Poems and plays. By Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. To which is prefixed, the life of the author:

[figure] portrait of Oliver Goldsmith

THE LIFE OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH, M.B.* 1.1

OLIVER GOLDSMITH, son of the Reverend Charles Goldsmith, was born at Elphin, in the county of Roscommon in Ireland, in the year 1729. His fa|ther had four sons, of whom Oliver was the third. After being well instructed in the classics, at the school of Mr. Hughes, he was admitted a sizer in

Trinity-college, Dublin, on the 11th of June, 1744. While he resided there, he exhibited no specimens of that genius, which, in his maturer years, raised his character so high. On the 27th of February, 1749, O. S. (two years after the regular time) he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Soon after, he turned his thoughts to the profession of physic; and, after attending some courses of anatomy in Dublin, proceeded to Edinburgh, in the year 1751, where he studied the several branches of medicine un|der the different professors in that university. His beneficent disposition soon involved him in unex|pected difficulties; and he was obliged precipitately to leave Scotland, in consequence of having engaged himself to pay a considerable sum of money for a fel|low-student.

A FEW days after, about the beginning of the year 1754, he arrived at Sunderland, near Newcastle, where he was arrested at the suit of one Barclay, a taylor in Edinburgh, to whom he had given security for his friend. By the friendship of Mr. Laughlin Maclane and Dr. Sleigh, who were then in the col|lege, he was soon delivered out of the hands of the bailiff, and took his passage on board a Dutch ship to Rotterdam, where, after a short stay, he proceeded to Brussels. He then visited great part of Flanders; and, after passing some time at Strasbourg and Lou|vain, where he obtained a degree of Bachelor in phy|sic, he accompanied an English gentleman to Geneva.

IT is undoubtedly fact, that this ingenious, un|fortunate man made most part of his tour on

foot.* 1.2 He had left England with very little mo|ney; and, being of a philosophical turn, and at that time possessing a body capable of sustaining every fa|tigue, and a heart not easily terrified by danger, he be|came an enthusiast to the design he had formed of see|ing the manners of different countries. He had some knowledge of the French language, and of music; he played tolerably well on the German flute; which, from an amusement, became at some times the means of subsistence. His learning produced him an hospi|table reception at most of the religious houses that he visited; and his music made him welcome to the pea|sants of Flanders and Germany.

'Whenever I ap|proached a peasant's house towards night-fall,'

he used to say,

'I played one of my most merry tunes, and that generally procured me not only a lodging, but sub|sistence for the next day: but in truth'

(his constant ex|pression)

'I must own, whenever I attempted to en|tertain persons of a higher rank, they always thought my performance odious, and never made me any return for my endeavours to please them.'

ON his arrival at Geneva, he was recommended as a proper person for a travelling tutor to a young man, who had been unexpectedly left a considerable sum of money by his uncle Mr. S******. This youth, who was articled to an attorney, on receipt of his fortune determined to see the world; and, on his engaging with his preceptor, made a proviso, that he

should be permitted to govern himself: and our travel|ler soon found his pupil understood the art of direct|ing in money concerns extremely well, as avarice was his prevailing passion.

DURING Goldsmith's continuance in Switzerland, he assiduously cultivated his poetical talent, of which he had given some striking proofs at the college of Edinburgh. It was from hence he sent the first sketch of his delightful epistle, called the Traveller, to his brother Henry, a clergyman in Ireland.

FROM Geneva Mr. Goldsmith and his pupil pro|ceeded to the south of France, where the young man, upon some disagreement with his preceptor, paid him the small part of his salary which was due, and embarked at Marseilles for England. Our wanderer was left once more upon the world at large, and passed through a number of difficulties in traversing the greatest part of France. At length his curiosity being gratified, he bent his course towards England, and arrived at Dover, the beginning of the winter, in the year 1758.

