No More Learning

44. -----
"to-day's Advertiser". The lines referred to are said
by Prior to have been as follows:--

While fair Angelica, with matchless grace,
Paints Conway's lovely form and Stanhope's face;
Our hearts to beauty willing homage pay,
We praise, admire, and gaze our souls away.
But when the likeness she hath done for thee,
O Reynolds! with astonishment we see,
Forced to submit, with all our pride we own,
Such strength, such harmony, excell'd by none,
And thou art rivall'd by thyself alone.

They probably appeared in the newspaper at some date between
1769, when the picture was painted, and August 1771, when
'Little Comedy' was married, after which time Goldsmith would
scarcely speak of her except as 'Mrs. Bunbury' (see p. 132, l.
15).







LETTER IN PROSE AND VERSE TO MRS. BUNBURY.

This letter, which contains some of the brightest and easiest of
Goldsmith's familiar verses, was addressed to Mrs. Bunbury (the 'Little
Comedy' of the 'Verses in Reply to an Invitation to Dinner', pp. 250-2),
in answer to a rhymed summons on her part to spend Christmas at Great
Barton in Suffolk, the family seat of the Bunburys. It was first printed
by Prior in the 'Miscellaneous Works' of 1837, iv. 148-51, and again in
1838 in Sir Henry Bunbury's 'Correspondence of Sir Thomas Hanmer,
Bart. ', pp. 379-83. The text of the latter issue is here followed. When
Prior published the verses, they were assigned to the year 1772; in the
'Hanmer Correspondence' it is stated that they were 'probably written in
1773 or 1774. '

P. 130. -----
"your spring velvet coat". Goldsmith's pronounced
taste in dress, and his good-natured simplicity, made his
costume a fertile subject for playful raillery, -- sometimes,
for rather discreditable practical jokes. (See next note. )

P. 131. -----
"a wig, that is modish and gay". 'He always wore a
wig' -- said the 'Jessamy Bride' in her reminiscences to Prior
-- 'a peculiarity which those who judge of his appearance only
from the fine poetical head of Reynolds, would not suspect; and
on one occasion some person contrived to seriously injure this
important adjunct to dress. It was the only one he had in the
country, and the misfortune seemed irreparable until the
services of Mr. Bunbury's valet were called in, who however
performed his functions so indifferently that poor Goldsmith's
appearance became the signal for a general smile' (Prior's
'Life', 1837, ii. 378-9).

P. 131. -----
"Naso contemnere adunco". Cf. Horace, 'Sat'. i. 6. 5:--

naso suspendis adunco
Ignotos,

and Martial, 'Ep'. i. 4. 6:--
Et pueri nasum Rhinocerotis habent.

l. 2. -----
"Loo", i. e. Lanctre- or Lanterloo, a popular
eighteenth-century game, in which 'Pam', l. 6, the knave of
clubs, is the highest card. Cf. Pope, 'Rape of the Lock', 1714,
iii. 61:--

Ev'n might 'Pam', that Kings and Queens o'erthrew,
And mow'd down armies in the fights of Lu;
and Colman's epilogue to 'The School for Scandal', 1777:--
And at backgammon mortify my soul,
That pants for 'loo', or flutters at a vole?

l. 17. -----
"Miss Horneck". Miss Mary Horneck, the 'Jessamy Bride'
('vide' note, p. 251, l. 14).

l. 36. -----
"Fielding". Sir John Fielding, d. 1780, Henry
Fielding's blind half-brother, who succeeded him as a Justice of
the Peace for the City and Liberties of Westminster. He was
knighted in 1761. There are two portraits of him by Nathaniel
Hone.

