire' (Note to
second edition). He was a kinsman of Edmund Burke, and one of
the supposed authors of Junius's 'Letters'. He died in 1798. 'It
is said that the notices Goldsmith first wrote of the Burkes
were so severe that Hugh Boyd persuaded the poet to alter them,
and entirely rewrite the character of William, for he was sure
that if the Burkes saw what was originally written of them the
peace of the Club would be disturbed. ' (Rev. W. Hunt in 'Dict.
Nat. Biography', Art. 'William Burke. ')
l. 8. -----
"And Dick". Richard Burke, Edmund Burke's younger
brother. He was for some years Collector to the Customs at
Grenada, being on a visit to London when 'Retaliation' was
written (Forster's 'Life', 1871, ii. 404). He died in 1794,
Recorder of Bristol.
l. 9. -----
"Our Cumberland's sweetbread". Richard Cumberland, the
poet, novelist, and dramatist, 1731-1811, author of 'The West
Indian', 1771, 'The Fashionable Lover', 1772, and many other
more or less sentimental plays. In his 'Memoirs', 1807, i.
369-71, he gives an account of the origin of 'Retaliation',
which adds a few dubious particulars to that of Garrick. But it
was written from memory long after the events it records.
l. 10. -----
"Douglas". 'Dr. Douglas, since Bishop of Salisbury,'
says Cumberland. He died in 1807 ('v. infra').
l. 14. -----
"Ridge". 'Counsellor John Ridge, a gentleman belonging
to the Irish Bar' (Note to second edition). 'Burke,' says Bolton
Corney, 'in 1771, described him as "one of the honestest and
best-natured men living, and inferior to none of his profession
in ability. "' (See also note to line 125. )
l. 15. -----
"Hickey". The commentator of the second edition of
'Retaliation' calls this gentleman 'honest Tom Hickey'. His
Christian name, however, was 'Joseph' (Letter of Burke, November
8, 1774). He was a jovial, good-natured, over-blunt Irishman,
the legal adviser of both Burke and Reynolds. Indeed it was
Hickey who drew the conveyance of the land on which Reynolds's
house 'next to the Star and Garter' at Richmond (Wick House) was
built by Chambers the architect. Hickey died in 1794. Reynolds
painted his portrait for Burke, and it was exhibited at the
Royal Academy in 1772 (No. 208). In 1833 it belonged to Mr. T.
H. Burke. Sir Joshua also painted Miss Hickey in 1769-73. Her
father, not much to Goldsmith's satisfaction, was one of the
Paris party in 1770. See also note to l. 125.
l. 16. -----
"Magnanimous Goldsmith". According to Malone
(Reynolds's 'Works', second edition, 1801, i. xc), Goldsmith
intended to have concluded with his own character.
l. 34. -----
"Tommy Townshend", M. P. for Whitchurch, Hampshire,
afterwards first Viscount Sydney. He died in 1800. Junius says
Bolton Corney, gives a portrait of him as 'still life'. His
presence in 'Retaliation' is accounted for by the fact that he
had commented in Parliament upon Johnson's pension. 'I am well
assured,' says Boswell, 'that Mr. Townshend's attack upon
Johnson was the occasion of his "hitching in a rhyme"; for, that
in the original copy of Goldsmith's character of Mr. Burke, in
his 'Retaliation' another person's name stood in the couplet
where Mr. Townshend is now introduced. ' (Birkbeck Hill's
'Boswell', 1887, iv. 318. )
l. 35. -----
"too deep for his hearers". 'The emotion to which he
commonly appealed was that too rare one, the love of wisdom, and
he combined his thoughts and knowledge in propositions of wisdom
so weighty and strong, that the minds of ordinary hearers were
not on the instant prepared for them. ' (Morley's 'Burke', 1882,
209-10. )
l. 36. -----
"And thought of convincing, while they thought of
dining". For the reason given in the previous note, many of
Burke's hearers often took the opportunity of his rising to
speak, to retire to dinner. Thus he acquired the nickname of the
'Dinner Bell. '
l. 42. -----
"To eat mutton cold". There is a certain resemblance
between this character and Gray's lines on himself written in
1761, beginning 'Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to
importune. ' (See Gosse's 'Gray's Works', 1884, i. 127. ) But both
Gray and Goldsmith may have been thinking of a line in the once
popular song of 'Ally Croaker':--
Too dull for a wit, too grave for a joker.
