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are more

and it is to be hoped, not only for the sake of our native artists, but for the enjoyment of the public, that the admirably-conducted establishments we have alluded to will no longer be compelled to close at the very height of the season, when, as it has been truly remarked, the town crowded with strangers, and theatrical amusements eagerly desired than at any other time. We by no means recommend an addition to the number of theatres, except perhaps one or two of moderate size in remote quarters of the metropolis, but we strongly condemn the practice of limiting the period of the present licences. These arbitrary restrictions cramp the exertions of the managers, and act as a check to the improvement of the performers, in consequence of the necessity the latter are frequently under of adapting their talents to a totally different walk of the drama from that practised in the theatres at which they have won the favour of the public.

We are far from being advocates of innovation, but there is another custom which we are certain would be much more honoured in the breach than the observance, that of closing the chief theatres twice a week during Lent. If the venerable per

sons who are supposed to be averse to the abolition of this vexatious restriction were aware that hundreds, deprived of a comparatively beneficial mode of passing their time, are nightly induced to seek for amusement in drunkenness and debauchery; that many, prevented from exercising their lawful avocations, are tempted to spend the unprofitable leisure forced upon them in irregular pursuits; while not a single addition is made to the number of those who attend to the ordinances of religion; the mischievous consequences produced by the well meant but erroneous interdict would never again be risked.

The space we have devoted to the foregoing observations prevents us saying any thing of late theatrical events. Those most deserving of notice have been the production of an excellent play called the Wrecker's Daughter, by Sheridan Knowles; the retirement of Mr. Charles Kemble, one of our most graceful and intellectual actors; and the announcement of a new play by Mr. Bulwer, of which we hope to give a favourable account in our next

number.

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

WORKS IN THE PRESS.

THE Widow's Offering, a Selection of Tales, Essays, &c. By the late William Pitt Scargill, Author of "Truckleborough Hall," "The Usurer's Daughter," "Provincial Sketches," &c. Edited by the Author's Widow.

A new edition of Dr. Lingard's History of England, to be published in monthly volumes, at five shillings each, illustrated with engravings. The author has given the work a thorough revision, and proves his facts in every instance by references to additional authorities. The entire work will not exceed twelve volumes.

The Third Volume of the Marquess Wellesley's Despatches, edited by Montgomery Martin, corrected, arranged, and revised by his Lordship, and dedicated by command to the King.

The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala. James Bateman, Esq.

By

Dr. Lindley's Sertum Orchideum, No. 1. Ladies' Botany. Volume the Second and last; with numerous plates. By Dr. Lindley.

The Hon. and Rev. William Herbert's new work on Amaryllidaceæ, illustrated by numerous plates, with a Treatise on Hybrid Vegetables subjoined.

Geology of Scripture. Natural Demonstrations both of the Fact and Period of the Mosaic Deluge, and of its having been the only event of the kind that has ever occurred upon the Earth. By George Fairholme, Esq. Illustrated by numerous woodcuts, &c.

The Fossil Flora of Great Britain. By Dr. Lindley and W. Hutton, Esq. F. G. S. Part I. of Volume 3, with 40 plates.

Dr. Lindley's Botanical Register, or Ornamental Flower Garden and Shrubbery, for 1836, being Volume the 9th. Royal 8vo. 96 plates.

Horticultural Tour through Germany, Belgium, and France, in 1836. By James Forbes, F. H.S. &c., Author of "Hortus Woburnensis, or, the Gardens and Grounds of Woburn Abbey."

The Irish Gil Blas. By W. H. Maxwell, Esq. Author of "Stories of Waterloo," "My Life," &c. Gabriel Vardon. By Charles Dickens, Esq., "The Pickwick Author of "Sketches by Boz," Papers," &c.

Memoirs of the Life and Adventures of Colonel Francis Macerone. Written by himself, and edited by W. Harrison Ainsworth, Esq.

The Life of Robert Pollok, Author of "The Course of Time," &c. By Andrew Brown, A. M., his Fellow-Student.

Zulneida. By Dr. Arthur Mower.

Moral Axioms for the Use of the Young. By Sir Egerton Brydges, Bart.

