PRIOR'S LIFE OF GOLDSMITH.

DURING the whole of the last century, authorship was in a transi- tion state. The age of patronage had gone ; the age of indepen-

dence had not arrived. Till the time of DRYDEN, the money to be gained by writing—even by the drama, the most profitable of any thing—was so trifling and to uncertain, that the poverty of an author was proverbial. A subsistence from the pen aloneovas

out of the question. The students of belles lettres, then called wits, chiefly depended for their support upon individual -pa- tronage ; or upon the casual treating (to give it its right name) which men of pleasure, living in publics, as all did more or less in those times, readily gave for a familiarity with well-known cha

racters of wit and conversational powers : failing these sources, the author died, in reality, of hunger. or averted starvation for a few years by mean and dishonest shifts. The increase of' readers, and consequent rise of periolical publications, so far improved the condition of authors, as to furnish more constant employment ; but the remuneration was still so scanty as barely to yield the hardest livelihood; nor do we believe that an instance can be produced of a man being able to maintain a reputable appearance through life, and die out of debt, upon letters alone. Many authors, indeed, occupied a high position in society,—as, to take ready instances, CONGREVE, ADDISON, WARBURTON; but their writings had merely served to introduce them to the " honey of public employment." Others enjoyed competency by aid of private means, or a pursuit of some kind,—as GIBBON, ROBERTSON, and even HUME. POPE himself is scarcely an exception to the rule : lie lived with his father till the old man's death; and his feeble health in a measure obliged him to hoard his gains, or at all events prevented him from squander- ing them in loose jollity. JOHNSON, till he obtained his pension, " toiled," in his own language, " for the day that was passing over him ;" and the anecdotes of petty pecuniary distresses, and the humble written requests for trivial loans which survive, show bow that toil was requited. It is true that GOLDSMITH for a few years lived in a certain degree of expense; but it was accomplished by the unceasing exercise of genius, with unrivalled skill and in- dustry; it was accompanied by the bitter anxieties of embarrass- ment, and, after all, managed at the cost of the creditors he left unpaid. If there be an exception, it was SmosLarr. Of the life of such a class of men, no circumstantial account has been preserved; nor was it likely. For the most part without ties of any kind, the majority were forgotten the day after their death ; and those who rose to any thing like celebrity were not very anxious to keep alive the memory of their former mean and beggarly condition. From satires, anecdotes, and biography, however, something like a general picture can be formed. The uniform character of the lodgings of the genus has enriched the language with the word garreteer. But nearly all resided in such equivocal places that they gave their addresses at a coffeehouse or a bookseller's ; and some were so ashamed of their domiciles, that the most persevering and ingenious curiosity failed in discover- ing their abode. As long as the privilege remained, the Mint in Southwark, and other sanctuaries against the Sheriff, were fa- vourite quarters; the hunted wit rarely quitting the charmed circle except upon the Sabbath. Sometimes, however, the " public in- structor" was without a paid lodging of any kind. The story of JOHNSON'S having walked the streets all night because he

had not money to pay for a lodging, may have been, as alleged, a peculiar case with him; but we know that SAVAGE " passed the

night sometimes in mean houses which are set open at night to any casual wanderers, sometimes in cellars amongst the riot and filth of the meanest and most profligate of the rabble, and some- times, when he had not money for the expenses of even these re- ceptacles, walked about the streets till he was weary, and lay down in the summer upon a bulk, or in the winter with his asso-

ciates in poverty in the ashes of a glasshouse." GOLDSMITH, in

the height of his fame, is said to have asonished a brilliant circle at Sir JOSHUA REYNOLDS'S, by beginning a story with "When I lived amongst the beggars of Axe Lane ;" and any one ac- quainted with the literature of the time, will remember the fre- quent allusions which cellars, bulks, debts, duns, bailiff's, and all the other significations of the most abject and most hopeless poverty, furnish to the authors. Compared to the wretchedness endured by thousands upon thousands of men—imprudent if you like, and mistaken in their estimate of themselves, but possessed of some degree of learning and no small sensibility—the sufferings which BURNS and SHERIDAN brought upon themselves, or the gloomy condition that BYRON actually created, are as dust in the

