Chapter 12

The tune is a pretty Irish air, called _The Humours of Balamagairy_, to which, he told me, he found it very difficult to adapt words; but he has succeeded happily in these few lines. As I could sing the tune, and was fond of them, he was so good as to give me them about a year ago, just as I was leaving London, and bidding him adieu for that season, little apprehending that it was a last farewell. I preserve this little relick in his own handwriting with an affectionate care.

I am, Sir,

Your humble Servant,

JAMES BOSWELL.’

When, seventeen years later, Boswell published his _Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D._, he gave an account of his dining at General Oglethorpe’s in April, 1773, with Johnson and Goldsmith; and he says that the latter sang the _Three Jolly Pigeons_, and this song, to the ladies in the tea-room. Croker, in a note, adds that the younger Colman more appropriately employed the ‘essentially low comic’ air for Looney Mactwolter in the [_Review; or the_] _Wags of Windsor_, 1808 [i.e. in that character’s song beginning—‘Oh, whack! Cupid’s a mannikin’], and that Moore tried to bring it into good company in the ninth number of the _Irish Melodies_. But Croker did not admire the tune, and thought poorly of Goldsmith’s words. Yet they are certainly fresher than Colman’s or Moore’s:—

Sing—sing—Music was given,

To brighten the gay, and kindle the loving;

Souls here, like planets in Heaven,

By harmony’s laws alone are kept moving, etc.

TRANSLATION.

These lines, which appear at p. 312 of vol. V of the _History of the Earth and Animated Nature_, 1774, are freely translated from some Latin verses by Addison in No 412 of the _Spectator_, where they are introduced as follows:—‘Thus we see that every different Species of sensible Creatures has its different Notions of Beauty, and that each of them is most affected with the Beauties of its own kind. This is nowhere more remarkable than in Birds of the same Shape and Proportion, where we often see the Male determined in his Courtship by the single Grain or Tincture of a Feather, and never discovering any Charms but in the Colour of its own Species.’ Addison’s lines, of which Goldsmith translated the first fourteen only, are printed from his corrected MS. at p. 4 of _Some Portions of Essays contributed to the Spectator by Mr. Joseph Addison_ [by the late J. Dykes Campbell], 1864.

THE HAUNCH OF VENISON.

It is supposed that this poem was written early in 1771, although it was not printed until 1776, when it was published by G. Kearsly and J. Ridley under the title of _The Haunch of Venison, a Poetical Epistle to the Lord Clare. By the late Dr. Goldsmith. With a Head of the Author, Drawn by Henry Bunbury, Esq; and Etched by_ [_James_] _ Bretherton._ A second edition, the text of which is here followed, appeared in the same year ‘With considerable Additions and Corrections, Taken from the Author’s _last_ Transcript.’ The Lord Clare to whom the verses are addressed was Robert Nugent, of Carlanstown, Westmeath, M.P. for St. Mawes in 1741–54. In 1766 he was created Viscount Clare; in 1776 Earl Nugent. In his youth he had himself been an easy if not very original versifier; and there are several of his performances in the second volume of Dodsley’s _Collection of Poems by Several Hands_, 4th ed., 1755. One of the Epistles, beginning ‘Clarinda, dearly lov’d, attend The Counsels of a faithful friend,’ seems to have betrayed Goldsmith into the blunder of confusing it, in the _Poems for Young Ladies_. 1767, p. 114, with Lyttelton’s better-known _ Advice to a Lady_ (‘The counsels of a friend, Belinda, hear’), also in Dodsley’s miscellany; while another piece, an _Ode to William Pultney, Esq._, contains a stanza so good that Gibbon worked it into his character of Brutus:—

What tho’ the good, the brave, the wise,

With adverse force undaunted rise,

To break th’ eternal doom!

Tho’ CATO liv’d, tho’ TULLY spoke,

Tho’ BRUTUS dealt the godlike stroke,

Yet perish’d fated ROME.

