00001.tif

PDF

Download

Open document

Transcript (if available)

Content THE RECEPTION OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S NON-DRAMATIC WORKS IN THE UNITED STATES: 1768-1900 by Daniel T. Mitchell A Dissertation Presented to the ’ FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA nv . , t In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (English) June 1958 UMI Number: DP23019 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI DP23019 Published by ProQuest LLC (2014). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Dissertation Publishing Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Vh. D £ '5S tAWt T h is dissertation, w ritte n by .... u n d e r the d ire c tio n o f h i.3 G u id a n ce C o m m itte e , and a p p ro v e d by a ll its m em bers, has been p re sented to a nd accepted by the F a c u lty o f the G ra d u a te S cho o l, in p a r tia l fu lfillm e n t o f re quirem ents f o r the degree of D O C T O R O F P H I L O S O P H Y Dean Guidance Committee C h a irm a n CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE , I. INTRODUCTION....................... 1 I ■II. OLIVER GOLDSMITH AND HIS NON-DRAMATIC WORKS IN THE UNITED STATES DURING THE EIGHTEENTH « CENTURY..................... 5 III. OLIVER GOLDSMITH AND HIS NON-DRAMATIC WORKS IN THE UNITED STATES DURING THE NINETEENTH I CENTURY............ 63; IV. CONCLUSION...................................... 236; BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................... 243 APPENDIX . . . ..................................... 261^ l J CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION I t In 1886, Edward Everett Hale wrote of Oliver Goldsmith:: It would be fair, probably, to say that more copies of the "Vicar of Wakefield" have been published in the last year j than in Goldsmith’s lifetime.1 Hale’s statement was made one hundred and twelve years after Goldsmith’s death. Between 1768 and 1900, more than one hundred and fifty separate editions of various of his writ ings were published in America, not to mention twenty edi- tions of Washington Irving’s Oliver Goldsmith: A Biography, j From the numerical standpoint alone, a study of Goldsmith's j popularity in America is amply justified. The numerous ref erences to Goldsmith in American periodicals, in critical j writing, and in the biographies and memoirs of prominent j American writers, have made it evident that his popularity j in America was great in his lifetime and grew In effect and | maturity as the decades passed. These facts suggest in Goldsmith an exceptional and enduring appeal to Americans which might be explored. ; This study was undertaken for the immediate purpose of J discovering the nature and extent of the reaction in the [ •^Oliver Goldsmith: A Selection from his Works (Boston, ! 1886), p. vi. J United States to Goldsmith and his non-dramatie writings be tween 1768— when several of his poems were first published ; in Ameriea--and 1900. The terminal date of 1900 was chosen because preliminary investigation disclosed that the two decades between 1880 and 1900 witnessed a decline of the | characteristic nineteenth-century esthetic reaction to his work and the introduction into Goldsmith study of the meth ods of modern scholarship. The title of this study indi- I cates two limitations which may need clarification. Investi gation has been confined to the United States because Gold smith had a considerable impact on Canadian literature which cannot be treated within the pattern of the present inquiry.] The dramatic works have been excluded because they have had ! j * f k popularity independent of that of Goldsmith's other writ- ; ings. « This research into the acceptance of Goldsmith in the i United States has shown that: (l) there was a continued American interest in Goldsmith from 1768 to 1900; (2) this (interest was manifest in three distinct phases of reaction 1 which fell into corresponding chronological stages: 1 7 6 8- jl 8 0 0, 1800-1849, and 1849-1 9 0 0; (3) the critical point of 1 • ; ! i Jthe mature appreciation of Goldsmith was the publication in j 1849 of Washington Irving's Oliver Goldsmith: A Biography, s I 1 Which facilitated a popular Identification of Goldsmith's j i personality with his writing; and (4) the just appreciation i jof The Vicar of Wakefield and The Deserted Village was accomplished only after the facts of Goldsmith's life and the standard critical evaluations of his work were made available in high school text editions that had their incep tion about 1 8 8 0. Organically, the three chronological divisions show a well-defined development in the American appreciation of Goldsmith. Between 1768 and 1800, his writings were ac cepted as those of a great contemporary. During this period, his works offered no great difficulties to his readers, and ; | ; very little critical explication was published. The second ! period, extending from about 1800 to the publication of Irving's biography in 1849, witnessed much critical analysis, of his writings and varying attempts to discover the nature ; of his genius. This was the era of, the most intensive Amer-| ican interest in Goldsmith. The third period began in 1849, i when the biographies of Irving and Forster revealed the his-; torical Goldsmith to Americans. Previous to this time, criticism of his writings had concentrated upon his philoso- » i phy and his expression. Especially through the mediation of t j Irving, Americans now came to accept his work as a manifes- 1 .tation of his personality, with the result that the histori cal and the literary Goldsmith became, in the public mind, one. The period likewise witnessed the introduction into | I I j j the popular appreciation of Goldsmith of the discipline af- j Iforded by recent scholarship. The availability of biograph-: teal and historical material, much of which by this time had - 4' been included in high school texts, eliminated from the ap preciation of Goldsmith much of the capricious and fanciful exegesis to which he had been subjected. j In presenting the results of this study, I shall follow jfche chronological order, with the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as the major divisions. A chapter will be devoted po each century. Each chapter will be subdivided according ! to the following topics: introductory statement and perti nent historical background; analysis of the reception of Goldsmith the man; analysis of the reception of The Vicar of Wakefield; analysis of the reception of The Deserted Village; ! . : Analysis of the reception of The Citizen of the World; and i j analysis of the reception of Goldsmith’s minor works. CHAPTER II f 1 OLIVER GOLDSMITH AND HIS NON-DRAMATIC WORKS IN THE UNITED STATES 1 DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ! i i Between 1768 and 1799 there were printed in the United 1 i ; States no fewer than thirty-eight books containing writings I by Goldsmith. Of these, thirty-one were by Goldsmith alone, ( and the remaining seven were poetical anthologies. Six of [the thirty-eight were published before Goldsmith's death. Ihe Vicar of Wakefield appeared in America six years after i I I its London publication, The Traveller within four years, The Deserted Village within one year, and She Stoops to Conquer j 1 ' : within a few months. The Deserted Village went through sev- ; 1 bn independent editions and The Vicar of Wakefield nine. In addition to these book publications, whole poems, essays,] I. ; and excerpts in verse and prose appeared with frequency in ; j i periodicals, which used them for both feature and filler ma-; terial. These statistics, which take no account of booksel-; lers' imports from England, point to a lively reader inter- , jest in Goldsmith's writings during the years of his greatest productivity and the following two decades. I | I i I ^For a chronological list of these and other American ! jeditions of Goldsmith, see the Appendix. 1 Bell's Edition of "The Traveller" 6 Goldsmith made his first American appearance with the publication by Robert Bell in 1768, in Philadelphia, of a > small volume that included The Traveller and several other pieces. Its full title indicates its contents and the cir- j curastances of its publication: The Traveller; or a Prospect of Society, a Poem. Containing: A Sketch of the Manners, of Italy. Switzerland. France. Holland, and Britain. To which is added True Beauty, a Matrimonial Tale: likewise the Ad ventures of Tom Dreadnought, who served as a Soldier and also as a Sailor, in the late War. By Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. Author of the Vicar of Wakefield, &c. America: Printed for 5 ; 2 every Purchaser. MDCCLXVTII. ‘ Publication of the volume has been ascribed to Robert Bell perhaps by Samuel W. Pennypacker since inside the back ; cover of his copy appears the following notation: "This was one of Bell's early enterprises and is the first American edition of the T r a v e l l e r . The events leading up to the ! publication of Bell's volume have some bearing on j 1 p I This is a duodecimo volume of twenty-four pages, and is a very poor example of printing, having been set up with Worn and broken type. The best copy is in the Henry E. Huntington Library, which acquired it from the Winston W. Hagen collection. It has been collated and fully described j by Temple Scott, Oliver Goldsmith: Bibliographlcally and Biographically Considered . . . (New York, 1928), pp. 145- i 1 4 6 ? j I | ^The Valuable Library of the Hon. Samuel W. Pennypacker, Former Governor of Pennsylvania. Auction Nov. 27-28. 1Q0&. j Catalogue No. 943♦ Part VII. Unpaged. j r~~ ■" -.~.7 Goldsmith's popularity in America. There appeared the fol lowing year a companion volume which mentioned the former i book on its title page. This was: The Poetical Works of the Right Honourable Lady Mary Wortley Montague; with the Additional Volume of Her Letters. Written during her Travels In Europe. Asia and Africa: Likewise her Celebrated Letter in Defence of Marriage: To which is Added. The Traveller: a Prospect of Society; Containing a Sketch of the Manners of Italy. Switzerland. France. Holland, and Britain. By Oliver Goldsmith. M.B. London: Printed for Charles Thomson. MDCC- i iLXIX. The Huntington Library, which has a copy of the vol- i 4 ume, ascribes it likewise to Bell. The fact that The Trav- \ Seller is lacking in this edition indicates that the two were ! i issued separately. i j J j Robert Bell (173?-1784) was born in Glasgow, Scotland, i I j and came to America about 1767* In the spring of 1768 he began to advertise in the Philadelphia newspapers as a j ."Bookseller and Auctioneer."^ He was a successful but un conventional bookseller who insisted that the auction was jthe best way of acquainting the public with literature. Be- | i Ifore emigrating to America, Bell had gone from Glasgow to ! I | i j \rillard 0. Waters, "American Imprints, 1648-1797, in ! jthe Huntington Library, Supplementing Evans' American Bibli ography ." The Huntington Library Bulletin. No. 3, February I 1933. Cf. items 284, 291. ! 5"Robert Bell," Dictionary of American Biography. II, > jl6l-l62. An extensive account of Bell will be found in the I IPennypacker Catalogue. I Berwick and to Dublin as a bookseller and bookbinder. In the last city his extensive store failed, and as a result he' sailed for America and located in Philadelphia. The Travel ler seems to have been his first American enterprise. He ran his press from 1768 to 178^* publishing in a variety of i fields: history, law, politics, drama, fiction, theology, and technology. According to the Pennypacker Catalogue. Bell "may be called the first publisher in America, as to him is credited the introduction of real literature" into ; America (p. [l]). He published the first American editions of Johnson's Rasselas. Paine's Common Sense. Blackstone's Com mentaries . Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, ! Thomson's Seasons, Young's Night Thoughts, and Beattie's The» Minstrel. i The Traveller volume shows an unusual amount of editing! for so short a work. Following the "Dedication to the Rev. 1 Henry Goldsmith," the compiler has filled out the page with two notices: The Traveller is one of those delightful Poems that al-j lure by the beauty of their scenery, a refined elegance of sentiment, and a corresponding happiness of Expression.-- i We cannot but recommend this poem as a work of very con- ! siderable Merit. Griffith's Literary Journal. ! * ! ( Five editions of this Poem without the Matrimonial tale! . and the adventure of Tom Dreadnought have been sold in i Great Britain at no less price than two shillings and six j ; pence, of this Currency. 1 ; In addition to The Traveller, there were three other pieces s ~r" 1 ascribed to Goldsmith: "True Beauty, or the Double Trans- 1 ? formation, a Matrimonial Tale," "The Character of a Lovely j Woman," and "The Adventures of Tom Dreadnought." 1 The first of these is a version of "The Double Trans formation: A Tale," which first appeared in Essays: By Mr. Goldsmith (1 7 6 5)* where it constitutes Essay XXVI. It was revised for the second edition (1 7 6 6), becoming Essay XXVIIB Bell's version is that of the second edition, In which lines, 5-6, "He drank his glass, and crack'd his joke, / And Fresh- 1 j men wonder'd as he spoke," replace "Without politeness, ! aim'd at breeding, / And laugh'd at pedantry and reading." j The editorial handling of this poem suggests some interesting implications involving the entire volume. It is J : the simply-told story of the student who marries, finds "his jgoddess made of clay," and after suffering from her infidel ity and physical deterioration, is rewarded when she turns i her affections to him and he "finds his wife a perfect beauty." The editor gives his readers considerable help by ; making the moral obvious. First, the title is expanded to "True Beauty, or the Double Transformation: A Matrimonial j 1 ■ •• i Tale." Second, three prefatory pieces introduce the poem j (p. 15): (l) a selection from Lady Montagu's Letters: I am persuaded that a woman who Is determined to place her happiness in her husband's affections should abandon the extravagant desire of engaging in public adorationj and 1 j that a husband who tenderly loves his wife, should, in his ] turn give up the reputation of being a gallant. J >(2) two couplets from Prior: 1 | Loving and Lov'd regard thy future mate, 1 , Cherish esteem unto the latest date; j For constant virtue hath immortal charms, l Makes age seem youth in a lov'd Husband's Arms. and (3) Carew's lyric: With a smooth and steadfast mind, Gentle thoughts, and calm desires, Hearts with equal love combin'd, Kindle never dying fires, Where these are not I despise Lovely cheeks, or lips, or eyes. As a complementary piece, perhaps only to fill out the page, there is "The Character of a Lovely Woman." This is a prose piece beginning: I do not know a woman in the world who seems so much formed to render a man of sense and generosity more happy in the married state than Amafia. X have not been able to locate this description in Gold smith. It is perhaps not intended as being written by Gold smith, since Bell does not mention it specifically in the advertisement earlier in the book. The final selection included in the volume is "The Ad ventures of Tom Dreadnought, who served as a SOLDIER, and also as a SAILOR in the late War" (pp. 19-24). This is the story of the trials and sufferings of one Tom Dreadnought, the moral of which is: No observation is more common, and at the same time more true, than that one half of the world are ignorant of how the other half lives. Bell, if indeed he is the editor, has given the tale an identity by supplying the hero's name and by elaborating the title. The text has not been tampered with other than in the addition of the hero's first name in the last paragraph. The tale has been popular with readers. It had origin ally been written for The British Magazine (1 7 6 0), where it appeared as "The Distresses of a Common Sailor." It later appeared as Essay XXIV of the Essays (1 7 6 5). Subsequently Goldsmith revised it as Letter CXIX of The Citizen of the World. Finally, the Sailor appeared in The Deserted Village (1770), where he was one of the indigent guests entertained f i by the village preacher (lines 155-158). It has since been often reprinted as an example of the short story. So far as ban be determined, it has reappeared but once with the Tom 1 f J Dreadnought ascription. In 1800 Mathew Carey brought out an: edition of the poems, which included "The Adventures of Tom Dreadnought. So far as I have determined, the Tom Dread e r nought appellation has appeared only in American editions. ; ! Concerning the origin of the edition, it must be as sumed that the collection as originally intended by Bell wasj a copy of a London publication of Charles Thomson, whose name appears on the imprint of the 1769 edition of Lady Mary b 1 Dobson has not called attention to this parallel. See* The Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith, ed. Austin Dobson ! (London, 1 9 0 6), pp. 170-171. | ^Goldsmith's Poems. Consisting of The Traveller. The Deserted Village. Retaliation. Double Transformation, and A ; New Simile, to which is Added The Adventures of Tom Dread- j nought (Philadelphia. 18OO), pp. 55-60. Carey's edition differs from Bell's in the omission of Tom's name from the last paragraph of the text. ! Q ' | "Dreadnought" is a nautical term meaning either "a i Iperson who fears nothing" or "a thick coat worn in inclement! weather." The NED cites 1806 in its earliest quotation. The Dictionary of American English and other dictionaries of [Americanisms point to an extensive, though later, currency Jin America. i ..— ~ .". 12 i ; Wortley Montague's Poetical Works. However, the title does : not appear In the British Museum Catalogue of Printed Books, nor does any reference to Tom Dreadnought. The problem de- i mands a solution. • The background of Bell's volume involves two fields of ! inquiry: (l) the association of the Goldsmith pieces with fthose of Lady Montague; and (2). the separation of the Gold smith volume from the original project. i j So far as the first is concerned, an examination of the' jnajor items of both volumes indicates an unusual editorial consistency. For instance, there is a relationship between The Traveller and Lady Montague's letters "written during her travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa." Again, her letter "In Defence of Marriage" has its counterparts in "True Beauty* I ; or the Double Transformation, a Matrimonial Tale," and "ihe I • • i Character of a Lovely Woman." Thus the two themes of travel and feminism run through the plan of the two volumes. Lady ; ! : Montague's Poetical Works and the letters could have pro vided the initial basis, with Goldsmith's works added for j i {either substance or appeal to current taste. Only the Tom Dreadnought story remains to be justified. Since the tale t jis not in keeping with the feminist theme, its travel over- j jtones would seem to recommend it for filling out twenty-four pages. • How The Traveller volume came to be separated from the j ! ;original context as set forth in the title page and table of bontents of the Montague Poetical Works is uncertain. As to' the original project, one may speculate that Bell brought the original volume with him from England, with or without all of the Goldsmith items. One of two courses may have followed: (l) If the original volume lacked the Goldsmith material, Bell may have added it for popular appeal. (2) If the Goldsmith material was included in the original project, Bell may have decided to bring out The Traveller volume as We now have it as an independent production, either to cap- | italize on Goldsmith's popularity, or to obtain further cap ital by getting a best-selling book on the market as quickly as possible after setting up his new establishment. This latter explanation seems the more plausible, since The Trav eller was an established classic. It had originally ap- i peared in London on December 19, 1764, and the fourth edi tion was printed within three months. This was while Bell j himself was experiencing financial difficulties In Scotland j and Ireland. Thus he came to Philadelphia aware of a best- i iseller he might use for his first venture. j 1 1 ; Reception of Goldsmith the Man j j j During his lifetime, Goldsmith as a public figure re ceived very little attention from the American press. Other [ | !than through his works, what Americans knew of him came, for I * the most part, from English periodicals, or perhaps by oral Jtradition from travelers and immigrants who had sojourned in London... ___ ’ I r " ".-. j The public, however, seems to have been well aware of him, if one can judge from several of the periodical refer ences to him. It must be assumed that he was recognized by the reading public as a writer of first magnitude. Booksel lers1 notices attest to the fact. An examination of the Virginia Gazette for the years 1TTO-17T5 reveals seventeen bookseller notices of the Roman History, and one each of the Essays, The Vicar of Wakefield, the History of England, and ; jthe History of Greece. The issue for October 25* 1770, car-; iried an extract from The Deserted Village, just five months : kfter the first London edition. During 1773* the same periodical referred to him in ; four extended accounts, all relating to his career as a dramatist. These were copied from New York journals, and i j (they show the hand of a press agent for the American company of She Stoops to Conquer, which was then touring the Colo nies. The first, with a London dateline of March 27, 1773* may or may not have a connection with the subsequent notices. It deals with the unfortunate Evans affair involving Miss ! Horneck. During August there were three notices. On August 1 /> 12, a New York dispatch dated July 26 announced the American jremiere of the play: i • ; I We hear that the Managers of the Theatre propose to enter-! J tain the Town this week with Dr. Goldsmith’s new Play ! called She Stoops to Conquer, or The Mistakes of a Night; ' j an excellent dramatick piece, largely brought on the Stage; I by the Patronage of Dr. Samuel Johnson, Author of the Ram-! ; bier, &e. This Play is intended to recover the expiring 1 Art of writing True English Comedy; and the Author has not ; . been disappointed in his Attempt, as appeared from the j uncommon and well-deserved Success it met with, and still ! continues to meet, from the judicious and crowded Audi- , ences that constantly attended the performances of it in ! the Royal Theatre. On August 19» the dispatch bore a London dateline of May 22: Dr. Goldsmith last week entertained all the Performers in | j his excellent Comedy, called She Stoops to Conquer, at the- Shakespeare; and amongst the Doctor's Friends there were U the Lords Bellamont and-Charlemont, Sir Joshua Reynolds, ! &c, &c, &c. . . ( In the August 26 issue, carrying a New York dateline of Au- ; ! gust 5* was a short laudatory account of the New York per formance . ■ The only other periodical notices of a personal nature were occasioned by Goldsmith's death. The Royal American i 1 Magazine in its June, 1774, edition noted his passing when ! It published "An Essay on Friendship by the Late Dr. Oliver j Goldsmith" (pp. 206-207). Goldsmith had died on April 4. | The essay was a direct reprint by Isaiah Thomas from The Universal Magazine, which had characterized the piece as "never published in his works. I ; j A more pretentious commemoration was that of The Penn sylvania Magazine: or. American Monthly Museum, which in i - January, 1775> treated his passing with solemnity (1:42-45). The issue, prefaced by a portrait of Goldsmith by Poupard, I I carried the first American publication of Retaliation and an j ^April 1774, pp. 171-172. The authenticity of the es- i say has not been established, but it was included among the acknowledged essays in The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith (London, 17757^ Cf. Ronald S. Crane. New Essays by Oliver Goldsmith . . . (Chicago, 1937)> P* xili. j extract from The Tears of Genius (an elegy in memory of Gold smith, Gray, Young, Shenstone, and others). The Retaliation text was based on the fifth edition of the poem, since it included the postscript lines on Caleb Whitefoord which were! ['added after the Fourth Edition of the Poem was published." j Thomas Paine, who became editor of the magazine with the February edition, has been connected with these questionable lines on Whitefoord. The matter will receive extended ex amination later in this chapter. j | 0 j Goldsmith's American Friends i i ' The testimony of the few Americans who knew Goldsmith | ; personally points to a more significant new-world awareness ; i • ! ! of him than the periodicals would indicate. He was known, ' i ; at least casually, by three Americans of discernment: the j physician Benjamin Rush, the statesman William Samuel John- ; son, and the clergyman William White. In addition, he seems to have had an extended fellowship with Thomas Paine which | \ began about a year before Paine's departure for America, phe first and third of these men were students who talked with Goldsmith about his poetry; fortunately, they have left; Interesting and significant notes of their impressions. The second, a busy statesman, recorded the meeting only. I ! ! Dr. Benjamin Rush was one of the few Americans to work his way into the Johnson circle. He was, when he met Gold- j [smith in 1769> a Philadelphia medical student who had just I [earned his degree from the University of Edinburgh. In a t letter written many years later, he tells how In the winter ! of 1769 he was introduced to Sir Joshua Reynolds, and was a few days later invited to dinner: j Dr. Johnson came late into company. Upon entering the room, he found Sir Joshua consoling one of his guests [un- , doubtedly Goldsmith] under the pain he felt from having been handled very severely by the reviewers. "Don't mind I j them," said Johnson to the complaining author. "Where is ' the advantage of a man having a great deal of money but I that the loss of a little will not hurt him? And where is | the advantage of a man having a great deal of reputation I but that the loss of a little will not hurt him? You can bear it." | [ At dinner I sat between Dr. Johnson and Dr. Goldsmith. 1 j The former took the lead in conversation. He instructed ; upon all subjects. One of them was drunkenness, upon j which he discovered much of that original energy of j thought and expression which were so peculiar to him. ! The conversation then turns to anemone maritima. after which! i ; Boswell, who was not present, becomes the subject. | ; A book which had been recently published led to some remarks upon its author [Boswell]. Dr. Goldsmith, addres-j sing himself to Dr. Johnson, said, "He appears, Doctor, j from some passages in his book, to be one of your ac- ! quaintances." Yes," said Johnson, "I know him." "And I pray, what do you think of him?" said Goldsmith. "He is well enough--well enough," said Johnson. "I have heard," i said Goldsmith, "he is much given to asking questions in j 1 company." "Yes, he is," said Johnson, "and his questions j are not of the most interesting nature. They are such as i this— 'Pray, Doctor, why is an apple round, and why is a pear not so?'" ; ! During the time of dinner, Dr. Goldsmith asked me sev- * I eral questions relative to the manners and customs of the 1 j North American Indians. Dr. Johnson, who heard one of I them, suddenly interrupted and said, "There is not an In- i I dian in North America who would have asked such a foolish | » question." "I am sure," said Goldsmith, "there is not a ' ~^The Letters of Benjamin Rush, ed. L. H. Butterfield j (Princeton, 1 9 5 1), p. 6 3 3. Letter to John Abercrombie, I April 2 2, 1793. _ ..j savage in America who would have made so rude a speech to a gentleman." Rush, caught in the cross-fire between the two disputants at the table, gives an unusually realistic account of the even ing. One notices how well he conveys the subtle irony of j i Goldsmith's baiting Johnson on the subject of Boswell. The ! same incident was described in Rush's Autobiography, but i here he stressed Johnson's consoling of Goldsmith against ' 11 the critics. In speaking of Johnson, he adds a signifi cant remark: ! He treated Dr. Goldsmith, who was a man of gentle and un- j j offending manners, with great rudeness in the course of | the day. (p. 5 9) f ; [ In both accounts, Rush concentrated his attention on Goldsmith, with whom he had no little sympathy. It is ap parent, from several other incidents in his life, that he | I ! 1 | had a special attraction to the poet. Previous to his visit ! ' [ jto London, Rush had had an infatuation with a Scots lady in i 1 ; which Edwin and Angelina played a part. The episode will bei discussed later in this chapter. On another occasion, he had a more intimate encounter with Goldsmith than at Rey nolds' dinner. Speaking of this occasion, he says: I • i I i I once dined with Dr. Goldsmith in the Temple, where he | had rooms. He was entertaining, but he wanted the usual | ! marks of great and original genius. He told his company ! that the vicar's wife In his Vicar of Wakefield was In- i tended for his mother. He repeated a number of lines in | The Deserted Village a year or two before it was published) 1 1 i xxThe Autobiography of Beniamin Rush . . .. ed. George I W . Corner (Princeton, 19^8), pp. 59“60. 1 I in a very animated manner. He spoke with the Irish accent! 1 (p. 6 0) The references to "marks of great and original genius," to the Vicar's wife, and to the composition of The Deserted Vil-f i : lage point to Rush's attention to detail. Though revealing i much, his reaction to Goldsmith is neither acute nor unusual. I He had a surface and working knowledge of Goldsmith's work, i ! but in general he cannot be considered as any more than a j | curious spectator. \ ‘ i The second American known to be acquainted with Gold smith was William Samuel Johnson. It is unfortunate that we do not possess more information on his intimacy with his i namesake's circle. 12 The astute politician of the "Con- I ' i necticut Compromise," who served on the committee on style ! I l to revise the draft of the Constitution, was a particular j j i favorite of Dr. Samuel Johnson. While acting as Connecticut ! 'Agent in England in 1767-1771 * he met the Doctor several ! j times. After he returned to Connecticut, the Lexicographer, i •in 1773» wrote him a letter in which he addressed him in jvery endearing terms. He said: i ; Of all those whom the various accidents of life have brought within my notice, there is scarcely any man whose ; 12 i The American Johnson, a Connecticut lawyer, took part in the Stamp Act Congress and the Continental Congress, and was also a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He* later became president of Columbia College when in 1787 it , reopened after the Revolution. He served until 1800. Cf. 1 jGeorge C. Groce, William Samuel Johnson: A Maker of the Con- 1 j stitution (New York, 1937). ! no acquaintance I have more desired to cultivate than yours. H The American had apparently been on intimate terms with the Doctor as early as October 19, 1769 (Groce, p. 8 3). During 1778 he moved freely in the Johnson circle. On January 23, Journal reveals, he "Made visits to Dr. Johnson. . . . " On February 6 , he "Visited Dr. Berkeley at Mrs. Talbots, where . . .Dr. Johnson. ..." On April 28, he made "Vis its to Dr. Franklin and Dr. Johnson, with the latter of whom I met Dr. Goldsmith." Beyond this, there is no reference to ! goldsmith in the Journal. ; Of all the American acquaintances of Goldsmith, perhaps the most stimulating and sensitive was Bishop William White. White, who was later to be chaplain of the Continental Con gress and the distinguished cleric who organized the Phila- i helphia Episcopal Diocese, had visited England to obtain or dination. He resourcefully converted his trip into a Wan- heriahre. seeking out celebrities, mostly of a theological I sort. He was well read, sensitive to poetry, and, as a | -^The Letters of Samuel Johnson, ed. G. B. Hill (Ox ford, 1 8 9 7), I, 209. March 4, 1773• The letter was first published in the New York Review. 1: 1 6 3-1 6 5, July 1 8 2 5, and in the Gentleman1s Magazine. 95 = 320, October 1825- 1 2i The American Johnson kept complete but not detailed journals. His eleven notebooks, four and a quarter inches by seven inches closely written on both sides of the page, are each three inches thick. They are now in the possession! of the Connecticut Historical Society. The Johnson and j Goldsmith references cited above have been supplied by the : birector of that institution on the basis of a hasty reading: of the entries from October 2 8, 1 7 6 9* to May 14, 1770. i ' " ' 21 youth of twenty-two, had an exceptional capacity for dis- } cerning the nuances of personality. ; White describes his meetings with Johnson and Goldsmith in an autobiographical sketch prepared for Bishop Hobart.1^ ■ He says that he obtained an introduction to Johnson through James Abercrombie, and saw him intimately on several occa sions, at one time discovering him at work revising the Dic tionary. On one of these occasions he remarked that there t was an American edition of Rasselas. and Johnson expressed a i ; i 1 plesire to see a copy. w On his return to America, the newly-ordained minister sent the book to Johnson, who re- I I sponded with an informative letter, taking care to include {several bits of information of interest to his correspond- bnt.^ These included ecclesiastical matters before Parlia- i ment. preparation of a new edition of the Dictionary, and j hews of White's friend Goldsmith. i I I | Dr. Goldsmith has a new comedy in rehearsal at Covent Gar-j ; den, to which the manager predicts ill success. I hope he will be mistaken. I think it deserves a very fine recep- j tion. White had been Goldsmith's neighbor in London. His ^The Life and Letters of William White, ed. Walter ! Herbert Stowe, Church Historical Society Publication No. 9 1 j(New York, 193*0 > pp. 30-31. ■ ^This was Bell's edition of 1768, published in White's home city. See Evans, American Bibliography, IV, 137* | ^ Boswell's Life of Johnson . . ., ed. George Birkbeck ! Hill, rev. and enl. edition by L. F. Powell (Oxford, 193*0, j . [II, 207-209. (Further references to Boswell's Life will bitethis edition.) j 22 account of a visit to the post some time after the publica tion of The Deserted Village contains many biographical de tails of a personal sort. This meeting occurred in 1772. White writes: We lodged, for some time, near to one another, in Brick Court, in the Temple. I had it intimated to him, by an acquaintance of both, that I wished for the pleasure of making him a visit. It ensued, and in our conversation it took a turn which excited in me a painful sensation, from the circumstance that a man of such genius should write for bread. His "Deserted Village1 ’ came under notice; and some remarks were made by us on the principle of it--the decay of the peasantry. He said, that were he to write a pamphlet on the subject, he could prove the point incon- trovertibly. On his being asked, why he did not set his mind to this, his answer was: "It is not worth my while. A good poem will bring me one hundred guineas, but a pam phlet would bring me nothing." This was a short time be fore my leaving England, and I saw the Doctor no more. Judging from Dr. Johnson's singular reference to Goldsmith in his letter, it might be conjectured that he was "the ac quaintance of both" who arranged the visit. He was well 1 ft aware of White's special interest. A fourth American who had been associated with Gold smith in London was Thomas Paine. Their friendship, which pre-dated the latter's departure for Pennsylvania, has lit tle bearing on Goldsmith's American reputation. Paine first sought out the attention of Goldsmith when in 1772 he 1 White's association with Goldsmith seems to have been well known in Philadelphia literary circles. In 1837 a writer in the American Quarterly Review (21:463) said that he had long intended to record some of the Bishop's anec dotes on Goldsmith, "but an application to the prelate, though seriously intended, was unfortunately deferred until the death of the distinguished and excellent man at last closed the avenue forever." 23 addressed a letter to the then renowned writer requesting an interview. He was at this time achieving some notoriety with his pamphlet The Case of the Officers of the Excise, a copy of which he sent with his letter.^ Goldsmith re sponded, and the two are reported to have entered into a friendship that extended until Goldsmith's death. Late in 177^> Paine sailed for America to become editor of the new Pennsylvania Magazine. So far as is known, he left no ac count of his conversations with Goldsmith. The connection between the two is of significance only because of a misunderstanding on the part of Paine's biogra phers. The first issue of the Pennsylvania Magazine memori alized Goldsmith's death with a portrait, a eulogy, and a reprint of Retaliation (the first printing in this country). Moncure Conway, Paine's biographer, had attempted to identi fy Paine with the project and with the manuscript history of Retaliation, especially with reference to the Caleb White- foord epitaph. He thought that Paine may be identified as the friend to whom Goldsmith shortly before his death, gave the epitaph printed in Paine's Pennsylvania Magazine. Jan., 1775* Conway's statement is erroneous. The postscript in question was taken, not directly from any copy of Paine's, but from a ^Cf. William M. Van der Weyde, ’ ’Life of Thomas Paine,” The Life and Works of Thomas Paine . . . (New Rochelle, New York, 1925), I, 9-10. 2QThe Life of Thomas Paine . ♦ . (New York, 1893)# I, 28-29. fifth (or subsequent) London edition, as the magazine text clearly indicates. Finally, Paine did not assume editorship until the second issue, in February, 1775* The reprint of 21 Retaliation appeared in the first issue. ; Goldsmith himself seems to have had some concern for at least one American writer. This was Nathaniel Evans, whose i ' posthumous Poems on Several Occasions, with Some Other Com positions (1772) listed Oliver Goldsmith among the subscrib- | jers. Evans was bora in Philadelphia, and after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania became an Anglican cler gyman. His personality was so highly esteemed that 998 bopies of his Poems were subscribed for, of which 46l were ; f i Op taken by - booksellers. ^ j The immediate occasion of Goldsmith’s interest is not known. Some clue may lie in the fact that Evans' first ! i printed work was "A Panegyric Ode, on the Late General Wolfe, bn the Taking of Quebec," which he published at the age of j seventeen in The New American Magazine (March, 1 7 6 0). Gold-! smith himself had written "Stanzas on the Taking of Quebec, i i i land the Death of General Wolfe," printed in The Busy Body. i October 22, 1759- ! 21 I s See Van der Weyde, I, 1 8. In a letter to Franklin he wrote: "This is only the second number. The first I was ! hot concerned with." t i 22 I Edgar L. Pennington, Nathaniel Evans, a Poet of Colo nial America (Ocala, Florida, 1935)/ no page. ; Early Biographers The first extended biographical sketch of Goldsmith by t an American was written by Joseph Dennie, probably for The Farmer1s Museum. published in Walpole, New Hampshire, some time after 179^. It was subsequently reprinted, in an ex panded form, as the last essay in The Spirit of the Farmer’s Museum, and Lay Preacher's Gazette. ^ Dennie's chief source seems to have been William Cooke's memoir of Goldsmith pub lished in the European Magazine in 1793> since he repeats what Goldsmith told Cooke about compiling the Beauties of British Poetry (p. 316). It is apparent that Cooke's ac count inspired the efforts of Dennie, who was at that time . reading Goldsmith extensively. i In Dennie’s mind, he is occasionally lewd, always im provident, chronically inebriated, perpetually insolvent. He is "poor Goldsmith," the dupe. He is among the first poets, and a more orderly prose writer than Addison. "The license of his life does not taint his writings, and prudes | kay read them without once bridling" (p. 317)• His art is Worthy of imitation. j Dennie's sketch indicates a limited knowledge of some i J bf Goldsmith's writings, particularly of She Stoops to j i 1 I ; | 2^Walpole, New Hampshire, 1801. Where the piece was ! 'first published cannot readily be determined. It could have; been in The Eagle; or, Dartmouth Sentinel. to which Dennie Jalso contributed. The title of the collection points to The Farmer's Museum (which Dennie edited from 1796 to 1798) as ;the source. I Conquer (which he knows by its subtitle The Mistakes of a Night). and of The Citizen of the World. On the other hand,' the confining of his attention to the poems, and particular ly to "his inimitable ballad" (Edwin and Angelina). to The Vicar of Wakefield, to the histories, and to Animated Nature, gives some indication of the extent of Goldsmith's work as it was known to Dennie's generation. The first formal biography published in America in suf ficient quantity to be available to the general public was that of Goldsmith's friend William Glover, which was pre fixed to The Beauties of Goldsmith; or, The Moral and Senti- 2 4 mental Treasury of Genius. The editor, an Englishman, ac companied the life with an estimate of Glover's value as a biographer: j Goldsmith's biographers have been many; their opinions, inj some measure, different; but they all agree that he was a j man of elevated genius, unbounded philanthropy, and pos sessing the milk of human kindness in a supereminent de gree. I have their several accounts before me; and, upon j an impartial survey, Dr. Glover's stands highest in my es-! timation. He was Goldsmith's intimate friend, a companion! in many of his literary pursuits, and his enthusiastic ad- | mirer. What such a writer says, as far as relates to j facts, must be listened to with more pleasure than a mere work of fiction, however elaborately and splendidly set off. It gives me pleasure to acknowledge the obligations I lie -under to this ingenious and excellent companion, for many particulars relative to Dr. Goldsmith. (pp. v-vi) 24 This was a compilation of wisdom from Goldsmith's works, with an alphabetical index of headings. The edition was the first book to make available to Americans selections from the lives of Nash, Parnell, Voltaire, and others, which! would not be available in America until Prior's edition of the works in 1850. The editor interpolates several remarks into the brief mem oir of Glover, among them: Johnson’s remarks on the Life of Parnell, Davies' account of Goldsmith in the Life of Garrick, and a note on the Westminster monument (pp. xvi-xvii). I The chief strength of Glover's Life rests in its easy familiarity with Goldsmith the man. Glover knew Goldsmith ; well and could be relied upon to give an intimate account of his affairs and character.2^ Appearing as it did in 1797, it afforded Americans their first easily available informa- | i j ;tion on the facts of Goldsmith's life and personality. J "The Vicar of Wakefield” ! ! The Vicar of Wakefield was first published in London on; I ; March 12, 1 7 6 6. The first American edition was that of Wil liam Mentz, Philadelphia, 1772. Subsequent editions within 1 I rs t i the century were published in 1 7 7 3, 1780, 1791, 1792 (two Seditions), 1794, and 1795 (two editions). During the period; 1770-1799, that of its initial impact, the sale of the novel: reached sensational proportions. According to Frank Luther ; j Mott, it had a sale in excess of 20,000 copies, sufficient I ; for it to be considered in the best-seller class according 1 26 I to Mott's formula. Alexander Cowie, who has examined | 2^see John Forster, The Life and Times of Oliver Gold- i (smith (London, 1 8 7 1), II, 57- ■ ! Golden Multitudes: The Story of Best Sellers in the United States CNew York. 1947V. p. 304. Other works to j (achieve the rank during this period were Tristram Shandy. j 'Robinson Crusoe. Common Sense, Paradise Lost, Young's Night j parly American newspaper advertisements, finds The Vicar of Wakefield among the most generally circulated novels after 1770. 27 Although this novel achieved a considerable popularity during the latter part of the eighteenth century, it was much more enthusiastically received by the nineteenth, which found Goldsmith's humanity, sentiment, and philosophy to its liking. The eighteenth century found The Deserted Village more to its taste. There was practically no published crit ical analysis of the novel. 1 1 1 The Deserted Village1 1 The first American edition of The Deserted Village was j that of William and Thomas Bradford, Philadelphia, 1771• ! (Temple Scott erroneously cites an edition by Babcock and 1 Haswell, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1773* as the first [p. ! 251].) The first English trade edition was published in London on May 26, 1 7 7 0. Thus the poem was published in Werica within about one year of its first appearance. There were seven separate American printings before 1800. it was also included in a number of anthologies and collec- _ j jtions of Goldsmith's works. The first American appearance j could well have been the selection of fifty-eight lines of fered to the readers of The Virginia Gazette on October 25* Thoughts. and Thomson's The Seasons. 27The Rise of the American Novel (New York, 1948), p. 4; i ' " 29 1770. The excerpt, describing the schoolmaster and the vil-: lage alehouse, usurped the position normally reserved for "Poet’s Corner."2^ The outstanding fact of the acceptance of Goldsmith's poem by Americans of the eighteenth century was the publica-l tion of several imitations of its form and theme. There were those in America who, paying particular heed to the * last few lines of the poem, saw in it a vision or prophecy j of what America promised. A poem appearing in the American i Museum for December, 1787* gave expression to this attitude. It was entitled "Poem upon the Prospect of Seeing the Fine Arts Flourish in America," and began: j Haste the day--on swiftest pinions haste, ! When arts and manners shall adorn the waste. It later expressed the hope that r j The foreign Emigrant repose once more Upon a civilized and tranquil shore; ; j When, changed the scene, from what the bard foretold, ! His new abode shall far exceed the old. (p. 597) j ‘ ("The bard" was identified in a footnote as "Dr. Goldsmith ")! I The subject was not an uncommon one with American writers. • Several close American imitations of The Deserted Village show how seriously Americans took the poem to their hearts. j j It was Philip Freneau who first applied the' situation i ; j [ i • oQ j Goldsmith’s characterization of the schoolmaster was ! the most popular of all his descriptions. Quotations from the passage were published with great frequency in America. ■ Remarks on its sympathetic realism are a commonplace of j ‘ American Goldsmith criticism. ! I ; “' 3 a of Goldsmith’s village to America, expressing confidently the hope that American villages would succeed Auburn as mod-; els of all that is good in the small community. The Ameri- j can Village, a poem of 438 lines, which he published in 1772^ was Freneau's first poetic publication. It was considered by its author to be unworthy of his talents, and he did not , i | bother to republish it. Until 1902, when a copy was dis- I • covered in a volume of miscellaneous pamphlets which had i been purchased by the Library of Congress, the only refer ence to it was contained in Freneau's letter to Madison, bated November 22, 1772.29 j Opening with lines suggestive of The Deserted Village dnd The Traveller, the poem describes the optimism and opu lence of America; ! ! , ■ Where yonder stream divides the fertile plain, j Made fertile by the labours of the swain,’ And Hills and woods high tow'ring o'er the rest, j Behold a village with fair plenty blest: 1 Each year tall harvests crown the happy field; Each year the meads their stores of fragrance yield, And ev'ry joy and ev'ry bliss is there, I And healthful labour crowns the flowing year. { Though GOLDSMITH weeps in melancholy strains, | Deserted Auburn and forsaken plains, ^The American Village, a Poem, to Which are Added Sev- ^ ieral Other Original Pieces in Verse . . . (New York. 1772). jCf. also The American Village: Facsimile Reproduction, in- trod. by Harry Lyman Koopman, bibliog. data by Victor Hugo ' jPalstits (Providence, Rhode Island, 1 9 0 6). For background land history of the poem see Fred Lewis Pattee, ed., The Po- ■ i ems of Philip Freneau: Poet of the American Revolution •(Princeton, 1902), III, 3 8 1. A second copy, more recently (discovered, is now in the John Carter Brown Library at Brown lUniversity. . . _. . _ j i "" 31 i And mourns his village with a patriot sigh And in that village sees Britannia die: Yet shall this land with rising pomp divine : In it’s own splendour and Britannia's shine. , 0 muse, forget to paint her ancient woes, Her Indian battles, or her Gallic foes; Resume the pleasures of the rural scene, Describe the village rising on the green, It’s harmless people, born to small command, Lost in the bosom of the western land; So shall my verse run gently as the floods, So answer all ye hills, and echo all ye woods; So glide ye streams in hollow channels pent, Forever wasting, yet not yet spent. j Freneau then paints the picture of America as opposed to that of Europe, becoming strongly patriotic. He sums up: j Vain is their rage, to us their anger vain, | The deep Atlantic raves and roars between. ; (Pattee, III, 3 8 1-3 8 2) i ' | As with succeeding imitations of The Deserted Village. ; i ■ Freneau does not sustain the predominantly expository nature of the original, but expands Goldsmith's episode of the 1 ; "poor houseless female" by interpolating a primitive tale. Thus, after recounting the pleasing and healthful life of I i jthe American farmer, the poet introduces the aboriginal story of Caffraro and Colma, a tragedy in which an Indian wife drowns herself in order to save her husband and her son! i | when the boat which comes to their rescue is able to carry 1 \ ! but three people. Freneau is interested in the American In- 1 | dian; more than one-third of The American Village is devoted 1 (to a defense of the Indian's character. I ' i ) j Timothy Dwight shared many of Freneau's ideas on the j ^worthiness of America to carry on the cultural tradition so j : much in peril in Goldsmith's England. Between 1783 and 1795 ■".............................. ■... ~....32 he was pastor of the Congregational Church at Greenfield Hill, Connecticut. From this vantage point he looked out over his parish and attempted, in 1 7 8 7, to make American versions of Thomson’s Seasons. Goldsmith’s The Deserted Vil lage . Beattie's The Minstrel, and several others, incorpo rating them all into a grand poetic panorama of his locality. * The result was Greenfield Hill: A Poem in Seven Parts, which celebrated the prospect from the village, the cultural in stitutions of Dwight’s beloved Connecticut, and the romance of local history.3° | The plan of the poem seems to have been suggested by } Sir John Denham's Cooper's Hill (1642), wherein the poet stands upon an elevation near London and describes the pros pect about him, delighting in the scene, but reflecting also upon the moral, political, and historical features of the ; bubject. Dwight followed the same pattern, but deliberately complicated his task by attempting a mosaic of verse pat terns and styles borrowed from known masterpieces. Each of i ifche seven cantos had its own theme that corresponded to the I verse style being followed. Thus the second canto, "The Flourishing Village," Imitated The Deserted Village and at tempted to state the difference between Europe and America in contrasting pictures of Britain's "Sweet Auburn" and Con-j necticut's "Fair Verna." Other than Dwight's own application i I 30New York, 1794. 