Imatges de pàgina
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'mobbed up in flannel night caps, and trembling at a breath of air.'

1. 52. By day, 'twas gadding or coquetting. The first version after 'coquetting' begins a fresh paragraph with

Now tawdry madam kept, &c.

1. 58. A sigh in suffocating smoke. Here in the first version follows::

She, in her turn, became perplexing,

And found substantial bliss in vexing.

Thus every hour was pass'd, &c.

1. 61. Thus as her faults each day were known. First version: 'Each day, the more her faults,' &c.

1. 71. Now, to perplex. The first version has 'Thus.' But the alteration in line 61 made a change necessary.

1. 85. paste. First version' pastes.'

1. 91. condemn'd to hack, i. e. to hackney, to plod.

A NEW SIMILE.

The New Simile first appears in Essays: By Mr. Goldsmith, 1765, pp. 234-6, where it forms Essay xxvii. In the second edition of 1766 it occupies pp. 246-8 and forms Essay xix. The text here followed is that of the second edition, which varies slightly from the first. In both cases the poem is followed by the enigmatical initials *J. B.,' which, however, as suggested by Gibbs, may simply stand for 'Jack Bookworm' of The Double Transformation. (See p. 204.)

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1. 1. Long had I sought in vain to find. The text of 1765 reads-' I long had rack'd my brains to find.'

1. 6. Tooke's Pantheon. Andrew Tooke (1673-1732) was first usher and then Master at the Charterhouse. In the latter capacity he succeeded Thomas Walker, the master of Addison and Steele. His Pantheon, a revised translation from the Latin of the Jesuit, Francis Pomey, was a popular school-book of mythology, with copper-plates.

1. 16. Wings upon either side-mark that. The petasus of Mercury, like his sandals (1. 24), is winged.

1. 36. No poppy-water half so good. Poppy-water, made by

boiling the heads of the white, black, or red poppy, was a favourite eighteenth-century soporific :-Juno shall give her peacock poppy-water, that he may fold his ogling tail.' (Congreve's Love

for Love, 1695, iv. 3.)

1. 42. With this he drives men's souls to hell.

Tu . . . .

... virgaque levem coerces Aurea turbam.-Hor. Od. i. 10.

1. 57. Moreover, Merc'ry had a failing.

Te canam....

Callidum, quidquid placuit, iocoso

Condere furto.-Hor. Od. i. 10.

Goldsmith, it will be observed, rhymes 'failing' and 'stealing.' But Pope does much the same :

That Jelly's rich, this Malmsey healing,

Pray dip your Whiskers and your tail in.

(Imitation of Horace, Bk. ii, Sat. vi.)

Unless this is to be explained by poetical licence, one of these words must have been pronounced in the eighteenth century as it is not pronounced now.

1. 59. In which all modern bards agree. The text of 1765 reads 6 our scribling bards.'

EDWIN AND ANGELINA.

This ballad, usually known as The Hermit, was written in or before 1765, and printed privately in that year 'for the amusement of the Countess of Northumberland,' whose acquaintance Goldsmith had recently made through Mr. Nugent. (See the prefatory note to The Haunch of Venison.) Its title was 'Edwin and Angelina. A Ballad. By Mr. Goldsmith.' It was first published in The Vicar of Wakefield, 1766, where it appears at pp. 70-7, vol. i. In July, 1767, Goldsmith was accused [by Dr. Kenrick] in the St. James's Chronicle of having taken it from Percy's Friar of Orders Gray. Thereupon he addressed a letter to the paper, of which the following is the material portion :- Another Correspondent of yours accuses me of having