l. 40. -----
"by quinto Elizabeth, Death without Clergy". Legal
authorities affirm that the Act quoted should be 8 Eliz. cap.
iv, under which those who stole more than twelvepence 'privately
from a man's person' were debarred from benefit of clergy. But
'quint. Eliz. ' must have offered some special attraction to
poets, since Pope also refers to it in the 'Satires and
Epistles', i. 147-8:--
Consult the Statute: 'quart'. I think, it is,
'Edwardi sext. ' or 'prim. et quint. Eliz. '

l. 44. -----
"With bunches of fennel, and nosegays before 'em". This
was a custom dating from the fearful jail fever of 1750, which
carried off, not only prisoners, but a judge (Mr. Justice Abney)
'and many jurymen and witnesses. ' 'From that time up to this day
[i. e. 1855] it has been usual to place sweet-smelling herbs in
the prisoner's dock, to prevent infection. ' (Lawrence's 'Life of
Henry Fielding', 1855, p. 296. ) The close observation of
Cruikshank has not neglected this detail in the Old Bailey plate
of 'The Drunkard's Children', 1848, v.

l. 45. -----
"mobs". The mob was a loose undress or 'deshabille',
sometimes a hood. 'When we poor souls had presented ourselves
with a contrition suitable to our worthlessness, some pretty
young ladies in 'mobs', popped in here and there about the
church. ' ('Guardian', No. 65, May 26, 1713. ) Cf. also Addison's
'Fine Lady's Diary' ('Spectator', No. 323); 'Went in our 'Mobbs'
to the Dumb Man' (Duncan Campbell).

l. 50. -----
"yon solemn-faced". Cf. 'Introduction', p. xxvii.
According to the 'Jessamy Bride,' Goldsmith sometimes aggravated
his plainness by an 'assumed frown of countenance' (Prior,
'Life', 1837, ii. 379).

l. 55. -----
"Sir Charles", i. e. Sir Thomas Charles Bunbury, Bart. ,
M. P. , Henry Bunbury's elder brother. He succeeded to the title
in 1764, and died without issue in 1821. Goldsmith, it may be
observed, makes 'Charles' a disyllable. Probably, like many of
his countrymen, he so pronounced it. (Cf. Thackeray's
'Pendennis', 1850, vol. ii, chap. 5 [or xliii], where this is
humorously illustrated in Captain Costigan's 'Sir 'Chorlus', I
saw your neem at the Levee. ' Perhaps this accounts for 'failing'
and 'stealing,' -- 'day on' and 'Pantheon,' in the 'New Simile'.
Cooke ('European Magazine', October, 1793, p. 259) says that
Goldsmith 'rather cultivated (than endeavoured to get rid of)
his brogue. '

l. 58. -----
"dy'd in grain", i. e. fixed, ineradicable. To 'dye in
grain' means primarily to colour with the scarlet or purple dye
produced by the 'kermes' insect, called 'granum' in Latin, from
its similarity to small seeds. Being what is styled a 'fast' dye
the phrase is used by extension to signify permanence.







VIDA'S GAME OF CHESS.

Forster thus describes the MS. of this poem in his 'Life of Goldsmith':
-- 'It is a small quarto manuscript of thirty-four pages, containing 679
lines, to which a fly-leaf is appended in which Goldsmith notes the
differences of nomenclature between Vida's chessmen and our own. It has
occasional interlineations and corrections, but such as would occur in
transcription rather than in a first or original copy. Sometimes indeed
choice appears to have been made (as at page 29) between two words
equally suitable to the sense and verse, as "to" for "toward"; but the
insertions and erasures refer almost wholly to words or lines
accidentally omitted and replaced. The triplet is always carefully
marked; and seldom as it is found in any other of Goldsmith's poems. I
am disposed to regard its frequent recurrence here as even helping, in
some degree, to explain the motive which had led him to the trial of an
experiment in rhyme comparatively new to him. If we suppose him, half
consciously, it may be, taking up the manner of the great master of
translation, Dryden, who was at all times so much a favourite with him,
he would at least, in so marked a peculiarity, be less apt to fall short
than to err perhaps a little on the side of excess. Though I am far from
thinking such to be the result in the present instance. The effect of
the whole translation is pleasing to me, and the mock-heroic effect I
think not a little assisted by the reiterated use of the triplet and
alexandrine. As to any evidence of authorship derivable from the
appearance of the manuscript, I will only add another word. The lines in
the translation have been carefully counted, and the number is marked in
Goldsmith's hand at the close of his transcription. Such a fact is, of
course, only to be taken in aid of other proof; but a man is not
generally at the pains of counting, still less, I should say in such a
case as Goldsmith's, of elaborately transcribing, lines which are not
his own. ' (Forster's 'Goldsmith', 1871, ii. 235-6).

