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The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith by Oliver Goldsmith The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith by Oliver Goldsmith Prepared by Amy E Zelmer THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH 'EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES' BY AUSTIN DOBSON HON. LL.D. EDIN. PREFATORY NOTE page 1 / 421 THIS volume is a reprint, extended and revised, of the 'Selected Poems' of Goldsmith issued by the Clarendon Press in 1887. It is 'extended,' because it now contains the whole of Goldsmith's poetry: it is 'revised' because, besides the supplementary text, a good deal has been added in the way of annotation and illustration. In other words, the book has been substantially enlarged. Of the new editorial material, the bulk has been collected at odd times during the last twenty years; but fresh Goldsmith facts are growing rare. I hope I have acknowledged obligation wherever it has been incurred; I trust also, for the sake of those who come after me, that something of my own will be found to have been contributed to the literature of the subject. AUSTIN DOBSON. CONTENTS Introduction Chronology of Goldsmith's Life and Poems POEMS The Traveller; or, A Prospect of Society The Deserted Village Prologue of Laberius On a Beautiful Youth struck Blind with Lightning The Gift. To Iris, in Bow Street The Logicians Refuted page 2 / 421 A Sonnet Stanzas on the Taking of Quebec An Elegy on Mrs. Mary Blaize Description of an Author's Bedchamber On seeing Mrs. *** perform in the Character of **** On the Death of the Right Hon.*** An Epigram. Addressed to the Gentlemen reflected on in 'The Rosciad', a Poem, by the Author To G. C. and R. L Translation of a South American Ode The Double Transformation. A Tale A New Simile, in the Manner of Swift Edwin and Angelina Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog Song ('When Lovely Woman,' &c.) Epilogue to 'The Good Natur'd Man' Epilogue to 'The Sister' Prologue to 'Zobeide' Threnodia Augustalis: Sacred to the Memory of Her Late Royal Highness the Princess Dowager of Wales Song ('Let School-masters,' &c.) Epilogue to 'She Stoops to Conquer' Retaliation Song ('Ah, me! when shall I marry me?') Translation ('Chaste are their instincts') The Haunch of Venison Epitaph on Thomas Parnell page 3 / 421 The Clown's Reply Epitaph on Edward Purdon Epilogue for Lee Lewes Epilogue written for 'She Stoops to Conquer' (1) Epilogue written for 'She Stoops to Conquer' (2) The Captivity. An Oratorio Verses in Reply to an Invitation to Dinner Letter in Prose and Verse to Mrs. Bunbury Vida's Game of Chess NOTES Introduction to the Notes Editions of the Poems The Traveller The Deserted Village Prologue of Laberius On a Beautiful Youth struck Blind with Lightning The Gift The Logicians Refuted A Sonnet Stanzas on the Taking of Quebec An Elegy on Mrs. Mary Blaize Description of an Author's Bedchamber On seeing Mrs. *** perform in the Character of **** On the Death of the Right Hon.*** An Epigram page 4 / 421 To G. C. and R. L. Translation of a South American Ode The Double Transformation A New Simile Edwin and Angelina Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog Song (from 'The Vicar of Wakefield') Epilogue ('The Good Natur'd Man') Epilogue ('The Sister') Prologue ('Zobeide') Threnodia Augustalis Song (from 'She Stoops to Conquer') Epilogue ('She Stoops to Conquer') Retaliation Song intended for 'She Stoops to Conquer' Translation The Haunch of Venison Epitaph on Thomas Parnell The Clown's Reply Epitaph on Edward Purdon Epilogue for Lee Lewes's Benefit Epilogue ('She Stoops to Conquer') (1) Epilogue ('She Stoops to Conquer') (2) The Captivity Verses in Reply to an Invitation to Dinner Letter in Prose and Verse to Mrs. Bunbury Vida's Game of Chess page 5 / 421 APPENDIXES Portraits of Goldsmith Descriptions of Newell's Views of Lissoy, &c The Epithet 'Sentimental' Fragments of Translations, &c., by Goldsmith Goldsmith on Poetry under Anne and George the First Criticisms from Goldsmith's 'Beauties of English Poesy' LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS OLIVER GOLDSMITH. From Joseph Marchi's mezzotint of 1770 after the portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Frontispiece. PANE OF GLASS with Goldsmith's autograph signature, dated March, 1746, now at Trinity College, Dublin. To face p. xi VIGNETTE TO THE TRAVELLER. Drawn by Samuel Wale, and engraved by Charles Grignion . To face p. 3 HEADPIECE TO THE TRAVELLER. Engraved on wood by Charlton Nesbit for Bulmer's 'Poems of Goldsmith and Parnell', 1795 . p. 5 THE TRAVELLER. From a design by Richard Westall, R. A., engraved on wood by Thomas Bewick for Bulmer's 'Poems of Goldsmith and Parnell', 1795 . To face p. 8 VIGNETTE TO THE DESERTED VILLAGE, 1770. Drawn and page 6 / 421 engraved