method of conveying it to you, unless you may think it dear of the postage, which may amount to four or five shillings. However, I fear you will not find an equivalence of amusement. Your last letter, I repeat it, was too short; you should have given me your opinion of the design of the heroi-comical poem which I sent you. You remember I intended to introduce the hero of the poem as lying in a paltry ale-house. You may take the following specimen of the manner, which I flatter myself is quite original. The room in which he lies may be described somewhat this way :

-

The window, patch'd with paper, lent a ray,
That feebly show'd the state in which he lay.
The sanded floor, that grits beneath the tread;
The humid wall with paltry pictures spread;
The Game of Goose was there exposed to view,
And the Twelve Rules the Royal Martyr drew:
The Seasons, framed with listing, found a place,
And Prussia's monarch show'd his lamp-black face.
The morn was cold; he views with keen desire
A rusty grate unconscious of a fire.

An unpaid reck'ning on the frieze was scored,

And five crack'd tea-cups dress'd the chimney board.'

And now imagine, after his soliloquy, the landlord to make his appearance, in order to dun him for the reckoning:— Not with that face, so servile and so gay, That welcomes every stranger that can pay : With sulky eye he smok'd the patient man, Then pull'd his breeches tight, and thus began, &c.

It is a good

All this is taken, you see, from nature. remark of Montaign's, that the wisest men often have friends with whom they do not care how much they play the fool. Take my present follies as instances of regard. Poetry is a much easier, and more agreeable species of composition than prose; and could a man live by it, it were not unpleasant employment to be a poet. I am resolved to leave no space, though I should fill it up only by telling you, what you very well know already, I mean that I am your most affectionate friend and brother, OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

These lines re-appear, with additions, in the 'Description of an Author's Bed-chamber,' 'Poems,' vol. ii. p. 82, and in the 'Citizen of the World,' Letter XXX.-ED.

LETTER XIII.

TO MR. NEWBERY, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD.1

DEAR SIR,

[About March, 1762.]

As I have been out of order for some time past, and am still not quite recovered, the fifth volume of 'Plutarch's Lives' remains unfinished. I fear I shall not be able to do it, unless there be an actual necessity, and that none else can be found. If therefore you would send it to Mr. Collier, I should esteem it a kindness, and will pay for whatever it may come to.-N.B. I received twelve guineas for the two volumes.

I am, Sir, your obliged,
Humble servant,

One volume is done, namely, the fourth. When I said I should be glad Mr. Collier would do the fifth for me, I only demanded it as a favour, but if he cannot conveniently do it, though I have kept my chamber these three weeks, and am not quite recovered, yet I will do it. I send it per bearer; and if the affair puts you to the

The dates of this and the following note are shown to be about March, 1762, by Goldsmith's receipt for payment for the work mentioned, which receipt is among the Newbery papers, and bears date March 5, 1762 (see p. 478). The notes were first printed by Prior, 1837, from the originals then in the possession of Mr. John Murray, sen., the publisher.-ED.

2 Mr. Joseph Collyer, a compiler and translator for the booksellers of the time. In 1767 he translated Bodmer's Noah.'-ED.

least inconvenience, return it, and it shall be done immediately.

The printer has the copy of the rest.1

I am, &c.

O. G.

LETTER XV.

TO THE PRINTER OF THE ST. JAMES'S CHRONICLE.2

[July 23-25, 1767.]

SIR, As there is nothing I dislike so much as newspaper controversy, particularly upon trifles, permit me to be as concise as possible in informing a correspondent of yours, that I recommended Blainville's Travels because I thought the book was a good one; and I think so still.3 I said I was told by the bookseller that it was then first published; but in that, it seems, I was misinformed, and my reading was not extensive enough to set me right.

1 The 'Plutarch' concerning which the foregoing two notes were written was the first of a' Compendium of Biography' for children, projected by Mr. Newbery, and announced by him as follows:"Mr. Newbery begs leave to offer to the young gentlemen and ladies of these kingdoms a Compendium of Biography; or an History of the Lives of those Great Personages, both ancient and modern, who are most worthy of their Esteem and Imitation, and most likely to inspire their minds with a Love of Virtue." To Goldsmith was given the task of commencing this series with Plutarch,' which Newbery promised in his advertisement should be "abridged from the original Greek." In our collection of Goldsmith's Prefaces, in vol. iv., will be found his Advertisement to the Compendium of Biography.'-ED.

