The Complete Poetical Works | Page 8

that, early in 1759, 'in a wretched dirty room, in which there was but
one chair,' the Rev. Thomas Percy, afterwards Bishop of Dromore,
found him composing (or more probably correcting the proofs of) 'The
Enquiry'. 'At least spare invective 'till my book with Mr. Dodsley shall
be publish'd,'--he had written not long before to the irate Griffiths--'and
then perhaps you may see the bright side of a mind when my
professions shall not appear the dictates of necessity but of choice.' 'The
Enquiry' came out on the 2nd of April. It had no author's name, but it
was an open secret that Goldsmith had written it; and to this day it
remains to the critic one of the most interesting of his works. Obviously,
in a duodecimo of some two hundred widely-printed pages, it was
impossible to keep the high-sounding promise of its title; and at best its
author's knowledge of the subject, notwithstanding his continental

wanderings, can have been but that of an external spectator. Still in an
age when critical utterance was more than ordinarily full-wigged and
ponderous, it dared to be sprightly and epigrammatic. Some of its
passages, besides, bear upon the writer's personal experiences, and
serve to piece the imperfections of his biography. If it brought him no
sudden wealth, it certainly raised his reputation with the book-selling
world. A connexion already begun with Smollett's 'Critical Review'
was drawn closer; and the shrewd Sosii of the Row began to see the
importance of securing so vivacious and unconventional a pen.
Towards the end of the year he was writing for Wilkie the collection of
periodical essays entitled 'The Bee'; and contributing to the same
publisher's 'Lady's Magazine', as well as to 'The Busy Body' of one
Pottinger. In these, more than ever, he was finding his distinctive touch;
and ratifying anew, with every fresh stroke of his pen, his bondage to
authorship as a calling.
He had still, however, to conquer the public. 'The Bee', although it
contains one of his most characteristic essays ('A City Night-Piece'),
and some of the most popular of his lighter verses ('The Elegy on Mrs.
Mary Blaize'), never attained the circulation essential to healthy
existence. It closed with its eighth number in November, 1759. In the
following month two gentlemen called at Green Arbour Court to enlist
the services of its author. One was Smollett, with a new serial, 'The
British Magazine'; the other was Johnson's 'Jack Whirler,' bustling Mr.
John Newbery from the 'Bible and Sun' in St. Paul's Churchyard, with a
new daily newspaper, 'The Public Ledger'. For Smollett, Goldsmith
wrote the 'Reverie at the Boar's Head Tavern' and the 'Adventures of a
Strolling Player,' besides a number of minor papers. For Newbery, by a
happy recollection of the 'Lettres Persanes' of Montesquieu, or some of
his imitators, he struck almost at once into that charming epistolary
series, brimful of fine observation, kindly satire, and various fancy,
which was ultimately to become the English classic known as 'The
Citizen of the World'. He continued to produce these letters
periodically until the August of the following year, when they were
announced for republication in 'two volumes of the usual 'Spectator'
size.' In this form they appeared in May, 1762.

But long before this date a change for the better had taken place in
Goldsmith's life. Henceforth he was sure of work,--mere journey-work
though much of it must have been;--and, had his nature been less
improvident, of freedom from absolute want. The humble lodgings in
the Old Bailey were discarded for new premises at No. 6 Wine Office
Court, Fleet Street; and here, on the 31st of May, 1761, with Percy,
came one whose name was often in the future to be associated with
Goldsmith's, the great Dictator of London literary society, Samuel
Johnson. Boswell, who made Johnson's acquaintance later, has not
recorded the humours of that supper; but it marks the beginning of
Goldsmith's friendship with the man who of all others (Reynolds
excepted) loved him most and understood him best.
During the remainder of 1761 he continued busily to ply his pen.
Besides his contributions to 'The Ledger' and 'The British Magazine', he
edited 'The Lady's Magazine', inserting in it the 'Memoirs of Voltaire',
drawn up some time earlier to accompany a translation of the 'Henriade'
by his crony and compatriot Edward Purdon. Towards the beginning of
1762 he was hard at work on several compilations for Newbery, for
whom he wrote or edited a 'History of Mecklenburgh', and a series of
monthly volumes of an abridgement of 'Plutarch's Lives'. In October of
the same year was published the 'Life of Richard Nash', apparently the
outcome of special holiday-visits to the then fashionable watering-place
of Bath, whence its fantastic old Master of the Ceremonies had only
very lately made