Oliver Goldsmith

Life
1728-1774; b. 10 Nov., Pallasmore [Pallas], Forgney, Co. Longford (or poss. Ardnagowan near Elphin), soon moving to Lissoy; 2nd son of poor Anglican clergyman and curate of Kilkenny West, and Anne Jones, dg. of Oliver Jones, head of diocesan school at Elphin; family moved to Lissoy, 1730; ed. Lissoy [autograph var. Lishoy], under Thomas Byrne, and diocesan school, Elphin, Co. Roscommon; also briefly at Athlone, and later at Edgeworthstown under Rev. Patrick Hughes; contracts smallpox; enters TCD as a sizar, 11 June, 1745 [var. 1744]; attends plays at Royal Theatre; suffers death of his father 1747; put in care of an uncle, Contarine; makes money by selling [xx] to Hicks for printing; wins college prize, leaves college; sets out walking to Cork, and turns back for Lissoy after three days, 1749; grad. BA Feb. 1749 [vars. 1748; 1750, Swarbrick, ed.]; rejected for Holy Orders by Bishop of Elphin, because of inappropriateness of his dress, 1751; goes to Edinburgh to study medicine using funds supplied by his uncle, Sept. 1752-Feb. 1753; imprisoned Newcastle on suspicion of recruiting for French; travels to continent and remains at Leyden until 1755; wanders in France, Switzerland, and Italy, 1755-56 (‘remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow’); perhaps becomes MD at Louvain or Padua; visits Voltaire at Lausanne; returns to England, arriving at Dover, 1 Feb. 1756; reaches London destitute; sets up as physician in Southwark, and takes teaching work at Dr. Milner’s school at Peckham; there he meets the publisher Ralph Griffiths and commences writing for the Monthly Review, 1757, producing more than 90 notices, including a review of Burke’s Philosophical inquiry ... into the sublime and beautiful; seeks employment as surgeon’s mate in the Royal Navy, and found not qualifed at examination, 21 Dec. 1758; finally parts with Griffiths after seven months, accusing him of ‘falsifying’ his writing, 1759; engaged by Smollett on British Magazine, 1759; issues first independent work, Memoirs of a Protestant, condemned to the Galleys of France, for his Religion, a translation; fails to qualify for med. post in India Company, 1758; issues Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning (April 1759), makes acquaintance with Bishop Thomas Percy of Reliques fame, who would later write Memoir of Goldsmith (1801); writes short life of Bishop Berkeley, replete with Irish anecdote (1759); contribs. to Critical Review et al.; contribs. article on Carolan to British Magazine (July 1760); encountered John Newbery and worked for him on the Public Ledger, his first piece appearing 12 Jan. 1760; occupies upper room in Newbury’s home, Canonbury House, Islington at times during 1760-69; 123 “Chinese Letters” published in the Public Ledger, 1760-62, later collected as Citizen of the World; or Letters from a Chinese Philosopher residing in London to his Friends in the East (1762) and containing the characters Beau Tibbs, Mrs Tibbs, and ‘the Man in Black’, a self-portrait [1761]; moves from Green Arbour Court to better rooms at Wine Office Court, Fleet St.; becomes acquainted with Garrick, Murphy, Smart, Bickerstaff, and a member of Johnson’s Club, 1760; entertains a party incl. Percy and Johnson, 31 May 1761; issued abrdgement of Voltaire, 1761; experiences illness and visits spas, 1763; first meets Boswell, who diminished his reputation in his Life of Johnson, 1763; issued History of England in a Series of Letters from a Nobleman to his Son (1764), anonymously published and attributed on style to Chesterfield, Lord Orrery, and Lord Lyttleton [var. Aug. 1771 CAB]; secures patronage of Lord Clare with his Traveller, or a Prospect of Society (Dec. 1764), the first work to appear under his own name, and compared by Johnson to work of Pope; receives £20 for the poem, which Newbery sold through numerous editions; moves from Wine Court to the Temple; reputedly wrote Goody Two Shoes; an edition of his collected essays printed in 1765; enters dispute with a chemist over a prescription, being ejected from the house of a lady he had offered to help as a physician, 1765; Boswell reports that Johnson visited him