taken a Ballad, I published some Time ago, from one by the ingenious Mr. Percy. I do not think there is any great Resemblance between the two Pieces in Question. If there be any, his Ballad is taken from mine. I read it to Mr. Percy some Years ago, and he (as we both considered these Things as Trifles at best) told me, with his usual Good Humour, the next Time I saw him, that he had taken my Plan to form the fragments of Shakespeare into a Ballad of his own. He then read me his little Cento, if I may so call it, and I highly approved it. Such petty Anecdotes as these are scarce worth printing, and were it not for the busy Disposition of some of your Correspondents, the Publick should never have known that he owes me the Hint of his Ballad, or that I am obliged to his Friendship and Learning for Communications of a much more important Nature.—I am, Sir, your's, &c. OLIVER GOLDSMITH.' (St. James's Chronicle, July 23-5, 1767.) No contradiction of this statement appears to have been offered by Percy; but in re-editing his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry in 1775, shortly after Goldsmith's death, he affixed this note to The Friar of Orders Gray :-' As the foregoing song has been thought to have suggested to our late excellent poet, Dr. Goldsmith, the plan of his beautiful ballad of Edwin and Emma [Angelina], first printed [published?] in his Vicar of Wakefield, it is but justice to his memory to declare, that his poem was written first, and that if there is any imitation in the case, they will be found both to be indebted to the beautiful old ballad, Gentle Herdsman, &c., printed in the second volume of this work, which the doctor had much admired in manuscript, and has finely improved' (vol. i. p. 250). The same story is told, in slightly different terms, at pp. 74-5 of the Memoir of Goldsmith drawn up under Percy's superintendence for the Miscellaneous Works of 1801, and a few stanzas of Gentle Herdsman, which Goldsmith is supposed to have had specially in mind, are there reproduced. References to them will be found in the ensuing notes. The text here adopted (with exception of 11. 117-20) is that of the fifth edition of The Vicar of Wakefield, 1773[4], i. pp. 78-85; but the variations of the earlier version of 1765 are duly chronicled, together with certain hitherto neglected differences between the first and later editions of the novel. The poem was also printed in the Poems for Young

Ladies, 1767, pp. 91-81. The author himself, it may be added, thought highly of it. 'As to my Hermit," that poem,' he

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is reported to have said, 'cannot be amended.' (Cradock's Memoirs, 1828, iv. 286.)

1. 1. Turn, &c. The first version has

Deign saint-like tenant of the dale,
To guide my nightly way,

To yonder fire, that cheers the vale
With hospitable ray.

1. 11. For yonder faithless phantom flies. The Vicar of Wakefield, first edition, has-' For yonder phantom only flies.'

1. 30. All.

Vicar of Wakefield, first edition, 'For.'

1. 31. Man wants but little here below. Cf. Young's Complaint, 1743, Night iv. 9, of which this and the next line are a recollection. According to Prior (Life, 1837, ii. 83), they were printed as a quotation in the version of 1765. Young's line is—

Man wants but Little; nor that Little, long.

1. 35. modest. Vicar of Wakefield, first edition, 'grateful.' 1. 37. Far in a wilderness obscure. First version, and Vicar of Wakefield, first edition :

Far shelter'd in a glade obscure

The modest mansion lay.

1. 43. The wicket, opening with a latch. First version, and Vicar of Wakefield, first edition :

The door just opening with a latch.

1. 45. And now, when busy crowds retire. First version, and Vicar of Wakefield, first edition :

And now, when worldly crowds retire

To revels or to rest.

1. 57. But nothing, &c. In the first version this stanza runs as follows:

But nothing mirthful could assuage

The pensive stranger's woe;
For grief had seized his early age,

And tears would often flow.

1 This version differs considerably from the others, often following that of 1765; but it has not been considered necessary to record the variations here. That Goldsmith unceasingly revised the piece is sufficiently established.

1.78. modern. Vicar of Wakefield, first edition, reads 'haughty.' 1. 84. His love-lorn guest betray'd. First version, and Vicar of Wakefield, first edition :

The bashful guest betray'd.

1. 85. Surpris'd, he sees, &c. First version, and Vicar of Wakefield, first edition :

He sees unnumber'd beauties rise,

Expanding to the view;

Like clouds that deck the morning skies,

As bright, as transient too.

1. 89. The bashful look, the rising breast. First version, and Vicar of Wakefield, first edition :

Her looks, her lips, her panting breast.

1. 97. But let a maid, &c. For this, and the next two stanzas, the first version substitutes :

Forgive, and let thy pious care

A heart's distress allay;

That seeks repose, but finds despair
Companion of the way.

My father liv'd, of high degree,
Remote beside the Tyne;
And as he had but only me,

Whate'er he had was mine.

To win me from his tender arms,

Unnumber'd suitors came;

Their chief pretence my flatter'd charms,

My wealth perhaps their aim.

1. 109. a mercenary crowd. Vicar of Wakefield, first edition,

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1. 111. Amongst the rest young Edwin bow'd. First version :

Among the rest young Edwin bow'd,

Who offer'd only love.

1. 115. Wisdom and worth, &c. First version, and Vicar of Wakefield, first edition :

A constant heart was all he had,

But that was all to me.

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