Detraction, however, has insinuated that Mallet, his step-son’s tutor, was Nugent’s penholder in this instance. ‘Mr. Nugent sure did not write his own Ode,’ says Gray to Walpole (Gray’s _Works_, by Gosse, 1884, ii. 220). Earl Nugent died in Dublin in October, 1788, and was buried at Gosfield in Essex, a property he had acquired with his second wife. A _ Memoir_ of him was written in 1898 by Mr. Claud Nugent. He is described by Cunningham as ‘a big, jovial, voluptuous Irishman, with a loud voice, a strong Irish accent, and a ready though coarse wit.’ According to Percy (_Memoir_, 1801, p. 66), he had been attracted to Goldsmith by the publication of _The Traveller_ in 1764, and he mentioned him favourably to the Earl of Northumberland, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. A note in Forster’s _Life_, 1871, ii. 329–30, speaks of Goldsmith as a frequent visitor at Gosfield, and at Nugent’s house in Great George Street, Westminster, where he had often for playmate his host’s daughter, Mary, afterwards Marchioness of Buckingham.

Scott and others regarded _The Haunch of Venison_ as autobiographical. To what extent this is the case, it is difficult to say. That it represents the actual thanks of the poet to Lord Clare for an actual present of venison, part of which he promptly transferred to Reynolds, is probably the fact. But, as the following notes show, it is also clear that Goldsmith borrowed, if not his entire fable, at least some of its details from Boileau’s third satire; and that, in certain of the lines, he had in memory Swift’s _Grand Question Debated_, the measure of which he adopts. This throws more than a doubt upon the truth of the whole. ‘His genius’ (as Hazlitt says) ‘was a mixture of originality and imitation’; and fact and fiction often mingle inseparably in his work. The author of the bailiff scene in the _Good Natur’d Man_ was quite capable of inventing for the nonce the tragedy of the unbaked pasty, or of selecting from the Pilkingtons and Purdons of his acquaintance such appropriate guests for his Mile End Amphitryon as the writers of the _Snarler_ and the _Scourge_. It may indeed even be doubted whether, if _The Haunch of Venison_ had been absolute personal history, Goldsmith would ever have retailed it to his noble patron at Gosfield, although it may include enough of real experience to serve as the basis for a _jeu d’esprit_.

The fat was so white, etc. The first version reads—‘The white was so white, and the red was so ruddy.’

Though my stomach was sharp, etc. This couplet is not in the first version.

One gammon of bacon. Prior compared a passage from Goldsmith’s _Animated Nature_, 1774, iii. 9, _à propos_ of a similar practice in Germany, Poland, and Switzerland. ‘A piece of beef,’ he says, ‘hung up there, is considered as an elegant piece of furniture, which, though seldom touched, at least argues the possessor’s opulence and ease.’

a bounce, i.e. a braggart falsehood. Steele, in No. 16 of _The Lover_, 1715, p. 110, says of a manifest piece of brag, ‘But this is supposed to be only a _Bounce_.’

Mr. Byrne, spelled ‘Burn’ in the earlier editions, was a relative of Lord Clare.

M—r—’s. MONROE’s in the first version. ‘Dorothy Monroe,’ says Bolton Corney, ‘whose various charms are celebrated in verse by Lord Townshend.’

There’s H—d, and C—y, and H—rth, and H—ff. In the first version— ‘There’s COLEY, and WILLIAMS, and HOWARD, and HIFF.’—Hiff was Paul Hiffernan, M.B., 1719–77, a Grub Street author and practitioner. Bolton Corney hazards some conjectures as to the others; but Cunningham wisely passes them over.

H—gg—ns. Perhaps, suggests Bolton Corney, this was the Captain Higgins who assisted at Goldsmith’s absurd ‘fracas’ with Evans the bookseller, upon the occasion of Kenrick’s letter in _The London Packet_ for March 24, 1773. Other accounts, however, state that his companion was Captain Horneck (Prior, _Life_, 1837, ii. 411–12). This couplet is not in the first version.