l. 43. -----
"honest William", i. e. William Burke ('v. supra').
l. 54. -----
"Now breaking a jest, and now breaking a limb". A note
to the second edition says -- 'The above Gentleman [Richard
Burke, 'v. supra'] having slightly fractured one of his arms and
legs, at different times, the Doctor [i. e. Goldsmith] has
rallied him on those accidents, as a kind of 'retributive'
justice for breaking his jests on other people. '
l.
'Merry Wives of Windsor', Act iii, Sc. 3:--
'-- These lisping hawthorn buds that. . .
smell like Bucklersbury in 'simple'-time. '
In the caricatures of the day Solander figured as 'The
'simpling' Macaroni. ' (See note, p. 247, l. 31. )
l. 11. -----
"With Scythian stores". The scene of the play was laid
in Scythia ('v. supra').
l. 28. -----
"to make palaver", to hold a parley, generally with the
intention of cajoling. Two of Goldsmith's notes to Garrick in
1773 are endorsed by the actor -- 'Goldsmith's parlaver. '
(Forster's 'Life', 1871, ii. 397. )
l. 32. -----
"mercenary". Cradock gave the profits of 'Zobeide' to
Mrs. Yates. 'I mentioned the disappointment it would be to you'
-- she says in a letter to him dated April 26, 1771 --' as you
had generously given the emoluments of the piece to me. '
('Memoirs', 1828, iv. 211. )
THRENODIA AUGUSTALIS.
Augusta, widow of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and mother of George the
Third, died at Carlton House, February 8, 1772. This piece was spoken
and sung in Mrs. Teresa Cornelys's Great Room in Soho Square, on the
Thursday following (the 20th), being sold at the door as a small quarto
pamphlet, printed by William Woodfall. The author's name was not given;
but it was prefaced by this 'advertisement,' etc. :--
'The following may more properly be termed a compilation than a poem.
It was prepared for the composer in little more than two days: and may
be considered therefore rather as an industrious effort of gratitude
than of genius. In justice to the composer it may likewise be right to
inform the public, that the music was adapted in a period of time
equally short.
SPEAKERS.
'Mr. Lee and Mrs. Bellamy'.
SINGERS.
'Mr. Champnes, Mr. Dine, and Miss Jameson; with twelve chorus singers.
The music prepared and adapted by Signor Vento. '
It is -- as Cunningham calls it -- a 'hurried and unworthy off-spring of
the muse of Goldsmith. '
(Part I).
l. 122 "-----
Celestial-like her bounty fell". The
Princess's benefactions are not exaggerated. 'She had paid off
the whole of her husband's debts, and she had given munificent
sums in charity. More than 10,000'l. ' a year were given away by
her in pensions to individuals whom she judged deserving, very
few of whom were aware, until her death, whence the bounty came.
The whole of her income she spent in England, and very little on
herself' ('Augusta: Princess of Wales', by W. H. Wilkins,
'Nineteenth Century', October, 1903, p. 675).
l. 132. -----
"There faith shall come". This, and the three lines
that follow, are borrowed from Collins's 'Ode written in the
beginning of the year' 1746.
(Part II).
l. 22 "-----
The towers of Kew". 'The embellishments of
Kew palace and gardens, under the direction of [Sir William]
Chambers, and others, was the favourite object of her [Royal
Highness's] widowhood' (Bolton Corney).
l. 77. -----
"Along the billow'd main". Cf. 'The Captivity', Act ii,
I. 18.
l. 83. -----
"Oswego's dreary shores". Cf. 'The Traveller', l. 411.
l. 91. -----
"And with the avenging fight". Varied from Collins's
'Ode on the Death of Colonel Charles Ross at Fontenoy'.
l. 177. -----
"Its earliest bloom". Cf. Collins's 'Dirge in Cymbeline'.