in poverty and removes the manuscript of The Vicar of Wakefield for sale; known to have been purchased by Newbery with Collins and another, for £21 on 21 Oct. 1762, the copyright being sold to Francis Newbery, nephew of John, at a profit of £63; not published until 1766 (96th edn. 1889), probably in view of sale of The Traveller; Vicar of Wakefield quickly running to three editions during 1766, the fourth edn. starting at a loss; wrote a short English grammar for five guineas; wrote History of Rome (1769) [var. Roman History], for booksellers; Newbery d. 1767; Goodnatur’d Man rejected by Garrick in favour of a comedy by Hugh Kelly, 1767, then taken up by Colman and performed Covent Garden, 1768, a gloomy prologue by Johnson who attended the rehearsals as an encouragement; ran for ten nights only; printed with a Preface attacking the fashion for sentimental drama or ‘genteel comedy’, supposedly by Goldsmith himself but probably by Arthur Murphy; used proceeds, c.£500, from play and publication, to move to newly-furnished chambers; occupied cottage on Edgeware Rd., returning in October; published History of Rome (May 1769); issued The Deserted Village (26 May 1770), running to a fifth edition by August; issued Life of Parnell (1770); travelled to Paris with the Horneck family (Mrs Horneck, Mary, and Catherine, 1770, Mary, whom he met at 14, being his ‘Jessamy Bride’ (later m. H. W. Bunbury); wrote The Haunch of Venison, a poetical epistle to Lord Clare (publ. posthum 1776), in return for a gift of Lord Clare; agreed with Davies to write a Life of Bolingbroke (Dec. 1770); Life of Beau Nash (1762); published anonymously “An Essay on the Theatre; or, A Comparison between the Laughing and Sentimental Comedy” in Westminster Gazette (Jan. 1773, pp.4-6), criticising the latter; increasingly plunged in death through expensive living; She Stoops to Conquer (Covent Garden, March 1773), a tale of ‘mistakes of the night’ concerning class confusions, and produced after interventions by Johnson; altercation with Thomas Evans and the editor of The London Packet, in which appeared ‘Tom Tickle’, an insulting letter mocking his tender feelings for ‘the lovely H-k’; The Retaliation (1774), containing celebrated lines on Burke, Garrick, Cumberland, et al.; The History of Greece (1774); An History of the Earth and Animated Nature, 8 vols. (posthum. 1774), commissioned 1769, and paided for long before delivery, often ridiculed for its preposterous inventions; removed to country logins nr. Hyde to write and recoup his fortune; returned ill to London; embarked on The Retaliation, and writing of Reynolds (‘by flattery unspoiled’), when he suffered his final attack; d. 5.00 a.m., 4 April 1774, of strangury (congestion of bladder) and fever; reputed last words, ‘I am not at ease in my mind’; bur. Temple Church, monument at expense of The Club in Westminster Abbey, with Latin epitaph by Johnson (‘qui omnes fere scribendi genus tetigit, et nullum tetigit, quod non ornavit [there was almost no subject he did not write about, and he wrote on nothing without enhancing it]’; Miscellaneous Works of Goldsmith (1801), with Percy’s Memoir of Goldsmith; Dublin editions of poems and plays in 1777 and 1780; English edns. in 1831 and 1846; an edition of Vicar of Wakefield appeared in 1843 with ills. by William Mulready; the edition of Deserted Village by R. H. Newell (1811), contains the first account of the locality of the eponymous village, with engravings of same by Aitkin; remembered for his kindness to the common people among whom he lived; characterised as consummate booby in Boswell’s Life of Johnson; statue by J. H. Foley at College Green on front of TCD West Gate, 1864; early biographies by James Prior (2 vols. 1837), with an edition of the Works in 1836; Washington Irving (1844), John Foster (1848); Peter Cunningham’s edition of the Works (1854) was the first issue of Murray’s British Classics, reissued with an introduction by Austin Dobson (1900); a modern edition of The Vicar of Wakefield was ill. by Hugh Thompson; there are extensive references to Goldsmith in Boswell’s Life of Dr. Johnson. RR CAB DNB PI JMC ODQ DIB DIW DIL OCEL NCBE OCIL FDA

