Henry Goldsmith in 1759 ('Percy Memoir',
1801, pp. 53-9), Goldsmith thus refers to the first form of these
verses:--'Your last letter, I repeat it, was too short; you should have
given me your opinion of the design of the heroicomical poem which I
sent you: you remember I intended to introduce the hero of the poem, as
lying in a paltry alehouse. You may take the following specimen of the
manner, which I flatter myself is quite original. The room in which he
lies, may be described somewhat this way:--
The window, patch'd with paper, lent a ray,
That feebly shew'd the state in which he lay.
The sanded floor, that grits beneath the tread:
The humid wall with paltry pictures spread;
The game of goose was there expos'd to view
And the twelve rules the royal martyr drew:
The seasons, fram'd with listing, found a place,
And Prussia's monarch shew'd his lamp-black face
The morn was cold; he views with keen desire,
A rusty grate unconscious of a fire.
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