RETALIATION.

Or old, when Scarron his companions invited, Each guest brought his dish, and the feast was united;

If our 'landlord supplies us with beef and with fish, Let each guest bring himself, and he brings the best dish:

Our 2 dean shall be venison, just fresh from the [brains;

plains;

Our Burke shall be tongue, with the garnish of Our Will shall be wildfowl, of excellent flavour, And 5 Dick with his pepper shall heighten the [tain,

6

savour:

Our Cumberland's sweetbread its place shall ob

1 The master of the St. James's Coffee-house, where the Doctor, and the friends he has characterised in this poem, occasionally dined.

2 Doctor Barnard, Dean of Derry, in Ireland.

3 Mr. Edmund Burke.

4 Mr. William Burke, late secretary to General Conway, and member for Bedwin.

5 Mr. Richard Burke, collector of Grenada.

6 Mr. Richard Cumberland, author of the West Indian,' Fashionable Lover,' The Brothers,' and other dramatic pieces.

POSTSCRIPT.

AFTER the fourth edition of this poem was printed, the publisher received the following epitaph on Mr. Whitefoord,34 from a friend of the late Dr. Goldsmith:

HERE Whitefoord reclines, and deny it who can, Though he merrily liv'd, he is now a grave

man:

85

Rare compound of oddity, frolic, and fun!
Who relish'd a joke, and rejoic'd in a pun;
Whose temper was generous, open, sincere;
A stranger to flattery, a stranger to fear;
Who scatter'd around wit and humour at will;
Whose daily bon mots half a column might fill:
A Scotchman, from pride and from prejudice free;
A scholar, yet surely no pedant was he.

What pity, alas! that so liberal a mind Should so long be to newspaper essays confin'd! Who perhaps to the summit of science could soar, Yet content if the table he set in a roar;' Whose talents to fill any station were fit, Yet happy if 6 Woodfall confess'd him a wit.

34 Mr. Caleb Whitefoord, author of many humorous essays. 35 Mr. W. was so notorious a punster, that Doctor Goldsmith used to say it was impossible to keep him company, without being infected with the itch of punning.

96 Mr. H. S. Woodfall, printer of the Public Advertiser.

Ye newspaper witlings! ye pert scribbling folks! Who copied his squibs, and re-echoed his jokes ; Ye tame imitators, ye servile herd, come,

Still follow your master, and visit his tomb: To deck it, bring with you festoons of the vine, And copious libations bestow on his shrine; Then strew all around it (you can do no less) 87 Cross readings, ship news, and mistakes of the press.

Merry Whitefoord, farewell! for thy sake I admit That a Scot may have humour, I had almost said wit:

This debt to thy memory I cannot refuse,

88 Thou best humour'd man with the worst humour'd muse.'

37 Mr. Whitefoord has frequently indulged the town with humorous pieces under those titles in the Public Advertiser. On C. Whitefoord, see Smith's Life of Nollekens, vol. i. p. 338-340. See his poem to Sir Joshua Reynolds, Admire not, dear knight,' in Northcote's Life of Reynolds, p. 128. 28 When you and Southern, Moyle, and Congreve meet, The best good men, with the best natured wit.'

C. Hopkins. v. Nicholls' Col. Poems, ii. p. 207.

THE CAPTIVITY.

AN ORATORIO.

IN THREE ACTS.

1

"Written in 1764, but never set to music, or even published by its author. It is here printed from the original manuscript, in Goldsmith's handwriting, in the possession of Mr. Murray, of Albemarle Street, compared with the copy printed by Messrs. Prior and Wright, in 1837. I have adopted the most poetical readings of both copies.

"For this Oratorio Goldsmith received at least ten guineas. In Mr. Murray's collection is the following receipt in Goldsmith's handwriting:—

'Received from Mr. Dodsley ten guineas for an Oratorio, which he and Mr. Newbery are to share.

October 31st, 1764.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.'

"Mr. Murray's MS. is the copy sold by Goldsmith to James Dodsley."

P. C.