By Washington Irving

CONTENTS

PREFACE

CHAPTER ONE — I. Birth and Parentage—Characteristics of the Goldsmith Race—Poetical Birthplace—Goblin House—Scenes of Boyhood—Lissoy—Picture of a Country Parson—Goldsmith’s Schoolmistress—Byrne, the Village Schoolmaster— Goldsmith’s Hornpipe and Epigram—Uncle Contarine—School Studies and School Sports—Mistakes of a Night

CHAPTER TWO — II. Improvident Marriages in the Goldsmith Family—Goldsmith at the University—Situation of a Sizer—Tyranny of Wilder, the Tutor—Pecuniary Straits—Street Ballads—College Riot—Gallows Walsh—College Prize—A Dance Interrupted

CHAPTER THREE — III. Goldsmith rejected by the Bishop—Second Sally to see the World—Takes Passage for America—Ship sails without him—Return on Fiddleback—A Hospitable Friend—The Counselor

CHAPTER FOUR — IV. Sallies forth as a Law Student—Stumbles at the Outset—Cousin Jane and the Valentine—A Family Oracle—Sallies forth as a Student of Medicine—Hocus-pocus of a Boarding-house—Transformations of a Leg of Mutton—The Mock Ghost—Sketches of Scotland—Trials of Toryism—A Poet’s Purse for a Continental Tour

CHAPTER FIVE — V. The agreeable Fellow-passengers—Risks from Friends picked up by the Wayside—Sketches of Holland and the Dutch—Shifts while a Poor Student at Leyden—The Tulip Speculation—The Provident Flute—Sojourn at Paris— Sketch of Voltaire—Traveling Shifts of a Philosophic Vagabond

CHAPTER SIX — VI. Landing In England—Shifts of a Man without Money—The Pestle and Mortar—Theatricals in a Barn—Launch upon London—A City Night Scene—Struggles with Penury—Miseries of a Tutor—A Doctor in the Suburb—Poor Practice and Second-hand Finery—A Tragedy in Embryo—Project of the Written Mountains

CHAPTER SEVEN — VII. Life as a Pedagogue—Kindness to Schoolboys—Pertness In Return—Expensive Charities—The Griffiths and the “Monthly Review”—Toils of a Literary Hack—Rupture with the Griffiths

CHAPTER EIGHT — VIII. Newbery, of Picture-book Memory—How to keep up Appearances—Miseries of Authorship—A Poor Relation—Letter to Hodson

CHAPTER NINE — IX. Hackney Authorship—Thoughts of Literary Suicide—Return to Peckham— Oriental Projects—Literary Enterprise to raise Funds—Letter to Edward Wells—To Robert Bryanton—Death of Uncle Contarine—Letter to Cousin Jane

CHAPTER TEN — X. Oriental Appointment, and Disappointment—Examination at the College of Surgeons—How to procure a Suit of Clothes—Fresh Disappointment—A Tale of Distress—The Suit of Clothes in Pawn—Punishment for doing an act of Charity—Gayeties of Green-Arbor Court—Letter to his Brother—Life of Voltaire—Scroggins, an attempt at Hock Heroic Poetry

CHAPTER ELEVEN — XI. Publication of “The Inquiry”—Attacked by Griffith’s “Review”—Kenrick, the Literary Ishmaelite—Periodical Literature—Goldsmith’s Essays—Garrick as a Manager—Smollett and his Schemes—Change of Lodgings—The Robin Hood Club

CHAPTER TWELVE — XII. New Lodgings—Visits of Ceremony—Hangers-on—Pilkington and the White Mouse—Introduction to Dr. Johnson—Davies and his Bookshop—Pretty Mrs. Davies—Foote and his Projects—Criticism of the Cudgel

CHAPTER THIRTEEN — XIII. Oriental Projects—Literary Jobs—The Cherokee Chiefs—Merry Islington and the White Conduit House—Letters on the History of England—James Boswell—Dinner of Davies—Anecdotes of Johnson and Goldsmith

CHAPTER FOURTEEN — XIV. Hogarth a Visitor at Islington—His Character—Street Studies—Sympathies between Authors and Painters—Sir Joshua Reynolds—His Character—His Dinners—The Literary Club—Its Members—Johnson’s Revels with Lanky and Beau—Goldsmith at the Club

CHAPTER — XV. Johnson a Monitor to Goldsmith—Finds him in Distress with his Landlady—Relieved by the Vicar of Wakefield—The Oratorio—Poem of The Traveler—The Poet and his Dog—Success of the Poem—Astonishment of the Club—Observations on the PoemFIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN — XVI. New Lodgings—Johnson’s Compliment—A Titled Patron—The Poet at Northumberland House—His Independence of the Great—The Countess of Northumberland—Edwin and Angelina—Gosford and Lord Clare—Publication of Essays—Evils of a rising Reputation—Hangers-on—Job Writing—Goody Two-shoes—A Medical Campaign—Mrs. Sidebotham