balance. No wonder that GOLDSMITH ridiculed that sickly senti- ment which spent itself upon bewailing fancied evils, when he knew what he had himself gone through, and observation had taught him its effect upon others. In his Animated Nature he says- " The lower race of animals, when satisfied for the instant moment, are per- fectly happy ; but it is otherwise with man : his mind anticipates distress, and feels the panga of waut even before it arrests him. Thus, the mind. being con- tinually harassed by the situation, it at length influences the constitution, and unfits it for all its functions. Some cruel disorder, but no way like hunger, seizes the unhappy sufferer ; 60 that almost all those men who have thus long lived by chance, and whose every day may be considered as a happy escape from famine, are known at last to die in reality of a disorder caused by hunger, but which, in continuo language, is often called a broken heart. Some of three I have known myself, when very little able to relieve them."

Or Apart from the interest attendant upon a life of struggles. and from every one's feelings towards a man so eminent and of such a singular personal character, the subject of GOLDSMITH'S biography has this further advantage, that the hero may he said completely to personify the class of authors we have spoken of. Born of a family whose genealogy and position ranked them in the genteel genus, he was of course bred to a gentleman s pro- fession; though they had neither connexion to push him nor for- tune to support him whilst he fought his own way, whilst from their provincial situation they were even ignorant of the difficul- ties that beset an unfriended gentleman in forcing his way into life. When GOLDSMITH, after leaving the University of Dublin, where he finished his general education,—studying physic at Edinburgh on miserable means, and wandering through Europe on foot and often penniless,—came to London a friendlesa adven- turer, he felt these difficulties fully, but did all he could to breast them. According to the account of all his biographers, he got, after many trials, the situation of a chemist's shopman in Monument Yard. With the assistance of some friends, according to Mr. PRIOR, he started as a humble physician somewhere in Bankside : but, from ill-success, was fain. to ac- cept an ushership in a school,—a post which our author thinks fie filled before his shopmanship, besides having tried his powers as a strolling player, and, we may conclude, failed. The drudgery of teaching, his only means of' life, was exchanged for author- ship, by the accident of GRIFFITHS, the proprietor of the Monthly Review, occasionally visiting the principal of the school, and, after some prelusive specimens, engaging GOLDSMITH as a permanent contributor. This was in 1757; and till the publication of the Tra- veller in 1764, he continued to hold the pen of a ready writer, con-

tributing to periodicals, translating from the French, and compiling temporary publications ; to all which productions, however, he care- fully abstained from putting his name. The, favourable reception of his first poem gave his name ciarsideration ; and till his death, nearly ten years afterwards, he was occupied on higher subjects, though the necessity of the passing day drove him chiefly to com- pilation of every kind,—voyages, travels, philosophy, history, grammar, translations, criticisms, selections, besides the drama

and poetry. Thus we see, Goldy represented in perfection the then

" unprosperous class called men of letters." He was educated to a position above his means; trained to indulge an ambition he could not gratify ; thrown upon the world to struggle with it as best he might, afar from his family and friends; and took to litera- ture as a mode of support, because all others had failed. In the early part of his career he suffered as much as the poorest of his brethren. In more prosperous days, his vanity and simplicity, or infirmity of disposition, as well as a charity which " from his own had learned to melt at others' wo," subjected him to con- stant want of money. He moreover attained that fame for which all professed " to scorn delights and live laborious days." The student of his anxious life and early death will be able to assign to " the fancied life in others' breath" the due weight in the balance.

Without furnishing so full an account as would be desirable of the career of such a man, Mr. PRIOR has done all that it is now

possible for mortal industry to do. Besides studying all the pub- lished accounts, be has made pilgrimages to the places of his hero's birth and early breeding ; he has, either in person or by deputy, searched the books of the Colleges where he studied, at home or

abroad; if a report reached him that GOLDSMITH started as can- didate for any post, the archives of the society were ransacked ;

his family has been perseveringly traced out ; all who were known to have any letters of the poet in their possession were applied to ; the pamphlets and periodicals of his day have been ransacked for allusions to him and for marks of his contributions; if an accident

