his parts; and once intreated a friend to defift from praising him, 'for in doing fo', faid he,' you harrow up my very foul.'

He had fome wit, but no humour, and never told a ftory but he spoiled it. The following anecdotes will convey fome idea of the style and manner of his converfation:

He was used to say he could play on the GermanAlute as well as most men;-at other times, as well as any man living; and in his poem of the Traveller, has hinted at this attainment in the following lines:

To kinder skies, where gentler manners reign, 'I turn; and France difplays her bright domain: 'Gay sprightly land of mirth and social ease, 'Pleas'd with thyself, whom all the world can please, 'How often have I led thy fportive choir,

With tuneless pipe, befide the murmuring Loire! Where fhading elms along the margin grew, 'And, freshen'd from the wave, the zephyr flew;

And haply, though my harsh touch, falt'ring still, 'But mock'd all tune, and marr'd the dancers skill, 'Yet would the village praise my wond'rous power, And dance, forgetful of the noon-tide hour.'

But, in truth, he understood not the character in which mufic is written, and played on that inftrument, as many of the vulgar do, merely by ear. Roubiliac the sculptor, a merry fellow, once heard him play, and minding to put a trick on him, pretended to be charmed with his performance, as alfo, that himself was skilled in the art, and intreated him to repeat the air, that he might write it down. Goldfmith readily confenting, Roubiliac called for paper, and scored Ee

thereon

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thereon a few five-lined ftaves, which having done, Goldsmith proceeded to play, and Roubiliac to write; but his writing was only fuch random notes on the lines and spaces as any one might fet down who had ever inspected a page of mufic. When they had both done, Roubiliac fhewed the paper to Goldfmith, who looking it over with feeming great attention, faid it was very correct, and that if he had not feen him do it, he never could have believed his friend capable of writing mufic after him.

He would frequently preface a ftory thus:- I'll now tell you a story of myself, which some people laugh at, and fome do not.'

At the breaking up of an evening at a tavern, he intreated the company to fit down, and told them if they would call for another bottle they fhould hear one of his bons mots:-they agreed, and he began thus I was once told that Sheridan the player, in order to improve himself in ftage-geftures, had looking-glaffes, to the number of ten, hung about his room, and that he practifed before them; upon which I faid, then there were ten ugly fellows toge'ther.'-The company were all filent: he asked why they did not laugh, which they not doing, he, without tasting the wine, left the room in anger.

He once complained to a friend in thefe words :Mr. Martinelli is a rude man: I said in his hearing, that there were no good writers among the Italians, and he said to one that fat near him, that I was very ignorant *.'

"People,' faid he, are greatly mistaken in me: a notion goes about, that when I am filent I mean to

* Mr. Martinelli is an Italian.

be

be impudent; but I affure you, gentlemen, my filence arifes from bashfulness.'

Having one day a call to wait on the late duke, then earl, of Northumberland, I found Goldsmith waiting for an audience in an outer room; I asked him what had brought him there: he told me an invitation from his lordship. I made my business as fhort as I could, and, as a reason, mentioned, that Dr. Goldfinith was waiting without. The earl asked me if I was acquainted with him: I told him I was, adding what I thought likely to recommend him. I retired, and ftaid in the outer room to take him home. Upon his coming out, I afked him the refult of his converfation:- His lordship,' fays he, told me he had red my poem,' meaning the Traveller, ' and was much delighted with it; that he was going lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and that, hearing that I was a native of that country, he should be

glad to do me any kindness.'-And what did you anfwer, afked I, to this gracious offer? Why,' faid he, I could fay nothing but that I had a brother there, a clergyman, that ftood in need of help: as for myself, I have no dependence on the promises of great men : I look to the bookfellers for fupport; they are my best friends, and I am not inclined to forfake them for others.'

Thus did this idiot in the affairs of the world, trifle with his fortunes, and put back the hand that was held out to affift him! Other offers of a like kind he either rejected or failed to improve, contenting himself with the patronage of one nobleman, whose mansion afforded him the delights of a fplendid table, and a retreat for a few days from the metropolis.

While I was writing the Hiftory of Mufic, he, at the club, communicated to me fome curious matter: I defired he would reduce it to writing; he promised me he would, and defired to fee me at his chambers: I called on him there; he stepped into a closet, and tore out of a printed book fix leaves that contained what he had mentioned to me.

As he wrote for the bookfellers, we, at the club, looked on him as a mere literary drudge, equal to the task of compiling and tranflating, but little capable of original, and still lefs of poetical compofition: he had, nevertheless, unknown to us, written and addreffed to the countefs, afterwards duchefs, of Northumberland, one of the finest poems of the lyric kind that our language has to boast of, the ballad Turn gentle Hermit ' of the dale *;" and surprised us with The Traveller,' a poem that contains fome particulars of his own history. Johnson was supposed to have affifted him in it; but he contributed to the perfection of it only four lines: his opinion of it was, that it was the best written poem fince the time of Pope. The favourable reception which this effay of his poetical talent met with, foon after tempted Goldfmith to the publication of his 'Deserted Village,' the merits whereof, confifting in local particularities and beautiful defcriptions of rural manners, are fufficiently known.

His poems are replete with fine moral fentiments, and befpeak a great dignity of mind; yet he had no fenfe of the shame, nor dread of the evils, of poverty. In the latter he was at one time fo involved,

Printed in his poetical works, vol. I.

that

that for the clamours of a woman, to whom he was indebted for lodging, and for bailiffs that waited to arrest him, he was equally unable, till he had made himself drunk, to stay within doors, or go abroad to hawk among the bookfellers his Vicar of Wakefield. In this diftrefs he fent for Johnfon, who immediately went to one of them, and brought back money for his relief.

In his dealings with the bookfellers, he is faid to have acted very difhoneftly, never fulfilling his engagements. In one year he got of them, and by his plays, the fum of 1800l. which he diffipated by gaming and extravagance, and died poor in 1774.

He that can account for the inconfiftencies of character above-noted, otherwife than by fhewing, that wit and wifdom are feldom found to meet in the fame mind, will do more than any of Goldfmith's friends were ever able to do. He was buried in the poets' corner in Westminster abbey. A monument was erected for him by a subscription of his friends, and is placed over the entrance into St. Blafe's chapel. The infcription thereon was written by Johnson. This I am able to fay with certainty, for he fhewed it to me in manufcript.

The members of our club, that remain to be spoken of, were perfons of lefs celebrity than him abovementioned, but were better acquainted with the world, and qualified for focial intercourfe. Mr. Beauclerk was allied to the St. Alban's family, and took his chriftian name from Mr. Topham of Windfor, the famous collector of pictures and drawings. To the character of a scholar, and a man of fine parts, he added that of a man of fashion, of which his drefs

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