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OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S LIFE AND TIMES. t^B°°^K ^m-

1764. nor can I altogether even resist the suspicion, considering
2BUJ6. the intimacy which existed between the families of the
Newberys and the Flemings,* that the publisher himself,
for an obvious convenience of his own, may have suggested,
or at least sanctioned, the harsh proceeding. The manuscript
of the novel (of which more hereafter) seems by both state-
ments, in which the discrepancies are not so great but that
Johnson himself may be held accountable for them, to have
been produced reluctantly, as a last resource; and it is
possible, as Mrs. Thrale intimates, that it was still regarded
as " unfinished;"—but, if strong adverse reasons had not
existed, Johnson would surely have carried it to Newbery.
He did not do this. He went with it to Francis Newbery
the nephew; does not seem, to have given any very brilliant
account of the " merit" he had perceived in it (four years
after its author's death he told Keynolds that he did not
think it would have had much success t); and, rather with

* My Mend Mr. Peter Cunningham was so kind as to examine Newbery's will for
me, and found in it two bequests, of fifty guineas each, to Mrs. Elizabeth Fleming
and Mr. Thomas Fleming. From the same will it appears that both John and
Thomas Oarnan had married daughters of Newbery.

f The passage is worth quoting from JSoswell, vii. 172-3. It occurs in an
argument which arose at Beynolds's dinner-table, as to whether a man who had
been asked his opinion by another whether or not his manuscript were worth
publication, is justified in giving such opinion, or under an obligation to speak
the truth, on being so put to the torture. In any case, argued Johnson,
' I should scruple much to give a suppressive vote. Both Goldsmith's comedies
' were once refused; his first by Garrick, his second by Caiman, who was
' prevailed on at last by much solicitation, nay, a kind of force, to bring it on.
' His Vicar of Wakefield I myself did not think would have had much success.
'It was written and sold to a bookseller before his Traveller', but published
' after; so little expectation had the bookseller from it. • Had it been sold after
' The Traveller, he might have had twice as much money for it, though sixty
' guineas was no mean price. The bookseller had the advantage of Goldsmith's
'reputation from The Traveller in the sale, though Goldsmith had it not in
' selling the copy." Sin JOSHUA REYNOLDS. " The Beggars Opera affords a proof
' how strangely people will differ in opinion about a literary performance. Burke
' thinks it has no merit." All this should be remembered before harsh judgments
are given on the occasional querulous complaints that broke from Goldsmith as to
the reception given to his writings.