threw Mr. PRIOR Upon the track of a human being who happened to have had any communication with his man, the scent was not quitted till the game was run down. Every one yet surviving who enjoyed the acquaintance of GOLDSMITH be has sought out and brought out. He has even hunted down the son of the tailor (FILMY of Water Lane) who fashioned that "bloom-coloured" suit of which ROSWELL makes such memorable mention ; and is able, from an examination of the artist's books, to gratify posterity with the price (12/. 12s.). From the same unerring source, he throws doubts on the Statement of Miss REYNOLDS, that GOLDSMITH only put on half-mourning for his mother; the dress being entered in the tailor's account, under the proper date, "in the same terms as the dress worn after the loss of his brother in 1768, and again for the Princess Dowager of Wales in 1772, simply as a 'suit of mourning.'" Nor do Mr. PRIOR'S researches end with his hero's life: he has procured and published in the appendix the auc- tioneer's catalogue of the sale of his effects, besides giving notices of various branches of the family. The only point he can be said to shirk, is GOLDSMITH'S debts ; but it is known, from a let- ter of JOHNSON'S, that they were estimated by REYNOLDS at 2,0001.

The result of all this pains and labour is the collection of a "et body of' materials, which strongly illuminate all the minuter circumstances of GOLDSMITH'S career. The great epochs, the acts of his life, were too distinctiv known already, to admit of any fresh discoveries ; but many accessions are made to the minor incidents, and almost all are related with more of exactness or circumstantiality. These, of course, vary in interest and value; but we incline to consider the very ample account of his childhoo and college life, and the minute narrative of his successive struggles in London, as of most importance in a biographical point of view. In a literary sense, his early letters are the most curious objects of study, as showing how greatly he was gifted by nature, or how very soon he acquired his peculiar style. Long before ho could have attained much facility of habit, his epistles contain examples of his elegant and pointed composition, as finished and effective as he ever prodt:c d, though not so sustained throughout.

Of the personal peculiarities of the man—his simplicity, good- nature, thoughtlessness, vanity, and charity—our knowledge is rather strengthened than enlarged by Al r. PRIOR'S new facts; and his arguments are not sufficient to set his idol in a more dignified light. Something fresh, however, is learned of his literary habits. From allusions in the narrative of young Primrose in the Vicar of Wakefield, it could always be infe.rred that he wrote at first with considerable care and pains. Latterly, it seems, his prose was pro- duced with rapidity and ease ; the alterations being few, and rarely, if ever, so numerous as to require a part to be recopied. %Then engaged on any compilation of importance, his bookseller took lodgings for him in the outskirts of town ; though when he rose to celebrity and credit, he managed this affair himself. Here his- mornings were spent in reading portions of the books whence he drew his matter; he then took a walk in the fields, meditating upon and shaping what he had read, and spent the evening in writing. His mode of living on these occasions was very simple ; as he agreed with DRYDEN, that light diet was favourable to compo- sition. The change at lodgings was a friend to dinner; but when exhausted, he returned to London for a week or so, and in more prosperous times took a country tour. There is no further ac- count of' his method of working on his novel, and his comedies, ex- cept that they occupied him some years. being wrought only upon occasionally : indeed,as the Vicar of lVakefield and She Stoops to Conquer seem to have been derived from incidents and characters that fell under his own observation in youth, they may have been turned in his mind for many years. In poetry he never attained the facility of his prose writings. Ten years elapsed between the first brief sketch of the Traveller and its publication ; during which it seems to have been gradually extended, or rather re- written two or three times. Though not occupied nearly so long upon the Deserted Village, he only touched it when in the vein ;

and one of his modes of study was to stroll out into the fields, sit down upon a pleasant spot, and there compose or correct. In his first copy, he wrote the lines very wide apart, to give ample room

for alterations•' and Bishop PERCY says that scarcely a single

line remained in any of his poetical productions as it was origi- nally written. Even when thirty years' constant practice must

have given the ready dexterity of habit, one of POPE'S manu- scripts exhibited a similar care. " Such is the labour of those who write for immortality:" it may be said that even in his lowest fortunes some ambition of this sort actuated GOLDSMITH'S mind.