HIS finances were so low on his return to Eng|land, that he with difficulty got to the metropolis, his whole stock of cash amounting to no more than a few halfpence! An entire stranger in London, his mind was filled with the most gloomy reflections in conse|quence of his embarrassed situation! He applied to se|veral apothecaries in hopes of being received in the capacity of a journeyman, but his broad Irish accent, and the uncouthness of his appearance, occasioned him to meet with insult from most of the medicinal tribe. The next day, however, a chymist near Fish-street,

struck with his forlorn condition, and the simplicity of his manner, took him into his laboratory, where he continued till he discovered that his old friend Dr. Sleigh was in London. That gentleman received him with the warmest affection, and liberally invited him to share his purse till some establishment could be pro|cured for him. Goldsmith, unwilling to be a burden to his friend, a short time after eagerly embraced an offer which was made him to assist the late Rev. Dr. Milner, in instructing the young gentlemen at the Academy at Peckham; and acquitted himself greatly to the Doctor's satisfaction for a short time; but, hav|ing obtained some reputation by the criticisms he had written in the Monthly Review, Mr. Griffith, the principal proprietor, engaged him in the compilation of it; and, resolving to pursue the profession of writ|ing, he returned to London, as the mart where abili|ties of every kind were sure of meeting distinction and reward. Here he determined to adopt a plan of the strictest oeconomy, and, at the close of the year 1759, took lodgings in Green-Arbour-court in the Old Bailey, where he wrote several ingenious pieces. The late Mr. Newbery, who, at that time gave great encouragement to men of literary abilities, became a kind of patron to our young author, and introduced him as one of the writers in the Public Ledger, in which his Citizen of the World originally appeared, un|der the title of 'Chinese Letters.'* 1.3

FORTUNE now seemed to take some notice of a man she had long neglected. The simplicity of his character, the integrity of his heart, and the merit of his productions, made his company very acceptable to a number of respectable persons; and, about the mid|dle of the year 1762, he emerged from his mean apartments near the Old Bailey to the politer air of the Temple, where he took handsome chambers, and lived in a genteel style. The publication of his Tra|veller, his Vicar of Wakefield, and his History of Eng|land, was followed by the performance of his comedy of the Good natured Man at Covent Garden theatre, and placed him in the first rank of the poets of the present age.

OUR Doctor, as he was now universally called, had a constant levee of his distrest countrymen, whose wants, as far as he was able, he always relieved; and he has been often known to leave himself even with|out a guinea, in order to supply the necessities of others.

ANOTHER feature in his character we cannot help laying before the reader. Previous to the publication of his Deserted Village, the bookseller had given him a note for one hundred guineas for the copy, which the Doctor mentioned, a few hours after, to one of his friends, who observed it was a very great sum for so short a performance.

'In truth,'

replied Goldsmith,

'I think so too, it is much more than the honest man can afford, or the piece is worth; I have not been

easy since I received it; I will therefore go back and return him his note:'

which he actually did, and left it entirely to the bookseller to pay him according to the profits produced by the sale of the poem, which turned out very considerable.

DURING the last rehearsal of his comedy, intitled, She stoops to Conquer, which Mr. Coleman thought would not succeed, on the Doctor's objecting to the repetition of one of Tony Lumpkin's speeches, being apprehensive it might injure the play, the Manager, with great keenness replied,

'Psha, my dear Doctor, do not be fearful of squibs, when we have been sitting almost these two hours upon a barrel of gunpowder.'

The piece, however, contrary to Mr. Coleman's ex|pectation, was received with uncommon applause by the audience; and Goldsmith's pride was so hurt by the severity of the above observation, that it entirely put an end to his friendship for the gentleman who made it.

NOTWITHSTANDING the great success of his pieces, by some of which, it is asserted, upon good authority, he cleared 1800 l. in one year, his cir|cumstances were by no means in a prosperous situa|tion! partly owing to the liberality of his dispositi|on, and partly to an unfortunate habit he had con|tracted of gaming, with the arts of which he was very little acquainted, and consequently became the prey of those who were unprincipled enough to take advantage of his ignorance.

JUST before his death he had formed a design for executing an universal dictionary of arts and sciences,

the prospectus of which he actually printed and distributed among his acquaintance. In this work se|veral of his literary friends (particularly Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Beauclerc, and Mr. Gar|rick) had promised to assist, and to furnish him with articles upon different subjects. He had entertained the most sanguine expectations from the success of it. The undertaking, however, did not meet with that encouragement from the booksellers which he had im|agined it would undoubtedly receive; and he used to lament this circumstance almost to the last hour of his existence.

