) There is a
caricature portrait of Scott at p.
caricature portrait of Scott at p.
Oliver Goldsmith
V of the 'History of the
Earth and Animated Nature', 1774, are freely translated from some Latin
verses by Addison in No 412 of the 'Spectator', where they are
introduced as follows:-- 'Thus we see that every different Species of
sensible Creatures has its different Notions of Beauty, and that each of
them is most affected with the Beauties of its own kind. This is nowhere
more remarkable than in Birds of the same Shape and Proportion, where we
often see the Male determined in his Courtship by the single Grain or
Tincture of a Feather, and never discovering any Charms but in the
Colour of its own Species. ' Addison's lines, of which Goldsmith
translated the first fourteen only, are printed from his corrected MS.
at p. 4 of 'Some Portions of Essays contributed to the Spectator by Mr.
Joseph Addison [by the late J. Dykes Campbell], 1864.
THE HAUNCH OF VENISON.
It is supposed that this poem was written early in 1771, although it was
not printed until 1776, when it was published by G. Kearsly and J.
Ridley under the title of 'The Haunch of Venison, a Poetical Epistle to
the Lord Clare. By the late Dr. Goldsmith. With a Head of the Author,
Drawn by Henry Bunbury, Esq; and Etched by [James] Bretherton. ' A second
edition, the text of which is here followed, appeared in the same year
'With considerable Additions and Corrections, Taken from the Author's
'last' Transcript. ' The Lord Clare to whom the verses are addressed was
Robert Nugent, of Carlanstown, Westmeath, M. P. for St. Mawes in 1741-54.
In 1766 he was created Viscount Clare; in 1776 Earl Nugent. In his youth
he had himself been an easy if not very original versifier; and there
are several of his performances in the second volume of Dodsley's
'Collection of Poems by Several Hands', 4th ed. , 1755. One of the
Epistles, beginning 'Clarinda, dearly lov'd, attend The Counsels of a
faithful friend,' seems to have betrayed Goldsmith into the blunder of
confusing it, in the 'Poems for Young Ladies'. 1767, p. 114, with
Lyttelton's better-known 'Advice to a Lady' ('The counsels of a friend,
Belinda, hear'), also in Dodsley's miscellany; while another piece, an
'Ode to William Pultney, Esq. ', contains a stanza so good that Gibbon
worked it into his character of Brutus:--
What tho' the good, the brave, the wise,
With adverse force undaunted rise,
To break th' eternal doom!
Tho' CATO liv'd, tho' TULLY spoke,
Tho' BRUTUS dealt the godlike stroke,
Yet perish'd fated ROME.
Detraction, however, has insinuated that Mallet, his step-son's tutor,
was Nugent's penholder in this instance. 'Mr. Nugent sure did not write
his own Ode,' says Gray to Walpole (Gray's 'Works', by Gosse, 1884, ii.
220). Earl Nugent died in Dublin in October, 1788, and was buried at
Gosfield in Essex, a property he had acquired with his second wife. A
'Memoir' of him was written in 1898 by Mr. Claud Nugent. He is described
by Cunningham as 'a big, jovial, voluptuous Irishman, with a loud voice,
a strong Irish accent, and a ready though coarse wit. ' According to
Percy ('Memoir', 1801, p. 66), he had been attracted to Goldsmith by the
publication of 'The Traveller' in 1764, and he mentioned him favourably
to the Earl of Northumberland, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. A note
in Forster's 'Life', 1871, ii. 329-30, speaks of Goldsmith as a frequent
visitor at Gosfield, and at Nugent's house in Great George Street,
Westminster, where he had often for playmate his host's daughter, Mary,
afterwards Marchioness of Buckingham.
Scott and others regarded 'The Haunch of Venison' as autobiographical.
To what extent this is the case, it is difficult to say. That it
represents the actual thanks of the poet to Lord Clare for an actual
present of venison, part of which he promptly transferred to Reynolds,
is probably the fact. But, as the following notes show, it is also clear
that Goldsmith borrowed, if not his entire fable, at least some of its
details from Boileau's third satire; and that, in certain of the lines,
he had in memory Swift's 'Grand Question Debated', the measure of which
he adopts. This throws more than a doubt upon the truth of the whole.
'His genius' (as Hazlitt says) 'was a mixture of originality and
imitation'; and fact and fiction often mingle inseparably in his work.
The author of the bailiff scene in the 'Good Natur'd Man' was quite
capable of inventing for the nonce the tragedy of the unbaked pasty, or
of selecting from the Pilkingtons and Purdons of his acquaintance such
appropriate guests for his Mile End Amphitryon as the writers of the
'Snarler' and the 'Scourge'. It may indeed even be doubted whether, if
'The Haunch of Venison' had been absolute personal history, Goldsmith
would ever have retailed it to his noble patron at Gosfield, although it
may include enough of real experience to serve as the basis for a 'jeu
d'esprit'.
l. 4. -----
"The fat was so white, etc. " The first version reads --
'The white was so white, and the red was so ruddy. '
l. 5. -----
"Though my stomach was sharp, etc. " This couplet is not
in the first version.
l. 10. -----
"One gammon of bacon". Prior compared a passage from
Goldsmith's 'Animated Nature', 1774, iii. 9, 'a propos' of a
similar practice in Germany, Poland, and Switzerland. 'A piece
of beef,' he says, 'hung up there, is considered as an elegant
piece of furniture, which, though seldom touched, at least
argues the possessor's opulence and ease. '
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.