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN — XVII. Publication of the Vicar of Wakefield—Opinions concerning it—Of Dr. Johnson—Of Rogers the Poet—Of Goethe—Its Merits—Exquisite Extract—Attack by Kenrick—Reply—Book-building—Project of a Comedy

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN — XVIII. Social Condition of Goldsmith—His Colloquial Contests with Johnson—Anecdotes and Illustrations

CHAPTER NINETEEN — XIX. Social Resorts—The Shilling Whist Club—A Practical Joke—The Wednesday Club—The “Ton of Man”—The Pig Butcher—Tom King—Hugh Kelly—Glover and his Characteristics

CHAPTER TWENTY — XX. The Great Cham of Literature and the King—Scene at Sir Joshua Reynolds’s—Goldsmith accused of Jealousy—Negotiations with Garrick—The Author and the Actor—Their Correspondence

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE — XXI. More Hack Authorship—Tom Davies and the Roman History—Canonbury Castle—Political Authorship—Pecuniary Temptation—Death of Newbery the elder

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO — XXII. Theatrical Maneuvering—The Comedy of False Delicacy—First Performance of The Good-Natured Man—Conduct of Johnson—Conduct of the Author—Intermeddling of the Press

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE — XXIII. Burning the Candle at both Ends—Fine Apartments—Fine Furniture—Fine Clothes—Fine Acquaintances—Shoemaker’s Holiday and Jolly Pigeon Associates—Peter Barlow, Glover, and the Hampstead Hoax—Poor Friends among Great Acquaintances

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR — XXIV. Reduced again to Book-building—Rural Retreat at Shoemaker’s Paradise—Death of Henry Goldsmith—Tributes to his memory in The Deserted Village

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE — XXV. Dinner at Bickerstaff’s—Hiffernan and his Impecuniosity—Kenrick’s Epigram—Johnson’s Consolation—Goldsmith’s Toilet—The bloom-colored Coat—New Acquaintances—The Hornecks—A touch of Poetry and Passion—The Jessamy Bride

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX — XXVI. Goldsmith in the Temple—Judge Day and Grattan—Labor and Dissipation—Publication of the Roman History—Opinions of it—History of Animated Nature—Temple Rooker—Anecdotes of a Spider

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN — XXVII. Honors at the Royal Academy—Letter to his brother Maurice—Family Fortunes—Jane Contarine and the Miniature—Portraits and Engravings—School Associations—Johnson and Goldsmith in Westminster Abbey

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT — XXVIII. Publication of the Deserted Village—Notices and Illustrations of it

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE — XXIX. The Poet among the Ladies—Description of his Person and Manners— Expedition to Paris with the Horneck Family—The Traveler of Twenty and the Traveler of Forty—Hickey, the Special Attorney—An Unlucky Exploit

CHAPTER THIRTY — XXX. Death of Goldsmith’s Mother—Biography of Parnell—Agreement with Davies for the History of Rome—Life of Bolingbroke—The Haunch of Venison

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE — XXXI. Dinner at the Royal Academy—The Rowley Controversy—Horace Walpole’s Conduct to Chatterton—Johnson at Redcliffe Church—Goldsmith’s History of England—Davies’s Criticism—Letter to Bennet Langton

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO — XXXII. Marriage of Little Comedy—Goldsmith at Barton—Practical Jokes at the Expense of his Toilet—Amusements at Barton—Aquatic Misadventure

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE — XXXIII. Dinner at General Oglethorpe’s—Anecdotes of the General—Dispute about Dueling—Ghost Stories

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR — XXXIV. Mr. Joseph Cradock—An Author’s Confidings—An Amanuensis—Life at Edgeware—Goldsmith Conjuring—George Colman—The Fantoccini

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE — XXXV. Broken Health—Dissipation and Debts—The Irish Widow—Practical Jokes—Scrub—A Misquoted Pun—Malagrida—Goldsmith proved to be a Fool—Distressed Ballad-Singers—The Poet at Ranelagh

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX — XXXVI. Invitation to Christmas—The Spring-velvet Coat—The Haymaking Wig —The Mischances of Loo—The fair Culprit—A dance with the Jessamy Bride

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN — XXXVII. Theatrical delays—Negotiations with Colman—Letter to Garrick—Croaking of the Manager—Naming of the Play—She Stoops to Conquer—Foote’s Primitive Puppet Show, Piety on Pattens—First Performance of the Comedy—Agitation of the Author—Success—Colman Squibbed out of Town