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Works
Individual editions, Citizen of the World (1760-61); The Traveller (1764); The Deserted Village (1770); The Vicar of Wakefield (1766); The Good Natur’d Man (1768); An Essay on the Theatre; or, A Comparison between the Laughing and Semtimental Comedy (1773) [anon., Westminster Gazette, Jan. 1773]; She Stoops to Conquer (1774); History of the Earth and Animated Nature, 8 vols. [see also infra]; The Haunch of Venison, a poetical epistle to Lord Clare (London: G. Kearsly & J. Ridley 1776), 4o.

Collected Editions: R. S. Crane, ed., New Essays by Oliver Goldsmith (Chicago UP 1927); Katherine Balderston, ed., The Collected Letters of Oliver Goldsmith (Cambridge UP 1928); Arthur Friedman, The Collected Works of Oliver Goldsmith, 5 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon P. 1966); see James Boswell, Life of Johnson, G. B. Hill; revised L. C. Powell, 6 vols. (OUP 1939-50); also John Lucas, ed., Oliver Goldsmith, selected writings (Blackstaff 1990). Also, Lives of Dr Parnell and Lord Bolingbroke, with The Bee (Belfast 1818), vi, 243pp. The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B., 4 vols. (London: J. Johnson, C. and J. Robinson 1801). Bibliography, Temple Scott, Oliver Goldsmith Biographically and Bibliographically Considered (NY 1928).