When Forster wrote the above, the MS. was in the possession of Mr.
Bolton Corney, who had not been aware of its existence when he edited
Goldsmith's Poems in 1845. In 1854 it was, with his permission, included
in vol. iv of Cunningham's 'Works' of 1854, and subsequently in the
Aldine 'Poems' of 1866.

Mark Jerome Vida of Cremona, 1490-1566, was Bishop of Alba, and
favourite of Leo the Magnificent. Several translators had tried their
hand at his 'Game of Chess' before Goldsmith. Lowndes mentions
Rowbotham, 1562; Jeffreys, 1736; Erskine, 1736; Pullin, 1750; and
'Anon'. (Eton), 1769 (who may have preceded Goldsmith). But after his
(Goldsmith's) death appeared another Oxford anonymous version, 1778, and
one by Arthur Murphy, 1786.







APPENDIXES

A. PORTRAITS OF GOLDSMITH.
B. DESCRIPTIONS OF NEWELL'S VIEWS OF LISSOY, ETC.
C. THE EPITHET 'SENTIMENTAL. '
D. FRAGMENTS OF TRANSLATIONS, ETC. BY GOLDSMITH.
E. GOLDSMITH ON POETRY UNDER ANNE AND GEORGE THE FIRST.
F. CRITICISMS FROM GOLDSMITH'S 'BEAUTIES OF ENGLISH POESY. '



APPENDIX A

PORTRAITS OF GOLDSMITH.

PORTRAITS of Goldsmith are not numerous; and the best known are those of
Reynolds and H. W. Bunbury. That by Sir Joshua was painted in 1766-70,
and exhibited in the Royal Academy (No. 151) from April 24th to May 28th
in the latter year. It represents the poet in a plain white collar,
furred mantle open at the neck, and holding a book in his right hand.
Its general characteristics are given at p. xxviii of the
'Introduction. ' It was scraped in mezzotint in 1770 by Reynolds's
Italian pupil, Giuseppe, or Joseph Marchi; and it is dated 1st
December. * Bunbury's portrait first appeared, after Goldsmith's death,
as a frontispiece to the 'Haunch of Venison'; and it was etched in
facsimile by James Bretherton. The plate is dated May 24, 1776. In his
loyal but despotic 'Life of Goldsmith' (Bk. iv, ch. 6), Mr. John Forster
reproduces these portraits side by side; in order, he professes, to show
'the distinction between truth and a caricature of it. ' Bunbury, it may
be, was primarily a caricaturist, and possibly looked at most things
from a more or less grotesque point of view; but this sketch -- it
should be observed -- was meant for a likeness, and we have the express
testimony of one who, if she was Bunbury's sister-in-law, was also
Goldsmith's friend, that it rendered Goldsmith accurately. It 'gives the
head with admirable fidelity' -- says the 'Jessamy Bride' (afterwards
Mrs. Gwyn) -- 'as he actually lived among us; nothing can exceed its
truth' (Prior's 'Life', 1837, ii. 380). In other words, it delineates
Goldsmith as his contemporaries saw him, with bulbous forehead,
indecisive chin, and long protruding upper lip, -- awkward,
insignificant, ill at ease, -- restlessly burning 'to get in and shine. '
It enables us moreover to understand how people who knew nothing of his
better and more lovable qualities, could speak of him as an 'inspired
idiot,' as 'silly Dr. Goldsmith,' as 'talking like poor Poll. ' It is, in
short, his external, objective presentment. The picture by Sir Joshua,
on the contrary, is almost wholly subjective. Draped judiciously in a
popular studio costume, which is not that of the sitter's day, it
reveals to us the author of 'The Deserted Village' as Reynolds conceived
him to be at his best, serious, dignified, introspective, with his
physical defects partly extenuated by art, partly over-mastered by his
intellectual power. To quote the 'Jessamy Bride' once more -- it is 'a
fine poetical head for the admiration of posterity, but as it is
divested of his wig and with the shirt collar open, it was not the man
as seen in daily life' ('Ib'. ii. 380).
Had Goldsmith lived in our era
of photography, photography would doubtless have given us something
which would have been neither the one nor the other, but more like
Bunbury than Reynolds. Yet we may be grateful for both. For Bunbury's
sketch and Reynolds's portrait are alike indispensable to the true
comprehension of Goldsmith's curiously dual personality. **