SONG
FROM 'SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER. '
This thoroughly characteristic song, for a parallel to which one must go
to Congreve, or to the 'Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen' of 'The
School for Scandal', has one grave defect, -- it is too good to have
been composed by Tony Lumpkin, who, despite his inability to read
anything but 'print-hand,' declares, in Act i. Sc. 2 of 'She Stoops to
Conquer', 1773, that he himself made it upon the ale-house ('The Three
Pigeons') in which he sings it, and where it is followed by the annexed
comments, directed by the author against the sentimentalists, who, in
'The Good Natur'd Man' of five years before, had insisted upon the
omission of the Bailiff scene:--
'OMNES.
Bravo, bravo!
'First' FELLOW.
The 'Squire has got spunk in him.
'Second' FELLOW.
I loves to hear him sing, bekeays he never gives us nothing
that's 'low'. . .
'Fourth' FELLOW.
The genteel thing is the genteel thing at any time. If so be that a
gentleman bees in a concatenation accordingly.
'Third' FELLOW.
I like the maxum of it, Master Muggins. What, tho' I am obligated to
dance a bear, a man may be a gentleman for all that. May this be my
poison if my bear ever dances but to the very genteelest of tunes.
'Water parted'*, or the minuet in 'Ariadne'. '
[footnote] *i. e. Arne's 'Water Parted from the Sea', -- the song of
Arbaces in the opera of 'Artaxerxes, 1762. The minuet in 'Ariadne' was
by Handel. It came at the end of the overture, and is said to have been
the best thing in the opera.
l. 9. -----
"When Methodist preachers, etc. " Tony Lumpkin's
utterance accurately represents the view of this sect taken by
some of his contemporaries. While moderate and just spectators
of the Johnson type could recognize the sincerity of men, who,
like Wesley, travelled 'nine hundred miles in a month, and
preached twelve times a week' for no ostensibly adequate reward,
there were others who saw in Methodism, and especially in the
extravagancies of its camp followers, nothing but cant and
duplicity. It was this which prompted on the stage Foote's
'Minor' (1760) and Bickerstaffe's 'Hypocrite' (1768); in art the
'Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism' of Hogarth (1762); and
in literature the 'New Bath Guide' of Anstey (1766), the
'Spiritual Quixote' of Graves, 1772, and the sarcasms of Sterne,
Smollett and Walpole.
It is notable that the most generous contemporary portrait of
these much satirised sectaries came from one of the originals of
the 'Retaliation' gallery. Scott highly praises the character of
Ezekiel Daw in Cumberland's 'Henry', 1795, adding, in his large
impartial fashion, with reference to the general practice of
representing Methodists either as idiots or hypocrites, 'A very
different feeling is due to many, perhaps to most, of this
enthusiastic sect; nor is it rashly to be inferred, that he who
makes religion the general object of his life, is for that sole
reason to be held either a fool or an impostor. ' (Scott's
'Miscellaneous Prose Works', 1834, iii. 222. )
l. 23. -----
"But of all the birds in the air". Hypercriticism may
object that 'the hare' is not a bird. But exigence of rhyme has
to answer for many things. Some editors needlessly read 'the
'gay' birds' to lengthen the line. There is no sanction for this
in the earlier editions.
EPILOGUE TO 'SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER. '
This epilogue was spoken by Mrs. Bulkley in the character of
Miss Hardcastle. It is probably the epilogue described by
Goldsmith to Cradock, in the letter quoted at p. 246, as 'a very
mawkish thing,' a phrase not so incontestable as Bolton Corney's
remark that it is 'an obvious imitation of Shakespere. '
l. 6. -----
"That pretty Bar-maids have done execution". Cf. 'The
Vicar of Wakefield', 1766, i. 7:-- 'Sophia's features were not
so striking at first; but often did more certain execution. '
l. 16. -----
"coquets the guests". Johnson explains this word 'to
entertain with compliments and amorous tattle,' and quotes the
following illustration from Swift, 'You are 'coquetting' a maid
of honour, my lord looking on to see how the gamesters play, and
I railing at you both. '
l. 26. -----
"Nancy Dawson". Nancy Dawson was a famous 'toast' and
horn-pipe dancer, who died at Haverstock Hill, May 27, 1767, and
was buried behind the Foundling, in the burial-ground of St.
