Oliver Goldsmith

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Goldsmith's birth date and year are not known with certainty. According to the Library of Congress authority file, he told a biographer that he was born on 10 November 1728. The location of his birthplace is also uncertain. He was born either in the townland of Pallas, near Ballymahon, County Longford, Ireland, where his father was the Anglican curate of the parish of Forgney, or at the residence of his maternal grandparents, at the Smith Hill House near Elphin in County Roscommon, where his grandfather Oliver Jones was a clergyman and master of the Elphin diocesan school, and where Oliver studied.{{cite web|url=http://www.sligogrammarschool.org/historyschool.htm|title=History|website=Sligo Grammar School}} File:Goldsmith's House, Auburn, Kilkenny, 1834 (IA jstor-30004366) (page 1 crop).jpg, 1834]]When Goldsmith was two years old, his father was appointed the rector of the parish of "Kilkenny West" in County Westmeath. The family moved to the parsonage at Lissoy, between Athlone and Ballymahon, and continued to live there until his father's death in 1747.

In 1744, Goldsmith went up to Trinity College, Dublin. His tutor was Theaker Wilder. Neglecting his studies in theology and law, he fell to the bottom of his class. In 1747, along with four other undergraduates, he was expelled for a riot in which they attempted to storm the Marshalsea Prison.{{cite book|last=Craig|first=Maurice|title=Dublin 1650–1860|year=1952|publisher=Allen Figgis & Co. Ltd.|page=184}} He was graduated in 1749 as a Bachelor of Arts, but without the discipline or distinction that might have gained him entry to a profession in the church or the law. His education seemed to have given him mainly a taste for fine clothes, cards, singing Irish airs, and playing the flute. He lived for a short time with his mother, tried various professions without success, studied medicine desultorily at the University of Edinburgh from 1752 to 1755, and set out on a walking tour of Flanders, France, Switzerland, and Northern Italy, living by his wits (busking with his flute).

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He settled in London in 1756, where he briefly held various jobs, including an apothecary's assistant and an usher of a school. Perennially in debt and addicted to gambling, Goldsmith produced a massive output as a hack writer on Grub Street{{cite web|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/brothers-of-the-quill-oliver-goldsmith-in-grub-street-by-norma-clarke-review-1.2629400|title=Brothers of the Quill: Oliver Goldsmith in Grub Street by Norma Clarke review|website=irishtimes.com|access-date=25 March 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/feb/11/brothers-of-the-quill-oliver-goldsmith-in-grub-street-norma-clarke-review|title=Brothers of the Quill: Oliver Goldsmith in Grub Street by Norma Clarke – review|first=John|last=Mullan|date=11 February 2017|website=The Guardian|access-date=25 March 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/05/oliver-goldsmith-the-most-fascinating-bore-in-literature/|title=Oliver Goldsmith: the most fascinating bore in literature |publisher= The Spectator|date=7 May 2016|website=spectator.co.uk|access-date=25 March 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://www.tcd.ie/trinitywriters/writers/oliver-goldsmith/|title=Oliver Goldsmith |first=Trinity Writers, Trinity College|last=Dublin|website=www.tcd.ie|access-date=25 March 2018}} for the publishers of London, but his few painstaking works earned him the company of Samuel Johnson, with whom he was a founding member of "The Club". There, through fellow Club member Edmund Burke, he made the acquaintance of Sir George Savile, who would later arrange a job for him at Thornhill Grammar School in Yorkshire. The combination of his literary work and his dissolute lifestyle led Horace Walpole to give him the epithet "inspired idiot". During this period he used the pseudonym "James Willington" (the name of a fellow student at Trinity) to publish his 1758 translation of the autobiography of the Huguenot Jean Marteilhe.

{{see also|The Good-Natur'd Man|The Traveller (poem)}}

In 1760 Goldsmith began to publish a series of letters in the Public Ledger under the title The Citizen of the World which brought him fame.{{cite book |last=De Breffny |first=Brian |author-link= |date=1983 |title=Ireland: A Cultural Encyclopedia |url= |location=London |publisher=Thames and Hudson |page=99 |isbn=}} Purportedly written by a Chinese traveller in England by the name of Lien Chi, they used this fictional outsider's perspective to comment ironically and at times moralistically on British society and manners. It was inspired by the earlier essay series Persian Letters by Montesquieu.

