He informs us in a short advertisement that he was indebted for some hints in this play to Le Complaisant, a French Comedy, and the Clavigo of Goethe.
‘The Inquisitor,’ brought out soon after at the Haymarket, and ‘The Old Clothesman,’ an afterpiece, at Covent-Garden, were unsuccessful.
CHAPTER VI
Having brought Mr Holcroft’s literary history down to the time when he left England, I shall throw together, in the present chapter, such private incidents as occurred within this period, and as have not been already noticed.
After the appearance of the comedy of Duplicity, in 1782, Mr Holcroft left his house, in Southampton Buildings, and went to live in Mary-le-bone Street. He afterwards hired a house, for a short time, in Margaret-Street, in conjunction with his friend, Bonneville. In 1789, or the beginning of 1790, he removed into Newman-Street, where he continued till a short time before his going abroad, in 1799, when he took lodgings in Beaumont-Street, near the New Road.
In the year 1786, Mr Holcroft first became acquainted with Mr Godwin. This friendship lasted for near twenty years. It was broken off by an unhappy misunderstanding, some time after Mr Holcroft’s return from the continent; and they did not see each other, in consequence of the coolness that took place, till they met for the last time a little before Mr Holcroft’s death.
It was Mr Holcroft who reviewed Mr Godwin’s celebrated work on Political Justice, in the Monthly Review, 1793. It may be supposed that the Review was a favourable one. Mr Holcroft at this time constantly wrote articles in the Monthly Review, and was on friendly terms with Griffiths, the proprietor. But it seems the latter was considerably alarmed at the boldness of some of Mr Godwin’s principles, and still more staggered at the accounts he had heard of them. He threw himself on Mr Holcroft’s known attachment to the interest of the Review not to commit its character by undeserved praise. Griffiths, however, probably found soon after that the common place character of the Review had been endangered; and the first opportunity was seized to retrieve the mistake, by retracting their opinion hautement in the Review of Mr Malthus’s publication.
The marriage of Mr Holcroft’s eldest daughter with Colonel Harwood took place in the year 1796.
Immediately after his release from prison, in 1794, he hurried into Devonshire to see his daughter (Sophy), whom he believed to be dying. His apprehensions, however, were groundless. While he remained in the country, he had a fall from a tree, which had nearly proved fatal to him, and which brought on an occasional palpitation of the heart; to which he was ever after subject, on using any sudden or violent exertion.—Mr Holcroft had, some years before, shortly after the appearance of the Road to Ruin, been attacked by a paralytic affection, which he believed to have been the effect of too severe and constant application. Indeed, when we recollect the number and variety of Mr Holcroft’s productions, it is evident that either his facility or industry must have been wonderful. Perhaps there is no instance of a man, who passed through so much literary drudgery in voluminous translations, &c. and who was at the same time continually employed in the most lively efforts of the imagination. His resolute perseverance in pursuits so opposite, and apparently incompatible with each other, is a proof both of the activity and steadiness of his mind.
The relaxations in which Mr Holcroft indulged, were few and regular. He was fond of riding; and, for some years, kept a horse, which had generally high blood in its veins. In 1787, he bought a poney of his father, which he valued so highly, that he refused to part with it for forty guineas. The French are not great equestrians; and Mr Holcroft one day amused himself rather maliciously, in making a friend from Paris mount this poney, who was extremely alarmed at the tricks he began to play, though he was really in no danger.