George the Martyr. She first appeared at Sadler's Wells, and
speedily passed to the stage of Covent Garden, where she danced
in the 'Beggar's Opera'. There is a portrait of her in the
Garrick Club, and there are several contemporary prints. She was
the heroine of a popular song, here referred to, beginning:--
Of all the girls in our town,
The black, the fair, the red, the brown,
Who dance and prance it up and down,
There's none like Nancy Dawson:
Her easy mien, her shape so neat,
She foots, she trips, she looks so sweet,
Her ev'ry motion is complete;
I die for Nancy Dawson.
Its tune -- says J. T. Smith ('Book for a Rainy Day', Whitten's
ed. , 1905, p. 10) was 'as lively as that of "Sir Roger de
Coverley. "'
"Che faro", i. e. 'Che faro senza Euridice', the lovely lament
from Gluck's 'Orfeo', 1764.
l. 28. -----
"the Heinel of Cheapside". The reference is to
Mademoiselle Anna-Frederica Heinel, 1752-1808, a beautiful
Prussian, subsequently the wife of Gaetano Apollino Balthazar
Vestris, called 'Vestris the First. ' After extraordinary success
as a 'danseuse' at Stuttgard and Paris, where Walpole saw her in
1771 (Letter to the Earl of Strafford 25th August), she had come
to London; and, at this date, was the darling of the Macaronies
(cf. the note on p. 247, l. 31), who, from their club, added a
'regallo' (present) of six hundred pounds to the salary allowed
her at the Haymarket. On April 1, 1773, Metastasio's 'Artaserse'
was performed for her benefit, when she was announced to dance a
minuet with Monsieur Fierville, and 'Tickets were to be hand, at
her house in Piccadilly, two doors from Air Street. '
l. 31. -----
"spadille", i. e. the ace of spades, the first trump in
the game of Ombre. Cf. Swift's 'Journal of a Modern Lady in a
Letter to a Person of Quality', 1728:--
She draws up card by card, to find
Good fortune peeping from behind;
With panting heart, and earnest eyes,
In hope to see 'spadillo' rise;
In vain, alas! her hope is fed;
She draws an ace, and sees it red.
l. 35. -----
"Bayes". The chief character in Buckingham's
'Rehearsal', 1672, and intended for John Dryden. Here the name
is put for the 'poet' or 'dramatist. ' Cf. Murphy's Epilogue to
Cradock's 'Zobeide', 1771:--
Not e'en poor 'Bayes' within must hope to be
Free from the lash:-- His Play he writ for me
'Tis true -- and now my gratitude you'll see;
and Colman's Epilogue to 'The School for Scandal', 1777:--
So wills our virtuous bard -- the motley 'Bayes'
Of crying epilogues and laughing plays!
RETALIATION.
'Retaliation: A Poem. By Doctor Goldsmith. Including Epitaphs on the
Most Distinguished Wits of this Metropolis', was first published by G.
Kearsly in April, 1774, as a 4to pamphlet of 24 pp. On the title-page is
a vignette head of the author, etched by James Basire, after Reynolds's
portrait; and the verses are prefaced by an anonymous letter to the
publisher, concluding as follows:-- 'Dr. Goldsmith 'belonged to a Club
of' Beaux Esprits, 'where Wit sparkled sometimes at the Expence of
Good-nature. It was proposed to write Epitaphs on the Doctor; his
Country, Dialect and Person, furnished Subjects of Witticism. -- The
Doctor was called on for' Retaliation, 'and at their next Meeting
produced the following Poem, which I think adds one Leaf to his immortal
Wreath. ' This account seems to have sufficed for Evans, Percy, and the
earlier editors. But in vol. i. p. 78 of his edition of Goldsmith's
'Works', 1854, Mr. Peter Cunningham published for the first time a
fuller version of the circumstances, derived from a manuscript lent to
him by Mr. George Daniel of Islington; and (says Mr.
