OLIVER GOLDSMITH 1728 -
1774 (G2,
G3a)
xxxxxThe Anglo-Irish writer
Oliver Goldsmith gained public acclaim with his poem The
Traveller, a work deploring the enormous amount of poverty
within society, but it was his novel The Vicar of
Wakefield, published in 1766, his poem The Deserted Village,
and his comedy She Stoops to Conquer of
1773, which brought him fame and fortune. Despite his provincial
manners, his outstanding ability as a writer earned him a place in
Samuel Johnson's circle of friends, and membership of his
prestigious society The Club. But,
extravagant by nature, he was always short of money, and he
continued as a hack writer for virtually all his life, writing
histories, biographies, children's books, and working on
translations. Part of his epitaph in Westminster Abbey, written by
Johnson, reads: "He touched nothing that he did
not adorn."
xxxxxOliver Goldsmith, the Anglo-Irish
novelist, poet and essayist, gained public acclaim with his poem The Traveller, an attack upon a society in which
wealth was in the hands of the few, and poverty drove many to seek a
new life in America. But it was his novel The Vicar
of Wakefield, published two years later in 1766, that brought him widespread recognition as a
writer of distinction who possessed a lively and very readable style.
Over the next four years he produced his comedy The
Good Natur'd Man - which proved something of a failure -
and his outstanding pastoral poem The Deserted
Village. Then in 1773, a year before his death, came his
other well-known contribution to English literature, She
Stoops to Conquer, a witty comedy that was an immediate
success.
xxxxxThe son of an Anglican
curate, he was born at Kilkenny West in central Ireland, but spent
most of his childhood at nearby Lissoy. He attended Trinity College,
Dublin and then spent two years studying medicine at Edinburgh
University. After two years travelling on the continent as a
vagabond - nothing less - he returned to England in 1756
and, after trying his hand as a doctor and teacher, eventually ended
up as a hack writer, producing to order translations, children's
books, and articles for newspapers and magazines. One of his first
works of promise was his The Citizen of the World,
a series of mildly satirical letters explaining the English way of
life as seen by a would-be Chinese visitor. It was published
anonymously in 1762, but when he became known in literary circles as
the author, his undeniable gifts as a writer opened the door to the
rich and famous. He was admitted to Samuel Johnson's distinguished
circle of notables - rubbing shoulders with the likes of the
artist Sir Joshua Reynolds, the statesman Edmund Burke, and the
historian Edward Gibbon - and in 1763 became one of the nine
founder members of Johnson's prestigious society known as The
Club.
xxxxxIn 1766 Goldsmith's reputation and
livelihood were secured with his The Vicar of
Wakefield, though, by all accounts, its publication had to be
hastened through by his friend Samuel Johnson to prevent his going to
jail as a debtor! This one and only novel told of the misfortunes
which befell an ineffectual vicar, Charles Primrose, and his
unfortunate family, when he found himself without an income. Perhaps
based, loosely or otherwise, upon the author’s own family life as a
child, its sentimental and moral context had a strong appeal, as did
the dignified and steadfast way in which the Reverend Primrose bore
his tribulations, unaware of the happy ending around the last corner.
A melodramatic tale but not without humour, it proved extremely
popular.
xxxxxHis poem The
Deserted Village was made of sterner stuff. It was a timely
social comment as well as a tender, sympathetic poem on the social
effects of the enclosure movement, lamenting as it did the demise of
the small, close-knit and humble communities which epitomised
the simple ways of country life. The pensive, sensitive mood
anticipates - like Thomas Gray's famous Elegy
and the “graveyard poets” in general - the coming of the
English romantic movement.
xxxxxShe Stoops to Conquer -
the “laughing comedy” as he called it - was a farce full of
humorous misunderstandings and comic characters, based on the hero's
mistaken idea that the woman he is to marry is a servant girl. In
some ways it was intended as a criticism of the growing popularity
for sentimental comedy, which, he argued, emphasised the "distresses
rather than the faults of mankind". As we shall see, this return to
so-called Roman plots was continued by the French writer
Beaumarchais in his famous comedies.
xxxxxIn addition to
his original works, Goldsmith was obliged by reason of extravagance,
to continue his hack work throughout his life. He wrote histories of
Rome, Greece and England, a number of biographies, including the
lives of the poet Thomas Parnell and the politician Lord
Bolingbroke, and he had a hand in translations, anthologies and
articles on popular science. It must be said that Goldsmith was not
the most prepossessing of men, and his incessant gambling and lack
of decorum in high society raised a few eyebrows. Samuel Johnson
summed him up as only Samuel Johnson could: "No man was more foolish
when he had not a pen in his hand, or more wise when he had".
xxxxxGoldsmith was buried in
the churchyard of the Church of Saint Mary (known as The Temple) in
London. Later The Club erected a memorial
to him in Westminster Abbey. The inscription, written by Johnson,
pays tribute to a man who "touched nothing that he
did not adorn".
Acknowledgements
Goldsmith: by
the English portrait painter Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792).
1769/70 – National Portrait Gallery, London. Gathering: by the English illustrator James William Edmund
Doyle (c1822-1892) – uncle of the famous writer Arthur Conan
Doyle – after an 1851 engraving by D.George Thompson (1822-1892)
– National Portrait Gallery, London.
G3a-1760-1783-G3a-1760-1783-G3a-1760-1783-G3a-1760-1783-G3a-1760-1783-G3a
The gathering illustrated on the
right, held at the home of the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, was
attended by some of the most distinguished men of this period.
Left to Right (all seated) are
the biographer James Boswell, the writer Dr. Johnson, the host Sir Joshua, the actor
David Garrick, the statesman Edmund Burke, the Corsican patriot
Pasqual Paoli, the music historian Charles Burney, the poet laureate
Thomas Warton, and Oliver Goldsmith himself.
xxxxxIncidentally, in 1765 the English bookseller John Newbery (1713-1767) produced The
History of Little Goody Two-Shoes. Thought to be the
first novel written specifically for children, it was probably the
work of Oliver Goldsmith. A tale about English country life, it
contains such characters as Farmer Graspall
and Sir Timothy Gripe. (In 1921 the Newbery
Medal was established in the United States, awarded annually to the
author of the best children’s book.) ……
xxxxx......
InX1825 the Canadian writer Oliver Goldsmith (1798-1861),
in response to his great uncle’s melancholy work The
Deserted Village, published a
long optimistic poem in praise of a pioneer community, and called it
The Rising Village. Earlier, by contrast,
the English poet George Crabbe
had thought that The Deserted
Village was too sentimental and idyllic, and had produced
his The Village in 1783 to give a harsh,
realistic picture of the misery and degradation of country life. ……
xxxxx…… The
city of Auburn in the state of New York was very likely named after
“Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain”, as described in
Goldsmith's The Deserted Village.