Such dainties to them, etc. The first version reads:—

Such dainties to them! It _would_ look like a flirt,

Like sending ’em Ruffles when wanting a Shirt.

Cunningham quotes a similar idea from T. Brown’s _Laconics, Works_, 1709, iv. 14. ‘To treat a poor wretch with a bottle of Burgundy, or fill his snuff-box, is like giving a pair of lace ruffles to a man that has never a shirt on his back.’ But Goldsmith, as was his wont, had already himself employed the same figure. ‘Honours to one in my situation,’ he says in a letter to his brother Maurice, in January, 1770, when speaking of his appointment as Professor of Ancient History to the Royal Academy, ‘are something like ruffles to a man that wants a shirt’ (_Percy Memoir_, 1801, 87–8). His source was probably, not Brown’s _Laconics_, but those French ‘ana’ he knew so well. According to M. J. J. Jusserand (_English Essays from a French Pen_, 1895, pp. 160–1), the originator of this conceit was M. Samuel de Sorbieres, the traveller in England who was assailed by Bishop Sprat. Considering himself inadequately rewarded by his patrons, Mazarin, Louis XIV, and Pope Clement IX, he said bitterly—‘They give lace cuffs to a man without a shirt’; a ‘consolatory witticism’ which he afterwards remodelled into, ‘I wish they would send me bread for the butter they kindly provided me with.’ In this form it appears in the Preface to the _Sorberiana_, Toulouse, 1691.

_a flirt_ is a jibe or jeer. ‘He would sometimes . . . cast out a jesting _flirt_ at me.’ (Morley’s _History of Thomas Ellwood_, 1895, p. 104.) Swift also uses the word.

An under-bred, fine-spoken fellow, etc. The first version reads—

A fine-spoken Custom-house Officer he,

Who smil’d as he gaz’d on the Ven’son and me.

but I hate ostentation. Cf. Beau Tibbs:—‘She was bred, _but that’s between ourselves_, under the inspection of the Countess of All-night.’ (_Citizen of the World_, 1762, i. 238.)

We’ll have Johnson, and Burke. Cf. Boileau, _Sat._ iii. ll. 25–6, which Goldsmith had in mind:—

Molière avec Tartufe y doit jouer son rôle,

Et Lambert, qui plus est, m’a donné sa parole.

What say you—a pasty? It shall, and it must. The first version reads—

I’ll take no denial—you shall, and you must.

Mr. J. H. Lobban, _Goldsmith, Select Poems_, 1900, notes a hitherto undetected similarity between this and the ‘It _must_, and it _shall_ be a barrack, my life’ of Swift’s _Grand Question Debated_. See also ll. 56 and 91.

No stirring, I beg—my dear friend—my dear friend. In the first edition—

No words, my dear GOLDSMITH! my very good Friend!

Mr. Lobban compares:—

‘Good morrow, good captain.’ ‘I’ll wait on you down,’—

‘You shan’t stir a foot.’ ‘You’ll think me a clown.’

‘And nobody with me at sea but myself.’ This is almost a textual quotation from one of the letters of Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, to Lady Grosvenor, a correspondence which in 1770 gave great delight to contemporary caricaturists and scandal-mongers. Other poets besides Goldsmith seem to have been attracted by this particular lapse of his illiterate Royal Highness, since it is woven into a ballad printed in _The Public Advertiser_ for August 2 in the above year:—

The Miser who wakes in a Fright for his Pelf,

And finds _no one by him except his own Self_, etc.

When come to the place, etc. Cf. Boileau, _ut supra_, ll. 31–4:—

A peine étais-je entré, que ravi de me voir,

Mon homme, en m’embrassant, m’est venu recevoir;

Et montrant à mes yeux une allégresse entière,

Nous n’avons, m’a-t-il dit, ni Lambert ni Molière.