But, whilst occupied with the subject, we must not altogether forget Mr. PRIOR'S book, nor leave the reader without actual proofs of what he has done. Beginning with the beginning here is aa account of

GOLDSMITH'S INFANCY,

At Lissoy, Oliver, when about three years old, was given in charge of his first instructress. She was a relative, resident in the family, who by marriage with a neighbouring fanner became afterwards known as Elizabeth Delap, and died about 1787. In the decline of tile she kept a small school in the village, and took pride in speaking to visiters of her former office. "1 should have observed," writes Dr. Strean, now Rector of Athlone, who was eighteen years curate of this parish, "that Elizabeth Delap, who was a p wishioner of mine, and died at the age of about ninety, often odd me she Was the first who put a book into Goldsmith's hands; by which she meant, that she taught him his letters. She was allied to hint, and kept a little school."

" Within the last th ree years," say. the Reverend Thomas Handeock, in a letter to Joseph Cooper Walker, E-q., of Dublin, for whom he was making inquiries on this subject in 1790, "1 was called, in the absence of a neighbouring Clergy- man, to visit an old woman at Lissoy, (the rein name of the place, Auburn ;) and, almost with aer last breath, she boasted to me of being the first person who had put a book into Goldsmith's hands."

The characteristics of his mind in infancy, according to the account of Mrs. Delap, were not promising She admitted he was one of the dullest boys ever placed under her charge, and doubted, for some time, whether any thing could be made of him • or, in the words used by Mr. Handcock, he seemed "um- penetrably stupid." Dr. Strean gleaned some remembrances to the same effect. 66 He was considered," says that gentleman, " by his contemporaries and schoolfellows with whom I have often conversed on the subject, as a stupid, heavy blockhead, little better than a fool, whom every one made fun of."

To another inquirer, a Mr. Daly, who had collected some particulars of his early life, and who died in France early in the Revolution, her accounts were rather more favourable. She confessed be was very young at the time; that m

he was docile, diffident, easily managed, and that his ap-titude for retaining his lessons might have arisen from the carelessness common to all children.

Of his university studies at Dublin, the poet never retained any pleasant reminiscences, nor regarded his alma inciter with much veneration. Apart from his character, this was to be expected from his position andcircumstances. His tutor was a tyrannical brute; and his means, never perhaps sufficient, were cut off by the death of his father.

The means of the widow were little more than sufficient to provide the ne- cessaties of life for the other branches of her family ; remittances to Oliver therefore ceased, and his prospects became darker than ever. In this situation it would have been necessary to have withdrawn from College, but for the occa- sional contribution of friends, among whom his uncle Coutarine formed the

prineipal : these were from their nature 'United, and perhaps irregular. His difficultice were corwequently conaiderable during the whole of his subsequent stay ia the Uoiversity, and no doubt often occasioned that state of " squalid paverty" of which Dr. Wait,' speaks. In this situation a conatitutional buoyancy, or, as he phrases it in another place, " a knack at hoping," kept him from despair ; but when e anbined with the reproaehes of hie tutor, ren-

elered frequent desptaelency and depression unavoidable. Under such circum- stances, he was more than once driven to the necessity of pawning his books, until the stated aupply arrived or eome friendly hand interposed to release them ; when, on such emergenries, Fleatty would lend him others for the pur- poses of study. The disposal of the books coming to the knowledge of the tutor, he, in addition to bitter taunts and reprehension, said that he was like ihe allyfellow in Horace—Mutat quodrato rotundis. There we are assured, no stimulus to ingenuity like distress. Goldsmith 'WU now taught for the first time to draw upon his resources in a mode which, however beneath the dignity, was not inappropriate to the calling of the future poet. This was the composition of street ballads, to which Beatty knew him frequently to resort when in want of small sums for present exigencies. The price of these was five shillings each ; and all that he wrote found a ready sale at a shop known as the sign of the Rein-deer, in Mountrath Street. None of the names of those verses were recollected at the time Mr. Beatty related the fact to his friends ; but popular occurrences commonly supplied the subjects. Poor as they may be supposed to have been in character, from the remuneration re- ceived and the dais for whom intended, he is said to have exhibited for his offspring all the partially of a parent, by strolling the streets at night to hear them sung, and marking the degree of applause which each received from the suditore.

Passing over a variety of anecdotes, connected with his univer- sity career, his subsequent visits at home, his studies at Edin- burgh, and his Grand Tour, we will jump at once to his Bank- side doctorship and second-hand coat.

