as he is called.-CROKER, JOHN WILSON, 1845, Phillimore's Lord Lyttelton, Quarterly Review, vol. 78, p. 229. His literary reputation in a great measure died with him; his poems are long since forgotten and his prose writings have little merit. The "Persian Letters," the most amusing of them all, were written while he was very young, and are a tolerable imitation of Montesquieu. They contain passages indelicate and coarse, and could hardly be placed in the hands of the young and pure of our own day. They probably gave rise, however, to Goldsmith's "Citizen of the World," and by their popularity led that delightful writer to imitate and surpass them. But Goldsmith's letters are the perfect and graceful productions of a man of genius, Lyttleton's those of a coarse and inferior artist.-LAWRENCE, EUGENE, 1853, The Lives of the British Historians, vol. I, p. 383. Cruel sceptics, like Gibbon, have not failed to point out that his works are "not illuminated by a ray of genius." But his heart has spoken once or twice, in the loosely-strung Pindaric Monody to his wife, and in the elegiac prologue to "Coriolanus," Thomson's posthumous tragedy.-GOSSE, EDMUND, 1888, A History of Eighteenth Century Literature, p. 228. Oliver Goldsmith 1728-1774 Born, at Pallas, Co. Longford, 10 Nov. 1728. Family removed to Lissoy, 1730. At village school, 1734-35; at school at Elphin, 1736-39; at Athlone, 1739-41; at Edgeworthstown, 1741-44. To Trin. Coll., Dublin, as Sizar, 11 June 1744; Symth Exhibition, 1747; B. A., 27 Feb. 1749. With his mother at Ballymahon, 1749-51. Rejected as a clergyman, 1751. Private tutorship, 1751-52. To Edinburgh to study medicine, autumn of 1752. To Leyden, 1754. Travelled on the Continent, 1755-56. Possibly took M. B. degree at Louvain or Padua. Returned to London, Feb. 1756. Set up in practice as physician. Master at school at Peckham, winter of 1756 to 1757. Contrib. to "Monthly Review," April to Sept., 1757, Dec. 1758; to "Literary Mag.," Jan. 1757, Jan. to May, 1758; to "Critical Review," Nov. 1757, Jan. to Aug., 1759, March 1760; to "The Busybody," Oct. 1759. Ed. "Lady's Mag.,” 1759-60. Friendship with Johnson begun, 1761. Contrib. to "The Public Ledger," Jan. to Feb., 1760; to "The British Mag.," Feb. 1760 to Jan. 1763. Visit to Bath for health, 1762. Removed to Islington, winter of 1762. Tried again to set up as physician, 1765. Settled in Temple, 1767; lived there till death. "The Good-natured Man" produced at Covent Garden, 29 Jan. 1768; "She Stoops to Conquer," Covent Garden, 15 March 1773; "The Grumbler" (adapted from Sedley), Covent Garden, 8 May 1773. Contrib. to "Westminster Mag.," Jan. to Feb. 1773; to "Universal Mag.," April 1774. Died, in London, 4 Apr. 1774. Buried in the Temple. Works: "Memoirs of a Protestant" (anon.), 1758; "Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning" (anon.), 1759; "The Bee" (anon. ; 8 nos.), 1759; "A History of the Seven Years' War," 1761; "A Poetical Dictionary" (anon.), 1761; "History of Mecklenburgh," 1762; "The Mystery Revealed," 1742 (1762); "A Citizen of the World" (anon.), 1762; "Life of Richard Nash" (anon.), 1762; "The Art of Poetry on a new Plan" (anon.; attrib. to Goldsmith), 1762; "The Martial Review" (anon.), 1763; "An History of England" (anon.), 1764; "The Traveller," 1765; "Essays," 1765; "The Vicar of Wakefield" (2 vols.), 1766; "History of Little Goody Two-Shoes" (anon. attrib. to Goldsmith), 1766; "The Good-natured Man," 1768; "The Roman History" (2 vols.), 1769 (abridged by Goldsmith, 1772); "The Deserted Village," 1770; "The Life of Thomas Parnell," 1770; "Life of . Viscount Bolingbroke" (anon.), 1770; "The History of England" (4 vols.) 1771 (abridged, 1774); "Threnodia Augustalis," 1772; "She Stoops to Conquer," 1773; "Retaliation," 1774 (2nd to 5th edns. same year); "The Grecian History" (2 vols.), 1774; "A History of the Earth" (8 vols.), 1774. Posthumous: "Miscellaneous Works," 1775; "The Haunch of Venison," 1776; "A Survey of Experimental Philosophy" (2 vols.), 1776, "Poems and Plays," 1777; "Poetical and Dramatic Works," 1780; "The Captivity," 1836; "Asem, the Man-Hater," 1877. He translated: (under pseud. of "James Willington") Bergeracs' "Memoirs of a Protestant, 1758; Plutarch's "Lives" (with J. Collyer,) 1762; Formey's "Concise History of Philosophy," 1766; Scarron's "Comic Romance," 1776; and edited: Newbery's "Art of Poetry," 1762; "Poems for Young Ladies" (anon.), 1767; "Beauties of English Poesy," "1767; "T. Parnell's Poems," 1770.-SHARP, R. FARQUHARSON, 1897, A Dictionary of English Authors, p. 114. PERSONAL Of all solemn coxcombs Goldsmith is the first; yet sensible-but affects to use Johnson's hard words in conversation. WARTON, THOMAS, 1766, Letter to Joseph Warton, Jan. 22. Jarvis. A few of our usual cards of compliment that's all. This bill from your tailor; this from your mercer; and this from the little broker in Crooked Lane. He says he has been at a great deal of trouble to get back the money you borrowed. Honeywood. That I don't know: but I am sure we were at a great deal of trouble in getting him to lend it. Jarvis. He has lost all patience. Honeywood. Then he has lost a good thing. Jarvis. There's that ten guineas you were sending to the poor man and his children in the Fleet. I believe that would stop his mouth for a while at least. Honeywood. Ay, Jarvis, but what will fill their mouths in the meantime?