The Caraguin. A Tale of the Antilles. By the Author of "The Cruise."

A Summer in the Pyrenees, being Notices of a Pedestrian Tour in the Frontier Departments of France and Spain, and the Republic of Andorre, in 1835. By the Hon. James Murray.

The Life and Times of Jerome Cardan. By James Crossley, Esq.

BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS.

BIRTHS.

On the 25th ultimo, in Arlington Street, the Countess of Brecknock of a daughter.

On the 24th ult. in Eaton Place, the Countess of Denbigh of a daughter.

On the 30th ult. the Countess of Burlington of

a son.

On the 29th ult. at Heanton Satchvill, Devon, the Lady Clinton of a daughter.

At Shelford, Cambridgeshire, the Lady of Sherlock Willis, Esq. of a son.

On the 26th ult. in Charles Street, Berkeley Square, the Lady of William B. Bayley, Esq. of

a son.

On the 13th instant, at Stockpole Court, the Countess Cawdor of a still-born son.

On the 13th inst. the Viscountess Deerhurst of a daughter, at her father's, Sir C. Cockerell, Bart. Hyde Park Corner.

December 31, 1836.

On the 13th instant, at Shrivenham, Berks, the Rev. Thomas Mills, Rector of Hutton, Suffolk, Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty, to the Hon. E. F. Barrington, daughter of the late Viscount Barrington.

On the 29th ult. at Florence, in the house of the British Minister, Lieut.-Col. the Hon. Henry Edward Butler, brother of the Earl of Carrick, to Frances Mauleverer Parker, second daughter of the late John Parker Toulston, Esq. of Skipwith, Yorkshire.

On the 7th inst. at Dean, Lancashire, Edward Richmond Gale Braddyll, Esq. to Sophia, second daughter of William Hutton, Esq. of Hutton Park.

On the 15th instant, at St. George's, Hanover Square, John Clarke, Esq. Major 54th Regiment, second son of the late Alexander Clarke, Esq. of Dulnarest, N. B., to Charlotte Sophia, third daughter of the late Major-General Sir John Dalrymple,

On the 2nd inst. at Cheltenham, Lady Darling Bart. of a still-born son.

On the 7th instant, the Lady of the Rev. Evan Nepean of a son.

On the 20th inst. at Hamilton Place, the Hon. Mrs. George Hope of a daughter.

On the 14th inst. at Llanstinan, Pembroke, the Lady of Lieut.-Col. Owen, M. P. of a daughter.

On the 19th inst. the Lady of Louis Goodman, Esq. of Cambridge Terrace, of a son and heir.

On the 20th inst. at Eltham, the Lady of Captain C. Rochfort Scott of a son.

On the 7th inst. at Rome, the Lady of Captain Cornwallis Ricketts, R.N. of a son.

On the 14th instant, at Edinburgh, the Lady of Charles Brownlow, Esq. of a son.

On the 25th inst. the Lady Albert Conyngham of a daughter.

At Woodlands, Somersetshire, the Lady of Capt. Maher of a daughter.

MARRIAGES.

On the 26th ult. at Banghurst, Hunts, the Rev. R. Pole, second son of Sir Peter Pole, Bart. to E. A., daughter of Richard Elmhirst, Esq. of Cleathorpe, Lincolnshire.

At St. James's Church, Thomas Brydges Evered, Esq. eldest son of the late Charles Evered, Esq. of Langhorne House, Shepton Mallet, to Adelaide Jane, the youngest surviving daughter of the late D. Ximenes, Esq. of Rose Mount, Sidmouth.

On the 10th instant, at St. George's Church, Hanover Square, Capt. the Hon. Charles Stanley, Grenadier Guards, third son of the Earl of Derby, to Frances Augusta, daughter of Lieut.-General Sir Henry Campbell.

On the 15th instant, at Easton, the seat of Sir M. Cholmeley, Bart., T. G. Corbett, Esq. of Elsham Hall, M. P. to Lady Mary Noel Beauclerk, sister of his Grace the Duke of St. Albans.

DEATHS.

