PREFACE.
At p. 55 a story is repeated from the 'recollections of
Miss Reynolds, communicated to Mr. Croker, which had
already been far better told in the Gentleman's Magazine
for July 1797. In pp. 80-94 a great clutter is made
about the ballad of Edwin and Angelina, as to which all
that was really essential is told in pp. 74-76 of the Memoir
by Percy, whose personal connection with the dispute arising
out of it gives peculiar authority to his statement.
At p. 130 the assertion about Goldsmith's having got a
large sum for what might seem a small labour, put forth as
an exaggeration reported by others which "he took no
" pains to contradict," but to which he would " in sub-
" stance reply " &c, is all taken without acknowledgment
from Cooke3 s narrative in the European Magazine (xxiv.
94).; in which the exaggeration, such as it is, is most
emphatically assigned to Goldsmith himself. At p. 135
the whimsical anecdote described to have been told to
Dr. Percy, "with some humour by the Duchess of
" Northumberland," might more correctly have been
quoted from p. 68-69 of the Percy Memoir,
At p. 139 there occurs, at last, formal mention of a person
" admitted to considerable intimacy with him, Mr. William
" Cooke, a barrister, known as the writer of a work on
" dramatic genius, and of a poem, &c "; of whom it is
added that " he related many amusing anecdotes of the
" poet from personal knowledge •;" but where the anecdotes
are to be found is carefully suppressed, nor indeed could
any one imagine that they had ever. found their way into
print. At p. 139-140 a highly characteristic story of
Goldsmith is given as from the relation of this Mr. Cooke,
" corroborated to the writer by the late Richard Sharpe