33 of Goldsmith's ideas on luxury to the American situation, the major Goldsmithian element in the poem was a large num.- ! ber of verbal and stylistic similarities with the original, ■ which Dwight himself acknowledged in a number of explanatory1 notes. Moses Coit Tyler has criticized this formal imita tiveness, which he regarded as a severe fault which Dwight's own explanation could not excuse.According to Leon How ard, this imitation was not as slavish and blind as might be surmised. The poet, he says, f apparently echoed Goldsmith's verses in a number of cases ; . in order to emphasize the fact that he was comparing the ! social effects of American and British institutions. It is apparent that Goldsmith was already in 1787 a frame of; reference for a social attitude. His poem seemed to Ameri- ? 1 bans to be a parable illustrating their ideals. ! i Following the same pattern as had Freneau, but in a contradictory manner, Thomas Coombe in Edwin, or the Emi- \ ; grant, an Eclogue attempted to point out that the evil mo tives of the American Revolution made the country unworthy | {to continue the ideals of Auburn. It was an allegorical I bontinuation of The Deserted Village containing a large jamount of autobiographical material.^ j i ! ) : # ! ^1Three Men of Letters (New York, 1 8 9 5), p. 97* j ! 32The Connecticut Wits (Chicago, 19^-3) > P* 223- ' • 1 33yarious explanations of the poem have been given. { The theory that it was intended to discourage emigration to | [the New WOrld has been advocated by Milton Bradley Otis in i American Verse. l625-l807: A History (New York, 1909)* p. l8l.j Coombe, a native of* Philadelphia, had been educated at the College of Philadelphia, and was ordained in London in 1 7 6 9. He was, at the time of the Revolution, assistant min ister of Christ Church. Because of his Tory sentiment, he < was later, in 1777* included in the banishment of the Tories to Staunton, Virginia; but on account of illness he was per mitted to remain in Philadelphia. In 1779 he went to Eng land, where the Earl of Carlisle made him his chaplain, and he finally became a prebendary of Canterbury, and one of the Royal Chaplains. j Edwin, or the Emigrant, an Eclogue was published in Philadelphia in 1775* and also later, without date, as The \ \ Peasant of Auburn, or the Emigrant. A Poem.-^ The poem re- ! i i counts how Edwin the Peasant emigrates from "sweet Auburn" i I and sails for America at the beginning of the War for Inde pendence. On the voyage over, his wife and two children die. With his remaining daughter Lucy, he makes his way to the Ohio River. Edwin finds the warring America a miserable place, and, soul-weary, he wishes for a peaceful spot to die. |An Indian captures Lucy and enslaves her. Edwin dies on the; tank of the Ohio. i i 3^The Peasant of Auburn; or. the Emigrant. A Poem. In- j scribed to the Earl of Carlisle . . . (London. 1 7 8 3). It' was reprinted in The Peasant of Auburn, and Other Poems, at tributed to J. Coombe. Circa 1756, Aungervyle Society (Edin burgh , 1 8 8 7). The alteration of the title led to the mis- ;take that the two titles stood for different poems. Cf. Mo-i jses Colt Tyler, The Literary History of the American Revolu tion: 1763-1783 (New York. 1897). II. 205-286. j Edwin’s dismal situation is a device that Coombe em ploys to depict his own spiritual desolation. Coombe was a distinguished clergyman who had preached a memorable sermon • on July 20, 1775» on the general fast day recommended by the; Continental Congress.35 jn that sermon he had expressed the; idea that the luxurious and licentious way of life had brought the threat of war to America (p. 11). He believed that the country was in danger of reverting to savagery, which he defined as a state of being without law. But he bould not tolerate the subsequent rupture with England. He Was convinced that the Colonies were bound to England by a law, the abrogation of which needed the consent of the King. } The Americans Insisted on breaking the law, reducing them- i jselves— in Coombe1s mind--to savages, the people without law pf whom he had spoken in the fast-day sermon. Peeling the j situation deeply, he thought that he and his family were 1 \ S ! living in a land of savages who were bent on Coombe's de- i ! ‘ struction.-* Coombe had probably been attracted to The Deserted Vil lage by Goldsmith's denunciation of luxury, which he j i A Sermon. Preached Before the Congregation of Christ ; Church at St. Peter's. Philadelphia, on Thursday. July 20. 1775. Being the Day Recommended by the Honourable Continen- f tal Congress for a General Fast throughout the Twelve United Colonies of North-America (Baltimore. 1775). ■ ’ 36For .j-kg details of Coombe's life, see James M. Ander son , The History of the Church of England in the Colonies ! and Foreign Dependencies of the British Empire. 2d ed. (Lon- don, 1856 ), III, " 2 7 8. : _._J believed to be at the root of the spiritual ills of the day.! He said in his sermon: I We must return to that decent simplicity of manners, that sober regard to ordinances, that strict morality of demeanour, which characterized our plain forefathers; and : for the decay of which, their sons are but poorly compen- ; sated by all the superfluities of commerce. We must asso ciate to give a new tone and vigor to the drooping state of religion among ourselves. (p. 11) . . . What a rage for pleasure, what extravagance in dress, and dissipation, what an unworthy pride of going beyond I each other in splendor of appearance, have succeeded, (p. 13) I Further, Auburn reminded him of the America of his youth, an 1 idyllic place of great promise. As a pastor, he easily en visioned himself as the leader of the emigrants who had left t Auburn to find a better home in America. In The Peasant of I Auburn, Coombe added a deep personal concern to the common ' political reaction of his countrymen to The Deserted Village: . j ! A topographical and descriptive element was added to s I the personal and patriotic in Nathaniel Tucker's The Bermu- i j ; dian, wherein the poet used The Deserted Village as the ba- j sis of an allegorical lament on his native Bermuda for hav- | ing followed England rather than America. The poem was first published in Edinburgh in 177^> although it had been f i ’ *37 1 completed early in July, 1772. Tucker, who was in England^ as a medical student, had had some difficulty in getting the^ t ; 37i»he Bermudian. A Poem . . . (Williamsburg, Virginia, 177^). Cf. Lewis Leary, ''The Published Writings of Nathan iel Tucker, 1J50-1Q0J, ' Bulletin of Bibliography, 20:5-6, 1950. f - .371 poem published in America. But a New York edition was finali S ; ly brought out in the same year. Another appeared in Wil liamsburg, Virginia, likewise in 177^* A London edition, | for his widow, was published in 1808. j The poem is a mixture of borrowed elements, mostly re- : fleeting a precocious and enthusiastic young poet who had an eye for nature and a capacity for deep feeling. It contains ingredients from both The Traveller and The Deserted Village. . The Bermudian is the story of a wandering exile, now living j in South Carolina, who tells of the beauties of his native Bermuda and of the misfortunes that have befallen her because she has taken sides with England in the American War for In dependence. Specifically localizing the village to the is- ; I ; land of Bermuda, it becomes mainly a poem of the homeland. After the manner of Goldsmith, it concentrates on the vil- 1 ilage as a source of Joy and the good life. Tucker, less po litical than nostalgic, describes the rich verdure of the i [island, the many activities of the fishing village with its ! ; [sturdy craftsmen, the school and Its master, the church, and [other local institutions. The political theme is tardily 1 I (introduced with the poet's statement that because of his po litical views he cannot return to the home of his parents. 1 The poem ends with a description of how he was received in j Carolina. 1 The Bermudian is the most lyrical and least political of all the imitations of The Deserted Village. Tucker is less concerned with Goldsmith's economic theory than with the denunciation of tyranny. In his identification of the tyrant who destroyed Auburn with the Crown, Tucker is mis taken. But the scheme of Goldsmith's poem did give him the opportunity to express himself lyrically on his homeland, a fact more important than his theories. . The Bermudian was well received. A laudatory full-column review appeared in The Gentleman's Magazine. which said: \ . . . the picturesque ideas which rise in our poet's mind in his hours of absence, on recollecting the delightful j scenery of his native land, discover such marks of genius , and sensibility that, if our limits would permit, we I should gladly indulge ourselves with a larger quotation.-3° Then followed a selection of twenty-two lines from "the au- S \ thor's animated and humourous character of his schoolmaster." The Critical Review was likewise delighted: ! If this be a juvenile production, as is hinted in the son-; j net prefixed to it, we may expect pieces still more fin- ! ished from the same a u t h o r .39 | Formal criticism of Goldsmith during the generation following his first publication in America is sparse, ama- ! jteurish at times, and frequently mannered. Although the ! imitators were concerned with the economic theory, what analytic criticism that did appear ignored it. The only j Criticism to be concerned with both form and idea was Timo- j Jthy Dwight's note on "The Flourishing Village" in his j i | i j i I 3844:325, July 1774. I 3 938:75, July 1774. ' Greenfield Hill: It will be easily discovered by the reader, that this part of the poem is designed to illustrate the effects of the state of property, which is the counterpart to that, so I beautifully exhibited by Dr. Goldsmith in the Deserted VilH ! lage. That excellent writer, in a most interesting manner, i displays the wretched conditions of the many, where enor- 1 i mous wealth, splendour, and luxury constitute the state of: the few. (p. 172) ) The most astute American critic to speak of Goldsmith before 1800 was John Trumbull, one of the Hartford Wits. the bulk of his remarks consists of but a few lines in the j I Gritical Reflections he wrote in his journal between 1778 j and 1 7 8 3. These are unfinished informal essays that Trum- ! h n bull perhaps had little thought of publishing. ! His major preoccupation in Critical Reflections is with! ! 41 1 original genius, which he discovers in Goldsmith. Defin- j I ing original genius as "originality of thought and original-; ity of manner," he observes: [ J Many writers are originals in one of these ways, who are j meer imitators in the other. This distinction hath not been attended by the Critics. Searching out this quality, he lets his remarks range over Pope, Swift (very thoroughly), Dryden, Addison, "the author ; j 2 i O The unpublished Critical Reflections, consisting of several manuscript pages, is now in the possession of the j Cornell University Library, and is herewith used with the permission of the librarian. Cf. also Alexander Cowie, 1 John Trumbull as a Critic of Poetry," New England Quarterly. 9:773-793, 1938. 1 i iii ’ | It will be remembered that Benjamin Rush, who had seen Goldsmith, remarked that "he wanted the usual marks of ; igreat and original genius." i , of Hudibras," Prior, Churchill, Young, Gay, Richardson, Mar-j montel, Thomson, Gray Shenstone, Goldsmith, Beattie, Mason, Brown, Johnson, Moore, Tickell, etc. j The young Trumbull had some very definite ideas about the progress of poetry which were not at great variance with: those of Goldsmith. In 1770 he had written an Essay on the Use and Advantages of the Fine Arts, in which he objected to the luxurious effeminacy, which hath caused a decay of genius, and introduced a false taste in writing. Their men of ; learning are infected with pedantry. They are great ad- J mirers of antiquity and followers in the path of servile j imitation. They sacrifice ease and elegance to the affec- | tation of classical correctness. (Cowie, 9:j8j) Although he objected to the tyranny of formalism, what Trum-: j ' bull most feared was the license that Edward Young repre- ; \ ^ sented, and it was against this style that he spoke out most) vehemently In Critical Reflections. i * i He was a Writer of great Genius, tho* of incorrect taste, j i as his Night Thoughts show; which are the most extraordi- j | nary mass of thoughts, good, bad, and indifferent, that | | were ever thrown together on Paper. He was fond of every I new thought, and had not the faculty of rejecting any; so : ) that very often the finest poetry and the lowest Puerility; Sublimity and Punning, a stroke of Pathetic and a stroke j of Satire, a fine allusion and the most strained metaphor,, * are jumbled together in a dozen lines. * I And later: I 1 * j Since the Poet’s [Young's] day, most of the English Poets > I have been meer imitators, -and have debased the style of ; Poetry, swelling epithets, a laboured attention to pompous1 j versification and a perpetual aim at description, give the modern English verse a great resemblance to the style of 1 Claudian in the decline of Latin poetry. t \ ( j j Trumbull prefers rather "the antient Simplicity of writing'1 of Gray and particularly of Goldsmith. Though ob jecting to the Odes, he takes notice of the simplicity of the Elegy. Hie remarks on Goldsmith are more extensive than: those on Gray, and show a critical concern surpassed in ex tent only by his familiarity with Swift. The Goldsmith re- i marks are quoted here in full: i But the most original writer in this longlost style of i simplicity is Goldsmith.--He followed Parnelle [sic], who j j was as original a Genuine [sic] in his manner of writing as any Poet of that Age, if not more so--but he has not followed him so servilely as to deserve the name of mere j Imitator. He has a peculiar talent of introducing little j f circumstances which all other poets would have passed over as too low for poetry, in such manner as to heighten the j beauty of his descriptions, & you place the object de scribed in a more natural and agreeable view. His De- ! serted Village is a masterpiece. His Ballad in the Vicar | of Wakefield and some other little pieces have the same j kind of merit. When his Deserted Village was first pub lished, a Friend of mine sent me his description of the ! Village Schoolmaster (I was then a pedagogue myself.) ; ! without telling me the Author--tho' I had never seen more ! I of Goldsmith's poems than his Ballad of Edwin and Angelina* ! and some fragment in his volume of Essays, I immediately I guessed the Author from the similarity of manner to one or I two of those fragments. This is a demonstration of Origi- [ nality. ! Trumbull's criticism is thus of an impressionistic and gen- j I j eral nature. Intrigued by Goldsmith's realistic descriptions 1 i jof the commonplace, he reflected, on the academic level, the (characteristic delight of the American in the many rustic I ! phases of village life that were a part of his existence. j | The Deserted Village impressed eighteenth-century Amer- I leans primarily as a statement of the importance of the * jAmerican cultural mission to carry on the ideals of life and liberty that were disappearing from England with the passing of Auburn. Some American writers, like Coombe and Tucker, reacted in a very personal way to the idea underlying the poem, and made it the cause of a lyrical effusion expressing; the desolation the War for Independence brought into their lives. At least the momentary impact involved articulate Americans in a consideration of the intellectual rather than the artistic ingredients of the poem. Formal criticism of the poem was sparse in Goldsmith's own century, and it was of an Indifferent quality. But the general appreciation of ; The Deserted Village was widespread, i ! "The Citizen of the World" ! The Citizen of the World was first published in England: bn May 1, 1762, having appeared in Newbery's The Public I i j Ledger between January 12, 1760, and August 14, 1 7 6 1. It 1 , I was not until 1794 that the first American edition appeared, i - : that of Thomas Spencer, in Albany, New York. The next pub- ' i _ , j lication in this country was in 1804. The Chinese papers have not had the extensive circulation in America that oth- : I ers of Goldsmith's writings have experienced. They have, however, had an unusual popularity, especially in the nine teenth century, when the work was thoroughly read by the ! 1 more avid of Goldsmith's readers and extensively imitated. I The most notable effect of The Citizen of the World up- 1 on American literature of the eighteenth century was Peter r Markoe's imitation, The Algerine Spy in Pennsylvania, or | Letters Written by a Native of Algiers on the Affairs of thei United States in America, from the Close of the Year 1783 to iip the Meeting of the Convention. As with several of the imitations of The Deserted Village, it had political over tones and was written for a primarily political purpose. The book constituted a series of twenty-four letters bound together by a thin plot. All but three were purported to have been written by Mehemet the Algerine, who had been sent by his government on a secret mission to see what advantages: the United States might have to offer for Algerians. i i I Markoe was born in the Danish West Indies, and educated At Pembroke College, Oxford. He was admitted to Lincoln's j : Inn in 1775- His career in America is obscure. In addition 1 ; to The Algerine Spy, he wrote an unproduced tragedy The Pa- ; triot Chief (Philadelphia, 1787); The Times (1788), satiriz-; ing a number of Philadelphia personages; and The Storm (1 7 8 8), a descriptive poem. j The plot of The Algerine Spy, which parallels that of i : The Citizen of the World more closely than do any of the | Subsequent imitations in the next century, is intricate and j well-arranged. Mehemet, the Algerine, in the guise of a French gentleman, travels to Philadelphia by way of Spain and Portugal. He has left behind him in Algiers his wife j I ; j ^Philadelphia, 1 7 8 7. ! ^cf. Sister Mary Chrysostom Diebels, Peter Markoe I (1752-1792). A Philadelphia Writer, Dissertation, Catholic I University of America (Washington, 1944). j Fatima and their child, and his close friend Solyman, to whom he addresses his letters. En route he establishes fi- i nancial connections with two Jewish merchants: Solomon Mendez, in Gibraltar; and Isaac d'Acosto, in Lisbon. A num-; ber of letters recount his observations in those countries, ; which represent his first contact with western culture. He travels to Philadelphia, from where he directs a number of letters observing the social, economic, and political condi-; tions in the United States which was then debating the adop tion of the Constitution. Mehemet's pleasing commentaries are interrupted with the twenty-first letter, in which he is informed by Mendez in Gibraltar that his Portuguese agent has denounced him to the Algerian government as a traitor ; I ! fmd a Christian. His correspondent encloses a latter from ' jSolyman in Algiers bearing news that his property has been j confiscated and that he will be executed as a traitor if he pver returns. Adding to his grief is the report that his child is dead, and that Fatima has run away with Mehemet's ! gardener Alvarez and become a Christian. Overwhelmed at j ifirst, he recovers swiftly. He consoles himself with the realization that he was too old for his young wife. He be- 1 bornes a Christian and is converted to the American ideals of] government. Finally, he arranges to have money sent to Al- ] < ; yarez and Fatima (now Maria) so that they may come to Penn- j \ ! sylvania and live on the farm he has purchased, that they I i may all enjoy "the united blessings of FREEDOM and ; Christianity." I In its subject matter, The Algerine Spy offers some problems as to classification. It contains elements of sa- i tire, political theory, and fiction. The plot is but a foundation for Mehemet's experiences and observations on contemporary life--and for Markoe's theories of government. Like Lien Chi Altangi, Mehemet comments on class distinc tions, fashions in dress, social foibles, education, reli gious sects, funeral customs, and the like. But the ex pended disquisition on political theory, together with the book's timely appearance during the negotiations attendant upon the ratification of the Constitution, give the letters j k predominantly political character. The book was entered ; "before the prothonotary of Philadelphia" on August 27, 1787} pn July 3, ratification of the Constitution by state conven- [ itions had been decided upon. The publication of The Alger ine Spy was thus timed to coincide with the constitutional j i | debate and the subsequent ratification by individual states.1 Markoe's purpose is further complicated by the relatively i j 1 large proportion of fiction he introduces into so slight a 1 book. Broadly, it is prose satire. But, as Sister Mary j Chrysostom Diebels remarks, j It is difficult to decide at first reading whether it is a| ' long essay with a fictional element or a story with essay ; 1 digressions. (p. 52) I She prefers to place it in the development of the American ! novel. Lyle H. Wright classifies it as fiction.^ The ap- ’ parent narrative emphasis may possibly be attributed to the j shorter length of the book as compared to Goldsmith's, so that the plot, which provides an undercurrent in the longer ; book, is made more obvious. Considered as a piece of serio-comic prose in imitation; bf The Citizen of the World. Markoe1s book offers but few (difficulties as to its source, even though the debt to Gold smith can be proved only circumstantially. Despite the dis- i ; parity between Goldsmith's 123 letters and Markoe's 24, j there are certain remarkable similarities in plot detail, j subject matter, and personality of the narrator that point 1 ito Goldsmith's Chinese letters as the model. j I f I The Citizen of the World seems not to have come to the i , | attention of American critics before 1800. 1 i The Minor Works j The foundation of Goldsmith's popularity in America lies in the ripe appreciation of his readers for his major works, such as The Traveller. The Deserted Village. The Vic ar of Wakefield, and The Citizen of the World. It is, how- ; ever, a characteristic of the eighteenth-century reception of his writings that his contemporaries expressed a marked I ■ ; enthusiasm for his minor writings, which--though lacking in ; j i /ih i American Fiction: 1774-1850; a Contribution Toward a j {Bibliography (San Marino. California. 1939). p. 1^6. : universal appeal--demonstrate clearly that part of Gold smith's contemporary popularity, in America as well as in England, may be traced to his ability to satisfy the desires and needs of his own generation. It is remarkable that in t America a relatively greater measure of attention was given ; to his minor works than to his major ones. I Edwin and Angelina | The sentimental ballad of The Hermit. more commonly known as Edwin and Angelina, was popular in eighteenth-cen- i i tury America. It was ranked by many readers and critics with The Deserted Village as an outstanding example of Gold smith' s poetic genius. In America it has had a considerable bibliographical listory, usually being reprinted along with the two major I poems, or with one or more other obviously sentimental bal- | lads in the artificial manner of the last decades of the i i century. It was first available to Americans in the earlier editions of The Vicar of Wakefield, which appeared in 1772, i \ ... I ; 1773, and 1 7 8 0. Its first American reprinting as an inde pendent item occurred in 1 7 8 6, when it was used as a featured jaddition to John Gregory's A Father's Legacy to his Daugh ter.^ Subsequent anthology reprints occurred in 1789, 1791, i Ac; i A Father's Legacy to his Daughter. Under the Follow- i Ing Heads. Introduction. Religion. Behaviour. Amusements. Friendships, Love and Marriage. By the Late Dr. Gregory of Edinburgh. To which is added, Edwin and Angeline; or. The Hermit, a Tale. By the Celebrated Dr. Goldsmith (New York, j ; -.." ' -. 48 1 7 9 3* 1 7 9 5# 1 7 9 8, and 1 8 0 0, and in each case the ballad was UjC noted on the title page. It was also available in the various editions of Goldsmith’s poems. Between 1772 and 1800, it was reprinted in America at least twenty-two times. ) Some indication of the taste of the reading public that; enthusiastically appreciated Edwin and Angelina can be dis cerned in the character of Fair Lucretia. with which it was published in Danbury, Connecticut, in 1795* The plot is foretold in the title: Fair Lucretia: Being a Sorrowful History of a Rich Merchant, and the Daughter of a Farmer in England. Occasioned by a Squire’s Great Love for her, and her Parents Desire for Riches . . .. The poem is ostensibly addressed to parents, and the epilogue admonishes: j All covetous parents pray learn and behold The danger of wronging your conscience for gold, s Compel not thy innocent children to break, Those vows which in love they do solemnly make. I (P. 6) The romantic theme of constancy of young love is similar to 1 that of Goldsmith's poem. As did Fair Lucretia. Edwin and (Angelina satisfied the current taste for tales involving Jtragic or unrequited love--which at times reached exotic ex tremes. In The Literary Miscellany^ it vied with "The Sto- ! ' iry of Father Nicholas'* and Holcroft's "The Dying Prostitute." 1786) . ! ^See entries in Charles Evans, American Bibliography | ( Chicago, 1903-1934). ^Philadelphia, 1795. 1 It appealed also to the educated, and even to so stolid a man as Dr. Benjamin Rush, Goldsmith's American friend. It figured in his infatuation with Lady Jane Leslie (later Lady Jane Wishart Belsches) during his residence in Edinburgh in 1768. The circumstances of this liaison are described in a letter written years later. The appeal of Edwin and Angel ina becomes more apparent as the letter progresses: j My dear Julia (for that is the Christian name of Mrs. 1 Rush) would have done herself the honor of writing to your; ! ladyship by the present opportunity, but she is at present ! too much indisposed for that purpose, occasioned by a sit- 1 uation that promises very soon an addition to my family. She is no stranger to the story of Edwin and Angelina, j She has more than once bedewed [your] her letters with her ! tears. My heart (she says) became more valuable to her when she found it had been so long and so faithfully pre- j served by Angelina. She knows that she owes her conquest ; j in part to [you] her, for it was by singing "The Birds of ! Endermay" that first evening I was introduced to her, with1 j the same air and lisp that I once heard [Your ladyship] i Angelina sing the same sweet song in Nicholson's Square j that she opened an avenue to my heart. i j Even at the later date when both were happily married and their ways had parted, the thought of the poem moved ■ Rush. He speaks of his plans to send his son John to Edin- j burgh to finish his studies, where he is to meet Julia's i daughter. The distant idea of his approaching Miss Wilhelmina in the meadow or in the park with his hat in his hand, bowing re- I spectfully to her and afterwards gallanting her home, j | ^ Letters, p. 3 2 8. April 21, 1784. For the background Of this letter see Princeton University Library Chronicle, j?:l-12, 1947-1948. Rush has scored out the pronouns indi cated in brackets to indicate that Edwin and Angelina were the pseudonyms that Rush and Lady Jane had adopted in their ! kffair in Edinburgh (p. 329). I '50 , talking all the way on the interesting story of Edwin and Angelina, excites in my mind sensations so tender and so complicated that I cannot find language to describe them, (p. 328) The little ballad was to have a more public fame, how- ( ever, in a dramatic treatment given it by Elihu Hubbard j Smith. His ballad opera Edwin and Angelina or, The Banditti! was produced by William Dunlap at New York's John Street Theatre on December 19, 1796. It was published the follow- i ing y e a r . ^9 Smith was a minor member of the Hartford Wits. 1 \ i ■ i For a while he was a practicing physician, at first in Con- j necticut and then in New York where he became a prominent member of literary society. He was closely associated with ! \ . ; 1 William Dunlap, the dramatist, and Charles Brockden Brown. I Smith's opera is an amalgam of the principal facts of s ' ; Goldsmith's poem with Schiller's Die R£uber. with the former . — I supplying the love interest and the latter providing the larger plot structure and dramatic conflict. He manages to fit the ballad story neatly into a plot capable of action and sustained interest. While the action seems at times to ! i | i run far afield of the story implied by the title, Smith nev ertheless succeeded in focusing the attention on the title \ story by means of plot construction so arranged as to show | i the melancholy tale in its most emotional aspect, and by a [ ; (judicious use of Goldsmith's own verses. j - I ^ Edwin and Angelina: or the Banditti. An Opera, in Three Acts (New York. 1797). : 51": Just how Smith hit upon the Goldsmith and Schiller com bination is not known. His preface tells the opera’s histo ry. The principal scenes were written in 1791> as "an exer cise to beguile the weariness of a short period of involun tary leisure" (p. 5)* He had no theatrical presentation in j mind, and he neglected the work until 1793 > when an accident brought the project to his recollection, and he added sever-, al scenes and adapted the whole to the stage. The script was rejected by the Old American Company, but a new manage- : ment accepted it in June, 179^> after considerable altera tion. A comic scene was omitted, two new scenes were sup plied, additional songs were composed, "and a Drama of two acts, in prose, was converted into the Opera, in its present (form" (p. 6). It was finally produced on December 19, 1796- jA postscript explains Smith’s indebtedness to Goldsmith while at the same time attesting to the public familiarity with the source. 1 It may not be improper to observe, (though the reader can ; | scarcely be supposed uninformed, in this particular,) that: j the first, second, fifth and sixth songs, in the Third Act; j of the following Drama are from Goldsmith; and all, except; 1 the first, from the Ballad of "Edwin and Angelina." I | have taken the liberty to make some slight alteration in | the second, to accommodate it more perfectly to my pur pose; and it will be obvious that, in the principal scene between Edwin and Angelina, I have availed myself of the | sentiments, and, as far as possible, of the very expres- ' sions of the Author. (p. 6) I Since in the preface Smith does not admit the German source,' i it is evident that the Goldsmith poem, its theme, and its ■setting were foremost in the plan of his opera. f . . . . ” 5 2 : The scene is in England: first "in a Forest, on the northern extremity of England"; and then "the entrance to a Hermitage, in the forest." The names of the characters, in the main Anglo-Saxon, are: Sifrid, Edwin, Ethelbert, Walter, Edred, Hugo, and Angelina, with of course "Banditti." The main plot concerns the contention between Sifrid and Ethel- j ; bert, two brothers of noble birth who differ in fortune, a fact which involves them in a feud. The action in the for- ;est ultimately brings them into contact with Edwin and Angelina, who re-enact, with some interruptions from the disputants, the major features of the ballad. In the end, the outlaws become law-abiding citizens, and Edwin and ^Angelina are re-united. j I The opera enjoyed a certain amount of success, although ^contemporaries by no means expressed unreserved enthusiasm. 1 William Dunlap's appraisal is perhaps the most acute: j On the 19th of December, 1796, "Edwin and Angelina, or the ; Bandit," [sic] was performed for the first time. This on-| i ly dramatic production from the pen of Dr. Elihu Hubbard ; Smith, was, like himself, pure and energetic. But it was i | not sufficiently dramatic, and the characters of Edwin and ; Angelina too familiar to all readers.-30 ! jwhat he meant by "not sufficiently dramatic" is not clear, [unless he intended that the plot was not consistently devel oped to show the conflict at all times. The greater part of 1 1 Act III was concerned with an elaborate paraphrase of j ^°A History of the American Theatre (New York, 1 8 2 3), , ip. 1 5 6. 53 Goldsmith's ballad. The well-known story being recounted at this time could well irritate an audience aware of the evil acts of villains and banditti in the offing. Finally, the discovery of the lovers by the banditti approached an anti climax. Dunlap would not deny it merit. In his Journal for February 7, 1798, he wrote: "Smith's Edwin and Angelina is noticed . . . not so favorably as it deserves, but they al low it interest."^1 Smith himself had to ask Joseph Dennie to forgive its immaturity. Publication assured the preservation of Smith's ballad- ppera and brought a wider public notice to a work that other wise would have been lost in oblivion. In London, The Monthly Review noted its publication, adding: Although this production is highly romantic and unnatural, as most operas are, it has had the power of interesting us in the perusal; and we doubt not that it h&s been per formed with good stage effect in America.^ 2 As a further mark of public acceptance, it was published in London in a volume with four English dramas.^3 Many of the details attendant upon Smith's opera have little to do with Goldsmith's reception in America. •^Marcia Edgerton Bailey, A Lesser Hartford Wit, Elihu Hubbard Smith, 1771-1798. University of Maine Studies, Se ries 1 1, 1929- ^224:219, as cited by Bailey, p. 107. ^^This volume has not been listed in any of the bibli ographies . Nevertheless, Edwin and Angelina became a landmark In Ameri- i ; can drama. The inclusion of Schiller’s banditti element made it historically important as the first of a long series of "robber plays" in which the leader of a band of outlaws r4 ; figures as a romantic hero. The first known American critical reference to the poem, was that of John Trumbull, who, as early as 1778> referred to it as an outstanding poem marked by Goldsmith’s ; peculiar talent of introducing little circumstances . . . in such a manner as to heighten the beauty of his descrip tions, as you place the object described in a more natural and agreeable view.55 i As noted previously in this chapter, Trumbull also claimed i to have guessed the authorship of The Deserted Village from ; its similarity to the simple realism of the early ballad. I ■ " s jTo Trumbull, Edwin and Angelina was new and original; he re acted to its heightened simplicity with the same unstudied i ; immediacy as did Rush and Smith. Joseph Dennis also was af- 1 ; feeted by this same quality. Near the turn of the century he wrote: 1 I j . . . what alone would dub him a poetical knight, is his j i inimitable ballad, which carefully rejecting the frequent ; epithet, and the swollen image, finds its way to the ! ^ Arthur Hobson Quinn, A History of the American Drama, ; from the Beginning to the Civil War . . . fNew York. 1923), j p. 116. Smith's opera, according to Bailey, "probably helped to inspire Dunlap in writing The Man of Fortitude. s ;the second American robber play to appear on the stage" (p. 107). I cc 1 j -^Critical Reflections. Cornell manuscript. heart, by the route of simplicity and nature.^ As did Trumbull, he liked Goldsmith's use of the commonplace and his careful artlessness. During the next century, the poem lost its freshness, especially after the ballad had be come the object of scholarly study and its deviations from the technique of the true folk-ballad became apparent. • Animated Nature A History of the Earth and Animated Nature was Gold smith' s most elaborate writing project. Although it was quickly repudiated by scholars, it did retain a considerable: reputation well into the next century as a compendium of popular science. The foundation for Goldsmith's American reputation as a naturalist was laid toward the end of the century in one of the most spectacular publishing ventures of the day. One of the principals in its first American publication was Mason Locke Weems, an Episcopal c l e r g y m a n , bookseller, pamphleteer, and biographer. Weems is most famous for can- | onizing Washington and Franklin as models of honesty and ! ! thrift for the edification of young readers for two genera- j tions.57 For thirty-one years he was bookseller extraordi- i | nary to the States of the Atlantic seaboard, wandering up ! s | 56The Spirit of the Farmer's Museum . . .. p. 317• ! ^The fifth edition of his The Life and Memorable Ac- j tions of George Washington (1 8 0 6) introduced the cherry-tree; myth. _ _ j and down with his well-chosen supply, selling books and tak ing orders. Weems had entered bookselling as a religious avocation, contending that the selling of "good books" was a’ field of God's w o r k . Among these literary "tracts" he was dager to sell was The Vicar of Wakefield, which he included,; along with Pamela, in a typical list of good stock that j K Q Would sell well because it was morally sound. i Weems had a particular faith in Goldsmith. This confi dence seems not to have been based so much upon the fact jthat Goldsmith naturally sold well, as upon his theory that Goldsmith's solid writing was what the public wanted. The jtruth of Weems' proposition is especially shown in one of the great financial ventures of his early bookselling career. In 1796 Mathew Carey published a large edition of Goldsmith's Animated Nature. a sumptuous set of four volumes, selling at; ten dollars.^0 Three thousand sets were printed. At first ; Weems was engaged to enlist patrons for the edition, and then took over the sale of the book. Carey was to supply as! i 1 ! 1 3 Cf. Van Wyck Brooks, The World of Washington Irving (New York, 1944), p. 2. | | ^Paul Leicester Ford, Mason Locke Weems: His Works and; Wavs . . ., ed. Emily Ellsworth Skeel (New York, 1930), II, 1 399. This collection of Weems' letters contains a very large number of references to Goldsmith, most of them deal- ; ing with publishers' transactions. ) ; j ^°Ford, II, 6. The set is also described in Carey's ! letters (New England Magazine. 6:230, March 1834). A pros- ; pectus for the set was advertised in the American'Daily Ad- ; jvertiser. March 19, 1795, et seqq. Cf. Ford, III, 29* ~ 57] many copies as Weems could obtain subscripts for (Ford, II, j 7). For a while the partnership worked out well: the book- } seller was busy with his successful field operations in Vir ginia, and the publisher had five binders hard at work (II, 1 21). But Weems had not reckoned with Carey's business prac tices. Selections from his many letters tell his side of the dispute that arose, while at the same time shedding i ; light on Goldsmith's name and work as a bookseller's staple. I ' pie is writing from Virginia: ! I shall want one hundred copies of Goldsmith at this place [Petersburg, Virginia], and the sooner the better. I hope to sell 150 or 200 copies, for Mr. Gramar tells me that one of my Coadjutors alone has gotten me ^0 subscribers, i III, 31). ; But the sets were not forthcoming. ; I Thus, you see that since the time you have put me on board ! your Man of War, Goldsmith, you have kept me idle nearly J half the cruise, by disappointing or delaying me on every j other tack. Well, thank God, I am of the ruminating kind,; I and since I can't get Goldsmith I'll try a tooth on Hume I and the Mentor. Light fare, but better than none.®1 i Weems depended heavily on Goldsmith as the main source of ; i i his profit; but Carey had other goods to unload upon him and resorted to measures bound to disappoint his agent. In 1797 i ; i i Weems again writes: ! I l I've told you a thousand times that I am dead and buried and all for a few restorative doses of Goldsmith, and yet,i cruel, unfeeling man, you continue to say that I give you j no directions whither to send them! Well, once more--for | ^1II, 3 6. The "Mentor" was The Immortal Mentor: or Man's Unerring Guide to a Healthy, Wealthy, and Happy Life, j r ~........................ ~...-... 58 my sake— for your sake and for God's sake send me instant ly 200 copies to Alexandria. . . . (II, 57) In 1801 he relates how much his fortunes depended upon Gold smith: | When I began for you the sales of Goldsmith, were not my | rapidity and success above your expectations? What was 1 the reason? Why, I had the book that suited the tastes of I the Virginians. Large, large monies were waiting for me | and Goldsmith, but heu miserandel I was obliged to shut j down the flood gates, and attend to these miscellaneous ! things--I soon found that these books [which Carey had | sent him in place of the Goldsmith volumes] did not hit the popular taste. (II, 1 8 3) i ! I As late as 1815 the two men were still engaged In epistolary i recriminations. On October 18 Weems writes from Lancaster: ; While I was vending Goldsmith's Animated Nature, and with ; j Success that would certainly have netted me 3000 dollars you shipped me an immense quantity of miscellaneous books,5 | religious, or Irreligious, It matters not. What was the I consequence?--Why, in place of clearing 3000 dollars for j my Wife and Children, I sunk, of those books to an amount ? j so enormous, that after eight years of infinite sacrifices* 1 and of ceaseless slavery and sorrow, I am not yet out of • debt. (II, 329) ! - Most of Weems' evaluations of Goldsmith are based upon j ibis perceptions of the reader's taste. In 1796, he wrote from Fredericksburg, Virginia, as specifically as a business! i : j I man is wont to do. My respects to Master Oliver are very flattering. Prithee; don't be too prodigal of his entertaining and popular pages, in exchange for the dull productions of the North- | ern presses. (II, 4l) Most of his references to Goldsmith mention the salability I jof Animated Nature, which was a beautiful set with fifty- j 'five exotic copper engravings. He did realize, however, : •that to the Virginians the style of Goldsmith's writing did j 59 make a difference. This opinion he expresses when referring to another volume--in which Goldsmith’s name was likewise involved. This was Dobelbower's edition of The World Dis played. Writing to Carey, he says: j But would to heaven you had leisure, or could get some in-i genious friend to run over the work and amputate all the i excrescences whether of Dullness. despotism, or immorality, I have heard it spoken rather disrespectfully here, at Alexandria, where a few copies were sold last Autumn, on account of its dullness. (II, 77) The full title of the book was: The World Displayed, or a j ; Curious Collection of Voyages and Travels. Selected and Com- I piled from the Writers of All Nations by Smart. Goldsmith. and Johnson. First American Edition. Corrected and Enlarged. ' 62 In Eight Volumes. 1 ! This popular collection of voyages was originally pub- : dished by Newberry in twenty small volumes (l759“176l). Dr. jjohnson supplied the introduction, which amounted to a fair-; i sly complete summary of the great voyages and discoveries prior to 1 4 9 2 . Goldsmith and Smart ascription re- 1 jquires explanation. It has been conjectured by Allen T. Hazen that Goldsmith and Smart, who were at the time em- I 1 ' ployed by Newberry, could have compiled the voyages, select- 1 iing and arranging them, while Johnson supplied an introduc- I ! f.u < |tion. The explanation is inadequate, since no English i i i ^Philadelphia, 1796. j 63Boswell, I, 345, 546. [___ ^Samuel Johnson's Prefaces and Dedications (New Haven,j edition carried Goldsmith’s name on the title page. It is apparent that the names of Goldsmith and Smart were placed on an engraved title page of the American edition only as a device to attract the customer’s eye to an undistinguished piece of hack work. ; Weems' testimony on the American reception of Goldsmith shows that Goldsmith was accepted in Virginia as an enter taining writer whose style and ability to communicate made j him worthy of attention to the serious bookbuyer. i ; The Histories i During the later eighteenth century and much of the nineteenth, Goldsmith enjoyed considerable celebrity as a j Writer of history texts for schools. Since it was not cus- j tomary to study his imaginative prose and poetry in the schools, it was the histories of Greece, Rome, and England jthat served as the first introduction of many readers to the i name of Goldsmith. i • I The Roman History was the first of Goldsmith’s books to become popular in America. In the early 1770's it was a ptandard item on the shelves of many colonial bookstores. t : I The first edition (published in London on May 18, 1 7 6 9) was consistently advertised in the Virginia Gazette as available at the post office between November 29, 1770, and February .1937)# PP. 216-217. Hazen himself admits that the inscrip tion on the title page of the American edition is the only jbasl s for hi s hypo the si s. ; 6 l 11, 1 7 7 5# during which time it was noted seventeen times as feeing in stock. The entry of the last date showed as avail able: History of England, four volumes; History of Rome, two volumes; and History of Greece, two volumes. Judging from a bulk of this nature, the Colonial reader might well have classed Goldsmith as primarily a historical writer, j Two editions of Dr. Goldsmith's Roman History. Abridged fey Himself. For the Use of Schools were published in Phila delphia within the century: Robert Campbell's in 1795, and : Thomas Dobson's in 1798. j Evidence of the repute in America of the Histories as [ ' j fundamental textbooks for the young is not lacking. Writing ‘ i from Paris on August 19, 1785, Thomas Jefferson gave Peter Carr some hints on how to educate himself: j i Por the present I advise you to begin a course of ancient history, reading everything in the original and not in j translations. First read Goldsmith's History of Greece. | This will give you a digest view of that field. Then take | up ancient history in detail.^5 Benjamin Rush wrote to John Adams five years later, mention-; ling "my second boy just beginning Goldsmith's History of | | England," as if it were a commonly recognized stage in jschooling (Letters, p. 535)- 1 ' | 3 ! ! i During the generation following Goldsmith's first pub- i I lication in America in 1768, he was understood and accepted j ^ The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Andrew L. Lipscomb (Washington, 1 9 0 5), V, 84. r ~ - ■ “ - ....- ..6 2 as a contemporary in time and spirit. Americans could ap preciate his writings in all their freshness, unrestrained as yet by formalized doctrines purporting to interpret his enigmatic qualities, innocent of schools, factions, and trends such as scholars and critics employ to explain their I predecessors. These people knew Goldsmith as an artist; they were acquainted with his personality directly through his works, without the mediation of Boswell. Thus the major characteristic of the American reaction to Goldsmith was an immediate concern for his opinion of the very English civil ization out of which they themselves were attempting to fashion a worthy culture. I 1 ! * 1 CHAPTER III OLIVER GOLDSMITH AND HIS NON-DRAMATIC WORKS IN THE UNITED STATES * DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY s After 1800 there was a marked change In the American reception of Goldsmith and his works. Perhaps the most dom inant characteristic of the new reaction was a pronounced Increase in his popularity as a writer and personality. The general public enthusiasm was specific in nature. Whereas the previous generation had regarded him as one of the domi nant writers of their time, particularly as a successful writer who could supply their literary needs, readers and critics now looked for specific details in his writings, for individual messages, for his personal philosophy of life. j 'Goldsmith intrigued them as a personality who had left a 1 ' f heritage. But a certain uneasiness accompanied this public ; {enthusiasm. Assuming that he had written books of undoubted i ! ‘ merit, intelligent readers were not eertain that his pure ; jand smooth-flowing verse in prose could be the work of so j i I ; homely and erratic a genius. With few exceptions, nine- i f : Iteenth-century Goldsmith criticism was an attempt to explore i 1 his personality. 1 • Reception of Goldsmith the Man Goldsmith has always presented certain biographical difficulties, most of which have not been adequately re solved nearly two centuries after his death. In a survey of the modern treatments of Goldsmith’s life, Hamilton Jewett Smith has written: i More than any other writer of equal ability, Goldsmith, perhaps, lies in obscurity. To account for his peculiar genius, as a man and as a writer, involves singular psy chological and literary complexities. As yet, there ex ists for him no definitive biography. Several of these complexities were apparent to his contempo- i haries, among them Boswell, Garrick, Northcote, and Cumber- i i land, whose portraits of him were as erratic as they were prejudiced. Distance in time afforded very little perspec- ; itive for later generations; nineteenth-century biographers ! ; recorded a confused variety of estimates of the man. The reasons for Goldsmith's elusiveness as a biographical sub ject lie in Goldsmith himself, in the society in which he * lived, and in the temper of each succeeding generation that ; has become interested in him. In the first place, his own peculiarities invited irrelevant or dilatory judgment, and have led to a chain of biographical inexactitude. In the ! j ; second place, there remains his own inability to conceal hisj jawkward deviations from the social pattern in which he livedt iAs a result, his public blunders deflect attention from his s i i ! lnGoldsmithiana," University of California Chronicle. 31:429, 1929• j - 651 private merits. Finally, there has always been until modern times the conviction that the style is the man, and the con sequent tendency for the critic to seek to reconcile his i personal vices with his comely style. This has resulted in k biographical dilemma which the reader in times past would customarily resolve by ignoring the external biography in favor of the Goldsmith of the works. His biography thus in volves psychological, social, and literary problems. The biographer of Goldsmith, says Smith, "will have to be some- : thing of a psychiatrist as well as a scholar, and nothing of a sentimentalist" (p. 436). The American critics of the nineteenth century accepted; the challenge of the Goldsmith biography. At their hands he; received honest and sober treatment. Some of the studies, such as those of Mrs. Kirkland, Channing, and Curry, are en lightening. One, Irving's, is a landmark in Goldsmith studies. Some of the more detailed analyses were motivated by the romantic search for the sources of genius. But oth- ; i ' i fers, and they were far more numerous, were prompted by the j idesire of the sensitive reader to want to know more about f the man who had entertained them so delightfully. ! Biography Before 1850 i i Outside of Bennie's Portfolio very little Goldsmith bi- I 1 jography appeared in American periodicals before 1830. Dur- I j t jing this time, however, several reprints of British material [in American magazines make it evident that the editors 6 6 considered Goldsmith anecdotes of interest to the reading public. In 1 8 0 6, The Monthly Anthology and Boston Review p reprinted a selection from Cumberland's Memoirs. The item < is of interest in that the editors chose those parts of the book which concerned Cumberland's affairs with Johnson and Goldsmith, the latter appearing in a ridiculous light. A selection from Northcote's Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds ap peared in the Analectic Magazine in l8l3*3 It was a reveal ing and entertaining series of disconnected anecdotes told ; ! * i by the latest surviving celebrity who could speak familiarly, pf Johnson and Goldsmith. The theme of "poor Goldsmith" prevails in these excerpts, with both Johnson and Northcote using the epithet repeatedly. A letter entitled "Macklini- ; ! I ana," taken from the Athenaeum, was reprinted in The Museum j of Foreign Literature. Science, and Art in 1 8 3 1.