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT — XXXVIII. A Newspaper Attack—The Evans Affray—Johnson’s Comment

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE — XXXIX. Boswell in Holy-Week—Dinner at Oglethorpe’s—Dinner at Paoli’s—The policy of Truth—Goldsmith affects Independence of Royalty—Paoli’s Compliment—Johnson’s Eulogium on the Fiddle—Question about Suicide—Boswell’s Subserviency

CHAPTER FORTY — XL. Changes in the Literary Club—Johnson’s objection to Garrick—Election of Boswell

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE — XLI. Dinner at Dilly’s—Conversations on Natural History—Intermeddling of Boswell—Dispute about Toleration—Johnson’s Rebuff to Goldsmith—His Apology—Man-worship—Doctors Major and Minor—A Farewell Visit

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO — XLII. Project of a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences—Disappointment—Negligent Authorship—Application for a Pension—Beattie’s Essay on Truth—Public Adulation—A high-minded Rebuke

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE — XLIII. Toil without Hope—The Poet in the Green-room—In the Flower Garden—At Vauxhall—Dissipation without Gayety—Cradock in Town—Friendly Sympathy—A Parting Scene—An Invitation to Pleasure

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR — XLIV. A return to Drudgery—Forced Gayety—Retreat to the Country—The Poem of Retaliation—Portrait of Garrick—Of Goldsmith—of Reynolds—Illness of the Poet—His Death—Grief of his Friends—A last Word respecting the Jessamy Bride

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE — XLV. The Funeral—The Monument—The Epitaph—Concluding Reflections

PREFACE

In the course of a revised edition of my works I have come to a biographical sketch of Goldsmith, published several years since. It was written hastily, as introductory to a selection from his writings; and, though the facts contained in it were collected from various sources, I was chiefly indebted for them to the voluminous work of Mr. James Prior, who had collected and collated the most minute particulars of the poet’s history with unwearied research and scrupulous fidelity; but had rendered them, as I thought, in a form too cumbrous and overlaid with details and disquisitions, and matters uninteresting to the general reader.

When I was about of late to revise my biographical sketch, preparatory to republication, a volume was put into my hands, recently given to the public by Mr. John Forster, of the Inner Temple, who, likewise availing himself of the labors of the indefatigable Prior, and of a few new lights since evolved, has produced a biography of the poet, executed with a spirit, a feeling, a grace and an eloquence, that leave nothing to be desired. Indeed it would have been presumption in me to undertake the subject after it had been thus felicitously treated, did I not stand committed by my previous sketch. That sketch now appeared too meager and insufficient to satisfy public demand; yet it had to take its place in the revised series of my works unless something more satisfactory could be substituted. Under these circumstances I have again taken up the subject, and gone into it with more fullness than formerly, omitting none of the facts which I considered illustrative of the life and character of the poet, and giving them in as graphic a style as I could command. Still the

hurried manner in which I have had to do this amid the pressure of other claims on my attention, and with the press dogging at my heels, has prevented me from giving some parts of the subject the thorough handling I could have wished. Those who would like to see it treated still more at large, with the addition of critical disquisitions and the advantage of collateral facts, would do well to refer themselves to Mr. Prior’s circumstantial volumes, or to the elegant and discursive pages of Mr. Forster.

For my own part, I can only regret my shortcomings in what to me is a labor of love; for it is a tribute of gratitude to the memory of an author whose writings were the delight of my childhood, and have been a source of enjoyment to me throughout life; and to whom, of all others, I may address the beautiful apostrophe of Dante to Virgil:

“Tu se’ lo mio maestro, e ‘l mio autore: Tu se’ solo colui, da cu, io tolsi Lo bello stile, che m’ ha fato onore.”

W.I.

SUNNYSIDE, Aug. 1, 1849.

CHAPTER ONE

BIRTH AND PARENTAGE—CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOLDSMITH RACE—POETICAL BIRTHPLACE—GOBLIN HOUSE—SCENES OF BOYHOOD—LISSOY—PICTURE OF A COUNTRY PARSON—GOLDSMITH’S SCHOOLMISTRESS—BYRNE, THE VILLAGE SCHOOLMASTER —GOLDSMITH’S HORNPIPE AND EPIGRAM—UNCLE CONTARINE—SCHOOL STUDIES AND SCHOOL SPORTS—MISTAKES OF A NIGHT

There are few writers for whom the reader feels such personal kindness as for Oliver Goldsmith, for few have so eminently possessed the magic gift of identifying themselves with their writings. We read his character in every page, and grow into familiar intimacy with him as we read. The artless benevolence that beams throughout his works; the whimsical, yet amiable views of human life and human nature; the unforced humor, blending so happily with good feeling and good sense, and singularly dashed at times with a pleasing melancholy; even the very nature of his mellow, and flowing, and softly-tinted style, all seem to bespeak his moral as well as his intellectual qualities, and make us love the man at the same time that we admire the author. While the productions of writers of loftier pretension and more sounding names are suffered to moulder on our shelves, those of Goldsmith are cherished and laid in our bosoms. We do not quote them with ostentation, but they mingle with our minds, sweeten our tempers, and harmonize our thoughts; they put us in good humor with

ourselves and with the world, and in so doing they make us happier and better men.