An acquaintance from Ireland, already familiar to the reader, also recognized the poet in the Metropolis in the same year. "My father," writes the Reverend Thomas Beatty, Rector of Moira in Ireland, in a communication on this sub- ject, "met Goldsmith in London during a visit to that capital, about the year 17b6. He was dressed according to the fashion of the day, in a suit of green and gold, but old and tarnished ; and his shirt and neckcloth appeared to have been worn at least a fortnight. He said he was practising physic, and doing very well."

A ludicrous story told of him at this period afterwards reached the ears of

Sir Joshua Reynolds; who repeated it to one of their mutual friends, a lady, who, to the delight of her acquaintance, can still detail the anecdote, and through whom it, is with much more information, communicated to the reader. In conformity to the prevailing garb of the day for physicians, Goldsmith, un- able probably to obtain a new, had procured a secondhand velvet coat ; but, either from being deceived in the bargain, or by subsequent accident, a con- siderable breach in the left breast was obliged to be repaired by the introduction of a new piece. This had not been so neatly done as not to be apparent to the close observation of his acquaintance and such persons as he visited in the ca- pacity of medical attendant : willing, therefore, to conceal what is considered too obvious a symptom of poverty, he was accustomed to place his hat over the patch, and retain It there carefully dui ing the visit ; but this constant positian becoming noticed, and the cause being soon known, occasioned no little merri- ment at his expense.

The most important fact established by Mr. PRIOR, is a con- templated voyage to India, as a physician to some settlement under the Company ; which failed, in consequence of GOLDSMITH being unable to pass the examination at Surgeon's Hall. This the Dcctor appears to have kept a profound secret ; as well as a half-mournful half-ludicrous dilemma in which he was placed from pawning a suit of clothes, furnished, it is supposed, to "go up" in, and for which —RIFFITHS Of the Monthly Review was security to the extent of payment or return. For this and many ether subjects of interest or humour, however, we must refer ta the volumes, and content ourselves with a few miscellaneous ex- tracts. Here are some anecdotes of his habits.

While resident in town, his sedentary habits were usually relieved by a walk to one of the villages in the neighbourhood, the enjoyment of a moderate though convivial dinner, the conversation of such friends as chose to be of the party, and a quiet return in the evening. Blackheath, Wandsworth, Fulham, Chel- sea, Hampstead, Highgate, Highbury, and others, were thus frequently visited, air and exercise enjoyed, and the excursion jocularly termed by him a trades- man's holyday. A few persons survive who remember these excursion', or heard them dwelt upon by their acquaintance who had participated in their eajoyment. The party, a hich seldom consisted of more than four or five per- sins, chiefly connected with literature, the legal or medical professions, always

sonbled at his chambers to a remarkably plentiful and rather expensive break- last; and when finished, be had usually some poor women in attendance, to whom the fragments were consigned. On one occasion, a wealthy City acquaint- ance, not remarkable for elegance of mind or manners, who observed this libe- rality, said with some degree of freedom, " Why, Doctor, you must be a rich man; /cannot afford to du this?" " It is not wealthoity dear Sir," was the reply of the Doctor, willing to rebuke without offending his guest, " but incli- nation. I have only to suppose that a few more friends than usual have been of our party, and then it amounts to the same thing." One of the number, not unfrequently. was an amanuensis occasionally in his employment, still remembered and familiarly known as "Peter Barlow ;" a per- son offering some peculiarities of manner, and thence an object of wit to several friends of the poet. He always wore the same dress, never gave more than a certain sum, a trifle, for hie dinner, but insisted on paying this punctually; and as the expense of the repast always exceeded considerably the stipulated a nount he chose to contribute, his employer paid the difference ; the peculiari- ties of" Pater" affording in returns fund of amusement to the party. One of their frequent retreats was the well-known Chelsea Bun-house. • •

It is remembered likewise, that masquerades were sometimes chosen by wags of his acquaintance, to single him out under cover of their disguise, seemingly without design, and either by praising otber poets and decrying him, by mis- quoting his verses and then abusing them, or by burlesque parodies, occasioned him annoyance. One of these, a Mr. Purefoy, whom he did not discover, by continued persecution for an evening at length drove him fairly out of she house. On another occasion, according to the late Mr. John Taylor, the poet himself having teased a young lady who happened to know hint, arid giving way to laughter at his own wit, was instantly silenced by her quotation of Iris line-

•• And the loud taught that speaks the vaunt mind."