On the 25th ult. in South Street, the Honourable George Augustus Frederick Lamb, only son of Viscount Melbourne, in his 30th year.

On the 26th ult. at Ramsgate, Lady Grey, wife of Sir T. Grey, of that place.

On the 14th May, at Vellore, Lieutenant Duncan Charles W. Campbell, 9th Native Infantry, eldest son of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Stuart Campbell, C. B.

On the 23rd ult. at Sidmouth, Capt. T.P. Durell, R. N., in his 81st year.

On the 29th ultimo, at Stranraer, the Dowager Lady Reid, relict of the late Sir John Reid, Bart. of Barra.

On the 17th instant, at West Cowes, the Lady Jemima Isabella Wykeham Martin, wife of Charles Wykeham Martin, Esq. and only daughter of the Earl Cornwallis.

On the 17th instant, the Rev. Dr. Rippon, in his 86th year.

On the 18th inst. in Upper Brook Street, Mrs. O'Grady, sister of the late Viscountess Harberton.

On the 19th instant, Sir Michael Shaw Stewart, of Greenock and Blackhall, Bart., M. P. for the county of Renfrew.

On the 7th inst. at Balfour, in Fifeshire, Gilbert Bethune, Esq. of Balfour, aged 71.

On the 26th inst. at Whickford in the county of Warwick, Katherine, wife of the Rev. Charles Turner, aged 22.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

THE character of Goldsmith remains yet to be written. With the exception of the occasional notices concerning him, which we find in Boswell's book, and a few memorable sentences uttered by memorable men, we know nothing of the character of Goldsmith beyond that which we glean, or rather deduce, from his acknowledged works. But even those inferences, however complete they may be as far as they go, afford but partial glimpses of the man: for we learn from the indefatigable researches of his recent biographer, Mr. Prior, that his labours extended over a much wider and more various field than those volumes which bear his name, and that there was scarcely a subject in the whole range of human enquiry which, at one time or another, he did not touch. That his erudition was neither extensive nor profound, must be admitted at once; but that he possessed extraordinary industry, singular facility in acquiring a rapid and familiar knowledge of the most obvious features of every topic he undertook to illustrate; and that he was master of the happy art of inspiring even the dull-est investigation with lively interest, are evidences of a genius which neither the envious Kenrick, nor the fretful Boswell, could refuse to acknowledge. Of all his contemporaries, Johnson appears to have appreciated his peculiar merits with the greatest accuracy. When he heard that he was employed in the preparation of a work on Natural History, he said that he would make it as entertaining as a Persian tale!

The literary reputation of Goldsmith rests upon works that will survive as long as the literature of the English language. But, until Mr. Prior explored the secret history of the author, and tracked him from bookseller to bookseller, and from publication to publication, with an amount of diligence that cannot be too highly praised, it was not known that Goldsmith was a constant contributor to periodicals, that he was a reviewer of new books in magazines and newspapers, that he wrote divers prefaces for histories, scientific books, translations, and a multitude of ephemeral volumes; that he prepared for the press a great number of pamphlets and compilations which have VOL. X.-NO. II. FEBRUARY 1837.

fallen into oblivion, and that he was, in short,
one of those laborious hacks who, subsisting
upon the patronage of the booksellers, are
ready at any moment to embark in any lite-
rary undertaking for which they are paid—
whether nature or education has qualified
them to execute their tasks with credit.
Amongst the variety of compositions which
he thus produced, there was, of course, much
which he would have been unwilling to
avow, much which was merely common-
place and superficial, and a great deal in
which his felicitous hand could scarcely be
recognized, having been thrown off merely
to satisfy the present demands of the hour,
and to secure him an interval of ease for
pursuits more after his own taste. But this
mass of production discovers a versatility, a
power, and a copiousness for which the world
had not previously given him credit. He
was regarded, not as a voluminous, but as an
elegant writer-not as one who had written
much, but as one who had written with re-
markable grace, beauty, and precision : and
it was a subject of general regret that he had
left so little behind him.
It is now,
how-
ever, known that, in common with such men
as Smollett and Griffith Jones, differing
from each other in degree, but living upon
similar expedients, he was rarely idle, and
that he was one of the most fertile contri-
butors to the fleeting literature of the day.
He must, therefore, be regarded as an in-
cessant labourer, and not as an author
awakening occasionally from fits of reverie
and idleness to charm the world with inven-
tions that had visited him in his dreams.