^ The let- ; iter, by William Ballantyne, concerned his conversations with the actor Macklin. It tells how Goldsmith danced at a party and threw his wig to the ceiling, saying: "Men were never ; I | jso much like men as when they looked like boys." Goldsmith j klso figured prominently in two reviews of Croker's edition j of Boswell's Life of Johnson reprinted from the Monthly Mag- ; azine and the Edinburgh Review by The Museum of Foreign j j I : I 23:358-355, 1806. ' j 32:423-428, 1813. 4l6:13, 1831. 5 I Literature. The same magazine reprinted the Athenaeum re view of Rev. John Mitford's Memoir of Goldsmith in am 1832 issue. The review devoted much space to Goldsmith's irreg ularities, "the worst of which kept him in misery and cer tainly hastened his death" (p. 14). The common denominator : of most of these periodical reprints was the opinion that Goldsmith was an eccentric and -unfortunate character. { In the encyclopedias, Goldsmith was adequately and fairly handled. The entry in the Encyclopedia Americana 5 (1 8 3 6) devoted one full page to him, ending in a laudatory manner, praising him as one of the greatest of writers.^ Two decades later, in 1859> the New American Encyclopedia J { ' ! carried a straight objective account of several pages; it i 8 I was full and somewhat extended in detail. ! One of the earliest biographies to be printed in this country during the nineteenth century was Thomas Campbell's short critical biography prefixed to the two major poems in his Specimens of the British Poets (1 8 1 9).^ This was t ! ; ! I ^"Johnson, Boswell, and Croker," 19:449-453, 1831 (from |the Monthly Magazine); 1 9: 6 7 6-6 8 9, 1831 (from the Edinburgh I Review)♦ ! f i j °20:12-14, 1 8 3 2. ’ I i ^Encyclopedia Americana: A Popular Dictionary of Arts, i Sciences ♦ . ., ed. Francis Lieber, new edition (Philadel phia, 1 6 3 6), V, 553-554. I * 8 New American Encyclopedia, ed. George Ripley and •Charles S. Dana (New York, 1 8 5 9), VIII, 355"359. 1 ______^S p e c i m e n s 0f British Poets: with Biographical andJ - 6 8 fundamentally a factual biography distinguished only by its concern for the social and economic theory of The Deserted Village. The first American biographical studies of any conse quence to appear in the first quarter century were published in The Portfolio. One was a sympathetic analysis of the re lationship between Goldsmith the man and his works; the oth- fer was a perfunctory essay on his life which questioned his excellence in prose and in verse. j ! | The first of these, which appeared in 1811, was far ahead of its time, and revealed analytic tendencies charac teristic of the mature critical attitude which was to becoirua prevalent almost a generation later.10 The author of this j j article, a thorough student of Goldsmith biography, recog- ! 1 ; nized the central problem in dealing with the man. He wrote: I ; i Few characters can be found more interesting than Oliver | Goldsmith, and where we shall have to entertain more dif- ! I ficulty of analysis, (p. 212) kfter a particularized discussion of Goldsmith's "incongrui- jty between tongue and pen,” he enters upon a careful but notj Elaborate exposition of Goldsmith's personal difficulties, [the problems of his life, and the manner in which his genius ! 1 Critical Notices, and an Essay on English Poetry (London, ! I8 1 9), VI, 251-267. It was published in America in Works of the British 'Poets (Philadelphia, l8l9~l823)* Vol. 30* Spec-1 Imens was reprinted in Philadelphia in 1 8 5 3, 1855* and 1 0 6 9. | | Comment on the Character and Writings of Oliver jGoldsmith," 6:211-225, 3d ser., l8ll. evolved. Goldsmith's literary character, so the writer thinks, began with his personal faults. Among these were thoughtlessness in conversation, credulity, and an avowed desire for fame and money. But he was the dupe of his friends, who alienated him from themselves by their abuse and open scorn. Alone and despondent, he took his own route to pursue fame. In his art he attempted to show the world as he saw it, so that "his page is . . . rightly considered the epitome of his life" (p. 221). Goldsmith was always re porting external reality. In fact, the critic says, "beyond all men of that age, he succeeded . . . In hiding himself behind his subject" (p. 222). These opinions, which are supported by examples from his writings and life, are excep tional, considering the early period at which they were written. They are likewise outstanding as the first Ameri can statement of the major topics of Goldsmith biography which were later to occupy critics. Among these are: the nature and effects of his loneliness, particularly as it in duced him to write; his desire for fame; the reliability of Boswell; his artistic preoccupation with real life; and his feeling of frustration arising out of his limited powers. The article particularly foreshadows Dr. Daniel Curry and Mrs. Kirkland. The next American biographical treatment of any conse quence was the "Life of Oliver Goldsmith," which appeared in The Portfolio in 1822.^ This was a short recital of the main events of Goldsmith's life, displaying a marked famili arity with the material. The writer made his article the occasion to question Goldsmith's excellence in prose and verse. This was the first adverse criticism of Goldsmith that had appeared in the twenty years of the magazine's his tory. j During the fourth decade of the century, articles on Goldsmith appeared with greater frequency. Much space was devoted to the interpretation of his enigmatic personality. During the preceding decades, it had been the habit of the journals to concentrate upon his eccentricities. This ten- t dency was, for the most part, traceable to the anecdotal bharacter of the biographical material then being made pub- I lie. After 1830, and continuing steadily until 1 8 5 0, there ; i • was an obvious tendency in America to take the events in his: life seriously. Now, rather than ridiculing him, critics made honest attempts to define Goldsmith's genius and to I I bolve the riddle of his personality. Almost every reviewer had his own theory and made his review the occasion of an i intricate statement of it. ; One of the most sympathetic of these treatments was an j essay on Goldsmith, in the form of a burlesque chapter of ' Boswell's Life of Johnson, that appeared in Harvardiana in j ! | ' 1 1;113:473-487, June 1822. r ■ 71 i 12 1 8 3 6. This was during James Russell Lowell's student years at Harvard, and it is not impossible that he had a hand in it. An editor's note explains the situation of the burlesque: The following article, containing a fictitious conversa tion between the characters introduced, has been handed us t by a friend. It may be necessary to premise that the ac- ' count is supposed to be written by Boswell, and that the j parties are imagined to be in America, and acquainted with ' the events that have transpired— since their death. (p. 1 91) Johnson, Burke, Goldsmith, and Boswell have just returned to I • Boston after a tour of the Southern States. Johnson, who had "never expected to rest with so much satisfaction, in the seat of revolutionary principle," after "a more exten- 1 ; j isive acquaintance with the people of America, . . . was fasti lessening his antipathy to the nation." While Boswell is j busy arranging things for Johnson's comfort, Goldsmith is "drinking wine, declaring that the books [that lay upon a side-table] were such as they had all seen and read before." After a brief lull, Boswell inquires of Johnson how he likes America. The answer is long and guarded, and the con versation passes to a discussion of Cobbett, who is judged ito be wanting in "the sagacity, the forecast, and expanded views" of Franklin (p. 93). Wordsworth's "Yarrow Revisited," f : 1 i just published, is mentioned and discussed, Johnson declar- j ling: "Wordsworth's poetry is wanting in common sense." I I 1 i i o | "Bozzy," "Dr. Johnson, Burke, Goldsmith, and Boswell, Harvardlana. 2:91-96, November 1 8 3 5. Shortly Goldsmith commences an exchange of words that ends | heatedly. Then Goldsmith bungles a subtle pun Involving Strong beer and a porter named Brown. The dialogue con cludes with a display of Johnson’s affection for the de pressed and humiliated Goldsmith: j JOHNSON (with eyes sparkling benignantly). "The soul of a ' noisy politician and scurrilous writer cannot appreciate i the exquisite polish and flow of your verse, or harmonize ' with the refreshing tranquility and truth of the pictures ; j it represents. | GOLDSMITH. "Thank you, thank you, Sir, you are very | kind." (p. 96) ! The picture of Goldsmith is generally in keeping with feoswell's, although the writer deliberately contrives buf- | foonery to heighten the pathetic conclusion. Goldsmith wants to "shine," he talks much, and he quibbles with John- ■ pon 'about monopolizing the conversation. His jokes are poor knd they miss fire. He is temperamental and sensitive, yet ! 1 : the tenor of the essay is so contrived as to present Gold- | jsmith as an artist whose greatest concerns are remote from the foolish conditions of everyday life. i 1 } Although there were occasional essays such as this, I ’ ! most of the creative criticism of Goldsmith was incorporated! ! I ! , in the reviews of the biographies of Prior and Forster. 1 These two books received a limited public reception in Amer ica, but their appearance was most important for the criti- j j ! cal reaction they provoked. j In 1 8 3 7# James" Prior published his two-volume Life of j Oliver Goldsmith. M.B.. from a Variety of Original Sources, j In the same year Carey and Hart brought out the American edition.^ in writing the biography, Prior was faced with a difficult task, since--beyond Percy’s notes— the materials were either scattered or difficult to obtain. The standard estimate of Prior’s Life is that it shows all the good re sults of great industry. Prior turned up many facts and anecdotes that have been commonly adopted by subsequent bi ographers. Unfortunately, as Forster later remarked, Prior seemed to be of the opinion that he retained the sole option1 on all the matter he discovered.14 Prior later accused For ster of wholesale plagiarism for having used the facts, even though Forster was careful to acknowledge his borrowings. Nor was Irving immune from attack, even though he admitted indebtedness in his second Life of Oliver Goldsmith (1849) I ; to "the indefatigable Prior" who "had collected and collated; the most minute particulars of the poet’s history with un wearied research and fidelity."1^ Prior issued an eight- page tract entitled "Goldsmith's Statue," which denounced Irving for having stolen his material.1^ I I The fullest definition of Prior's accomplishment was ! "^Philadelphia, 1837. \ ^ l4The Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith (London, 1855)* p. viii. i ; ! 1^01iver Goldsmith: A Biography (New York, 1849), p. 3.> Irving wrote three biographies of Goldsmith. j 1^"James Prior," Dictionary of National Biography. XVI,! 396-397. j 74 stated twenty-two years later by Irving’s reviewer in The Literary World: Mr. Prior's life was not so much a biography as an actual resurrection of the man, Oliver Goldsmith. It has been the fashion to fasten all sorts of ludicrous blunders upon his name, to represent him as clumsy, envious, and in his better moments a kind of inspired fool, over whom Johnson had cast a mantle of charity. Goldsmith was the butt of small anecdote-mongers;--though indeed his Poems and the Vicar spoke for themselves. Prior sifted the most popular stories, and scattered several of those legends to the ■ winds. . . . This was the service rendered by Prior.^7 American reviews of Prior were few in number. One of the most significant was that of E. T. Channing, which ap- - i O peared in the North American Review. (Because of its ana lytical nature, it will be considered later in conjunction with the psychological interpretations by the Rev. Daniel Curry and Mrs. Kirkland.) The anonymous review that appeared in the New York Review and Quarterly Church Journal. although revealing no exceptional insight, exhibited a familiarity with the problems of Goldsmith b i o g r a p h y .^ i>he reviewer was sufficiently sensitive to Goldsmith's writings and the known facts of his life to recognize Prior's technical accu- PO racy. Yet he could not avoid noting his deficiencies. 175:173, September 1, 1849. l845:91-ll6, 1837- 191:280-298, March 1 8 3 7. 20 The reviewer includes an interesting correction of one of Prior's facts. Goldsmith's brother Charles went to the West Indies and had two sons and two daughters. One daughter resided in England, and the other is supposed to have died. The reviewer says of the former that this lady married and is now a widow "living among us, . . . and is said, with a close family resemblance, to possess many of 75 He is interested mainly in Goldsmith as a writer who leads the life of a writer: i The literary character never had a freer exhibition, with ’ its literary lights and shades, its gayety and sorrow, its: defects of imprudence, its virtues of benevolence than in the person of Oliver Goldsmith. Linked to a thousand foi- j bles but no crimes, the sport of every chance folly but never truant to the call of virtue, he pursued his irregu- j lar course, the most pitied and best loved among his con temporaries. His biography is the record of the old lit- i ; erary life. (p. 200) The reviewer likes to envision that past period of happy in difference when the author lived from day to day. It is a {Living Goldsmith he would like to see. He dislikes the phrase "poor Goldy," an epithet which has unfortunately ''grown familiar as a proverb" (p. 280). Goldsmith was con tented and lived his life as he wanted to live it. He con- i tinues: i , A great deal of commiseration has been thrown away upon 1 the poor author, who perhaps, after all, is a happier man 1 than is the patron. (p. 2 8 0) Writers do not suffer any more than do men in other profes- i sions (p. 281). This phase of the review is interesting in kts attempt to show Goldsmith as a man of action and deter- i | 21 mination, the literary hero living the strenuous life. I jthe kind virtues of the poet" (p. 293)* The remark would seem to place one of Goldsmith's relatives in America. j j I PI I 1 The question of whether Goldsmith suffered has been discussed by the Romantic critics, notably DeQuincey, who {objected to the notion that Goldsmith had more than ordinary afflictions. "The Eighteenth Century in Scholarship and Literature," The Works of Thomas DeQuincey (Boston, 1877)* V, 338. L . . . . . . . . . J .... 76 He passes to the main problem of Goldsmith biography: the lack of competent and interested biographers contempora neous with or close to him. Goldsmith, he says, « appears slightly on the surface as comprehending the sim ple life of a man of letters disentangled from the inter- , ests of party politics or religion: but this very case constitutes a difficulty. (p. 2 8 2) No detractors exposed him; he had no Mrs. Piozzi. i No one has erected a simple monument to his worth. While j entire hecatombs were sacrificed at the altar of Johnson, j scarce a single offering was presented at the deserted j face of Goldsmith. s ; This defect Prior has remedied. His diligence is to be com-, mended; the Life does honor to the poet. I But with all this, the reviewer would like a full his- ! i jtory of the intellectual sources of Goldsmith's works. In short, Prior, with his honest zeal for his subject, has re- ; mained too objective: he has attempted to substitute a de- j 1 jtailed and sober arrangement of facts for an explanation of i Why Goldsmith was the writer he was. i ! Mr. Prior's life of Goldsmith is rather an accumulation of [ facts and criticism than, properly speaking, a classic bi- j ography. (p. 293) The demand for exploration and definition of Goldsmith's Igenius marks this review as one of the earlier attempts at a Complete understanding of the man as writer. | A review in the Christian Quarterly Spectator sought in Goldsmith's writings what the previous writer had found j '.77 op wanting in Prior. The author concentrated upon the works themselves, with particular emphasis on The Vicar of Wake field. A major part of the review was given over to a de- 4 tailed listing of the major characteristics of his works, mostly of a biographical character. The first of these was ; an "indication rather of genius, than erudition" (p. 25). Neither speculative nor ideal, Goldsmith had a natural in sight into human nature. His writings were thus "fascinat ing narratives of simple truths, set off with only moderate ornaments, showing the accuracy of his observation, and his understanding of that which pleases mankind" (p. 26), Gold smith noted the external forms of things and could read into, the human heart. This "mastery over the soul" the writer i : jthought a product of genius. The second characteristic was j f * jthe striking evidence in his novel of the circumstances of j jGoldsmith’s life. His early poverty and low station in life1 Jgave him a common sympathy with men, with the result that he; Sdwelt on tender scenes. A third characteristic was the ! ! presence in his work of Goldsmith’s own private history and j Jthat of his friends, the ultimate effect being that he re flects all mankind. The fourth characteristic was a "nega- , Live influence in respect to the cause of morality and reli-: fgion" (p. 29). Goldsmith escaped infidelity and teaches i i virtue. But his writings have a negative merit so far as j i : i 2210:18-37, 1837. regards "religion and the great permanent interests of hu manity" (p. 31). The reaction against Boswell and the anecdotal biogra- : f ! phers who held Goldsmith up to ridicule was continued by a reviewer in the American Quarterly Review.23 The writer re joiced that Prior counteracted the older detractors. For the most part, this review was a recital of the main events pf Goldsmith's life, with a more than ordinary emphasis upon! the letters reprinted by Prior. I i | The stress upon Goldsmith's personality was continued in an essay by Henry Theodore Tuckerman first published in 1840 in The Southern Literary Messenger.2^~ This essay, Which was subsequently reprinted in Thoughts on the Poets ;(l846), and numerous times as an introduction to Poems, Plays, and Essays,2^ was one Qf the most widely reprinted appreciations of Goldsmith's personality in the entire cen- 1 bury. The essay, while poorly organized and discursive, pontained a large amount of information and judicious criti- 5 ! i i jcism. With Aikin's Memoir of Goldsmith, with which it was 1 : often reprinted, it provided the reader with an adequate 2321:460-515, June 1837. 1 246:267-274, April 1840. j J 23The history of this edition is difficult to follow, ! since the printings were undated. It was published with the| Imprint of Thomas Y. Crowell, New York. Tuckerman's "Intro ductory Essay" is on pp. vii-xxvii. This edition will here after be referred to as Poems. Plays, and Essays. i ” ' . 79 interpretation of the man and writer. ' . Tuckerman sees a consistency between Goldsmith’s life and his works. His study is, however, almost exclusively i dne of personality. He begins by contrasting the posthumous hegard for Burke, Johnson, and Goldsmith. Burke, he says, enjoys a larger share of admiration, while Johnson is the more respected. "But the labors of their less pretending bompanion have secured him a far richer heritage of love" i j (p. ix). Goldsmith is loved, and this love | bespeaks a greater than ordinary association of the indi- ; ; vidual with his works and, looking beyond the mere embodi- | ment of his intellect, it gives assurance of an attractive ness in his character which has made itself even through J the artificial medium of writing. (p. ix) i His premise is that both Goldsmith's personal actions and 1 his writings have a directness growing out of the fact that he could never be other than himself. I . ; 1 The primary and pervading charm of Goldsmith is his truth.1 ) It is interesting to trace this delightful characteristic, | as it exhibits itself no less in his life than in his j writings. (p. xi) Tuckerman cites as an example the honesty of his speech in all things. "All who have sketched his biography united in j declaring that he could not dissemble." The perfect honesty of his spirit made him throughout his lifetime the butt of t many practical jokes. j ! j The simplicity, honesty, and inability to dissemble, jTuckerman thinks, explain the charm of his work. Because of his naive and direct view of life, he was able to reach the I jheart. In his peculiar ability to reveal the truth as j clearly as he saw it lies his greatness. Tuckerman thinks that ; it can be demonstrated that truth is one of the most es sential elements of real greatness and surest means of j eminent success. (p. xi) Truth, then, not his art, is Goldsmith’s endearing quality. ; His works reveal more the man than the author. If Goldsmith could not dissemble in his personal life, neither could he in his writing, which stressed reality more than fiction, truth of content more than form. Tuckerman reasons at length on this subject: j When Goldsmith penned the lines— ! To me more dear, congenial to my heart, ; One native charm than all the gloss of art, \ 1 : ! he furnished the key to his peculiar genius, and recorded ; j the secret which has embalmed his memory. It was the ■ ! clearness of his soul which reflected to truly the imagery i of life. He did but transcribe the unadorned convictions ; J that glowed in his mind, and faithfully traced the pic- j tures which nature threw upon the mirror of his fancy. Hence the unrivalled excellence of his descriptions. (p. j xii) Accordingly this trait would account for several of his | j technical characteristics: The genius of Goldsmith was fertilized by observation. . . . There is a class of minds, second to none in native I acuteness and reflective power, so constituted as to flourish almost exclusively by observation. Too impatient | of restraint to endure the long vigils of the scholar, ! | they are yet keenly alive to every idea and truth which is ! evolved from life. (p. xiii) j i 1 He then compares Goldsmith to Hogarth, who consistently en- > I i iriched himself with sketches from life. Although Tuckerman ! ! ' ; jwill allow Goldsmith’s "claim to the title of scholar, by ; research and study,” he adds that the field most congenial ‘ to his taste was "the broad universe of nature and man” (p. ■ xiv). ! 7 Goldsmith consciously developed the power of observa- ! tion. Tuckerman interprets his lazy and desultory boyhood as, in fact, a period in which he exercised his earliest vir- I tue: "love of observation." "Few authors, indeed, are so highly indebted to personal observation for their materials." This statement is followed by a long list of instances from ; his writings based upon observation which are to be found in Ithe essays and desultory papers, as well as in the leading characters of his novels, plays, and poems. He will go as L ^ ! far as to say: j Most of his observations are borrowed from personal expe- j rlenee, and his opinions are generally founded upon exper- 1 iment. His talent for fresh and vivid delineation is ever j most prominently displayed when he is describing what he j actually witnessed, or drawing from the rich fund of his I early impressions or subsequent adventures. (p. xiv) j ! Tuckerman illustrates at least two tendencies in nine- ; teenth-century American Goldsmith criticism: (l) the incli- nation to reconcile his life with his art; and (2) the habit l of regarding him fundamentally as a realist. In the first, i jthe critic has shown remarkable ingenuity in tracing the pe culiar features of his writing to his personality. No other ^writer attempted such a task. In fact, most criticism was : In the other direction, that of enlightening the art by ap plication of the known features of his life. In the second,: i • i he was at least a generation in advance of his time. j 82 Dr. John Aikin's "Memoirs of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B." and "Remarks on the Poetry of Dr. Goldsmith" were less dis tinguished than Tuckerman's study, but they were perhaps the most widely disseminated treatments of Goldsmith to reach pfi the average reader. Both essays were used to introduce the Appleton edition of The Vicar of Wakefield (1842), de spite the lack of relevance of the "Remarks on Poetry."2^ This handsomely illustrated edition was reprinted often over a period of a quarter of a century. The two essays also ap peared in a standard collection of Poems» Plays. and Essays, first published by Phillips, Sampson, and Company, Boston, 1853. The following year Aikin's pieces were joined by Tuckerman1s "Introductory Essay." In 1849 Thomas Y. Crowell began publishing an illustrated edition of the Goldsmith Selections and the three introductory essays. The number of printings of this book cannot be ascertained because of the lack of either printing or copyright data. Judging from the frequency with which the book is encountered in second-hand bookstores and on library shelves, the edition must have been extraordinarily popular. In addition to most of Gold smith's poems and the two plays, the collection included pfi Dr. John Aikin (1747-1822) was an English physician who retired at an early age to devote himself to various literary undertakings. 2^This book was reviewed, ostensibly by Poe, in Gra ham 1s Magazine (January 1842). The review will be discussed elsewhere in this chapter. - 831 thirty-one of the Essays. The most nearly complete life of Goldsmith yet pub lished is John Forster's The Life and Adventures of Oliver ; Goldsmith: A Biography: in Four Books. Its publication in London in 1848 immediately preceded Irving's, and directly influenced Irving to write his third biography of Goldsmith. i A revised edition appeared in 1 8 5 4, under the title of Life j • : and Times of Oliver Goldsmith. A third, cheap, edition, this time "abridged and newly edited with notes, etc.," was j prepared in l855> under the title of The Life of Oliver Goldsmith. i i i Forster's biography provoked relatively little reaction In America, no doubt because it was not published here, and i also because it was a very expensive volume. With its elab orate index and critical apparatus, it is still the most Useful and complete biography of Goldsmith. The most exten sive American review was Dr. Daniel Curry's imaginative i 28 treatment in the Methodist Quarterly Review. This essay, ! an elaborate attempt to explain Goldsmith's personality, 1 will be considered later in this chapter. I The appearance of the biographies by Prior, Forster, j and Irving produced three outstanding reviews that attempted; bo define Goldsmith's genius and to solve the riddle of his ; personality. Because of their similarity, it is best to i ! i I I 2831:351-377, 1849. consider them together as evidence of the seriousness with ; which he was treated by critics as the century approached its mid-point. These reviews by Channing, Curry, and Kirk- j land may be considered the major American contributions to Goldsmith scholarship before 1849. E. T. Channing made his review of Prior’s Life the oc casion of an extended thesis on the superficial nature of Goldsmith's social consciousness.29 Like the writer in The i New York Review and Quarterly Church Journal. Channing iso lated Goldsmith's artistic and moral consciousness from the wearing concerns of his environment. Channing held that he was a lonely genius with an insight into truth. After noting the apparent aimlessness of Goldsmith's ! early life, he asks: ’ ’Where then was this extraordinary j mind educated and furnished?" (p. 94). In attempting to an-; swer the question, he is thrown back upon the old problem of i the disparity of Goldsmith's personal immorality and the j purity of his art. Says Channing: j The difficulty of a Goldsmith biography is, in part, that j uncommon power should exist with as signal weakness, and : sometimes in respect to precisely the same things, (p. 94); He continues, searching for an answer: , It is in vain that we would account for these things by ; the commonplaces, that the mind has compartments; that genius lives in a world of its own; that the tendency to ! excessive development in one part of our nature, implies a corresponding weakness elsewhere; and that the more per fect our sense and love of the ideal are, the less fitted f 29North American Review. 45:91-116, 1837- 1 r - .-.85 i we must be for common life and action. He then assumes Goldsmith's greatness as a writer, and pro ceeds to construct a theory of the source of this genius. It is based on the premise that Goldsmith was aware of his greatness and consciously cultivated this awareness. He y\ras, Channing says, of the opinion that ’ ’the world has a right to know and notice only such of a man's productions as i he wrote for reputation and bread" (p. 97)* : i Assuming Goldsmith's insistence upon excellence, Chan- j ning dismisses as irrelevant any of the speculation involving jGoldsmith's morals or idiosyncrasies taken at their face val ue. He objects, for instance, to Prior's apology for Gold- : pmith's "faults and follies" and to representing them with jas little to his discredit as possible (p. 99)* On the oth-j i •• i jer hand, the eccentric and amiable qualities he regards as j I ] evidence of a spiritual isolation. Concerning the more ob vious display of concupiscence, he comes to this conclusion:! 1 I We think we can see the source* of many of Goldsmith's er- ; j rors and mortifications in his inferior temper. It is his ! own confession that he wants a strong, sturdy disposition.; f He is in perpetual fluctuation, tossed with perplexities, ; chagrined at titles, sensitive to every touch, as ready to; I be delighted as disturbed, little qualified to see things j I in their true proportions, and we had almost said at the I mercy of everybody. (p. 100) I i j j It was because of this susceptibility that he gained notori- j ! ety in a literary society in which so many could not compre- « 1 hend him, and before whom he appeared to disadvantage (p. 1 jl04). He had, however, a large number of amiable qualities 1 ; land pleasing characteristics, not all of which were an j unmixed blessing— such as his lack of prudence and of all selfish considerations, and the frailty of unthinking benev olence (p. 1 0 3). 1 Channing concludes that Goldsmith had an individual as ; well as social consciousness, and that he could easily dis- ' tinguish between them. Mostly because of his native kind- heartedness, he was never troubled by being hurt by others. Insulted and ridiculed in public, he never projected his in jured pride into his art. Hence, says Channing, we are strongly inclined to think that his social life was the superficial part of his existence, at least that noth-' ing ill had struck deep, and that his highest mental being is only to be seen where he has retired within himself. (p. 1 0 6) I The authentic Goldsmith, then, is the writer who utilizes ■ I his individual genius in absorbed and self-directed action. | Dr. Daniel Curry’s review of Forster in the Methodist ; Quarterly Review had some of Channing’s psychology, but less of his sympathy for Goldsmith.-^ It is characterized by a severe moral tone and a certain narrowness. The review con-; siders Forster’s book as emphasizing Goldsmith's character growth as a symptom of his genius. He posits a critical de-i velopment in Goldsmith's life from a mere literary facility j to a great artist who had a deep and commanding insight into 3°3i:351”377- Dr. Daniel Curry (1 8 0 9-1 8 8 7) was a Methodist educator and pastor in New York and Georgia. He contributed over sixty articles to periodicals, and was for a time editor of the Methodist Review. In 1847 he edited j Southey's Life of John Wesley. j « | ' "" ~.. ..” ”'87] human nature and into himself. ^ Curry sees Goldsmith’s early sufferings and broodings, ; upon which he dwells at length, as exercising a good disci pline upon his eager and adventurous spirit. After the at- ; tack upon patronage in An Enquiry Into the Present State of , Polite Learning in Europe, he seems to have given over "his phildish whimperings, and to have risen in conscious self- dependence, resolved to be a man" (p. 364). Thus, fortified' with confidence. he wrote the Chinese Letters and became S ---------------- sought after; his rooms became the frequent resort of the wits of London. ! : j After some close attention to Goldsmith’s major works, Curry devotes the four final pages to an ingenious theory involving the contradiction between Goldsmith’s self-esteem j knd self-distrust as the key to his personality diffioul- ! [ties. The matter demands an extended consideration at this ! time. He assumes in Goldsmith two apparently contradictory j mental qualities: self-esteem and self-distrust. j j j \ j By the combined action of these he was rendered ex- j j tremely sensitive. Esteeming himself highly, he was quick ; to feel any seeming insult; and, conscious of a want of j power to enforce respect, his spirit writhed under the j ! tortures of unmerited contempt. I Had his self-esteem been seconded by self-confidence, ] I it would have given occasion to towering pretensions and j pride of opinion,--he would have borne the patronizing airj of superiority, and even his kindness would have had the appearance of the condescension of self-complacent dignity, j But, in the absence of self-confidence, self-esteem is j vanity, and becomes the occasion of a thousand ridiculous schemes to gain applause, and of most poignant disappoint ment when it is withheld. How fully all this is mani- j _ fested in the life of Goldsmith must be plain to everyone j I acquainted with the subject. Self-esteem, Curry thinks, was not always evil. It has often been a subject of wonder that a style of un- . equalled purity was attained by one whose associations j were so generally vulgar. His self-esteem affords a ready ! solution. In his low estate he always felt that he was ; wronged and degraded by his position. He esteemed himself too good to commune in sentiment with his low-minded asso ciates, and so, although he lived among them, he never ! learned their language. The remaining remarks carry the analysis to a painful ex- i treme: His self-distrust . . . which ever attended him as his i I evil genius, was constantly paralyzing his energies and frightening him from asserting his just claims. In chlld- ! hood, among his playfellows, it made him a cowering under ling,— afraid to lift up his head and to assert his rights, I In school, and at college, it crushed his ambition, and j forced him to despair of success among his inferiors. In i his painful and protracted struggles for a place in socie- i ty, it constantly stood in his way, and made him falter, I when perseverance would have secured success. And when, i at length, his genius forced him above his degradations, ' | it followed him still, and, in innumerable instances, be trayed him into deep and painful humiliations. Respect is j never given as alms,--it is seldom awarded to the claims | of justice, except in view of the power to enforce those I claims. That power Goldsmith had not, and so was laughed 1 J at and bantered by his inferiors wherever he came. j Intimately connected with this distrust of self, and j perhaps resulting from it, was his want of self-control;--; I for he was accustomed to act from momentary impulse rather! j than fixed principles. His beneficence, though it often robbed him of his last penny, was not charity; nor was his: prodigality, at the expense of others, dishonesty. He gave from the impulse of pity merely; and, when his own wants gave the present impulse, he gratified them at any I j expense,--whether by pawning a borrowed suit, or by bor- ' rowing a sum that he would never attempt to pay. The im- [ i mediate impulse was always his paramount law. j 1 ! At this point Curry explains our possession of Goldsmith’s | i literary output. j [ „ Without. _fixed purposes or decision of character, it is j r~'“....... ’ ' 89 wonderful that he succeeded as well as he did; and the world may thank the hand of hard necessity for its proper ty in the fame and works of Oliver Goldsmith. He wrote that he might eat; and because the demands of hunger were i oft-recurring and imperious, he wrote steadily; and so his labors became habitual, not from the steadiness of his purposes, but from the unceasing demands of his necessi ties. Artistic skill thus came unasked to the aid of his ; genius, and by their united agencies, operating with the power of habits formed most unwillingly, were produced those exquisite works that irradiate his name. (pp. 375~ 376) i . ; Curry's explanation of Goldsmith's personality can be 1 j summed up thus: (l) Two mental properties of self-esteem and self-distrust were at work in him. (2) He had self-es- ! 1 ! teem without self-confidence, and this combination often made him look ludicrous. (3) Self-esteem accounts for the I ! purity of his style, for he wanted to shine above his vulgar I i i associates. (4) His self-distrust paralyzed his energies: respect cannot be claimed Justly without the power to demand i that respect and enforce it. (5) He lacked self-control: his charity was only from impulse, as were his vices. (6) He succeeded only because of his improvidence, and he became i ■ ; a great author only because starvation drove him to writing. I | Curry's explanation is interesting though over-simpli- ; fied. It fails to distinguish between Goldsmith's major works and his pot-boilers. The pressure of creditors could j hot account for the polish of The Deserted Village, nor for ! | < the sly humor of The Vicar of Wakefield, nor for the daring ; of She Stoops to Conquer. Superficial and contrived though Curry's explanation is, it is a characteristic pre-Irving exampleof the American attempts to explain the source,j rather than the credentials, of Goldsmith's genius. One of the common qualities of the criticisms of the three great biographies of Goldsmith was the conviction that he was not understood. The two reviewers just discussed were content that the psychological basis of his art must be explored. Mrs. C. M. Kirkland, reviewing Irving's biography in the North American Review, was of the opinion that a so lution lay in a reassessment of Goldsmith and his works 'from, the standpoint of historical perspective.^ Her review deals for the most part with the dark side of Goldsmith's i life, but asserts that he also knew what joys life ought to afford. He is to her the romantic hero who intended higher ! i i than he could soar. She attempts to explain the treatment j accorded Goldsmith in the Johnson circle in the light of his uneasiness on his deathbed. "There was an obvious habitual j I ' insolence in that circle when Goldsmith was in company," she; says (p. 270). This insolence can be explained. Boswell, she continues, was incapable of appreciating Goldsmith be- i cause there was something in Goldsmith that he could not {treat in "a big book about a big man." Nor was Johnson, who{ j | was ever Goldsmith's best friend, always charitable: "Even i his friendship had a certain admixture of contempt" (p. 271).32 | \ \ | j 3170:265-289, April 1850. ! J 3^Mrs. Kirkland was among the anti-Boswellians who ven tured forth after Irving's outspoken attack. "To disparage j ~ : ' ' \ I Mrs. Kirkland’s contention is that Goldsmith as a per sonality conies clear only from a historical perspective. We Of today can see him--the Goldsmith of the biographies, of his novel, of his plays, of his poems, of his essays, and of his oriental letters— more as a living, integrated being j ;than could his contemporaries. The kernel of her theory is ; that Goldsmith had a sort of inferiority complex. j The more we study the accounts of Goldsmith, the more we | become convinced that the unfavorable impression made by I his manners was inevitable, and that we ought not to blame. too Indignantly a want of personal respect to which his j writings would seem to prove his personal claim. We can- j not deny the truth of the proverb, that manners make the | man; although something very different is required to make ! the writer whose memory shall be regarded with honor and 1 affection wherever his language is spoken. It is we who : see and know Goldsmith— the essential Goldsmith. Those ! j about him could not see him among the disguising, deform- | ing, distressing accidents through which this clear, radi-' j ant soul was trying to make itself known, and which it at ! length burst from, in disappointment and despair. (p. 271) i ■ ; kis weaknesses, she thinks, are to be excused in part. At s . ■ ' i least, they compensate for his personal lack of discipline and social polish. A firm habit of restraint would have i .spoiled his sweet disposition. His contemporaries were in- papable of overlooking his faults or of seeing them in rela- i j tion to his whole personality. Thus modern readers have the advantage. 1 j Goldsmith, she thinks, appeared the way he did because I i (Goldsmith," she said, "to set forth his falling in the worst1 (light, and to flatter Johnson by contrasts and comparisons, ; ;was, therefore, the care of this prince of toadies" (p. 271). ' 92; throughout his life he hungered for success and greatness, only to be dogged by failure. However precious the results 1 of his wayward life to posterity, he felt all through it the almost unmingled bitterness of failure (p. 2 8 7). The great er part of his life was affected by a melancholy reverie in ; which he relived the frustrating incidents of his youth and j early days in London. He was, she holds, speaking of him self when he wrote: j Almost all those men who have lived long by chance, and j whose every day may be considered as a happy escape from | famine, are known at last to die in reality of a disorder j caused by hunger, but which, in the common language, is | called a broken heart. When he replied that his mind was not at ease, so Mrs. Kirk- \ land thinks, he was even on his deathbed hungering for greatness. Goldsmith had ambition and weakness, and was i haunted even from his boyhood by constant failure. Thus s when he came to die, since the passion of his whole life had been but a preparation for immortality, he was convinced jthat he was a failure. Mrs. Kirkland contends that Goldsmith, who hungered for; greatness, achieved an immortality of which only future gen- i ierations could become aware. Her essay marks the last of j ithe psychological assessments. After 1849, when Irving's j I ' Oliver Goldsmith: A Biography was made available to every j j i American reader, a new conception of Goldsmith became firmly i i implanted in the American literary consciousness. Irving's : realistic portrait called the attention of readers to the i man, his sensitivity, his humor, his seriousness, his love E Of life, and his affection for the world. This dramatic 1 * portrait of a real man living in a real world drew the at tention of critics away from the earlier tendency to subject Goldsmith to psychological introspection that seemed to have; no other justification than the solving of a curious dilemma, 1 Irving Irving’s Oliver Goldsmith: A Biography (1849) has a considerable history, since it is the result of a third sue- j bessful attempt to record the life and some of the spirit of j the writer whom Irving so much admired. This American--he I ! I ; Was often called the "American Goldsmith”--was a pioneer (Goldsmith biographer. No more successful life of the writer; has appeared since Irving's third biography. And before j i either Prior or Forster had entered the field, Irving had composed his first biographical sketch. \ i ; Irving's first attempt was a short sketch written in i | 1824, and was intended to accompany a Paris edition of Gold-, 'smith's works.^3 This was a part of the "Collection^of Eng lish Literature" which he had agreed to edit for Gagliani. JThe Goldsmith volume was the only one of the projected se- ' { ries to appear, because the entire undertaking was too much jfor Irving. Notes in his memorandum book reveal that toward i ? \ I ! , ^ The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, with an ! Account of His Life and Writings, ed. Washington Irving, 3 ! jvols . (Paris, 1825) • J the end of March, 1824, he was engaged in a life of Rogers and was intending a life of Campbell. He never proceeded beyond this brief life of Goldsmith, and the remainder of the project fell to the ground.^ ' The Paris collection, containing what might be called | the preliminary sketch of the final Goldsmith life, had a considerable popularity. Reprints were brought out in Phil-! adelphia by J. Crissy in 1834, 1835, and 1 8 4 1 .3 5 Baudry in 1837 included it in a "Collection of Ancient and Modern j British Authors." In the same year Gagliani himself pub- j iLished a "new edition." In 1 8 5 0, no doubt capitalizing on the success of the final biography, Crissy and Markley pub- j lished a reprint. It was last published in 1857, when Bau- ; (dry brought it out again.^ Altogether, this slight work 1 which gave Irving so much trouble had seven publications. The life was well received by the critics. The New York Re-» view and Quarterly Church Journal said that it approached ! "what the life of the poet should be,--a just and elegant i ! j j . Pierre M. Irving, The Life and Letters of Wash ington Irving. 4 vols. (New York, 1 8 6 2), II, 191-204. This reference will hereafter be referred to as "Pierre Irving." 1 j 35copies of this original essay are now exceedingly ! rare. There is one in the library of Dr. Roderick Terry '[Stanley T. Williams, ed.. Journal of Washington Irving ! (1823-24) (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1931)» P • 151]. 1 I ! 36por complete details on this and others of Irving's ’ Goldsmith biographies see Stanley T. Williams and Mary Allen Edge, A Bibliography of the Writings of Washington Irving; a I Check List (New York. 1936). j 95; narrative of facts, with occasional reflection."37 Irving wrote a second biography late in 1840. At this time he prepared a mere sketch to accompany a collection, or selection, of Goldsmith's writings for ’ ’Harper's Family Li brary ." The edition was reprinted in the same year and in 1844. ; The best and most popular of all three lives was Oliver Goldsmith: A Biography (1849). This was lightly entered in- \ • ; ito, although it is apparent that he had long planned an ex- | tended life of Goldsmith. William Cullen Bryant gives an knimated account of its inception in his "Irving Commemora- bion Address" (i860): ; At Sunnyside, Irving wrote his Life of Oliver Goldsmith. Putnam, the bookseller, had said to him one day: "Here is j Forster's Life of Goldsmith; I think of republishing it." i | "I once wrote a memoir of Goldsmith," answered Irving, j "which was prefixed to an edition of his works printed at ; j Paris, and I have thought of enlarging it and making it j more perfect." "If you will do that, was the reply of ■ the bookseller, "I shall not republish the Life by For- I ster." Within three months afterwards, Irving's Life of j ! Goldsmith was finished and in the press.39 371:293, March 1837- ; 38rphe Life of Oliver Goldsmith. With Selections from his Writings. 2 vols. (New York,1840). The edition con- jtained: Vol. I: Biographical Sketch, Miscellaneous Essays, and selections from The Bee and The Citizen of the World: Vol. II: Continuation of The Citizen of the World and Mis- j cellanea. ! j 39pr0se Writings of William Cullen Bryant, ed. Parke Godwin, 2 vols. (New York, l884), I, 359* Cf. also Pierre j Irving, IV, 53* for Putnam's own account. Richard Garnett's1 ^explanation in the Encyclopedia Brltanniea. 11th ed. (New j |7ork, 1910), XIV, 8 5 7t gives a different account of Irving'S purposein writing this biography. He makes Irving say that) For his undertaking Irving interrupted The Life of George Washington (1855-5 9)* Although he wrote with enthus iasm, Irving was miserly with his time, almost begrudging every minute it kept him from his other work. Egged on by the schedule he had set for Washington, and perhaps fired by enthusiasm for Goldsmith, he wrote the book at fever pitch. The haste in which he wrote partially explains the single- i | ness of impression. Worried about his larger publication schedule, he kept the book constantly on his mind to the point where he could not sleep. By writing so rapidly, he "told his nephew, he was able to sustain the mood (Pierre Irving, IV, 321). The limitation of time, countered by the urge to devote more time to it, enabled him to concentrate bn the central theme of the book, which was Goldsmith's per sonality, and thus to avoid unnecessary details. ; i The salient facts of the background of Oliver Gold smith; A Biography are these: (l) It was taken up on a mere; suggestion, almost as if it were in the natural course of ; i events. (2) It was long planned, and hence had the marks ofj \ ' ' inature deliberation. (3) It was quickly written, in the i , jheat of one artistic effusion--and hence it was assured ! 1 i Irving's confident sympathy with his subject. ; I ___________________________ 1 his first "slight essay" was "too imperfect by comparison to be included among his collected writings," and that this ; {fact stimulated the later work. The immediate occasion of ; bourse was the one cited above. Garnett cites the title in-j borrectly. Examination of the manuscript shows that Irving relied heavily upon the earlier biographies, and incorporated clip pings from the first life of 1825. Of the 512 pages, 175 are partially or entirely composed of edited clippings.