Dublin reprint editions: The Citizen of the World, 2 vols. (Dublin: George and Alex. Ewing 1762); Do., another edn. 2 vols. (Dublin: J. Williams, 1769); Do., another edn. 2 vols. (Dublin: the United Company of Booksellers, 1775. Essays. 2nd edn. (Dublin: J. Williams, 1767); Do., another edn. 3rd edn. (Dublin: James Williams, 1772); Do., another edn. 3 vols. (Dublin: J. Stockdale for J. Moore, 1793). The Vicar of Wakefield, 2 vols. (Dublin: W. and W. Smith, A. Leathley, J. Hoey, Snr., P. Wilson, J. Exshaw, E. Watts, H. Saunders, J. Hoey, Jnr., J. Potts, and J. Williams, 1766); Do., another edn. 2nd edn. 2 vols. (Dublin: W. and W. Smith, et al., 1766); Do., another edn. 2 vols. Corke: printed by Eugene Swiney, 1766); Do., another edn. 2 vols. (Dublin: W. and W. Smith, et al., 1767); Do., another edn. (Dublin: the United Company of Booksellers, 1791); Do., another edn. 2 vols. (Dublin: printed byJ. Stockdale, forJ. Moore, 1793); Do., another edn. 2 vols. (Dublin: T. Henshall, [1794]). Le curé de Wakefield, (Dublin: G. Gilbert, 1797. The Good Natur’d Man [A Comedy, As performed at the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden] (Dublin: J. A. Husband, for J. Hoey, Snr., P. and W. Wilson, J. Exshaw, H. Saunders, W. Sleater, J. Williams, D. Chamberlaine, J. Potts, J. Mitchell, J. Sheppard, and W. Colles, 1768), 70pp. 12o, Do., another edn. (Dublin: J. Hoey, sen., et al., 1770); Do., another edn. (Dublin: Messrs. Price, Sleater, W. Watson, Whitestone, Chamberlaine, S. Watson, Burrowes, Potts, Williams, Hoey, Wilkinson, Sheppard, Colles, Wilson, Moncrieffe, Walker, Jenkin, Exshaw, Burnet, Hillary, Wogan, Mills, White, Higly, and Beatty, 1784). She Stoops to Conquer, Belfast: printed by James Magee, 1773); Do., another edn. (Dublin: Messrs. Exshaw, Saunders, Sleater, Potts, Chamberlaine, Williams, Wilson, Hoey, Jnr, Husband, Lynch, Vallance, Colles, Walker, Moncrieffe,Jenkin, Flin, and Hillary, 1773); Do., another edn. (Dublin: Exshaw, et al. [excluding Colles], 1773); Do., another edn. (Dublin: Bartholomew Corcoran, 1774); Do., another edn. (Dublin: Messrs. Price, Sleater, W. Watson, Whitestone, Chamberlaine, S. Watson, Burrowes, Potts, Williams, Hoey, Wilkinson, Sheppard, Colles, Wilson, Moncrieffe, Walker, Jenkin, Exshaw, Burnet, Hillary, Wogan, Mills, White, Higly, and Beatty, 1784); Do., another edn. (Dublin: Messrs. Price, et al., 1785); Do., another edn. (Dublin: Graisberry and Campbell, for William Jones, 1792). The Traveller, or a Prospect of Society, (Dublin: George Faulkner, 1767); Do., another edn. (Dublin: George Faulkner, 1770). The Deserted Village, (Dublin: J. Exshaw, H. Saunders, B. Grierson, J. Potts, W. Sleater, D. Chamberlaine, J. Hoey, Jnr, J. Williams, C. Ingham, J. Porter, and R. Moncrieffe, 1770); Do., another edn. 2nd edn. (Dublin: H. Saunders, B. Grierson, J. Potts, W. Sleater, D. Chamberlaine, J. Hoey, Jnr., J. Williams, C. Ingham, J. Porter, and R. Moncrieffe, 1770); Do., another edn. (Dublin: Messrs. Price, Sleater, W. Watson, Whitestone, Chamberlaine, S. Watson, Burrowes, Potts, Williams, Hoey, Wilkinson, Sheppard, Colles, Wilson, Moncrieffe, Walker, Jenkin, Exshaw, Burnet, Hillary, Wogan, Mills, White, Higly, and Beatty, 1784); Do., another edn. Poems, Belfast: printed by James Magee, 1775); Do., another edn. (Dublin: Charles Downes, for Thomas Reilly, 1801); Do., another edn. The Haunch of Venison, (Dublin: W. Whitestone, W. Watson, W. Sleater, J. Potts, J. Hoey, W. Colles, W. Wilson, R. Moncrieffe, G. Burnet, C. Jenkin, T. Walker, W. Hallhead, W. Spotswood, M. Mills,J. Exshaw, J. Beatty, and C. Talbot, 1776). Poems and Plays, (Dublin: Messrs. Price, Sleater, W. Watson, Whitestone, Chamberlaine, S. Watson, Burrowes, Potts, Williams, Hoey, Wilkinson, Sheppard, W. Colles, W. Wilson, Moncrieffe, Walker, Jenkin, Hallhead, Exshaw, Spotswood, Burnet, P. Wilson, Armitage, E. Cross, Hillary, Wogan, Mills, White, T. Watson, Talbot, Higly, and Beatty, 1777); Do., another edn. (Dublin: Wm. Wilson, 1777); Do., another edn. new corrected edition, (Dublin: Messrs. Price, et al., 1785); Do., another edn. The Beauties of Goldsmith (Dublin: J. Rea, for Messrs. S. Price, Walker, Exshaw, Beatty, Wilson, Wogan, Burton, Byrne, and Cash, 1783); Do., another edn. An History of the Earth and Animated Nature, 8 vols. (Dublin: J. Williams, 1776); Do., another edn. 8 vols. (Dublin: J. Williams, 1777); Do., another edn. 8 vols. (Dublin: J. Williams, 1782-83). An History of England in a Series of Letters from a Nobleman to his Son, 2 vols. (Dublin: J. Exshaw and H. Bradley, 1765); Do., another edn. 2 vols. (Dublin: J. Exshaw and H. Bradley, 1767); Do., another edn. 4th edn., 2 vols. (Dublin: J., Exshaw and W. Colles, 1784). The History of England, from the Earliest Times to the Death of George II, 4 vols. (Dublin: A. Leathley, J. Exshaw, W. Wilson, H. Saunders, W. Sleater, D. Chamberlaine, J. Hoey, Jnr., J. Potts, J. Williams, J. Mitchell, J. A. Husband, W. Colles, T. Walker, R. Moncrieffe, and D. Hay, 1771); Do., another edn. 4th edn., 4 vols. (Dublin: W. Sleater, H. Chamberlaine, J. Potts, W. Colles, R. Moncrieffe, T. Walker, W. Wilson, J. Exshaw, and L. White, 1789); Do., another edn. 5th edn. 4 vols. (Dublin: William Porter, for W. Gilbert, P. Wogan, J. Exshaw, W. Porter, W. McKenzie, J. Moore, W. Jones, and J. Rice, 1796); Do., another edn. An abridgement of the History of England, from the invasion of Julius Caesar, to the death of George II. 5th edn. (Dublin: James Williams, 1779. The Roman History, 2 vols. (Dublin: S. Powel, J. Exshaw, H. Saunders, B. Grierson, W. Sleater, D. Chamberlaine, J. Potts, J. Hoey, Jnr., J. Williams, and C. Ingham, 1769); Do., another edn. 2 vols. (Dublin: S. Powel, et al., 1771); Do., another edn. 2 vols. (Dublin: P. Wogan, J. Exshaw, W. Sleater, J. Rice, and R. White, 1792); Do., another edn. 2 vols. Cork: printed by J. Connor, 1800). The Roman History, abridged for schools, (Dublin: P. Wogan, 1798. The Grecian History, 2 vols. (Dublin: printed forJames Williams, 1774); Do., another edn. 2 vols. (Dublin: P. Wogan, 1801). [From Richard Cargill Cole, Irish Booksellers and English Writers, 1740-1800 (London: Mansell Pub.; NJ: Atlantic Heights 1986), Appendix 4 [pp.245-47].

