we find of Goldsmith is in connection with an
incident which has its ludicrous as well as its regrettable aspect.
The further success of _She Stoops to Conquer_ was not likely to
propitiate the wretched hole-and-corner cut-throats that infested the
journalism of that day. More especially was Kenrick driven mad with
envy; and so, in a letter addressed to the _London Packet_, this poor
creature determined once more to set aside the judgment of the public,
and show Dr. Goldsmith in his true colours. The letter is a wretched
production, full of personalities only fit for an angry washerwoman,
and of rancour without point. But there was one passage in it that
effectually roused Goldsmith's rage; for here the Jessamy Bride was
introduced as "the lovely H----k." The letter was anonymous; but the
publisher of the print, a man called Evans, was known; and so
Goldsmith thought he would go and give Evans a beating. If he had
asked Johnson's advice about the matter, he would no doubt have been
told to pay no heed at all to anonymous scurrility--certainly not to
attempt to reply to it with a cudgel. When Johnson heard that Foote
meant to "take him off," he turned to Davies and asked him what was
the common price of an oak stick; but an oak stick in Johnson's hands,
and an oak stick in Goldsmith's Lands, were two different things.
However, to the bookseller's shop the indignant poet proceeded, in
company with a friend; got hold of Evans; accused him of having
insulted a young lady by putting her name in his paper; and, when the
publisher would fain have shifted the responsibility on to the editor,
forthwith denounced him as a rascal, and hit him over the back with
his cane. The publisher, however, was quite a match for Goldsmith; and
there is no saying how the deadly combat might have ended, had not a
lamp been broken overhead, the oil of which drenched both the
warriors. This intervention of the superior gods was just as
successful as a Homeric cloud; the fray ceased; Goldsmith and his
friend withdrew; and ultimately an action for assault was compromised
by Goldsmith's paying fifty pounds to a charity. Then the howl of the
journals arose. Their prerogative had been assailed. "Attacks upon
private character were the most liberal existing source of newspaper
income," Mr. Forster writes; and so the pack turned with one cry on
the unlucky poet. There was nothing of "the Monument" about poor
Goldsmith; and at last he was worried into writ