OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S LIFE AND TIMES. BOOK m.

1764. " an idea that lie was the very man, and then Johnson con-
m36. " fessed that he was so; the novel was the .charming Vicar of
" Wakefieldr*

A. more scrupulous and patient writer corrects some
inaccuracies of the lively little lady, and professes to give
the anecdote authentically from Johnson's own exact narra-
tion. " I received one morning," Boswell represents Johnson
to have said, " a message from poor Goldsmith that he was
" in great distress, and, as it was not in his power to come
" to me, hegging that I would come to him as soon as
" possible. I sent him a guinea, and promised to come to
" him directly. I accordingly went as soon as I was dressed,
"' and found that his landlady had arrested him for his rent,
ct at which he was in a violent passion. I perceived that he
" had already changed my guinea, and had got a bottle of
" madeira and a glass before him. I put the cork into the
" bottle, desired he would be calm, and began to talk to him
" of the means by which he might be extricated.t He then
" told me that he had a novel ready for the press, which he
" produced to me. I looked into it, and saw its merit; told
" the landlady I should soon return; and, having gone
" to a bookseller, sold it for sixty pounds. I brought
" Goldsmith the money, and he discharged his rent, not

* Anecdotes, 119-20. Mrs. Thrale fixes the date of the incident as not later
than 1765 or 6 ; but it is to be kept in mind that' her little volume of Anecdotes
•was written and printed while she was in Italy (it appeared in 1786) without the
means of correcting any such slip of memory.

>p Mr. Croker has pointed out that George Steevens (in the London Magazine,
Iv. 253) tells, curiously enough, a not dissimilar story of Johnson himself, who very
frankly confessed to have been sometimes in the power of bailiffs, and that Richardson,
the author of Clarissa, was his constant friend on stich occasions. "I remember
" writing to him,'" said Johnson, "from a sponging-house; and was so sure of my
" deliverance through his kindness and,liberality, that, before his reply was brought,
" I knew I could afford to joke with the rascal who had me in custody, and did so,
" over a pint of adulterated wine, for which, at that instant, I had no money to
"pay." Croker's Bosivett, 141, and that instead of being a