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“Miscellaneous Works” (var. edns.), The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. Containing all his essays and poems (London: W. Griffin 1775), iv, [9-]200pp., 8o; another edn. (London: W. Griffin 1778), vi, 225pp., 12o; another edn. (London: W. Osborne & T. Griffin 1780; 1782; 1784; 1786), vi, 225pp., 8o; another edn. (London: W. Osborne & T. Griffin 1786), 238pp., 12o; another edn. (London: W. Osborne & T. Griffin; Gainsbro': H. Mozley 1789), 238pp.,. 12o; The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. Consisting of his essays, poems, plays [&c.], 2 vols. (Edinburgh, Perth: R. Morison & Sons 1791), 12o; The miscellaneous works, 4 vols. (Edinburgh: Geo. Mudie 1792), 12o; The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith; now first uniformly collected, 7 vols. (Perth: R. Morison & Son; Edinburgh: A. Guthrie 1792) plates, port. 8o; The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. Containing all his essays and poems; with an account of the life and writings of the author. A new and correct edition (London: J. Deighton 1793), xli, 288pp., 12o; another edn. (Glasgow: J. & M. Robertson, et al. 1795), another edn. (Boston [Mass.]: Thomas & Andrews, 1795), 237pp. 12o; [Samuel Rose, ed.,] The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. A new edition, To which is prefixed, some account of his life and writings [by Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore], 4 vols. (London: J. Johnson, et al. 1801; 1806), pls., port. 8o. . 4 vol.: plates; port. 8o; another edn. (London: W. Otridge & Son, 1812); another edn. (Glasgow: R. Chapman 1816); another edn. (London: F. C. & J. Rivington, et al. 1820); another edn., 6 vols. (London: Samuel Richards 1823), plates; port. 12o; Washington Irving, ed., The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, with an account of his life and writings. A new edition. 4 vols. (Paris: A. & W. Galignani; Jules Didot 1825), plate, port., 8o; Irving, ed., The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, with an account of his life and writings, stereotyped from the Paris edition (Philadelphia: J. Crissy; Desilver, Thomas & Co. 1836), 527pp., plate; port. 8o; The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, with an account of his life and writings, 4 vols. (Paris: Baudry's European Library, &c. 1837), plate; port., 8o; James Prior, ed., The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. Including a variety of pieces now first collected (London: John Murray 1837), 8o; Irving, ed., The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. To which is prefixed some account of his life and writings [extracted from the edition of 1823]; another edn. (Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson 1840), xxii, 458pp., plate, port., 8o; The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. With a brief memoir of the author [&c.] (London: Andrew Moffat; Glasgow: D. A. Borrenstein 1841), xii, 308pp.; illus. 8o; The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. To which is prefixed some account of his life and writings. A new edition, [etc.] (Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson 1843) xxii, 458pp., plate, port., 8o; James Prior, ed., The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, including a variety of pieces now first collected, 4 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1866), ill. plates.; The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith. With biographical introduction by Professor Masson [The Globe edition] (London & NY: Macmillan & Co. 1869 [1868]; 1871), lx, 695pp., 18cm.