Goldsmith wrote this 160-line romantic ballad in 1765. The hero and heroine are Edwin, a youth without wealth or power, and Angelina, the daughter of a lord "beside the Tyne". Angelina spurns many wooers, but refuses to make plain her love for young Edwin. "Quite dejected with my scorn", Edwin disappears and becomes a hermit. One day, Angelina turns up at his cell in boy's clothes and, not recognising him, tells him her story. Edwin then reveals his true identity, and the lovers never part again. The poem is notable for its interesting portrayal of a hermit, who is fond of the natural world and his wilderness solitude but maintains a gentle, sympathetic demeanour toward other people. In keeping with eremitical tradition, however, Edwin the Hermit claims to "spurn the [opposite] sex". This poem appears under the title of "A Ballad" sung by the character of Mr. Burchell in Chapter 8 of Goldsmith's novel, The Vicar of Wakefield.Dyachok, Tatyana (2012). Oliver Goldsmith's works in the sociocultural context of the Enlightenment. Master's dissertation, Belarusian State University. pp. 341–342

{{main|The Vicar of Wakefield}}

This classic novel, published in 1766, tells the story of a devout and benevolent vicar, Charles Primrose, and his family who are reduced to poverty and prison. Dr. Primrose serves as the narrator. The novel includes an aristocratic villain, impersonation, abduction, and betrayal while exploring themes of faith, humility, social class, and the importance of family and community.

{{main|The Deserted Village}}

In the 1760s Goldsmith witnessed the demolition of an ancient village and the destruction of its farms to clear land to become a wealthy man's garden. His poem The Deserted Village, published in 1770, expresses a fear that the destruction of villages and the conversion of land from productive agriculture to ornamental landscape gardens would ruin the peasantry.

{{main|She Stoops to Conquer}}

The satirical play, "She Stoops to Conquer", was first performed in 1773.

It is a story of love, mistaken identities, and social etiquette, known for its wit, class-based satire, and enduring characters. It is still regularly performed and has been adapted for film and television.

• Account of the Augustan Age in England (1759)
• The Life of Richard Nash (Beau Nash) (1762)
• The History of England, from the Earliest Times to the Death of George II in 4 volumes (1771)
• Dr. Goldsmith's Roman History Abridged by Himself for the Use of Schools (1772){{citation |last=Goldsmith |first=Oliver |title=Dr. Goldsmith's Roman History Abridged by Himself for the Use of Schools |date=1772 |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/004897190.0001.000?view=toc |location=London |publisher=S. Baker & al. |display-authors=0 |author-link=Oliver Goldsmith}}
• An History of the Earth and Animated Nature in 8 volumes (1774){{Cite web| title = Scientist of the Day: Oliver Goldsmith| work = The Linda Hall Library| access-date = 2025-03-23| url = https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/oliver-goldsmith/}}
• The Comic Romance of Monsieur Scarron in 2 vols., published posthumously (1775). Translation from the French of Le Roman Comique (1651-57), by Paul Scarron
• The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith (1887), edited by Austin Dobson
• The Poems and Plays of Oliver Goldsmith (Frederick Warne and Co., 1889)
• The Grumbler: An Adaptation (1931), edited by Alice I. Perry Wood{{Cite web |title=Oliver Goldsmith – British and Irish Literature – Oxford Bibliographies – obo |url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199846719/obo-9780199846719-0026.xml |access-date=2019-12-12 |website=www.oxfordbibliographies.com |language=en}}

Goldsmith has sometimes been credited with writing the classic children's tale The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes, though this cannot be proved.{{cite web |author= |date=n.d. |title=The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes |url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-history-of-little-goody-two-shoes |access-date=11 April 2023 |website=The British Library}}

In his Life, Washington Irving states that Goldsmith was between 5'4" and 5'6" in height, not heavily built but quite muscular and with rather plain features. In character, he had a lively sense of fun, was totally guileless, and never happier than when in the light-hearted company of children. The money that he sporadically earned was often frittered away or happily given away to the next good cause that presented itself so that any financial security tended to be fleeting and short-lived. Goldsmith's talents were unreservedly recognised by Samuel Johnson, whose patronage – somewhat resented by Boswell – aided his eventual recognition in the literary world and the world of drama.

