GOLDSMITH'S "GOOD-NATURED MAN." WILLIAM BLACK (b. 1841). On the evening of Friday, the 29th of January 1768, when Goldsmith had now reached the age of forty, the comedy of The Good-natured Man was produced at Covent Garden Theatre. The Prologue had, according to promise, been written by Johnson; and a very singular prologue it was. Even Boswell was struck by the odd contrast between this sonorous piece of melancholy and the fun that was to follow. "The first lines of this Prologue," he conscientiously remarks, "are strongly characteristical of the dismal gloom of his mind; which, in his case, as in the case of all who are distressed with the same malady of imagination, transfers to others its own feelings. Who could suppose it was to introduce a comedy, when Mr. Bensley solemnly began * "Pressed with the load of life, the weary mind But this dark ground might make Goldsmith's humor shine the more." When we come to the comedy itself, we find but little bright humor in the opening passages. The author is obviously timid, anxious, and constrained. There is nothing of the brisk, confident vivacity with which She Stoops to Conquer opens. The novice does not yet understand the art of making his characters explain themselves; and accordingly the benevolent uncle and honest Jarvis indulge in a conversation which, laboriously descriptive of the character of young Honeywood, is spoken "at" the audience. With the entrance of young Honeywood himself, Goldsmith endeavors to become a little more sprightly; but there is still anxiety hanging over him, and the epigrams are little more than merely formal antitheses. "Jarvis. This bill from your tailor; this from your mercer; and this from the little broker in Crooked Lane. He says he has been at a great deal of trouble to get back the money you borrowed. * Goldsmith's comedy, She Stoops to Conquer, appeared five years later, its first representation being given at Covent Garden Theatre, March 15, 1773. "Hon. That I don't know; but I'm sure we were at a great deal of trouble in getting him to lend it. "Jar. He has lost all patience. “Hon. Then he has lost a very good thing. "Jar. There's that ten guineas you were sending to the poor gentleman and his children in the Fleet. I believe that would stop his mouth-for a while at least. "Hon. Ay, Jarvis, but what will fill their mouths in the meantime?" This young Honeywood, the hero of the play, is, and remains throughout, a somewhat ghostly personage. He has attributes, but no flesh or blood. There is much more substance in the next character introduced-the inimitable Croaker, who revels in evil forebodings and drinks deep of the luxury of woe. These are the two chief characters; but then a play must have a plot. And perhaps it would not be fair, so far as the plot is concerned, to judge of The Good-natured Man merely as a literary production. Intricacies that seem tedious and puzzling on paper appear to be clear enough on the stage: it is much more easy to remember the history and circumstances of a person whom we see before us, than to attach these to a mere name especially as the name is sure to be clipped down from Honeywood to Hon., and from Leontine to Leon. However, it is in the midst of all the cross-purposes of the lovers that we once more come upon our old friend Beau Tibbs-though Mr. Tibbs is now in much better circumstances, and has been renamed by his creator Jack Lofty. Garrick had objected to the introduction of Jack, on the ground that he was only a distraction. But Goldsmith, whether in writing a novel or a play, was more anxious to represent human nature than to prune a plot, and paid but little respect to the unities, if only he could arouse our interest. And who is not delighted with this Jack Lofty and his "duchessy" talk-his airs of patronage, his mysterious hints, his gay familiarity with the great, his audacious lying? Lofty. Waller? Waller? Is he of the house? "Mrs. Croaker. The modern poet of that name, sir. Lof. Oh, a modern! We men of business despise the moderns; and as for the ancients, we have no time to read them. Poetry is a pretty thing enough for our wives and daughters; but not for us. Why, now, here I stand that know nothing of books. I say, madam, I know nothing of books; and yet, I believe, upon a land-carriage fishery, a stamp act, or a jaghire,* I can talk my two hours without feeling the want of them. "Mrs. Cro. The world is no stranger to Mr. Lofty's eminence in every capacity. "Lof. I vow, madam, you make me blush. I'm nothing, nothing, nothing in the world; a mere obscure gentleman. To be sure, indeed, one or two of the present ministers are pleased to represent me as a formidable man. I know they are pleased to bespatter me at all their little dirty levees. Yet, I wonder what they see in me to treat me so! Measures, not men, have always been my mark; and I vow, by all that's honorable, my resentment has never done the men, as mere men, any manner of harm-that is, as mere men. "Mrs. Cro. What importance, and yet what modesty! Lof. Oh, if you talk of modesty, madam, there, I own, I'm accessible to praise: modesty is my foible: it was so the Duke of Brentford used to say of me. 