The first lines--
Press'd with the load of life the weary mind
Surveys the general toil of human kind--
when enunciated in the sepulchral tones of Bensley, the tragedian,
were judged to have a depressing effect upon the audience--a
conclusion which seems reasonable and probable enough, although
Boswell suggested that "the dark ground might make Goldsmith's humour
shine the more." Goldsmith himself was chiefly disturbed at the line
describing him as "our little bard," which he thought likely to
diminish his dignity, by calling attention to the lowness of his
stature. "Little bard" was therefore altered to "anxious bard."
Johnson also supplied a prologue to Kelly's posthumous comedy of "A
Word to the Wise" (represented in 1770, for the benefit of the
author's widow and children), although he spoke contemptuously of the
departed dramatist as "a dead staymaker," and confessed that he hated
to give away literary performances, or even to sell them too cheaply.
"The next generation," he said, "shall not accuse me of beating down
the price of literature; one hates, besides, to give what one is
accustomed to sell.
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