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Here Hickey reclines, a most blunt, pleasant.

creature,

And slander itself must allow him good nature;
He cherish'd his friend, and he relish'd a bumper;
Yet one fault he had, and that one was a thumper.
Perhaps you may ask if the man was a miser:
I answer, No, no, for he always was wiser.
Too courteous, perhaps, or obligingly flat?
His very worst foe can't accuse him of that.
Perhaps he confided in men as they go,
And so was too foolishly honest? Ah, no!

Be sure, as I work, to throw in contradictions;

A great love of truth, yet a mind turn'd to fictions.

Now mix these ingredients, which, warm'd in the baking,
Turn to learning and gaming, religion and raking.
With the love of a wench, let his writings be chaste;

Tip his tongue with strange matter, his pen with fine taste.
That the rake and the poet o'er all may prevail,
Set fire to the head, and set fire to the tail.

For the joy of each sex, on the world I'll bestow it,
This scholar, rake, Christian, dupe, gamester, and poet.
Though a mixture so odd, he shall merit great fame,
And among brother mortals be Goldsmith his name.
When on earth this strange meteor no more shall appear,
You, Hermes, shall fetch him to make us sport here.

ON DR. GOLDSMITH'S CHARACTERISTICAL COOKERY.
A JEU D'ESPRIT.

ARE these the choice dishes the Doctor has sent us?
Is this the great poet whose works so content us?
This Goldsmith's fine feast, who has written fine books?
Heaven sends us good meat, but the devil sends cooks.

81 Vide page 78.

Then what was his failing? come, tell it, and

burn ye:

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Here 32 Reynolds is laid, and, to tell you my mind,
He has not left a wiser or better behind.
His pencil was striking, resistless, and grand;
His manners were gentle, complying, and bland:
Still born to improve us in every part,

His pencil our faces, his manners our heart.
To coxcombs averse, yet most civilly steering,
When they judg'd without skill, he was still hard
of hearing:

When they talk'd of their Raphaels, Correggios, and stuff,

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He shifted his 3 trumpet, and only took snuff.

82 Vide page 78.

38 Sir Joshua Reynolds was so remarkably deaf as to be under the necessity of using an ear-trumpet in company.-See La Vie de Le Sage, p. xiii. "Il faisait usage d'un cornet qu'il appeloit son bienfaiteur. Quand je trouve, disoit-il, des visages nouveaux, et que j'espère rencontrer des gens d'esprit, je tire mon cornet; quand ce sont des sots, je le resserre et je les défie de m'ennuyer."

POSTSCRIPT.

AFTER the fourth edition of this poem was printed, the publisher received the following epitaph on Mr. Whitefoord,34 from a friend of the late Dr. Goldsmith:

HERE Whitefoord reclines, and deny it who can, Though he merrily liv'd, he is now a 55 grave

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man:

Rare compound of oddity, frolic, and fun!
Who relish'd a joke, and rejoic'd in a pun;
Whose temper was generous, open, sincere;
A stranger to flattery, a stranger to fear;
Who scatter'd around wit and humour at will;
Whose daily bon mots half a column might fill:
A Scotchman, from pride and from prejudice free;
A scholar, yet surely no pedant was he.

What pity, alas! that so liberal a mind Should so long be to newspaper essays confin'd! Who perhaps to the summit of science could soar, Yet content if the table he set in a roar;' Whose talents to fill any station were fit, Yet happy if 6 Woodfall confess'd him a wit.

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34 Mr. Caleb Whitefoord, author of many humorous essays. 35 Mr. W. was so notorious a punster, that Doctor Goldsmith used to say it was impossible to keep him company, without being infected with the itch of punning.

36 Mr. H. S. Woodfall, printer of the Public Advertiser.

Ye newspaper witlings! ye pert scribbling folks! Who copied his squibs, and re-echoed his jokes : Ye tame imitators, ye servile herd, come, Still follow your master, and visit his tomb: To deck it, bring with you festoons of the vine, And copious libations bestow on his shrine; Then strew all around it (you can do no less) 37 Cross readings, ship news, and mistakes of the press.

Merry Whitefoord, farewell! for thy sake I admit That a Scot may have humour, I had almost said wit:

This debt to thy memory I cannot refuse,

886 Thou best humour'd man with the worst humour'd muse.'

37 Mr. Whitefoord has frequently indulged the town with humorous pieces under those titles in the Public Advertiser. On C. Whitefoord, see Smith's Life of Nollekens, vol. i. p. 338-340. See his poem to Sir Joshua Reynolds, Admire not, dear knight,' in Northcote's Life of Reynolds, p. 128. 28When you and Southern, Moyle, and Congreve meet,

6

The best good men, with the best natured wit.'

C. Hopkins. v. Nicholls' Col. Poems, ii. p. 207.