Goldsmith Interviews and Recollections GOLDSMITH Interviews and Recollections Edited by E. H. MIKHAIL University of Lethbridge Alberta, Canada lSOth YEAR M St. Martin's Press Selection and editorial matter© E. H. Mikhail1993 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1993 978-0-333-45614-9 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published in Great Britain 1993 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world This book is published in Macmillan's lnteroiews and Recollections series A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-349-23095-2 ISBN 978-1-349-23093-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-23093-8 First published in the United States of America 1993 by Scholarly and Reference Division, ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-10193-0 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Goldsmith : interviews and recollections I edited by E. H. Mikhail. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-10193-0 1. Goldsmith, Oliver, 1728-1774-lnterviews. 2. Goldsmith, Oliver, 1728-1774-Friends and associates. 3. Authors, Irish-18th century-Biography. I. Mikhail, E. H. PR3493.G55 1993 828' .609-dc20 [B] 93-13921 CIP Contents Acknowledgements vii Introduction viii A Note on the Text xiii Chronological Table xiv INTERVIEWS AND RECOLLECTIONS Oliver Goldsmith Robert Anderson 1 Mrs Hodson's Narrative Catherine Hodson 10 Continued Struggle John Watkinson 19 Goldsmith and William Hester Milner 20 Goldsmith and Religion John Evans 23 Goldsmith Visits Me Dr Farr 24 Worldly Wisdom Oliver Goldsmith 25 Goldsmith's Singularities and Merits Sir John Hawkins 30 In Great Distress Samuel Johnson 34 Goldsmith and Johnson Arthur Murphy 35 Goldsmith and Newbery Charles Welsh 36 Kill Only Your Enemies Mrs Gwyn 38 An Encounter with Goldsmith James Boswell 39 Goldsmith's Character John Taylor 41 Goldsmith at the Temple Robert Day 43 A Famous Dinner James Boswell 46 Write Often Oliver Goldsmith 47 His Good Nature M'Veagh M'Donneli 49 For God's Sake Take the Play Oliver Goldsmith 51 Goldsmith's Envy James Beattie 52 Goldsmith in the Literary Club Hester Lynch (Thrale) Piozzi 53 The Character of Goldsmith Richard Cumberland 56 Goldsmith as a Dramatist and a Person Samuel Foote 62 Goldsmith and David Garrick Thomas Davies 64 Goldsmith and Percy Alice C. C. Gaussen 74 She Stoops to Conquer Alice C. C. Gaussen 84 Dr Goldsmith Joseph Cradock 88 V vi CONTENTS Goldsmith's Writing Career Edmond Malone 98 An Account of the Late Dr Goldsmith's Illness William Hawes 102 A Tribute to Goldsmith as a Poet John Tait 106 An Ingenious Writer Edmund Burke 110 Goldsmith W. M. Thackeray 111 The Personality of Goldsmith Richard Brinsley Sheridan Knowles 123 Memoir William Spalding 128 Portrait of Goldsmith Sir Joshua Reynolds 145 The Eccentric Poet James Northcote 152 Reynolds's Affection for Goldsmith Charles Robert Leslie and Tom Taylor 158 Oliver Goldsmith John Watkins 161 Memoir of Goldsmith David Masson 167 Goldsmith and His First Biography Alice C. C. Gaussen 187 Memorandum Oliver Goldsmith 192 Dr Goldsmith's Character Thomas Percy 195 The Character of Goldsmith James Boswell 207 He Had Many Good Qualities Mary Hamilton 208 Goldsmith's Benevolence George Colman, the Younger 210 Bibliography 212 Index 219 Acknowledgements My gratitude is due to the following for assistance, support, encour­ agement, information, editorial material or notification of certain items that appear in this book: Ms Lorraine Bailes, Mr Robert Chapman, Ms Rosemary Howard, Mr Keith Jarvis, Dr David Latham, Mr Robert Nicholson, Mr Ralph Payne, Mr Kenneth Robinson and Dr Brent Shaw. The book has benefited greatly from comments and suggestions made by Dr Richard Arnold. I am greatly indebted to ¥s Cindy Cole for research assistance, and to Ms Bea Ramtej for her kindness and patience in the final preparation of the manuscript. Several publications have been of immense help to me, particu­ larly: G. S. Rousseau (ed.) Goldsmith: The Critical Heritage (London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974); and Samuel H. Woods, Jr, Oliver Goldsmith: A Reference Guide (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1982). Thanks are due to the University of Lethbridge for granting me a sabbatical leave, without which this book could not have come into existence. It is also a pleasant duty to record my appreciation to the staff of the University of Lethbridge Library; the National Library of Ireland; Trinity College Dublin Library; the British Library; the News­ paper Library, Colindale; and the New York