Cunningham)
'evidently designed as a preface to a collected edition of the poems
which grew out of Goldsmith's trying his epigrammatic powers with
Garrick. ' It is signed 'D. Garrick. ' 'At a meeting' -- says the writer
-- 'of a company of gentlemen, who were well known to each other, and
diverting themselves, among many other things, with the peculiar
oddities of Dr. Goldsmith, who would never allow a superior in any art,
from writing poetry down to dancing a horn-pipe, the Dr. with great
eagerness insisted upon trying his epigrammatic powers with Mr. Garrick,
and each of them was to write the other's epitaph. Mr. Garrick
immediately said that his epitaph was finished, and spoke the following
distich extempore:--
Here lies NOLLY Goldsmith, for shortness call'd Noll,
Who wrote like an angel, but talk'd like poor Poll.
Goldsmith, upon the company's laughing very heartily, grew very
thoughtful, and either would not, or could not, write anything at that
time: however, he went to work, and some weeks after produced the
following printed poem called 'Retaliation', which has been much
admired, and gone through several editions. ' This account, though
obviously from Garrick's point of view, is now accepted as canonical,
and has superseded those of Davies, Cradock, Cumberland, and others, to
which some reference is made in the ensuing notes.
A few days after the publication of the first edition, which appeared on
the 18th or 19th of April, a 'new' or second edition was issued, with
four pages of 'Explanatory Notes, Observations, etc. ' At the end came
the following announcement:-- 'G. Kearsly, the Publisher, thinks it his
duty to declare, that Dr. Goldsmith wrote the Poem as it is here
printed, a few errors of the press excepted, which are taken notice of
at the bottom of this page. ' From this version 'Retaliation' is here
reproduced. In the third edition, probably in deference to some wounded
susceptibilities, the too comprehensive 'most Distinguished Wits of the
Metropolis' was qualified into ''some of the most' Distinguished Wits,'
etc. , but no further material alteration was made in the text until the
suspicious lines on Caleb Whitefoord were added to the fifth edition.
With the exception of Garrick's couplet, and the fragment of Whitefoord
referred to at p. 234, none of the original epitaphs upon which
Goldsmith was invited to 'retaliate' have survived. But the unexpected
ability of the retort seems to have prompted a number of 'ex post facto'
performances, some of which the writers would probably have been glad to
pass off as their first essays. Garrick, for example, produced three
short pieces, one of which ('Here, Hermes! says Jove, who with nectar
was mellow') hits off many of Goldsmith's contradictions and foibles
with considerable skill ('v'. Davies's 'Garrick', 2nd ed. , 1780, ii.
157). Cumberland ('v. Gent. Mag'. , Aug. 1778, p. 384) parodied the
poorest part of 'Retaliation', the comparison of the guests to dishes,
by likening them to liquors, and Dean Barnard in return rhymed upon
Cumberland. He wrote also an apology for his first attack, which is said
to have been very severe, and conjured the poet to set his wit at
Garrick, who, having fired his first shot, was keeping out of the way:--
On him let all thy vengeance fall;
On me you but misplace it:
Remember how he called thee 'Poll' --
But, ah! he dares not face it.
For these, and other forgotten pieces arising out of 'Retaliation',
Garrick had apparently prepared the above-mentioned introduction. It may
be added that the statement, prefixed to the first edition, that
'Retaliation', as we now have it, was produced at the 'next meeting' of
the Club, is manifestly incorrect. It was composed and circulated in
detached fragments, and Goldsmith was still working at it when he was
seized with his last illness.
l. 1. -----
"Of old, when Scarron, etc. " Paul Scarron (1610-60), the
author 'inter alia' of the 'Roman Comique', 1651-7, upon a
translation of which Goldsmith was occupied during the last
months of his life. It was published by Griffin in 1776.
l. 2. -----
"Each guest brought his dish". 'Chez Scarron,' -- says
his editor, M. Charles Baumet, when speaking of the poet's
entertainments, -- 'venait d'ailleurs l'elite des dames, des
courtisans & des hommes de lettres. On y dinait joyeusement.