Earth and Animated Nature', 1774, are freely translated from some Latin
verses by Addison in No 412 of the 'Spectator', where they are
introduced as follows:-- 'Thus we see that every different Species of
sensible Creatures has its different Notions of Beauty, and that each of
them is most affected with the Beauties of its own kind. This is nowhere
more remarkable than in Birds of the same Shape and Proportion, where we
often see the Male determined in his Courtship by the single Grain or
Tincture of a Feather, and never discovering any Charms but in the
Colour of its own Species. ' Addison's lines, of which Goldsmith
translated the first fourteen only, are printed from his corrected MS.
at p. 4 of 'Some Portions of Essays contributed to the Spectator by Mr.
Joseph Addison [by the late J. Dykes Campbell], 1864.
THE HAUNCH OF VENISON.
It is supposed that this poem was written early in 1771, although it was
not printed until 1776, when it was published by G. Kearsly and J.
Ridley under the title of 'The Haunch of Venison, a Poetical Epistle to
the Lord Clare. By the late Dr. Goldsmith. With a Head of the Author,
Drawn by Henry Bunbury, Esq; and Etched by [James] Bretherton. ' A second
edition, the text of which is here followed, appeared in the same year
'With considerable Additions and Corrections, Taken from the Author's
'last' Transcript. ' The Lord Clare to whom the verses are addressed was
Robert Nugent, of Carlanstown, Westmeath, M. P. for St. Mawes in 1741-54.
In 1766 he was created Viscount Clare; in 1776 Earl Nugent. In his youth
he had himself been an easy if not very original versifier; and there
are several of his performances in the second volume of Dodsley's
'Collection of Poems by Several Hands', 4th ed. , 1755. One of the
Epistles, beginning 'Clarinda, dearly lov'd, attend The Counsels of a
faithful friend,' seems to have betrayed Goldsmith into the blunder of
confusing it, in the 'Poems for Young Ladies'. 1767, p. 114, with
Lyttelton's better-known 'Advice to a Lady' ('The counsels of a friend,
Belinda, hear'), also in Dodsley's miscellany; while another piece, an
'Ode to William Pultney, Esq. ', contains a stanza so good that Gibbon
worked it into his character of Brutus:--
What tho' the good, the brave, the wise,
With adverse force undaunted rise,
To break th' eternal doom!
Tho' CATO liv'd, tho' TULLY spoke,
Tho' BRUTUS dealt the godlike stroke,
Yet perish'd fated ROME.
Detraction, however, has insinuated that Mallet, his step-son's tutor,
was Nugent's penholder in this instance. 'Mr. Nugent sure did not write
his own Ode,' says Gray to Walpole (Gray's 'Works', by Gosse, 1884, ii.
220). Earl Nugent died in Dublin in October, 1788, and was buried at
Gosfield in Essex, a property he had acquired with his second wife. A
'Memoir' of him was written in 1898 by Mr. Claud Nugent. He is described
by Cunningham as 'a big, jovial, voluptuous Irishman, with a loud voice,
a strong Irish accent, and a ready though coarse wit. ' According to
Percy ('Memoir', 1801, p. 66), he had been attracted to Goldsmith by the
publication of 'The Traveller' in 1764, and he mentioned him favourably
to the Earl of Northumberland, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. A note
in Forster's 'Life', 1871, ii. 329-30, speaks of Goldsmith as a frequent
visitor at Gosfield, and at Nugent's house in Great George Street,
Westminster, where he had often for playmate his host's daughter, Mary,
afterwards Marchioness of Buckingham.
Scott and others regarded 'The Haunch of Venison' as autobiographical.
To what extent this is the case, it is difficult to say. That it
represents the actual thanks of the poet to Lord Clare for an actual
present of venison, part of which he promptly transferred to Reynolds,
is probably the fact. But, as the following notes show, it is also clear
that Goldsmith borrowed, if not his entire fable, at least some of its
details from Boileau's third satire; and that, in certain of the lines,
he had in memory Swift's 'Grand Question Debated', the measure of which
he adopts. This throws more than a doubt upon the truth of the whole.
'His genius' (as Hazlitt says) 'was a mixture of originality and
imitation'; and fact and fiction often mingle inseparably in his work.
The author of the bailiff scene in the 'Good Natur'd Man' was quite
capable of inventing for the nonce the tragedy of the unbaked pasty, or
of selecting from the Pilkingtons and Purdons of his acquaintance such
appropriate guests for his Mile End Amphitryon as the writers of the
'Snarler' and the 'Scourge'. It may indeed even be doubted whether, if
'The Haunch of Venison' had been absolute personal history, Goldsmith
would ever have retailed it to his noble patron at Gosfield, although it
may include enough of real experience to serve as the basis for a 'jeu
d'esprit'.
l. 4. -----
"The fat was so white, etc. " The first version reads --
'The white was so white, and the red was so ruddy. '
l. 5. -----
"Though my stomach was sharp, etc. " This couplet is not
in the first version.
l. 10. -----
"One gammon of bacon". Prior compared a passage from
Goldsmith's 'Animated Nature', 1774, iii. 9, 'a propos' of a
similar practice in Germany, Poland, and Switzerland. 'A piece
of beef,' he says, 'hung up there, is considered as an elegant
piece of furniture, which, though seldom touched, at least
argues the possessor's opulence and ease. '
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.