Goldsmith was described by contemporaries as prone to envy, a congenial but impetuous and disorganised personality who once planned to emigrate to America but failed because he missed his ship. At some point around this time, he worked at Thornhill Grammar School, later basing Squire Thornhill (in The Vicar of Wakefield) on his benefactor Sir George Savile and certainly spending time with eminent scientist Rev. John Mitchell, whom he probably knew from London. Mitchell sorely missed good company, which Goldsmith naturally provided in spades. Thomas De Quincey wrote of him "All the motion of Goldsmith's nature moved in the direction of the true, the natural, the sweet, the gentle".De Quincey Writings (ed) James Thomas Fields 1850–1855

Later researchers have speculated that Goldsmith may have suffered from colour blindness, a condition which was not described until years after Goldsmith's death. Munro MacLennan described several instances from Goldsmith's life which suggest that he had an inability to distinguish between certain colours.{{cite thesis |last=MacLennan |first=J. Munro |date=1951 |title=Was Oliver Goldsmith Colour-Blind? |url=https://ruor.uottawa.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/49b287b7-d7a7-4db4-9983-e54004e65ed0/content |degree=PhD |chapter= |publisher=University of Ottawa |docket= |oclc= |access-date=May 10, 2024}}{{cite book |last1=MacLennan |first1=Munro |title=The secret of Oliver Goldsmith |date=1975 |publisher=Vantage Press |isbn=978-0-533-01582-5}}

Goldsmith was an Anglican,{{Cite web |date=3 April 2012 |title=After Rowan: The Coherence and Future of Anglicanism |url=http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/04/04/3470498.htm |website=Australian Broadcasting Corporation}} and famously said "as I take my shoes from the shoemaker, and my coat from the taylor, so I take my religion from the priest".{{Cite web |title=The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page: Quotes on Oliver Goldsmith |url=http://www.samueljohnson.com/goldsmith.html}}

Thomas Hurst wrote that Goldsmith "recognised with joy the existence and perfections of a Deity. For the Christian revelation also, he was always understood to have a profound respect – knowing that it was the source of our best hopes and noblest expectations."{{Cite book |last1=Evans |first1=John |title=Goldsmith |year=1993 |isbn=978-1-349-23095-2 |page=23 |chapter=Goldsmith and Religion |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-23093-8_5}}File:Plaque To Oliver Goldsmith.JPG in London, where he was buried.]]

Goldsmith's premature death in 1774 may have been partly due to his own misdiagnosis of a kidney infection. He was buried in Temple Church in London. The inscription reads; "HERE LIES/OLIVER GOLDSMITH". A monument was originally raised for him at the site of his burial, but it was destroyed in an air raid in 1941. A monument to him survives in the centre of Ballymahon, also in Westminster Abbey with an epitaph written by Samuel Johnson.

"Oliver Goldsmith: A Poet, Naturalist, and Historian, who left scarcely any style of writing untouched, and touched nothing that he did not adorn. Of all the passions, whether smiles were to move or tears, a powerful yet gentle master. In genius, vivid, versatile, sublime. In style, clear, elevated, elegant."'' Epitaph written by Dr. Johnson, translated from the original Latin.