Modern Editions, William Henry Hudson, intro. & annot., Vicar of Wakefield [Heath's English Classics] (Boston: D.C. Heath & Co. [1920]), xxxv, [1], 264, [2]pp, pls., port.; R. S. Crane, ed., New Essays by Oliver Goldsmith (Chicago UP 1927); Katherine Balderston, ed., The Collected etters of Oliver Goldsmith (Cambridge UP 1928); Arthur Friedman, ed., The Collected Works of Oliver Goldsmith, 5 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1966); The Deserted Village by [OG] with a note on the author and a summary of his life by Desmond Egan (Curragh: Goldsmith Press 1978), 44pp.; Tom Davis, ed., She Stoops to Conquer [New Mermaid Ser.] (London: A & C. Black 1996) [8th edn.]; The Deserted Village, ill. Blaise Drummond (Oldcastle: Gallery Press [2002]), 58pp.

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Criticism

• [Bishop] Thomas Percy, Life of Dr. Oliver Goldsmith (1801) [var Memoir], and Do. [rep.], ed., Richard Harp (Salzburg: Institüt f[ü]r Englische Sprache und Literatur 1976);
• James Prior, Oliver Goldsmith, 2 vols. (1837); John Foster, The Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith (London 1848 [another edn. 1855]);
• Washington Irving, Oliver Goldsmith, A Biography (1849) [based in Prior];
• William Black, Goldsmith (London 1881); Mathias McDonnell Bodkin, In the Days of Goldsmith (1903);
• M. P. Conant, The Oriental Tale in England in the Eighteeth Century (NY: Random House 1908);
• H. J. Smith, Oliver Goldsmith’s Citizen of the World, A Study (Yale UP 1926);
• Temple Scott [pseud. of J. H. Isaac], Oliver Goldsmith Bibliographically and Biographically Considered (NY: Bowling Green P. 1928);
• Stephen Gwynn, Oliver Goldsmith (London: Thorton Butterworth 1935) [var. 1937];
• C A Moore, Backgrounds of English Literature 1700-1776 (Minnesota UP 1953);
• Ralph M. Wardle, Oliver Goldsmith (Kansas UP; London: Constable 1957);
• G. Sherburn, ‘the Periodicals and Oliver Goldsmith, A. C. Baugh, ed., A Literary History of England, 2nd ed. (NY: Knopf 1957), pp.1057-58;
• Oscar Sherwin, The Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith (NY 1961);
• Clara M Kirk, Oliver Goldsmith (NY: Twayne 1967); J. Dussinger, ‘Oliver Goldsmith, Citizen of the World’, Studies in Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 55 (1967), pp.445-61;
• Ricardo Quintana, Goldsmith: A Georgian Study (NY: Macmillan 1967; London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1969);
• Robert Hopkins, The True Genius of Oliver Goldsmith (Johns Hopkins UP 1969);
• A. Lytton Sells, Oliver Goldsmith, His Life and Works (London: Allen & Unwin; NY: Barnes & Noble 1974);
• George Sebastian Rousseau, ed., Goldsmith: The Critical Heritage (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1974);
• A N. Jeffares, ‘Goldsmith and the Good-Natured Man,’ in Hermathena, CXIX (Dublin 1975) [rep. as ‘Good-Natured Goldsmith’, in Images of Invention: Essays on Irish Writing (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1996), pp.90-105];
• John Ginger, The Notable Man: The Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith (London: Hamish Hamilton 1977);
• J. B. Lyons, The Mystery of Oliver Goldsmith’s Medical Degree (Blackrock: Carraig Books 1978);
• Samuel J. Woods, Jr., Oliver Goldsmith: A reference Guide (Boston: G. K. Hall 1982);
• Wolfgang Zach, ‘Oliver Goldsmith on Ireland and the Irish: Personal Views, Shifting Attitudes, Literary Stereotypes’, in Heinz Kosok, ed., Studies in Anglo-Irish Literature (Bonn: Bouvier 1982) [q.pp.];
• Andrew Swarbrick, ed., The Art of Oliver Goldsmith [Critical Studies Series] (NJ: Barnes & Noble; London: Vision Press 1982) [var. 1984; incl. John Montague, ‘The Sentimental Prophecy: A Study of the Deserted Village’, pp.90-107, also printed in The Figure in the Cave, Lilliput 1989, pp.61-77];
• Harold Bloom, ed., Oliver Goldsmith (NY: Chelsea 1987); W. J. McCormack, ‘Goldsmith Biography and the Phenomenology of Anglo-Irish Literature’, pp.168-93];
• Seán Lucy, ed., Oliver Goldsmith: The Gentle Master (Cork UP 1984) [ incl. A. N. Jeffares, et al.];
• Katherine Worth, Sheridan and Goldsmith (NY: St. Martin’s Press 1992);
• E. H. Mikhail, ed., Goldsmith: Interviews and Recollections (NY: St. Martin’s Press 1993);
• Richard C. Taylor, Goldsmith as Journalist (NJ: Farleigh Dickinson UP; London: Assoc. UP 1993), 205pp.;
• B. S. Pathania, Goldsmith and the Sentimental Comedy (New Delhi: Prestige Books 1998);
• Declan Kiberd, ‘Nostalgia as Protest: Goldsmith’s “Deserted Village’’ & ‘Radical Pastoral: Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer’’, in Irish Classics (London: Granta 2000), pp.107-23; pp.124-36;
• Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica: Irish Worthies (1821), Vol. II, p.181-97;
• J. J. Kelly, The Early Haunts of Oliver Goldsmith (n.d.).

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Notes
Dictionary of National Biography, cites Goldsmith under Sir William Petty [Lord Landowne and 2nd Earl Shelburne] (1737-1805), known as Malagrida by his enemies for his lack of sincerity, to whom Goldsmith addressed the unfortunate remark, ‘Do you know that I never could conceive the reason why they call you Malagrida, for Malagrida was [very] very good sort of man’. DNB also lists Robert Hasell Newell (1778-1852), amateur artist and author, ed. Cambridge, who illustrated the Goldsmith edn. of 1811-20.

D. J. O’Donoghue, The Poets of Ireland: A Biographical Dictionary, (Dublin: Hodges Figgis & Co 1912); ‘Said to have been born at Pallas, near Ballymahon, Co. Longford, but more probably born in Co. Roscommon; ed. village schools, Elphin, Athlone, and Edgeworthstown; TCD; Edinburgh; Leyden.

Charles A. Read, The Cabinet of Irish Literature [1876-78]; There is a very circumstantial biographical notice in Cabinet of Irish Literature, ed. Charles Read (1876; Vol. 1), citing inter al. Prior’s biography which ‘did little to remove the impression of the author of The Traveller as a kind of inspired idiot’; also cites an edn. of The Vicar of Wakefield of 1843 with 32 ills. by William Mulready; edition of Poetical Works, ed. Rev. R. H. Newell [see DNB infra], in which the locality of The Deserted Village is traced, and ills. by seven engraving on the spot by Mr Aitkin (1811); also Prior’s edn. of the Works (1836), throwing the ‘legion’ editions before it ‘into the shade’; Cunningham Murray’s edn. of 1854 forms basis of Murray’s British Classics; lives by Washington Irving and Foster (viz, Life and Adventures).

Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature (1904), Vol., IV, quotes inter alia: ‘What we say of a thing which is just come in fashion,/And that which we do with the dead,/Is the name of the honestest man in creation;/What more of a man can be said?’ (Goldsmith, in a verse-charade on his employer John Newbury; cited in evidence that he was not exploited (p.1299).

Shell Guide (1967), b. Pallas, a little to the east of Ballymahon, 10 Nov. 1728; his father got the living of Kilkenny West in 1730, and moved to Lissoy, or ‘Sweet Auburn’, 5 miles south-west of Ballymahon in Westmeath, where the ruins of his house are still to be seen; ed. in village by Thomas Byrne, schoolmaster, who spent some years in Peninsular Wars; afterwards went to Athlone to prepare for university, passing later to Mostrim. Connected places, Ardagh, Elphin, Forgney, and Kilkenny West.

British Library (1975 Cat.) lists under MISCELLANEOUS WORKS: The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. Containing all his essays and poems (London: W. Griffin 1775), iv, [9-]200pp., 8o; another edn. (London: W. Griffin 1778), vi, 225pp., 12o; another edn. (London: W. Osborne & T. Griffin 1780; 1782; 1784; 1786), vi, 225pp., 8o; another edn. (London: W. Osborne & T. Griffin 1786), 238pp., 12o; another edn. (London: W. Osborne & T. Griffin; Gainsbro': H. Mozley 1789), 238pp.,. 12o; The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. Consisting of his essays, poems, plays [&c.], 2 vols. (Edinburgh, Perth: R. Morison & Sons 1791), 12o; The miscellaneous works, 4 vols. (Edinburgh: Geo. Mudie 1792), 12o; The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith; now first uniformly collected, 7 vols. (Perth: R. Morison & Son; Edinburgh: A. Guthrie 1792) plates, port. 8o; The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. Containing all his essays and poems; with an account of the life and writings of the author. A new and correct edition (London: J. Deighton 1793), xli, 288pp., 12o; another edn. (Glasgow: J. & M. Robertson, et al. 1795), another edn. (Boston [Mass.]: Thomas & Andrews, 1795), 237pp. 12o; [Samuel Rose, ed.,] The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. A new edition, To which is prefixed, some account of his life and writings [by Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore], 4 vols. (London: J. Johnson, et al. 1801; 1806), pls., port. 8o. . 4 vol.: plates; port. 8o; another edn. (London: W. Otridge & Son, 1812); another edn. (Glasgow: R. Chapman 1816); another edn. (London: F. C. & J. Rivington, et al. 1820); another edn., 6 vols. (London: Samuel Richards 1823), plates; port. 12o; Washington Irving, ed., The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, with an account of his life and writings. A new edition. 4 vols. (Paris: A. & W. Galignani; Jules Didot 1825), plate, port., 8o; Irving, ed., The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, with an account of his life and writings, stereotyped from the Paris edition (Philadelphia: J. Crissy; Desilver, Thomas & Co. 1836), 527pp., plate; port. 8o; The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, with an account of his life and writings, 4 vols. (Paris: Baudry's European Library, &c. 1837), plate; port., 8o; James Prior, ed., The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. Including a variety of pieces now first collected (London: John Murray 1837), 8o; Irving, ed., The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. To which is prefixed some account of his life and writings [extracted from the edition of 1823]; another edn. (Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson 1840), xxii, 458pp., plate, port., 8o; The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. With a brief memoir of the author [&c.] (London: Andrew Moffat; Glasgow: D. A. Borrenstein 1841), xii, 308pp.; illus. 8o; The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. To which is prefixed some account of his life and writings. A new edition, [etc.] (Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson 1843) xxii, 458pp., plate, port., 8o; James Prior, ed., The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, including a variety of pieces now first collected, 4 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1866), ill. plates.; The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith. With biographical introduction by Professor Masson [The Globe edition] (London & NY: Macmillan & Co. 1869 [1868]; 1871), lx, 695pp., 18cm.

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Belfast Public Library holds 20 titles incl. Lives of Dr. Parnell and Lord Bolingbroke, with The Bee; var. Histories; Prospect of Society (1902); Works and Poems; and biographies by Stephen Gwynn (1935); T. P. C. Kirkpatrick (n.d.); W. Freeman (1951). MORRIS holds Dalziel’s Illustrated Goldsmith and a sketch of the life ... by H. M. Ducklen (Ward & Lock, 1865); Letters of a Citizen of the World, the Traveller, The Deserted Village (c.1930); The Vicar of Wakefield (c.1935).

