George Daniel of Islington; and (says Mr. Cunningham)
'evidently designed as a preface to a collected edition of the poems
which grew out of Goldsmith's trying his epigrammatic powers with
Garrick.' It is signed 'D. Garrick.' 'At a meeting' -- says the writer
-- '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 would never allow a superior in any art,
from writing poetry down to dancing a horn-pipe, 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 anything 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.
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