62 - To David Garrick, [London, c. 24 December 1773]
Summary
Despite his success with She Stoops to Conquer, money, as ever, remained a problem for Goldsmith. This letter, opening with an appropriate touch of flattery, shows Goldsmith looking to wheedle an additional loan from Garrick, guaranteed by Newbery. Garrick, as Letter 63 shows, agreed to the loan but the endorsement ‘Goldsmith's parlaver’ (on both letters) suggests that he was a little exasperated. The date is determined by the date of Letter 63, which it immediately precedes.
The copy-text is the manuscript in the Houghton Library, Harvard University. It was first published by Forster in 1848. It was addressed ‘To David Garrick Esqr.| Adelphi’.
My Dear Sir,
Your saying you would play my Good natured man makes me wish it. The money you advanced me upon Newbery's note I have the mortification to find is not yet paid, but he says he will in two or three days. What I mean by this letter is to lend me sixty pound for which I will give you Newbery's note, so that the whole of my debt will be an hundred for which you shall have Newbery's note as a security. This may be paid either from my alteration if my benefit should come to so much, but at any rate I will take care you shall not be a loser. I will give you a new Character in my comedy and knock out Lofty which does not do, and will make such other alterations as you direct.
I am yours
Oliver Goldsmith.I beg an answer.
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- Information
- The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith , pp. 134 - 135Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018