Connected with this subject, an anecdote of his whim, mentioned by Sir Joshua Reynolds, has been communicated by the lady to whom the reader is indebted for several contributions of a similar kind. Entering his chambers on one occasion, the President found him in something of a reverie, yet delibe- rately walking round the room and kicking a bundle before bins in the manner of a football, of which the nature could not be immediately distinguished. On inquiry, the article proved to he an expensive masqiierade dress which he bad been persuaded to purchase ; and the occasion having been served, and repenting perhaps of his imprudence in expending on such an article money for which there were so many ntore pressing demands, he was determined, in his own phrase, "to have the value out of it in exercise."

There is a long narrative of his difficulties with the managers on the occasion of the production of each of his plays ; sufficient, as Mr. PRIOR observes, to deter any one from writing for the theatre. When all difficulties about the play were at an end, the epilogue became a bone of contention and source of trouble. Here is his own narrative : the play was She Stoops to Conquer.

"My dear Sir—The play has met with a success much beyond your expecta- tions or mine. I thank you sincerely for your epilogue; which however could not be used, but with your permivion shall be printed. The story, in short, is this : Murphy sent me rather the butline of an epilogue than an epilogue, which was to be sung by Mrs. Catley, and which she approved.

"Mrs. Bulkley hearing thie, insisted on throwing up her part, unless, accord- ing to the custom of the theatre, she were permitted to speak the epilogue. In this embarrassment I thought of making a quarrelling epilogue beaween Catley and her, debating who should speak the epilogue; but then Mrs. Catley refused, after I had taken the trouble of drawing it out. I was then at a loss indeed : an epilogue was to be made, and for none but Mrs. Bulkley. I made one, and Cohnan thought it too had to be spoken ; I was obliged therefore to try a fourth time, and I made a very mawkish thing, as you'll shortly see. Such is the history of my stage adventines, and which I have at last done with. I cannot help saying, that I am very sick of the stage ; and though I believe I shall get three tolerable benefits, yet I shall on the whole be a loser, even in a pecuniary light : my ease and comfort I certainly lost while it was in agitation.

"I am, my dear Cradock, your obliged and obedient servant,

"OLIVER GOLDSMITH."

A CHAPLAIN'S NOTION OF LITERARY MORALITY.

" A few months," writes Mr. Montagu, " before the death of Dr. Scott author of Anti- Sejanus and other politieal tracts in support of Lord North', Administration, I happened to dine with him in company with any friend Sir George Tuthill, who was the Doctor's physician. After dinner, Dr. Scott mentioned, as matter of astonishment and a proof of the Fully of men who are according to common opinion ignorant of the world, that he was once sent with a carte blanche from the Ministry to Oliver Goldsmith to induce him to write in favour of the Administration. I found him,' said the Doctor, ' in a mi- serable set of chambers in the Temple. I told him iny authority ; I told him that I was empowered to pay most liberally for his exertions; and, would you believe it ? he was so absead as to say—' I can earn as notch as will supply my wants without writing for any party.; the assistance therefore you offer is uns necessary to me ;' and so I left him," added Dr. Scott, " in his garret."

Of the value of Mr. PRIOR'S work as a biography no very favourable judgment can be passed. As the Quarterly Review truly observes, the account of the sources whence he drew his in- formation should have been told in the preface, as forming the history of his book ; and many incidental notices of different con- temporaries might have been relegated to an appendix, though not " cut down." But he has worse faults : his narrative is en- cumbered with needless particulars, his style overlaid with words; Isis digressions are too long and too frequent, his disquisitions and observations endless and tiresome, and his criticisms too wiredrawn, and not exhibiting much of acumen or taste. Were the b.sok recast, as the Quarterly suggests, subjected to a vtgo- rous pruning and a careful revision, it would supersede all present and future biographies of' GOLDSMITH : as it now stands, it is only collected ore for some other to melt and manufacture.