(1730-74). By the time Oliver Goldsmith was 30 years old, his carelessness and love of fun had brought failure in everything he had tried. Finally he became a hack writer, turning out books and articles on all sorts of subjects for London booksellers. He took time, however, to work slowly and carefully on a few pieces that brought him lasting fame. They were a novel, `The Vicar of Wakefield'; a play, `She Stoops to Conquer'; and a long poem, `The Deserted Village'.

Oliver Goldsmith was born in the Irish village of Pallas, near Glasson on Nov. 10, 1730. His father was a poor Anglican clergyman. The fifth of eight children, he was awkward and slight, and an early attack of smallpox which left him pitifully marked for life. All of his life, Goldsmith suffered from a desperate lack of self-confidence, especially among people of eminence or fashion, although he could be robustly, prankishly happy in the tippling, ballad-singing company of tavern jokers.

When Goldsmith was not quite 16 years old, he entered Trinity College, Dublin. However Goldsmith's sister having become engaged to a rich man's son, the father made it a point of honour to provide her with a substantial dowry. In doing so he exhausted the family fortunes. The result was that Goldsmith had to attend Trinity as a sizar, that is, as one who gets free lodging and the scraps of the commons kitchen; in return for this, he does menial chores. He must also wear a distinctive garb to indicate his inferior status. Nevertheless, he managed to scrape earn a Bachelor of Arts degree by 1749.

Then Goldsmith studied theology, law, and medicine in turn for a year or two each; but he preferred fishing and flute playing to books. He travelled for a year in Europe, and then settled in London. He claimed to be a physician with a degree from a foreign university, and people called him "doctor." Nobody came for treatment, however, so he turned to writing.

Goldsmith's essays `The Citizen of the World', published in 1762, won the attention of Samuel Johnson, then England's leading man of letters. Johnson included Goldsmith in his circle of friends. Writing brought Goldsmith a fair income, but he was perpetually in debt. He died on April 4, 1774, after trying to cure himself of a fever.

Oliver's father, Rev. Charles Goldsmith, was appointed to the curacy Forgney Church in 1718. As Forgney had no rectory the family rented land at Pallas six miles east of Auburn and just north of Glasson. In 1730 when Oliver was two years his father was appointed to Kilkenny West. The family moved to the Parsonage of Lissoy where they remained until the death of Charles Goldsmith in 1747

Sweet Auburn

Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain
Where health and plenty cheered the labouring swain,
Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid,
And parting summer's lingering blooms delayed:
Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease,
Seats of my youth, when every sport could please,
How often have I loitered o'er thy green,
Where humble happiness endeared each scene!
How often have I paused on every charm,
The sheltered cot, the cultivated farm,
The never-failing brook, the busy mill,
The decent church that topt the neighbouring hill,
The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade,
For talking age and whispering lovers made!
The 'busy mill' of Goldsmith's day was no sophisticated mill but a humble miller's cottage with a small corn-mill powered by an overshot wheel. The mill survived in use until about 1860. Today little remains but 'The never failing brook' itself and a ruinous building. Local tradition claims that the old mill stone from this mill is, in fact, the stone used as the threshold of the moden Three Jolly Pigeons pub. Goldsmith's first shoolmaster made a lasting impression on him. He was Thomas Byrne, an old soldier, a retired quartermaster from one of the Irish regiments. Nothing remains except the site.

Major Works
The Citizen of the World ( 1760-61 ). Goldsmith puts criticism of English manners and mores into the letters written by a fictional Chinese gentleman, Lien Chi Altangi. This work shows the influence of Montesquieu's Persian Letters. One may well wonder where Goldy got the name Altangi.
The Traveler ( 1764 ). The traveler-narrator fails to find happiness abroad and concludes that it is to be found in one's own mind: " Our own felicity we make or find. "
The Vicar of Wakefield ( 1766 ).
The Deserted Village ( 1770 ). Nostalgic poem about the passing of a simpler, happier, rural past.
The Life of Richard Nash ( 1762 ). Beau Nash, Master of Ceremonies at Bath, was an institution in Eighteenth Century England.
She Stoops to Conquer ( 1773 ).


Collected Letters. Edited by Katherine C. Balderston. Cambridge, 1928.

About Goldsmith
Ralph M. Wardle, Oliver Goldsmith. Kansas, 1957.

Chronology

c.1730: born, son of an Irish clergyman
1744: entered Trinity College, Dublin
1747: ran away to Cork, perhaps with intention to sail to America
1749: graduated with BA from TCD
1752: to Edinburgh, Scotland, to study medicine
1755-6: visited France, Switzerland, Italy
1756: returned to London; was physician at Southwark
1762: Citizen of the World ("Chinese Letters") published
1764: The Traveller (poem); Lord Clare became his patron
1766: The Vicar of Wakefield sold for him by Dr Johnson
1768: Goodnatured Man produced at Covent Garden
1769: History of Rome
1770: lives of Thomas Parnell, Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke published
1770: The Deserted Village
1771: an English history published
1773: She Stoops to Conquer at Covent Garden
1774: The Retaliation; The History of Greece; A history of the earth and animated nature
1774: died

The Village Schoolmaster 

Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way
With blossom'd furze unprofitably gay,
There, in his mansion ,skill'd to rule,
The village master taught his little school; 
A man severe he was , and stern to view,
I knew him well , and every truant knew;
Well had the boding tremblers learn'd to trace
The days disasters in his morning face ;
Full well they laugh'd with counterfeited glee,
At all his jokes, for many a joke had he :
Full well the busy whisper, circling round,
Convey'd the dismal tidings when he frown'd :
Yet he was kind ; or if severe in aught,
The love he bore to learning was in fault.
The village all declar'd how much he knew ;
'Twas certain he could write, and cipher too :
Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage,
And e'en the story ran that he could gauge.
In arguing. too, the person own'd his skill,
For e'en though vanquish'd he could argue still ;
While words of learned length and thund'ring sound
Amazed the gazing rustics rang'd around ;
And still they gaz'd and still the wonder grew,
That one small head could carry all he knew.
But past is all his fame.  The very spot
Where many a time he triumph'd is forgot.

Every Year during the whit bank holiday weekend ( the first weedend in June) a number of lectures, readings, and social night outs are arranged.

 

Contact
John O'Donnell
Rathmore,
Ballymahon,
Co.Longford
Ireland

Phone +353-902-32374
Email: linesend@iol.ie