atre, even Horace Walpole, though he must have winced a little at the laugh raised in the course of the performance at an old lady friend of his, and a club of which they both were members,' found himself obliged to admit that some of the characters were well acted, and that Garrick's "poor epilogue" was admirably spoken by Woodward; and, in short, he has to justify his general ill opinion of the piece by remarking that a play may make you laugh very much indeed, and yet be a very wretched comedy. Goldsmith was not disposed, nevertheless, to be quite contented with that test. "Did it make you laugh?" he asked Northcote, who had applauded lustily in the gallery in company with Ralph, Sir Joshua's confidential man;' but who was too modest to offer an opinion of his own when asked next day. "Exceedingly," was the answer. "Then that is all I require;" and the author promised him half a dozen tickets for his first benefit night. This night, and its two successors, are supposed to have The "Albemarle Street Club," to which Young Marlow represents himself playing the agreeable Rattle, and keeping it up with Mrs. Mantrap and old Miss Biddy Buckskin till three in the morning. "I forgot to tell your ladyship," writes Walpole to Lady Ossory, "that Miss Lloyd is in the new play by the name of Rachel Buckskin, though he has altered it in the printed copies. Somebody wrote for her a very sensible reproof to him, only it ended with an indecent grossièreté. However, the fool took it seriously, and wrote a most dull and scurrilous answer; but, luckily for him, Mr. Beauclerc and Mr. Garrick intercepted it."-Walpole's Ossory Letters, i. 60. 2 "A party went from Sir Joshua's to support it. The present title was not fixed upon till that morning. Northcote went with Ralph, Sir Joshua's man, into the gallery, to see how it went off; and after the second act there was no doubt of its success."-Northcote's Conversations, 41. In a subsequent passage (196), he says that a gross expression fell from one of the actors, which "the gallery" promptly suppressed. 3 Life of Reynolds, i. 286. 4 To author's nights (or days) Pope alludes in a celebrated passage: "Here she beholds the chaos dark and deep Where nameless somethings in their causes sleep, -Dunciad, i. 55–60. realized between four and five hundred pounds; and the comedy ran to the end of the season, with only such interruptions as holidays and benefit nights interposed. The tenth night was by royal command, and the twelfth was the season's closing night, on the 31st of May. But Foote acted it in the summer at the Haymarket, and it was resumed in winter with the re-opening of Covent Garden. Again it had the compliment of a royal command; ran many merry nights that second season; has made thousands of honest people merry every season since; and still continues to add its yearly sum to the harmless stock of public pleasure. Goldsmith had meanwhile printed it with all despatch, and dedicated it to Johnson. "In inscribing this slight performance to you,” he said, "I do not mean so much to compliment you as myself. It may do me some honor to inform the public that I have lived many years in intimacy with you. It may serve the interests of mankind. also to inform them that the greatest wit may be found in a character without impairing the most unaffected piety."" 1 Boswell is good enough to remark on this: "Goldsmith, though his vanity often excited him to occasional competition, had a very high regard for Johnson, which he at this time expressed in the strongest manner in the dedication of his comedy." In quitting the comedy let me add another sort of tribute which its success brought upon him. Percy found the subjoined among poor Goldsmith's papers after his death; and that Mrs. John Oakman received an answer perfectly satisfactory, and, in Mr. Oakman's view, creditable to his "good sense," I cannot entertain a doubt. It is entitled "On Dr. Goldsmith's comedy, 'She 'Stoops to Conquer"": 66 'Quite sick in her bed Thalia was laid, A sentiment puke had quite kill'd the sweet maid, When a regular Doctor, 'one Goldsmith by name, "Oh! Doctor, assist a poor bard who lies ill, From your kindness he hopes for some ease. Goldsmith's dedications are perfect models of what that kind of writing should be. You're a Good-natur'd Man all the world does allow, "The bearer is the author's wife, and an answer from Dr. Goldsmith by her will be ever gratefully acknowledged by his Humble Servant, JOHN OAKMAN. Orange Court, Swallow Street, Carnaby Market. Saturday, March 27, 1773." CHAPTER XVI THE SHADOW AND THE SUNSHINE 1773 ONE dark shadow fell upon Goldsmith in the midst of the success of "She Stoops to Conquer," and it came as usual from Kenrick. Nine days