by Isaac Taylor . To face p. 21 HEADPIECE TO THE DESERTED VILLAGE. Engraved on wood by Charlton Nesbit for Bulmer's 'Poems of Goldsmith and Parnell', 1795 . p. 23 THE WATER-CRESS GATHERER. Drawn and engraved on wood by John Bewick for Bulmer's 'Poems of Goldsmith and Parnell', 1795 . To face p. 27 THE DEPARTURE. Drawn by Robert Johnson, and engraved on wood by Thomas Bewick for Bulmer's 'Poems of Goldsmith and Parnell', 1795 . To face p. 35 EDWIN AND ANGELINA. From an original washed drawing made by Thomas Stothard, R.A., for Aikin's 'Goldsmith's Poetical Works', 1805 . To face p. 59 PORTRAIT OF GOLDSMITH, after Sir Joshua Reynolds. From an etching by James Basire on the title-page of 'Retaliation', 1774 . To face p. 87 SONG FROM THE CAPTIVITY. Facsimile of Goldsmith's writing and signature, from Prior's 'Life of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.', 1837, ii, frontispiece. To face p. 119 GREEN ARBOUR COURT, OLD BAILEY. From an engraving in the 'European Magazine' for January, 1803. To face p. 160 KILKENNY WEST CHURCH. From an aquatint by S. Alken of a sketch by R. H. Newell ('Goldsmith's Poetical Works', 1811). To face p. 179 HAWTHORN TREE. From the same . To face p. 180 SOUTH VIEW FROM GOLDSMITH'S MOUNT. From the same . To face p. 183 THE SCHOOL HOUSE. From the same . To face p. 187 PORTRAIT OF GOLDSMITH. Drawn by Henry William Bunbury page 7 / 421 and etched by James Bretherton. From the 'Haunch of Venison', 1776. To face p. 259 PORTRAIT OF GOLDSMITH. From a silhouette by Ozias Humphry, R.A., in the National Portrait Gallery. To face p. 261 LISSOY (OR LISHOY) MILL. From an aquatint by S. Alken of a sketch by R. H. Newell ('Goldsmith's Poetical Works', 1811) . To face p. 262 THE PARSONAGE. From the same . To face p. 264 INTRODUCTION Two of the earlier, and, in some respects, more important 'Memoirs' of Oliver Goldsmith open with a quotation from one of his minor works, in which he refers to the generally uneventful life of the scholar. His own chequered career was a notable exception to this rule. He was born on the 10th of November, 1728, at Pallas, a village in the county of Longford in Ireland, his father, the Rev. Charles Goldsmith, being a clergyman of the Established Church. Oliver was the fifth of a family of five sons and three daughters. In 1730, his father, who had been assisting the rector of the neighbouring parish of Kilkenny West, succeeded to that living, and moved to Lissoy, a hamlet in Westmeath, lying a little to the right of the road from Ballymahon to Athlone. Educated first by a humble relative named Elizabeth Delap, the boy passed subsequently to the care of Thomas Byrne, the village schoolmaster, an old soldier who had fought Queen Anne's battles in Spain, and had retained from those experiences a wandering and unsettled spirit, which he is thought to have communicated to one at least of his page 8 / 421 pupils. After an attack of confluent small-pox, which scarred him for life, Oliver was transferred from the care of this not-uncongenial preceptor to a school at Elphin. From Elphin he passed to Athlone; from Athlone to Edgeworthstown, where he remained until he was thirteen or fourteen years of age. The accounts of these early days are contradictory. By his schoolfellows he seems to have been regarded as stupid and heavy,--'little better than a fool'; but they admitted that he was remarkably active and athletic, and that he was an adept in all boyish sports. At home, notwithstanding a variable disposition, and occasional fits of depression, he showed to greater advantage. He scribbled verses early; and sometimes startled those about him by unexpected 'swallow-flights' of repartee. One of these, an oft-quoted retort to a musical friend who had likened his awkward antics in a hornpipe to the dancing of Aesop,-- Heralds! proclaim aloud! all saying, See 'Aesop' dancing, and his 'monkey' playing,-- reads more like a happily-adapted recollection than the actual impromptu of a boy of nine. But another, in which, after a painful silence, he replied to the brutal enquiry of a ne'er-do-well relative as to when he meant to grow handsome, by saying that he would do so when the speaker grew good,--is characteristic of the easily-wounded spirit and 'exquisite sensibility of contempt' with which he was to enter upon the battle of life. page 9 / 421 In June, 1744, after anticipating in his own person, the plot of his later play of 'She Stoops to Conquer' by mistaking the house of a gentleman at Ardagh for an inn, he was sent to Trinity College, Dublin. The special dress and semi-menial footing of a sizar or poor scholar--for his father, impoverished by the imprudent portioning of his eldest daughter, could not afford to make him a pensioner--were scarcely calculated to modify his personal peculiarities.
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