Sir Chas. O brave squire!

Hast. My worthy friend!

Mrs. Hard. My undutiful offspring!

Marl. Joy, my dear George, I give you joy sincerely. And could I prevail upon my little tyrant here to be less arbitrary, I should be the happiest man alive if you would return me the favor.

Hast. (To Miss Hardcastle) Come, madam, you are now driven to the very last scene of all your contrivances. I know you like him, I'm sure he loves you, and you must and shall have him.

Hard. (Joining their hands.) And I say so too. And, Mr. Marlow, if she makes as good a wife as she has a daughter, I don't believe you'll ever repent your bargain. So, now to supper. To-morrow we shall gather all the poor of the parish about us, and the mistakes of the night shall be crowned with a merry morning. So, boy, take her; and, as you have been mistaken in the mistress, my wish is that you may never be mistaken in the wife. [Exeunt Omnes.

EPILOGUE.'

Spoken by Mrs. Bulkley in the character of MISS HARDCASTLE.
WELL, having stoop'd to conquer with success,
And gain'd a husband without aid from dress,
Still, as a bar-maid, I could wish it too,
As I have conquer'd him, to conquer you;
And let me say, for all your resolution,
That pretty bar-maids have done execution.
Our life is all a play, compos'd to please;
"We have our exits and our entrances."
The first act shows the simple country maid,
Harmless and young, of everything afraid;
Blushes when hir'd, and, with unmeaning action,
"I hopes as how to give you satisfaction."
Her second act displays a livelier scene--
The unblushing bar-maid of a country inn,
Who whisks about the house, at market caters,
Talks loud, coquets the guests, and scolds the waiters.
Next the scene shifts to town, and there she soars,
The chop-house toast of ogling connoisseurs.
On squires and cits she there displays her arts,
And on the gridiron broils her lovers' hearts;
And as she smiles, her triumphs to complete,
E'en common-councilmen forget to eat.
The fourth act shows her wedded to the squire,
And madam now begins to hold it higher;
Pretends to taste, at operas cries Caro!
And quits her Nancy Dawson for Che Faro;

Dotes upon dancing, and in all her pride

Swims round the room, the Heinel of Cheapside;"

1 Goldsmith wrote two other epilogues to this comedy, neither of which, however, appears to have been spoken. See pp. 140, 144, and letter XXV. in Vol. IV.

2 Madame Heinel was a favorite dancer in London when this epilogue was spoken.

Ogles and leers with artificial skill,

Till, having lost in age the power to kill,

She sits all night at cards, and ogles at spadille.
Such, through our lives the eventful history—
The fifth and last act still remains for me:
The bar-maid now for your protection prays,
Turns female barrister, and pleads for Bayes.'

1

EPILOGUE."

To be spoken in the character of ToNY LUMPKIN.

BY J. CRADOCK, ESQ.3

WELL-now all's ended-and my comrades gone,
Pray, what becomes of "mother's nonly son?"
A hopeful blade!-in town I'll fix my station,
And try to make a bluster in the nation;
As for my cousin Neville, I renounce her,
Off-in a crack-I'll carry big Bet Bouncer.

Why should not I in the great world appear?
I soon shall have a thousand pounds a year!
No matter what a man may here inherit,
In London-'gad, they've some regard to spirit.
I see the horses prancing up the streets,
And big Bet Bouncer bobs to all she meets;
Then hoiks to jigs and pastimes ev'ry night-
Not to the plays (they say it ain't polite);

In the fourth volume of "A Collection of Prologues and Epilogues," 4 vols. 12mo, 1779, there is a characteristic full-length portrait of Mrs. Bulkley in the dress she wore when she spoke this epilogue. Mrs. Bulkley (originally Miss Wilford) died in 1792. She was famous as Lady Racket.

2 This came too late to be spoken.-GOLDSMITH. See Goldsmith's Letter to Cradock, in vol. iv.

3 Joseph Cradock, Esq., of Gumley, in Leicestershire. He was among the last survivors of Goldsmith's circle, and is now favorably remembered by his "Memoirs," 5 vols. 8vo, 1828. He died December 15, 1826, in his eighty-fifth year.

To Sadler's Wells, perhaps, or operas go,
And once, by chance, to the roratorio.
Thus here and there, forever up and down,
We'll set the fashions, too, to half the town;
And then at auctions-money ne'er regard,
Buy pictures like the great, ten pounds a yard.
Zounds! we shall make these London gentry say
We know what's damn'd genteel as well as they.

SCENE

FROM

THE GRUMBLER.

A Farce.

First printed in the edition of Goldsmith's Works edited by Mr. Wright in 1837.