^ Irving's contributions to Goldsmith scholarship were few, if any. In approaching his subject, he decided to con centrate on Goldsmith as a man rather than on his writings. j i He did not intend a critical biography. Refraining from ex plication of Goldsmith's works and the causes of his aberra tions, he eliminated the risks of conjecture and thus as sured himself durability. He added no material that had not been included in Prior and Forster. He did, however, intro- \ * 9 duce an incident from Fanny Burney's diary, her anecdote about Boswell. The nearest he came to a major innovation Was his expansion of the Jessamy Bride episode. He told his- hephew (speaking of the materials he used) that he had i , | also made more of the Jessamy Bride, by adverting to the : dates in the tailor's bill and fixing thereby the dates of j certain visits to her. (Pierre Irving, IV, 5 8) i Oliver Goldsmith: A Biography was published in New York by Putnam, and in London by John Murray. The former edition i iiO The manuscript is in the Seligman Collection of j Irvingiana in the New York Public Library. ! I £ 11 This is the most romantic legend that has come to be ; 'associated with Goldsmith. "The Jessamy Bride" was the name! ‘ given by Goldsmith to Mary Homeck, with whom he is supposed; jto have been in love. F. Frankfort Moore expanded it into a . novel, The Jessamy Bride (London, 1 8 9 6), and Augustus Thomas jbuilt his drama Oliver Goldsmith (1 9 0 0) around it. ■ "" " .' .98 was the more sumptuous, containing many illustrations by W. Rogers. It had an immediate and wide popularity. By Sep tember 1 9, 1849, the first 2500 copies had been disposed of,' and a second printing of 2000 copies was on sale. Since then, it has had an extensive but not complicated biblio graphical history. By 1936 there were forty-nine printings, the greater part of which are included in the many name edi tions of Irving's works (Knickerbocker, Hudson, etc.). High; school text series, which were in vogue from about 1900 to [ the 1 9 3 0's, featured the life in a number of annotated edi- i jtions. j The appearance of the book was eagerly anticipated by the public and the press. The Literary World, for instance,; ; i printed in its issue of July 21 the chapter on Goldsmith’s i travels (Chapter V) as a preview. 2 *2 Selections from the last pages of Dr. Daniel Curry's review of Forster in The l I Methodist Quarterly Review (dealing with Goldsmith's reli gion) appeared on August 11. The book itself was finally | ! reviewed on September 1. This review devoted one large page; i jof three columns to it, and dealt for the most part with a comparison of the treatments by Prior, Forster, and Irving.2*-^ The remarks set the pace for most of the reviews, declaring j ithat, while he cannot easily supersede Prior and Forster, i ! > f I | 425 ; 5 0-5 1, July 21, 1849- I j ^"Irving's Goldsmith," 5:173-174, September 1, 1849. -g9 Irving has contributed a "pleasing style, an apt setting for the graces of Goldsmith." i In a happy, narrative style, there can be nothing more de lightful than this biography of Goldsmith. It preserves I the numerous passages left us by the author in his letters or obvious references to himself, in a continued autobiog- j raphy, to which collateral materials and reflections are brought in as accessions. The new text insensibly melts ; into the original narrative of Goldsmith. The anecdotes ! are briefly and poignantly told. There is nothing extrin-1 j sic or foreign to the scene in the way of reference or discussion. Irving has preserved Goldsmith throughout in j a pure atmospheric medium. You feel that you are in the ! company of the hero of the story rather than of his biog- . raphy*. It is not til you have laid down the book at its close, and noted the rapid hours which have passed in its I perusal, that you think of your indebtedness to the nar rator. You may have read the story a hundred times; but you will read it again as a new thing in this Biography of Irving. (p. 174) i The reviewer is aware of two Goldsmiths as they appear in the book. The first is the Goldsmith "himself the head of i . : I his little circle in the lower strata of club life," where I ! he is the leader of convivial conversation in the Inns and i taverns. The other is the Goldsmith of moral example, whose > life teaches a serious lesson. I [ It teaches, not that authorship is to be avoided, for I Goldsmith was evidently born to be an author, but that no I felicity of genius can compensate its possessor for the j absence of those golden virtues, prudence and moderation, ! which, In the language of the classic aphorism, bring I along with them in their company every favoring Divinity ) of life. I This review contains the elements of the general critical I reaction to the biography. There is first Irving’s pleasing 1 and polished style, which is reminiscent of Goldsmith's own. Next, there Is the realistic tone and atmospheric consist- j [ency, which enable Goldsmith to come to life for the reader. 100 F i n a l l y , t h e r e i s t h e i n e v i t a b l e m o r a l c o n s i d e r a t i o n , w h ic h J i s now n o l o n g e r t o b e e x p l a i n e d , b u t i s t o b e a c c e p t e d a s a c o m p o n e n t o f G o l d s m i t h ' s p e r s o n a l i t y . j I r v i n g ' s f r i e n d s on T he K n i c k e r b o c k e r M a g a z in e g a v e him; I I a n e n t h u s i a s t i c r e v i e w , d e c l a r i n g i t " o n e o f t h e m o s t d e l i g h t f u l p i e c e s o f b i o g r a p h y we h a v e e v e r p e r u s e d . The 1 * jt r e a tm e n t i s m a rk ed b y tw o s i g n i f i c a n t t e n d e n c i e s w h ic h h a v e d o m in a t e d o n e s c h o o l o f t h e A m e r ic a n r e a c t i o n t o I r v i n g ' s b o o k . T he i d e n t i f i c a t i o n o f I r v i n g w i t h G o ld s m i t h i s e s t a b l i s h e d b y t h e r e v i e w e r ' s m a k in g I r v i n g ' s f i r s t p a r a g r a p h a p - 1 p l y t o h i m s e l f a s w e l l a s t o G o l d s m i t h . J F u r t h e r , i n b e i n g p r o - I r v i n g , t h e r e v i e w e r t a k e s s i d e s a g a i n s t B o s w e l l . T h i s : 's e n t im e n t i s m ade u n m i s t a k a b l e b y b o t h t h e e x t e n t a n d v e h e - ; m e n c e o f t h e r e m a r k s . ; i i j . We a r e g l a d t o p e r c e i v e t h a t M r. I r v i n g h a s a d u e a p p r e c i - | a t i o n o f t h a t i n e f f a b l e S c o t c h t o a d y , B o s w e l l . ( p . 3 4 9 ) M r. I r v i n g h a s d w e l t a t som e l e n g t h u p o n t h e s y c o p h a n t i c a n d t o a d y i n g c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s o f B o s w e l l , f o r t h e p u r p o s e ; d o u b t l e s s o f s h o w in g t h e quo a n im o o f h i s s n e a k i n g a n d i n - j s i d i o u s a t t a c k s u p o n t h e c h a r a c t e r o f h i s k i n d , g e n t l e - i h e a r t e d , i l l u s t r i o u s s u b j e c t , w h o s e m em ory w i l l l i v e i n j t h e a f f e c t i o n s o f h i s r e a d e r s w hen B o s w e l l ' s h a s s u n k i n t o i m e r i t e d c o n t e m p t . ( p . 3 5 1 ) 4 4 3 4 : 3 4 8 - 3 5 1 , O c t o b e r 1 8 4 9 . i | i r e v i e w e r h a d i n m in d t h e l i n e s : "The a r t l e s s b e - t n e v o le n c e t h a t b eam s t h r o u g h o u t h i s w o r k s ; t h e w h i m s i c a l , \ y e t a m i a b l e v i e w s o f human l i f e a n d human n a t u r e ; t h e u n - ( f o r c e d h u m o r, b l e n d i n g s o h a p p i l y w i t h g o o d f e e l i n g an d g o o d j s e n s e , a n d s i n g u l a r l y d a s h e d a t t i m e s w i t h a p l e a s i n g m e l a n c h o l y ; e v e n t h e v e r y n a t u r e o f h i s m e l l o w , a n d f l o w i n g , a n d s o f t l y - t i n t e d s t y l e , a l l seem t o b e s p e a k h i s m o r a l a s w e l l a s h i s i n t e l l e c t u a l q u a l i t i e s , a n d m ake u s l o v e t h e man a t t h e s ame t im e t h a t we a d m ir e t h e a u t h o r " ( p . I T ) . j The view that Irving has rescued Goldsmith from Boswell ex- : presses the consistent reaction of the Goldsmith enthusiasts: who were disgruntled by Boswell's treatment. ; Critics of Goldsmith are sharply divided in the Boswellt Irving controversy. There were several approaches to the correctness of the two biographers. (1) Depending upon the ; critic's judgment, either side may be espoused. Most Ameri cans favored Irving; some English reviewers, notably the writer for the Athenaeum. "unhesitatingly championed Bos- 46 / \ well. (2) There were those who attempted to discover why Boswell was wrong, or why he was an inept .biographer in this case. Mrs. Kirkland is an example of this tendency. (3) ; Finally, there were the compromisers, who held that Irving complemented Boswell. This last view was exemplified by Charles F. Richardson, who, in his treatment of American j literature (1 8 8 7-1 8 8 8) wrote that Irving's life j i forms a counterpart to Boswell's "Johnson"; no one whose j « idea of Goldsmith has been formed by Boswell can afford to: \ t Irving's presentation of the Irish poet and novel-; The other critical tendency noted in The Knickerbocker j Magazine review emphasized the similarity of Goldsmith's personality to Irving's, and that the greatness of the biog-: f < raphy was traceable to this common quality. Typical of this 1 8 8 7-1888), I, 2767 46No . 17, PP. 1151-52, 1849. ^ American Literature. 1607-1885. 2 vols. (New York, ___1 school was George Ripley, the distinguished head of the lit-! UR erary department of the New York Tribune. "Everything," he said, "combines to make this one of the most fascinating , pieces of biography in the English language" (IV, 54). He points out that Irving has "many similar intellectual ten dencies" with Goldsmith, and that this fact has allowed Ir- . ving to interpret, "with a cordial appreciation of the spir it of his writings," the picture of Goldsmith's life with grace, elegance, and charm. Then he declares that henceforth the two names of Irving and Goldsmith will be united in the recollection of the delightful hours which j each has given to such a host of "happy human beings." ! (IV, 56) J Ripley's remarks are typical of the embarrassment that j Irving suffered because of the tendency of certain crit- ; ics to regard as paramount not his disposition of the mate- j rials, but rather the manner in which he seemed either to ’ show Goldsmith's influence upon himself or to have assumed | Goldsmith's style and personality. ; A detailed examination of Irving's resemblance to Gold smith would require a consideration beyond the scope of this; paper. Yet it is a phenomenon that cannot be overlooked in any study of Goldsmith's reputation in the United States. 1 . I The reasons for this identification are several, foremost | j among which is the fact that so many Americans were coming ' I i ! j The review is reprinted in Pierre Irving, IV, 54-56. j Ripley sent the review to Irving. ! ; " 103 to know Goldsmith as a personality through Irving rather than through Boswell. The public habit of perceiving this similarity of style and literary personality began very ear-: ly in Irving's life. By the time of the final Goldsmith bi- bgraphy, it had grown to the charge that he was a servile j and dedicated imitator of his subject. The basis for this extreme view was his quotation, in his "Preface," of Dante’s! apostrophe to Virgil: | Thou art my master, and my teacher thouj i It was from thee and thee alone, I took | That noble style for which men honor me. (p. 4) f t writer in a weekly periodical was quick to claim him "a self-acknowledged imitator of that author [Goldsmith]."^ Pierre called his uncle's attention to the assertion, and [the embarrassed author could only reply that j he meant only to express his affectionate admiration of j i Goldsmith, but it would never do for an author to acknowl- I edge anything. He was never conscious of an attempt to j write after any model. No man of genius ever did. From : I his earliest attempts, everything fell naturally from him. j His style, he believed, was as much his own as though ! ! Goldsmith had never written--as much as his own voice. (IV, 60) This identification was widespread in England as well as in America. As early as 1820, the British journals were j [ i pointing out recognizable similarities in personality, atti tudes, and insights into life.^0 In 1842, Dickens spoke of : | ! t ! ! ^Pierre Irving, IV, 60. The periodical is not identi fied. I 50Cf. William B. Cairns, British Criticisms of American! Writings: .. ., University of Wisconsin Studies in Language] Irving's "own brother, Oliver Goldsmith."-^1 Thackeray was in the habit of calling Irving "the Goldsmith of our time."^2 ; The precise nature of Irving's similarity to Goldsmith has always been difficult to describe. Irving's own contem poraries were not accurate on the subject. The Literary World specified it as a "similar native ease, simplicity, jfche pervading good humor of his style. x t is perhaps possible that Irving's contemporaries regarded him as of Goldsmith's school because there were no others like him in i his retention of the polish and ease of expression charac teristic of the previous century. Arthur Hobson Quinn sug gests that Irving is the "successor of Addison and Goldsmith, i . . ^ i i largely because he wrote good English. The twentieth- I : |century attitude is that, while Irving had something in com mon with Goldsmith, the debt has been much e x a g g e r a t e d .^5 i ! I _________________________ ! and Literature, No. 12 (Madison, 1922). Cf. pp. 6 2-8 5. ' 51yha Pope-Hennessy, Charles Dickens (New York, 1945), ! p. 1 7 0. 52"Nil Nisi Bonum," Harper's Magazine. 20:542, March i860. 5%: 1 7 3, September 1, 1849. 5^The Literature of the American People: An Historical i and CriticalSurvey, ed. Arthur Hobson Quinn (New York, 1.951), p. 219. | 55QUinn# p. 2 1 7. William Dean Howells was of the opin ion that Cervantes, as well as Goldsmith, was responsible jfor Irving's style. "Irving's charm," he said, "came large- ily from Cervantes and the other Spanish humorists, . . . and he formed himself upon them almost as much as upon Gold smith."(My Literary Passions . . . (New York, 1895], P- 23.)j Perhaps the most careful review Irving received was that in the Gentleman's Magazine, which devoted over two pages to correcting ten of what the reviewer considered se- ; pious errors of fact (one of them a misquotation of the Jfirst line of The T r a v e l l e r ) . ^ Otherwise the review is fa vorable, almost flattering. Notwithstanding the defects, it declares, ! 9 j this, the latest account of the child of genius and na ture , will bid fair to be the most popular as it is the i most pleasing. j I - ; i Prior is too long, Forster is too discursive. Irving is a ; simpler, shorter, more familiar narrative. The reviewer be comes almost prophetic: i We presume that, for a considerable period at least, the biography of Goldsmith will close with this volume, for j everything seems to have been done in the collection of facts that diligence could accomplish; and few writers j could hope to surpass Mr. Washington Irving in the ease ; ; and gracefulness with which the narrative is composed. ! ) (P. 617) i \ 1 That the value of Irving's life depended on the read- i i er's depth of perception is bom out by the review in the Rthenaeum. which was broadly unfavorable. The reviewer questioned the truth of Irving's portrait, the validity of nis art, and Irving's dislike of Boswell. ' Irving compares Unfavorably with Forster in intent and breadth of success, j | There is a higher and more successful aim in Mr. Forster's! I 5 6 2 2: 6 1 6-6 2 0, n.s., December 1849- | 57No . 17, PP. 1151-52, 1849- The review called atten- ; tion to a number of Irving's errors in fact and spelling. j j volume than in Mr. Irving's. He vindicates the claims of , : genius with a masterly pen,--and paints what he has called ; elsewhere "that sorry and helpless interval between the patron and the public," the age of Goldsmith, with a wider; I knowledge of the sufferings of authorship and a keener sympathy with the claims of intellectual labour. (p. 1151) Le says that Goldsmith is better (that is, more broadly) un- i f derstood in Forster than in Irving, who "somewhat unneces- 1 . Sarily confines himself to the personal man." So, whereas ] •> Forster has a sound realism, Irving has expended himself up on dramatic art: 1 : ; Mr. Irving does not pretend to have made a single discov- j 1 ery in Goldsmith's life: he only wishes to tell us as j pleasantly and briefly as he can all that is known about j the poet--to bring the man before his readers in all his j aspects and sufferings, from his cradle to his grave. His! j book owes all that it has of novelty and charm to style, | reflection, apposite illustration and arrangement. The j style is easy--though not without its Americanisms ("to I loan small sums," &c.)--the reflections are generally just! 1 and flow naturally from the subject--the arrangement is that of a picture wherein the leading incidents are shown ; j in the foreground situations and the minor and less at- . tractive points are kept well in the background. j ! Finally, the reviewer remarks on the "captious deprecation of Boswell's talents which runs throughout." He defends ! i Boswell's genius with some indignation toward Irving, who 1 i had called him a "literary magpie" and an "intrusive syco- ! phant." j j The book went through a number of editions both in America and in England.^® By 1853 there had been seven j ( American and five English printings. After i860 it was I kA ; J For a complete list of the editions see Stanley T. Williams and Mary Allen Edge, A Bibliography of the Writings of Washington Irving: . . .. pp. 88-93* ' _ j regularly Included In Irving's collected works. It was pub lished in America twenty times before 1900. j Irving’s contribution to the American reception of Goldsmith the man must be evaluated within the context of the biographical interest of the preceding two decades. Be ginning with Tuckerman and Channing, there was a tendency to assume the greatness of Goldsmith’s works and to explain their qualities as results of specific phases of his genius --or to be concerned entirely with an explanation of his personality. Irving turned his attention away from both the psychological and literary phases of Goldsmith biography, 1 and concentrated upon a realistic re-creation of the man as i he might have appeared to his unprejudiced contemporaries. The effect was threefold: (l) Boswell appeared to have been refuted; (2) Goldsmith became an object of affection; and (3) Irving's biography, because of its stylistic and emotional qualities, became identified with the late nineteenth-cen- ! tury Goldsmith tradition in America. These effects had a I marked bearing on the American acceptance of Goldsmith's ! works, especially The Deserted Village and The Vicar of I Wakefield. Toward the end of the century, when Irving’s jversion of the man Goldsmith had become assimilated by the ^great generality of readers, there was a tendency among (Americans to identify Goldsmith the man with these two works 'in particular, to the exclusion of their intellectual merits. Biography After Irving Following Irving, very little significant biography of ; Goldsmith was written by Americans. The magazines continued; to carry occasional essays on his life, but the day of vig- ; orous enthusiasm was over. This is not to say that Gold- j smith was neglected. Irving's biography was often reprinted* and widely circulated. There were numerous estimates of him prefixed to the many editions of the individual works that s came from the presses. Some of these were inferior, but others--notably those of the Englishman Austin Dobson, whose entertaining treatments were made available to the American public in the l880’s--were valuable and authoritative. In j the latter part of the century the American awareness of j l Goldsmith's personality was entering upon a period of schol arly maturity. With one or two notable exceptions, the biographical treatments appearing in magazines were of an indifferent j quality. In 1 8 5 0, Littell's Living Age republished from j Sharpe's Magazine (London) a composite biography made up of i selections from Prior, Forster, and Irving.^9 it was popu- ; lar, undistinguished, with a tendency toward the pathetic. ! Without a doubt the most important article to appear in a | magazine was Lord Macaulay's "Essay on Goldsmith," which was first printed in America in Harper's Monthly Magazine in j - ^ F r e d e r i c k Lawrence, "Goldsmith and His Biographers," j Littell's Living Age. 24:337# February 1 8 5 0. j 6o 1857- This essay soon became popular with textbook edi tors- It was prefixed to Rolfe's high school edition of Se lect Poems in 1875, published by Houghton Mifflin, a collec tion which was subsequently reprinted in 1903 by the Ameri can Book Company. It was also included in the former pub lisher's collection of the Poetical Works of Gray and Gold- i ........ smith (188-?). To the public at large, it has long been available in the Encyclopedia Britannica. Austin Dobson re vised it for the eleventh edition (1910), his corrections being limited to Macaulay's errors in fact which had come to notice through recent discoveries. This essay, therefore, must be considered as holding a significant place in the American acceptance of Goldsmith the man. j Macaulay subjects Goldsmith to a considerable amount of personal introspection. His remarks are more censorious jthan laudatory, and although this tendency does not blind I him to the writer's finer qualities as man and writer, he is nonetheless unusually severe. For instance, Macaulay is ir ritated by Goldsmith's prodigality with money. This "opu- i 1 lent" writer with four hundred pounds a year would spend twice as much money as he had, and all the wealth which Lord Clive had brought from Bengal and Sir Lawrence Dundas from Germany, joined together, would not have sufficed for Goldsmith. . . . He wore fine : clothes, gave dinners of several courses, paid court to ; venal beauties. . . . But it was not in dress or feasting,! in promiscuous amours or promiscuous charities, that his I 6°14:633-639, April 1 8 5 7. I chief expenses lay. He had been from boyhood a gambler, and at^pnce the most sanguine and most unskilful of gam blers . ®l j Macaulay speaks with a cutting directness. Throughout the j essay, it is Goldsmith's vices and peculiarities that he no tices. Of an encyclopedia entry of four pages, he devotes bne-fourth of a page to a discussion of envy. i f ! An extensive anonymous biography appeared in the Na tional Magazine in l858.^2 Entitled "Goldsmith--His For tunes and His Friends," this commonplace treatment hardly i \ lived up to its title, woodcuts supplying most of the infor mation about the "friends." The most noteworthy aspect of this treatment is the reappearance of the earlier objection ; jto overemphasizing the suffering Goldsmith. The writer con- jcludes his remarks with the statement that the poet would hot have liked either Irving's concluding words urging that I j his frailties be remembered, "since their tendency is to en dear, " or his final ejaculation "Poor Goldsmith." He says: | i ; ! In our opinion nothing would be more distasteful to him. ) He had higher aspirations, a more heroic ambition. But what would have delighted him would have been to hear i Johnson pronounce in oracular tones that he deserved a place in Westminster Abbey, and every year he lived would have deserved it better, and others of the laudatory | things that have been said about him. (p. 423) j | I 1 The centenary of Goldsmith's death was celebrated in j j Encyclopedia Britannica. 11th ed. (New York, 1910), VII, 2lH7"^ ^29:209“2l6, September 1858; 9=416-424, November 1858. two magazine articles, both by George M. Towle. They were curiously different. That appearing in Harper's Magazine was an undistinguished and perfunctory recital. But the one in Appleton's Journal was one of the most realistic and gen uinely sympathetic essays on Goldsmith the man that appeared in the entire century. I The essay in Harper1s Magazine. April, 1874, goes lit- ; tie beyond sympathizing with the poet's misfortunes and de- i blaring that he is universally loved.^ | ; j Just one hundred years have elapsed since that dismal aft- ! ernoon in the spring of 1774 on which Oliver Goldsmith was | laid in the quaint churchyard of the Temple. . . . Yet, at a century's distance from the day when he was borne to the * lost grave, the memory of no author of that period flour ishes so fresh and green as that of Oliver Goldsmith. . . 1 Gray, Johnson, Burke, Hume, Sterne--none of these remainedj enshrined, as Goldsmith still does, in the almost univer- j | sal popular heart of a remote generation. (p. 68l) j Towle's essay for Appleton's Journal opens dramaticallyi i i Saturday, the 4th day of April, 1774, was one of those i i dull, leaden days in London, which even those who are born: s and bred in the great metropolis are fain to grumble at, ■ and wish speedily over. Throughout the morning a certain j I staircase in the Temple was crowded with people coming and j going with a stealthy, quiet tred. There was gloom on I I every face, flowing tears trickling down many of the j | cheeks. The throng was, for the most part, coarsely clad;: ! sometimes there were tatters, patches, and rags; there were lame men; there were decrepit women; there were chil-i dren, whose hard, serious, weary countenances betokened them old in the world's trials, though tender in age. In a rather gaudy and far from neat chamber above, with its scarlet furniture, and its unswept floor, Oliver Gold-^ j smith lay, stark and silent in death; and the ragged court; ^48:681-692, April 1874. The article was copiously illustrated with engravings and a reproduction of Gold- ;smith'_s handwriting. of which he had been the gracious and merry monarch by the general voice, was paying its last tribute of affectionate; reverence at his bier. At five o'clock on the same afternoon, a modest proces-. ! sion was formed, headed by Edmund Burke and Sir Joshua Reynolds, which wended its way to a grave in the ancient Temple church-yard, and there laid Oliver Goldsmith in a spot which, having been, to our amazement, unmarked and i forgotten at the time, cannot now be discovered. ; The 4th of April, 1 8 7 4, was the centennial anniversary i ; of Goldsmith's death, and the recurrence of the date has been made the occasion, in England, of rearing a public j monument to him who, after a lapse of a hundred years, is still the best-known and best-beloved writer of his age.64 I ' i The greater part of the article is a sympathetic recital of ; the outstanding and most interesting facts of Goldsmith's life. I : 1 Towle's picture is of a heroic and triumphant Goldsmithi 1 . ; It tells of his interesting habits, his love of life, his j r ! parties, the dinners he attended, how he often invited young; 1 ■ 1 people to his suppers, and how he once boasted that he was I j "ten-deep" in dinner invitations. I ; j The subject of Goldsmith's misfortunes and his culpa bility was again brought to the fore in a review of William ; Black's monograph biography that appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in 1879* A disproportionate part of the review was : I , , : concerned with Forster, who had written a most voluminous and disagreeable biography." Forster, so the reviewer thought, I ^4nOliver Goldsmith," Appleton's Journal, 11:459* April- 11, 1874. j perpetually beats himself into a passion of pity and in dignation for sufferings which were at least as largely ; j attributable to Goldsmith's unfortunate temperament as to his unfortunate circumstances* . . .°5 | ■ ; If Goldsmith suffered, it was because of his excesses, and i it would have been better for him to have been without them.1 About 1880, Goldsmith ceased to be a matter for bio graphical speculation in the periodicals. Very few treat- ments of any consequence appeared. There were several rea- j isons for this scarcity. No new biographies were written, i : and Goldsmith was not the subject of controversy. The pub- j 'lie began to pay more attention to the works than to the | man, and so the public's interest was outside the scope of most periodicals. Finally, The Vicar of Wakefield was being reprinted with greater frequency than ever, and was even be-; I i ing introduced into high school classrooms. Critics no j [ f [longer felt the need to sustain public interest in him. In | • 1 8 7 4, William Towle had made the sweeping statement: 1 ; j But Goldsmith's memory, both as a man and as a writer— as ; j poet, novelist, dramatist, essayist--is almost as green j j today as it was when Johnson wrote his imperishable epi- j j taph.66 | 1 1 jCritical and bibliographical evidence supports the statement. s lit is clear, then, that one phase of Goldsmith's reputation in the United States had passed. j i ; ! Several miscellaneous biographical treatments appeared j 6 5 4 3.5 4 5# April 1 8 7 9. ^ Appleton' s Journal. 2:459, April 11, 1874. ....... 114 : in the l8 9 0's which show a survival of some of the common j prejudices. One of these was the widely-circulated mono graph by Elbert Hubbard in his series of Little Journeys to the Homes of Good Men and Great. Since Goldsmith had no "home," Hubbard visited "The Haunts of Goldsmith." This was the eleventh of a series of twelve visits to the homes of great writers, and was published in October, 1 8 9 5. The ac- ; count was fanciful, and replete with distorted information ; that would fit the author's didactic purpose. He estab lished to his own satisfaction that Goldsmith was a gambler, a man of charity, and an indolent writer of a very few pieces, who frittered away his wealth and cared little for ; his own welfare. All of these weaknesses Hubbard could for-j give: "Dear little Doctor Goldsmith," he says, "you were hot a hustler, but when I get to the Spirit World I'll sure-: ly hunt you up."^7 He was attracted by the man's simple virtues, not what he had to say. ; An unfortunate and ridiculous survival of the worst of ; Boswell was perpetuated in John Kendrick Bangs' humorous A j Houseboat on the Styx: Being Some Account of the Diverse Do-s ings of the Associated Shades. Bangs gathers for his fanta sy a number of deceased historical characters, such as Dr. Johnson, Sir Walter Raleigh, Solomon, Nero, Bacon, Shake- j speare, Carlyle, and Goldsmith. One chapter of the fantasy j i 6 7 (New York, 1895), P- 337- ! is story-tellers' night, with Dr. Johnson as the chairman. He proceeds with his duties, saying: The first speaker in the programme, I regret to observe, is my friend Goldsmith. . . . While Oliver is a most ex- i cellent writer, as a speaker he is a pebbleless Demosthe- ; nes. If I had had the arrangement of this programme I j should have had Goldsmith tell his story while the rest of I us were down-stairs at supper. . . . Those of you who ! agree with me as to the pleasure of listening to my friend! ! Goldsmith will do well to Join me in the grill-room while i j he is speaking. (p. 1 6 9) Johnson departs and asks Goldsmith to send for him when he has finished. The speaker begins awkwardly with excuses for his being a poor speaker, and, desiring to spare his audi- bnce of further boredom, decides to read the last five chap iters of The Vicar of Wakefield. Carlyle makes some remarks ; about a "Vicar of Sleepfield." Darwin moves that they ad- Ijourn. All is confusion. Wellington and Napoleon, plotting Goldsmith's downfall, get into a mock quarrel and distract j attention from the speaker. In the 'melee that follows, Goldsmith is thrown ashore, but eventually brought back with {apologies. Unfortunately, he has lost his book and cannot i continue with his reading. Bangs' burlesque is of impor tance only because it shows, in a very effective way, the | persistence of some of the coarser features of the Boswell i - : (version of Goldsmith the man. j j ; | The century closed with a dramatic adaptation of Gold- ( [smith's life. This was Augustus Thomas' Oliver Goldsmith: a! Comedy in Three Acts, first staged on March 19# 1900, at 1 Miner's Fifth Avenue Theater, in New York. The major theme ! of the play^® involves a study of Goldsmith as the noble heart who is forced to conceal his love for Mary Horneck be cause of his physical unattractiveness and poverty, and be cause he fears he is doomed to an early death. The play is hardly credible as history or biography, but, as William ! Winter points out, { ; j it is a faithful and touching presentment of the ambitions, | emotions, foibles, vicissitudes, and disappointments of a j i man of genius.^9 i ! In the first act, Goldsmith is fleeing from the image of Mary Horneck, and he blunders into an old English country- house, which he mistakes for an inn. It is owned by Feath- erstone, a London citizen, who is hosting a number of his friends, among them Mary Horneck, Johnson, Burke, Garrick, i Boswell, and others. Some amusing scenes follow, and Mary ! Borneck displays a sympathetic understanding of Goldsmith. Kenrick is also introduced. By the time of the second act, Goldsmith has written a comedy around his personal experi- jences of the previous act. He is conducting a rehearsal of the play, which is herewith named by Johnson ’ ’She Stoops to j j ■ ■ i Ponquer," after a remark by Mary: "Often women must stoop i I In order to conquer." The ugly Kenrick incident follows. /TO I New York, 1 9 1 6. For the stage history of this play, see T. Alston Brown, A History of the New York Stage . . . |(New York, 1903), II, &0. It subsequently moved, on April 16, to the Harlem Opera House. 69 The Wallet of Time . . . (New York, 1913), II, 359- In the third act Goldsmith is arrested for debt, fights a duel in Mary's cause, and for a moment receives her approval!, William Winter has given a detailed estimate of the Play: j The incidents are simple. It is the sweet spirit with which the theme is treated that invests the play with j charm, and that ought to endear it to everybody who cares S for beautiful things. The great literary men of the John- j son period are treated with familiarity, perhaps dis torted; but something has been preserved of the feeling of I the Johnson era, and something has been suggested of the style of its gentry and its domestic life. The play is j diffuse in the last act, by reason of too much trivial in-’ i cident, retarding the climax and tending to submerge the | pathos of the close in a rising tide of farcical nonsense;; but it is a pure, lovely, ingenuous, clever, interesting play. (II, 539-540) Thomas revised the play in 1916, and wrote a preface in j Which he told how he adapted the Goldsmith story to the stage (pp. 3-12). i ■ "The Vicar of Wakefield” ! The Vicar of Wakefield was extremely popular in the ! j : United States during the nineteenth century. It replaced The Deserted Village as the favorite of Goldsmith's readers.) j ; Over fifty separate editions were published. It was trans- j i ' ; ilated, dramatized, and imitated. School children read it i ; With pleasure. Reviewers probed the secret of its power to ; I i (fascinate. Time and again critics proclaimed that it was j i"as popular today as on its first appearance." ! j j ; A partial reason for the popularity of this novel j (throughout the entire century may lie in the fact that the 1 ! story appealed to children. Its plot is simple and involves the affairs of a small set of people. The earlier chapters j are a connected series of sketches that make no strong de mands on the young mind. Some of the major characters are juveniles themselves, and are depicted with a self-impor- ; tance that is hound to please young readers. Men and women who had read The Vicar of Wakefield in their youth remem bered it clearly and talked about it in their old age. In some cases they re-read it throughout their lives. Many urged it upon their children and grandchildren, j Instances of lifelong affection for this book are nu merous. Fond memories of youthful reading have been de scribed by William Dean Howells, who has written much about j his early literary heroes, of whom Goldsmith was one.^° j Joel Chandler Harris, who wrote often of his early intense j Enthusiasm for Goldsmith, at one time expressed himself in I ; ecstatic terns: I The only way to describe my experience with The Vicar of ■ Wakefield is to acknowledge that I am a crank. It touches! [ me more deeply, it gives me the "all-overs" more severally i than all others. Its simplicity, its air of extreme won- j j derment, have touched and continue to touch me deeply.f1 His mother read the story to him 'until he could repeat whole pages word for word. Thus inspired, he wrote a number of ; little stories in which the principal character, male or 1 i t ; ^ My Literary Passions: Criticism and Fiction (New 1 York, 1895), PP* 14-15- ; ^ Cambridge History of American Literature (New York, 1943), II, 349. female, would cry out "PudgeI" on every possible occasion, astounding and silencing all the other characters.^2 Walt Whitman was also a reader of Goldsmith in his youth. In 1888 he told Horace Traubel that he had read The Vicar of Wakefield "more times than I can count.Bronson Alcott j remarked at the age of seventy-five that he had read Gold smith1 s novel as a boy.^ These are long memories, but they do support the thesis that Goldsmith had a continued and consistent hold upon the young of the nineteenth century who! as time passed became its elders. ! The novel was seldom imitated. Perhaps the most con sistent imitation was Catherine Marie Sedgwick^ Home. if j the reasoning of a writer in Harvard!ana is to be accepted!-* The student reviewer claimed that Miss Sedgwick purposely I set out to imitate Goldsmith, but has succeeded in avoiding the stigma of imitator only by clever manipulation. He saysi: There is something startling, indeed, in the view of an American authoress entering boldly into a path which the "inspired" Goldsmith has so exquisitely laid out, and, as 1 ; we have become accustomed to think, so thoroughly beaten; all reasonable charge of presumption however is precluded by the utter difference in scenes, personages and incidents, ^2Ray Stannard Baker, "Joel Chandler Harris," Outlook. 78:599, November 5, 190^* 73with Walt Whitman in Camden (March 29-July 14, 1888) (New York, 1915), I, 64. 7^iphe Journals of Bronson Alcott, ed. Odell Shepard (Boston, 1936), p. 459. ^ Scenes and Characteristics Illustrating Christian Truth. No. III. Home, . . . (Boston, 1835). i as well as by the unpretending character of the book it- ! self.76 ke continues more specifically* meanwhile defining Gold- | ; jsmith's as a domestic novel: I The "Vicar of Wakefield" has stepped into a family circle,: | introduced us to the fireside, and from the every day oc currences of domestic life contrived to form sources of j moral and practical Instruction--so indeed has "Home"; but i at the head of the one family stands an English Vicar and I } of the other an American Mechanic. (p. 275) The parallel with Goldsmith continues in a critical estimate \ j pf Miss Sedgwick's style: ? 1 j "Home" is beautiful with passages, less grand, indeed, but ' equally affecting with some of the most admired in the j "Vicar of Wakefield." (p. 2 7 8) | Goldsmith seems to have had at least a partial influ- | fence upon the realistic satirical novel of James Kirk Pauld- 1 ing. According to Professor Cairns, The Backwoodsman (1 8 1 8), jLn which Paulding sings of the freedom of the frontier, has an easily recognized Goldsmithian tone.77 Later, when he ; began to write novels, he is said by Herold to have used j | ryQ Fielding and Goldsmith as his models. The extent of this j 7Q I influence is difficult to define, except by indirection.'-7 i I 761:275, May 1835. j ; ) 77W. B. Cairns, On the Development of American Litera- j ture from 1815 to 1833. Bulletin of the University of Wis consin, No. 1 (Madison, 1 8 9 8), p. 1 6 5. ! | 7®Amos L. Herold, James Kirk Paulding: Versatile Ameri-! can (New York, 1926), p. 109. j ! ! j 7^Lulu Ramsey Wiley has shown certain similarities in . pentiment between Charles Brockden Brown and Goldsmith, and j has drawn several parallels between Arthur Mervyn and The j 121! The popularity of The Vicar of Wakefield resulted in at least one American stage adaptation. This was David Belas- ' co's Olivia (1 8 7 8), which was perhaps suggested by the sue- j cess of a version by the Englishman William Gorman Wills. Wills’ dramatic rendering was first acted at the Court Thea-: tre in London, with Ellen Terry playing the part of Olivia, [ Q a knd William Terris as Squire Thornhill. Belasco’s version Was first acted on September 2, 1 8 7 8, at the Baldwin Theatre in San Francisco. Whether or not this adaptation was in spired by Wills' London production cannot readily be deter- | mined. Belasco had ample time to have heard of its success, ! since it was produced five months previously to his, on ; } March 28, 1 8 7 8. Belasco, who had only recently become full j tricar of Wakefield. Gf. The Sources and Influences of the ; Novels of Charles Brockden Brown (New York. 1950). p p . 55- W * I Qr\ I It was successfully revived in 1 8 8 5. Miss Terry played Olivia until 1900. The play was a melodrama, in Which she ’ ’proved her power of reducing her audience to tears.” It was this version of Wills that impressed Long fellow when he saw it acted by an American company. On Sep tember 25, 1 8 7 8, he wrote in a letter to George W. Greene: f ’ l went yesterday to the theatre to see The Vicar of Wake- ; field, and was struck with the immense superiority of the dramatic representation over narrative. Dr. Primrose and : his daughters were living realities. Sophy was perfectly lovely, and it would have delighted Goldsmith’s heart to have seen her. Dr. Primrose was very well done by Warren, and Olivia by Miss Clarke. Mrs. Primrose was represented by Mrs. Vincent. It was all very pathetic, and half the audi- ; jenee were in tears,— the present writer among the rest" (Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: with Extracts from his j Journals and Correspondence, ed. Samuel Longfellow [Boston, 1891], III, 289). 122 stage manager, was In a situation where timeliness was at a premium. Thus he may have written Olivia to capitalize on the London success in which Ellen Terry was making stage history, and which was even then in the theatres of the eastern seaboard. The play, which adhered as closely as dramatically possible to Goldsmith's story, was effective, and, according to William Winter, admirably staged and acted.®1 At least three French translations of The Vicar of Wakefield were printed in America during the century. A school-text edition in 1825 was published under the care of Longfellow. In 1853 another school version was issued by Roe Lockwood and Son; a similar text appeared in Philadel phia in 1864. This latter version, with English and French versions on opposite pages, was intended as a guide for the construction of French sentences. A Spanish translation, El Vicario de Wakefield, rendered by M. Dominguez, was published in New York in 1 8 2 5. The 1825 French version, published under the sponsor ship of Longfellow, has been the subject of some misunder standing, since it has been ascribed directly to Longfellow as the translator. In 1830 he was engaged in compiling a "Cours de Langue Fran^aise” for the publisher Samuel Colman, of Portland, Maine. The first volume in the course was ®1The Life of David Belasco (New York, 1918), I, 1 0 7. j ' ' “123; Elements of French Grammar. and as an accompanying text he chose Le Ministre de Wakefield, translated by Hennequin. In; 1831 it appeared as Le Ministre de Wakefield. Traduction Nouvelle. Precedee d'un Essai sdr la Vie et les Merits ftp deliver Goldsmith, par M. Hennequin. . . . The title is ; ambiguous, since it gives the impression that Hennequin wrote only the introductory essay. The translation was also by H e n n e q u i n . Longfellow was apparently dissatisfied with the version he had used; and he told George W. Greene, in an I unpublished letter, that he intended to substitute for it a j Q£| polume of prose tales. H The reason for his decision to substitute the tales is lacking. It could well be that Le Ministre was selected as a stop-gap to accompany the grammar i Which was ready at the time. A collection of French tales jadapted to teaching purposes would require considerable preparation. ^Boston, 1 8 3 1. ^^Copies in Henry E. Huntington Library and the library of Loyola University of Los Angeles carry the bibliographer's notation that they are "Longfellow's version." I ^^Luther S. Livingston, A Bibliography of the First j Editions in Book Form of the Writings of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (New York. 1908). p. 10. Letter dated October. 1 1 8 3 2. "All I have in view at present is a collection of ! French tales to take the place of the 'Ministre de Wake field' --and a selection of French Poetry to complete the course." : Critical Reception ! In 1837» E. T. Channing wrote that Goldsmith was readi ly understandable by all, and that there is nothing in the thoughts, the plots, the charac ters, or the verse that is difficult„to understand.--No- ! body makes discoveries in Goldsmith. The confidence of his statement is not fully borne out by the critical reception of The Vicar of Wakefield during the nineteenth century. While the novel may not have been dlf- i fieult to understand, Goldsmith's intention was not apparent: ■to all. It was analyzed by a variety of critics, and their estimates varied widely. 1 The critical and public reaction to it followed a dis- : cemible pattern that began with Joseph Dennie's remarks on i ; jthe style, humanity, and wisdom of the story. During the 1830's and l840's, despite Channing's declaration, the as sumption prevailed that it had far-reaching implications. With the publication of Irving's Oliver Goldsmith: A Biogra phy (1849), critics began to associate Goldsmith's own per- i sonality with that of Primrose, and his own humor with the general tone of the story. Thereafter, instead of searching i jfor deep-seated implications, they stressed the author's hu mor and good nature. The final phase in the critical evolu- i ; jtion came with the introduction of The Vicar of Wakefield t •into the high schools and the resulting preparation of texts I j ^ North American Review. 45:108, 1837- with critical apparatus that had been made available by the biographers, notably Forster and Irving. i Joseph Dennie was Goldsmith's first nineteenth-century ; American critic of any consequence. His analytical remarks on The Vicar of Wakefield, while not extensive, indicated his close scholarly attention to the technique of writing as exemplified by his favorite author. Of this novel he wrote ■that he hesitated "whether we shall most admire the pure ; O/r thought or the lucky expression."0 The large amount of ; poldsmith criticism in The Portfolio. which Dennie edited, indicates that both phases of his literary genius interested him. In the fourth issue of that magazine, he published an s { essay on Goldsmith's style, illustrating it with examples i \ from the novel. He began: | ! ' j The writings of Dr. Goldsmith are admirable models for ! him, who is studious of a style, easy, but not colloquial, I free, but not wanton; and exact, though not elaborate. ; . . . His vivacity diverts the imagination, and his melody | soothes the ear.°7 1 i i j Following this, he commented, with quotations, on the de scription of the English farmers, the Vicar's midnight ap proach to his cottage after the flight of Olivia, Burchell's [character, and the parallel description of Olivia and Sophia; I Dennie paid very close attention to the situations in ■ ,the novel. He describes three characters thus: | ; I j | - I ®^The Spirit of the Farmer's Museum, p. 315* ^7"An Author's Evening: From the Shop of Messrs. Colon! and Spondee,1 1 Portfolio. 1:28, January 24, 1801. j ; Perhaps the landladies of Fielding are not such a just portrait of a vulgar and every day woman, as the Deborah , of Goldsmith,--In the Junior Thornhill, we see, as in a glass, the unprincipled latitudinarian; and the trieklsh expedients of Jenkinson are humorously recounted, and most ; usefully moralized. (Spirit of the Farmer's Museum, p. 315) Elsewhere in the same book, speaking of the failure of the laws to stop dueling, he remarks that courage has always been a property of the noble mind. This he Illustrates with I an instance from The Vicar of Wakefield which, in Dennie’s way, is remarkable for both Insight and concreteness. ! Dr. Goldsmith, the well known author of The Vicar of Wake field. (a work which every man should make his vade mecum) gives a very just and lively idea of a conflict between this instinctive sense of honor and the suggestions of ; prudence, in the lecture of Sir William Thornhill to his ; j nephew. The old gentleman, as a magistrate, Gommends him ; for his refusal to accept a challenge from the injured son: of the vicar, and observes to him, you have acted in this! ! instance, perfectly well, though not quite as your father ! 1 would have done it. My brother, indeed, was the soul of j honor, but thou " here he represses a sensation which it: ! would be imprudence In him to avow, and proceeds, "yet, j you have acted in this instance perfectly right, and it meets my warmest approbation." (pp. 49-50) i Here, as in most of Dennie's criticism, he exhibits a direct! perception of the humanism that •underlay the author's inten sion. Seldom, if ever, did he speak in generalities or re- I I ' peat commonplace critical epithets. For almost a century, f no American critic of The Vicar of Wakefield wrote with as I . ; much detail and reference to the text as did Dennie. His ; ■ i remarks contrast greatly with those of Charles Brockden j Brown, who, in his only reference to the novel, says: j j Johnson's eastern tales have all the merit compatible with; plans so wild, grotesque and unnatural; but no man of just: j taste, in morals or in composition, can hesitate a moment ; in preferring . . . Goldsmith's simple and natural tales, , to . . . the pompous and gloomy fictions of J o h n s o n .88 Very little criticism of The Vicar of Wakefield ap peared until 1830. Between that date and 1850 critics took f serious notice of it, and attempted to explain its effec tiveness in terms of the qualities they most readily saw 1 in it. Some regarded it as a moral tract, others as an idyl, and still others as an outstanding example of the i story-teller's craft. These critical directions were not j 1 confined to this period, however. Some applications of them i persisted into the next half-century. j j In an age of humanitarianism, The Vicar of Wakefield was bound to attract readers and critics who regarded it as 1 ; an allegory of the triumph of good over evil. These moral- j ists believed that Goldsmith had set up a true-life situa tion in which the forces of good and evil were at desperate j bdds, and in which the good must inevitably prevail. These j j i critics emphasized the morality of the novelist's art to the i exclusion of his interest in character. i I j This type of interpretation was the basis of an inter- ! i . ■ i esting comparative estimate of Goldsmith's novel in a review J ; bf Bulwer-Lytton's Devereux appearing in The Southern Review In 1 8 2 9. The article attempted to equate the "national I \ 3 ^ The Literary Magazine. 3:404, June 1 8 0 5. Cf. Ernest j Marchand^ "Literary Opinions of Charles Brockden Brown,1 1 ! Studies in Philology. 31:554, October 1934. ; novel” with a celebration of the moral llfe.