[footnote]* This was the print to which Goldsmith referred in a
well-known anecdote. Speaking to his old Peckham pupil, Samuel Bishop,
whom, after many years, he met accidentally in London, he asked him
eagerly whether he had got an engraving of the new portrait, and finding
he had not, 'said with some emotion, "if your picture had been
published, I should not have suffered an hour to elapse without
procuring it. "' But he was speedily 'appeased by apologies. ' (Prior's
'Life', 1837, i. 219-20. )

[footnote]** There is in existence another undated etching by Bretherton
after Bunbury on a larger scale, which comes much nearer to Reynolds;
and it is of course possible, though not in our opinion probable, that
Mrs. Gwyn may have referred to this. But Forster selected the other for
his comparison; it is prefixed to the 'Haunch of Venison'; it is
certainly the better known; and (as we believe) cannot ever have been
intended for a caricature.

The portrait by Reynolds, above referred to, was painted for the Thrale
Gallery at Streatham, on the dispersion of which, in May, 1816, it was
bought for the Duke of Bedford for 133 pounds 7s. It is now at Woburn
Abbey (Cat. No. 254). At Knole, Lord Sackville possesses another version
(Cat. No. 239), which was purchased in 1773 by the Countess Delawarr,
and was shown at South Kensington in 1867. Here the dress is a black
coat and a brown mantle with fur. The present owner exhibited it at the
Guelph Exhibition of 1891. A third version, now in the Irish National
Gallery, once belonged to Goldsmith himself, and then to his
brother-in-law, Daniel Hodson. Finally there is a copy, by a pupil of
Reynolds, in the National Portrait Gallery, to which it was bequeathed
in 1890 by Dr. Leifchild, having formerly been the property of Caleb
Whitefoord. Caleb Whitefoord also had an 'admirable miniature' by
Reynolds, which belongs to the Rev. Benjamin Whitefoord, Hon. Canon of
Salisbury ('Whitefoord Papers', 1898, p. xxvii). A small circular print,
based upon Reynolds, and etched by James Basire, figures on the
title-page of 'Retaliation'. Some of the plates are dated April 18,
1774. * The National Portrait Gallery has also a silhouette, attributed
to Ozias Humphry, R. A. , which was presented in 1883 by Sir Theodore
Martin, K. C. B. Then there is the portrait by Hogarth shown at South
Kensington in 1867 by the late Mr. Studley Martin of Liverpool. It
depicts the poet writing at a round table in a black cap,
claret-coloured coat and ruffles. Of this there is a wood-cut in the
later editions of Forster's 'Life' (Bk. iii, ch. 14). The same
exhibition of 1867 contained a portrait of Goldsmith in a brown coat and
red waistcoat, 'as a young man. ' It was said to be extremely like him in
face, and was attributed to Gainsborough. In Evans's edition of the
'Poetical and Dramatic Works' is another portrait engraved by Cook,
said, on some copies, to be 'from an original drawing'; and there is in
the Print Room at the British Museum yet another portrait still,
engraved by William Ridley 'from a painting in the possession of the
Rev. Mr. Williams,' no doubt Goldsmith's friend, the Rev. David
Williams, founder of the Royal Literary Fund. One of these last may have
been the work to which the poet refers in a letter to his brother
Maurice in January, 1770. 'I have sent my cousin Jenny [Jane Contarine]
a miniature picture of myself. . . The face you well know, is ugly enough,
but it is finely painted' ('Misc. Works', 1801, p. 88).

