ns, Langton,
Beauclerk, and Chamier, who met and supped together every Friday night,
at the Turk's Head, in Gerard-street, Soho. The bookseller's shop
belonging to Dr. Griffiths, called the Dunciad, in the neighbourhood of
Catherine-street, was another of his favourite haunts.

His comedy of the Good Natured Man, though it had received the sanction
of Burke's approval, did not please Garrick sufficiently to induce him
to venture it on his theatre. It was, therefore, brought forward by
Colman, at Covent Garden, on the 29th of January, 1769; but having been
represented for nine nights, did not longer maintain its place on the
stage, though it is one of those comedies which afford most amusement in
the closet. For his conception of the character of Croaker, the author
acknowledged that he was indebted to Johnson's Suspirius, in the
Rambler. That of Honeywood, in its undistinguishing benevolence, hears
some resemblance to his own.

In the next year he published his Deserted Village; and entered into an
agreement with Davies, to compile a History of England, in four octavo
volumes, for the sum of five hundred pounds in the space of two years;
before the expiration of which period, he made a compact with the same
bookseller for an abridgment of the Roman History, which he had before
published. The History of Greece, which has appeared since his death,
cannot with certainty be ascribed to his pen.

In 1771, he wrote the Life of Bolingbroke, prefixed to the Dissertation
on Parties.

The reception which his former play had met did not discourage him from
trying his fate with a second. But it was not till after much
solicitation that Colman was prevailed on to allow The Mistakes of a
Night, or She Stoops to Conquer, to be acted at Covent Garden, on the
15th of March, 1773. A large party of zealous friends, with Johnson at
their head, attended to witness the representation and to lead the
plaudits of the house; a scheme which Mr. Cumberland describes to have
been preconcerted with much method, but to have been near failing in
consequence of some mistakes in the execution of the manoeuvres, which
aroused the displeasure of the audience. That the piece is enlivened by
such droll incidents, as to be nearly allied to farce, Johnson with
justice observed, declaring, however, that "he knew of no comedy for
many years that had so much exhilarated an audience; that had so much
answered the great end of comedy, that of making an audien