1773. the Garricks, Lord and Lady Edgecumbe, and Horace Et. 45. Walpole; and there seems to have been some promise that Garrick and himself were to amuse the company in the evening with a special piece of mirth, the precise nature of which was not disclosed. But unfortunately the new comedy was coming on at Drury Lane, and soon after dinner the great actor fell into a fidget to get to the theatre, and all had to consent to wait his return. He went away at half-past five, and did not re-appear till ten; the rest meanwhile providing what present amusement they could, to relieve the dulness of amusement in expectancy. The burden fell on Walpole; and "most thoroughly tired I was,” says that fastidious gentleman, as I knew I should be, I who hate "the playing off a butt." Why this task should have been so fatiguing in the special case, Horace proceeds to explain by a peculiarity in the butt in question. "Goldsmith is a "fool, the more wearing for having some sense." However, all fatigue has an end, and at last Garrick came back from the play and the promised fun began. The player took a seat enveloped in a cloak, the poet sat down in his lap, and the cloak was so arranged as to cover the persons of both, excepting only Goldsmith's head and Garrick's arms, which seemed no longer to belong to separate bodies but to be part of one and the same. Then, from the head, issued one of the gravest heroic speeches out of Addison's Cato, while the arms made nonsense of every solemn phrase by gestures the most extravagantly humorous and inappropriate. It is a never failing effect of the broadest comedy, in the hands of very ordinary performers; and with such action as Garrick's, to burlesque the brogue and gravity of Goldsmith, must surely have been irresistible. But "how could one laugh," protests Horace Walpole, "when one had expected this for four "hours?" So, perhaps, he and Beauclerc and Lord Edgecumbe fell back once again on what this had interrupted, Et. 45. and closed up the night with the pleasanter mirth of playing off head and arms in a more mischievous game. "It was the 66 66 66 night of a new comedy," says Walpole, "called the School for Wives, which was exceedingly applauded, and which "Charles Fox says is execrable. Garrick had at least the "chief hand in it; and I never saw anybody in a greater fidget, nor more vain when he returned." Here, then, with Garrick full of the glories of a new play, in some degree aimed against the broadly laughing school of Goldsmith, its author publicly reported to be Major (afterwards Sir William) Addington,* and by some suspected to be Horace Walpole t himself,-its first night's success already half-threatening a sudden blight to the hard-won laurels of Young Marlow and Tony Lumpkin,-here surely were * For a detailed account of this incident in Kelly's theatrical life, in which the trick formerly attempted (ante, 291), was repeated with better success, see Taylor's Records, i. 95-102. "Yes, we have stole a march on the patriots," exclaimed poor Kelly's wife exultingly, describing the reception of the comedy. Addington, who appeared as the author, and attended all the rehearsals, was afterwards head of the Bow-street magistracy, and is not very correctly described (Life and Writings of Kelly, 4to. 1778, vii.) as "Mr. Justice Addington." + See Letters to Lady Ossory, i. 120. The scene at Beauclerc's is described in the same volume, 112 (Dec. 14, 1773). The reader who has any experience of Christmas games has no doubt been often made to laugh by "Signor Mufti," as personated on that Christmas night eighty years ago. Mrs. Gwatkin, Sir Joshua Reynolds's younger niece, told also what she had seen of it to Mr. Haydon, who related it in his diary long before Horace Walpole's anecdote was published. "The most "delightful man,' according to the old lady's account to Haydon, when she was gathering up the memories of her youth, was Goldsmith. She saw him and "Garrick keep an immense party laughing till they shrieked. Garrick sat on "Goldsmith's knee; a table-cloth was pinned under Garrick's chin, and brought "behind Goldsmith, hiding both their figures. Garrick then spoke, in his finest "style, Hamlet's speech to his father's ghost. Goldsmith put out his hands on "each side of the cloth, and made burlesque action, tapping his heart, and putting "his hand to Garrick's head and nose, all at the wrong time." Memoirs of Haydon, iii. 288. Here, the reader will observe, the actors have not only a better audience than at Beauclerc's, but have reversed their parts. 