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of the Irish, absenteeism of landlords, eviction of tenants, &c., to rhyme. About 1741, consequently just about the time when Goldsmith was removed to Edgeworthstown, Whyte published a volume of poems by subscription, and although his rhymes are wooden on the whole, yet the parallel between some of them and certain passages in The Deserted Village' is so very close, that Whyte's humbler lines may very well have been running in Goldsmith's mind, when engaged on his classic composition. It was in the course of Goldsmith's last journey from home to Edgeworthstown school that the adventure occurred which afterwards suggested the chief incident in She stoops to conquer.' He was on horseback, and intent on spending magnificently a guinea with which some friend had furnished him. Accordingly, when night overtook him in the small town of Ardagh, he asked a passer-by for the best house in the place, meaning the best inn; but the party addressed happened to be a wag, and, perceiving young Goldsmith's greenness, answered his question according to the letter by naming his own master's house, that of Mr Featherstone, a gentleman of fortune. On alighting at the door, Oliver gave authoritative directions about his horse, and was ushered into Mr Featherstone's presence by the servants, who supposed him to be an expected guest. Mr Featherstone at once perceived the mistake and did everything to encourage it, especially as he soon discovered, from Oliver's talk, that he was the son of an old acquaintance. The boy called for wine at supper, inviting his supposed landlord with his wife and daughters to partake of it, ordered, on retiring for the night, a hot cake to his breakfast on the following morning, and did not become aware how matters really stood till the moment of leaving. Had Goldsmith given proof in after life of ordinary good sense in practical matters, this adventure might be set down to the account of his inexperience, but as in practical matters he was from beginning to end a fool, it must be regarded as an early demonstration of that vanity and simplicity, which distinguished him throughout life.

1744-1749

On the 11th June 1744, Goldsmith was enrolled a student in Trinity College, Dublin. He obtained a sizarship which entitled him to commons and tuition free, and, as such privileges are the reward of excellence at competitive examinations, Goldsmith's success is a proof that he brought with him more than average classical acquirements from school. By the death of his father early in 1747, certain small supplies of money were interrupted; and, to make up the deficiency, he composed street-ballads which brought him five shillings each. He would perambulate the streets at night to hear his verses sung, and witness their effect on the listening crowds. All this was very poetical, not at all academical however. It must indeed be admitted that, while Goldsmith retained at college that reputation for cleverness which he brought with him from school, he did not

rise to distinction as a scholar. He entertained a positive aversion for mathematics, and his appreciation of the classics seems to have been that of the poet rather than of the critic. There is however no evidence that he was distinguished for irregularity of conduct; and it is not true that he was expelled for taking part in a street riot attended with loss of life. Four of the ringleaders in this affair were expelled, and four of the participators publicly admonished; Goldsmith was one of the latter.

Shortly after this untoward event Goldsmith obtained one of the minor exhibitions, of which there are so many in Trinity College, Dublin; and, to celebrate his success, he convened a dancing party of young ladies and gentlemen in his college-rooms. On this occasion his tutor, a Mr Wilder, committed an indiscretion as flagrant as his pupil's, by proceeding to Goldsmith's rooms, as soon as he heard of the irregularity, and administering personal chastisement on the spot. Goldsmith could not stomach the affront, quitted the University, and sold his books and clothes, with the intention of travelling to Cork, and there embarking for America. With characteristic indecision, however, he wandered about Dublin till only one shilling remained in his pocket. He then set out for Cork, but had not walked far, when he was reduced to such extremities that, after a twenty-four hours' fast, a handful of grey peas, given him by a girl at a wake, seemed to him the most delightful repast he had ever made. Necessity now obliged him to communicate with his brother Henry, who effected a reconciliation between him and his tutor, and restored him to the University, where he took his degree of B.A. on the 27th February 1749. Goldsmith left the University not only without distinguished acquirements as a scholar, but without a definite lifeaim; and nearly two years were now passed in miscellaneous light reading, and in visiting among friends. Though con scious of having no vocation for the sacred office, he applied to the bishop of Elphin for ordination, and was rejected, according to some because he was too young, according to others because the bishop believed in an exaggerated account of his irregularities at college, and according to others still, because he had appeared before the bishop in scarlet breeches! His friends, who had urged him to make the application, were greatly disappointed, himself not at all.

