14, OLIYER GOLDSMITH'S LIFE AND TIMES. II)U"KL
1737, and dancing a pas seul impromptu about ih& n w u

upon, seizing the opportunity of the lad's mage-ixily lo°k
grotesque figure, the jocose fiddler promptly exclaimed
^Esop ! A burst of laughter rewarded him, wliicli- fcowevcir
was rapidly turned the other way by Noll stopping liis lwrn"
pipe, looking round at his assailant, and giving forth, m
audible voice and without hesitation, .the ccmplet wluch
was thought worth preserving.as the first formal effort of liiH
genius, by Percy, Malone, Campbell, and the re si, who com.
piled that biographical preface * to the Miscellaneous Worka
on which the subsequent biographies have "been founded,
but who nevertheless appear to have missecL tlae correct
version of the lines they thought so clever.

Heralds ! proclaim aloud! all saying,

See JEsop dancing, and his Mon&ey playing".")-

Yet these things may stand for more than qulelmess of

* The biograpMcal preface, or Memoir, for which the materials laatl l>e©n collected
"by Percy, Malone, and other friends, was drawn up in the first imeta-nee by Percy'*
friend, Dr. Campbell • it then received ample correction from Percy, wlxose rework*
and interlineations were engrafted into the text; btxt circumstances led to a< "Very $&&*¥
dispute on its being handed to the publishers of the Miscettaneoi&a Worfair Other
causes of disagreement afterwards sprang up with Mr. Rose (Oowper's frfsatl),
employed as their editor, and Percy ultimately declined to sanctioxt the puMiattwn,
His correspondence with Steevens, Malone, and other friends, sbo-WB am.pl o toietw nf
this quarrel, and of his dissatisfaction with Mr, Rose, whom lie a-ocxiaoa of im^orti*
nently tampering with tie Memoir. "I never," writes Malono "bo Percy, in oor-
roboration of such complaints, "observed any of those grimaces o:r dToolorieB tlmt tlte
" interpolator talks of 1" "In going over Goldsmith's life," writes Dr. Anderson to
Percy, " I will thank you to point out the particular passages wlxic'h. "were tlinwfc
"into your narrative." Nichols's Illustrations, vii. 213. Sul3siia.n.tially» however,
the narrative no doubt remained in its leadmg details -what it is Btatecl to be in the
advertisement, " composed from the information of persons who -were Iiatlliiato with
"the poet at an early period, and who were honoured with, a oontlrraamee of hit
*' friendship till the time " of his death. For proof of Percy's unceasing 3f©f«»B06 to
the Memoir as the authentic account of Goldsmith, even after rfcs intearpolatitQa by
Eose, see Nichols's Mwtrations, vii. 102, where he recommends iij i/o Dr, Andemoa's

I quote the couplet (of which the first line is tamely gj-ven In tile P&vy

" Our herald hath proclaimed this saying ")
from Mr. Shaw Mason's Statiatical Account, iii. 359.420