2 In refutation of the charge that our author had taken his Edwin and Angelina' from one of the Percy Ballads. The matter is further explained in the notes to the poem in our vol. ii., p. 20.-ED.

Mr. Forster published, in his 'Life of Goldsmith,' 1854, vol. i., p. 405, a" Recommendation" of these Travels, being part of "Proposals" by the publishing firm of J. Johnson and B. Davenport for issuing an English edition. This no doubt is the recommendation alluded to in the above letter. It does not appear that Goldsmith had anything to do with the translation; or, indeed, that the "proposals" resulted in this translation being published.—ED.

Another correspondent of yours accuses me of having taken a ballad I published some time ago from one by the ingenious Mr. Percy. I do not think there is any great resemblance between the two pieces in question. If there be any, his ballad is taken from mine. I read it to Mr. Percy some years ago; and he (as we both considered these things as trifles at best) told me, with his usual good humour, the next time I saw him, that he had taken my plan to form the fragments of Shakspeare into a ballad of his own. He then read me his little Cento, if I may so call it, and I highly approved it. Such petty anecdotes as these are scarcely worth printing; and, were it not for the busy disposition of some of your correspondents, the public should never have known that he owes me the hint of his ballad, or that I am obliged to his friendship and learning for communications of a much more important nature.

I am, Sir, yours, &c.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

LETTER XVI.

TO DAVID GARRICK, ESQ., AT LITCHFIELD.

LONDON, July 20, 1767.

SIR, A few days ago Mr. Beard renewed his claim to the piece which I had written for his stage, and had, as a friend, submitted to your perusal. As I found you had very great difficulties about that piece, I complied with his desire, thinking it wrong to take up the attention of my friends with such petty concerns as mine, or to load your good-nature by a compliance rather with their requests than my merits. I am extremely sorry that you should think me warm at our last meeting; your judgment certainly ought to be free, especially in a matter which must in some measure concern your own credit and interest. I assure you, Sir, I have no disposition to differ with you on this or any other account, but am, with an

high opinion of your abilities, and with a very real esteem,

Sir,

Your most obedient humble servant,
OLIVER GOLDSMITH.'

LETTER XVII.

2

TO MR. MAURICE GOLDSMITH, AT JAMES LAWDER'S, ESQ., AT KILMORE, NEAR CARRICK-ON-SHANNON.

January, 1770.

DEAR BROTHER,

I should have answered your letter sooner, but in truth I am not fond of thinking of the necessities of those I love, when it is so very little in my power to help them. I am sorry to find you are still every way unprovided for; and what adds to my uneasiness is, that I have received a letter from my sister Johnson,3 by which I learn that she

1 First published by Prior, from the original in the Garrick MSS., then in the possession of Colburn, the publisher. The "piece "the subject of the note was the 'Good Natured Man.' Mr. Beard was Colman's immediate predecessor in the management of Covent Garden Theatre. This letter was written the day after Goldsmith had written one to Colman in acknowledgment for the latter having agreed to produce the comedy. The letter to Colman is printed in fac-simile in Forster's 'Goldsmith,' 1854, vol. ii. p. 66.-ED.

2 This was our poet's youngest brother. Having been bred to no business, he, upon some occasion, complained to our bard, that he found it difficult to live like a gentleman: on which Oliver begged he would, without delay, quit so unprofitable a trade, and betake himself to some handicraft employment. Maurice wisely took the hint, and bound himself apprentice to a cabinet-maker. He had a shop in Dublin, when the Duke of Rutland was lord lieutenant; who, at the instance of Mr. Orde, then principal secretary of state (now Lord Bolton), out of regard to his brother's memory, made him an inspector of the licences in that city. He was also appointed mace-bearer on the erection of the Royal Irish Academy: both of them places very compatible with his business. In the former he gave proof of great integrity, by detecting a fraud committed on the revenue in his department, by which probably he might himself have profited, if he had not been a man of principle. He died without issue, about seven years ago.-Note in Percy Memoir, 1801.

3 The "poor Jenny" of Letter XII. The name is spelt as here in the Letter as first printed in Percy, but otherwise it is generally spelt Johnston.-ED.