1773. all the materials of undeniable sport; and, who will doubt Et. 45. that such a joke, if started, was in such company more eagerly enjoyed than the other more harmless Christmas game? or that the courtly and sarcastic Beauclerc was not but too happy in the opportunity it afterwards gave him of writing to his noble correspondent: "We have a new comedy here which is good for nothing; bad as it is, "however, it succeeds very well, and almost killed Goldsmith "with envy. 66 Cradock's account of what was really killing him is somewhat different from Beauclerc's, and will perhaps be thought more authentic. Although, according to the same letter of the Beau's, all the world but himself and a million of vulgar people were then in the country, Cradock had come up to town to place his wife under the care of a dentist, and had taken lodgings in Norfolk-street to be near his friend. He found Goldsmith much altered, he says; at times, indeed, very low; and he passed his mornings with him. He induced him once to dine in Norfolk-street; but his usual cheerfulness had gone, "and all was forced." The idea occurred to Cradock that money might be raised by a special subscription-edition of the Traveller and Deserted Village, if consent could be obtained from the holders of the copyrights. "Pray "do what you please with them," said Goldsmith sadly. But he rather submitted, than encouraged, says Cradock; and the scheme fell to the ground. "Oh, sir," said two * Hardy's Life of Lord Charlemont, 178, On one of these occasions Cradock describes himself repeating to Goldsmith some friendly and admiring sentences by Johnson, "which instantly proved a "cordial." i. 231. The poems were to be thoroughly revised, and the plan was discussed with Cradock at breakfast in the Temple. "As to my Hermit, that poem, Cradock, "cannot be amended." "I knew," continues Cradock (with a strange confusion of the facts, which, I must add, is often to be observed in his recollections), "he had sisters named Gun, milliners, who lived at the corner 1773. of Temple-lane and were among Goldsmith's creditors, Et. 45. sooner persuade him to let us work for him gratis, than "suffer him to apply to any other. We are sure that he will 66 'pay us if he can." Cradock ends his melancholy narrative by expressing his conviction that, if Goldsmith had freely laid open all the debts for which he was then responsible, his zealous friends were so numerous that they would as freely have contributed to his relief. There is reason to presume as much of Reynolds, certainly; and that he had even offered his aid. 66 I mean," Cradock adds, "here explicitly to assert "only, that I believe he died miserable, and that his friends. were not entirely aware of his distress."* Truly, it was to assert enough. 66 "been offered ten pounds for the copy; and it was introduced into the Vicar of Wakefield, to which he applied himself entirely for a fortnight, to pay a journey "to Wakefield. As my business then lay there,' said he, 'that was my reason for "fixing on Wakefield as the field of action. I never took more pains than in 666 the first volume of my Natural History; surely that was good, and I was "handsomely repaid for the whole. My Roman History, Johnson says, is well "abridged.'... Much of the conversation took a more melancholy tone than usual, "and I became very uneasy about him." Memoirs, iv. 287. See also i. 234-5. * Memoirs, iv. 287. I subjoin from the same book (i. 385-6) Cradock's account of the last day on which he ever saw Goldsmith. "The day before I was to "set out for Leicestershire, I insisted upon his dining with us. He replied, "I will; but on one condition-that you will not ask me to eat anything.' "Nay,' said I, 'this answer, Goldsmith, is absolutely unkind; for I had hoped, "as we are entirely served from the Crown and Anchor, that you would have "named something that you might have relished.' 'Well,' says he, if you "will but explain it to Mrs. Cradock, I will certainly wait upon you.' The "Doctor found, as usual, at my apartments newspapers and pamphlets, and with a pen and ink he amused himself as well as he could. I had ordered from the "tavern some fish, a roasted joint of lamb, and a tart; and the doctor either sat "down or walked about, just as he liked. After dinner he took some wine with biscuits; but I was soon obliged to leave him for a while, as I had matters to "settle for our next day's journey. On my return coffee was ready, and the "doctor appeared more cheerful (for Mrs. Cradock was always rather a favourite "with him), and in the course of the evening he endeavoured to talk and remark, "as usual, but all was forced. He stayed till midnight, and I insisted on seeing "him safe home; and we most cordially shook hands at the Temple-gate.” 66 CHAPTER XX. 1773. RETALIATION. 1773-1774. YET, before this delightful writer died, and from the depth Et. 45. of the distress in which his labours, struggles, and enjoy ments left him, his genius flashed forth once more. Johnson |