®^ "What the English novel really Is," says the reviewer, "is a subject difficult of solution, from the variety of its genera and species" (p. 31)* He then proceeds to call Fielding the i "father of the English novel," and terms The Vicar of Wake- , field more strictly the "national novel." His thesis was that the great novel is "national" in quality, that it dis plays the English character with intensity and power, while at the same time being universal in its appeal. i : Most of this review of Bulwer-Lytton1s book is given over to a discussion of the novel under four heads: (l) na tional novel; (2) Gothic, or chivalrous romance; (3) histor ical novel; and (4) miscellaneous novels. Fielding’s Tom | Ijones is the great prototype of the "national novel," since it is "emphatically English," faithful to human and English ; nature. Richardson refreshed the public with realistic de scription and a denunciation of the false sentiment of the ) romances of the day. Smollett belongs with these great nov-j jelists too, for he has great excellence in his portraits, ; I despite his weak plots. But Fielding is best of all. At jthis point he introduces Goldsmith, stressing even more than jin his remarks on Fielding the "emphatically English" char- j acter: j i I However brief our summary may be of the national novel- i I ists, of England, it is impossible to omit the mention of j j ; i : j L _ ^2:369“405, November 1829- j 129: Goldsmith, although he has contributed but a single tale-- but this is a pearl of inestimable price. His Vicar of Wakefield is a view of John Bull's fire-side in quiet life, in the aspects where its forms and images borrow most from the loveliness of simplicity and tranquil virtue. (p. 381) Oblivious of Goldsmith's Irish origin, he says that ; this work could have been written nowhere else but in Eng-! * land, nor can it be fully relished by any but those who are of English origin. ; He later states that this "national novel . . . is the stand ard legitimate English novel of rural life." i When he enters upon an encomium of the virtues of The fcicar of Wakefield, the critic exhibits his moralistic and emotional tendencies, and Goldsmith's novel becomes a moral tract. Dr. Primrose, he thinks, comes close, in fact, to an exhibit of all the Cardinal Virtues: I i If we read it in childhood, we return to it as life ad- j vances with a fond and unalienated feeling, not unlike ! that with which we revisit the scenes of our early inno- j cence and joyous sportiveness and whether life ebbs or 1 flows, we take up the Vicar of Wakefield, amidst its busi- j ness, its pleasures, its calamities, with unabated conso- j lation and delight, and hail as an old and valued friend, j i the eccentric and.amiable monogamist, whose trials have | taught us fortitude, whose temperance has instructed us in moderation, whose simple enjoyments have told us where the best affections of the human heart lie, and whose unob trusive piety has pointed to that road, where the weary wayfaring man can alone find rest. (pp. 3 8 1-3 8 2) pther than in the introduction of the "emphatically English"! (criterion, the main significance of this Southern Review criticism lies in its acknowledgment of the novel as a rec- j ognized classic of didacticism. j In a similar vein, a reviewer in the Harvard College 1 literarymagazine in 1835 declared The Vicar of Wakefield toj i~ ' -...130' be "a perfect model of government and action in one of the closest and highest relations of life."9^ j Typical of the school of sentiment and domesticity was A. Davezac, who in 1845 included a moralistic encomium on Goldsmith in his article on "The Literature of Fiction" in The United States Magazine and Democratic Review.91 This was a detailed survey of world fiction written from the standpoint of the genteel emotional moralist. Davezac re garded Goldsmith primarily as a novelist, and was pleased that the novel had been "translated into every modem tongue." While he admits that Goldsmith's verses, "except The Hermit, a sapphire encased with the purest gold," have a "facility" and "sweet melody," the prose of the novel is outstanding for its "charm, grace, . . . winning simplicity."; i As Lanier was later, Davezac was delighted by the purity of j f poldsmith shining through the moral squalor of Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett. He writes: We breathe more freely now, and like Aeneas emerging from 1 j darkness, . . . we hail with rapture the lustrous light , beaming over the Cerulean page on which Goldsmith, with a j brush dipped in the brightest hues of the rainbow, has i painted everlasting scenes of domestic innocence and puri ty. (p. 278) He concludes: I I j As long as moral feelings, expressed in the language of j the passions, but always expressed with simplicity and [ ■ grace, are appreciated, this unpretending book will endear 9QHarvardiana. 1:276, May 1 8 3 5. 9 1 6 :2 6 8-2 8 2, March 1845. the name of its author to the memory of all who, in the season of young sensibility, have given the tears of sym- ; j pathy to the heart-rending griefs of age, and to the sor- ; row of betrayed innocence and beauty. Davezac avoids detailed references, but his view of Gold- i smith's novel as primarily a moral piece is clearly discern- I ible. ! More specific than Davezac were those who regarded The j j Vicar of Wakefield as an explicit avowal of the inevitable i showering of God's providence upon good men. Julian Haw- i thorne, son of Nathaniel, observed that Goldsmith's handling! i of the problem of good and evil is one of the sources of the! i QO perennial charm of the novel.He pointed out that by I 1 { placing the Primrose family in an almost fatal position, Goldsmith distinctly draws the dividing line between good ! and bad fortune. Hawthorne then gives a theological appli- j ! cation to the climaxes: [ : Just when man has done his utmost, and all seems lost, [ Providence steps in, brings aid from the most unexpected quarter, kindles everything into brighter and even bright er prosperity. The action and reaction are positive and j complete, and we arise refreshed and comforted from the experience. } AcceptingrHawthorne1s basic assumption that The Vicar of Wakefield was fundamentally a novel of spiritual affirmation, !that it suffered no major accidents in the composition, and I that it was published as originally conceived, his interpre-l I tatlon has a consistency and simplicity that echoes a ! ^ Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Wife. 2d ed. (Boston, 1885), II, 1-2. ~132] characteristic nineteenth-century sentiment. The Reverend Daniel Curry, writing in l849.» analyzed Goldsmith's novel according to his sociological and moral istic inclinations. He assumed it to be both didactic and s I I satirical, but was. most interested in what he took to be Goldsmith's penal theories. The attitude is not out of keeping with Curry's own moral temper.93 He admits that the jtale was written to amuse, yet he is impressed by the quali ty of its instruction. Its morality, he says ! is not the most elevated, but it is very generally pure; its philosophy is deeper than its perfect transparency I might lead a superficial observer to suppose, (p. 3 7 0) ! Good is always seen predominant over evil, and virtue is ; ; always triumphant, though often cast down for a season. ! j . . . We are taught that the heroism and self-denial needed for the duties of life, are not of the superhuman | sort; that they may co-exist with many follies, with some i j simple weaknesses, with many harmless vanities. (p. 369) ■ i The specific evils that Goldsmith depicts in his world are j then enumerated in detail: i i I The indigence of the inferior clergy, and their consequent! J liability to indignities, are set forth in the history of ! j the good vicar; the power of wealth in the hands of the j i vicious, to corrupt and destroy, is shown in the story of 1 young Thornton and the unfortunate Olivia; the ruinous ef fect of ill-judged maternal partiality (of which, probably, the writer supposed himself to be a victim) in the blun ders of the sons, and the high expectations entertained ; for the two daughters. But the satire assumed a deeper and severer tone, when the good vicar is dragged away to prison by a villainous creditor, and cast among felons. s ] What interested Curry most, however, were Goldsmith's i [theories of criminal reform. •^Methodist Quarterly Review. 31:351-377» 1849. 133 Even from that dark den we may trace the early dawning of that light which has since risen in such radiance upon I j the sons and daughters of wretchedness. A Howard, a ' Romilly, and Elizabeth Fry, may have taken their lessons from the Vicar of Wakefield; for he was among the first to suggest that criminals might be reformed, and that jail is not necessarily the portal to the gallows. ; In Goldsmith's times the whole power of the law was called into the most sanguinary operation for the protec- i I tion of property. The same loathsome prison received the unfortunate debtor and the guilty felon; while the murder- ! er and the offender against the sacred rights of property expiated their offenses upon the same gibbet. Reformation was entirely foreign to either the designs or the tenden- I cies of penal justice; and when once the iron doors of the; j prison closed after the victims of the very temptations ! I that the law had set thick through the land, he was j thenceforward treated as a beast of prey, to be hunted to ; ; death with all possible celerity. The voice of the vicar, I himself a victim of this legal tyranny, is raised against j such flagrant wrong-doing. At the same time, he has no I sympathy with the sickly sentimentalism of some modern re-' formers, who would run to the opposite extreme, and reduce! j all crimes to a common level, and so give impunity to all. ' He pleads for a discriminating administration of public | justice,--such as shall not confound the distinctions of ; right and wrong, and make the life of a man and the secur- j ity of his purse of the same value. His remonstrances ; against the frequent and unnecessary use of sanguinary I punishments for minor offenses, are direct and powerful arguments in favor of severity in cases of high crimes 1 against personal rights, and especially against human life! ! (pp. 3 6 9-3 7 0) I ; Such a consideration of Goldsmith's humanitarianism was not i \ } jto be met with again during the century. j I The morality of The Vicar of Wakefield was often reas- j j I serted throughout the century, but not in the same specific i j ■ I terms as in those of the writers just discussed. The last of the notable moralists was Sidney Lanier, who echoed the | | sentiments of A. Davezac. Speaking in 1880, in his The Eng-. lish Novel. of the novels of Richardson, Fielding, Smollett,j 'and Sterne, he said: I I protest that I can read none of these without feeling as if my soul had been in the rain, draggled, muddy, miser- ; able. In other words, they play upon life as upon a vio- 1 lin without a bridge, in the deliberate endeavor to get the most depressing tones possible from the instrument. This is done under the pretext of showing us vice.9** | Shortly thereafter he proclaims: ■ I . . . It is now delightful to find a snowdrop springing j from this muck of the classics. In the year 1J66 appeared : Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield. (IV, 158) | Assuming in his audience a thorough knowledge and apprecia- ! tion, he does not go into details. Lanier’s praise is re strained . i Of the difference between the moral effect of Goldsmith's | Vicar of Wakefield and the classical works just mentioned j I need not waste your time in speaking. (IV, 159) j A second element in the American reception of The Vicar of Wakefield was the conviction that it was an idyl. Thomas- ! ; Carlyle summed up what was to be a considerable body of 1 j American critical opinion when he wrote: f I Our only poet of the period was Goldsmith; a pure, clear, i genuine spirit, had he been of depth or strength suffi- j cient; his Vicar of Wakefield remains the fegst of all mod- I ern idyls; but it is and was nothing more. trhe tendency to call it an idyl was common among Carlyle1s ; i ; bontemporaries, especially among those who were familiar i jwith German literature. The same terminology was used by Masson, who referred to "the charming prose idyl of dear old I Qil ! Centennial Edition of the Works of Sidney Lanier . . J :(Baltimore, 1945), IV, 187. j 95"Goethe," Centenary Edition of the Works of Thomas Carlvle . . . (London, 1897-1900),' XXVI, 2l4. ! q/ T Goldy. The implication of these statements is that The Vicar of Wakefield was a rural story, unconstrained by nar- ■ rative consistency, depicting a delightful place where even ; j the greatest of troubles turn out to be insignificant after all. j The interpretation of the novel as an idyl was popular ized in America by Goethe, whose few remarks--to the effect that the story was an idyl of English domesticity combining the natural with the marvelous to the exclusion of any real pense of danger--were printed as introductory material in several nineteenth-century American editions.^ * ' ! I It was Herder who first introduced Goethe to Goldsmith^ In 1770 Goethe was a law student at Strassburg, an impres- ; jsionable youth in his Sturm und Drang period. He described j the occasion in his autobiography: How ignorant I must have been of modem literature, may be gathered from the mode of life which I led at Frankfort, and from the studies to which I had devoted myself; and from my residence in Strassburg had been of no advantage i to me in this respect. . . . But when Herder came, he not ; j only helped me by his wide knowledge, but also by showing ; | us many of the most recent publications. Among those he j particularly praised to us was the Vicar of Wakefield as J an excellent work, and insisted on introducing us himself 1 i to the German translation by reading it aloud to us.9° 96 | British Novelists and their Styles: being a Critical Sketch of the History of British Prose Fiction (Boston, 1859), p. 156. 9?The earliest seems to have been the "Riverside Clas sics" edition (1 8 7 6). j ^ Poetry and Truth from My Own Life, rev. trans. Minna Steele Smith (London, 1913), I, 381. _ 136 Much impressed, Goethe remembered the incident throughout his life. Years later he wrote in a letter to Zelter: i I It is not to be described, the effect that Goldsmith's ; Vicar had on me, just at the critical moment of my Intel- I j lectual development. That lofty and good-humoured irony, that fair and kindly view of all weaknesses and faults, that equanimity amid all changes and chances, and all the ; : other virtues that went with it, proved my best educa- , t i o n . 9 9 I - I Goethe regarded it as a story of transcendant goodness: r j j A Protestant country clergyman is, perhaps, the most beau- * tiful subject for a modern idyll; he stands, like Melchi- ; I zadek, for priest and king in one. . . . The delineation i | of his character as his life goes on in the midst of joys j j and sorrows, the ever-increasing interest of the story, i 1 due to the combination of the natural with the marvelous | and the unexpected, make this novel one of the best which has ever been written; it'has, moreover, the great advan- j tage of being perfectly moral, nay, in the best sense, 1 Christian--for it represents the reward of good-will and j perseverance in the right, strengthens an implicit faith j in God, and attests the final triumph of good over evil; I and all this without a trace of cant or pedantry. (I, ! 383) In the subsequent lines, Goethe concentrates primarily upon i the story as a domestic idyl involving the Primrose family only. ? Goethe's idealization of the Vicar provoked at least | pne adverse reaction in American journals. A reviewer of jthe autobiography in the North American Review contended that Goldsmith was fundamentally a realist, and that Goethe ' I i was in error. This fact, he says, may have been the fault Lf the translation that Herder read: i QQ < -'-'Quoted from F. L. Lucas, Literature and Psychology (London, 1951), p. 245- 137; , The value of the translation we do not know; few books can suffer more than this, in an ordinary one; and it is §vi- ! dent that Goethe has mistaken the tone of the work.^0^ The reviewer then proceeds with his own interpretation of The Vicar of Wakefield. Goldsmith, he thinks, is all too realistic: It seems to have escaped him [Goethe], that almost every personage in it, that is not wicked, is ridiculous; and i that it is Goldsmith’s object to paint nature as it is, and not to write an elegant fiction. Nature, alas, it is j j to the life; but the Vicar, his wife, and his children have nothing but a negative innocence to compensate for { weakness, for imprudence, and want of every species of • elevation of character. I Nor, contrary to Goethe, does he think the Vicar worthy of imitation: i ; ; The Vicar, so far from being a model of a country minister^ j has no single quality requisite to direct his piety and j benevolence in their operation on others; the wife is a very weak and silly woman, and the daughters have none of that dignity which renders female innocence and beauty re-1 i spectable. All this is copied from nature; and that the ! Vicar of Wakefield is read more than any other novel is proof; but it is anything rather than a model proposed for j imitation in life. He thinks, finally, that Goldsmith has been too somber: j- ' j I No person, perhaps, reads this inimitable book, without j wishing that the author could have found the materials for| another, in which he should have given more manliness to the virtues of one sex, and more dignity and delicacy to those of the other. Could the good-natured, but perpetual and finally disheartening irony of Goldsmith, have been combined with the more cheerful philosophy of Miss Edge- worth; could we have exchanged Olivia or Sophia simmering f i a wash against Sunday, for simple Susan preparing her [ mother’s marlgold-broth, we protest, we think virtue would ! have gained more than human nature would have lost. | j j The conviction that Goldsmith’s novel was an idyl [___ 1004:248, January 1 8 1 7. persisted long. Edmund Clarence Stedman, calling Longfel low's Evangeline a classic of its kind, compared it to The ' Deserted Village and The Vicar of Wakefield, "or any other isweet and pious idyl of our English tongue."10^ In 1904 J. M. Dent and Company, of London, and E. P. Dutton and Company; (the firm's New York representative) selected the tale to ; initiate "The Series of Idylls." The edition, sumptuously illustrated with twenty-five colored illustrations by C. E. Brock, explained in a "Forewards" [sic] the term idyl loose-; t i ly as a literary piece describing a rural area: | It is the hope of the publishers to insert in this idyllic ; series all those pieces of fine literature which depend 1 for their charm on the presentment of the simpler life and j emotion amid the environment of sweet country scenes j around our old English homes . . . (p. xill)iu^ I j One of the most extensive considerations of the idyl 1 approach was that of Henry W. Boynton, who, in his introduc tory notes to the Macmillan Pocket English Classics edition ! i of The Vicar of Wakefield, made an attempt to integrate the psychological and romantic features of the tale.^0^ Boyn ton's contribution to the public appreciation of Goldsmith j 1 01Poets of America (Boston, 1 8 9 3), p. 200. 102 As late as 1935, Charles Grosvenor Osgood was con- j tent with Goldsmith's "transcendental idyllism." The Voice ; bf England: A History of English Literature (New York, 1935)1 p. 377* He speaks elsewhere of Goldsmith's idyllic power" j (p. 412). ! 1 1Q^The Vicar of Wakefield, . . . ed. Henry W. Boynton, : Macmillan's Pocket English Classics (New York, 1900). ; demands close attention, since his well-written introduction and notes were read in thousands of schoolrooms. His thesis was that Goldsmith had in his novel a two-fold intention: (l) to make a group-portrait similar to what Addison had achieved in the Sir Roger de Coverley papers, a series that j might be called the "Primrose Papers"; and (2) to integrate these character studies with a story in order to increase i the sale of the book. The result, he says, is that I Whatever is best in the product of this double effort is 1 { connected with the portraiture; whatever is unreal and j meretricious is the result of his attempt at romantic nar- j rative. (p. xxix) ! As a corollary, he states that Goldsmith's poor plot j structure makes the tale into an idyl in which the usual ex igencies of life demand but weak attention. He arrives at this conclusion by a series of steps. First, he says, "The j I I plot of the story is artificial and melodramatic. . . . The denouement . . . is almost farcical" (p. xxix). Second, the olot is of such a nature that its falsity is not easily no ticed, since the lack of verisimilitude does not shock. As a matter of fact, though few readers can fail to see the absurdity of these events, few would think of finding offense in them. The plot is too shadowy to be taken se riously. The more tragic portion of it is evidently un real to the Vicar himself, (p. xxx) For the Vicar, searching for Olivia, undergoes an illness of j i three weeks while he is lodged at an inn, after which he takes a week's vacation at the home of a chance friend. I : , Nor do we greatly wonder. For this tale, in spite of its ; conscious apparatus of plot, is an idyll rather than a romance or study of real life. (p* xxx)10^ Life in the Vicar’s neighborhood is "idyllic," without the usual cares and hard physical work normally associated with rural life. "It is rural life conventionalized," he con cludes, and Goldsmith is merely following a conventional pastoral pattern. i The singularity of Boynton's approach is that, while the critics advocating a realistic interpretation attributed the looseness of plot to the author's inability to handle it, to his indifference to details, and to his unfamiliarity yrith the country, Boynton--in keeping with others of the j : Idyllic school— accepted them as a part of the idyllic pat tern. He had given considerable study to The Vicar of Wake- jpield. Years of teaching had made him aware of the diffi culties the story held for the adolescent reader. The ex- ; planation he evolved was an attempt to throw the reader's 1 attention upon the Primrose family itself, and to direct it away from a plot easily, though superficially, understood jand seldom questioned. Thus he saw the tale as a character | 'study of Primrose and his family— the "Primrose Papers." In prder to effect his purpose, however, he had to fall back upon a conception of the story which was more German than 1 English. , i I | ; 104 j Boynton also notices Goldsmith's general unconcern with certain details. Sophia's imminent drowning is de scribed without a raising of the voice. There are no '"chores" on the Vi car' s farm. j Associated with the idea that The Vicar of Wakefield is an idyl was the widespread practice of classifying it as a rural tale. Boynton had called its idyllic tone ' ’rural life conventionalized." The imputation of a predominantly rural tale was objected to by Donald G. Mitchell, in his Wet| Days at Edgewood.10^ Allowing that "its atmosphere is so ) redolent of the country," he declares: ! . . . all, save some few critical readers, will be sur prised to learn that there is not a picture of natural ! scenery in the book of any length. . . . I could tran scribe every rural, out-of-door scene . . . upon a single j half-page of foolscap. (p. 245) He then proceeds to detail Goldsmith's improbabilities in volving country life: the Vicar's inefficient method of | harvesting, the unlikely tameness of the birds, and the questionable wisdom of spreading a dinner cloth on the hay. ; He is of the opinion that, had the author intended a rural : tale, he would have been more accurate, and would have given a more definite outline to his picture. i I The interpretation of The Vicar of Wakefield as an idyl; I ! I ! is of importance only because of the currency it received i ■ i [through the Inclusion of Goethe's remarks in many of the \ ischool texts and prefatory essays included in trade editions;. Other than Boynton, no American critic of consequence made j kn issue of the subject.10^ j } | ; i 105New York, 1 8 9 2. ! j Sidney Lanier, in The English Novel, quoted Goethe's! remarks, but only in passing, giving no detailed attention i It was the fortune of The Vicar of Wakefield to he sub jected to analysis by several of the most competent techni- ; cal critics of the century. Approaching the novel from the Standpoint of narrative technique, these writers expressed a . variety of opinions, the depth of which reveal a serious in terest in Goldsmith’s story as a classic of fiction, i In his discussion of Prior's Life, published in the North American Review in 1837, E. T. Channing sought to show the connection between Goldsmith's habits and attitude as an artist and the merits of the finished novel itself.107 He attributed the success of the novel to Goldsmith's perfec- ! j jtionism and artlessness, both of which co-operated in pro- , clucing a work of marked verisimilitude. The distinction of ( his approach lies in his nice penetration into the problem j I j of Goldsmith's realism. He examined the writer's methods f and their causes, and found that the handling of the novel was as plausible as a recounting of real life. His approach is partially psychological. Speaking of Goldsmith's art in general, he says that Goldsmith writes as if he were at full leisure to make everything | perfect, and as serenely as if he were indifferent to j fame, or already secure in the possession of it. (p. 93) j S i i ; ! as a result of this approach, Channing continues, Goldsmith ; | j javoided the necessity of introducing the unusual for i 1 : jto them (Centennial Edition, IV, 159)* | 10745:91-116, 1837- ! i — .. 143 interest. Thus free from coarseness and ribaldry, he pos sesses the "exquisite sense shown in his pictures of home and rural life."'1 '0® I The major esthetic effect of this polish is a picture that can be viewed as effortlessly as nature itself. To Channing, this realism, or verisimilitude, can be teasingly deceptive and incapable of analysis. | Nothing seems more easy at first, than to point out what it chiefly is that constitutes the attraction of these 1 writings. But the critic, after carefully distinguishing j this and that property, and applying all the discriminat- j } ing terms of his art, will sometimes own that he knows little more of the secret than the simple-hearted admirer.: ! (P- 108) He must finally conclude that Goldsmith achieves in his art ! : I an uncomplicated view of life, to the end that the work i s seems to be a factual account requiring no more than the simplest effort at observation. f j He subsequently analyzes Goldsmith’s style of narra tion, and shows how it bears out his original conception. i The method of The Vicar of Wakefield, he says, can be re duced to three components: (l) an agreeable succession of j I : bcenes and actions; (2) economy of plot, with very few oc- i • I jcurrences to fill out the story; and (3) use of the skills { | : jof both drama and painting (p. 110). I * | / \ Q f Channing reduces Goldsmith’s verisimilitude to Gold-j smith's assurance of his own competence. This theory con- j itrasts with Henry Theodore Tuckerman's explanation of the j same artistic virtue based on an extended analysis of his i jcharacter traits. ! But if Goldsmith uses a simple technique of rudimentary appeal, he keeps his story within the same commonplace bounds, avoiding material beyond the capacity of his tools. phanning conceives the story as centered upon Dr. Primrose as a simple character of great spiritual worth: ! j If he can bring up a virtuous family, discharge his sacred office faithfully, and enjoy his principles of strict mo- i nogamy without molestation, the temptation of riches and want are nothing. (pp. 110-111) boldsmith’s perfect presentation and singleness of purpose were so concentrated as to make the Vicar outstanding and i 1 his character unmistakable. It Is thus that he appears so i i real: ] 1 The elements of the Vicar’s character are certainly very j common. We recognize an old acquaintance, and no study or ingenuity can make him anything else than what he appears j to plain men at the first reading. (p. 112) This achievement of presenting easily-recognized virtue, phanning declares, "is known all over the world as a master- work of genius." Thus the qualities of Goldsmith's narra tive art as Channing sees them are: leisurely self-assur- jance, an uncomplicated view of life, economy of artistry, j jand the presentation of easily-recognized virtue. ; j Simplicity was likewise the quality that James Kirke ] i (Paulding recognized in Goldsmith's art. To this friend of s j : Irving, Goldsmith appeared as the novelist most capable of j (depicting unadorned human nature. Paulding concurs with i • < Channing, but is far less specific In his delineation. In A Sketch of Old England (1822). he presents his theory of the novel which he has derived from his observation of both 1 Fielding and Goldsmith. Specifically, he expects of the great novel three qualities: (l) probability; (2) esthetic j as well as moral discipline which forbids all offenses against "the modesty of nature," extravagant and incongruous; events, and evenly controlled passion; and (3) appeal to the heart and the imagination. The evaluation of Goldsmith ap pears in an attack upon Scott, who he thinks ought not to be; placed with Fielding, Smollett, Goldsmith, and Maria Edge- worth. Scott, he says, has the charm of novelty and the ap peal of good story-telling. But beyond these Scott has i hothing to be sought after, none of the "other and more I -1 lasting beauties.Displaying an all-around versatility, | (Fielding is the greatest novelist. I < Of Fielding I think it may be -fairly said, that he has produced one of the most consummate works of fiction that ever the world saw. In knowledge of life and human mo tives; in variety, strength, contrast, and probability of j character; in the invention and unequalled skill in ar- j ranging incidents and in the simplicity and perfection of j the denouement, Tom Jones has never, I believe, been sur- ; j passed. jSmollett he considers "only second, yet a great way off." On Goldsmith he does not elaborate. He says simply: i And Goldsmith, in the delineation of human nature at the domestic fire-side of virtuous simplicity, is yet without j an equal. I The statement includes all the qualities Paulding expected 109cf. Herold, p. 94; A Sketch, of Old England, by a New England Man (New York, 1822), II, 149-150. [ of the great novel. I Goldsmith’s simplicity and fidelity to reality were spelled out more explicitly in a review of Prior’s biography in the Christian Quarterly Spectator. As was the case in most of those who regarded The Vicar of Wakefield as an ex- ; ample of realism, the reviewer found no apparent inconsist- , encies in the novel, pointing it out as "an exception to the hovels of Romance of Scott and others. The story, he said, i I | has been rendered extremely entertaining by its simplicity, ! and its unity, the coherency of its parts, the easy and j natural flow of its diction, the familiar household words i with which it abounds, and the judicious, though not plen- I tiful, sprinkling of incidents of adventure. i He regarded it primarily as a novel of character that de- , picted "the scenes and notions, the habits and pastimes, the( virtues and vices of common rural life." He was, however, , primarily concerned with Goldsmith’s achievement, in Dr. i jPrimrose, of a faithful representation of a real-life char acter. The Vicar, he thought, was the hero of the story, I who, | though he must be viewed, on the whole, as a slight exag geration, comes sufficiently near to characters that may be occasionally found,--especially in the clerical profes sion, where simplicity, honesty, submission under disap pointments, perhaps a share of credulity, unquestioning generosity, and an attachment to one’s own opinions, may be expected, if anywhere, to pass for a reality. ! Goldsmith’s purpose, he concluded, was, through fidelity to ! 11010:23, 1837. r ■ “ ~ ■ ■ ■.1.47 ! , i life, to "heighten our ideas of the simple rustic life" (p. j 24). ; Edgar Allan Poe considered The Vicar of Wakefield as a ; klear example of the art of the master story-teller. On one, and possibly two, occasions he expressed his belief in j the success of the story as a work generally accepted for its technical perfection. In 1842, while Poe was editor of Graham*s Magazine, there appeared the Appleton edition of 1 . ! Goldsmith's novel. This was the elaborately illustrated ! I j publication containing the two prefatory essays of Dr. John Aikin. The book was noted in the January issue of Graham's. and the critical remarks have been attributed to Poe.'^’ * ' The review referred to the novel as "among the standard fic tions of England," and "one of the most admirable fictions of the language." In the next issue (February, 1842), Poe { wrote a review of Barnabv Rudge. which contained an estimate; of The Vicar of Wakefield. Early in the piece he set out to prove that popularity is no test of merit, and that merit ! depends upon basic construction. He said: And if, in the course of our random observations . . . it should appear, incidentally, that the vast popularity of j "Barnaby Rudge" must be regarded less as a measure of its | value, than as the legitimate and inevitable result of I 1 i | j 70-71, January 1842. For a discussion of the j ^circumstances surrounding the composition of this review see Mary E. Phillips, Edgar Allan Poe: The Man (Chicago, 1926), j 1, 6 8 6-6 8 7, 725- Poe's authorship of this review has been j "questioned. See Charles F. Heartman and James R. Canny, ed.j 1 f t Bibliography of the First Printings of the Writings of Ed gar Allan Poe . . . fHattiesburg. Miss.. 1943), p . 206. j j certain well-understood critical propositions reduced by I genius into practice, there will appear nothing more than ! ; what has before become apparent in the "Vicar of Wake- ! field" of Goldsmith, or in the "Robinson Crusoe" of De Foe! ; — nothing more, in fact, than what is a truism to all but ; ; the Titmice. 112 i The outstanding characteristics of the criticism of The Vicar of Wakefield up to I85O are two. The first is the di- I ' yersity of critical opinion. The novel was variously re garded by critics, and they came to no common understanding ; 1 of its nature or intention. The second is the isolation of ; Goldsmith's own personality from consideration in critical i estimates of his story. The moralists regarded it as a par able of justice, goodness, and purity. Those who were per- | suaded that it was an idyl thought it to be, in its major I » action, nothing more than a simple rural tale in which dan- ! I i ger had no reality. The technical critics studied its con- ! struction and components. In no case did critics refer in their deliberations to the historical Goldsmith as he was j ! depicted by Boswell and Prior. ! j The publication in 1849 of Irving's Oliver Goldsmith: A1 Biography marked a new era in the critical appreciation of : The Vicar of Wakefield. After that date there was more ! I i nearly a unanimity in its evaluation and definition. 1 By 1849, Washington Irving could assume in his audience | i '11 o Edgar Allan Poe: Representative Selections, ed. Mar-j f ' aret Alterton and Hardin Craig, American Writers Series New York, 1935)* P* 323* The "Titmice," according to Poe, ! are those who separate practice from theory. I I '... "..” '149; I : a familiarity with the tale of the' Primrose family. Contra- ! I fy to his policy of refraining from critical analysis* he devoted a half page to some remarks on it. The effect of these observations was an enlivening of the interest of his readers in both Goldsmith and his tale. Irving began by noting its extensive popularity: | It is needless to expatiate upon the qualities of a work • which has thus passed from country to country* and lan- I guage to language, until it is now known throughout the whole reading world and is become a household book in I every hand. (p. 176) iTo account for this, Irving calls attention to the evidence jof Goldsmith's own personality in-his writing: I The secret of its universal and enduring popularity is un doubtedly its truth to nature, but to nature of the most j j amiable kind, to nature such as Goldsmith saw it. The au- 1 thor, as we have occasionally shown in the course of this \ j memoir, took his scenes and characters in this, as in his , j other writings, from originals in' his own motley experi- j encej but he has given them as seen through the medium of ! his own indulgent eye, and has set them forth with the colorings of his own good head and heart. The real-life background of many of the incidents of the novel were known before. But Irving, by showing in the nar-j rative of Goldsmith's life the genesis of certain themes and1 i j episodes, identified the historical Goldsmith with the ar tistic representation of life. Readers made conscious of ! | jthis circumstantial presence of Goldsmith in The Vicar of ! Wakefield could easily be led to associate other phases of | j I his character with the story. ! ! Irving reiterates, in a negative way, the author's j i ; j ' t identification with the novel when he discusses the domestic: (quality of The Vicar of Wakefield: Yet how contradictory it seems that this, one of the most delightful pictures of home and homefelt happiness should ! I he drawn by a homeless man; that the most amiable picture , ; of domestic virtue and all the endearments of the married ! < state should be drawn by a bachelor, who had been severed ; from domestic life almost from boyhood; that one of the i most tender, touching, and affecting appeals on behalf of j female loveliness should have been made by a man whose de- ; ficiency in all the graces of person and manner seemed to 5 mark him out for a cynical disparager of the sex. i Irving’s conclusions regarding the novel had a three- ■ . . ! fold effect: (1) Many of Goldsmith’s personal characterist ics and attitudes were transferred to the novel, so that the 1 reader came to see the fictional characters in terms of the ; vision he had of the author. (2) By placing less emphasis | ! upon the Vicar and more upon the women, Irving reasserted j ' | the domestic nature of the book. This entailed (3) a les- 1 i sening of emphasis on the specific moral issues usually as- I * : sociated with the Vicar. Immediately following the publication of Irving’s biog- i : raphy, critics became aware of the presence of the author in The Vicar of Wakefield. Mrs. C. M. Kirkland saw this in the! I ! form of sympathy. She remarked that it was to Goldsmith's own wealth of sympathy with his characters that his writings! j ; owed their immortality. This she in part identified as his ! pleasant and mild irony, j 1 ‘ ! the same unobtrusive, ever-varying humor, seen equally in i | deeds, words, characters, and situations, calling for no ; sagacity in us to catch it, and producing no s u r p r i s e . 113 Quoted from J. Scott Clark, A Study of English Prose Another reviewer, writing in The American Review: A Whig journal, saw this identification of the man with his art in i his benevolent disposition toward all men, and in the fact that Goldsmith was in his heart and in his associations a - ] i h democrat. As to the first, this reviewer declares for a ; jtype of moral humanism as the secret of Goldsmith’s art when; he says: I ; | The art of Goldsmith, or rather the moral power of Gold smith, employing the literary style as its instrument, ! sets forth the faults and even the rogueries of his char- j acters, when they have any character--for sometimes like I the libertine squire, . . . they are mere Whiskerandos, 1 such men of straw, as every novelist must use--in the j light of which moves our mirth and our pity, while at the 1 ' same time it reminds us of something better in man. (p. | 502) I I In fact, he continues, immortality in all worthwhile writers! ! . i results from the exquisite art with which they j I ^ | rescue human nature from its meanest weaknesses, and teach; , us to love and even to respect the person whom they seem ! at the instant to be describing in colors of ridicule. | (P. 503) jGoldsmith, he says, intrudes his own moral altruism into his art. The reviewer later asserts that Goldsmith felt himself ito be of the very class of people he was describing. He was Writers: A Laboratory Method (New York, 1 8 9 8), p. 213. This; 'same attitude was also inherent, although in an indistinct | and undeveloped manner, in a review of Prior appearing in Ithe American Quarterly Review (2:460, June 1837/^ in which j it was said that Goldsmith so identifies himself with his subject that the interest with which his genius invests it, I is involuntarily transmitted to himself. ' 1 I -^^"Oliver Goldsmith," The American Review: A Whig Journal, 10:498-512, November 1 6 4 9. a democrat writing of the common hero for the common people.; Unlike those of a century previous who were affected by the j ! ’republican spirit,” who would want to raise common writers ; I ! and common men to the level of the uncommon hero, j i < ! He mingles with the scenes and characters which he himself; describes, and is a part of the humorous catastrophe. He ; I looks out upon human nature from the level of his own j life, the level of the middle class. Aristocracy is the ! heaven above him; and however independent he may have been in his proper spirit, there is nothing in him of that . haughty individuality, which raises the, man of genius in ! his secret thoughts and aspirations to a level with great I j lords and dignitaries. (p. 498) In this review, and that of Mrs. Kirkland, the critic readi- i ly makes free use of the facts of Goldsmith's life to expli cate his novel. It is apparent that Irving's treatment had an immediate effect. i 1 j After Irving, critics referred less frequently to Gold-! smith's genius. One of the results of the new biographical I knowledge was the replacement of the word with others more I jconnotative of the marks of his personality. The difference i i between the new and the older terminology can be readily {discerned in Horace E. Scudder's estimate. The inexactitude! ! ; bf his estimate shows that he has not assimilated Irving's explication: But every reader of the story carries in his memory some scene made vivid by those inexplicable touches of genius which seem in Goldsmith's work to be like the dew on the j grass, giving a heavenly radiance to the common things, | I yet disappearing as soon as one endeavors to catch and j j hold the momentary m o i s t u r e . j H 5 <jhe Vicar of Wakefield . . . , The Riverside Classics) ' -153! Impressionistic criticism such as this became rare as the facts of Goldsmith’s life and habits of writing became mat- ! jters of common knowledge. i An approach similar to Irving's was that of Donald G. Mitchell. Like Irving, he had a close sympathy for Gold- ismith's personality and writings. He likewise identified i I jthe two. In About Old Story Tellers (l87?)> he attempted to; I give the children of America a mature view of The Vicar of Wakefield, which he regarded as a good moral story and noth ing more. His intention was, ! by such a mingling of historic and biographical tints with the threads of the stories, to connect them ineffaceably j with the times and the places of their production, and j with the personalities of their authors, so as to make J j them waymarks, as it were, in any further study of history: and geography.11° j I I His method combined selections with a large amount of bio graphical background and critical interpretation--all on a I ' very informal level and in a homely mood. The biographical I jelement predominated, with the novel assuming incidental im-; portance. His main critical thesis in his remarks on Goldsmith jconcerned the need for an honest acceptance of life. In the i ■ I discussion of the Vicar and his family, he upheld Primrose I i as the proper ideal for his young readers, and Mrs. Primrose 1 s j ;(Boston, 1876), p. xxi. I -^-^About Qia story Tellers, of How and When They Lived, ! and What Stories They Told (New York, 1877V, P. ix.' I ! I 154 he castigates as the type of artificial, vain wife (p. 74). She becomes the subject of a short sermon against pride: Of course, it is a very good thing to hold up one’s head, and better still to be able to do so with a clear con- ! science; but we don't like to encounter people who want to impress everybody they meet--with the notion of their great importance. There was a little of this in Mrs. Primrose, but not a bit of it in the Doctor. The Vicar of Wakefield, as he sees it, is simply the story of an honest man who was a moral and pious hero easily com prehended by young readers. It was this same simple, unas suming habit of mind that he admired in Goldsmith, who, he thought, had a healthy and humorous acceptance of life. It is apparent that Mitchell thought that the best qualities of his character were carried over into his novel. Goldsmith had his weaknesses, but they were not serious: He was petulant in his talk often, and he had vanities that crept into his manner, but his vices were such as disposed one more to laugh than to be shocked by them. (p. 94) This is the happy view of the man, but Mitchell clearly be lieves that these are the faults of simplicity more than of sophistication. He adds: And in all he wrote, he was so simple and pure, and ' healthy, and withal there was such a play of delightful humor, and all his stories were so tenderly told that people loved him for his books, and keep on loving him for them todays (p. 94) William Dean Howells, speaking of Goldsmith’s writing in general, reasoned in a direction opposite to that of Ir ving and Mitchell, although to the same conclusion. Prom r ........ 155 i ! Goldsmith's style he argued to a "gentleness and kindness of disposition," and to a purity of spirit. He wrote, in My 1 Literary Passions, that i ; The style is the man, and he cannot hide himself in any I garb of words so that we shall not know somehow what man- I j ner of man he is within it; the speech betrayeth him, not j only to his country and his race, but more subtly yet as i to his heart, and the loves and hates of his heart. ’As to 1 Goldsmith, I do not think that a man of harsh and arrogant! i nature, of worldly and selfish soul, could ever have writ ten his" style, and I do now think that, in far greater i measure that criticism has recognized, his spiritual qual-1 ity, his essential friendliness, expressed itself in lit- i i erary beauty that wins the heart as well as takes the fan-! ! cy in his work.11? Earlier critics had associated The Vicar of Wakefield with morality, but had not extended this identity to Goldsmith's i j ■ own personality. Howells' attitude likewise indicates a so lution to the earlier problems involved in the apparent dis parity between the polish of art and the irregularity of l I i ; life. In 1900, Henry James published an introduction to the jCentury Classics edition of The Vicar of Wakefield.11® His maturity in dealing with the problems that had concerned the 117?. The opinion expressed here is in keeping |with Howells' theory that Goldsmith, by his morals, should j |be considered a nineteenth-century novelist. In Heroines of Fiction (New York, 1903), he wrote that "the nineteenth- ; icentury English novel, . . . as we understand it now, was Invented by Oliver Goldsmith. The novel that respects the j right of innocence to pleasure is a true picture of manners,' and honors the claim of inexperience to be amused and edi- I fied without being abashed, was his creation" (I, 5)• ! ll8New York, 1900. I ... -.156 readers of the previous century provides a summary conclu sion to what, so far as this novel was concerned, was an ' epoch of critical deliberation. | In the face of its success, he approached the novel with incredulity: Stretch the indulgence as we may, Goldsmith's story still : | fails, somehow, on its face, to account for its great po- 1 ! sition and its remarkable career. Read as one of the mas- ! terpieces by a person not acquainted with our literature, j I it might easily give an impression that this literature is I not immense. (p. xi) He must account for the disproportion between the novel and I 1 . : the honors that have been heaped upon it. The Vicar of Wakefield, he says, "has succeeded by its Incomparable amen-! \ ity" (p. xiii). But, he adds, the inconsistency of the 1 novel . | ! makes us wonder once more what a classic consists of, and offers us abundant occasion for the study of the question, which it presents in conditions singularly simple and un- ; J disturbed. \ i The masterpiece, as it stands, I is really the infancy of art. . . . The first hundred | pages— the first half of the first volume of the original I edition--contains nearly all the happiest strokes. These,: j therefore, are comprised in but a quarter of the whole, j (p. xiv) The felicities, if counted up, would be of no great number, i : merely those of I the blue bed and the brown, of Moses and his spectacles, | of the Flamboroughs and their oranges, of the family piece; by the "limner,"--the prettiest page of all,--of Shakspere1 and the musical glasses, of Jernigan and the garters, of j Mr. Burchell and his "Fudge." (p. xiv) 1 When it comes to the merits of the novel, James is 157 stupified at some of the claims that have been made for It In respect of the skill of portraiture and liveliness of presentation. He sees no exceptional vividness in the contrast between the two girls; the young rake "has so little dramatic substance" that he is hardly worthy of being allowed to associate with 1 J the family of Primrose; Burchell keeps his kinsman only "nebulous company." The story goes to pieces, he adds, "from the moment little Dick comes in with the cry that his bister has gone" (p. xv). Goldsmith’s pathos and his tragedy fall, throughout, much below his humor, and the second half of the tale, dropping altogeth er, becomes almost infantine in its awkwardness, its funny coincidences, and bit stitches of white thread. But James will not say that he is reproaching Goldsmith. There is nothing here to criticize, he explains, for the reader is never really troubled, nor is he intended to be. The situation is "one of the most delicate of all artistic oddities." When it comes to the serious things of life, Goldsmith exercises a remarkable restraint. "The Vicar" throws itself upon our sensibility with a slenderness of means that suggests . . . some angular, ar chaic nudity. I spoke above of some passages as "faint," and the privilege of the whole thing is just to be de lightfully so. This faintness . . . is the positive es sence of the cham and spell, so that here and there the least lights gleam in it with effect. . . . In short, we make to our own mind, all the while, a plea for the pecul iar grace, and feel that, in the particulars, it loses nothing through the want of art. One admits the particu lars with the sense that, as regards the place the thing has taken, it remains, by a strange little law of its own, quite undamaged--simply stands there smiling with impuni ty. (p. xvii) He thus comes close to considering the book an idyl, calling it "a happy case of exemption and fascination--a case of im perturbable and inscrutable classicism." This quality he attributes to a tone which makes all sorts of tragedies amusing, but he will not allow that the tone of near-fantasy< £ , makes the people live. i As a corollary to his thesis of the pleasing effect of ; | ; exemption, James adds that the success of the story lies ' Within the character of the Vicar, and that "the book has flourished through having so much of him" (p. xviii). This bondition is to be traced to "the very soul of Goldsmith" i himself. ! I It is the most natural imagination of the unspotted that I any production, perhaps offers, and the exhibition of the 5 ! man himself— by which I mean the author--combines with his instinctive taste to make the classicism for which we i praise him. These two things, the frankness of his sweet-5 j ness and the beautiful ease of his speech, melt together— j with no other aid, as I have hinted, worth mentioning--to ; form his style. . . . Goldsmith’s style is the flower of | what I have called his amenity, and his amenity the making5 | of that independence of almost everything by which "The j Vicar" has triumphed. The books that live, apparently, j are very personal. . . . (p. xix) ! James’ assessment of The Vicar of Wakefield is objec- ! I jtive and specific. As a novelist himself, he is able to I , strip the story to its essential art, ignoring the moral and intellectual concerns of the previous critics. He can ap- preciate it from the totality of its effect. Much of what i . i he says has, in substance, appeared earlier in American i ! .Goldsmith criticism. Tuckerman spoke at length of his open-j ness and his agreeable nature. Channing had noticed his j commonplacedescription and his economy. Several dwelt on J 159 the near-idyllic quality that James calls want of tragic in-; tent. A few were aware of Goldsmith’s own intrusion into the plot with his sympathy and humor. James' main contribu tion to Goldsmith criticism, then, lies in an integrated ex planation of The Vicar of Wakefield in terms of an improved ; conception of Goldsmith's personality. Only after the work of Forster, Irving, and the other biographers could James have been able to achieve this understanding. The evolution of the American appreciation of The VIcarl of Wakefield in the nineteenth century was in the direction of an integrated alignment of a number of reactions to a novel of some complexity. There were those, however, who i were repelled by what seemed to be weaknesses in the book, and made no attempt at a sympathetic estimate. One of these; was Mark Twain, who delivered perhaps the most vehement at- ! tack upon Goldsmith's narrative skill in the entire century.1 Mark Twain is supposed by several of his biographers to have detested Goldsmith. In his private conversation, he was vigorously outspoken against The Vicar of Wakefield. His friend William Dean Howells gave detailed testimony of his habit: i As I remember, he did not care much for fiction, and in I that sort he had certain distinct loathingsj there were certain authors whose names he seemed not so much to pro- i nounce as to spew out of his mouth. Goldsmith was one of ; these, but his prime abhorrence was my dear and honored , prime favorite, Jane Austen.11" ! i i 1 -'--^Literary Friends and Acquaintance (New York, 1900), 1 P. 319. . J This dislike seems to have been most pronounced during the later period of his life, particularly in 1894-1896, during his lecture tour of the world. His Notebook at this time bhows a persistent concern for the novel, since he returned po the subject several times during the voyage. It has been suggested that he re-read Goldsmith and Austen for the pleasr ! " 1 pO ure of hating them all over again. This conjecture is perhaps invalid. A more plausible explanation is that he did not like The Vicar of Wakefield, and was determined to fortify his distaste with reasons. Some of his remarks hint even that he was planning a study of it. Sometime in 1894 he wrote: i { j J Now that our second-hand opinions, inherited from our j fathers, are fading, perhaps it may be forgivable to write! j a really honest review of The Vicar of Wakefield and try j j to find out what our fathers found to admire and what to j scoff at . 