To a Young Ass in the 18th-century, with many philosophers and writers, including Godwin, William Shield, and others, releasing their horses and mules to walk alongside them. A direct literary connection is to William Crowe's "To an Ass" (1793) and the poem incorporates a quote from William Shakespeare's "Hamlet". The idea of connecting with a lowly form of animal also appears in many literary works, including Robert Burns poems (example – "To a Mouse"), Southey's poems (example – "To a Spider"), the works of Laurence Sterne (both "Tristram Shandy" and "A Sentimental Journey") and Cervantes's "Don Quixote". Richard Holmes, Coleridge's 20th-century biographer, points out
English literature (1775), was performed at Covent Garden and was an instant success. He went on to become the most significant London playwright of the late 18th century with a play like "The School for Scandal". Both Goldsmith and Sheridan reacted against the sentimental comedy of the 18th-century theatre, writing plays closer to the style of Restoration comedy. Sterne published his famous novel "Tristram Shandy" in parts between 1759 and 1767. In 1778, Frances Burney (1752–1840) wrote "Evelina", one of the first novels of manners. Fanny Burney's novels "were enjoyed and admired by Jane Austen". The Romantic movement in English literature of