- GOLDSMITH, OLIVER, 1768, The Good-Natured Man. Honors to one in my situation are something like ruffles to one that wants a shirt. -GOLDSMITH, OLIVER, 1770, Letter to Maurice Goldsmith, January. From our Goldsmith's anomalous character, who Can withhold his contempt, and his reverence too? From a poet so polished, so paltry a fellow! From a foot that each path of vulgarity trod; All deformity seeming, in some points of view, In others quite accurate, regular, true: Till the student no more sees the figure that shocked her, But all in his likeness,-our odd little doctor. -PIOZZI, HESTER LYNCH, 1773? The Streatham Portraits, Autobiography, ed. Hayward, p. 254. Here, Hermes, says Jove, who with nectar was mellow: Go fetch me some clay-I will make an odd fellow: Right and wrong shall be jumbled, much gold and some dross, Without cause be he pleased, without cause be he cross Be sure, as I work, to throw in contradictions, A great love of truth, yet a mind turn'd to fictions; Now mix these ingredients, which, warm'd in the baking, Turn'd to learning and gaming, religion and raking. With the love of a wench let his writings be chaste; Tip his tongue with strong matter, his lips with fine taste: That the rake and the poet o'er all may prevail, Set fire to the head and set fire to the tail; For the joy of each sex on the world I'll bestow it, This scholar, rake, Christian, dupe, gamester and poet. Though a mixture so odd he shall merit great fame, And among brother mortals be Goldsmith his name; When on earth this strange meteor no more shall appear, You, Hermes, shall fetch him to make us sport here. -GARRICK, DAVID, Jupiter and Mercury. Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit : Affectuum potens at lenis dominator: In loco cui nomen Pallas, April iv, MDCCLXXIV. -JOHNSON, SAMUEL, 1776, Epitaph on Tomb, Westminster Abbey. It may be improper to observe (as a kind of Apology for some particulars which are before related to have passed between me and Dr. Goldsmith), that he was bred a Physician, and therefore it was natural to converse with him on the subject of his disorder in a medical manner; but his attention had been so wholly absorbed by polite literature, that it prevented him from making any great progress in medical studies. As an elegant Writer, he will always be held in the highest esteem by persons of true taste. His "Traveller" and "Deserted Village" are deservedly numbered among the best poetical productions of the present age; and some of his essays, and other pieces, are very advantageously distinguished by general wit and native humour. It should also be remembered, that he was not only an excellent writer, but a most amiable man. His humanity and and generosity greatly exceeded the narrow limits of his fortune; and those who were no judges of the literary merit of the Author, could not but love the Man for that benevolence by which he was so strongly characterised. N. B. As my late respected and ingenious friend, Dr. Goldsmith, was pleased to honour Dr. Cogan and myself with his patronage and assistance in the Undertaking for the Recovery of persons apparently dead by Drowning, and other sudden accidents, now on the point of being established in this kingdom, I think I cannot show a greater proof of my esteem for the deceased, than by applying the profits of this publication (if any should arise) to an institution, the design of which was favoured with his approbation. -HAWES, DR. WILLIAM, 1780, An Account of the Late Dr. Goldsmith's Illness. He was such a compound of absurdity, envy, and malice, contrasted with the opposite virtues of kindness, generosity, and benevolence, that he might be said to consist of two distinct souls, and influenced by the agency of a good and bad spirit.DAVIES, THOMAS, 1780, Life of Garrick, vol. II, p. 147. fine parts; but of his character and general deportment, it is the hardest task anyone can undertake to give a description. . . He had some wit, but no humour, and never told a story but he spoiled it. His poems are replete with fine moral sentiments, and bespeak a great dignity of mind; yet he had no sense of the shame, nor dread of the evils, of poverty. In the latter he was at one time so involved, that for the clamours of a woman, to whom he was indebted for lodging, and for bailiffs that waited to arrest him, he was equally unable, till he had made himself drunk, to stay within doors, or go abroad to hawk among the booksellers his "Vicar of Wakefield." In this distress he sent for Johnson who immediately went to one of them, and brought back money for his relief.HAWKINS, SIR JOHN, 1787, Life of Samuel Johnson, pp. 416, 417, 420. believed that he was a mere fool in conIt has been generally circulated and versation; but, in truth, this has been. greatly exaggerated. He had, no doubt, a more than common share of that hurry of ideas which we often find in his countrylaughable confusion in expressing them. men, and which sometimes produces a He was very much what the French call un étourdi, and from vanity and an eager desire of being conspicuous wherever he was, he frequently talked carelessly without knowledge of the subject, or even without thought. His person was short, his countenance