Among his papers was found the prospectus of an encyclopedia, to be called the Universal dictionary of the arts and sciences. He wished this to be the British equivalent of the Encyclopédie and it was to include comprehensive articles by Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir William Jones, Fox and Dr. Burney. The project, however, was not realised due to Goldsmith's death.Collison Robert Lewis. Encyclopaedias: their history throughout the ages; a bibliographical guide with extensive historical notes to the general encyclopaedias issued throughout the world from 350 B.C. to the present day. New York, Hafner, 1966 p. 109

File:Goldsmith.jpg]]

• Goldsmith lived in Kingsbury, now in north-west London, between 1771 and 1774: Oliver Goldsmith Primary School, Goldsmith Lane, and Goldsmith Avenue there are named after him.
• Goldsmith Road, the Oliver Goldsmith Estate and Oliver Goldsmith Primary School, all in Peckham, are named after him.[http://www.olivergoldsmith.southwark.sch.uk/about-us/school-history/ Oliver Goldsmith Primary School website].
• The Oliver Goldsmith Summer School is held every June Bank Holiday at Ballymahon with poetry and creative readings being held at Goldsmith's birthplace in nearby Pallas, Forgney.
• A statue of him by J. H. Foley stands at the Front Arch of Trinity College, Dublin (see image).
• A statue of him stands in a limestone cell at the ruin of his birthplace in Pallas, Forgney, Ballymahon, County Longford. The statue is a copy of the Foley statue that stands outside Trinity College, Dublin and is the focus point of the annual Oliver Goldsmith Summer School.
• There is a statue in Ballymahon County Longford outside the town library by Irish Sculptor Éamonn O'Doherty (1939–2011) which was unveiled in 1999.
• His name has been given to a new lecture theatre and student accommodation on the Trinity College campus: Goldsmith Hall.
• Auburn, Alabama, and Auburn University were named for the fictional town of Auburn from his poem The Deserted Village referred to in the first line: "Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain." Auburn is still referred to as the 'loveliest village on the plain.'
• Auburn in Sydney, Australia was also named for "Sweet Auburn".
• Auburn Hill in Stoneybatter, Dublin is also named after the fictional town of Auburn.

• London Underground locomotive number 16 (used on the Metropolitan line of the London Underground until 1962) was named Oliver Goldsmith.
• Athlone Institute of Technology library is named the Goldsmith Library
• In 1870, Goldsmith Street in Phibsborough was renamed after Oliver Goldsmith{{cite web |last=Christopher Teeling M 'Cready |date=25 March 1892 |title=Dublin Street Names, Dated and Explained … |url=https://archive.org/details/dublinstreetnam00cregoog |access-date=25 March 2018 |publisher=Hodges |via=Internet Archive}}
• Goldsmith Street in the 'Poets' Corner' area of Elwood, Melbourne is named after Oliver Goldsmith.{{Cite web |title=Walking Tours of Melbourne: Elwood Poetry Walk |url=http://melbournewalks.com.au/elwood-poetry-walk/}}

His life was dramatised in the 1940 Australian radio play A Citizen of the World.{{Citation | title=Wednesday, January 15 | journal=The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal | date=January 11, 1941|location=Sydney | publisher=Wireless Press | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-713148540 | id=nla.obj-713148540 | access-date=February 23, 2025 | via=Trove}}

Two characters in the 1951 comedy The Lavender Hill Mob quote the same line from Goldsmith's poem The Traveller – a subtle joke, because the film's plot involves the recasting of stolen gold.

During the opening credits of the Sky One adaptation of Sir Terry Pratchett's Christmas-like story "The Hogfather", a portrait of Goldsmith is shown as part of a hall of memorials to those "inhumed" by the "Ankh-Morpork Assassins' Guild".

In the 1925 novel The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham, the last words of the poem An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog, "The dog it was that died", are the dying words of bacteriologist Walter Fane, one of the primary characters in the novel. And using the title "Elegy for a Mad Dog" is an episode of Marcus Welby, M.D. (1971, Season 2, Episode 21).

The Tom Stoppard play The Dog It Was That Died takes its title from the same poem.

In the Nabokov novel Pale Fire, a central character's house is situated between "Goldsworth" (the name of an estate) and "Wordsmith University". Crossing these two names yields the names of the poets Wordsworth and Goldsmith; one of the narrators refers to this as the "witty exchange of syllables invoking the two masters of the heroic couplet."{{cite book |last1=Nabokov |first1=Vladimir |title=Pale Fire |publisher=Vintage International |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-679-72342-4 |edition=1st |page=82}}

In the play Marx in Soho by Howard Zinn, Marx makes a reference to Goldsmith's poem The Deserted Village.Marx in Soho, Howard Zinn 1999, South End Press

In The Waste Land, T. S. Eliot parodies Goldsmith's song When lovely woman stoops to folly.Eliot, T. S., Collected Poems 1909–1935, Faber 1936, p. 70.

