CHAP. VI.] WORK AM) HOPE.

" celebrated for his wisdom, liis valour, or his learning, lived. 1759.
" "Wlien lie coasted along the shore of Greece, all the heroes, &*•31-
" statesmen, orators, philosophers, and poets of those famed
" republics, rose in his memory, and were present to his
" sight; how much more would he have been delighted with
" any of their posthumous works, however inferior to what
" he had before seen!" *);—and finally, for nay summary must
be brief, on parson Hawkins's Works, f and on the same
irritable parson's Impartial Reader's Answer to the said review
of his works; t where Goldsmith thus drily, in the second
of these articles, put the difference between himself and the
reverend writer.§ " He is for putting his own works upon

* Critical Review, vii. 535, June 1759. •

f Ibid,' viii. 98, August 1759. $ Ibid, is. 214, March 1760.

§ Parson Hawkins was an Oxford professor of poetry, and the author, not only of
the Thimble, but of a wretched tragedy called the Siege of Aleppo, which Garriek
declined to act; and as to which the reader may find it worth while to compare
the capital letters in which the judicious manager met the angry professor's outraged
vanity, and the confused account he afterwards gave of those letters in conversation,
when fluttered and agitated by Johnson's laughter and sarcasm. See Garrick
Correspondence, ii. 6, and BosweU, vii. 94-5. I happen myself to be able to quote a
couple of passages from the letter, hitherto imprinted, that accompanied this very
tragedy when it first went to Garriek (in the autumn of 1771); which will not
only amuse the reader, but show him the preposterous vanities that, under cover of
the utmost humility and the most friendly professions of service, were the plague
of the poor Drury Lane manager's life. In the remark about Hawkins and Shak-
speare on the same shelf, quoted above, Goldsmith had hit the leading weakness
of the reverend poet. This letter shows us that he had written his tragedy in
express imitation of Shakspeare, that he sent it to Garriek solely because of his
admiration for Shakspeare, and that he was willing Garrick should have it for a
mere nothing strictly because of the obligations he had conferred on Shakspeare. '' I
" flatter myself this letter when favored with your perusal will cany its apology
" with it. As a passionate admirer .of Shakspeare it is but natural for me to
4' wish to be connected with Mr. Garrick, and I hope I shall be understood to
" mean more than a base compliment when I add that I really desire this from
4' motives rather of, an honoring than lucrative nature. In short (to give yourself
'' and me as little trouble as may be) the case is this—I have a Play by me,'
4' written in imitation of Shakspeare in point of style, but on a plan &c. wholly
" new, which I have an ambition to recommend to your acceptance." Eecommend
it to his acceptance he accordingly proceeds to do, by declaring that the Wartons,
Tom and Joe, might be asked to give their opinion of it, by which he, Hawkins,»nV iwriwtl tin