The knowledge of this fact was essential to the formation of a just estimate of his character. The legends that have come down to us of his absent moods, his blunders, and his dullness (amongst other irreverent titles which he acquired was that of Goodman Dull), were calculated to convey and confirm the notion that his genius was occasionally dormant, that his powers were not always capable of being called into action, that he was slow to originate, and that the process of realization depended altogether upon temperament. The very contrary was true. His mind was remarkably elastic— he never was at a loss for a subject—he was

H

prompt in the execution of whatever he undertook-he saw no difficulties before him-he was perpetually searching after novelties, and devising projects-and whether he was required to furnish a grave disquisition, a humorous essay, a biography, or an allegory, he was always prepared with a fund of information, and a flow of spirits that appears never to have deserted him. His ordinary bearing in society certainly did not indicate this fertility and readiness of mind. In conversation he was somewhat confused and abstracted :-may not the solution of all his awkwardness in that way be found in the diversity of subjects that occupied his attention? His habits of composition suggest a clue to this very peculiarity, that may at once account for it satisfactorily. When he was writing the History of England, he used to read Hume, Rapin, Carte, and Kennet in the mornings, then walk out into the fields, and in a few hours afterwards, having digested the substance of what he had been reading, he would sit down and reduce into his own simple and perspicuous narrative the entire subject of his meditations. He did not seize upon it at once-it required a short pause of time-he was to be acted upon by the influence of solitude and rumination and he could not resolve the matter into shape until it had sunk and deposited itself in his mind. There are many anecdotes of Goldsmith extant, that strengthen this view of the mental process by which he arrived at production. When he was boarding with a family in the country, he was accustomed to have his meals frequently sent to his room, where he remained for several days together writing; sometimes he would wander into the kitchen, and stand with his back to the fire ruminating, when suddenly the labouring thought would develope itself, and he would start off to commit it to paper without saying a word the whole time. Such are, in a greater or lesser degree, the habits of all literary men, but in Goldsmith the action of the mind appears to have completely absorbed the faculty of talking: while he was perfecting the train of reasoning, the image, the plot, the form of the fiction, he rejected the ordinary stimulants of collision, which would have deranged his purpose. But his social qualities drew him into company, unfit as he was to participate in the gladiatorial display of trenchant wit and philosophical satire ; and he was constantly in the dilemma of a man

whose love of his species plunged him into countless embarrassments that compromised his sense. Johnson was a marvellous talker -a sententious talker: it was a part and parcel of his character: the subjects upon which he excelled, were such as would be likely to be improved by intercourse with other minds, and the manner in which he investigated them was of a mixed mode between a debater and an oracle. Goldsmith, on the contrary, derived every thing from nature-he could not have written Rasselas had he tried; he would have banished all the artificial eloquence, and spread a human interest over the story that would have brought down the fiction and its moral closer to our sympathies and our experience :-he wrote out of the fullness of his own heart and thoughts :-while other men were arguing, Goldsmith was inventing and reflecting, but his good-nature was always getting the better of him, and with an excusable vanity, or, perhaps, from a generous wish to make other people feel at ease, he attempted to enter into the immediate topic, while his attention was concentrated upon something else, and, of course, he frequently made himself ridiculous. The truth was, that not being a mere artist, but one who felt and observed-disregarding shallow brilliancy, despising the meretricious, and valuing only that which was founded in nature, which he loved with the unconscious devotion of a child-he never could apply his powers with success to the fugitive embellishments, and incessant but trifling demands of general intercourse. His only exponent was his pen. In company he was confounded-alone, he was self-possessed. Success in the world would have tainted the freshness, originality, and purity of his genius. Had he ventured to take a prominent share in conversation, unskilled as he was in dialectics-(which he evidently held in aversion, since, throughout his whole works, we find him delineating, developing, and urging moral truths, but never contesting about them)-it must have been at the ultimate expense of that exquisite simplicity which constitutes the prevailing charm of his writings. Yet there were not wanting envious and empty persons to take advantage of his peculiarities, and to seek petty victories over his credulity and guilelessness. A noble lord-with an ambition, perhaps, resembling that of "the youth who fired the Ephesian dome," -called Goldsmith an "inspired idiot."

