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The Philosophical Traveller As Social Critic in Oliver Goldsmith's the Traveller, the Deserted Village and the Citizen Of

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The Philosophical Traveller As Social Critic in Oliver Goldsmith's the Traveller, the Deserted Village and the Citizen Of The Philosophical Traveller as Social Critic in Oliver Goldsmith’s The Traveller, The Deserted Village and The Citizen of the World Megan Kitching A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Arts at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand 28 February 2011 ii Abstract This thesis examines the figure of the philosophical traveller in Oliver Goldsmith’s poems The Traveller (1764) and The Deserted Village (1770), and his pseudo-oriental letter collection, The Citizen of the World (1762). Building upon recent reassessments of Goldsmith as a political writer, this study takes a thematic approach to the question of why the solitary traveller or foreign observer becomes so important to Goldsmith’s socio-economic criticism. I argue that his preoccupation with mobile narrators emerges from his sense of dissonance with the prevailing rhetoric and values of mid-century culture, yet this uncertainty of outlook embeds his works more thoroughly in their problematic historical period. My first chapter argues that Goldsmith’s cultural commentary originated in his early career as reviewer and periodical writer. By situating his major poems and The Citizen of the World in the context of his journalism, I show how they reveal his concern with the changing status and public responsibilities of the professional author in an increasingly commercialised milieu. In The Citizen of the World, for example, Goldsmith adapts the oriental-observer genre to an ironic critique of popular culture, including the trade in chinoiserie goods and exotic fictions. The second chapter shows how he extends the comparative function of his traveller figures to advance a broad- based analysis of national cultures that reflects upon Britain’s conduct at home and overseas. The fiction of a Chinese visitor gave an Anglo-Irish author greater freedom to question Britain’s mercantile and colonial expansion. In The Traveller, Goldsmith adapts the “prospect view” to a Europe-wide survey that explicitly connects foreign commerce to domestic decline, particularly in the arts. I argue that Goldsmith’s choice to expand his political arguments more fully in verse demonstrates the limitations of popular journalism for aspiring authors and demonstrates his awareness of the literary authority poetry still carried at this time. In my final chapter, I show how Goldsmith’s search for this literary and ethical authority was at odds with the retreat of mid- century poetry from politics and history. Therefore, The Deserted Village in particular expresses its socio-economic arguments through ideals of feeling, sensibility and benevolence. Goldsmith uses his solitary poetic personae to raise the possibility of a literary community to replace those lost through rural depopulation and the decline of iii traditional social bonds, including those between authors and readers. The outsider figure is distinctive but embraces the functions of estranging and drawing together, just as epistles from abroad simultaneously work to expose differences and overcome distance. Through examining the ways in which Goldsmith adapts the traveller figure to address public themes, this thesis proposes new insights into his social commentary as it relates to central concerns of mid-eighteenth century literature. iv Acknowledgments I am profoundly grateful to my supervisor, Shef Rogers, for his advice and support during the preparation of this thesis and over the past two years. Through countless discussions and revisions, his questions have helped me develop my ideas and his scholarly rigour has helped me anchor them. His broad knowledge of eighteenth-century poetry and its reception has encouraged my enthusiasm for this troublesome but rewarding field. He has been a generous and uncompromising reader of my prose and, as a mentor, has given me invaluable guidance on balancing the many demands of postgraduate study. Members of the English Department at the University of Otago provided helpful comments on my proposal and ideas in their early stages. I would particularly like to thank Peter Kuch and Liam McIlvanney for pointing me towards valuable sources on Irish literature and economic history. The Central Library staff at the University of Otago have been extremely helpful with locating books and articles and untangling microforms. My friends and fellow postgraduate students have ensured that my travels towards completing this thesis have never been lonely. Sharon Matthews’ unflagging passion for research has inspired me, and she continues to remind me why we do what we do. I would also like to thank Ashley Cook for proof-reading and commenting on a draft of this thesis, and Poppy Haynes, Bethany Fox, Pene Muir and many others for their intellectual and emotional support along the road. v Contents Introduction....................................................................................................1 Perspectives on Goldsmith and the Outsider’s View .......................................1 Chapter One: Goldsmith and Mid-Century Literary Culture..........................15 Essayist and “True Critic” ..........................................................................................15 The Chinese Letters and the Public Ledger ..............................................................20 Authorship and Imposture in The Citizen of the World............................................26 From Paternoster Row to Parnassus ..........................................................................36 Chapter Two: “Trade’s Proud Empire Hastes to Swift Decay:” Commerce and Cultural Decline ...........................................................................................41 “A Comparative View of Nations” ...........................................................................41 East and West and the Anglo-Irish Writer ................................................................49 Liberty, Commerce and Patriotism ............................................................................55 Time Travel and the Attack on Luxury .....................................................................61 Chapter Three: “The Sad Historian:” Nostalgia and the Sympathetic Community ..................................................................................................68 The Social Role of the Language of Feeling.............................................................68 Night and Day: Goldsmith’s Moral Melancholy ......................................................74 Sentimentalising Decay ..............................................................................................78 Sympathy and the Cosmopolitan Citizen ..................................................................88 Conclusion ...................................................................................................94 The Restless Mind and the Bounded Circle...................................................94 Works Cited ...............................................................................................102 1 Introduction Perspectives on Goldsmith and the Outsider’s View At the close of his Preface to Oliver Goldsmith’s The Citizen of the World, the editor of these “letters from a Chinese Philosopher” turns to the matter of his own indeterminate station in life. “I belong,” he declares, to no particular class. I resemble one of those solitary animals, that has been forced from its forest to gratify human curiosity. My earliest wish was to escape unheeded through life; but I have been set up for half- pence, to fret and scamper at the end of my chain. Tho’ none are injured by my rage, I am naturally too savage to court any friends by fawning. Too obstinate to be taught new tricks; and too improvident to mind what may happen, I am appeased, though not contented. Too indolent for intrigue, and too timid to push for favour. I am—But what signifies what am I. (2.15)1 The editor has abandoned the mock scholarly tone in which he set out to introduce the philosopher’s correspondence. His complaint here seems so personal that it is ultimately futile, as the final exclamation suggests with its play of meanings around “what signifies.” What am I? he is asking; what constitutes a human self? More particularly, how is he to classify himself, socially and professionally? Oscillating between extremes—too this or too that—his parallel constructions express not balance but an inability to rest contented between the two. He can neither live with nor without the society of others. Solitary and savage by nature, he fails at the kind of scheming and self-promotion necessary to advance himself in London. Like a dancing bear, he is forced to waste his talents entertaining the public for a few coins, and can see no way of escaping or rising above his situation. “What signifies” what or who he is to an unappreciative audience? 1 References to Goldsmith’s prose are from Arthur Friedman’s five-volume Collected Works of Oliver Goldsmith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966), which is the standard edition. It should be noted, however, that both Richard C. Taylor and Peter Dixon question Friedman’s selection of anonymous pieces, and Taylor adds “with caution” twenty-nine further essays to Goldsmith’s journalistic canon (11; Dixon viii). To the extent to which this study draws upon their conclusions, I also accept their attributions. 2 The lone outsider, frequently a traveller or foreign observer, is a persona common to several of Goldsmith’s works. Besides the Chinese philosopher Lien Chi Altangi and his English
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