[footnote]* There is also a sketch by Reynolds (? ) at the British
Museum.

In front of Dublin University is a bronze statue of Goldsmith by J. H.
Foley, R. A. , erected in 1864. * Of this there is a good engraving by G.
Stodart. On the memorial in Westminster Abbey erected in 1776 is a
medallion by Joseph Nollekens.

[footnote]* Goldsmith's traditional ill-luck pursued him after death.
During some public procession in front of Trinity College, a number of
undergraduates climbed on the statue, with the result that the thin
metal of the poet's head was flattened or crushed in, requiring for its
readjustment very skilful restorative treatment. The Editor is indebted
for this item of information to the kindness of Mr. Percy Fitzgerald,
who was present at the subsequent operation.






APPENDIX B

DESCRIPTIONS OF NEWELL'S VIEWS OF LISSOY, ETC.

In 1811, the Rev. R. H. Newell, B. D. and Fellow of St. John's College,
Cambridge, issued an edition of the 'Poetical Works' of Goldsmith. The
distinctive feature of this lay in the fact that it was illustrated by a
number of aquatints 'by Mr. Alkin' (i. e. Samuel Alken), after drawings
made by Newell in 1806-9, and was accompanied by a series of 'Remarks,
attempting to ascertain, chiefly from local observation, the actual
scene of 'The Deserted Village'. ' Some quotations from these 'Remarks'
have already been made in the foregoing notes; but as copies of six of
the drawings are given in this volume, it may be well, in each case, to
reproduce Newell's 'descriptions. '


LISHOY, OR LISSOY MILL.

The west end of it, as seen from a field near the road; to the north the
country slopes away in coarsely cultivated enclosures, and the distance
eastward is bounded by the Longford hills. The stream ran from the south
side of the mill (where it is still of some width though nearly choked
up), and fell over the once busy wheel, into a deep channel, now
overgrown with weeds. Neglect and poverty appear all around. The farm
house and barn-like buildings, which fill up the sketch, seem to have no
circumstances of interest attached to them (p. 83).



KILKENNY WEST CHURCH.

This south-west view was taken from the road, which passes by the
church, towards Lishoy, and overlooks the adjacent country to the west.
The church appears neat, its exterior having been lately repaired. The
tree added to the foreground is the only liberty taken with the subject
(p. 83).


HAWTHORN TREE.

An east view of the tree, as it stood in August, 1806. The Athlone road
occupies the centre of the sketch, winding round the stone wall to the
right, into the village, and to the left leading toward the church. The
cottage and tree opposite the hawthorn, adjoin the present public-house;
the avenue before the parsonage tops the distant eminence (p. 84).


SOUTH VIEW FROM GOLDSMITH'S MOUNT.

In this sketch 'the decent church,' at the top of the hill in the
distance, is an important object, from its exact correspondence with the
situation given it in the poem. Half-way up stands the solitary ruin of
Lord Dillon's castle. The hill in shadow, on the left, is above the
village, and is supposed to be alluded to in the line --

Up yonder hill the distant murmur rose.

A flat of bogland extends from the narrow lake in the centre to the
mount on the right of the foreground (p. 84).


THE PARSONAGE.

A south view from the Athlone road, which runs parallel with the stone
wall, and nearly east and west: the gateway is that mentioned in
Goldsmith's letter*, the mount being directly opposite, in a field
contiguous with the road.

[footnote] *See note to l. 114 of 'The Deserted Village'.

The ruinous stone wall in this and three other sketches, which is a
frequent sort of fence in the neighbourhood, gives a characteristic
propriety to the line (48)

And the long grass o'ertops the mould'ring wall.
(pp. 84-5).