after the appearance of the comedy a personal attack by that professional libeller appeared in an evening paper called the London Packet.' It was not more 64 1 Percy thought this worth preserving in a note to the first Memoir (103-105), and it may, therefore, perhaps be best to retain it here, if only as a specimen of the vulgar trash with which every successful man may look to be pelted from some quarter or other. It is addressed To Dr. Goldsmith"; and has for its motto Vous vous noyez par vanité. Thus it runs : "SIR,-The happy knack which you have learned of puffing your own com. positions provokes me to come forth. You have not been the editor of newspapers and magazines not to discover the trick of literary humbug. But the gauze is so thin that the very foolish part of the world see through it, and discover the doctor's monkey-face and cloven foot. Your poetic vanity is as unpardonable as your personal: would man believe it, and will woman bear it, to be told that for hours the great Goldsmith will stand surveying his grotesque Oranhotan's figure in a pier - glass? Was but the lovely H-k as much enamoured, you would not sigh, my gentle swain, in vain. But your vanity is preposterous. How will this same bard of Bedlam ring the changes in praise of Goldy! But what has he to be either proud or vain of? The Traveller is a flimsy poem, built upon false principles-principles diametrically opposite to liberty. What is the "Goodnatured Man" but a poor, water-gruel dramatic dose? What is the Deserted Village but a pretty poem, of easy numbers, without fancy, dignity, genius, or fire? And pray what may be the last speaking pantomime, so praised by the Doctor himself, but an incoherent piece of stuff, the figure of a woman with a fish's tail, without plot, incident, or intrigue? We are made to laugh at stale, dull jokes, wherein we mistake pleasantry for wit and grimace for humor; wherein every scene is unnatural, and inconsistent with the rules, the laws of nature, and of drama-viz., Two gentlemen come quer gross than former favors from the same hand had been. All his writings were denounced in it. The Traveller was "flimsy," the Deserted Village "without fancy or fire," the "Good-natured Man"" water-gruel," and "She Stoops to Con""a speaking pantomime." Harmless abuse enough, and such as plays the shadow to all success; for even the libeller is compelled to admit that "it is now the ton to go and see the comedy he so elaborately abuses. Swift's sign of a genius is, that the dunces are in confederacy against him; and there is always a large and active class of them in literature. To the end of the chapter the Dryden will have his Shadwell and the Pope his Dennis; and still the sig num fatale Minerva will be a signal for the huic date, the old cry of attack.' "Give it him" is the sentence, if he to a man of fortune's house, eat, drink, sleep, etc., and take it for an inn. The one is intended as a lover to the daughter; he talks with her for some .hours, and, when he sees her again in a different dress, he treats her as a bar-girl, and swears she squinted. He abuses the master of the house, and threatens to kick him out of his own doors. The 'squire, whom we are told is to be a fool, proves the most sensible being of the piece; and he makes out a whole act by bidding his mother lie close behind a bush, persuading her that his father, her own husband, is a highwayman, and that he has come to cut their throats; and to give his cousin an opportunity to go off, he drives his mother over hedges, ditches, and through ponds. There is not, sweet, sucking Johnson, a natural stroke in the whole play, but the young fellow's giving the stolen jewels to the mother, supposing her to be the landlady. That Mr. Colman did no justice to this piece I honestly allow; that he told all his friends it would be damned, I positively aver; and from such ungenerous insinuations, without a dramatic merit, it rose to public notice, and it is now the ton to go and see it, though I never saw a person that either liked it or approved it, any more than the absurd plot of Mr. Home's tragedy of 'Alonzo.' Mr. Goldsmith, correct your arrogance, reduce your vanity; and endeavor to believe, as a man, you are of the plainest sort; and, as an author, but a mortal piece of mediocrity. 'Brise le miroir infidèle 1 "Somebody produced a newspaper in which was a letter of stupid abuse of Sir Joshua Reynolds, of which Johnson himself came in for a share. Pray,' said he, 'let us have it read aloud from beginning to end'; which being done, he, with a ludicrous earnestness, and not directing his look to any particular person, called out, 'Are we alive after all this satire ?"—Langton's collectanea in Boswell, vii. 376. |