over the Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts, and in the middle, or about the middle, of that large book, the title and the beginning of an old Saxon poem struck me very much. I soon after desired our friend Doctor Percy to look out for it and get it transcribed for me, but he tells me he can find no such poem as that I mentioned. However, the poem, I am sure, is there, and there is nothing I so much desire, here, in a little country retirement where I now am, as to have that poem transcribed by one of the servants of the museum, and I don't know any body who can get that done for me except yourself. The poem is in Saxon before the time of Chaucer, and is, I think, about the middle of the volume, among the names of several other poems. The subject is a consolation against repining at distress in this life, or some such title. The poem begins with these words, which are expressed in the Catalogue, "Lollai, Lollai, littel childe, why weppest tou so sore?" If you would find it out and order it to be transcribed for me, I will consider it as a singular favour, and will take care that the clerk shall be paid his demand. I once more ask pardon for giving you this trouble, and am, Dear Sir, your very Humble Servant, OLIVER GOLDSMITH. P.S. A letter directed to me at the Temple will be received. LETTER XXII. TO THE REV. RICHARD PENNICK. the DEAR SIR, Monday [1771]. I thank you heartily for your kind attention, for poem, for your letter, and every thing. You were so kind as to say (you) would not think it troublesome to step out of town to see me. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. Bickerstaff, and a friend or two more will dine with me next Sunday at the place where I am, which is a little Farmer's house' about six miles from town, the Edgeware Road. If you come either in their company or alone I will consider it an additional obligation. I am, Dear Sir, yours most affectionately, An answer would be kind. The place I am in is at Farmer Selby's, at the six mile stone, Edgeware Road. LETTER XXIII. TO JOSEPH CRADOCK, ESQ.2 [Dec. 1771.] MR. GOLDSMITH presents his best respects to Mr. Cradock, has sent him the Prologue, such as it is. He cannot take time to make it better. He begs he will give Mr. Yates the proper instructions; and so, even so, he commits him to fortune and the public. For the Right Hon. Lord Clare3 (Mr. Cradock), Gosfield, Essex. The farm-house where Goldsmith wrote 'She Stoops to Conquer' (see p. 461 ante), the Animated Nature,' &c. It was situate on the Edgware Road, near the little village called The Hyde, and six miles from London. Prior, when writing his 'Life' of the poet, paid it a visit, and found the son of "Farmer Selby" still living, who remembered his father's lodger of some sixty years before, and told much concerning him and his ways, at the same time showing Prior the room where She Stoops to Conquer,' &c., were written: vide Prior's Life,' 1837, vol. ii. pp. 191, 331. Boswell likewise visited the place: vide his Johnson,' vol. ii. p. 177, Bohn's edition. Mr. Thorne (Environs of London,' 1876, p. 374) shows that The Hyde is in both Hendon and Kingsbury, a fact which reconciles with itself Mr. Forster's statement that the Animated Nature' was written either at " Hyde" or Kingsbury." -ED. 2 First published in Cradock's' Memoirs,' 1828, vol. i. p. 224. It was sent with the 'Prologue to Zobeide' (see Poems, p. 95), and should therefore be dated December, 1771.—ED. 3 See the Haunch of Venison,' and its notes, Poems,' vol. ii., pp. 46, 50.-ED. LETTER XXIV. TO MRS. BUNBURY. MADAM, [? 1772.'] I read your letter with all that allowance which critical candour could require, but after all find so much to object to, and so much to raise my indignation, that I cannot help giving it a serious answer. I am not so ignorant, Madam, as not to see there are many sarcasms contained in it, and solecisms also, (solecism is a word that comes from the town of Soleis, in Attica, among the Greeks, built by Solon, and applied as we use the word Kidderminster for curtains from a town also of that name; but this is learning you have no taste for !)