coarse and vulgar, his affecting the easy gentleman. Those who deportment that of a scholar aukwardly were in any way distinguished, excited envy in him to so ridiculous an excess, that the instances of it are hardly credible. When accompanying two beautiful young ladies with their mother on a tour in France, he was seriously angry that more attention was paid to them than to him; and once at the exhibition of the "Fantoccini' in London, when those who sat next to him observed with what dexterity a puppet was made to toss a pike, he could not bear that it should have such praise, and exclaimed with some warmth, ''Pshaw! I can do it better myself." He, I am afraid, had no settled system of any sort, so that his conduct must not be strictly scrutinised; but his affections were social and generous, and when he had money he gave it away very liberally. His desire of imaginary consequence predominated over his attention to truth.-Boswell, JAMES, 1791-93, Life of Johnson, ed. Hill, vol. I, p. 477. Goldsmith, though quick enough at prose, was rather slow in his poetry-not from the tardiness of fancy, but the time he took in pointing the sentiment and polishing the versification. His manner of writing poetry was this: he first sketched a part of his design in prose, in which he threw out his ideas as they occurred to him; he then sat carefully down to versify them, and add such other ideas as he thought better fitted to the subject. He sometimes would exceed his prose design by writing several verses impromptu, but these he would take uncommon pains afterwards to revise, lest they should be found unconnected with his main design. The writer of these memoirs called upon the Doctor the second morning after he had begun "The Deserted Village," and to him he communicated the plan of his poem. He then read what he had done of it that morning, beginning "Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease," and so on for ten lines. "Come," says he, "let me tell you, this is no bad morning's work; and now, my dear boy, if you are not better engaged, I should be glad to enjoy a Shoemaker's holiday with you."-COOKE, WILLIAM, 1793, European Magazine, vol. 24. In person he was short; about five feet five or six inches; strong, but not heavy in make; rather fair in complexion, with brown hair; such, at least, as could be distinguished from his wig. His features were plain but not repulsive, certainly not so when lighted up by conversation. His manners were simple, natural, and perhaps on the whole, we may say, not polished; at least without the refinement and good-breeding which the exquisite polish of his compositions would lead us to expect. He was always cheerful and animated, often, indeed, boisterous in his mirth; entered with spirit into convivial society; contributed largely to its enjoyments by solidity of information, and the naïveté and originality of his character; talked often without premeditation, and laughed loudly without restraint.DAY, JUDGE, 1801? Letter to Prior. the beginning of March 1759, found him in lodgings there so poor and uncomfortable that he should not think it proper to mention the circumstance, if he did not consider it as the highest proof of the splendour of Doctor Goldsmith's genius and talents, that by the bare exertion of their powers, under every disadvantage of person and fortune, he could gradually emerge from such obscurity to the enjoyment of all the comforts and even luxuries of life, and admission into the best societies of London. The Doctor was writing his "Enquiry" &c., in a wretched dirty room in which there was but one chair, and when he, from civility, offered it to his visitant, himself was obliged to sit in the window. While they were conversing, some one gently rapped at the door and being desired to come in, a poor ragged little girl of very decent behaviour entered, who, dropping a curtsy, said "My mamma sends her compliments, and begs the favour of you to lend her a chamber-pot full of coals."-PERCY, THOMAS, 1801-7? Memoir of Oliver Goldsmith, p. 60. That he was fantastically and whimsically vain all the world knows, but there was no settled and inherent malice in his heart. He was tenacious to a ridiculous extreme of certain pretensions, that did not and by human nature could not, belong to him, and at the same time inexcusably careless of the fame, which he had powers to command. His table-talk was, as Garrick aptly compared it, like that of a parrot, whilst he wrote like Apollo; he had gleams of eloquence, and at times a majesty of thought, but in general his tongue and his pen had two very different styles of talking. What foibles he had he took no pains to conceal, the good qualities of his heart were too frequently obscured by the carelessness of his conduct, and the frivolity of his manners.-CUMBERLAND, RICHARD, 1806, Memoirs, vol. I, p. 350. Much of the attention which even Goldsmith personally met with was undoubtedly owing to the patronage of his admired friend; yet Sir Joshua used to say, that Goldsmith looked at, or considered, public notoriety, or fame as one great parcel, to the whole of which he laid claim, and whoever partook of any part of it, whether dancer, singer, slight-of-hand man, or A friend of his paying him a visit at tumbler, deprived him of his right, and |