121 | In December, 1895# he wrote: "In the past year have read Vicar of Wakefield and some of Jane Austen. Thoroughly ar- } bificial" (p. 262). Shortly he was tempted again. In the Indian Ocean, on January 8, 1 8 9 6, he explored another ship's {Library and was pleased that his friends were still with him: I i This is the best library I have seen in a ship yet. I j I must read that devilish Vicar of Wakefield again. Also j Jane Austen, (p. 266) ! l^DeLancey Ferguson, Mark Twain: Man and Legend (Indi-! anapolis, 1942), p. 2 0 7. j i 121Mark Twain's Notebook: Prepared for Publication with Comments by Albert Bigelow Paine (New York, 1935)i P. 240. I ! ! The Notebook says no more. In Following the Equator (1897), wherein he was speak ing in character and to the public, he gave a more detailed 1 assessment: | Also, to be fair, there is another word of praise due to this ship’s library; it contains no copy of the Vicar of > Wakefield, that strange menagerie of complacent hypocrites^ : and idiots, of theatrical cheap-john heroes and heroines, ! who are always showing off, of bad people who are not in teresting, and good people who are fatiguing. A singular i , book. Not a sincere line in it, and not a character that ; ! invites respect; a book that is one long waste-pipe dis- j charge of goody good puerilities and dreary moralities; a ' book which is full of pathos which revolts and humor which ) grieves the heart.122 fie had previously described the book in terms of its simi larity to Julia A. Moore’s The Sentimental Song Book, of which he said: : j I carry it with me always— it and Goldsmith's deathless ; story. . . . Indeed, it has the same deep charm for me j J that the Vicar of Wakefield has, and I find in it the same j subtle touch--the touch that makes an intentionally humor- ! ous episode pathetic and an intentionally pathetic one j funny. (p. 324) This is followed by a long quotation from "William Upson," ; ! | which Twain considered an extremely poor poem. Twain's complaints were not unfounded. Some of his re marks had their more temperate counterparts in James and the I ! earlier critics. James, for instance, said later that he j i disagreed with the exaggerated praise some portions of the j book had experienced. James also noted the unreality of the! I ^ characters, as had also the writer In The American Review: 122(Hartford, 1897), pp. 612-613. J f .. ' “ ■ - .162 I Whig Journal in 1849. Unsympathetic with the novel in the first place, he was aware of neither Goldsmith's humor, his philosophy, nor the human quality of the book. It seemed to1 have been made up of weaknesses such as over-written eharac-1 ■fcers, the dreary morality of Primrose, and a general artifi ciality masking as sincerity. But what seems most to have concerned him was the public acceptance of the book on prin ciples "inherited from our fathers." | It can be inferred from Twain's words "... our second hand opinions, inherited from our fathers, are fading" that he was convinced that the public acceptance of The Vicar of Wakefield was declining. Such a situation was far from a tact. During the last two decades of the century American interest in Goldsmith was increasing. His works were being j reprinted with increasing frequency. Many of the new edi tions were made available to the general public who had no 1 ; access to the scholarly interpretation which had appeared in periodicals. To the average reader The Vicar of Wakefield was perhaps an entertaining book. But this reader would not have the benefit of the large body of critical and biogra- 1 phical material that had appeared since 1849. It is safe to I ! bay that had these readers remained as Goldsmith's sole audi ence, the American awareness of Goldsmith as man and writer I would have reached a static position. i 1 j About 1880 there appeared two new trends that were to ' affect the American appreciation of Goldsmith. The first of: these was the introduction of textbook editions of The Vicar of Wakefield and classics by other authors into the high ! ! i ; schools. The second was the preparation of scholarly edi tions of Goldsmith's individual works. j The introduction of Goldsmith into the high schools had two effects: it introduced him to a new reading public--the: school children (as students rather than as casual readers)M i ! i and it brought about in the reader a stabilized attitude to ward Goldsmith. The biographical and critical material prefaced to the texts resulted in a reader more thoroughly Informed on Goldsmith than had been common in the past. | The use of school texts of the English classics came : with the emphasis, beginning in about 1 8 7 5, on the study of j \ | English literature in the high schools. In 1 8 7 6, Houghton j j Mifflin published the Riverside Classics edition of The Vic ar of Wakefield, containing a biography by Horace E. Scudder \ and select criticisms by Mrs. Barbauld, Irving, Scott, and j Goethe. The version appears to have been arranged for stu- j dents and adults alike. 1 f For some time, beginning about I8 5O, the high schools studied the history of literature to the neglect of selec tions in readers and anthologies. After 1880, the secondary schools began to give more attention to literature than to j bomposition. Many schools stressed the shorter English and 1 American classics, instead of the history of literature. Students read such classics as The Lady of the Lake. The I Courtship of Miles Standish, Evangeline, and Macbeth. i i The motivations for the classic text movement were sev eral . First, it was found that the method of teaching by : reading, analysis, and discussion of several books was bet- : ter than drill work on but one text. Second, the colleges were growing at a rapid rate, and some standard of entrance ■ requirement was needed. In some cases, certain texts were t prescribed for high schools, and admission to college was based upon results of examination on these texts. I In 1894, Yale University set college entrance require ments, and other institutions followed the example. The following year, certain colleges began to list requirements i in two groups of selections: those for critical study, and : those accepted for general reading. "Johnson's Series of j English Classics," published in Richmond, Virginia, was ; adapted to the needs of Southern schools, and books were se lected on the recommendation of the Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools in the Southern States. The Vicar of Wakefield inaugurated the series.12^ j ! The high school text of the classic was invariably j I ; prefaced by a considerable apparatus, which was in many j i | j J 12^Stuart G. Noble, A History of American Education 1 (New York, 1938), p. 319- j -^^George Clifton Edwards, ed., The Vicar of Wakefield, by Oliver Goldsmith. Johnson's English Classics (Richmond, j Virginia, 1 9 0 0 ) Cf. p. 5 for a discussion of the educa tional background of this series. i | r“ ~...... — “."165 i cases more difficult and less interesting than the text it self. This included a biography of the author, a chronologi cal list of his works, selected criticisms, analysis of the ! style, and an appreciation of the classic at hand. At worst, such an edition told the student what to think. The ; better editions were accompanied by questions and theme top-. I ics. A number are still in use. i j Some of these texts were poorly edited. George Clifton Edwards' handling of the Johnson English Classics edition of 1 The Vicar of Wakefield showed severe limitations. The edi tor made pretensions to scholarship by using the fifth edi tion (1773), "the last before Goldsmith's death," without, kpparentiy, having referred to Dobson's life (which he cites | ; jLn the bibliography). Irving's biography he totally misun- 1 jierstands as an "essay." Two essays, "so valuable as to be j necessary"--Macaulay's and Thackeray's (in The English Hu- j morists)--are recommended. On the other hand, some of the | texts were excellently and authoritatively edited, such as Boynton's, which was included in Macmillan's Pocket English i | ; Classics. A few contained very sparse information.- Ginn I S ; and Company provided in their edition a seven-page "Sketch | of Goldsmith's Life," footnotes (which were mostly defini- | i 1 O C bions), and an index to the notes. ! ! . | 1 2 53OS^on# 1 8 8 8. This edition was "slightly abridged, and "a few obsolete or foreign expressions changed to meet the requirements of schools" (p. iv). I 1 In most of the text editions there was a sincere at tempt to inform the student on the nature, the purpose, and 1 phe literary qualities of the work at hand. Many improve ments were made in these texts after 1900. As a result of this editorial effort, which in many cases took full advan tage of the best biographical, historical, and critical litjv erature available, the reaction of the student was much more, i disciplined and enlightened than was that of his grandpar- ; ents. Enthusiastic, sentimental interpretations were less likely to occur. ! Following a course contemporaneous with that 'of the high school texts was the preparation of scholarly editions* ' * I bf Goldsmith's individual works. The most notable Goldsmith 1 scholar of the day was the Englishman Austin Dobson. His ! 0 many editions of Goldsmith were easily available in America, and some of them were published here simultaneously with the^ London edition. In 1884 he published his edition of The ; l/Icar of Wakefield, for which he provided an introduction I 126 and extensive notes. In the following year appeared his i O facsimile reproduction of the first edition. This was espe-j I 127 ciaily valuable for its chronological bibliography. ' Oth ers of his editions included: The Poems of Oliver i .... I T 1 1 Oft j New York, 1884. vols. London 1 8 8 5. ^ ' Goldsmith,^ 23 The Plays of Oliver Goldsmith. The Citizen of the World, 130 and Memoirs of a Protestant . All of these volumes had the benefit of Dobson’s research. His own Life of Oliver Goldsmith was published in 18 8 8 .132 | The development of the high school and scholarly text editions of Goldsmith's works reflected the evolution that had taken place in the general public appreciation of Oliver Goldsmith and his non-dramatie works in the United States. s i : Within the century, criticism of The Vicar of Wakefield moved in the direction of a better understanding of Gold- j smith's meaning. Before 1850, critics had sought to explain Goldsmith the author in terms of what they saw in the novel.| I ' 1 After the publication of Irving's biography, readers had re-; bourse to historical and biographical data to complement ! their own impressions. The result was two-fold. On the one! hand, a more thorough comprehension of Goldsmith's art was I ; made feasible. On the other, the foundations of twentieth- l , century Goldsmith scholarship were laid as the intricate Connection between The Vicar of Wakefield and its author was! S ! 12®London and Philadelphia, 1893* 12^London and Philadelphia, 1 8 9 3. j 13°2 vols. London, 1 8 9 1. i 1312 vols. London and New York, 1 8 9 1. I | 13 2London, 1888. The book contained a bibliography by j John P. Anderson. This was the most extensive bibliography | iof Goldsmith that had yet been published. m a n i f e s t . ~i6S "The Deserted Village" I D u r in g t h e n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y , The D e s e r t e d V i l l a g e e n -i f J o y e d a d i m i n i s h e d p o p u l a r i t y i n t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s . I t d i d ; c o n t i n u e t o b e r e g a r d e d a s G o l d s m i t h ' s m a j o r p o e m , a n d , p r o - j , p o r t i o n a l l y , i t w a s p r o b a b l y r e a d a s m uch a s d u r i n g t h e p r e v i o u s p e r i o d . I t w a s r e p r i n t e d o f t e n , s o m e t im e s i n l a v i s h l y ; j i i l l u s t r a t e d e d i t i o n s . I t w a s q u o t e d f r e q u e n t l y a n d i t i n s p i r e d t h e n a m es o f s e v e r a l c i t i e s a n d t o w n s . B u t t h e im m e d ia c y o f i t s th em e h a d p a s s e d , a n d i t s fo r m a n d v e r s e w ere: n o l o n g e r p o p u l a r . I t o f f e r e d l i t t l e c h a l l e n g e t o t h e c r i t - ! ! i c a l J u d g m e n t. T he m a j o r l i t e r a r y c r i t i c s h a d v e r y l i t t l e bo s a y a b o u t i t , s i n c e i t h a d l i t t l e t o command t h e a t t e n - ' i j jtio n o f a n a g e t h a t c o n s i d e r e d G o l d s m i t h a s a n o v e l i s t o f I som e i n t e l l e c t u a l i n s i g h t . 1 ^ ! W h ile i n i t s own c e n t u r y T h e D e s e r t e d V i l l a g e w a s known! a s a p l e a s a n t poem o f som e e c o n o m ic a n d s o c i a l i m p o r t , i n th e n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y i t cam e t o b e r e g a r d e d a s t h e p e r f e c t p o e t i c d e s c r i p t i o n o f v i l l a g e l i f e . T h i s a t t i t u d e w a s i n ' p a r t c a u s e d b y t h e c h a n g i n g c h a r a c t e r o f t h e A m e r ic a n J - \ I t i s i m p o s s i b l e t o d e t e r m i n e t h e n u m b er o f e d i t i o n s a n d p r i n t i n g s t h e poem h a d , s i n c e i t w a s s o o f t e n i n c l u d e d i n a n t h o l o g i e s . T h e r e w e r e tw o F r e n c h t r a n s l a t i o n s . T h a t o f T . De R u s s y (N ew Y o r k , 1816) w a s r e g a r d e d b y a P o r t f o l i o c o r r e s p o n d e n t a s “b e i n g r a t h e r a p a r a p h r a s e t h a n a t r a n s l a - •fcion" ( 1 : 3 8 , n . s . , 4 t h s e r i e s , J a n u a r y 1816) . E u g e n e C h e v a l l i e r ' s Le V i l l a g e A b a n d o n n e (N ew Y o r k , 1 8 7 7 ; w a s a • c l o s e r e n d e r i n g . cultural pattern. In the expansion that followed the Revo- : lution, the United States became a country of frontier vil- | lages. Americans living In small towns and villages saw In ; The Deserted Village an idealization of their own homes. Some of them were inspired to write poems in a new Goldsmith village tradition. The village was to them, in the words of Irma Honaker .Herron, the source of "provincial greatness, of the potentialities of westward expansion."13i + Many of their, poems saw publication in the ubiquitous "Poets' Corner" of j the weekly village newspaper. Among these effusions, con tinues Herron, l ; | there may be found an occasional description of village j life, usually developed in the Goldsmithian style, method, ] and subject matter. (p. 42) I Among those who wrote imitative verse describing village life were: William Ray, Village Greatness (1821); the Rev. Gamuel Deane, The Populous Village (1 8 2 6); and John Howard I Bryant, My Native Village (1 8 2 6). In these poems, and in 6 ithe subsequent American thinking about The Deserted Village, ! i stress was placed on -the village as a social unit. The em- I phasis upon the village institutions, such as the church, j i I the schoolhouse, the tavern, and the parsonage, took the at-; tention of Americans away from the political aspects of the poem that had occupied the attention of such men as Freneau I and Dwight. Thus to Americans of the nineteenth century • i ! ^ ^The Small Town in America (Durham, North Carolina, ! 3£39_L P. 33,.. I Goldsmith's poem was primarily picturesque and sentimental. ! The extent to which The Deserted Village became, in the: American mind, a picture of the ideal community is to be I found in the number of American communities having the name jAuburn. The United States Official Postal Guide (July, 1953) listed nineteen post offices named Auburn.^35 There are Au- burns in Alabama, California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, I Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mis-; sissippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, ! Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming. There are also Au- ; burns without post offices in Virginia (a suburb of Glouces- t ter) and Rhode Island (a village In Cranston). A number of j these derive definitely from Goldsmith's Auburn. Auburn, * i ! New York, was founded in 1793 as Hardenbergh’s Corners, but ; received its permanent name in 1803, when the Town Meeting jfcook it from the poem.1^ Auburn, Maine, was founded in 1802, and was incorporated as a town in 185^- The Goldsmith origin of the name is definite.Some of the christenings 1 were picturesque. Auburn, Alabama, was settled in 1 8 3 6, and was named by Miss Lizzie Taylor, who had been reading The Deserted Village. "Name it Auburn, sweet Auburn, loveliest j j -^Washington, d. c., 1953* There are also three Au- burndale's, an Auburn Heights, and an Auburn Park. j | ! ^-^New York, A Guide to the Empire State . . Ameri- j ban Guide Series (New York, 1940), p. 1 9 8. (The Auburns in Iowa and California were named by settlers from Auburn, New i York.) v ! I - 136iphe Encyclopedia Americana (New York, 19^-3) > 11, -53—1 pillage of the plain/’ she told her fiance, Tom Harper, when he spoke of the problem of naming the settlement„137 Auburn, Wyoming, received its name in a realistic manner. In 1879 a: I ! party of Mormons settled at the site of the present town. ! After one season, they left for other parts of the valley, leaving the empty cabins they had built. A later traveler gave the name to the most authentic deserted village in the 1 ; jentire Auburn tradition.^38 Slaughter, Washington, became Auburn by an act of the state legislature in 1 8 9 3. The name: f i was chosen when the sensitive citizens objected to the habit Of train conductors who called, "All off for the Slaughter House." They felt that Auburn, whose reputation they knew, I 1SQ would be less open to such ridicule. ! It was a tradition in the Emerson family to call the !still wild Mount Auburn, Massachusetts, "Sweet Auburn." | [This was Emerson's walking ground almost every day when he was in Cambridge. 1^0 By 1 8 3 6, "Sweet Auburn," hitherto a good hunting area, had lost much of its beauty to the ad vance of civilization, becoming characteristically, as a i 137Alabama, a Guide to the South . . ., American Guide Series (New York, 1941), p. 372. | ^ ^ wyoming, a Guide to Its History, Highways, and Peo ple . . ♦, American Guide Series (New York, 1941), p. 396. j t I ^ ^ washington, A Guide to the Evergreen State American Guide Series (Portland, Oregon, 1 9 3 8)", p. 3 8 5. j ! ■ | j ^^Ralph L. Rusk, The Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson (New j York, 19^9)» P* 71• Mount Auburn was named after the poem. : Harvard student wrote, "a melancholy spot,--a city of the dead.1,1 i+1 ; The same association of The Deserted Village with the ; small American community is to be found in the only serious ; imitation of it in the century. This was George Watter- j ston's Scenes of Youth. A Poem (l8l3)# which was prompted by; a visit to Washington, D. C., where he had spent his youtfc?:^ It is the only full imitation of Goldsmith’s poem that does 1 not take on a political significance. Watterston narrows 1 the pattern of the original to a recounting of his own ex periences and does not go beyond his own sentimentalized autobiography. He carefully defines his intentions in his I j Preface: j • j I To the world the author gives it as an original produc- j tion, containing a delineation of the scenes and a de- | script!on of the little incidents of youth--so pleasing ; to a mind ameliorated by the pressure of adversity, and j softened by the influence of sensibility. (p. 6) \ ] He follows Goldsmith’s pattern very loosely, recalling his childhood memories, telling how the graves of his parents were once where the Capitol stands, and then entering upon a; catalogue of the village landmarks: the country school with; i its schoolmaster, the river and its bridges, the tavern and kts characters, the slave's cottage, and the farmer's barn. ! l4l"A.C.," "Venatica," Harvardiana. 4:360, June 1 8 3 6. j I 1 ^Washington, l8l3- Cf. Julia E. Kennedy, George Wat- ! iterston: Novelist, "Metropolitan Author.” and Critic, Dis- j jsertation, Catholic University of America (Washington, D. iCAJ_.19.33.)_..... I Like Goldsmith, he seeks out each of these, but--rather than finding the scene now desolate— he discovers that they passed when the city became the nation's capitol, and are how replaced by luxurious governmental structures. I Watterston, who is far removed from Goldsmith's ideas, makes his poem an autobiographical meditation on the places and people he knew in his youth. Thus civic, picturesque, and personal details predominate, whereas in Goldsmith's po em their equivalent was used as the illustration of the po- ’ fet's idea. i The same topical emphasis is seen in Lydia Huntley isigourney's The Connecticut River. This imitation, which in! i l .828 won for her a prize given by The Token. an annual gift I i 148 aook, gained her considerable fame. ^ The poem begins in the familiar vein: Fair River I Not unknown to classic song, . . . (Soon the imitation becomes obvious, with both thought and rhythmical origins apparent: 1 See, toward yon dome where village science dwells ! When the church-clock its warning summons swells, What tiny feet the well-known path explore, And gaily gather from each rustic door. . . . As is Goldsmith's poem, The Connecticut River is a tale of migration. Instead of coming from Auburn, the emigrants ^come from a Connecticut village and make their way to the j 1 ^^It was subsequently published in Poems (Philadel phia, 1834). Cf. Gordon S. Haight, Mrs. Sigourney: The I Sweet Singer of Hartford (New Haven, 1930). remote villages of the West and even the Great Lakes. ) The amount of influence that Goldsmith's verse had upon American poets is difficult to trace. The poem was studied : and imitated by many prominent writers in their youth, Long fellow among them. James Kirke Paulding had been a Gold- J femith reader from his youth. There were perhaps some memo- j j ries of his early and continued study of the poet in The Bac kwoodsman (l8l8). The likeness between this and The De- serted Village did not escape a reviewer in The Kaleido- | Iscope, or Literary and Scientific Mirror (March 28, 1820), who reprinted a few lines and remarked: The poetry in the passage below has a tang of Goldsmith, and is singularly free from the tumid and falsely-florid j manner which has hitherto characterized the Anglo-American! muses.1^ ! i The influence on Oliver Wendell Holmes was more defi- | ! nite. His absorption of the "classical" forms as exempli- I ' i fied by Pope and Goldsmith was readily apparent to many of i ! his contemporaries. He was a close student and vigorous i proponent of eighteenth-century verse. As critics have j pointed out, he was a "throw-back" to that period, and in | 14<5 ! lis early life he was admittedly so. He declared his ad- l miration for the Augustans in "Poetry, a Metrical Essay," ; l 4 V B. Cairns, On the Development of American Litera-: fture from 1815 to 1883. Bulletin of the University of Wis- j c on sin (Madi son,’ 189 8 ), I, 1 6 5. ! -^^Gay Wilson Allen, American Prosody (New York, 1935)> p. 193. 175 which he read before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard In 1 8 3 6. In a note to this poem he later wrote: I j This Academic poem presents the simple and partial views of a young person trained after the schools of classical ! English verse as represented by Pope, Goldsmith, and Camp bell with, whose lines his memory was early stocked.1^6 f It has been said that Holmes composed rhyming lines In imi tation of Pope and Goldsmith before he knew how to write. In 1 8 8 3, Holmes had occasion to reassert his preference for I I j the classical verse when, in replying to a toast given to i : him at a dinner in his honor, he said: Pull well I know the strong music line Has lost Its fashion since I made it mine. Nor let the rhymster of the hour deride The straight-backed measure with its stately pride. It gave the mighty voice of Dryden scope; It sheathed the steel-bright epigrams of Pope; In Goldsmith’s verse it learned a sweeter strain; Byron and Campbell wore its clanking chain; I smile to listen while the critic1s scorn Flouts the proud purple kings have nobly worn; Bid each new rhymster try his dainty skill And mould his frozen phrases as he will; We thank the artist for his neat device; The shape is pleasing, though the stuff Is ice. The influence of Goldsmith on Holmes was only partial, yet it was pronounced and fully recognized. Extended criticism of Goldsmith’s verse did not bulk large during the nineteenth century. There are two basic 1A6 The Writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Standard Li brary Edition (Boston, 1 8 9 2), 1, 35• ^ T cambridge History of American Literature. II, 225. Eleanor M. Tilton, Amiable Aristocrat: A Biography of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes (New York. 1947)♦ p. 387. reasons for this paucity. First, the small variety of re- : marks that can be directed at The Deserted Village was soon I exhausted, and criticism was thus capable of little if any 3 ! novelty. Second, the neo-classical couplet was not a form i i to be adopted by the American poets of the Romantic period. I Thus Goldsmith's verse was not a vital concern in poetry. | The American criticism of Goldsmith in the earlier nineteenth century involved also the estimate of Pope. The hppearance of The Deserted Village and The Traveller was ! j pontemporaneous with the shift of American interest away from Pope. Although by the third quarter of the eighteenth bentury Pope was still the favorite, American poets were seeking other models, among them Goldsmith and Thomson (Al- j len, p. 24). At the turn of the century, the sublimity of Pope's poetry was being questioned. The Bowles-Byron con- I feroversy broke out in 1 8 0 6, but on both sides of the Atlan- ! jtic the attack upon the Augustan couplet and the restrictivej bubject matter of the expository poem had been under way for \ ! several years. As Agnes Marie Sibley observes, there was in! Lmerica both a considerable attack upon Pope and a vigorous j (defense of him.1^ i 1 3 : ! In the larger conflict between the two ways of writing ; I poetry, Goldsmith came off better than did Pope. Critics j i compared the various merits of the two writers in a number I j ^•^Alexander Pope's Prestige in America. 1725-1835 (New! ;York, 19^9), P- 95~- ' . . . . j 177 of magazine articles which, while they are not numerous enough to be Indicative of a decided trend, show that some Americans did prefer Goldsmith. In one case discussion of the merits of Pope and Goldsmith developed into a controver sy. In an issue of the Monthly Anthology, the statement was made that "the age of good English poetry ended with the reign of Queen Anne," and that "the British Muse has, from that period, been declining in a gradual nervous decay. The author further stated that the American offspring had inherited the same disorder. In a later article appearing in 1805, a writer who favored the "moderns" set out to re fute the earlier critic by setting side by side passages from Pope, Goldsmith, Trumbull, Dwight, and Humphrey. Against a selection concerning "The Ruins," from Windsor Forest (representing the Augustan age), he put Goldsmith. After quoting lines 35 to 50 of The Deserted Village ("Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the plain . . ."), he pro claims : The reviewer, who does not feel how superior is Goldsmith to his predecessor [Pope], does not deserve to exist a mo ment longer in his capacity. (p. 8) Sometimes the appreciations of Goldsmith could be em- barrassingly enthusiastic. One of the series of "Silva," britical notes mostly on literature appearing in the Monthly Anthology. shows in what manner Goldsmith was supposed -^Oncol. Humphrey's Works," Monthly Anthology, 2:7* 1 8 0 5. I havenot consulted the earlier issue. superior to Pope. "Silva, No. 12" is devoid of specifics: I Who shall be compared to Goldsmith? His verse is softer to the ear, than the pearl of the sea to the nerve of vi- ! t sion. When I am tired with other reading, its influence j is gentle, like the silent approaches of rain in the | drought of summer. It flows at the village brook, which gives a pleasant sound, and makes the fields green and I fruitful. I read him with more pleasure than Pope, for I ; believe he has more exquisite sentiment; more of pure mor als; and more of that nature, which bursts out in Thomson, which finds a ready entrance to every heart that is not corrupted by folly, or rendered callous by a city life. i He has written little poetry, yet that little is like beads, strung in holy rosaries, or the continuous vibra tions of the harp at midnight. All is musical and materi-i al in Goldsmith's verses.151 fPhe article continues at length in this vein. If the critics of the first decades of the century pre ferred Goldsmith to Pope for his sentiment, morality, and s natural description, that estimate was not to continue in the public mind for long. In 1837 > a reviewer of Prior’s Life in the Christian Quarterly Spectator shows that Gold- ; smith's verse has been subjected to considerable scrutiny, j I I while at the same time the standards of poetic excellence ] have changed. The critic likes the simplicity of The De serted Village which he had noticed three decades previous: ' ] j j One notices a perfect ease, and simplicity about the poem j in its structure, and turn of thought. . . . We read it j without so much as thinking we are engaged on a fine j poem.-*-52 Likewise, in his verse Goldsmith is more enjoyable than Pope: 1 ' 1 'His turn of expression is more natural, and the flow of his. 1513:63, 1 8 0 6. 15210:19, 1837. verse is more melodious than in Pope" (p. 20). But the verse has its limitations: "The poetry of Goldsmith is sel dom marked, by anything like elevation or sublimity." It has, to compensate for this deficiency, only a "tone of so ber earnestness" and a preoccupation with human sympathies, poldsmith counterbalances his lack of sublimity with a sen- timental identification of himself with his fellow man (p. 21). He has written a "domestic poem" which 1 breathes the true English spirit and notions. English life is stamped upon it, and we might know the Briton's j ideas of comfort and enjoyment,--of what constitutes the j charm of earthly existence, from the pages of this poem. ! Ralph Waldo Emerson would not deny Goldsmith the quali ty of the higher poet. To him, the commonplace as the poet revealed it was much more than a domestic picture such as i the reviewer just discussed would assert. Speaking in The I American Scholar (1 8 3 7) of the "highest cause" lurking in "these suburbs and extremities of nature," Emerson rated Goldsmith with the Romantics. He saw it as a good sign that the common is "explored and poetized," so that the universe I i • „ ! has form and order, and but one design unites and animates ; j 1 the farthest pinnacle and the lowest trench." He continues: i ! 1 This idea has inspired the genius of Goldsmith, Burns, | Cowper, and, in a newer time, of Goethe, Wordsworth, and j ! Carlyle. This idea they have differently followed and | with various success. In contrast with their writing, the) j style of Pope, of Johnson, of Gibbon, looks cold and pe- j I dantic. This writing is blood-warm. Man is surprised to 1 find that things near are not less beautiful and wonderful; than.things remote. The near explains the far.153 j ^.■^Complete Works . . ., ed. Edward Waldo Emerson — i8o j : Emerson’s transcendental reference was an Isolated one, and ; i I have not encountered any critics who acknowledged a tinge ; I of the sublime in Goldsmith's rusticity. : Despite Goldsmith's American ascendancy over Pope and scattered laudatory comments on his melodious verse, there I ! was, after 1800, a definite decline in the American popular-; ity of The Deserted Village. As the Romantic sentiment be- ; gan to take hold in America, his reputation as a poet dimin- I : ished in critical esteem. The nineteenth century turned gradually from an enthusiasm for his verse toward a vigorous appreciation of his prose. In 1819, Richard Henry Dana found little in The De- ( serted Village that he considered enduring. His remarks jshow how well he perceived the direction that Goldsmith's popularity would eventually take. Reviewing, in the North 1 1 American Review, Hazlitt's Select British Poets, he gave a divided opinion on the poem: j \ i | Goldsmith, both in verse and prose, was one of the most | delightful writers in the language. His verse flows like ! a limpid stream. His ease is quiet, unconscious. I {(Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1903-190^) * 1> 112. The largest j body of Transcendental criticism of Goldsmith is to be found iln conjunction with Goethe's reaction to The Vicar of Wake- ! field. Thoreau, although he quotes Goldsmith frequently, a i jtrait attributable to his complete absorption of the litera-i ■fcure of the previous age, entered into no extended criticism: of either the man or his writings. Cf. P. B. Sandborn, The 5 fife of Henry David Thoreau (Boston, 1917)> P- 113* As a istudent at Harvard, he wrote an essay on "National and Indi vidual Genius," in which he discussed the English and Irish < qualities of The Deserted Village. It was a pedestrian piece._ Cf. Sandborn, pp. 109-110. I Everything in him is spontaneous, unstudied, unaffected, yet elegant, harmonious, graceful, nearly faultless. Without the point or refinement of Pope, he has more gen- , eral tenderness, a greater suavity of manner, a more geni-i al spirit. Goldsmith never rises into sublimity, and sel-: dom sinks into insipidity, or stumbles upon coarseness. ! . . . The Deserted Village is sometimes spun out into a ! mawkish sentimentality; but the characters of the Village ! Schoolmaster and the Village Clergyman redeem a hundred j faults.15^ 1 The remarks contain the major laudatory elements common to the standard criticism of the poem. Yet when he enters upon a detailed inquiry into the value of the poem, he finds it deficient. Taking issue with Hazlitt's praise, he continues: i 1 « Of Goldsmith's poetry, Mr. Hazlitt has said rather too j much; but the popularity of Goldsmith's two principal po- j ems was owing more to the time in which they appeared, i than to their intrinsic merit. It was the recoil from art j to nature, from artifice to simplicity. There are a great! I many feeble lines in them. There is seldom one at which you stop on account of something peculiarly poetical. He j | has many of those words, too, which we have complained of I * in Pope. He produces the effect, however, which a kind- hearted man always will, who is not afraid to express him self as is natural to him. You love him, and are pleased 1 i with yourself and everybody about you. Some of his scenes; 1 were new in poetry in his day, and are given with truth j and feeling. But his fame must rest mainly on his two j i plays and his Vicar of Wakefield. It would be well for j many others had they so good foundations. (p. 310) j\ harsher judgment came from a critic writing in The Port folio in 1 8 2 2: j i ‘ : In his poetry there is nothing ideal. His couplets have the same slow and stately march as Johnson's; and if we j can suppose similar images of rural and domestic life to I I have arrested the attention of that writer, we can scaree- I ly conceive that he would have expressed them in different! 1 language . -*-55 \ ! 1548 : 3 0 9-3 1 0, 1 8 1 9. ; 155,1 Life „of Oliver Goldsmith," The Portfolio. 13:484, 182 It is apparent, from the final words of the article, that the writer demands rapture from a poem, and that in Gold smith he is disappointed. He continues disparagingly: I To the poetical compositions of Goldsmith in general, may ; be applied with justice that temperate commendation which ! i has been given to the works of Parnell in his life of that ' poet. At the end of his course the reader regrets that his way has been so short; he wonders that it gave him so little trouble; and so resolves to go the journey over again. There is much to solace fatigue and even to ex cite pleasure, but nothing to call forth rapture. We stay j to contemplate and enjoy the objects of our road; but we feel that it is upon this earth we have been travelling, | and the author is either not willing or not able to raise ! us above it. (p. 487) In 1845, A. Davezac remarked that Goldsmith was one of I : : those British poets too, who, though lacking the sublimer I promptings of the muses, have excelled in all that consum mate art of versification, and exquisite taste, can infuse! | Into poetry, in the place of what come to the Bard from Heaven above.*56 ; These three critical estimates, which are separated by ; jthree decades, show the Romantic reaction against Goldsmith's j ; verse. The opinions, of course, are those of professional critics, and do not represent the popular sentiment. ! i i There is no way to determine the attitude of the general | i reading public. There appear to have been very few editions^ of the poem between 1800 and 1 8 5 0, either in separate June.1822. j 156nThe Literature of Fiction,1 1 The United States Maga-j zine and Democratic Review, 16:278, March 1845- I I ^ 1 ■*-57«phe critical commentary of the Englishman John Aikinj was available in the Appleton edition of The Vicar of Wake- j ifield, which was reprinted often after 1842. 183 volumes or collected editions. After 1850 there was a re surgence of interest, if publication in magazines can be taken as a criterion. Harper's Magazine reprinted it in its December, 1 8 5 0, issue, exploiting the Etching Club illustra tions.1^® (The Traveller, likewise illustrated, appeared two months later in February, 1851-) In 1855, The National Magazine presented it in two parts, also with twenty-five Etching Club illustrations.1-^ jn both cases, the engrav ings were taken from the extremely elaborate edition that had appeared a decade earlier, and were exceptional in their technique and beauty. A number of cheap reprints of Gold smith's poems with these woodcuts appeared both in England and America. This resurgence of interest in The Deserted Village can be traced to Irving's biography, which led to a renewed awareness of Goldsmith. However, in the critical wake that followed in the 1 8 5 0's, very little was said about the po ems. Perhaps the most significant of the observations was the opinion of the Rev. Daniel Curry that the village parson is Goldsmith's nearest approach to a conception of the character of a 1582:l-9, December 1 8 5 0. 1596 :487-493, June 1855; 7:4-9, July 1 8 5 5. In 1855, The United States Magazine of Science. Art. Manufactures. Agriculture. Commerce and Trade published the selection "Goldsmith's Village Schoolmaster" with a crude copy of the Etching Club illustration of the schoolmaster chastising a little girl (1:311, February 15, 1 8 5 5). • 184 i Christian anywhere to be met with In the works of Gold smith.!®0 The fact that the character seems to have been borrowed from1 the example of his brother Henry would, Curry believes, seem to prove that he "had no notion of the peculiarities of that character," for he nowhere else evinces such a knowledge. Curry's remark was made in conjunction with a statement of his conviction that Goldsmith had no religious character whatsoever. Much more sensitive, but nevertheless indica- i * i tive of the intellectual climate of America, was the reser- ; yation of the editor of The National Magazine when he re printed The Deserted Village. Knowing that some of his readers might object to the description of the tavern, he j wrote: j j This poem is classic, the world will never tire of it. It j has some passages which modern "Temperance," and other re- I forms, might correct, but its general impression cannot j but be salutary* We give it, therefore, entire. t>1 | After the l850's, less attention was paid to the poem | jthan before. In 1875> Emerson dared to edit an anthology of, verse in which Goldsmith went unmentioned. He said in the preface to his Parnassus: "The poets are they who see that i i spiritual is greater than any material force, that thoughts jpule the world.The remark is not out of keeping with I ! ! ! ! ^ ^ Methodist Quarterly Review. 31:371 “372, 1849. j l6l6:487, June 1855- l62Boston, 1875. I i85; the intention of the reference to Goldsmith in The American Scholar. Yet the succeeding discussion is silent on him. Pope, he said, is a poet "by education and practice," but Chaucer, Shakespeare, Johnson, and the like belong to the other class. Goldsmith was excluded from the anthology, buti [there was much of Gray, Scott, and Shakespeare. The omis sion can be attributed to the commonness of Goldsmith among jthe anthologies, Emerson's diminished esteem, or the fact that Emerson was in a mental decline at the time. The fact is that Goldsmith did not appear. He was, however, amply I . ; represented in William Cullen Bryant's The Family Library of Poetry and Song, which was first published in 1870 and re- i 168 printed several times afterwards. | The history of the popularity of The Deserted Village i I huring the second half of the century involves three ele- i i ments: (l) a lack of concern for its versification; (2) a i ■ recognition of the economic and social aspects of the poem, accompanied by a tendency to ignore them; and (3) a marked appreciation of its charm and idyllic picturesqueness as constituting its chief claim to attention. The first of | jthese was the inevitable result of the passing of time, , i , Which made Augustan versification alien to American tastes. : j i 1 1 5 ! ■^"^Memorial Edition (New York, 1880). Entries were di-j jvided by subject matter. The Deserted Village was classed ! las a "Descriptive Poem"; "When lovely woman stoops to folly"! was included among "Poems of Sorrow and Adversity"; selec- j jtions from The Traveller appeared under a number of headings. l 8 6 The second had been long In progress, but was heightened by the new awareness of the background of the poem that fol lowed upon the publication of the new biographies. The third developed all the more readily because of the presence of the first two elements. The first of these was expressed negatively. It will not be treated in the discussion that follows. That the economic and sociological aspects of The De serted Village were taken seriously by the Americans of the eighteenth century has been demonstrated in Chapter II. But as early as 1800 they began to ignore these aspects of the j poem. Few criticisms referred to anything but his verse, 1 the village life he described, and the emotional response jbhat his images evoked. Most of the remarks on Goldsmith’s 1 •bheory of luxury published in America were those of English bommentators. Among these was John Aikin, whose Letters to ! ; a Young Lady, on a Course of English Poetry (1 8 0 6) undertook; i 1 6 4 1 a discussion of the socio-political aspects of the poem. ; j The book was directed to a girl approaching maturity. "It s I , j is time," he said, "Goldsmith was more of a poet than a phi- f ^ losopher or politician" (p. 202). He continues, questioning | : the thesis of compensation in The Traveller, and ultimately : describing The Deserted Village as "an enlargement of the j I ; topic of The Traveller." since it concerns "the supposed i j i i I | ^^Boston and New York, 1806. | depopulation of the country in consequence of the encroach ments of luxurious opulence." The same skepticism was ex pressed in Aikin's "Remarks on the Poetry of Dr. Goldsmith,"' which after 1842 enjoyed many reprintings in America. He here treated the economic theory almost enigmatically, as if it were insignificant: j The end and purpose to which description is directed is I what distinguishes a well-planned piece from a loose effu-i i sion. . . . But this is a want which cannot be charged on I Goldsmith; for both the Traveller and the Deserted Village; i have a great moral in view, to which the whole of the de- : scription is made to tend. I do not now inquire into the ! , legitimacy of the conclusions he has drawn from his prin- ! ciples; it is enough to justify his plans, that such a j purpose is included in them. 3-65 Later he adds: I ! 1 The writer then falls into a strain of reasoning against ; luxury and superfluous wealth, in which the sober inquirer 1 will find much serious truth, though mixed with poetical ! exaggeration. (p. 5 0) j j , Thomas Campbell's biography of Goldsmith in Specimens of the: | j British Poets (1819) also expressed a concern for the preoc- i ; pupation with luxury. ! i Among the Americans, it was the Rev. Daniel Curry who ] gave the first serious consideration of the economic theory | in The Deserted Village. He did not state the case fully, jiowever, and totally overlooked the place of luxury in the plan of the poem. To Curry, the poem was based upon the | . | condition of population, not upon the larger moral problem. As he saw it, the foundation of the poem was the theory that. ^ ^ Poems, Plays and Essays, p. 43. 188 notwithstanding the increase of trade and general prosper ity of the country, the population was steadily and rapid-^ ly declining.lbb But Goldsmith's facts were faulty, since it is known that the condition of the masses was improving. However, begin ning with this theory, Goldsmith fitted it to his own memo ries of Lissoy, infused it with sensibility, and wrote The Deserted Village. His errors recognized, so Curry thinks, i the poem "will ever stand as a monument of the genial tend erness of his heart." ; Some Americans ignored the subject by directing their attention elsewhere. Henry Theodore Tuckerman universalized the fate of Auburn and covered the thesis of luxury in ob scurity. Replacing with nostalgia what Goldsmith had envi sioned with sincerity, he said: Dear to the heart and sacred to the imagination, are those; • sweet delineations of unperverted existence. There is true pathos in that tender lament over the superceded sports and ruined haunts of rustic enjoyment which never j fails to find a response in every feeling breast. It is an elaborate and touching epitaph, written in the cemetery { of the world, over what is dear to all humanity. There is a truth in that eloquent defence of agricultural pursuits j and natural pastimes, that steals like a well-remembered ! strain oyer the heart immersed in the toil and crowd of I cities.lb7 Tuckerman preferred to overlook Goldsmith's theory and to 1 identify the conviction of the poem with the decline of ru- < ral areas and the growth of cities. •^^Methodist Quarterly Review. 31:371, 1849. t piays and Essays, p. xxii . 189 Irving refrained from any reference to the ideas of Goldsmith, preferring to dwell on autobiographical details. He appended to the chapter dealing with The Deserted Village an article from a London periodical concerning the renova tion of Lissoy that followed upon the popularity of The De serted Village .