—I say, Madam, there are sarcasms in it, and solecisms also. But, not to seem an ill-natured critic, I'll take leave to quote your own words, and give you my remarks upon them as they occur. begin as follows: "I hope, my good Doctor, you will soon be here, You Pray, Madam, where did you ever find the epithet "good" applied to the title of Doctor? Had you called me learned Doctor, or grave Doctor, or noble Doctor, it might be allowable, because they belong to the profession. But, not to cavil at trifles, you talk of my "spring-velvet coat," and advise me to wear it the first day in the year, that is in the middle of winter!-a spring-velvet in the middle of winter!!! That would be a solecism indeed! and yet, to increase the inconsistence, in another part of your letter you call me a beau. Now on one side or other, you must be wrong. If I am a beau I can never think of wearing a 1 The date was supposed to be 1772 by Sir Henry Bunbury when he, through Prior, first printed the letter. But when Sir Henry inIcluded it with his 'Correspondence of Sir T. Hanmer,' 1838, he said the date was "1773 or 1774." The letter is the same as that which appears (with its poetry) in the Poems, vol. ii. p. 106; where will be found particulars as to the circumstances under which it was written, &c.-ED. spring-velvet in winter; and if I am not a beau—why— then that explains itself. But let me go on to your two next strange lines: : "And bring with you a wig that is modish and gay, The absurdity of making hay at Christmas you yourself seem sensible of; you say your sister will laugh, and so indeed she well may! The Latins have an expression for a contemptuous sort of laughter, Naso contemnere adunco; that is to laugh with a crooked nose; she may laugh at you in the manner of the ancients, if she thinks fit.-But now I am come to the most extraordinary of all extraordinary propositions, which is, to take your and your sister's advice in playing at loo. The presumption of the offer raises my indignation beyond the bounds of prose; it inspires me at once with verse and resentment. I take advice! And from whom? You shall hear. [Here follows the poetry, sixty-six lines: for which see the Poems.] I challenge you all to answer this: I tell you, you cannot. It cuts deep ;-but now for the rest of the letter; and next-but I want room. So I believe I shall battle the rest out at Barton some day next week. I don't value you all! O. G. LETTER XXV. TO GEORGE COLMAN, ESQ. [This letter, which must have been written in January, 1773, would come next in order. But having given it in full in our Life of Goldsmith,' p. 32, ante, we now merely refer there to it, and to the circumstances (connected with the production of She Stoops to Conquer') under which it was written. It is curious that it is the only letter from Goldsmith published in the 'Posthumous Letters to George Colman the Elder,' &c., 1820. Another letter to Colman, of an earlier date, and relating to the production of the 'Good Natured Man,' will be found in Forster's Life of Goldsmith' (2nd edit., ii. p. 66), where it is printed in fac-simile.-ED.] DEAR SIR, LETTER XXVI. TO MR. GARRICK.1 February 6, 1773. I ask many pardons for the trouble I gave you of yesterday. Upon more mature deliberation, and the advice of a sensible friend, I began to think it indelicate in me to throw upon you the odium of confirming Mr. Colman's sentence. I therefore request you will send my play by my servant back; for having been assured of having it acted at the other house, though I confess yours in every respect more to my wish, yet it would be folly in me to forego an advantage which lies in my power of appealing from Mr. Colman's opinion to the judgment of the town. I entreat, if not too late, you will keep this affair a secret for some time. I am, dear Sir, your very humble Servant, LETTER XXVII. TO JOSEPH CRADOCK, ESQ., AT THE HOTEL, IN PALL-MALL.2 Sunday Morning [? Feb. or March, 1773]. MR. GOLDSMITH's best respects to Mr. Cradock, when he asked him to day, he quite forgot an engagement of above This letter, from the Garrick Correspondence, vol. i. p. 527, was written two or three weeks after that to Colman about the same play (She Stoops to Conquer') which we have given in our Life of Goldsmith,' p. 32.-ED. 2 First published in Mr. Cradock's 'Memoirs,' 1828, vol. i. p. 225, where it has no date. Mr. Forster says "the rehearsal" spoken of was that of Threnodia Augustalis' (1772), at which, he adds, Cradock helped; but Prior and Cunningham say the reference is to 'She Stoops to Conquer,' and they therefore date the letter 1773. Cradock himself seems to have forgotten to what it referred, though he says it "must have had reference to one of his " (Goldsmith's) "earlier productions," a remark |