There's a pasty'-'A pasty!' repeated the Jew; I don't care if I keep a corner for 't too.' 'What the de'il, mon, a pasty!' re-echoed the Scot; "Though splitting, I'll still keep a corner for that.' 'We'll all keep a corner,' the lady cried out; 'We'll all keep a corner,' was echo'd about. While thus we resolv'd, and the pasty delay'd, With looks that quite petrified, enter'd the maid: A visage so sad, and so pale with affright, Wak'd Priam in drawing his curtains by night. But we quickly found out, for who could mis[baker:

take her?

That she came with some terrible news from the
And so it fell out, for that negligent sloven
Had shut out the pasty on shutting his oven.
Sad Philomel thus — but let similes drop —
And now that I think on't, the story may stop.
To be plain, my good lord, it's but labour misplac'd
To send such good verses to one of your taste;
You've got an odd something—a kind of dis-
cerning -

A relish

a taste sicken'd over by learning ; At least, it's your temper, as very well known, That you think very slightly of all that's your own: So, perhaps, in your habits of thinking amiss, You may make a mistake, and think slightly of this.

There's a pasty.'

VARIATIONS.

A pasty!' returned the Scot; 'I don't care if I keep a corner for thot.'

q looks quite astonishing

I too soon we

RETALIATION.

А РОЕМ.

"As the cause of writing the following printed poem called Retaliation, has not yet been fully explained, a person concerned in the business begs leave to give the following just and minute account of the whole affair.

At a meeting of a company of gentlemen, who were well known to each other, and diverting themselves, among many other things, with the peculiar oddities of Dr. Goldsmith, who never would allow a superior in any art, from writing poetry down to dancing a hornpipe, the Dr. with great eagerness insisted upon trying his epigrammatic powers with Mr. Garrick, and each of them was to write the other's epitaph. Mr. Garrick immediately said that his epitaph was finished, and spoke the following distich extempore:

Here lies Nolly Goldsmith, for shortness call'd Noll, Who wrote like an angel, but talk'd like poor Poll. Goldsmith, upon the company's laughing very heartily, grew very thoughtful, and either would not, or could not, write any thing at that time; however, he went to work, and some weeks after produced the following printed poem called Retaliation, which has been much admired, and gone through several editions. The publick in general have been mistaken

1 At the St. James's Coffee-House in St. James's Street. See Art. James's (St.) Coffee House,' in Cunningham's HandBook of London, 2d ed. 1850, p. 254.

in imagining that this poem was written in anger by the Doctor; it was just the contrary; the whole on all sides was done with the greatest good humour; and the following poems in manuscript were written by several of the gentlemen on purpose to provoke the Doctor to an answer, which came forth at last with great credit to him in Retaliation."— D. GARRICK, [MS.]

"For this highly interesting account, (now first printed, or even referred to by any biographer or editor of Goldsmith,) I am indebted to my friend Mr. George Daniel, of Islington, who allowed me to transcribe it from the original in Garrick's own handwriting discovered among the Garrick papers, and evidently designed as a preface to a collected edition of the poems which grew out of Goldsmith's trying his epigrammatic powers with Garrick. I may observe also that Garrick's epitaph or distich on Goldsmith is (through this very paper) for the first time printed as it was spoken by its author.

"Retaliation was the last work of Goldsmith, and a posthumous publication-appearing for the first time on the 18th or April, 1774."

CUNNINGHAM.

RETALIATION.

Or old, when Scarron his companions invited, Each guest brought his dish, and the feast was united;

If our 'landlord supplies us with beef and with fish, Let each guest bring himself, and he brings the best dish:

plains ;

Our 2 dean shall be venison, just fresh from the [brains; Our Burke shall be tongue, with the garnish of Our Will shall be wildfowl, of excellent flavour, And 5 Dick with his pepper shall heighten the

4

savour:

[tain, Our Cumberland's sweetbread its place shall ob

1 The master of the St. James's Coffee-house, where the Doctor, and the friends he has characterised in this poem, occasionally dined.

2 Doctor Barnard, Dean of Derry, in Ireland.

3 Mr. Edmund Burke.

4 Mr. William Burke, late secretary to General Conway, and member for Bedwin.

5 Mr. Richard Burke, collector of Grenada.

6 Mr. Richard Cumberland, author of the West Indian,' Fashionable Lover,' The Brothers,' and other dramatic pieces.

And Douglas is pudding, substantial and plain;

8

Our Garrick's a salad; for in him we see

Oil, vinegar, sugar, and saltness agree:

To make out the dinner, full certain I am
That Ridge is anchovy, and 10 Reynolds is lamb;
That "Hickey's a capon, and, by the same rule,
Magnanimous Goldsmith a gooseberry fool.
At a dinner so various, at such a repast,
Who'd not be a glutton, and stick to the last?
Here, waiter, more wine! let me sit while I'm able,
Till all my companions sink under the table;
Then, with chaos and blunders encircling my head,
Let me ponder, and tell what I think of the dead.

12 Here lies the good dean,18 reunited to earth, Who mixt reason with pleasure, and wisdom with mirth:

7 Doctor Douglas, canon of Windsor, an ingenious Scotch gentleman, who has no less distinguished himself as a citizen of the world, than a sound critic, in detecting several literary mistakes (or rather forgeries) of his countrymen; particularly Lauder on Milton, and Bower's History of the Popes.

8 David Garrick, Esq.

9 Counsellor John Ridge, a gentleman belonging to the Irish Bar.

10 Sir Joshua Reynolds.

11 An eminent attorney, whose hospitality and good humour acquired him in his club the title of honest Tom Hickey.'

12 Here lies the good dean] See a poem by Dean Barnard to Sir J. Reynolds, in Northcote's Life of Reynolds, p. 130.

18 Vide page 77.