1749-1756

About this time he acted for nearly a year as tutor in the family of a Mr Flinn. On leaving this situation, which he did on occasion of some quarrel, none of his relations knew for six weeks what was become of him, and to this period belong the adventures of which he wrote so delightfully naive an account to his mother.* Mounted on a good horse, and with £30 in his pocket, he went to Cork, where he sold his horse, and prepaid his passage to America. For three weeks, contrary winds prevented the vessel from sailing, and, when a change of wind carried her * Prior's Life of Goldsmith, Vol. I., p. 119.

out to sea, Goldsmith was enjoying himself with some friends in the country. He lingered on as usual, and, when only two guineas of his money remained, at length bethought himself of returning to his relations. He bought a sorry beast, to which he gave the name of Fiddleback, and left Cork with only five shillings, half of which he parted with on the very first day, to a poor woman who asked charity of him on the road. Recollecting now that the residence of an old college friend was at hand, he directed Fiddleback thither, and his reception was very promising till the narrative of his adventures revealed his folly and destitution. Not even the loan of a guinea could then be obtained, and, when Goldsmith begged to be informed how it was possible to continue his journey without funds, his friend readily answered that he ought to sell his horse, and accept of a better, which was at his service. Goldsmith grasped at the proposal, and was instantly presented with a stout oak stick, and advised that it would carry him to his mother's more surely than Fiddleback. This insult would probably have been repaid with blows, had not a hospitable gentleman called just at this moment, and invited both to dinner; Goldsmith spent several days with this new acquaintance, and was enabled by him to complete his journey.

It was now proposed that Goldsmith should study law, the Rev. Thomas Contarine, his uncle by marriage, furnishing him with £50, that he might proceed via Dublin to London, there to keep the usual terms. In Dublin, however, Goldsmith fell in with sharpers, who won from him all he had in a gaming-house. His uncle forgave him, and not long after united with others in contributing the funds necessary for enabling him to study medicine in Edinburgh, where he actually arrived in the autumn of 1752. The day of his arrival in that city was signalised by an instance of his habitual thoughtlessness in practical matters. After hiring rooms, and depositing his luggage in them, he sallied out to view the town, but without taking note of the street in which his lodg ings were situated. At nightfall accordingly he searched for them in vain, and would not have found them at all, had he not accidentally met with the porter whom he had employed in the morning.

After about eighteen months' residence in Edinburgh, divided, in what proportions cannot now be ascertained, between study and conviviality, Goldsmith embarked for Bordeaux, but stress of weather drove the vessel into Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Goldsmith landed here, and was making merry with some of his fellowpassengers, when he and they were suddenly arrested in the King's name. It appeared that his companions were Scotchmen in the service of France, returning to that country from a recruiting expedition in their own, and Goldsmith was supposed to be of their party. After a fortnight's imprisonment, his innocence was ascertained, and he regained his liberty; but the vessel bound for Bordeaux had by this time left, and Goldsmith, impa