An acquaintance with the private biography of Goldsmith lets us into the secret of his gifted pages. We there discover them to be little more than transcripts of his own heart and picturings of his fortunes. There he shows himself the same kind, artless, good-humored, excursive, sensible, whimsical, intelligent being that he appears in his writings. Scarcely an adventure or character is given in his works that may not be traced to his own party-colored story. Many of his most ludicrous scenes and ridiculous incidents have been drawn from his own blunders and mischances, and he seems really to have been buffeted into almost every maxim imparted by him for the instruction of his reader.

Oliver Goldsmith was born on the 10th of November, 1728, at the hamlet of Pallas, or Pallasmore, county of Longford, in Ireland. He sprang from a respectable, but by no means a thrifty stock. Some families seem to inherit kindliness and incompetency, and to hand down virtue and poverty from generation to generation. Such was the case with the Goldsmiths. “They were always,” according to their own accounts, “a strange family; they rarely acted like other people; their hearts were in the right place, but their heads seemed to be doing anything but what they ought.”—“They were remarkable,” says another statement, “for their worth, but of no cleverness in the ways of the world.” Oliver Goldsmith will be found faithfully to inherit the virtues and weaknesses of his race.

His father, the Rev. Charles Goldsmith, with hereditary improvidence, married when very young and very poor, and starved along for several years on a small country curacy and the assistance of his wife’s friends. His whole income, eked out by the produce of some fields which he farmed, and of some occasional duties performed for his wife’s uncle, the rector of an adjoining parish, did not exceed forty pounds.

“And passing rich with forty pounds a year.”

He inhabited an old, half rustic mansion that stood on a rising ground in a rough, lonely part of the country, overlooking a low tract occasionally flooded by the river Inny. In this house Goldsmith was born, and it was a birthplace worthy of a poet; for, by all accounts, it was haunted ground. A tradition handed down among the neighboring peasantry states that, in after years, the house, remaining for some time untenanted, went to decay, the roof fell in, and it became so lonely and forlorn as to be a resort for the “good people” or fairies, who in Ireland are supposed to delight in old, crazy, deserted mansions for their midnight revels. All attempts to repair it were in vain; the fairies battled stoutly to maintain possession. A huge misshapen hobgoblin used to bestride the house every evening with an immense pair of jack-boots, which, in his efforts at hard riding, he would thrust through the roof, kicking to pieces all the work of the preceding day. The house was therefore left to its fate, and went to ruin.

Such is the popular tradition about Goldsmith’s birthplace. About two years after his birth a change came over the circumstances of his father. By the death of his wife’s uncle he succeeded to the rectory of Kilkenny West; and, abandoning the old goblin mansion, he removed to Lissoy, in the county of Westmeath, where he occupied a farm of seventy acres, situated on the skirts of that pretty little village.

This was the scene of Goldsmith’s boyhood, the little world whence he drew many of those pictures, rural and domestic, whimsical and touching, which abound throughout his works, and which appeal so eloquently both to the fancy and the heart. Lissoy is confidently cited as the original of his “Auburn” in the Deserted Village; his father’s establishment, a mixture of farm and parsonage, furnished hints, it is said, for the rural economy of the Vicar of Wakefield; and his father himself, with his learned simplicity, his guileless wisdom, his amiable piety, and utter ignorance of the world, has been exquisitely portrayed in the worthy Dr. Primrose. Let us pause for a moment, and draw from Goldsmith’s writings one or two of those pictures which, under feigned names, represent his father and his family, and the happy fireside of his childish days.

“My father,” says the “Man in Black,” who, in some respects, is a counterpart of Goldsmith himself, “my father, the younger son of a good family, was possessed of a small living in the church. His education was above his fortune, and his generosity greater than his education. Poor as he was, he had his flatterers poorer than himself; for every dinner he gave them, they returned him an equivalent in praise; and this was all he wanted. The same ambition that actuates a monarch at the head of his army influenced my father at the head of his table: he told the story of the ivy-tree, and that was laughed at; he repeated the jest of the two scholars and one pair of breeches, and the company laughed at that; but the story of Taffy in the sedan chair was sure to set the table in a roar. Thus his pleasure increased in proportion to the pleasure he gave; he loved all the world, and he fancied all the world loved him.