(chap. xviii.) for Harrogate, and "the races' (ibid.) for Doncaster. The "rapid stream in chap. iii., where Sophia was nearly drowned, he conjectures to have been near the confluence of the Swale and Ouse at Boroughbridge, "within thirty miles " (p. 21) of Kirkby Moorside; and the county gaol in chap. v., vol. ii., he places "eleven miles off" (p. 86) at Pickering. But for the further details of this attractive if inconclusive inquiry, as well as the conjectural identification of Sir William Thornhill, with the equally eccentric Sir George Savile, and of the travelling limner of chap. xvi., vol. i., with Romney the artist, the reader is referred to the article itself.

The first edition of the "Vicar," it will be remembered, was published on March 27, 1766. A second edition, containing some minor modifications, one of the most important of which was the reiteration, with great effect, of Mr. Burchell's famous comment, followed in May, and a third in August. In the same year there were also two unauthorised reprints of the first edition, one of which was published at Dublin, the other in London. After this there seems to have been a lull in the demand, for the fourth edition is dated 1770; and, according to Collins's books, started with a loss. The

ΙΟ

profits of this seem to have been so doubtful that, before the fifth edition appeared, Collins sold his third share to one of his colleagues for five guineas. The fifth edition, which did not actually appear until April, 1774, is dated 1773. This would indicate that the previous issue was not exhausted until early in the following year. The sixth edition is dated 1779. Thus, assuming the fifth to have been, like the fourth edition, limited to one thousand copies, it took nearly nine years to sell two thousand copies. No rival of any importance was in the field, until, in 1778, Miss Burney published her "Evelina ;" and the languor of the sale must be attributed to some temporary suspension of public interest in the "Vicar." Meanwhile, translations into French and German, to be followed in due time by translations into almost every European language,1 were laying the foundation of its cosmopolitan reputation, and its modern admirers still take pleasure in recollecting that among the most famous of their predecessors was Goethe. "It is not to be described," he wrote to Zelter in 1830, "the effect which Goldsmith's Vicar'

1 "A Bibliographical List of Editions of 'The Vicar of Wakefield' published in England and abroad," is prefixed to Elliot Stock's facsimile reprint of 1885, pp. xxii-xxxix.

had upon me just at the critical moment of mental development. That lofty and benevolent irony, that fair and indulgent view of all infirmities and faults, that meekness under all calamities, that equanimity under all changes and chances, and the whole train of kindred virtues, whatever names they bear, proved my best education; and in the end, these are the thoughts and feelings which have reclaimed us from all the errors of life."1

1 See also Miscellanies, by the present Author, 1898, pp. 165-182, for a paper on "The Vicar of Wakefield' and its Illustrators."

CHAPTER VIII

"The Vicar" and "The Traveller" as investments; translation of Formey's "History of Philosophy and Philosophers " published, June, 1766; "Poems for Young Ladies" published, December 15; English Grammar written; "Beauties of English Poesy" published, April, 1767; letter to the St. James's Chronicle, July; living at Canonbury House; at the Temple; visited by Parson Scott; "Roman History"; the Wednesday Club; popularity of genteel comedy; plans a play; story of "The Good Natur'd Man ;" its production at Covent Garden, January 29, 1768; its reception; Goldsmith on the first night; his gains; Davies on the dramatis persona; Johnson on Goldsmith.

GOLDSM

OLDSMITH'S biographers have laid stress upon the fact that there is no record of any payment to him for the "Vicar of Wakefield," subsequent to that original sixty pounds, or guineas, whereof mention was made in the foregoing chapter; and they have not failed to remark, with a certain air of righteous indignation, that, on May 24, 1766, close upon the publication of the second edition, a bill drawn by him upon John Newbery for fifteen guineas was returned dishonoured. Some in

dignation would be intelligible, and perhaps justifiable, had the book been a pecuniary success, which, of course, was their assumption, an assumption based upon the rapid appearance of three editions. But, if Collins's accounts are to be accepted, and the chief objection to them is their contradiction of time-honoured traditions, the "Vicar," in spite of those three issues (of how many copies we are ignorant), was not paying its proprietors, — in other words, they had not yet recovered the £60 they had laid out upon the manuscript. No other interpretation can be placed upon the statement of Mr. Welsh, who says, "The fourth edition. [of 1770] started with a balance against it.1 This being so, no ground existed for any generosity from the proprietors to the author. On the other hand, "The Traveller " was a success. It had reached a fourth edition in August, 1765, and in a memorandum by Goldsmith printed by Prior, and dated June 7, 1766, there is an item of £21 for "The Traveller." It is scarcely possible that this can refer to the first payment made as far back as 1764, and it may therefore be assumed, not unreasonably, that it was an additional payment arising out of the success of the poem. If this be the case, the circum1 A Bookseller of the Last Century, 1885, p. 61.