Eric Stevens Books (Cat 166) lists The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), rep. (1843), being 1st ed. with Mulready ills.; another (1855); another, intro. George Saintsbury (1926), 25 Rowlandson col. ills.; also Le Vicaire de Wakefield, trad. par B.-H Gausseron, Paris, Quantin ca.1890, Royal 8vo, 297pp, ill. Poincon, hand-coloureds.

Emerald Isle Books (Cat. 1995) lists The Vicar of Wakefield (1843), 1st edn. with Mulready ills.; others edns. 1855; another edn. with intro. by George Saintsbury and Rowlandson col. ills, 1926. CATL, The Vicar of Wakefield (London: C. Ware 1777), 2 vols in 1 £75].

Hyland Books (Cat. 235) lists Lives of Dr. Parnell and Lord Bolingbroke, with “The Bee” (Belfast 1818), vi, 243pp., 6o.

Berg Collection (NYPL), holds edn. of The Haunch of Venison (London: Kearsly 1776), book pl. of Austin Dobson; also with ‘The Tears of Genius; occasiond by the death of Dr. Goldsmith, by Courtney Melmoth [pseud.]’ (London: for T. Becket 1774). CATL, Marsh’s Library holds The Monthly Review, Vol. XVI (London: for R. Griffiths 1757), 8o.

TCD Long Room (Spring 1978) cites The Haunch of Venison, a poetical epistle to Lord Clare (London: G. Kearsly & J. Ridley 1776), 4o.

Portraits: statue in bronze by J. H. Foley, 1861 [var 1864 CAB], at College Green (TCD); also, portrait in oil by Reynolds, of which there is a copy in Nat. Gallery of Ireland. (See Anne Crookshank, ed., Irish Portrait Exhibition [Catalogue] (Ulster Mus. 1965). See also an engraving after Wheatley, 1791, of a moment from Act V, sc. 3 of She Stoops to Conquer (rep. in Brian de Breffny, Ireland: A Cultural Encyclopaedia, London: Thames & Hudson, p.238.)

Patrick Delany: for a possible source of the plot of The Good-Natured Man, see remarks of Patrick Delany: “The Duty of Paying Debts”: ‘A good-natured villain will surfeit a sot and gorge a glutton, nay, will glut his horses and his hounds with that food for which the vendors are one day to starve to death in a dungeon; a good-natured monster will be gay in the spoils of widows and orphans. / Good-nature separated from virtue is absolutely the worst quality and character in life; at least, if this be good-nature, to feed a dog, and to murder a man. And therefore, if you have any pretence to good-nature, pay your debts and in so doing clothe those poor families that are no in rags for your finery ...’.]

William Carleton cites a line from Deserted Village (‘I dragged at each remove a lengthening chain’, in the Introduction to the 1843 edn. of Traits and Stories (p.xiv), descriptive of his setting out alone as a ‘poor scholar’ for Munster.

Sir John Gilbert, History of Dublin (1865), Vol. I: ‘A practical joke played by Kelly upon Oliver Goldsmith, who induced him from his representation to take the house of Sir Ralph Fetherstone at Ardagh for an inn, is believe to have suggested the plot of She Stoops to Conquer.’ (p.87). Note, the Oxford Companion to English Literature (ed. Drabble) notes that the mistaking of a private residence for inn was testified by Goldsmith’s sister Mrs Hodson.

W. B. Yeats placed Goldsmith in company with Burke, Berkeley, and Grattan, all in his conception Whigs though they did not know it: ‘Oliver Goldsmith sang what he had seen,/Roads full of beggars, cattle in the fields,/But never saw the trefoil stained with blood,/The avenging leaf those fields raised up against it.’ (“The Seven Sages”, 1932). Note that The Royal Theatre, Stockholm, played She Stoops to Conquer with Yeats’s Cathleen ni Houlihan, at the time when the poet received his Nobel Prize, Dec. 1923.

Shan Bullock quotes (‘Ill fares the land ...’), in By Trasna’s Stream (1895). NOTE, The Vicar of Wakefield dramatised by Tom Murphy [c.1975], and She Stoops to Conquer adapted to Irish setting.

Newbery’s profit: A History of England in a Series of Letters from a Nobleman to his Son (1764) was a popular success in its two pocket-size volumes, issued by Newbury [vars. Newbury; Newberry].

The Gaiety Theatre (Dublin) opened its doors for the first time in November 1871 with a performance of Goldsmith's comedy She Stoops to Conquer.

Joyce Connection: Goldsmith’s ‘Retaliation’ was taught at Belvedere to James Joyce, giving rise to a pastiche-poem on a schoolmate, G. O’Donnell; Joyce also praised Goldsmith for his personal qualities (‘unassuming’), as retaled in Padraic Colum’s memoir in Ulick O’Connor, ed., The Joyce that We Knew (Cork: Mercier 1967), p.81f.

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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)