Lambert the musician, it may be added, had the special reputation of accepting engagements which he never kept.

and t’other with Thrale. Henry Thrale, the Southwark brewer, and the husband of Mrs. Thrale, afterwards Mrs. Piozzi. Johnson first made his acquaintance in 1765. Strahan complained to Boswell that, by this connexion, Johnson ‘was in a great measure absorbed from the society of his old friends.’ (Birkbeck Hill’s _Boswell_, 1887, iii. 225.) Line 72 in the first edition reads—

The one at the House, and the other with THRALE.

They both of them merry and authors like you. ‘They’ should apparently be ‘they’re.’ The first version reads—

Who dabble and write in the Papers—like you.

Some think he writes Cinna—he owns to Panurge. ‘Panurge’ and ‘Cinna’ are signatures which were frequently to be found at the foot of letters addressed to the _Public Advertiser_ in 1770–1 in support of Lord Sandwich and the Government. They are said to have been written by Dr. W. Scott, Vicar of Simonburn, Northumberland, and chaplain of Greenwich Hospital, both of which preferments had been given him by Sandwich. In 1765 he had attacked Lord Bute and his policy over the signature of ‘Anti-Sejanus.’ ‘Sandwich and his parson Anti-Sejanus [are] hooted off the stage’—writes Walpole to Mann, March 21, 1766. According to Prior, it was Scott who visited Goldsmith in his Temple chambers, and invited him to ‘draw a venal quill’ for Lord North’s administration. Goldsmith’s noble answer, as reported by his reverend friend, was—‘I can earn as much as will supply my wants without writing for any party; the assistance therefore you offer is unnecessary to me.’ (_Life_, 1837, ii. 278.) There is a caricature portrait of Scott at p. 141 of _The London Museum_ for February, 1771, entitled ‘Twitcher’s Advocate,’ ‘Jemmy Twitcher’ being the nickname of Lord Sandwich.

Swinging, great, huge. ‘Bishop Lowth has just finished the Dramas, and sent me word, that although I have paid him the most _swinging_ compliment he ever received, he likes the whole book more than he can say.’ (_Memoirs of Hannah More_, 1834, i. 236.)

pasty. The first version has Ven’son.’

So there I sat, etc. This couplet is not in the first version.

And, ‘Madam,’ quoth he. Mr. Lobban again quotes Swift’s _Grand Question Debated_:—

And ‘Madam,’ says he, ‘if such dinners you give

You’ll ne’er want for parsons as long as you live.’

These slight resemblances, coupled with the more obvious likeness of the ‘Raphaels, Correggios, and stuff’ of _ Retaliation_ (ll. 145–6) to the _Noueds_ and _ Bluturks_ and _Omurs_ and stuff’ (also pointed out by Mr. Lobban) are interesting, because they show plainly that Goldsmith remembered the works of Swift far better than _The New Bath Guide_, which has sometimes been supposed to have set the tune to the _Haunch_ and _Retaliation_.

‘may this bit be my poison.’ The gentleman in _She Stoops to Conquer_, Act i, who is ‘obligated to dance a bear.’ Uses the same asseveration. Cf. also Squire Thornhill’s somewhat similar formula in chap. vii of _The Vicar of Wakefield_, 1766, i. 59.

‘The tripe,’ quoth the Jew, etc. The first version reads—

‘Your Tripe!’ quoth the _Jew_, ‘if the truth I may speak,

I could eat of this Tripe seven days in the week.’

Re-echoed, i.e. ‘returned’ in the first edition.

thot. This, probably by a printer’s error, is altered to ‘that’ in the second version. But the first reading is the more in keeping, besides being a better rhyme.

Wak’d Priam. Cf. 2 _Henry IV_, Act I, Sc. 1:—

Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,

So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,

Drew Priam’s curtain in the dead of night.

And would have told him half his Troy was burnt.

sicken’d over by learning. Cf. _Hamlet_,