TRIALS AND MISERIES. 



17 



Egypt, just published, in order that 

 she might be enabled to say some- 

 thing civil to him upon it, adding 

 that he would leave the volume for 

 her on his study-table. He forgot 

 this, however, and madame, upon 

 going into the study, found a volume 

 of Robinson Crusoe on the table in- 

 stead, which having read very atten- 

 tively, she was not long in opening 

 upon Denon after dinner about the 

 desert island, his manner of living, 

 &c., to the great astonishment of 

 poor Denon, who could not make 

 head or tail of what she meant. At 

 last, upon her saying, "Eh puis, ce 

 cher Vendredi!" he perceived she 

 took him for no less a person than 

 Robinson Crusoe. (Moore.) 



DR. YOUNG. 



When Dr. Young was deeply en- 

 gaged in writing one of his trage- 

 dies, the Duke of Wharton, who 

 had presented him with ,2000 on 

 the publication of his Universal 

 Passion, made him a gift of a differ- 

 ent kind. He procured a human 

 skull, and fixed a candle in it, and 

 gave it to the doctor, as the most 

 proper lamp for him to write tra- 

 gedy by. (Rawlinson.) 



JOHNSON ANp HIS BEAUTIES. 



"The Beauties of Johnson " are 

 said to have got money to the col- 

 lector ; if the " Deformities " have 

 the same success, I shall, be still 

 a more extensive benefactor. (Dr. 

 Johnson.) 



TEIALS AND MISEKIES. 



OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 



Of poor, dear Dr. Goldsmith, 

 there is little to be told more than 

 the papers have made public. He 

 died of a fever, made, I am afraid, 

 more violent by uneasiness of mind. 

 His debts began to be heavy, and 

 all his resources were exhausted. 

 He had raised money and squan- 

 dered it by every acquisition and 

 folly of expense. Sir Joshua [Rey- 

 nolds] is of opinion, that he owed 

 not less than two thousand pounds. 

 Was ever poet so trusted before 1 

 (Dr. Johnson.) 



MILTON. 



After Milton was driven from all 

 public stations, he was still too great 

 not to be traced by curiosity to his 

 retirement, where he has been found 

 by Mr. Richardson, the fondest of 

 his admirers, sitting before his door 

 in a grey coat of coarse cloth, in 

 warm, sultry weather, to enjoy the 

 fresh air; and so, as in his own 

 room, receiving the visits of a few 

 of distinguished parts as well as 

 quality. According to another ac- 

 count, he was seen in a small house, 



neatly enough dressed in black 

 clothes, sitting in a room hung with 

 rusty green ; pale, but not cadave- 

 rous, with chalk-stones in his hand. 

 He said that, if it were not for the 

 gout, his blindness would be toler- 

 able. In the intervals of his pain, 

 being made unable to use the com- 

 mon exercises, he used to swing in 

 a chair, and sometimes played upon 

 an organ. He was at this time em- 

 ployed upon his Paradise Lost. His 

 domestic habits, so far as they are 

 known, were those of a severe stu- 

 dent. He drank little strong drink 

 of any kind, and fed without excess 

 in quantity, and in his earlier years, 

 without delicacy of choice. In his 

 youth, he studied late at night ; but 

 afterwards changed his hours, and 

 rested in bed from nine to four in 

 the summer, and five in the winter. 

 The course of his day was best 

 known after he was blind. When 

 he first rose, he heard a chapter in 

 the Hebrew Bible, and then studied 

 till twelve; then took some exer- 

 cise for an hour ; then dined, then 

 played on the organ, and sang, or 

 heard another sing; then studied 

 B 