'Chacun apportait son plat'. ' ('Oeuvres de Scarron', 1877, i.
viii. ) Scarron's company must have been as brilliant as
Goldsmith's. Villarceaux, Vivonne, the Marechal d'Albret,
figured in his list of courtiers; while for ladies he had
Mesdames Deshoulieres, de Scudery, de la Sabliere, and de
Sevigne, to say nothing of Ninon de Lenclos and Marion Delorme.
(Cf. also Guizot, 'Corneille et son Temps', 1862, 429-30. )
l. 3. -----
"If our landlord". The 'explanatory note' to the second
edition says -- 'The master of the St. James's coffee-house,
where the Doctor, and the friends he has characterized in this
Poem, held an occasional club. ' This, it should be stated, was
not the famous 'Literary Club,' which met at the Turk's Head
Tavern in Gerrard Street. The St. James's Coffee-house, as
familiar to Swift and Addison at the beginning, as it was to
Goldsmith and his friends at the end of the eighteenth century,
was the last house but one on the south-west corner of St.
James's Street. It now no longer exists. Cradock ('Memoirs',
1826, i. 228-30) speaks of dining 'at the bottom of St. James's
Street' with Goldsmith, Percy, the two Burkes ('v. infra'),
Johnson, Garrick, Dean Barnard, and others. 'We sat very late;'
he adds in conclusion, 'and the conversation that at last
ensued, was the direct cause of my friend Goldsmith's poem,
called "Retaliation. "'
l. 5. -----
"Our Dean". Dr. Thomas Barnard, an Irishman, at this
time Dean of Derry. He died at Wimbledon in 1806. It was Dr.
Barnard who, in reply to a rude sally of Johnson, wrote the
charming verses on improvement after the age of forty-five,
which end --
If I have thoughts, and can't express them,
Gibbon shall teach me how to dress them,
In terms select and terse;
Jones teach me modesty and Greek,
Smith how to think, Burke how to speak,
And Beauclerk to converse.
Let Johnson teach me how to place
In fairest light, each borrow'd grace,
From him I'll learn to write;
Copy his clear, familiar style,
And from the roughness of his file
Grow like himself -- polite.
(Northcote's 'Life of Reynolds', 2nd ed. , 1819, i. 221. )
According to Cumberland ('Memoirs', 1807, i. 370), 'The dean
also gave him [Goldsmith] an epitaph, and Sir Joshua illuminated
the dean's verses with a sketch of his bust in pen and ink
inimitably caricatured. ' What would collectors give for that
sketch and epitaph! Unfortunately in Cumberland's septuagenarian
recollections the 'truth severe' is mingled with an unusual
amount of 'fairy fiction. ' However Sir Joshua 'did' draw
caricatures, for a number of them were exhibited at the
Grosvenor Gallery (by the Duke of Devonshire) in the winter of
1883-4.
l. 6. -----
"Our Burke". The Right Hon. Edmund Burke, 1729-97.
l. 7. -----
"Our Will". 'Mr. William Burke, late Secretary to
General Conway, and member for Bedwin, Wiltshire' (Note to
second edition). He was a kinsman of Edmund Burke, and one of
the supposed authors of Junius's 'Letters'. He died in 1798. 'It
is said that the notices Goldsmith first wrote of the Burkes
were so severe that Hugh Boyd persuaded the poet to alter them,
and entirely rewrite the character of William, for he was sure
that if the Burkes saw what was originally written of them the
peace of the Club would be disturbed. ' (Rev. W. Hunt in 'Dict.
Nat. Biography', Art. 'William Burke. ')
l. 8. -----
"And Dick". Richard Burke, Edmund Burke's younger
brother. He was for some years Collector to the Customs at
Grenada, being on a visit to London when 'Retaliation' was
written (Forster's 'Life', 1871, ii. 404). He died in 1794,
Recorder of Bristol.
l. 9. -----
"Our Cumberland's sweetbread". Richard Cumberland, the
poet, novelist, and dramatist, 1731-1811, author of 'The West
Indian', 1771, 'The Fashionable Lover', 1772, and many other
more or less sentimental plays. In his 'Memoirs', 1807, i.
