Early in 1767 it was completed, and submitted
to Garrick for Drury Lane. But Garrick perhaps too politic to traverse
the popular taste, temporized; and eventually after many delays and
disappointments, 'The Good Natur'd Man', as it was called, was produced
at Covent Garden by Colman on the 29th of January, 1768. Its success was
only partial; and in deference to the prevailing craze for the
'genteel,' an admirable scene of low humour had to be omitted in the
representation. But the piece, notwithstanding, brought the author 400
pounds, to which the sale of the book, with the condemned passages
restored, added another 100 pounds. Furthermore, Johnson, whose
'Suspirius' in 'The Rambler' was, under the name of 'Croaker,' one of
its most prominent personages, pronounced it to be the best comedy since
Cibber's 'Provok'd Husband'.
During the autumn of 1767, Goldsmith had again been living at Islington.
On this occasion he had a room in Canonbury Tower, Queen Elizabeth's old
hunting-lodge, and perhaps occupied the very chamber generally used by
John Newbery, whose active life was, in this year, to close.
Pages:
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56