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sitting by him, and he repeated it more than twice. I think he will never come back."' Purdon had been at Trinity College, Dublin, with Goldsmith; he had subsequently been a foot soldier; ultimately he became a 'bookseller's hack.' He wrote an anonymous letter to Garrick in 1759, and translated the Henriade of Voltaire. This translation Goldsmith is supposed to have revised, and his own life of Voltaire was to have accompanied it, though finally the Memoir and Translation seem to have appeared separately. (Cf. prefatory note to Memoirs of M. de Voltaire in Gibbs's Works of Oliver Goldsmith, 1885, iv. 2.) Forster says further, in a note, 'The original . is the epitaph on La Mort du Sieur Etienne :

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Il est au bout de ses travaux,

Il a passé, le Sieur Etienne;

En ce monde il eut tant des maux

...

Qu'on ne croit pas qu'il revienne.

With this perhaps Goldsmith was familiar, and had therefore less scruple in laying felonious hands on the epigram in the Miscellanies (Swift, xiii. 372) :

Well, then, poor G

:

lies underground!

So there's an end of honest Jack.

So little justice here he found,

'Tis ten to one he'll ne'er come back.'

Mr. Forster's 'felonious hands' recalls a passage in Goldsmith's Life of Parnell, 1770, in which, although himself an habitual inner in this way, he comments gravely upon the practice of plagiarism :-'It was the fashion with the wits of the last age, to conceal the places from whence they took their hints or their subjects. A trifling acknowledgment would have made that lawful prize, which may now be considered as plunder' (p. xxxii).

EPILOGUE FOR LEE LEWES'S BENEFIT.

This benefit took place at Covent Garden on May 7, 1773, the pieces performed being Rowe's Lady Jane Grey, and a popular pantomimic after-piece by Theobald, called Harlequin Sorcerer. Charles Lee Lewes (1740-1803) was the original' Young Marlow' of She Stoops to Conquer. When that part was thrown up by

246

EPILOGUE FOR LEE LEWES'S BENEFIT

Gentleman' Smith, Shuter, the ' Mr. Hardcastle' of the comedy, suggested Lewes, who was the harlequin of the theatre, as a substitute, and the choice proved an admirable one. Goldsmith was highly pleased with his performance, and in consequence wrote for him this epilogue. It was first printed by Evans, 1780, i. 112-4.

1. 9. in thy black aspect, i. e. the half-mask of harlequin, in which character the Epilogue was spoken.

1. 18. rosined lightning, stage-lightning, in which rosin is an ingredient.

EPILOGUE INTENDED FOR 'SHE STOOPS TO

CONQUER.'

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This epilogue was first printed at pp. 82-6, vol. ii, of the Miscellaneous Works of 1801. Bolton Corney says it had been given to Percy by Goldsmith. It is evidently the quarrelling Epilogue' referred to in the following letter from Goldsmith to Cradock (Miscellaneous Memoirs, 1826, i. 225-6):—

'MY DEAR SIR,

The Play [She Stoops to Conquer] has met with a success much beyond your expectations or mine. I thank you sincerely for your Epilogue, which, however could not be used, but with your permission, shall be printed 1. The story in short is this; Murphy sent me rather the outline of an Epilogue than an Epilogue, which was to be sung by Mrs. Catley, and which she approved. Mrs. Bulkley hearing this, insisted on throwing up her part, unless according to the custom of the theatre, she were permitted to speak the Epilogue. In this embarrassment I thought of making a quarrelling Epilogue between 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 Colman thought it too bad 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 adventures, and which I have at last done with. I cannot help saying that I am very sick of the 1 It is so printed with the note-' This came too late to be Spoken.'

stage; and though I believe I shall get three tolerable benefits, yet I shall upon 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.

P.S.-Present my most humble respects to Mrs. Cradock.' According to Prior (Miscellaneous Works, 1837, iv. 154), Goldsmith's friend, Dr. Farr, had a copy of this epilogue which still, when Prior wrote, remained in that gentleman's family. 1. 21. Who mump their passion, i. e. grimace their passion. 1. 31. ye macaroni train. The Macaronies were the foplings, fribbles, or beaux of Goldsmith's day. Walpole refers to them as early as 1764; but their flourishing time was 1770-3, when the print-shops, and especially Matthew Darly's in the Strand, No. 39, swarmed with satirical designs of which they were the subject. Selwyn, March-many well-known names-are found in their ranks. Richard Cosway figured as 'The Macaroni Painter'; Angelica Kauffmann as 'The Paintress of Maccaroni's'; Thrale as 'The Southwark Macaroni.' Another caricature ('The Fluttering Macaroni') contains a portrait of Miss Catley, the singing actress of the present epilogue; while Charles Horneck, the brother of The Jessamy Bride' (see p. 251, 1. 14), is twice satirized as 'The Martial Macaroni' and 'The Military Macaroni.' The name, as may be guessed, comes from the Italian dish first made fashionable by the 'Macaroni Club,' being afterwards applied by extension to 'the younger and gayer part of our nobility and gentry, who, at the same time that they gave in to the luxuries of eating, went equally into the extravagancies of dress.' (Macaroni and Theatrical Magazine, Oct. 1772.) Cf. Sir Benjamin Backbite's later epigram in The School for Scandal, 1777, Act ii, Sc. 2 :

6

Sure never was seen two such beautiful ponies;
Other horses are clowns, but these macaronies:
To give them this title I'm sure can't be wrong,
Their legs are so slim and their tails are so long.

