OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S LIFE AND TIMES. [BOO*.in.
1760. .fortunate tumbler, who, between the acts of tragedies as well
-ffit.32. as farces, balances a straw upon his nose; * and zig-zagging
his way home after all is over, through a hundred obstacles
from coach-wheels and palanquin-poles, " like a bird in its
" flight through the branches of a forest." He is a visitor at
the humble pot-house clubs, whose follies and enjoyments he
moralises with touching pleasantry. " Were I to be angry
" at men for being fools, I could here have found ample
" room for declamation; but, alas! I have been a fool
" myself, and -why should I be angry with them for being
" something so natural to every child of humanity." Un-
sparing historian of this folly of his own, he conceals his
imprudence as little as his poverty; and his kind heart he
has not the choice to conceal. Everywhere it betrays itself.
In hours of depression, recalling the disastrous fate of men
of genius, and " mighty poets in their misery dead; " in
" pocket to-night, Polly and the Pickpocket to-morrow night, and Polly and the
" Pickpocket again ! I want patience. I will hear no more." Goldsmith took no
part whatever in a graver outcry which was afterwards levelled against Cray's
masterpiece, and which at last, the year before his death, took the form of an
application from the magistrates of Bow-street to request the managers of Drury
Lane and Covent Garden " not to exhibit this opera, deeming it productive of inis-
" chief to society." Peake's Memoirs of the Colmans; i. 317.
* All the tumblers,he says, with a sarcastic humour that may be forgiven him
in his garret, "from the wonderful dog of knowledge, at present under the
" patronage of the nobility, down to the man with the box, who professes to show
" 'the best imitation of nature that was ever seen,' they all live in luxury.
" A singing-woman shall collect subscriptions in her own coach-aud-six ; a fellow
" shall make a fortune by tossing a straw from his toe to his nose ; one in particular
" has found that eating fire was the most ready way to live ; and another who
" gingles several bells fixed to his cap, is the only man that I know of who has
" received emolument from the labours of his head." Letter xlv. The chance of
encouragement, now-a-days, Goldsmith had before remarked bitterly—and how often
since has the same thought occurred to a struggling man of letters !—lies not in
the head, but in the heels. " One who jumps up and flourishes his toes three
" times before he comes to the ground, may have three hundred a year ; he who
" flourishes them four times, gets four hundred; but he who arrives at five is
" inestimable, and may demand what salary he thinks proper. The female
" dancers, too, are valued for this sort of jumping and crossing ; and it is a cant
" word among them that she deserves most who shows highest." Letter xxi.