369-71, he gives an account of the origin of 'Retaliation',
which adds a few dubious particulars to that of Garrick. But it
was written from memory long after the events it records.
l. 10. -----
"Douglas". 'Dr. Douglas, since Bishop of Salisbury,'
says Cumberland. He died in 1807 ('v. infra').
l. 14. -----
"Ridge". 'Counsellor John Ridge, a gentleman belonging
to the Irish Bar' (Note to second edition). 'Burke,' says Bolton
Corney, 'in 1771, described him as "one of the honestest and
best-natured men living, and inferior to none of his profession
in ability. "' (See also note to line 125. )
l. 15. -----
"Hickey". The commentator of the second edition of
'Retaliation' calls this gentleman 'honest Tom Hickey'. His
Christian name, however, was 'Joseph' (Letter of Burke, November
8, 1774). He was a jovial, good-natured, over-blunt Irishman,
the legal adviser of both Burke and Reynolds. Indeed it was
Hickey who drew the conveyance of the land on which Reynolds's
house 'next to the Star and Garter' at Richmond (Wick House) was
built by Chambers the architect. Hickey died in 1794. Reynolds
painted his portrait for Burke, and it was exhibited at the
Royal Academy in 1772 (No. 208). In 1833 it belonged to Mr. T.
H. Burke. Sir Joshua also painted Miss Hickey in 1769-73. Her
father, not much to Goldsmith's satisfaction, was one of the
Paris party in 1770. See also note to l. 125.
l. 16. -----
"Magnanimous Goldsmith". According to Malone
(Reynolds's 'Works', second edition, 1801, i. xc), Goldsmith
intended to have concluded with his own character.
l. 34. -----
"Tommy Townshend", M. P. for Whitchurch, Hampshire,
afterwards first Viscount Sydney. He died in 1800. Junius says
Bolton Corney, gives a portrait of him as 'still life'. His
presence in 'Retaliation' is accounted for by the fact that he
had commented in Parliament upon Johnson's pension. 'I am well
assured,' says Boswell, 'that Mr. Townshend's attack upon
Johnson was the occasion of his "hitching in a rhyme"; for, that
in the original copy of Goldsmith's character of Mr. Burke, in
his 'Retaliation' another person's name stood in the couplet
where Mr. Townshend is now introduced. ' (Birkbeck Hill's
'Boswell', 1887, iv. 318. )
l. 35. -----
"too deep for his hearers". 'The emotion to which he
commonly appealed was that too rare one, the love of wisdom, and
he combined his thoughts and knowledge in propositions of wisdom
so weighty and strong, that the minds of ordinary hearers were
not on the instant prepared for them. ' (Morley's 'Burke', 1882,
209-10. )
l. 36. -----
"And thought of convincing, while they thought of
dining". For the reason given in the previous note, many of
Burke's hearers often took the opportunity of his rising to
speak, to retire to dinner. Thus he acquired the nickname of the
'Dinner Bell. '
l. 42. -----
"To eat mutton cold". There is a certain resemblance
between this character and Gray's lines on himself written in
1761, beginning 'Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to
importune. ' (See Gosse's 'Gray's Works', 1884, i. 127. ) But both
Gray and Goldsmith may have been thinking of a line in the once
popular song of 'Ally Croaker':--
Too dull for a wit, too grave for a joker.
l. 43. -----
"honest William", i. e. William Burke ('v. supra').
l. 54. -----
"Now breaking a jest, and now breaking a limb". A note
to the second edition says -- 'The above Gentleman [Richard
Burke, 'v. supra'] having slightly fractured one of his arms and
legs, at different times, the Doctor [i. e. Goldsmith] has
rallied him on those accidents, as a kind of 'retributive'
justice for breaking his jests on other people. '
l.