Assuredly his lordship's opinion of the poet was thoroughly worthless: he measured him by the standard of superficial convention, and might as well have challenged his literary reputation by a sarcasm on his wardrobe.

But the awkwardness, if it may be so designated, of Goldsmith's bearing in society, was not to be referred solely to the peculiar turn of his mind; it had its origin less in his inaptitude, than in his desire for popularity in the circles that flattered and hoaxed him. This was the real spring of the absurdities which he committed, as well as of the jokes to which he was exposed. It is said of him, that he was affected by the foolish vanity of wishing to be thought capable of achieving excellence in almost every thing that any body else could perform. Johnson detected this foible, and ridiculed it unmercifully. On one occasion he was riding in a coach, and observing that the driver was going at a rapid pace, he said, “This fellow drives well: if Goldy were here now he would tell us that he could do it better!" Another observation made by Johnson in allusion to the writings of Goldsmith, taken along with this satirical remark, will shew the two great phases of the poet's character. "So various are his powers," observed Johnson, “and so felicitous is his style, that he always appears to do that best which he happens to be doing." Thus in literature Goldsmith excelled upon all the subjects he attempted: in private life his efforts to succeed in the same way were ludicrous failures. His genius was marked out for supremacy in the revelations of solitude: when he came into the crowd, he was bewildered. But he could not surrender the notion, that he had equal powers of conversation with other people, and he was consequently betrayed into multitudes of humorous dilemmas. He had a pleasant talent for singing an Irish comic song and telling stories, and may have been thus lured into the belief, that his proper sphere was the social board. Some part, too, of this fallacy may be set down to his good-nature. He was always impressed with an apprehension, that literary men were regarded in general as a class distinct from the rest of society, that their habits were held to be eccentric and peculiar, and that their superiority was in some measure felt to be oppressive by those with whom they mingled. Anxious to relieve his friends from the sense of inferiority, and to

shew that literary men were like other people, he avoided as much as possible the exhibition of intellectual advantages, and brought himself down at all times to the tone of the circle in which he chanced to move. There was, no doubt, a slight tinge of vanity in this, as well as amiability; it was a part, however, of his character, and must be taken into the account, if we would arrive at a true estimate of the individual.

After all, perhaps the word vanity is misapplied to Goldsmith. Vanity is generally found associated with envy. Now, of all men, Goldsmith was the least envious. He constantly checked, and endeavoured to neutralize, the severity of Johnson: promoted, even to his own loss, the interests of his poorer contemporaries; was remarkably indulgent of all faults of others; and was prompt to forgive all the ill-natured criticisms that were written and spoken upon his productions. His experience of the world's vices, of calumny, of treachery, of harshness, coldness, and unprovoked hostility, passed over him in vain. He was inaccessible to the admonitions of disappointment, and continued to the last to think favourably and trustfully of mankind. was so unsuspicious, that the same cheat might be practised upon him over and over again, without disturbing his quiescent confidence. But, although these circumstances had no practical effect upon his life-for he went out of the world a child in the world's ways-they were not lost upon him. They furnished him with abundant hints for his humorous sketches of society, and from every defeat which his self-love endured with such complacency, he extracted a moral or a jest ; which shewed, that while he was indifferent to the mortification, the point did not escape his recognition.

His temper

Were it not that the thoughtlessness of Goldsmith was identical with the simplicity of his nature, it would unquestionably deserve to be treated with severity: but his foibles were all of so kindly and unselfish a cast, that even where the rigid censor would most harshly condemn, the purist would find a lurking virtue at the bottom to brighten his wrath into smiles. It may be said of Goldsmith, that he never committed an act of injustice-unless we take special objection to those instances of heedless generosity which frequently deprived him of the power of doing real good, by the expenditure of his pity upon the first appeal that happened to be made to his compassion. I

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