'I love Jack Lofty,' he used to say; 'no man has a finer knowledge of things; quite a man of information; and when he speaks upon his legs, he's prodigious-he scouts them and yet all men have their faults; too much modesty is his,' says his grace. : "Mrs. Cro. And yet, I daresay, you don't want assurance when you come to solicit for your friends. "Lof. Oh, there indeed I'm in bronze. Apropos! I have just been mentioning Miss Richland's case to a certain personage; we must name no names. When I ask, I am not to be put off, madam. No, no; I take my friends by the button. ‘A fine girl, sir; great justice in her case. A friend of mine-borough interest-business must be done, Mr. Secretary-I say, Mr. Secretary, her business must be done, sir.' That's my way, madam. "Mrs. Cro. Bless me! you said all this to the Secretary of State, did you? "Lof. I did not say the Secretary, did I? Well, since you have found me out, I will not deny it. It was to the Secretary.' Strangely enough, what may now seem to some of us the very best scene in the Good-natured Man-the scene, that is, in which young Honeywood, suddenly finding Miss Richland without, is compelled to dress up the two bailiffs in possession of his house and introduce them to her as gentleman friendswas very nearly ruining the play on the first night of its production. The pit was of opinion that it was "low;" and subsequently the critics took up the cry, and professed themselves to be so deeply shocked by the vulgar humors of the bailiffs that Goldsmith had to cut them out. But on the opening night * Jag'hire (-eer), a land grant in the East Indies appropriated to a specific (generally military) object. the anxious author, who had been rendered nearly distracted by the cries and hisses produced by this scene, was somewhat reassured when the audience began to laugh again over the tribulations of Mr. Croaker. To the actor who played the part he expressed his warm gratitude when the piece was over; assuring him that he had exceeded his own conception of the character, and that "the fine comic richness of his coloring made it almost appear as new to him as to any other person in the house.” The new play had been on the whole favorably received; and, when Goldsmith went along afterwards to the Club, his companions were doubtless not at all surprised to find him in good spirits. He was even merrier than usual, and consented to sing his favorite ballad about the old woman tossed in a blanket. But those hisses and cries were still rankling in his memory; and he himself subsequently confessed that he was "suffering horrid tortures." Nay, when the other members of the Club had gone, leaving him and Johnson together, he "burst out a-crying, and even swore that he would never write again." GOLDSMITH, in English Men of Letters. THE LAST THREE FROM TRAFALGAR. At the Anniversary Banquet, 21st October 187-. DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI (1828-1882). [On the 21st October 1805, Nelson engaged the combined French and Spanish fleets off Cape Trafalgar'. Just before the battle commenced, he hoisted the memorable signal, England expects that every man will do his duty.' While directing his fleet from the deck of his flag-ship the Victory, Nelson was shot through the spine, and was carried down to the cockpit to die. His last words were, "Thank God, I have done my duty!"] In grappled ships around the Victory, Three boys did England's duty with stout cheer, Who was the Battle's Heart without a peer, And round the old memorial board to-day, Three graybeards--each a war-worn British Tar— MAGNA CARTA. (1215 A.D.) REV. WILLIAM STUBBS, M.A. (b. 1825). (Regius Professor of Modern History, Oxford.) ["The Great Charter and the founding of the House of Commons are the events of the greatest importance. They have been described by the author with brevity, but with rare ability and discrimination. In no other volume are the important characteristics of the time, when the foundations of legislative government were laid, so well pointed out."-C. K. ADAMS (1882).] During John's hasty journey to Durham and back, events ever memorable in English history had taken place. On the 4th of August [1213] the justiciar* Geoffrey Fitz-Peter held a great assembly at St. Albans,† at which attended not only the great barons of the realm, but the representatives of the people of the townships of all the royal estates. The object of the gathering was to determine the sum due to the bishops as an indemnity for their losses. There, no doubt, the commons and barons had full opportunity of discussing their grievances; and the justiciar undertook, in the name of his master, that the laws of Henry I. should be put in force. Not that they knew much about the laws of Henry I., but that the prevailing abuses were regarded as arising from the strong governmental system consolidated by Henry II., and they recurred to the state of things which preceded that reign, just as under Henry I. men had recurred to the reign and laws of Edward the Confessor. On the 25th of the same month the Archbishop,‡ at a council of St. Paul's, actually produced the charter issued by Henry I. at his coronation, and proposed that it should be presented to the king as the embodiment of the institutions which he had promised to maintain. Upon this foundation Magna Carta was soon to be drawn up. Almost directly after this, in October, the justiciar died; and John, who had hailed the death of Hubert Walter as a relief from an unwelcome adviser, spoke of Geoffrey with a cruel mockery as gone to join his old fellow * Justiciar, a judge to whom the king delegated the power of hearing and deciding cases, before the erection of the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas. + St. Albans, twenty-one miles north-west of London. 1206. Stephen Langton, appointed by the Pope to the See of Canterbury in |