The characters of 'Edwin' and 'Angelina' in Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial by Jury were a reference to Goldsmith's poem The Hermit.{{Cite book |last=Glinert |first=Ed |title=The Complete Gilbert and Sullivan |publisher=Penguin Classics |year=2006 |isbn=0-713-99860-1 |location=England |pages=779}}

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{{cite book |last=Rowley |first=Trevor |title=Villages in the Landscape |series=Archaeology in the Field Series |year=1978 |publisher=J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd |location=London |isbn=978-0-460-04166-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/villagesinlandsc0000rowl/page/132 132] |url=https://archive.org/details/villagesinlandsc0000rowl/page/132 }}

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• Austin Dobson, Henry (Editor) The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith, {{ISBN|1-58827-277-X}}
• Campbell, Gordon (ed.), Oliver Goldsmith (Everyman's Poetry Series), {{ISBN|0-460-87827-1}}
• Connellan, J.A., Oliver Goldsmith of Elphin, Published for the Goldsmith Society (1935)
• Forster, John, The life and times of Oliver Goldsmith, Published by: Ward, Lock and Co (London, New York, 1848)
• Goldsmith, Oliver, The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith (Edited by Michael Griffin and David O'Shaughnessy) {{ISBN|978-1107093539}}
• Goldsmith, Oliver, The Vicar of Wakefield, {{ISBN|0-19-283940-3}}
• Goldsmith, Oliver, She Stoops to Conquer, {{ISBN|0-486-26867-5}}
• Irving, Washington, Life of Oliver Goldsmith, {{ISBN|1-58963-236-2}}
• Prior, James, Life of Goldsmith, two volumes (London: John Murray, 1837) [https://archive.org/details/lifeolivergolds01priogoog at the Internet Archive]
• Rousseau, George (1974), Goldsmith: The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. {{ISBN|0-7100-7720-3}}

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{{Library resources box|viaf=100167171|onlinebooks=yes|by=yes}}

• [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/authors/pers00174.shtml Oliver Goldsmith] at the [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/ Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)]
• {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/oliver-goldsmith}}
• {{Gutenberg author | id=211 | name=Oliver Goldsmith}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Oliver Goldsmith}}
• {{Librivox author |id=1621}}
• [http://essays.quotidiana.org/goldsmith/ Essays by Oliver Goldsmith at Quotidiana.org]
• [http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/goldsmith The Deserted Village]
• [http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/tb1&CISOPTR=1865&CISOBOX=1&REC=4 UNCG American Publishers' Trade Bindings: The Deserted Village]
• [https://gutenberg.org/etext/7993 Oliver Goldsmith: A Biography] by Washington Irving from Project Gutenberg
• [https://gutenberg.org/etext/18917 Goldsmith] (English Men of Letters series) by William Black from Project Gutenberg
• [http://www.theatredatabase.com/18th_century/essay_on_the_theatre_001.html An Essay on the Theatre; or, A Comparison Between Laughing and Sentimental Comedy]
• [http://www.tcd.ie/Maps/goldsmith.html Goldsmith Hall] – student accommodation and lecture theatre, Trinity College, Dublin.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060623194101/http://www.glasson.com/sights/goldsmith.htm Information on Goldsmith]
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20061023020932/http://www.irelandliteratureguide.com/oliver_goldsmith.html Oliver Goldsmith Resource]}}
• http://www.olivergoldsmithfestival.com The Goldsmith International Literary Festival] Info on the Festival held annually in Goldsmith's Home County
• [https://archive.org/details/poemsandessays00collgoog Poems and essays, Oliver Goldsmith, 1839, (William Smith, London)]
• Editions of works by Oliver Goldsmith in the [https://www.tcd.ie/library/research-collections/named-collections/b.php#Bole Bole Collection] at the Library of Trinity College Dublin.

{{The Vicar of Wakefield}}

{{Irish poetry}}

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