^8 Toward the end of the century, some of the high school textbooks displayed an interest in the subject of Goldsmith’s concept of luxury. P. V. N. Painter, in his Introduction to English Literature (1894), said that s Goldsmith is here partly right and partly wrong. "A bold peasantry" is undoubtedly necessary to the highest welfare • of a country. But when, in the following lines, he in veighs against commerce and manufacturers, he makes a mis-: ! take. These do not injure a country, but increase its i wealth, population, and intelligence. When, however, he | denounces luxury, which unfortunately he sometimes con founds with trade, he has the approval of all right-think ing men.lb“ Most of the high school surveys of English literature over looked the problem. A text edition of The Deserted Village edited in 1906 by Louise Pound, however, dealt fully with the conditions Goldsmith described, and concluded that "in Some of his economic theories the poet is not to be fol lowed," and that he was wrong in his facts about the depopu lation of the country.170 I 5 ! i l68New York, 1849j cf. pp. 245-252. I 1 6 9(Boston, 1894), pp. 476-477. ; 17°(Boston, 1907), p. xxii. 190 The history of The Deserted Village in the United States in the nineteenth century shows that, after the po litical prejudices that accompanied the Revolution had been removed, readers were little aware of a convincing intellec tual theory in the poem. When they were conscious of this, they attacked it in its periphery: the fact of the rise in population, the value of a "bold peasantry," or Goldsmith's denunciation of commerce. No American, not even Irving, dwelt on Goldsmith's repeated denunciation of the misuse of luxury, which he considered the initial evil in the chain of effects that destroyed Auburn. It will be noted, however, the attacks enumerated above bear a close relationship to the ideals of an industrial democracy. ; As the century approached its end, references to The Deserted Village grew less specific. Goldsmith's verse be came the object more of affection than of understanding. (The tendency had been present in the American attitude since early in the l800's. But after 1850 the aesthetic apprecia tion of the poem predominated, to the exclusion of the other major considerations. The temper was established by Irving, who, while disavowing any intention to dwell on the merits pf the poem, declared: 1 . . . we cannot help noticing . . . how truly it is a mir ror of the author's heart and of all the fond pictures of early friends and early life for ever present there. It seems to us as if the very last accounts received from home, of his "shattered family," and the desolation that seemed to have settled upon the.haunts of his childhood, , had cut to the roots one feebly cherished hope, and pro- ^ duced the following exquisitely tender and mournful s i lines. . . .1^1 There follows the section beginning: "in all my wand'rings round this world of care" (lines 8 3-9 6). In the final line of the quotation, Irving italicizes the last six words: "Here to return— and die at home at last." The reference to the "shattered family" involves a letter received from home (most likely from his brother Maurice) detailing a multitude j of family misfortunes.-^2 Irving's supposition is that a I major inspiration of the poem was Goldsmith's realization that he could not return to that home (p. 24l). In light of the fact that The Deserted Village was several years in com position, the place of family fortunes in the inspiration of the poem must be questioned. However, the circumstances that Irving sees in the passage he quotes color his entire [ 1 ‘ interpretation. He continues: 1 How touchingly expressive are the succeeding lines, wrung 1 from a heart which all the trials and temptations and buf- 1 fetings of the world could not render worldly; which, amid; a thousand follies and errors of the head, still retained its childlike innocence; and which, doomed to struggle on : to the last amidst the din and turmoil of the metropolis, ; 1 had ever been cheating itself with a dream of rural quiet ' and seclusion: . . . Then follow lines 97“H2, beginning: "0 blest retirement, friend to life's decline," in which Irving italicizes the l ^^(New York, 1849), pp. 246-247. I \ ^ c f . Irving, pp. 241-242. A full discussion of Gold-; smith's reply to his brother Maurice is given in Katharine C. Balderston, The Collected Letters of Oliver Goldsmith (Cambridge, England7 1 9 2 8), pp. xxi-xxiii, 8 3-8 7. ; 192 phrase "that never must he mine." Thus Irving reads Into the poem a strong and occasional autobiographical element, and interprets it more as an object of affection than as a communication of universal ideas. Similar to Irving's tendency to regard Auburn as a place of retreat from a world of turmoil was Donald G. Mitchell's summation: As for Goldsmith's verse, who does not love it? Who does not find tender reminders of the country in it? . . . Not all the arts of all the modernists,— not "Maud," with its garden-song,--not the caged birds of Killingworth, singing up and down the village-street,--not the heather-bells out of which the springy step of Jean Ingelow crushes perfume, --shall make-me forget that old, sweet, even flow of the "Deserted Village."173 Elsewhere he says: . . . but--somewhere between the lines, and subtly pervad ing every pause and flow--there is a tenderness, a suave, poetic perfume, a caressing touch of bQth mind and heart which we cannot describe--nor forget.1 ' 4 Mitchell's references say very little. There is a similar paucity of real criticism in Edward Everett Hale's words on The Traveller and The Deserted Village: There is not a line but has a right to be. . . . and when one thinks of these poems, and remembers the lines from them which are household words, one shudders to recollect the months and years of labor which Goldsmith forced him self to give to subjects in which he took no interest, but ^ \et Days at Edgewood, p. 247. (This book was pub lished in 1894, but bea.rs copyright dates of 1864, 1 8 8 3, and 1892.) ^ ^ English Lands. Letters, and Kings (New York, 1895)> III, 133- '193 that he earned by them his daily bread.^ 5 In Hale's criticism, and in that of others of the last two decades of the century, Goldsmith appears as a polished, pleasing, and popular poet. The village theme, with its so cial implications, is replaced by a mere reverence for bu- ] colic simplicity. The denunciation of luxury becomes, to these Americans, a glorification of the rural life as op posed to the urban. They considered Goldsmith primarily as a lyrical poet pouring into his verse all the personal sad- I ness and deep-felt nostalgia that he--the lonely man in crowded and squalid London--felt for his home in Ireland. This line of thought owed as much to the current flare for rural poetry as it did to a free interpretation of the facts of Goldsmith's life. Criticism was in need of scholarly discipline. The period after 1890 saw a gradual change in the crit ical evaluation of The Deserted Village. In 1 8 9 5, the edi- I tor of a school text wrote: I For Goldsmith was pre-eminently a poet; in his travels he saw into the soul of things; in his reflections he pene- 1 trated beneath the surface. . . . This poem, therefore, : like any great imaginative piece, must not be examined too 1 closely for an identity with prosaic fact.1'® ^ ^ The Vicar of Wakefield, introd. Edward Everett Hale (Boston, 1 8 8 6), p. xix. ^ ^ Masterpieces of British Literature . . . with Bio graphical Sketches, and Portraits (Boston^ 1895)* P ♦ 374. The editor considers The Deserted Village a difficult poem because of its language. "In some respects," he says, "Goldsmith's language is more likely to be misinterpreted But in his subsequent treatment, he considered the poem as little more than a projection of Goldsmith's own experiences. The introduction of the autobiographical element into the criticism of The Deserted Village followed the same course as in the case of The Vicar of Wakefield, and had the same general effect. After 1 8 9 0, Goldsmith's two major poems were used extensively as high school texts. The critical apparatus of some of the editions afforded an excellent in terpretive discipline for students. "Heath's English Clas sics," for instance, provided readers with twenty pages of introductory material (including an extensive bibliography) and sixteen pages of notes.With the students thus in- formed, there could be in the future but little chance of j the individualistic and chaotic Interpretation to which the j poem had been subjected during the last third of the century. The Deserted Village was in need of a fresh and valid ; explication. Before 1 8 5 0, Americans had ceased to regard it: as an expository poem in the Augustan manner that set forth : in a highly personal way an authentic picture of reality. It had lost much of its genuineness as a work of art. As than Shakespeare's." ■^^Rose M. Barton, ed., Goldsmith's "The Traveller" and "The Deserted Village"; and Gray's "Elegy.in a Country j Churchyard7" Heath1s English Classics (Boston, 1909). The j year 1900 is an unfortunate terminal date for studying the popularity of The Deserted Village. Most of the critical rehabilitation of the poem was done after that date. The foundations, however, were laid before 1900 by the editors of the text editions of The Vicar of Wakefield. _ _ _ _ _j r ■ * ■..195 was true also of The Vicar of Wakefield, this poem needed to I • .. " be rescued from well-meaning enthusiasts by the ministra tions of objective scholarship. ■ "The Citizen of the World" ! The Citizen of the World enjoyed less general popular!-i . - I - ' ' ■ ■ ■ ' " ' " " " " . ! ty in America during the nineteenth century than did either : I The Deserted Village or The Vicar of Wakefield. It was sel dom reprinted separately, although it was available in the Miscellaneous Works (1 8 0 9), Prior's collection (1 8 5 0), and various other compilations. There was, however, an active American interest in it. It was read and commented upon by ! I readers who desired to explore Goldsmith more extensively. Critics found its prose style pleasing. But the most impor- i ■ tant fact of the impact of this work on America was the num ber of imitations it inspired. Goldsmith's humorous device I ; of the oriental letter provided social critics with a medium 1 J*or commenting on the manners of the new nation. The early ; nineteenth century was a period when the self-conscious .\merica was concerned with its own moral, social, and polit-; leal well-being. This attitude was favorable to the employ ment of the device Goldsmith had used in his Chinese Letters* k fact which several writers acknowledged when they used it ■ | 1 to call the attention of Americans to their own grossness, i but in a humorous way and without the offensiveness of the 1 moral censor. ? . j Before 1 8 2 5, there were published in the United States j 196 four, and possibly five, series of letters in imitation of The Citizen of the World. These ranged from the light crit icism of the manners in Manuel Mordecai Noah's view of •i 1 Charleston society, to the heavy-handed scurrility of T. H. Roberts' commentary on frontier Kentucky. These views were for the most part humorous. But such was not the case with Mark Twain, who used the device to denounce racial persecu tion in the San Francisco of 1 8 7 0. ! The first American attempt at the oriental letter (aft-' i j er Marcoe's The Algerine Spy) was Samuel L. Knapp's Letters of Shahcoolen, a Hindu Philosopher, Residing in Philadel phia. to his friend El Hassam, an Inhabitant of Delhi. [ The letters, in a florid pseudo-oriental style, commented on; I the social manners of Americans, the rights of women, the coarseness of the theater, the low condition of American po etry, and a number of other topics. This feeble attempt > owes little to either Goldsmith or Montesquieu, both of whom Knapp avowed he was imitating (p. 7) The Letters of i : Shahcoolen are no more than symptomatic of the need felt by iAmerican writers for some sort of pleasant social satire. He later published Extracts from A Journal of Travels in North America, Consisting of an Account of Boston and its j i 1 i ! j ^ ^ B o s t o n , 1 8 0 2. i 17Q ‘ . ,:7That Knapp had Goldsmith in mind is shown by his at tempt at a plot structure, from which he seems to have been distracted. i 197 Vicinity. By All Bey. &c♦. Translated from the Original Man-1 uscript. In the "Advertisement," Knapp says: ; I The portrait of our country has never been correctly taken 1 by any of the crowd of foreigners that have attempted it, t | . . . adding that the Americans need a good picture by a foreigner "having no rival interests to serve" (pp. 3~4). The most famous of the imitations of The Citizen of the i ; World was. the Salmagundi papers of Washington Irving and i his brother-in-law, James Kirk Paulding. The series con sisted of twenty periodical pamphlets published in New York between January 24, 1807, and January 25, 1 8 0 8. They were collected and published in two volumes as Salmagundi; or, , The Whimwhams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff. and Oth- , ■1 0 -I ers. Paulding subsequently embarked on a second series I I ! in fortnightly numbers between June, 1 8 1 9, and September, i f t p 1 8 2 0. * i | The essays in both series were modeled upon the Specta tor with the announced intention to "instruct the young, re- jform the old, correct the town, and castigate the age."188 The bulk of the essays poked fun at such obvious targets of ; 'satire as the stage, odd characters of the social world, | i l8°Boston, 1 8 1 8. 1 l8lNew York, 1 8 0 7-1 8 0 8. ? ' 182 ! Salmagundi. Second Series, by Launcelot Langstaff. Esq. (Philadelphia, 1 8 1 9-1 8 2 0). i 18f t Knickerbocker Edition (New York, 1897), I , 4. j 198 fashions, and tastes. In their style, these papers show the influence of Goldsmith, Steele, Addison, Swift, and Rabe- ; -| Qjj lais. Goldsmith was the obvious model in the series of nine Mustapha letters, the first of which appeared in the third number, of February 13, l807> and the others irregu larly in subsequent numbers. The circumstance of these epistles is slight, and the plot is of the simplest. The first letter is prefaced with an explanation: Among the few strangers whose acquaintance has entertained me, I particularly rank the magnanimous Mustapha Rub-a-dub Keli Khan, as most illustrious captain of a ketch, who figured some time since, in our fashionable circles, at the head of a ragged regiment of Tripolitan prisoners. His conversation was to me a perpetual feast. . . . (p. 3 2) The editor says that he gained the confidence of Mustapha, who, when he departed, presented his benefactor with a bun dle of papers, "containing, among other articles, several copies of letters, which he had written to his friends in Tripoli." With the aid of Will Wizard, he accomplished a "tolerable translation" from the original Arabic-Greek. l8\:f. Herold, p. 37- l85p0iiowing is the sequence of the Mustapha letters: Mustapha Sequence Salmagundi Number Date 1 III February 13, 1807 2 V March 7 3 VII April 4 4 IX April 25 • 5 XI June 2 6 XIV September 6 7 XVI October 15 8 XVIII November 24 9 XIX December 31 The series opens with a reference to the beauty of American women who, unfortunately, have souls. In his first; American adventure, Mustapha is pelted with debris by a street crowd, and accepts the explanation that such is the : j custom for honoring dignitaries. He discusses law and poli tics. He notices that men are reluctant to marry even the one woman allowed them. This unwillingness he attributes to the fact that American women, in addition to having souls, also talk. i [ The second letter describes a grand military demonstra tion at which a flag is presented. Mustapha thinks it curi ous that armies are kept only for the beauty of officers' uniforms, and he is horrified by the contrast between the jdignity of the parade and the unruliness of the soldiers when they have been set loose in the city afterwards. The next five letters are a direct satire on American j i politics. He calls America a "Logocracy," a government of j j words. In Congress, he says, everything is carried on by "noise, tumult, and.debate." The President (the Bashaw) "is; L man of superlative ventosity, and comparable to nothing but a huge bladder of wind."1^ Mustapha eventually becomes {the victim of governmental red tape. He is feted all over ! jthe city, but is embarrassed by his need of a pair of ! i i I ; . -^^This was Thomas Jefferson, who, according to Irving 1 and Paulding, "utters a speech" as the only weapon in an . American crisis. ! ; — - " 2 0 0 breeches. Unfortunately, Congress has failed to make an ap propriation for the clothing of prisoners. His guard pro poses that he either petition Congress or arrange a theater ' benefit in his own behalf. (Apparently the latter course of action was taken; but, though he promised an account in the next letter, it did not appear.) Another letter is devoted ; to describing an election with all its drunkenness, vote- buying, political hand-shaking, posters, and handbills "writ ten by the Ghost of Washington," who has become a god in the; country. Finally, he discusses politics as hero-worship, I ; with its endless banquets, testimonials, and toasts. Alder men, so Mustapha is led to believe, are ministers of food. ; ! The series on politics ends with an attack on the American ! i lack of Christian charity. I ! In the last two letters, he returns to more restricted i fields of controversy. One he devotes to women's pursuits, ' a subject which affords him a world of amusement quite re moved from the vices and absurdities of the men. Mustapha tells how they run about with perfect freedom, while pets are confined to cages. He then discusses their pursuits: , i , piano playing, landscape painting, embroidering (their most ; important domestic avocation, in which they make flowers as j % junlike nature as possible), and personal decoration (which ; j ; he assumes they have probably derived from their savage pro-* genitors). Finally, he is shocked by the way they ^ I expose their whole faces from their foreheads to their j chin, and they even go abroad with their hands uncovered1 | 201 ; Monstrous indelicacy! 1 i The final letter, published on December 31, 1807, may have been intended for the amusement of New Year's Eve cele brants. Mustapha is taken to the "City Assembly," which turns out to be a ball. The dance, which he describes in ridiculous terms, he confuses as a religious exercise that continues for several hours until the women are taken home exhausted. This kind of dancing he conceives as a disease that comes in waves, throwing men and women into such a I frenzy that he cannot believe they are human beings. After k time, he makes his way to the saloon where some men are gambling. When he discovers that what he thought was hiero- ( 1 glyphic study is gambling, he becomes disgusted and asks to be taken away. The series ends abruptly. I Goldsmith's influence on the Mustapha Letters cannot be1 proved with certitude. The series is too short to display any great range of similarities to The Citizen of the World.! However, the evidence points to an initial Goldsmith inspi- | hation. The material of the series is confined to remarks [ j i bn manners and public affairs. It might be objected that i ? i ;the political letters, with their hot, vehement purpose, ) I have no parallel in Goldsmith. The sequence falls into two j kivisions: the political letters and the sketches of socle-' ty. It is apparent that the series was begun without plan, ; but in Goldsmith's light satiric vein. After two letters, the authors became engrossed in the elections of 1807 and f 202 [ = confined the satire to them through five letters. They re verted to social superficialities only when the matter of the entire Salmagundi series was becoming weak and their in- f : terest was waning. Two of the last three issues were given over to Mustapha*s observations on women and dancing. They i I ' : show a return to the original tone of the series and appear , equally in keeping with the spirit of Goldsmith's Chinese betters. The strong possibility that Goldsmith was the mod el is suggested by the contention that Paulding was the au- | thor of this series. E. A. Duyckinck was of this opinion.1®^ I ! Paulding's own respect for The Citizen of the World ife well known. He had assimilated both the ideas and the prose ktyle of that work. Speaking of his youth, he once told how $ the book impressed him: i The only circumstance worthy of note which occurred during 1 my stay at Sawmill River, and possibly gave a direction to[ j my whole life, was my encountering among the few books of ■ my uncle, Goldsmith's Citizen of the World. I read it, I I believe twenty times at least, and if I have any taste or ; I style, I owe them to that charming work of the most de- ’ | lightful of all English writers.1^ finally, the series contains certain structural details, ■ such as a rudimentary plot and authentication of the letters Icy means of a discovery hoax, which point to a model, possi-j tly Goldsmith. i 1 ! I 1 ^Hamilton Wright Mabie, The Writers of Knickerbocker ! New York (New York, 1912), p. 5^^ | • ’ •^William I. Paulding, Literary Life of James K. Paulding (New York, 1 8 6 7), p. 26. 203 The Mustapha Letters have a number of characteristics that are common to the genre of the oriental letter, and it ’ could be objected that The Citizen of the World was not the model. The evidence of Goldsmith’s influence can be in ferred only from Paulding's authorship. The tradition of the oriental letter of social and po litical commentary was carried on by Manuel Mordecai Noah in i his "Muly Malak" papers published in the Charleston Times in April, May, and June of 1812.^^ The first letter appeared ! bn Thursday evening, April 16, 1812, under the headline Ori ental Correspondence. The subhead succinctly described the nature and import of the series: 1 Copy of a Letter from Muly Malak, Agent for the House of | Said Hamet at Aleppo, to Calad the Elder, Aga of the Jani- j zaries; Giving a Description of Charleston, the Manners ; and Customs of the Inhabitants. (Translated from the | ArabicJ. 1^ 0 j Manuel Mordecai Noah, born in Philadelphia, was a mem- ! I ber of a prominent Portuguese-Jewish family. During his busy life he gained a minor distinction in drama and played 1 a prominent part in law and politics. He spent his later years as a journalist, successively founding and editing six' idaily newspapers. The "Muly Malak" letters were written I while he was staying with his brother-in-law in Charleston j ^The letters have not been republished. The fullest treatment of Noah is Isaac Goldberg's Major Noah; American- Jewish Pioneer (New York, 1927). 1 j ^^The letters appeared on April 16, May 9, June 2, June 4, June 6, June 13, and June 23. j 204 shortly before he was appointed Consul to Tunis, a position ; he held from 1813 to 1815. I To while away his time, he spent many hours in the Charleston Library, where he came across The Citizen of the World and familiarized himself with it (Goldberg, p. 5)« He: had been in the city several weeks and had made few acquaint ances.1^1 Lonely stranger that he was, he aspired to become the observant citizen such as Goldsmith had described. The ; result was the six amusing letters from the pen of "Muly j Malak" describing the Charlestonians to themselves.1^2 j Noah's brief experiences with Goldsmith's pseudo-orien tal device of social commentary was very effective. At the height of their popularity, the letters were much sought after (Thomas, II, 59)- Nor was the success purely local. i i ; Charleston was then by no means an isolated Southern city but off from the northern centers of culture. While he was showing intelligent Charlestonians what they looked like to ; ! an outsider, Noah was making a name for himself. The fame of his sensation spread, and for years afterwards he was j known by journalists as "Muly Malak." Charleston was then a neat and comfortable city, sensi-; tive to the arts, possessed of a thriving theater. Noah I | I ; 1^1E. S. Thomas, Reminiscences of the Last Sixty-five I Years (Hartford, 1840), II, 5 9. ; s ! 192The initials of this pseudonym may have been a sim- ; pie substitution of Noah's own. j j t pictures a gay, cosmopolitan community peopled by sophisti cated creatures with all the foibles that would make them interesting to the stranger. He makes Muly Malak see what Lien Chi Altangi would have seen; but he makes him think iess. In this respect he differs from Paulding. There are no politics, no name-calling. What he writes contains a light mixture of moral values and worldly sophistication. He notices the women first: They suffer the rude gaze of the passing throng to light on them, without horror or concern: they neither pencil I their eyebrows, nor dye their cheeks, and exhibit in their 1 appearance a simplicity of attire and a modest mien that fails not to surprise. (Goldberg, p. 5^) He continues in the vein of irony: i i I They are very devout also, and never fail attending the j Mosque on Sunday, and are most scrupulously attentive to a j little book which they hold in their hands, occasionally ■ lightening the labor of their eyes, by casting an expres- ! sive look about them. kis description of the horse races, colorful yet trenchant, questions the Charlestonian's values: | Amusements are various and change with the seasons, like the Upas of the East. Running of horses (be not surprised, dear Caled) forms one of their popular and prominent pur- i suits; they have an extensive plain set apart for this amusement, to which all the beauty and fashion report--the i Ladies appear to take great delight in these equestrian | pursuits; and what may appear singular to you, they bet upon the fleetness of a horse, whose qualifications they must, for the best reasons, be strangers to. Gloves, j ; purses, and smiles are thus indiscriminately distributed-- I while the gentlemen stake sums which not infrequently in- ; ' volve their whole capital. All is confusion, heat, dust, I joy, and dismay. Ladies of quality, demi reps, and demi i I devils, counsellors, physicians, soldiers, sailors, black j legs, and lame ducks are mixed and comingles with all ! their armorial bearings and distinctions--these, together with dogs, whips, barouches, roly polys and raree-shows, in all their sad variety, fill up the chequered scene--andj r~ — ... 206 * all this Is called spirit, taste, elegance, fashion. His picture of a frivolous city is completed with the as sessment of the reading habits. His words on the Public Li brary castigate the city’s neglect of the worthwhile: 1 i The* people here read much; aye, and good books, Caled; yet Science is circumscribed, and the Pine Arts languish. . . ! There is a large hall filled with works instructing and amusing; and an old Mufti, good and engaging, serves up | the intellectual repast. 0, Caled, what cements the bonds of society, strengthens and improves the mind, warms and < affects the heart, like Science? It sheds its beam like the evening sun, brilliant and irresistible. Manuel Mordecai Noah used the oriental letter device of The Citizen of the World to question the moral values of a . j very sophisticated community. 1 If Goldsmith’s Chinese friend found Johnson’s London { strange, his oriental dignity would have been severely tried; j ! if he had lived through the next fifty years and had been taken in his old age to Louisville, Kentucky. In 1824, thisi was a rude and lusty frontier village. T. H. Roberts, a bombastic publisher and editor who indulged in racy verse, I ! witty vulgarity, and even obscenity, permitted Lien Chi Al- j fcangi to look at Kentucky and report back to China on what I he had seen. Roberts wrote and published the letters in The; j | Microscope in 1824-1825* There were in all thirty-five let-; I ! ters, which appeared between April 24, 1824, and August 13> 1825. 1 i ! ! Roberts began The Microscope in Louisville in April, I 1824. The first letter of Lien Chi Altangi was printed in jthe_ second issue. Roberts soon had to remove his press to j 207 New Albany, Indiana, after a mob raided his establishment.1^ The columns of the paper contained a large number of refer ences to marital infidelity and prostitution. Most of the oriental letters were entitled: "The Chinese Philosopher. From Lie-eri-Chi-al-tang, a Traveller now in Louisville, to Fum-ho-am, First President of the Ceremonial Assemblies at Pekin in China." Some of the letters were described as hav ing been written in Washington City and Frankfort, Kentucky.; They were a day-to-day account of Lien's affairs, containing; much topical commentary on politics, manners, morals, slav ery, prostitution, and rowdiness. Roberts had a sense of priental naivete, and managed to sustain interest throughouts jthe series. He was, however, preoccupied with female virtue; and prostitution. The former he upheld in some of Lien's letters to his sister. The latter he exposed as the symbol of political corruption. The Chinese wrote on August 7# 1824: | I In walking through the town, I discovered a house splen didly furnished, and inhabited only by women, who though decorated in the most sumptuous and costly style, I was 1 informed, that they belonged to the cast of females called1 I Limber-Legs. But thou friend of my heart, what surprised ! i me most, was, that this house was situated in the centre I of the town, and within a few marks of the Temple of Jus- ; | tice, where crimes and punishments are adjudged. If the I laws of this people tolerated polygamy, there would be nothing surprising in their customs, but their whole code,; ) not only of civil and [poli]tical law, but their religion | also, pointedly opposes the principlej where, alas I is the | consistency of having laws, which are openly set at naughty | 1^^Ralph L. Rusk, The Literature of the Middle Western ! Frontier (New York, 1925), I# l6l. J 208 in the very view of the house sacred to the administration' of justice, and that too, by the law officers. Such things thou knowest are not done in China. Roberts conceived Lien Chi Altangi to be a sound philosopher. There is more meditation and reasoning in his Chinese than in others who commented on America. He attributes the crud- 5 ity of the morals of the men to the fact that they try to live apart from the women. Lien says: The habits and manners of this people, are in a general | way, very loose, particularly the men; the impertinent and | unmanly stare, and the sarcastic grin with which they as- 1 sail women passing the streets, is very disgusting to a ! well-bred man. . . . Prom the profound philosophy of the great Fai-Kar, we are assured that men, when separated from the society of chaste women, become rough in their manners, vitiated in their tastes, and in fine lose all ' that elegance of deportment, with which the delicate soci ety of chaste women, is calculated to adorn the other. . . . And wherever either party attempts to live separate ! from, or independent of the society of the other, the mind; J degenerates, the manners and habits, become rude, the tem- : per fretful, and morose, the disposition gloomy, and in stead of advancing in purity, towards the Great Bramma, they recede from him, further into the circumference of ' nature, of sensuality and Vice. (July 3> 1824) I The letters of "The Chinese Philosopher” occupied a j large portion of the first page of The Microscope. It is apparent from the variety of topics, and from the insistence | upon several public vices in particular, that Roberts in- i tended to use the reportorial and deliberative features of the oriental letter as a primary instrument in his reform j s program. The oriental disguise enabled him to achieve dig- I nity by providing a standard of culture well-known to ! I readers. Mark Twain, like Roberts, also used The Citizen of the World as a model to attack the serious social evils of his day. Twain's assault, which was a severe denunciation of | racial persecution In San Francisco, was much more personal i than Roberts', because it grew out of an experience he had as a reporter. ! After Twain had returned to the east from his first California sojourn, he accepted positions on The Buffalo Ex press and The Galaxy. He was then nursing an indignation over the subhuman treatment accorded the Chinese on the Pa cific Coast. The ultimate literary result of this state of mind was a series of letters entitled "Goldsmith's Friend ! ( Abroad Again," which was published in The Galaxy, for which magazine he was conducting a department called "Memoran- j Employing the fiction of the Chinese immigrant Ah Song Hi writing of his experiences as an indentured coolie to his; friend Ching Foo, Twain set about to criticize the morals of j 1 San Franciscans. He prefaced the series with a note on the background of the incidents he was to describe: Note--No experience is set down in the following letters which has had to be invented. Fancy is not needed to give variety to the history of a Chinaman's sojourn in America. Plain fact is amply sufficient.1^ j | ■ j * 19Vhe Galaxy. 1 0:5 6 9-5 7 1, October 1 8 7 0; 10:727-731, November I87O; 11:156-158, January 1 8 7 1. The series was re-| printed in The Curious Republic of Gondour. and Other Whim- ' sical Sketches (New York. 1919). 1 I 19510:569, October 1 870. I Letter I, written from Shanghai and addressed to Ching Poo, is the shortest of all. Ah Song Hi writes: It is all settled, and I am to leave my oppressed and overburdened native land and cross the sea to that noble realm where all are free and equal, and none reviled or abused— America! He then speaks of how America received the Germans and the s Frenchmen, and "the stricken and sorrowing Irish." Letter II, written at sea, opens on the same optimistic note: We are far away at sea now, on our way to the beautiful i Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. We shall soon be where all men are alike, and where sorrow is not known. It turns out that Ah Song Hi has been hired to go to work 5 for a man at twelve dollars a month. He has some savings, 1 and his benefactor has loaned him money for his passage. He j tells how his advance pay is absorbed in fees. Letter III j i describes Ah Song Hi1s arrival in San Francisco. His for- I tunes now begin to change. He is kicked by a policeman and ; blubbed and maltreated by the man at the dock. Letter IV, which introduces the major episode of the series, shows the Chinese being entangled In a complication of circumstances. His employer cannot find a place to hire him out, so Ah Song! 1 Hi will have to pay his benefactor sixty dollars out of the wages from the first job he gets for himself. While he is I | passing down a street, some men set a fierce dog on him. , The vicious beast attacks him until he Is "just rags and i I blood from head to foot." A white sympathizer calls a po- i liceman who saves him from the situation. After some argu ment,however, the Chinese is arrested for being disorderly i and disturbing the peace. Letter V, the longest of all, is i ; devoted to showing the degradation of the "present inhabi tants of America," and their common hatred of the Chinese. Ah Song Hi describes the Irish policeman, who is the jailer, and the occupants of the jail: two Americans, two Mexicans,: 1 i a Chilean, and two women whose mildest epithet was "Strum pet." Letter VI continues the jail episode, and Ah Song Hi fepeaks of prostitution, lewd photography, and the case of a 14-year-old boy procurer. A man who has been brutally beat en by the police is thrown into the jail cell and dies. He discusses his first visit to court, and concludes that he might win his case easily, "but that by the law of the land j » . Chinaman could not testify against the Irishman." In the next letter he is still in court.^ 6 since he cannot pay j for legal defense, his case must stand upon its legal merits, [ ' His situation is further complicated by his having a Chinese- i ' i ■ I speaking Spaniard for an interpreter. The letters reach a I i moment of high emotional impact when Ah Song Hi realizes the presence in the courtroom of the white benefactor who had run for the policeman on the day of the brutal incident. I f The rowdies who had caused the incident are present. The unnamed benefactor looks at them, and they threaten him with: scowls. An Song Hi’s description is very realistic: : i i ; ^^January 1 8 7 1. It Is numbered VI, yet should be VII.! Letter VI seems complete in itself, and is followed with a signature. 212 They still gazed at his eyebrows, and every time he raised his eyes he encountered their winkless stares— until after a minute or two he ceased to lift his head at all. The white friend dares not testify, and Ah Song Hi is con victed on the testimony of the officer. The sentence is five dollars or ten days in jail. The letter ends abruptly with a reference to a newspaper reporter: The courtroom is deserted, except for Stiggers, the news paper reporter, who later would write up his items (said an ancient Chinaman to me), in which he would praise all the policemen indiscriminately and abuse the Chinamen and dead people. (11:158, January 1 8 7 1) The imitations of The Citizen of the World are•too few in number and too individualistic in tone and application to warrant detailed evaluation. If they indicate any tendency at all, it is the writers' habit of confining their remarks to the socio-legal peculiarities of American urban culture. Nor is there any reason to conclude that they were any more than the topical compositions of writers who knew Gold smith' s work, understood his approach, and adapted his de vice to gain attention for what seemed to them profound, or amusing, social problems. The existence of these imitations is no indication that The Citizen of the World was popular with the public in gen eral. Criticism of it was very sparse. What favorable re marks it did receive were made by individuals who were at tracted to it by temperament. It provoked no extended crit ical analysis. Joseph Dennie's The Portfolio mentioned it several times in various lights. Dennie had intended to devote one of his "Author's Evenings" (which occasionally appeared in the magazine) to comment on sentences from this work, but he failed to fulfill his promise.In a criticism of the 1804 Philadelphia edition, he showed that he had given close attention to the work, and that he was aware of the biblio graphical history of the book: ! Perhaps no portion of Goldsmith's works has been more de- ■ formed by errors of typography, and the blunders of igno- j ; ranee than the Citizen of the World, as it is found in j [ Parsons's edition. Whole sentences are omitted, para- i graphs transposed . . . and the author's meaning con founded and polluted by every species of deprivation. The | text, originally printed in haste, in the Public Ledger, ' was never scrupulously regulated, until the complete edi tion of .-.Goldsmith's works was undertaken in the year 1 8 0 3 .1 9 8 Dennie was most interested by Goldsmith's style, a subject I ' ■ ! to which he reverted time and again in the magazine. In the 1 1 i - : Case of The Citizen of the World, he felt that the reading i « of it would have a therapeutic effect on American youth: ] These delightful volumes, replete with entertainment, and presenting excellent models of a style, familiar, but not mean, and easy, without negligence, are now published in a! neat and commodious style. The Editor recommends these j amusing essays to the juvenile American. By studying them: with assiduity, he will gradually purify himself from In- i dian barbarisms, and democratic jargon. j In l8ll, a writer in the same magazine declared that the charm, of the letters lay not so much in Goldsmith's "ap- [ ing the oriental style" as in his asserting his own 1Q7 1:28, January 24, 1801. 1 9 84:310, September 29, 1804. intellectual independence by attacking the attitude that "common sense was the staple commodity of England and an ar-; jticle of contraband elsewhere" (6:221). This was one of the. very few references in the earlier American criticism to the content and intention of The Citizen of the World. I The subsequent critical history of the book is uneven. Charles Brockden Brown found it "far from judicious or pro found."1^ Much later, William Dean Howells said that it , was one of Goldsmith's "unsuccessful ventures."2^ Most of : the evaluations, however, were favorable but hardly analyti cal. William H. Prescott, in a survey of the English essay, had occasion to mention Drake's British Essayists, which omitted Goldsmith. This lack he thought unfortunate: i It is remarkable that Goldsmith's essays, in which an I acute knowledge of mankind is so delightfully set off by j the singular naivete of his own character, should not have! ! been incorporated among the British classics. His Citizen I I of the World belongs to this department more properly than j to any other, and would confer at least as much honor as ! it would receive from such an association.20- 1 - j l ! Irving assumed that it was "a work which has long since tak-j kn its merited stand among the classics of the English lan- j i ! guage" (New York, 1849, p. l4l). Mark Twain held the book in high esteem. In a letter written In i860 he told a friend: "Your letter . . . resembles Goldsmith's 'Citizen i I i i j 1^^David Lee Clark, Charles Brockden Brown: Pioneer ! Voice of America (Durham, North Carolina, 1952), p. 197* ! j 2Q0Mv Literary Passions, p. 15- ; 2Q1North American Review. 14:323* 1822. _ I - ’ “ “ “2151 j of the World, 1 and 'Don Quixote,'--which are my beau Ideals ! of fine writing. " 202 (In his later life, Twain developed an; extreme distaste for The Vicar of Wakefield. There is no i evidence that he ever changed his opinion of The Citizen of ! the World. The cases are different, however. He liked the j style of the oriental letters, while he objected to the faulty art of the novel.) During the latter part of the century it suffered a continued neglect. Writing in the ; centenary of Goldsmith's death, George M. Towle said: j His essays, criticisms, and histories are for the most part forgotten; yet the few who still read his Citizen of j the World, with its exquisite English, its satire upon the London society of George II, its flavor of finest humor, its light touches of vivid.description, know how much Goldsmith is lost to the mass of the modern reading world.; (Harper's Magazine. 48:68l) ! Towle, an admirer of the letters, devoted an unusual amount 1 of space in his article to them. It is apparent from the imitations and criticism of The Citizen of the World that in America it had its admirers in j a fervent minority. Its appeal and message were no longer of interest to the general public, and what public notice it did receive is traceable largely to writers who by their own temperament were attracted to it. Minnie M. Brashear, Mark Twain, Son of Missouri (Chapel Hill, 1934), p. 218. Cf. Letters. I, 45. In a doc toral dissertation, Friedrich Schtinemann contends that The Citizen of the World profoundly affected Twain's style and philosophy. (Mark Twain als Literarische.Persflnlichkeit, Jena, 1 9 2 6). The Minor Works During the nineteenth century, American readers and critics paid some attention to Goldsmith's minor works. A1-, though in the earlier part of the century there was some in terest in Edwin and Angelina, Animated Nature, and The Trav eller . the most significant development in the American re- ' ception of the minor works was the emphasis that was placed on the histories as school texts. ! Edwin and Angelina I | To the American readers of the eighteenth century, Ed- ; Win and Angelina appeared to have a freshness, spontaneity, i j ? and primitive simplicity. But after 1800, the regard held j i : for it by such men as Elihu H. Smith and Benjamin Rush had | : vanished. Very seldom was it referred to in criticisms of j . ■ Goldsmith's poems. Henry Theodore Tuckerman said only that , j ; it was (in 1840) "still an acknowledged model in ballad- writing. "^03 irving referred to it objectively and with no j pomment.^0^ Toward the end of the century the poem began to puffer the attacks of critics who had profited from the ac- ! j \ cumulated literary scholarship to which the ballad form had I ' 20S j -Toems, Flays, and Essays, p. xxi. In this remark, [Tuckerman is at odds with John Aikin, whose words, though • written earlier, appeared in the same volume. Aikin wrote 'that it was not a ballad, if by ballad was meant: "a story related in language either naturally or affectedly rude and Simple," and that its success was to be attributed to its polish (p. 5 1). L 2 04(New York, 1849), p. 1 6 8. j 217 been subjected. Henry W. Boynton, writing in 1898, regarded it strictly as a neo-classical poem: In metre it is far too regular, and in sentiment far too modern. Only in theme and in the general conception of its treatment is it genuinely "old style." Its primness, its regularity, and a hundred turns of phrase mark it as a characteristic bit of eighteenth-century work. . . . This is the phraseology of Pope and his school, of which neat ness and formality are main traits; nothing could be far ther from the strong simplicity of the real ballad of the people. The poem has a certain affected prettiness; but it is hard to see how it could be taken so seriously, even at that time, when English poetry was at so low an ebb. (p. 191) . Lafcadio Hearn, speaking at about the same time, gave a more precise analysis of Goldsmith's ballad technique. His con clusions were similar to those of Boynton: Goldsmith . . . with his ballad of "Edwin and Angelina," shows the influence [of the ballad]; but the poem itself also shows how little Goldsmith really understood how much the ballad depends for success upon its simplicity. Such lines as To where yon taper cheers the vale With hospitable ray,-- or Where wilds, immeasurably spread, Seem lengthening as I go,-- are in the pedantic taste of the time. No old ballad writer would have used such big words as "hospitable," "immeasurably," or even "lengthening." The old singers used words of two syllables only when they could not find a word of one to express their meaning. So Goldsmith's poem although a ballad, is by no means a successful imita tion. 2°5 It was not such scientific criticism as this that diminished the nineteenth-century interest in the sentimental story ^ ^ Interpretations of Literature, ed. John Erskine (New York, 1922), II, 114. j 218 that so excited the Americans of Goldsmith's own generation.; The poem was not suited to the temperament of readers who had experienced the results of the Romantic Movement. Wil liam Cullen Bryant found in it only a feeble elegance. 1 Animated Nature : Animated Nature was reprinted a number of times before ! I the middle of the century, always well illustrated with plates depicting the strange animals Goldsmith had so inter estingly described. In fact, one of the major appeals of the book was its illustrations. Publishers considered an | blegant edition of it a challenge to their book-making gen- i ius. One interesting edition, brought out by T. Ash in l823i I : was reviewed in The Portfolio. From the nature of the re- j 1 ~ ” 1 ■ ' ' -I marks it is apparent that by this time the work had become j P07 1 as much an art book as a popular scientific treatise. 1 | I Printed by James Maxwell (who was known to be a very accu rate printer), it contained upwards of three hundred engrav ings by Boyd, Kearney, Ellis, and other Philadelphia engrav-i 'ers. The price for the five volumes was fifteen dollars, ! ■small Siam In those days. Every effort was made, said the reviewer, to make it superior to the English edition. Con cerning the text itself, he continued that it was so well i known that it needed no commentary: ! ! 2Q^Prose Writings. I, 155* [_ _ 2 07l6 :263, 1823 • . . . • 219’ Goldsmith is a delightful guide in leading us over the verdant lawn or through the shady grove, instructing us in all their hidden mysteries. Particularly under Joseph Dennie, The Portfolio was an i enthusiastic admirer of Animated Nature. It reprinted se- j lections from time to time, and on one occasion rose to de- ' fend Goldsmith's nature writing from an unnamed attacker.20® Dennie, who may be presumed to be the author, vindicated Goldsmith in specific terms: j Much false criticism has been uttered on the subject of j Goldsmith's prose writing. In particular it has been de- ; liberately asserted, that his History of the Earth and Animated Nature was not only a venal but dull book, dis playing none of the beauties of the Author. Nothing can be more audacious than such an injurious falsehood. The work in question is remarkable for the vivacity of its de-j scriptions, the elegance of its diction, . . . and the ! harmony of its periods. It is true, it is not so remark- 1 able for the truths of science, as for the graces of gen- | ius. But our business is with the style; and, in this re-j spect, it may be perused with not less advantage than The I Vicar of Wakefield, or those Essays which dispute the palm with the Tatler. Most of the critical remarks on the book were concerned less with style than with accuracy. In 1811 a writer in The! Portfolio attempted to defend Animated Nature on the grounds that the work was intended only as a compilation, and that j Goldsmith should not be held accountable for what he pro fessed to know nothing about.20^ A decade later, a "An Account of the Squirrel," 1:231* April 6, 1 8 0 6, n.s. There is a selection from the chapter on the dog in 4:346-347, November 3, 1804. 2°9"comment on the Character and Writing of Oliver Goldsmith," The Portfolio. 6:224, 3d ser., l8ll. biographical essay in the same periodical expressed a less tolerant distrust. Animated Nature, the writer said, was "little prized for its accuracy, which is a prime, if not sole concern in a scientific book,1 ’ and when we are presented with a description of natural ob- i jects that require only to be looked at in order to be i known, we are neither amused nor instructed without some degree of precision. 210 i : So untrustworthy was the book considered that by Lowell’s time, about 1 8 3 5# it had definitely become a mere collection of wonders for the young. Speaking of his youth, Lowell j [ said that his mind was "early disciplined to the miraculous"! i pi i by this book, which he readily accepted as authentic.XJ- I ^Naturalists were silent on it. There is no evidence that ' I i ! Thoreau, who seems to have read almost every kind of nature ; treatise, either possessed or read it. John Burroughs made \ no reference to it. A recent historical survey of American contributions to natural history reveals no mention of Gold- 1 pi p smith. Animated Nature, in short, had no perceptible ef- I ; feet on American nature writing. The Traveller After 1800, The Traveller did not provoke the public 210,1 Life of Oliver Goldsmith," 13:480, June 1822. | i ! ^ ^ Conversations on Some Old Poets (Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, 1915)V P* 72. ! p*l p j Mabel and William M. Smallwood, Natural History and ; I the American Mind (New York, 1941). j (enthusiasm that The Deserted Village did. It was quoted with fair frequency, and it was often mentioned by critics as one of Goldsmith's major poems; yet it may here be con sidered as one of his minor writings. Imitations of certain of its lines and of its melan choly mood are found occasionally in the minor verse of the period before 1 8 5 0. Young poets were tempted to borrow from it. Among these was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. One of his1 fearliest poems, a sonnet entitled "Winter," published on January 22, 1821, shows Goldsmith's influence in the first line of the sestet: ; And ah I how hard the helpless wanderer's lot Who roams alone upon some hostile strand, And sighs to tread once more his native land, ! To meet those friends by memory ne'er forgot, , And hail, yet once again, that fertile spot, I Where Friendship binds him with her strongest bands, I Joseph Dennie wrote a prose sequel to The Traveller i that demonstrates an understanding of the philosophical | I principles that motivated Goldsmith. In 1804 he published I > . „pi 4 in The Portfolio an Original Letter by Dr. Goldsmith. Dated August 2, 1 7 6 8, the letter is addressed "Dear Will," ! I and is ostensibly sent from Poland, where Goldsmith has gone: I I from Italy. It begins: 1 It is now seven years, since I saw the face of a single } creature, who cared a farthing whether I was dead or alivei 1 ! I 2 1^Longfellow*s Boyhood Poems, ed. Ray W. Pettingill (Saratoga Springs, New York, 1925)> p . 