Public Library. E. H. MIKHAIL vii Introduction 'Oliver Goldsmith was a man who, whatever he wrote, did it better than any other man could do', said Dr Samuel Johnson. This, indeed, is the sentiment which he subsequently translated into Latin for the famous epitaph in Westminster Abbey, and which, translated back into English, comes out as: 'He left scarcely any style of writing untouched and touched nothing that he did not adorn.' Goldsmith was pronounced the greatest poet of his time by Sir Walter Scott; 'the most beloved of English writers' by Thackeray; and the 'author-of the best novel of the eighteenth century' by Goethe. A host of others - including Schiller and Byron - gave their assent to these critical judgements, which have been affirmed by posterity. Goldsmith's reputation has stood the test of time, and his cumulative achieve­ ments in the novel, poetry, drama, criticism, the essay, biography, and history entitle him to be honoured as the most versatile genius of all English literature. Goldsmith has not only exhibited great variety, but has earned the unusual distinction of being equally admired in prose, in poetry, and in drama. In each of these categories of literature, so rarely united in a high degree of merit in the same writer, Goldsmith attained eminence. As a prose writer, he combined - with the graces of a style that charms by its elegance, its simplicity, and its purity - sentiments refined without false delicacy, pathos that was never overwrought, and humour that was never forced; a moralist without hypocrisy, a teacher without pedantry, a reformer without intoler­ ance, and a satirist without bitterness. His prose carried on the manner of Addison and Swift. As a poet, he enjoys a higher place still - perhaps the highest in that class which one might almost say he had created in England. In power of description, whether it be the delineation of nature or of humanity, Goldsmith is a master; his paintings are all portraits - true, vigorous, characteristic, and fin­ ished. There is no poet who holds a wider or a firmer grasp of the sympathies, the affections, and the intellect of every class of readers. No eighteenth-century poem, except Gray's Elegy, meant so much to mankind as The Traveller and The Deserted Village, both of which viii INTRODUCTION ix scored signal and instantaneous popularity, and which led many to pronounce Goldsmith the leading poet of his time. It must be admit­ ted that, as a dramatist, he produced one of the most successful comedies of his day, abounding in happy strokes of wit, sprightly dialogue, admirable delineation of character, and humour that is never gross. She Stoops to Conquer still holds the stage after two centuries; in that era no one other than Sheridan can claim as much. Yet still we have not taken into account Goldsmith's essays that were and still remain the delight of every household; his biographies which are fascinating in diction, purity, and simplicity of style; or his natural history that was the most delightful and instructive in the English language up to his day. No master has been less adequately assessed. It is a remarkable circumstance that the greatest genius of his age, who as a writer was equalled historically only by Voltaire, should have been overlooked by his contemporaries and allowed to depend on the sympathy and love of an after-generation for the perpetuation of his memory. He had no Boswell, and references by his contemporaries are rarely dated. The place of his birth has been disputed: four Irish counties claim him as their own. Even Dr Johnson, in the celebrated epitaph in Westminster Abbey, places the year of Goldsmith's birth as 1731 when it was actually 1728, and names Elphin as his birthplace, whereas it was Pallas. Goldsmith did not have a biographer until fifty years after his death, when Sir James Prior, his countryman and admirer, favoured the world with his first full-length life of Gold­ smith,I the material of which was gleaned from many obscure and imperfect sources. Amid the various reprints and editions of Gold­ smith's works which appeared in the first twenty-five years after his death, most curious is the absence of any serious biography. Glover's Life of Goldsmith was not a Life,2 but a selection of anecdotes and extracts. Percy, who had undertaken to write a biography, seems to have felt that the notes he had collected hardly sufficed for such a work. He handed over the task to Dr Johnson, who produced nothing.3 It was not until 1801 that Percy published his Life as a preface to an edition of the Miscellaneous Works.