tient to reach the Continent, embarked in a vessel bound for Rotterdam, where he arrived in safety. To this apparently untoward accident the world is indebted for all it has inherited from Oliver Goldsmith; for the vessel from which it separated him was lost at the mouth of the Garonne, and all on board perished. In going to the Continent, Goldsmith's primary object seems to have been to prosecute his medical studies; for he proceeded at once from Rotterdam to Leyden, and spent a year at the University there; but another motive, viz., the desire of foreign travel, though kept in the back-ground by his judgment, was probably foremost in his feeling. Accordingly, his second year on the Continent was spent in wandering over Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, and northern Italy. All we know of this bold and romantic undertaking is, that it was immediately preceded by an act of improvidence, the generosity and folly of which are alike characteristic, and that it ended with the same pennilessness in which it began. Dr Ellis had furnished him with some money for the journey, and it instantly occurred to Goldsmith that he had now the means of gratifying the taste for flowers of his kind uncle, Contarine, by sending him a box of the choicest Dutch flower-roots. They were accordingly bought, and Goldsmith was a pauper once more. Perhaps he really wished to start without funds, like the Baron Louis de Holberg, who died in the previous year, and who, in this whole project of travel, seems to have been his model. In sketching the Baron's life, Goldsmith thus refers to his European tour: Without money, recommendation, or friends, he undertook to set out upon his travels, and make the tour of Europe on foot. A good voice and a trifling skill in music were the only finances he had to support an undertaking so extensive, so he travelled by day, and at night sang at the doors of peasants' houses, to get himself a lodging.' In this very way Goldsmith, who was a tolerable performer on the German flute, is understood to have accomplished his tour, at least till he reached Italy, where his musical skill was outdone by that of the peasants themselves. There, however, another resource was opened up to him in the hospitality of the universities and monasteries; for on occasion of public discussions these institutions not only boarded and lodged for a day and a night every stranger who acquitted himself well in the disputation, but also rewarded him with a gratuity in money; and Goldsmith is supposed to have been expert in these intellectual gymnastics. This may or may not have been the case; but, with such precarious supplies, it is probable that our poet-tourist had to content himself with the bare necessaries of life, and that the first line of the Traveller' is a literal description of himself;

Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow.

Of all Goldsmith's life, this year of vagrancy is the most attractive to the imagination, because it presents a spacious canvas with the

solitary figure of a wandering minstrel in the foreground, and a vacant background which can be filled up with strange adventures. These, doubtless, were not wanting; and perhaps this year was the most attractive to Goldsmith himself in the retrospect, however gloomy it may have been in actual experience. It is at least certain that his desire of travel was not extinguished; for ten years after this he endeavoured, though unsuccessfully, to carry out a project of travel in the East, which he had long entertained.

1756-1765

On returning to London in 1756, Goldsmith had to begin the world anew; but the evil was, that he knew not where to begin. He was now twenty-eight years of age; he had accumulated, on the basis of at least an average scholarship, a vast amount of miscellaneous information: he had experienced much, and observed more; he was in fact a wise man theoretically. But how were all these treasures to be turned to account? Had literature been a regularly organized profession, he would have embraced it at once; as it was, he reached it by a circuitous route. Ile first became an usher, and what sort of situation that was in his time, he has pourtrayed in the Vicar of Wakefield. He next entered the service of a chemist, and then set up for himself as a medical practitioner in Southwark. These three changes were made in the course of one year, that of his return to England; for in the beginning of 1757, we find him undertaking the charge of a classical school at Peckham, Surrey, in the room of a dissenting minister, Dr John Milner, who was temporarily disabled by illness. This gentleman appreciated Goldsmith's services; and introduced him to Mr (afterwards Dr) Griffiths, projector and proprietor of the Monthly Review, to which Goldsmith soon became a regular contributor. It was also Dr Milner who obtained for Goldsmith a professional appointment in India under the Company; but this opportunity of obtaining a fixed and adequate income was let slip, partly from Goldsmith's dislike to permanent expatriation, and partly from the difficulty of procuring the requisite outfit. He still entertained, however, the idea of turning his professional skill to account, for, in December 1758, he presented himself at Surgeons' Hall for examination as an hospital mate; he was rejected as unqualified. His professional knowledge was probably never either very exact or very extensive; at all events it could not have been so, after years of interrupted professional study. It is no wonder, therefore, and no disparagement to Goldsmith's genius that he was rejected: his application was merely an instance of his folly in practical matters, and his admission would have argued little for the Surgeons' Hall examination.

Goldsmith was now fairly shut up to a literary life. It was the only field open to him, and the only one in which his services were welcomed. Accordingly from this time he becomes ever more and more prolific as a writer. In 1760 he began that famous series of contributions to the Public Ledger, entitled Chinese

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