HE had been for some years afflicted, at different times, with a violent strangury, which contributed not a little to imbitter the latter part of his life; and which, united with the vexations he suffered upon other occasions, brought on a kind of habitual despondency. In this unhappy condition he was attacked by a nervous fever, which, being improperly treated, terminated in his dissolution on the 4th day of April, 1774, in the forty-fifth year of his age. His friends, who were very numerous and respecta|ble, had determined to bury him in Westminster-ab|bey, where a tablet was to have been erected to his memory. His pall was to have been supported by Lord Shelburne, Lord Louth, Sir Joshua Reynolds, the Hon. Mr. Beauclerc, Mr. Edmond Burke, and Mr. Garrick; but from some unaccountable circum|stances this design was dropped, and his remains were privately deposited in the Temple burial-ground.* 1.4

AS to his character, it is strongly illustrated by Mr. Pope's line,

'In wit a man, simplicity a child.'

THE learned leisure he loved to enjoy was too often interrupted by distresses which arose from the openness of his temper, and which sometimes threw him into loud fits of passion; but this impetuosity was corrected upon a moment's reflection, and his servants have been known, upon these occasions, purposely to throw themselves in his way, that they might profit by it immediately after; for he who had the good fortune to be reproved was certain of being rewarded for it. His disappointments at other times, made him peevish and sullen, and he has often left a party of convivial friends abruptly in the evening,

in order to go home and brood over his misfor|tunes.

THE universal esteem in which his poems are held, and the repeated pleasure they give in the peru|sal, are striking proofs of their merit. He was a studious and correct observer of nature, happy in the selection of his images, in the choice of his subjects, and in the harmony of his versification; and, though his embarrassed situation prevented him from putting the last hand to many of his productions, his Her|mit, his Traveller, and his Deserted Village, bid fair to claim a place among the most finished pieces in the English language.

AS different accounts have been given of this in|genious man, the writer of these anecdotes cannot conclude without declaring, that they are all found|ed upon facts, and collected by one who lived with him upon the most friendly footing for a great number of years, and who never felt any sorrow more sensibly than that which was occasioned by his death.

Notes

• * 1.1

  In these Memoirs, which were published in London, soon after the death of Dr. Goldsmith, were several mistakes, with re|spect to our author's age, the time of his admission into the col|lege of Dublin, &c. which are here corrected from accurate in|formation.
• * 1.2

  "Countries wear different appearances to travellers of different circumstances. A man who is whirled through Europe in a post|chaise, and the pilgrim who walks the grand tour on foot, will form very different conclusions. Haud inexpertus loquor." Goldsmith's Present State of Learning in Europe, 1759.
• * 1.3

  During this time, (according to another account) he wrote for the British Magazine, of which Dr. Smollet was then Editor, most of those Essays and Tales, which he afterwards collected and published in a separate volume. He also wrote occasionally, for the Critical Review; and it was the merit which he discovered in criticising a despicable translation of Ovid's Fasti by a pedantic school-master, and his Enquiry into the present state of learning in Europe, which first introduced him to the acquaintance of Dr. Smollet, who recommended him to several literati, and to most of the booksellers by whom he was afterwards patronized.
• * 1.4

  A subscription, however, has since been raised by his friends, to defray the expence of a marble monument which is now executed by Mr. Nollikens, an eminent Statuary in London, and is shortly to be placed in Westminster-abbey, with the follow|ing inscription, written by Dr. Samuel Johnson.

  OLIVARII GOLDSMITH,
  POETAE, PHYSICI, HISTORICI,
  QUI NULLUM FERE SCRIBENDI GENUS
  NON TETIGIT,
  NULLUM QUOD TETIGIT NON ORNAVIT:
  SIVE RISUS ESSENT MOVENDI,
  SIVE LACRIMAE,
  AFFECTUUM POTENS AT LENIS DOMINATOR:
  INGENIO SUBLIMIS, VIVIDUS, VERSATILIS,
  ORATIONE GRANDIS, NITIDUS, VENUSTUS:
  HOC MONUMENTO MEMORIAM COLUIT
  SODALIUM AMOR,
  AMICORUM FIDES,
  LECTORUM VENERATIO.
  ELFINIAE IN HIBERNIA NATUS MDCCXXIX.
  EBLANAE LITERIS INSTITUTUS:
  LONDINI OBIIT MDCCLXXIV.