1. 36. Their hands are only lent to the Heinel. See note to 1. 28, p. 85.

EPILOGUE INTENDED FOR 'SHE STOOPS TO

CONQUER.'

This epilogue, given by Goldsmith to Dr. Percy in MS., was first published in the Miscellaneous Works of 1801, ii. 87-8, as An Epilogue intended for Mrs. Bulkley. Percy did not remember for what play it was intended; but it is plainly (see note to 1. 40) the second epilogue for She Stoops to Conquer referred to in the letter printed at p. 246 of this volume.

.

1. 1. There is a place, so Ariosto sings. The poet alludes to the thirty-fourth canto of The Orlando furioso. Ariosto, as translated by Mr. Stewart Rose, observes of the lunar world: There thou wilt find, if thou wilt thither post, Whatever thou on earth beneath hast lost.

Astolpho undertakes the journey; discovers a portion of his own sense; and, in an ample flask, the lost wits of Orlando.' (Bolton Corney.) Cf. also Rape of the Lock, Canto v, ll. 113-14: Some thought it mounted to the Lunar sphere,

Since all things lost on earth are treasur'd there.

Lord Chesterfield also refers to the 'happy extravagancy' of Astolpho's journey in his Letters, 1774, i. 557.

1. 9. at Foote's alone. 'Foote's' was the Little Theatre in the Haymarket, where, in February, 1773, he brought out what he described as a 'Primitive Puppet Show,' based upon the Italian Fantoccini, and presenting a burlesque sentimental Comedy called The Handsome Housemaid; or, Piety in Pattens, which did as much as She Stoops to laugh false sentiment away. Foote warned his audience that they would not discover 'much wit or humour' in the piece, since 'his brother writers had all agreed that it was highly improper, and beneath the dignity of a mixed assembly, to show any signs of joyful satisfaction; and that creating a laugh was forcing the higher order of an audience to a vulgar and mean use of their muscles'—for which reason, he explained, he had, like them, given up the sensual for the sentimental style. And thereupon followed the story of a maid of low degree who, by the mere effects of morality and virtue, raised herself [like Richardson's Pamela], to riches and honours.' The

public, who for some time had acquiesced in the new order of things under the belief that it tended to the reformation of the stage, and who were beginning to weary of the 'moral essay thrown into dialogue,' which had for some time supplanted humorous situation, promptly came round under the influence of Foote's Aristophanic ridicule, and the comédie larmoyante received an appreciable check. Goldsmith himself had prepared the way in a paper contributed to the Westminster Magazine for December, 1772 (vol. i. p. 4), with the title of An Essay on the Theatre; or, A Comparison between Laughing and Sentimental Comedy.' The specific reference in the Prologue is to the fact that Foote gave morning performances of The Handsome Housemaid. There was one, for instance, on Saturday, March 6, 1773. 1. 27. The Mohawk. This particular species of the genus 'rake' belongs more to Swift's than Goldsmith's time, though the race is eternal. There is an account of the 'Mohock Club' See also Spectator, No. 347; Gay's Trivia, Swift's Journal to Stella, March 8 and 26, 1712; and the Wentworth Papers, 1883, pp. 277-8.

in Spectator, No. 324. 1716, Book iii. p. 74;

1. 40. Still stoops among the low to copy nature. This line, one would think, should have helped to convince Percy that the epilogue was intended for She Stoops to Conquer, and for no other play

THE CAPTIVITY.

The Oratorio of the Captivity was written in 1764; but never set to music. It was first printed in 1820 at pp. 451-70 of vol. ii of the octavo edition of the Miscellaneous Works issued by the trade in that year. Prior reprinted it in 1837 (Works, iv. pp. 79– 95) from the original manuscript' in Mr. Murray's possession; and Cunningham again in 1854 (Works, i. pp. 63-76). It is here reproduced from Prior. James Dodsley, who bought the MS. for Newbery and himself, gave Goldsmith ten guineas. Murray's copy was the one made for Dodsley, October 31, 1764; the one printed in 1820, that made for Newbery. The latter, which once belonged to the autograph collector, William Upcott, was in the market in 1887.

1. 23, Act i. This song had been published in the first edition

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