t as they.

"To all that want, and all that wail,
Our pity shall be given,
And when this life of love shall fail,
We'll love again in heaven."

But subsequently it must have occurred to the author that, the
dramatic disclosure once made, and the lovers restored to each other,
any lingering over the scene only weakened the force of the climax;
hence these stanzas were judiciously excised. It may be doubted,
however, whether the original version of the last couplet:

"And the last sigh that rends the heart
Shall break thy Edwin's too,"

was improved by being altered into

"The sigh that rends thy constant heart
Shall break thy Edwin's too."

Meanwhile Goldsmith had resorted to hack-work again; nothing being
expected from the _Vicar of Wakefield_, now lying in Newbery's shop,
for that had been paid for, and his expenses were increasing, as
became his greater station. In the interval between the publication of
the _Traveller_ and of the _Vicar_, he moved into better chambers in
Garden Court; he hired a man-servant, he blossomed out into very fine
clothes. Indeed, so effective did his first suit seem to be--the
purple silk small-clothes, the scarlet roquelaure, the wig, sword, and
gold-headed cane--that, as Mr. Forster says, he "amazed his friends
with no less than three similar suits, not less expensive, in the next
six months." Part of this display was no doubt owing to a suggestion
from Reynolds that Goldsmith, having a medical degree, might just as
well add the practice of a physician to his literary work, to magnify
his social position. Goldsmith, always willing to please his friends,
acceded; but his practice does not appear to have been either
extensive or long-continued. It is said that he drew out a
prescription for a certain Mrs. Sidebotham which so appalled the
apothecary that he refused to make it up; and that, as the lady sided
with the apothecary, he threw up the case and his profession at the
same time. If it was money Goldsmith wanted, he was not likely to get
it in that way; he had neither the appearance nor the manner fitted to
humour the sick and transform healthy people into valetudinarians. If
it was the esteem of his friends and popularity outside that circle,
he was soon to acquire enough of both. On the 27th March, 1766,
fifteen months after the appearance of the _Traveller_, the _Vicar of
Wakefield_ was published.

CHAPTER XI.

THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD