CHAP. IV.j THE CITIZEN OF THE WORLD,

which his amusing impudence puffs up his miserable poverty, 1760.
that he makes out a title to good-natured cheerfulness and jet. 82.
thorough enjoyment, which all the real wealth might have
purchased cheaply ? What would his friends Lords Muddler
and Crump, the Duchess of Piccadilly or the Countess of
Allnight, have given for it ? Gladly, for but a tithe of it,
might the lords have put up with his two shirts, and uncom-
plainingly the ladies assisted Mrs. Tibbs, and her sweet
pretty daughter Carolina "Wilhelmina Amelia, in seeing them
through the wash-tub. It is an elegant little dinner he talks of
giving his friend, with bumpers of wine, a turbot, an ortolan,
and what not: but who would not as soon have had the smart
bottled-beer which was all he had to give, with the nice
pretty bit of ox-cheek, piping-hot, and dressed with a little
of Mrs, Tibbs's own sauce which " his grace " was so fond
of ? It is supposed that this exquisite sketch had a living
original in one of Goldsmith's casual acquaintance ; a person
named Thornton, once in the army.

This is not improbable, any more than that the beau's two
shirts might have been copied from Goldsmith's own; for
everywhere throughout the Letters actual incidents appear,
and the " fairy tale " of the prince and the white mouse had
an origin whimsical as the story itself. Mr. Newbery's two
guineas a-week would seem to have attracted weekly levies,
in a double sense, from Grub-street (when was there ever a
good-natured Irishman with five shillings in his pocket, and
any lack of Irish hangers-on to share the spoil ?), at which
PilMngton, son of the notorious Leetitia, was most assiduous.
But with other than his usual begging aspect, he appeared
in Green Arbour Court one day; for good luck had dawned
on him at last, he said, and his troubles were over. A very
small sum (and he ran about the room for joy of theord with a black hilt; and his stockings of silk, though