THE SCHOOL-HOUSE.

This cottage is situated, as the poem describes it, by the road-side,
just where it forms a sharp angle by branching out from the village
eastward: at this point a south-west view was taken (p. 85).

Newell's book was reissued in 1820; but no alterations were made in the
foregoing descriptions which, it must be borne in mind, refer to 1806-9.
His enthusiastic identifications will no doubt be taken by the reader
with the needful grain of salt. Goldsmith probably remembered the
hawthorn bush, the church upon the hill, the watercress gatherer, and
some other familiar objects of the 'seats of his youth. ' But distance
added charm to the regretful retrospect; and in the details his fancy
played freely with his memories. It would be unwise, for example, to
infer -- as Mr. Hogan did -- the decorations of the 'Three Pidgeons' at
Lissoy from the account of the inn in the poem. * Some twelve years
before its publication, when he was living miserably in Green Arbour
Court, Goldsmith had submitted to his brother Henry a sample of a
heroi-comic poem describing a Grub Street writer in bed in 'a paltry
ale-house. ' In this 'the sanded floor,' the 'twelve good rules' and the
broken tea-cups all played their parts as accessories, and even the
double-dealing chest had its prototype in the poet's night-cap, which
was 'a cap by night -- a stocking all the day. ' A year or two later he
expanded these lines in the 'Citizen of the World', and the scene
becomes the Red Lion in Drury Lane. From this second version he adapted,
or extended again, the description of the inn parlour in 'The Deserted
Village'. It follows therefore, either that he borrowed for London the
details of a house in Ireland, or that he used for Ireland the details
of a house in London. If, on the other hand, it be contended that those
details were common to both places, then the identification in these
particulars of Auburn with Lissoy falls hopelessly to the ground.

[footnote] *What follows is taken from the writer's 'Introduction' to
Mr. Edwin Abbey's illustrated edition of 'The Deserted Village', 1902,
p. ix. .







APPENDIX C


THE EPITHET 'SENTIMENTAL. '

Goldsmith's use of 'sentimental' in the 'prologue' to 'She Stoops to
Conquer' (p. 109, l. 36) -- the only occasion upon which he seems to
have employed it in his 'poems' -- affords an excuse for bringing
together one or two dispersed illustrations of the rise and growth of
this once highly-popular adjective, not as yet reached in the N. E. D.
Johnson, who must often have heard it, ignores it altogether; and in
Todd's edition of his 'Dictionary' (1818) it is expressly marked with a
star as one of the modern words which are 'not' to be found in the
Doctor's collection. According to Mr. Sidney Lee's admirable article in
the 'Dictionary of National Biography' on Sterne, that author is to be
regarded as the 'only begetter' of the epithet. Mr. Lee says that it
first occurs in a letter of 1740 written by the future author of
'Tristram Shandy' to the Miss Lumley he afterwards married. Here is the
precise and characteristic passage:-- 'I gave a thousand pensive,
penetrating looks at the chair thou hadst so often graced, in those
quiet and 'sentimental' repasts -- then laid down my knife and fork, and
took out my handkerchief, and clapped it across my face, and wept like a
child' (Sterne's 'Works' by Saintsbury, 1894, v. 25). Nine years later,
however circulated, 'sentimental' has grown 'so much in vogue' that it
has reached from London to the provinces. 'Mrs. Belfour' (Lady
Bradshaigh) writing from Lincolnshire to Richardson says:-- 'Pray, Sir,
give me leave to ask you. . . what, in your opinion, is the meaning of the
word 'sentimental', so much in vogue amongst the polite, both in town
and country? In letters and common conversation, I have asked several
who make use of it, and have generally received for answer, it is -- it
is -- 'sentimental'. Every thing clever and agreeable is comprehended in
that word; but [I] am convinced a wrong interpretation is given, because
it is impossible every thing clever and agreeable can be so common as
this word. I am frequently astonished to hear such a one is a
'sentimental' man; we were a 'sentimental' party; I have been taking a
'sentimental' walk. And that I might be reckoned a little in the
fashion, and, as I thought, show them the proper use of the word, about
six weeks ago, I declared I had just received a 'sentimental' letter.
Having often laughed at the word, and found fault with the application
of it, and this being the first time I ventured to make use of it, I was
loudly congratulated upon the occasion: but I should be glad to know
your interpretation of it' (Richardson's 'Correspondence', 1804, iv. pp.
282-3). The reply of the author of 'Clarissa', which would have been
interesting, is not given; but it is clear that by this date (1749)
'sentimental' must already have been rather overworked by 'the polite. '
Eleven years after this we meet with it in the Prologue to Colman's
'Dramatick Novel' of 'Polly Honeycombe'. 'And then,' he says, commenting
upon the fiction of the period, --

