POSTSCRIPT
42 lines✦
fter the Fourth Edition of this Poem was printed, the Publisher receivedan Epitaph on Mr. Whitefoord, from a friend of the late Doctor Goldsmith,inclosed in a letter, of which the following is an abstract:— ‘I have in my possession a sheet of paper, containing near forty lines inthe Doctor’s own hand-writing: there are many scattered, broken verses, onSir Jos. Reynolds, Counsellor Ridge, Mr. Beauclerk, and Mr. Whitefoord.The Epitaph on the last-mentioned gentleman is the only one that isfinished, and therefore I have copied it, that you may add it to the nextedition. It is a striking proof of Doctor Goldsmith’s good-nature. I sawthis sheet of paper in the Doctor’s room, five or six days before he died;and, as I had got all the other Epitaphs, I asked him if I might take it.“_In truth you may, my Boy_,” (replied he,) “_for it will be of nouse to me where I am going._”’ HERE Whitefoord reclines, and deny it who can,Though he _merrily_ liv’d, he is now a ‘grave’ man;Rare compound of oddity, frolic, and fun!Who relish’d a joke, and rejoic’d in a pun; 150Whose temper was generous, open, sincere;A stranger to flatt’ry, a stranger to fear;Who scatter’d around wit and humour at will;Whose daily _bons mots_ half a column might fill;A Scotchman, from pride and from prejudice free; 155A scholar, yet surely no pedant was he. What pity, alas! that so lib’ral a mindShould so long be to news-paper essays confin’d;Who perhaps to the summit of science could soar,Yet content ‘if the table he set on a roar’; 160Whose talents to fill any station were fit,Yet happy if Woodfall confess’d him a wit. Ye news-paper witlings! ye pert scribbling folksWho copied his squibs, and re-echoed his jokes;Ye tame imitators, ye servile herd, come, 165Still follow your master, and visit his tomb:To deck it, bring with you festoons of the vine,And copious libations bestow on his shrine:Then strew all around it (you can do no less)_Cross-readings, Ship-news_, and _Mistakes of the Press._170 Merry Whitefoord, farewell! for _thy_ sake I admitThat a Scot may have humour, I had almost said wit:This debt to thy mem’ry I cannot refuse,‘Thou best humour’d man with the worst humour’d muse.’
✦