And then so 'sentimental' is the Stile,
So chaste, yet so bewitching all the while!
Plot, and elopement, passion, rape, and rapture,
The total sum of ev'ry dear -- dear -- Chapter.

With February, 1768, came Sterne's 'Sentimental Journey' upon which
Wesley has this comment:-- 'I casually took a volume of what is called,
"A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy. " 'Sentimental'! what is
that? It is not English: he might as well say, 'Continental' [! ]. It is
not sense. It conveys no determinate idea; yet one fool makes many. And
this nonsensical word (who would believe it? ) is become a fashionable
one! ' ('Journal', February 11, 1772). In 1773, Goldsmith puts it in the
'Dedication' to 'She Stoops':-- 'The undertaking a comedy, not merely
'sentimental', was very dangerous;' and Garrick (forgetting Kelly and
'False Delicacy') uses it more than once in his 'Prologue' to the same
play, e. g. -- 'Faces are blocks in 'sentimental' scenes. ' Further
examples might easily be multiplied, for the word, in spite of Johnson,
had now come to stay. Two years subsequently we find Sheridan referring
to

The goddess of the woful countenance,
The 'sentimental' Muse! --

in an occasional 'Prologue' to 'The Rivals'. It must already have
passed into the vocabulary of the learned. Todd gives examples from
Shenstone and Langhorne. Warton has it more than once in his 'History of
English Poetry'; and it figures in the 'Essays' of Vicesimus Knox. Thus
academically launched, we need no longer follow its fortunes.







APPENDIX D

FRAGMENTS OF TRANSLATIONS, ETC. , BY
GOLDSMITH.

To the Aldine edition of 1831, the Rev. John Mitford added several
fragments of translation from Goldsmith's 'Essays'. About a third of
these were traced by Bolton Corney in 1845 to the 'Horace' of Francis.
He therefore compiled a fresh collection, here given.

'From a French version of Homer'.
The shouting army cry'd with joy extreme,
He sure must conquer, who himself can tame!
'The Bee', 1759, p. 90.

The next is also from Homer, and is proposed as an
improvement of Pope:--

They knew and own'd the monarch of the main:
The sea subsiding spreads a level plain:
The curling waves before his coursers fly:
The parting surface leaves his brazen axle dry.
'Miscellaneous Works', 1801, iv. 410.

From the same source comes number three,
a quatrain from Vida's 'Eclogues':--

Say heavenly muse, their youthful frays rehearse;
Begin, ye daughters of immortal verse;
Exulting rocks have crown'd the power of song!
And rivers listen'd as they flow'd along.
'Miscellaneous Works', 1801, iv. 427.

Another is a couplet from Ovid, the fish
referred to being the 'scarus' or bream:--

Of all the fish that graze beneath the flood,
He, 'only', ruminates his former food.
'History of the Earth, etc. ', 1774, iii. 6.

Bolton Corney also prints the translation from the 'Spectator', already
given in this volume. His last fragment is from the posthumous
translation of Scarron's 'Roman Comique':--

Thus, when soft love subdues the heart
With smiling hopes and chilling fears,
The soul rejects the aid of art,
And speaks in moments more than years.