22. | j i _ 2^4:34l, October 27, 1804. i i Secluded from all the comforts of confidence, friendship, j or society, I feel the solitude of a hermit, but not his ease. He explains that he has been taken into the entourage of a certain prince, whose governor is "a rude ignorant pedant, and his tutor a battered rake." The letter contains a mix- ; ture of fantasy and certain of Dennie's opinions regarding Goldsmith's personality. The wandering Goldsmith tries to display some learning among the Poles, only to be regarded as an ignorant intruder. This treatment occasions a philo- 1 sophic meditation: The truth is, I shall never be able to acquire a power of expressing myself, in any language but my own; and out of , J my own country, the highest character I can ever acquire, ; 1 is that of being a philosophic vagabond. He continues with an analysis of the character traits of the’ I people among whom he is living, remarking on the "wretched- j i ness and pusillanimity of its inhabitants, a prey to every invader." The land is desolate; he would pity the people, had he not troubles of his own. "They have lost all respect ; ifor themselves because of their vile usage. They answer but i bo brutality, and when that is diminished they affect an ob- i stinate superiority. Goldsmith concludes that he is wander-! I ^ ing "over the world, without a single anchor to hold by, or j ! | a friend except you [his correspondent] to confide in." It i ! • i is apparent, from the intrusion of the description of the j brutal methods of Polish government, that the purpose of the! sequel was editorial championship of democracy and temper ance. i > — - - i | — " 223 j The Traveller received its most thorough critical anal-| ysis in America during the first two decades of the century.: Though there was some concern for the verse, the critical reaction centered mostly upon Goldsmith's political theory. Several critics found fault with the principle of compensa tion that the poem expounds. Joseph Dennie regarded Goldsmith as an ardent democrat. In 1801, The Portfolio was moved to protest the devastation that was being visited on Switzerland.21^ In a short essay, Pennie muses on what Goldsmith's feelings would have been were he then living. He enumerates the ways in which peace is being despoiled, using selections from Goldsmith to il- > ! I j lustrate them. Goldsmith, he concludes, was one of those poets who write on the theme of liberty in a calm and un troubled way. If Goldsmith was mild in 1764, Dennie thinks ■ f (that he would be righteously angry were he writing in 1 8 0 1. i I Charles Brockden Brown, who wrote one of the most spe- 1 cific analyses of The Traveller to appear in America, was of a much different mind from Dennie. He regarded Goldsmith asi ! * a fine poet but an inept philosopher. 1 ! 1 Brown came to an appreciation of Goldsmith late in life. He did not read The Citizen of the World until 1831, when he! | was thirty years of age. In the same year he apparently I read Goldsmith's verse for the first time. On April 11, he j 2151:309-310, September 26, 1801. wrote to Elizabeth Linn, whom he later married: Goldsmith, you say, is your favorite. Shall I get it for [ you? Before I give it you, I can read it myself and mark the passages that please me most. I judge, fondly per- i , haps, of you by myself.21® Brown's most extensive consideration of Goldsmith was | his analysis of The Traveller which appeared in one of the I ten "Critical Notices" he wrote for The Literary Magazine ! and American Register in 1 8 0 3-1 8 0 4. In this series he gave ' his opinions of Milton, Young, Thomson, Dryden, Gray, Pope, ; Goldsmith, Virgil, Tasso, Voltaire, and Wordsworth. "Criti-! cal Notices, No. V" was devoted entirely to Goldsmith.2^ I His first concern was with Goldsmith's diction: j I took up lately Goldsmith's Traveller, the favourite ’ of every philosophical and poetical reader. The most charming part of this poem is, to me, that which relates j to Swisserland. When I came to this, I could not forbear : pausing at each line, and Indulging, at leisure, the ' J thoughts which the sentiment, epithet or image suggested; ! perhaps these spontaneous meditations may possess the mer-j • it of novelty at least to some of my readers. The subject 1 is unhackneyed, while at the same time, few performances I in the English language are more read or more commended, j | The poet turns his moralizing vision from the country ; of ancient virtue and modern effeminancy, i i j To survey i Where rougher climes a nobler race display; i 1 our poet is extremely liberal of his epithets, but, con- | trary to custom, his epithets are always eminent for force I and beauty. They are never added merely to fill up a j chasm and complete the measure, but are most luminous ad- : I ditions to their substantives. Instead of overloading or j * enfeebling they adorn and dignify their subject. I ! 2l6Clark, pp. 208-209. 21^1:4l6-4l8, March lS04. 225 Where the bleak Swiss their stormy mansion tread, And force a churlish soil for scanty bread. How much harmony and splendour are there in these coup-1 lets? A whole description is comprised in the epithet ! bleak, as applied to the people, and the same figure is ■ beautifully reversed in the application of churlish to the soil. Is there not some little incongruity in the phrase ' treading a mansion? I No product here the barren hills afford But man and steelj the soldier and his sword. f The word barren in the first line is an exception to i Goldsmith's customary accuracy; it is here a redundancy, ; and Is everywhere too trite, indistinct and general for ; poetry. The repetition in the second line Is beautiful I and energetic. No vernal blooms their torpid rocks array, But winter lingering chills the lap of May. Torpid is another example of an epithet, truly happy and poetical: and indeed the four phrases of the bleak | Swiss; churlish soil; or torpid rocks; and lingering win- ; ! ter; are delightful samples of the power characteristic of' l poetry, by which It animates the dead and impassions the ! insensible, in the concisest and most rapid, and conse- | quently the most cogent manner. I have, however, tried in vain to form a distinct Image from the last line: perhaps: I a reader of more taste may not object to that confusion that arises from winter, lingering, which is making winter: | a person, and at the same time chilling, which it can only . perform in its original and unpersonified capacity. The 1 1 same mistake, If it be one, is committed by the poet who, j I in order to describe the same circumstance, tells us that : J the buds of spring are--nipt by the lagging rear of win- ] ter's frost; neither am I pleased with the phrase lap of May. | ! No zephyr fondly sues the mountain's breast, But meteors glare, and stormy glooms invest. ! i i No reader of taste, can fail of being enraptured by the | image contained in the first of these lines, and both are,' i in all the requisites of poetry, very near perfection. He then quotes twenty-four lines describing the peasant's nut (lines 1 7 5*1 9 8). After this, he inquires into the theory underlying the j poem, and finds that Goldsmith is erroneous in his reasoning: The poet appears to think that barren states, such as ' Swisserland, create few wants and few wishes: that their pleasures are proportionately few, since pleasure arises from supplying wants; that from such land, the sciences that excite and supply desire, depart. They know not how to fill the intervals of sensual pleasure with finer joy. : Not only their joys, but their morals it seems, are slow. Love and friendship and their gentler morals, absent them- i selves from such rugged lands and are only to be found in milder skies. In short, that civilization, with its vices, ; makes greater progress in fertile soils and mild climates, than in the barren and cold, and that this different in- 1 fluence, is exemplified in Swisserland and Prance. j After thus stripping the poets sentiments of these em bellishments of poetry, they appear to be remarkably crude, injudicious and erroneous. (p. 419) i To this Brown opposes the universal opinion that the Swiss are refined. Goldsmith, so Brown thinks, is arguing in gen- i ‘ I t eralities from the particular, whereas the opposite direc- i i jbion is the more plausible. The barrenness of soil will not lead to tillage, but to the shepherd’s life, and this life pught to be more favorable to the improvement of "taste and j sensibility." He concludes his remarks in a spirit of dis- appointment: ! What a pity it is, that every poet is not a philosopher, t that he who is most capable of adorning and enforcing | truth, does not clearly discern it. No less a pity it is,, , that every philosopher is not a poet; that he who reasons j in the soundest manner, does not speak or write in the most engaging style. (p. 419) | I In his distinction between Goldsmith’s excellence of verse and the implausibility of his economic theory, Brown introduced in America the tendency to disregard the poet's 1 ideas which affected the acceptance of The Deserted Village.: There were several critics before 1850 who agreed with Brownj ' ■ * “ ............................. '... 227: In 1822, a writer in The Portfolio took exception to both 218 the poem’s style and message. Treating The Traveller at t \ some length, he concentrated upon the correctness of the theme of the "equal portion dealt to all mankind," especial ly as it concerned government. Irate in his remarks, he thought Goldsmith’s theory of environment hardly worthy of discussion: j That it matters little or nothing to the happiness of men whether they are governed well or ill, whether they lived ; under fixed and known laws, or at the will of an arbitrary! tyrant, is a paradox, the fallacy of which is happily too | i apparent to need any refutation. (p. 486) Nor has a "decree of fate . . . fixed them in eternal equi poise." "His poetry," the critic concludes, "is happily j better than his argument." In 1849, Dr. Daniel Curry could; overlook the philosophy of The Traveller in favor of its po etic merits. "Goldsmith's philosophy may be faulty," he wrote, "and his theories incorrect, but the sentiment is fight.n219 j As was the case with the reception of The Deserted Vil lage . there were those who could ignore Goldsmith's theories; of society in the face of his excellent verse. Foremost among these was Tuckerman, who, writing in 1840, was cer tainly aware of the objections that the poem had raised. Hei speaks of it in connection with European travels as I 1 | 218nLife of Oliver Goldsmith," 13:473-487, June 1822. 1 21^Methodist Quarterly Review. 3 1:3 6 7, 1849- affecting Goldsmith's personality, assuming that in it the poet wrote as he saw: The subject evinces the taste of the author. The under standing vein of enthusiasm which runs through it is only I , equalled by the force and simplicity of the style. The rapid sketches of the several countries it presents are vigorous and pleasing; and the reflections interspersed about with that truly humane spirit, and that deep sympa- j i thy with the good, the beautiful, and the true which dis-: j tinguishes the p o e t .220 i During the latter part of the century, The Traveller was considered as nothing more than a fine descriptive poem simi lar in nature to The Deserted Village. In a high school jtext edition, which included poems by Gray and Pope, its study was justified on the basis of its being a companion to i the village poem (Watrous, p. iii). The editor gave no con-; sideration to Goldsmith's political or social theories, and j took issue with the author only when he attacked the Dutch tp. 125). The poem Itself he regarded as 1 ' 1 I • the poet's personal observations during his European trav el .. . presented with the sincerity of feeling that , characterizes a generous, hone.st heart. (p. 120) i ; The critical reception of The Traveller followed a pat-; i ; tern similar to that of The Deserted Village. At first re- i garded as a technically excellent descriptive poem of some j 1 philosophical or sociological significance, it suffered, 1 ; eventually, a public disregard for the message and became an j ; entertaining and spirited nature poem in the picturesque I ' ! vein. The critical reception of this poem was unlike that i 220 Poems. Plays, and Essays, p . xvii. 229 accorded The Deserted Village. Approbation was withheld by the American commentators who were sensitive to what they regarded as its political heresies. It was the fate of the l poem to be subjected to public analysis at a time when Amer ican writers were well informed on the theory of government, American and otherwise. The Histories The use of Goldsmith's histories of England, Greece, . and Rome as textbooks in the schools began in the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century, both in England and in America, the practice expanded. The original texts were in tensively edited and emended. The editors added the results of new discoveries in history and archaeology, and prepared elaborate sets of questions ’ ’for examination." Long before The Vicar of Wakefield was used in schoolrooms, the histo ries were making Goldsmith's name known to hundreds of thou sands of schoolchildren. The history of the American reception of these text books is complicated. At first, the original versions were used. Later editions, among them The History of England . . . Continued by Several Literary Gentlemen (the first American edition of which was published in 1795), extended the history "to the present time." Eventually, publishers began to tamper with the text itself in an attempt to im prove the style. In l8l8 a notice appearing in the Balti more American announced that there was in the press a new i 230 edition of Goldsmith's History of Rome, in which "the lan guage and style are improved and beautified." The announce ment brought some satirical remarks from the editor of The Portfolio: ; The Baltimore American informs the public that a gentleman of that city is preparing for the press a new edition of { GOLDSMITH'S HISTORY OF ROME. . . . We suspect the gentle- j j man in question is the author of this notice. If we are I correct in our conjecture, the reader has a specimen of the beautifications which "poor Goldy" is about to receive! I from the hands of this accomplished literatus. If the luckless historian could be permitted to stand at the el- ; s bow of this merciless Vandal, would not he thunder in his ! ears, the words of Terence, Insanis? satin' sanus es?221 | There were those who realized that with careful editing Goldsmith's histories could be adapted to the needs of school children. In 1840, Henry William Herbert edited The I ! PPP History of Rome for Harper and Brothers as a school text. i . i Herbert's work consisted mainly in adding footnotes to the bext of Goldsmith's abridgement. A later edition appeared ] in 1859- More elaborate revisions of the histories were ! ' ; made under the direction of the Englishman William Pinnock (1782-1814). He was a schoolmaster who turned bookseller. 1 ‘ ■ |Hn partnership with Samuel Maunder, he first published a se- I . ries of catechisms on various departments of knowledge. j 2 5:222, March 1 8 1 8. The edition referred to has not been located. For a discussion of the common objections to i the tampering with the text of the histories, see Forster, II, 279• ' { 222See William Mitchell Van Winkle, Henry William Her- ! bert: A Bibliography of his Writings. 1832-1848 (Portland. Maine, 1936), pp. 81-82. I ! “231: These he followed with a series of profitable editions of ! Goldsmith's histories of England, Rome, and Greece, which ; brought him an income of two thousand pounds the first year. He lost all his money in outside speculation, and died in 1843. However, the series was continued for many years. By 1856 there had been more than one hundred editions. In the , pnited States these texts were published by Charles Desilver, in Philadelphia. The series was a very thorough exploitation of Gold smith's name and text. Each history was elaborately edited, provided with footnotes, introductory material based on the latest historical and archaeological discoveries, illustra tions, tables, and questions for study. The editing was ' jione by William Cooke Taylor, of Trinity College, Dublin, who revised the material frequently. Under Taylor's editor-: i bhip, the books lost much of the charm of the originals, since no attention was given to Goldsmith's original style. j Goldsmith's own name appeared only on the title page and without his surname. A characteristic full title was Pin- 1 j 1 hock's Improved Edition of Dr. Goldsmith's History of Rome; i (the short title was Pinnock's Goldsmith's Rome. | The whole venture was a clever example of capitalizing ! bn the dignity of Goldsmith's name and the recognized sim- j I plicity of his style, while at the same time boldly ! 1 j ^ 2 3 " W i l l i a m pinnock," Dictionary of National Biography, ' xv, 1207-08. j employing new teaching practices. A reviewer in the Penn sylvania Inquirer stated the case for the revised histories: 1 The popularity of these histories is almost without a par- ; allel among our school books. Their use is co-extensive with the English language, and their names are familiar to all who have received an English education. But if per- j mitted to remain as they came &£Qni the hands of the author, they would soon be antiquated.22^ irhe Pinnock revisions went through a large number of edi- tions in America. An 1859 American edition of The History I Of Rome listed in the publisher's advertisements on the fly leaf the following publications: Pinnock*s Rome: "sixty- fifth American, from the nineteenth London edition, im- | proved"; Pinnock's Greece: "forty-fifth American, from the : nineteenth London edition, improved"; and Pinnock's England: : ! "one hundred and fifth American, corrected and revised from the thirty-fifth English edition."225 The implications of the term "edition" are vague beyond indicating extensive re- I : printing. The publishers claimed that their histories | (which also included an American and a French history) were , ! extensively used in the schools of New York, Baltimore, j Pittsburg, Cincinnati, St. Louis, New Orleans, etc., and | i have recently been adopted by the Superintendent of the I Public Schools in Arkansas. (p. 15) The Pinnock editions were published in America as late as | I 2 2^Pinnock's Goldsmith's Rome (Philadelphia, 1 8 5 9), I p. 11. j t ! 22^The 1859 edition of Pinnock's Goldsmith's Rome was, 1 according to the publishers, “the thirty-fifth American, 1 from the twenty-third English edition." It was copyrighted in 1848. l88l. The Library of Congress Catalogue of Printed Cards lists an American edition of Pinnock's England published in ! l88l. This edition was "the one hundred and sixth American from the thirty-fifth London edition." A survey of the var ious bibliographies shows, however, that Goldsmith's histo- ; ries were published frequently in America before 1 8 5 0, and very seldom thereafter. In 1849, a writer in The American | Whig Review remarked that the History of Rome "is still read by young persons, though perhaps with little profit. " 2 26 : Among the many Americans who came to Goldsmith by way of his Grecian and Roman histories was William Dean Howells.1 The first he read was probably the Grecian History, which j was procured for him because of his taste in history. This j he followed with the Roman History. He remembered the for- j mer throughout his life. As late as 1893 he wrote to his father, who had sent him some books: : I am greatly surprised to find that the History of Greece 1 is in two volumes. I had always remembered it in one, and! ! had spoken of it so in what I have already w r i t t e n .22? He could have read Carey's one-volume edition of 1800 or a ; subsequent reprinting. His confusion, it may be noted, points to Howells' unfamiliarity with the course that the ! histories and their abridgements had taken. The effective ness of Goldsmith’s style in entertaining the young is to be 2 2 6 9^ 0 9, November 1849- ! 227Mildred Howells, ed., Life and Letters of William j Dean Howells (Garden City,1928), II, 32-33- " L j seen in the young Howells’ reaction to the Roman History. After reading it, he turned playwright and adapted the story of Julius Caesar to a tragedy in the meter of The Lady of the Lake. The piece was never acted, because of a difficul- ppR ty about engaging the Howells hayloft for the spectacle. The major event in the American reception of Goldsmith ! during the nineteenth century was the publication in l84g of Washington Irving’s Oliver Goldsmith; A Biography. Previous; to this time, there existed an intense American critical in terest in Goldsmith. The period between 1830 and 1850 wit- ! nessed the publication of many analytical articles on his ! books and biographies of him--notably on The Vicar of Wake- ■ •Field--and some strenuous attempts to identify his genius. ' 1 ’ i These two decades were the era of the most intensive Ameri- j can interest in Goldsmith. The biographies of Forster and i Irving revealed to readers the historical Goldsmith, and ef- ! ! fectively put an end to speculations on his personality as a i : 1 man. Thereafter critical attention was directed to a dis- I I f covery of Goldsmith's personality as revealed in his essays,! his poems, and especially his novel. The use of biographi- I 1 I cal data in literary interpretation was the major contribu- I ; i ! tion of nineteenth-century America to Goldsmith criticism. 1 ! During this period, attention was confined to the major | { 1 1 ppQ Delmar Gross Cook, William Dean Howells: A Critical : Study (New York, 1922), p. 15. I works. Interest in the minor works almost vanished. The histories and Animated Nature were popular because of ex ploitation by publishers, but The Traveller and Edwin and Angelina received little attention from the public and from the critics. CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION In America between 1768 and 19OO Oliver Goldsmith, both as man and as non-dramatic writer, enjoyed a reception that ' followed an organic pattern of development. Within Gold smith’s own century, American readers accepted his work as that of a worthwhile contemporary and they exhibited a mod- erate curiosity about his character. The subsequent recep tion departed from this position in the direction of a con- j viction that Goldsmith's art was a revelation of the inter action between his personality as a man and his technique as s a writer. ( The continued interest in Goldsmith between 1768 and j 1900 can be divided chronologically into three periods. They are as follows: (l) that between the first American edition of Goldsmith's The Traveller and the appearance, about 1800, of the first extended critical appreciationsj (2) that between the first critical manifestations and the appearance, in 1849, of Washington Irving's Oliver Goldsmith: A Biography; and (3) that between 1850 and the expansion of the classical textbook movement which, after about 1880, introduced the study of Goldsmith's works into the high j schools. Each of these periods was marked by a dominant { tone of interest, and each corresponded to a particular phase of American cultural development. During the first period (1 7 6 8-1 8 0 0), Goldsmith was ac cepted by Americans as a contemporary British writer, and he; was read in the light of the literary ideals of the late eighteenth century. Of the major works, The Deserted Vil lage attracted the most attention. Edwin and Angelina, among the minor works, was often ranked in merit close to The Deserted Village, and it enjoyed a wide popularity. Criticism of Goldsmith's work was very sparse, and occasion al in character. The public had only a slight awareness of Goldsmith the man, but at least three prominent Americans ^Benjamin Rush, William Samuel Johnson, and William White) made his acquaintance and recorded their impressions of him.. During this period the respect for Goldsmith reflected the j pendency of Americans to look to England for literary models* I The second period (18OO-185O) was one in which Gold- | smith's works, notably The Vicar of Wakefield, were taken up !by critics and subjected to explanation. Accompanying this I britical tendency was a marked concern for a definition and j an explication of Goldsmith's literary genius. Among the i • ; minor works, the histories were the most popular, and second to them was Animated Nature. Goldsmith the man was regarded1 as a complex personality, and attempts were made (notably ; i ' between 1830 and 1 8 5 0) to account for the presence of weak- s nesses and virtues in so accomplished a writer. The 238 biographical interest of this period corresponds to the ap pearance of the great biographies of Prior, Forster, and Ir ving, but the introspective habits of the reviewers were augmented by the current Romantic preoccupation with the in sight of great men into the life of the spirit. The publication, in 1849, of Irving's Oliver Goldsmith: A Biography introduced a period marked by diminished specu lation about Goldsmith as a man. Literary criticism now ex hibited a tendency to identify Goldsmith's own humorous and sympathetic temperament with the tone of his works, so that biographical facts entered more and more into the criticism of his writing. The publication of Irving's biography was a critical point in the American reception of Goldsmith as man and writer. Chronologically, the book and the reviews that it instigated marked the end of two decades of active inter est in Goldsmith as a personality. Between 1850 and 1900 no Significant interpretation of Goldsmith the man as distin guished from the writer appeared in America. The Vicar of Wakefield was his most widely published work, and it like wise received the most critical attention. About 1880 the high schools began to emphasize the study of classics in English courses, and The Vicar of Wakefield was among the- first novels so studied. The high school classic text move ment introduced Goldsmith to a new and larger body of read ers. It also brought about the preparation and publication 239 of many new text editions of Goldsmith's individual works. The editions, which contained introductory analyses, bio graphical material, and illustrative footnotes, brought the findings of scholarship to bear upon the study of Gold- ismith's text. The result was a more disciplined and mature interpretation of Goldsmith's work than had been possible in the past. Within the general trends of these periods particular attitudes are evident, especially with regard to the major works which claimed a sustained attention throughout the time of their dissemination in America. The minor works were occasional in their appeal, and except for exploitation by publishers (as in the case of the histories and Animated Nature), did not survive in significant public attention after 1800. The Deserted Village was received by eighteenth-century America as an expository poem possessing severe economic and political overtones. While readers appreciated its descrip tions of village life and characters, there were those, not ably Freneau, Dwight, and Tucker, who believed that it had a message for America and that it depicted the decadence of England. During the nineteenth century it came to be re garded only as a descriptive poem picturing the ideal vil lage. The history of the reception of The Vicar of Wakefield is complex. During the eighteenth century it was a very popular novel in America, although it received a minimum of critical interpretation. During the nineteenth century it evoked a number of well-defined critical attitudes. There t were four main tendencies. (l) Some critics regarded it as a moral treatise. Among those of this persuasion, A. Dave- zac thought it presented a model of domestic virtue, while the Rev. Daniel Curry perceived in it certain humanitarian {tendencies. (2) Others, following Goethe, defined it as an idyl in which the ordinary laws of cause and effect and of i fidelity to reality were but lightly regarded. Boynton thought that the idyl was a form made necessary by Gold smith' s plan to write "The Primrose Papers" after the model ( of Addison and Steele. (3) A substantial body of critics i I {regarded it as an example of good narrative technique, and declared that its dominant virtues were simplicity and fi- ; delity to reality. Paulding praised Goldsmith for confining his story to the realm of probability. Channing considered i •the story a factual account made possible by Goldsmith's un complicated view of life. He attributed Goldsmith's success} to his leisurely self-assurance in selecting an agreeable i action and an economical plot, which he expressed in a col- , ? brful and dramatic way. Poe thought that Goldsmith did j j ; nothing more than to follow well-established principles of j istory-telling. Mark Twain was the only outstanding American1 writer to deny Goldsmith's skill as a narrative artist. (4) During the latter part of the century, a group of critics, ! j" ' 24l notably Irving, Donald G. Mitchell, William Dean Howells, and Henry James, thought that the success of The Vicar of Wakefield was to be found in the quality of his own person ality that Goldsmith had infused into it. The Citizen of the World, when it was subjected to criticism, was praised most for its style. It was regarded . in both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a model pf social criticism, and as such it provoked a number of Imitations. The reception in the United States of Oliver Goldsmith’s j non-dramatic works between 1768 and 1900 exhibited the fol lowing outstanding characteristics: (l) a sincere regard ■for him both as man and as writer, as shown by the many ex- ; i plications of The Vicar of Wakefield and by the long endeav or to arrive at a satisfactory picture of him as a man; (2 ) j ja habit of perceiving In his works those elements that seemed most applicable to the condition of the American readers themselves, as shown in the sensitivity to the po- | ; litical overtones of The Deserted Village and in the attrac- j ■ : jtion to the type of social satire exhibited in The Citizen of the World; and (3) a widespread and enduring satisfaction i ; that Oliver Goldsmith, despite his own personal weaknesses « ' I and his harsh treatment by friends and acquaintances, had j I ' ■ produced thoroughly moral and happy works of prose and poet- I ry worthy of the attention of old and young readers alike. ! BIB LI O G RA P HY i I 1 t.. B IB L IO G R A P H Y 1 mA.C." "Venatica," Harvard!ana. 4:360, June I8 3 6. Aikin, John. Letters to a Young Lady, on a Course of Eng- 1 lish Poetry. Boston, 1 8 0 6. Alabama. A Guide to the South. Writers’ Program, Works Progress Administration. New York, 1941. Aleott, Bronson. The Journals of Bronson Alcott. ed. Odell ; j Shepard. Boston, 1938. Allen, Gay Wilson. American Prosody. New York, 1935- The American Quarterly Review. Anon, rev., 21:460-515, June f | Anderson, Jams S. M. The History of the Church of England 1 in the Colonies and Foreign Dependencies of the British j Empire. 2d ed. 3 vols. London, 1 8 5 6. I The Athenaeum. Anon, rev., No. 17* 1849, pp. 1151~52. 5 toe Atlantic Monthly. Anon, rev., 43:545, April 1 8 7 9. Bailey, Marcia Edgerton. A Lesser Hartford Wit. Elihu Hub- ; i bard Smith. 1771-1798~ Orono, 1928. (University of Maine Studies, Series 11.) i Baker, Ray Stannard. "Joel Chandler Harris," Outlook, 5 8: | 594-604, November 5, 1 9 0 5. t • Hangs, John Kendrick. A House-boat on the Styx: being some i account of the diverse doings of the associated shades.i I New York, 1 8 9 5. ! Barton, Rose M., ed. Goldsmith’s "The Traveller" and "The i Deserted Village"; and Gray's HElegy in a Country- Churchyard." Heath's English Classics. Boston, 1909- i i j'Robert Bell." Dictionary of American Biography. II, 1 6 1-6 21 . | ^American editions of Goldsmith not specifically cited ! in the text are listed in the Appendix. j Boswell, James. Boswell's Life of Johnson . . . . ed. George Blrkbeck Hill, rev. and enl. ed. by L. F. Powell. 6 vols. Oxford, 1934. "Bozzy." "Dr. Johnson, Burke, Goldsmith, and Boswell," Har vard! ana. 2:91~96, November 1835- ] Brashear, Minnie. Mark Twain. Son of Missouri. Chapel i Hill, 1934. Brooks, Van Wyck. The World of Washington Irving. New j York, 1944. Brown, Charles Brockden. "Critical Notices, No. V.," The j Literary Magazine and American Register. 1:4l6-4l8, ; March 1804. Brown, T. Allston. A History of the New York Stage; from i the first performance in 1732 to 1901. 3 vols. New ; York, 1903. Bryant, William Cullen. Prose Writings . . .. ed. Parke j Godwin. 2 vols. New York, 1884. i __________ _____________, ed. The Family Library of Poetry and Song . . .. Memorial Edition. New York, 1 8 8 0. i Pairns, William B. British Criticisms of American Writings: ! j A Contribution to the Study of Anglo-American Literary Relationships. Madison, 1922~ (University of Wiscon- : [ sin Studies in Language and Literature, No. 1 3.) j _________________ . On the Development of American Litera- i ture from l8l5 to 1833. Madison, 18 9 8. (Bulletin of 1 The University of Wisconsin, Vol. 1, No. 1.) bhe Cambridge History of American Literature, ed. William j Peterfield Trent, John Erskine, Stuart P. Sherman, and : I Carl Van Doren. 3 vols. New York, 1943- Campbell, Thomas. Specimens of the British Poets: with Bio- | graphical and Critical Notices. 7 vols. London, 1 8 1 9. ; Carlyle, Thomas. The Works of Thomas Carlyle. 30 vols. I London, 1899* bhanning, E. T. Rev., North American Review. 45:91-116, j 1837. j 'Christian Quarterly Spectator. Anon, rev., 10:18-37, 1 8 3 7. . Clark, David Lee. Charles Brockden Brown: Pioneer Voice of ’ America. Durham, 1952. i Clark, J. Scott. A Study of English Prose Writers: A Labo- j * ratory Method" NewTork7lB98. j ’ 'Comment on the Character and Writing of Oliver Goldsmith." ; ; The Portfolio. 6:211-225, 3d ser., l8ll. Conway, Daniel Moncure. The Life of Thomas Paine . . . to j which is added a Sketch of Paine by William Cobbett. ______ 2 vols. New York, 1 8 9 3. j Coombe, Thomas. The Peasant of Auburn; or, The Emigrant. A i | Poem . . .. London, 1 7 8 3. , i ______________. The Peasant of Auburn, and Other Poems, at tributed_to J. Coombe. Circa 1786. Aungervyle Society. I Edinburgh, 1 8 8 7. j ______________. A Sermon, preached before the Congregation of Christ Church and St. Peter's, Philadelphia, on j Thursday. July 20. 1775. Being the day Recommended by the Honorable Continental Congress for a General Fast ; throughout the Twelve United Colonies of North-America. Baltimore, 1775* Cowie, Alexander. John Trumbull: Connecticut Wit. Chapel j Hill, 1936. ; J _________________. "John Trumbull as a Critic of Poetry," j New England Quarterly. 9=773~793# 1938. I ______________ . The Rise of the American Novel. New j York, 1948. (Crane, Ronald S. New Essays by Oliver Goldsmith . . .. j I Chicago, 1937. ! i : The Critical Review. Anon, rev., 38:75# July 1774. i "Cumberland's Memoirs." The Monthly Anthology and Boston Review. 3=348-355# l8o5~ , Curry, Daniel. Rev., Methodist Quarterly Review, 31=351~377# ; 1849. ! i Dana, Richard Henry. Rev., North American Review, 8:276-322, j 1 8 1 9. Davezac, A. "The Literature of Fiction," The United States j Magazine and Democratic Review, 6 :2 6 8-2 8 2, ' March 1845. > [Dennie, Joseph.] "An Author's Evening. Prom the Shop of Messrs. Colon and Spondee," The Portfolio. 1:28, Janu ary 24, 1 8 0 1. Dennie, Joseph. The Spirit of the Farmer's Museum, and Lav . Preacher's Gazette. Walpole, New Hampshire, 1801. I DeQuincey, Thomas. The Works . . .. Fireside Edition. 6 j . vols. Boston, 1877 • Diebels, Sister Mary Chrysostom. Peter Markoe (1752?-1792, | A Philadelphia Writer. Dissertation, Catholic Univer- ! ! sity. Washington, 1944. Dobson, Austin. Life of Oliver Goldsmith. [Bibliog. John P. Anderson.! London, 1 8 8 8. Dunlap, William. A History of the American Theatre. New York, 1832. | ; Duyckinck, E. A. and G. L. Cyclopedia of American Litera- j ture. 2 vols. Philadelphia, i'8'55• Dwight, Timothy. Greenfield Hill: A Poem in Seven Parts. ' i New York, H9W. : Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Complete Works . . .. ed. Edward : Waldo Emerson. 12 vols. Cambridge, Massachusetts, | 1903-1904. j _____________________ , ed. Parnassus. Boston, 1 8 7 5. 1 The Encyclopedia Americana. 30 vols. New York, 1943. j i ! Evans, Charles. American Bibliography. . . . A Chronologi- I cal Dictionary of all Books. Pamphlets, and Periodical ; I Publications Printed in the United States of America ; from ".. . 16>39 down to and Including the Year 1820 J . ♦ .. Chicago, 1903-1934. Evans, Nathaniel. Poems on Several Occasions, with Some j Other Compositions. Philadelphia, 1772. I i Ferguson, DeLancey. Mark Twain: Man and Legend. Indianapo- i lis, 1943. I Ford, Paul Leicester. Mason Locke Weems: His Works and Ways; i . . .. ed. Emily Ellsworth Ford Skeel. 3 vols. New j York, 1939. Forster, John. The Life and Adventures of Oliver Goldsmiths : _ _ A Biography: In Four Books. London, l848. 1 247 Forster, John. The Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith. London, 1 8 5 5. Freneau, Philip. The American Village, a Poem. To which are1 added. Several other Original Pieces in Verse. New York, 1772. ; . The American Village; a Poem . . .: Re printed in Facsimile from the Original Edition Pub- ■ lished at New York in 1772. introd. Harry Lyman Koop- i man; bibliog. data by Victor Hugo Paltstits. Provi dence, Rhode Island, 1 9 0 6. i . The Poems of Philip Freneau; Poet of the j American Revolution, ed. Fred Lewis Pattee. 3 vols. Princeton, 1902. ^ \ ; . The Village Merchant: a Poem. To which is | added the Country Printer. Philadelphia, 1794. Garnett, Richard. "Washington Irving," Encyclopedia Britan- nica. 11th ed., XIV, 857- | The Gentleman1s Magazine. Anon, rev., 32:616-620, n.s., | December 1849. I __________________; ________. Anon, rev., 44:325, July 1774. I Goethe, J. W. von. Poetry and Truth from My Own Life, rev. | trans. by Minna Steele Smith. 2 vols. London, 1913* ! Goldberg, Isaac. Ma.lor Noah: American-Jewish Pioneer. New | York, 1927. 'Goldsmith, Oliver. "An Account of the Squirrel," The Port- ! folio. 1:231, April 6, 1806. j [[Goldsmith, Oliver.] The Beauties of Goldsmith: or the Mor- i 1 al and Sentimental Treasury of Genius . . . . Philadel- ! phia, 1797* J Goldsmith, Oliver. The Citizen of the World: The Bee, in- ! trod. Richard Church. Everyman Library. London, 1934.; ___________ . The Collected Letters of Oliver Gold smith. ed. Katharine C. Balderston. Cambridge, Eng- | land, 1 9 2 8. | __________________ . "The Deserted Village." Harper!s Maga- , zine. 2:1-9, December I8 5O. Goldsmith, Oliver. "The Deserted Village." The National Magazine. 6:487-493, June 1855; 7:4-9, July 1 8 5 5. ^ __________________ . The Deserted Village, ed. with introd. 1 and notes by Louise .Pound. Boston, 1907. j . "The Dog," The Portfolio. 4:346-347, November 3, l8o4. j ___________________. "An Essay on Friendship . . .," Royal ■ American Magazine. June 1774. ■ . Essays . . . . Dublin, 1777- : . Goldsmith’s Poems. Consisting of The Traveller, The Deserted Village, Retaliation. Double Transformation, and A New Simile, to which is Added The Adventures of Tom Dreadnought^ Philadelphia, 1800. j ___________________. "Goldsmith’s Village Schoolmaster," The United States Magazine of Science, Art, Manufactures, Agriculture, Commerce and Trade. 1:311, February 15, : 1 8 5 5. 1 , . The History of Rome, ed. Henry William ! Herbert. New York, l84o. j ___________________. Le Ministre de Wakefield. Traduction Nouvelle. Precedee d'un Essai sQr la Vie et les Ecrits ; ! d1Oliver Goldsmith, par M. Hennequin . . .. Boston, I 1831. j ___________________. The Miscellaneous Works . . . . London, : 1775. j J ___________________. The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Gold- | smith, with an Account of His Life and Writings, ed. j Washington Irving. 3 vols. Paris, 1825" . j ___________________. Oliver Goldsmith. A Selection from his J Works, introd. Edward Everett Hale. Chautauqua Library. Boston, 18 8 6. : ___________________. Pinnock’s Improved Edition of Dr. Gold- : i smith's History of Rome: To which is prefixed an Intro duction to the Study of Roman History . . .. Thirty- fifth American, from the Twenty-third English Edition. Philadelphia, 1859. ; ___________________. The Plays of Oliver Goldsmith, together ■ with The Vicar of Wakefield. Oxford Standard Authors. ' ! London, 1950. Goldsmith, Oliver. Poems. Plays, and Essays. ♦ . . with a Critical Dissertation on His Poetry, by John Aikin, M. ' P., and an Introductory Essay, by Henry T. Tuckerman, Esq. New York, n.d. . The Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith. edit, with introd. and notes by Austin Dobson. London, 1949. 1 . "Retaliation," The Pennsylvania Magazine; or. American Monthly Museum. 1:42-45, January 1775. , _________________ . "The Schoolmaster," The Virginia Gazette.’ October 25, 1770. (A selection from The Deserted Vil- ! lage.) . The Traveller: or, A Prospect of Society. ! A Poem. Containing a Sketch of the Manners of Italy, Switzerland. France, Holland, and Britain. To which is ; added. True Beauty: a Matrimonial Tale. Likewise, The Adventures of Tom Dreadnought. Who served as a Soldier, and also as a Sailor, in the Late War . . .. Philadel phia, 176B . j . The Vicar of Wakefield. [Ginn’s Classics! for Children.] Boston, 1885. . The Vicar of Wakefield . . . . The Series! of English Idyls. New York, 1904. . The Vicar of Wakefield . . ., ed. Henry W. Boynton. Macmillan’s Pocket English Classics. New York, 1900. ; __________________. The Vicar of Wakefield . . . . ed. Austin j Dobson. New York, 1&84. < __________________. The Vicar of Wakefield . ♦ . . ed. Oswald Doughty. London, 1928. ’ __________________. The Vicar of Wakefield . . . . ed. George Clifton Edwards. Johnson’s English Classics. Rich mond, Virginia, 1900. | . The Vicar of Wakefield . . ., introd. | Henry James. The Century Classics. New York, 1900. j . The Vicar of Wakefield . . . . The River-j side Classics. Boston, 1876 • j : __________________. The Vicar of Wakefield . . . and a Bibli ographical List of Editions ♦ . . published in England^ and Abroad, introd. Austin Dobson. 2 vols. London. Goldsmith, Oliver. The Vicar of Wakefield . . . Illustrated! with Numerous Engravings. With an Account of the Au thor's Life and Writings, by John Alkin, M.D. . . .. New York, 1842. ___________________. Le Village Abandonne. trans. Eugene Chevallier. New York, 1877• "Goldsmith--His Fortunes and His Friends,” National Maga zine , 9:209-216, September 1 8 5 8; 9:416-424, November 1B5B. "Oliver Goldsmith." Anon rev., The American Review: A Whig : Journal, 10:498-512, November 1849• I "Oliver Goldsmith." Encyclopedia Americana: A Popular Pic- ! tionary of Arts, Sciences . . .. ed. Francis Lieber, new ed. Philadelphia, 1 8 3 6. V, 553"554. "Oliver Goldsmith." New American Encyclopedia, ed. George Ripley and Charles S. Dana. New York, 1859• VIII, ! 355-359. Graham1s Magazine. Anon, rev., 20:70-71# January 1842. Groce, George C., Jr. William Samuel Johnson: A Maker of the Constitution. New York, 1937- Haight, Gordon S. Mrs. Sigourney: The Sweet Singer of Hart ford. New Haven, 1930- Harvardiana. Anon, rev., 1:275-280, May 1835. 1 Hawthorne, Julian. Nathaniel Hawthorne and his Wife, a Bi- j ography. 2 vols. 2d ed. Boston, 1 8 8 5. i ; i Hazen, Allen T. Samuel Johnson's Prefaces and Dedications. 1 New Haven, 1937- j Hearn, Lafcadio. Interpretations of Literature, ed. John j Erskine. 2 vols. New York, 1922. j Heartman, Charles F., and James R. Canny, eds. A Bibliogra-1 phy of the First Printings of the Writings of Edgar Al lan Poe . . .. Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 1943. Herold, Amos L. James Kirke Paulding: Versatile American. New York, 1926>. Herron, Ima Honaker. The Small Town in American Literature. ; Durham, North Carolina, 1939* Holmes, Oliver Wendell. The Writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes. Riverside Edition. 14 vols. Boston, 1906. j Howard, Leon. The Connecticut Wits. Chicago, 1943- Howells, William Dean. Heroines of Fiction. 2 vols. New York, 1903- _. Life and Letters of William Dean Howells, ed. Mildred Howells. Garden City, 1928. ' I _____________________. Literary Friends and Acquaintance. New York, 1900. I _______________________My Literary Passions: Criticism and 1 Fiction. New York, 1 8 9 5. ! Hubbard, Elbert. Little Journeys to the Homes of Good Men and Great: Oliver 'Goldsmith! New York, 1 8 9 5• "Col. Humphrey's Works," Monthly Anthology and Boston Re- j view. 2:7-9, 1 8 0 5. i Irving, Pierre M. The Life and Letters of Washington Ir- ' ving. 4 vols. New York, 1 8 6 2. I Irving, Washington. [Chapter V of Oliver Goldsmith: A Biog-i raphyl. The Literary World. 5:50-51, July 21, 1849. 1 I . ___________________. Journal of Washington Irving (1823- 1824Y. ed. Stanley T. Williams. Cambridge, Massachu setts, 1 8 3 1. ; ___________________. The Life of Oliver Goldsmith, with Se- ; ; lections from his Writings. 2 vols. New York, 1840. j ; . Oliver Goldsmith: A Biography. New York, 1849. . Oliver Goldsmith: A Biography. London, ! I The Works of Washington Irving. Knick-; erbocker Edition. 40 vols. New York, 1097• I ___________________ , and James Kirke Paulding. Salmagundi; J or. The Whim-Whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff. l and Others. New York, 1 8 0 7-I8 0 8. "Irving's Goldsmith." Anon, rev., The Literary World. 5: 1 7 3-1 7 4, September 1, 1849. j Jefferson, Thomas. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Andrew L. Lipscomb. Definitive Edition. 20 vols. Washington, 1905- Johnson, Samuel. The Letters of Samuel Johnson, ed. G. B. Hill. 2 vols" Oxford, 1897- Johnson, William Samuel. Notebooks. Unpublished manuscript j journal. Connecticut Historical Society. "Johnson, Boswell, and Croker." The Museum of Foreign Lit erature , 19:449-453, 1 8 3 1. Kennedy, Julia E. George Watterston: Novelist. "Metropoli tan Author," and Critic. Dissertation, Catholic Uni- ■ versity. Washington, D. C., 1933* Kirkland, Mrs. C. M. Rev., North American Review. 70:265" i 289, April 1850. i j[Knapp, Samuel L. ] Extracts from a Journal of Travels in 1 North America Consisting of an Account of Boston and i its Vicinity. By All Bey, &c. Translated from the Orig- j Inal Manuscript. Boston, 1 8 1 8. \ j __________________ . Letters of Shahcoolen. a Hindu Philoso- ! ! pher, residing in Philadelphia, to his friend El Hassam. an inhabitant of Delhi. Boston, 1 8 0 2. ' i ; The Knickerbocker. Anon, rev., 34:348-351* October 1849* i ! Lanier, Sidney. Centennial Edition of the Works of Sidney Lanier, ed. Clarence Gohdes and Kemp Malone. 10 vols. ! , Baltimore, 1945. Lawrence, Frederick. "Goldsmith and His Biographers," Lit- ) j tell1s Living Age. 24:337"346, February 1 8 5 0. 1 \ ! Leary, Lewis. The Literary Career of Nathaniel Tucker, ! 1750-1787. Durham, North Carolina, 1951• (Historical [ I Papers of the Trinity College Historical Society, Se- ; j ries 3 0.) I ! __________ . "The Published Writings of Nathaniel Tucker, 1 I 1750-1787*" Bulletin of Bibliography. 2 0: 5-6, January- I j April 1950. j ."Life of Oliver Goldsmith," The Portfolio. 13:473-487, June i 1 8 2 2. : The Literary World. Anon, rev., 5:173-174, September 1, l___1849. I 253 Livingston, Luther S. A Bibliography of the First Editions in Book Form of the Writings of Henry Wadsworth Long fellow . . .. New York, 190S. Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. Longfellow's Boyhood Poems. « ed. Ray W. Pettingill. Saratoga Springs, 1925. Longfellow, Samuel, ed. The Life of Henry Wadsworth Long fellow: with Extracts from His Journals and Correspond ence . 3 vols. Boston, 1 8 9 1. I Lowell, James Russell. Conversations on Some Old Poets. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1915* Lucas, F. L. Literature and Psychology. London, 1951* McCulloch, William. "William McCulloch's Additions to Thomas's History of Printing," American Antiquarian So- ; I cietv Proceedings. 31:89-247, n.s., April 1921. McMinn, George R. The Theater of the Golden Era in Callfor- | nia. Caldwell, Idaho, 1941. i Mabie, Hamilton Wright. The Writers of Knickerbocker New York. New York, 1912. i 7 1 -H Macaulay, Thomas B. "Essay on Goldsmith," Harper's Maga- ; zine. 14:633-639, April 1, 1 8 5 7. t I ________________ . "Oliver Goldsmith," Encyclopedia Britart- nica, 11th ed., VII, 218. "Mackliniana." The Museum of Foreign Literature, Science, j and Art. 16:13, 1&31. ' • Maine. The Guide "Down East." Writers' Program, Works Prog-* j ress Administration. Boston, 1937- Marchand, Ernest. "Literary Opinions of Charles Brockden I Brown," Studies in Philology. 3 1:5 4 1-5 6 6, October 1934.; Markoe, Peter. The Algerine Spy in Pennsylvania, or Letters; ’ Written by a Native of Algiers on the Affairs of the I i United States in America, from the Close of the Year 1 1783 to the Meeting of the Convention. Philadelphia, j TfW- j Masson, David. British Novelists and their styles: being a 1 I critical sketch of the history of British prose fiction. 1 Boston, 1859• Masterpieces of British Literature . . . with Biographical 1 Sketches and Portraits. Boston, 1895. Mitchell, Donald G. About Old Story-Tellers, of How and When They Lived, and What Stories They Told. New York, 1898: : . English Lands. Letters, and Kings. 5 vols. New York, 1895. j . Wet Days at Edgewood with Old Farmers, Old Gardeners, and Old Pastorals. New York, 1894. Moore, F. Frankfort. The Jessamv Bride. London, 1 8 9 6. 1 i ____________ . The Life of Oliver Goldsmith. London, 1910. s Mott, Frank Luther. Golden Multitudes: The Story of Best ■ Sellers in the United States. New York, 1947. The Museum of Foreign Literature. Anon, rev., 19:6 7 6-6 8 9* j 1 8 3 1 ^ irhe Museum of Foreign Literature. Anon, rev., 20:12-14, ; 1832: : I ! New York. A Guide to the Empire State. Writers' Program, ; Works Progress Administration. New York, 1940. ; 1 The New York Review and Quarterly Church Journal. Anon, i rev., 1:280-298, March 1 8 3 7. i [Noah, Manuel Mordecai.] "Oriental Correspondence," i Charleston Times, April 16, May 9* June 2, 4, 6, 13, 2 3, 1 8 1 2. Noble, Stewart G. A History of American Education. New j York, 1938. i North American Review. Anon, rev., 4:216-262, January 1 8 1 7. I j "Northcote1s Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds." The Analectic . Magazine. 2:423-428. l8l3. I ; "Original Letter by Dr. Goldsmith," The Portfolio. 4:341, | October 27, lo04. i bsgood, Charles Grosvenor. The Voice of England: A History ! i of English Literature. New York, 1935. •255 Otis, William Bradley. American Verse. 1625-1807: A History. New York, 1 9 0 9. Paine, Albert Bigelow. Mark Twain, A Biography . . .. 4 vols. New York, 1912. Paine, Thomas. The Life and Works of Thomas Paine. (Life of Thomas Paine, by William M. Van der Weyde.) Patri- ; ots’ Edition. 10 vols. New Rochelle, New York, 1925- Painter, F. V. N. Introduction to English Literature: In cluding a Number of Classic Works with Notes. Boston, 1 8 9 4. Paulding, James Kirke. Salmagundi. Second Series, by Launcelot Langstaff. Esq. Philadelphia, 18 1 9-I8 2O. A Sketch of Old England, by a New I England Man. 2 vols. New York, 1822 Paulding, William I. Literary Life of James K. Paulding. J New York, 1 8 6 7. Pennington, Edgar L. Nathaniel Evans. A Poet of Colonial I America. Ocala, Florida, 1935- Phillips, Mary E. Edgar Allan Poe; The Man. 2 vols. Chi- ; cago, 1 9 2 6. "William Pinnock," Dictionary of National Biography. XV, | 1207-08. Poe, Edgar Allan. Edgar Allan Poe: Representative Selec tions . ed. Margaret Alterton and Hardin Craig. Ameri- I can Writers Series. New York, 1935- ! "Poem upon the Prospect of Seeing the Fine Arts Flourish in America." The American Museum. December 1787> P* 597- jPope-Hennessy, Una. Charles Dickens. New York, 19^5• rev., 4:310, September 29, 1804. rev., 1:3 8, n.s., 4th series, January rev., 5:222, 4th ser., March 1 8 1 8. rev., 1 6: 2 6 3, 1 8 2 3* Rev. of ' *rhe Club Room . . . ." North The Portfolio. Anon 1 The Portfolio. Anon 1 | I8 1 6. The Portfolio. Anon ’ The Portfolio. Anon [Prescott, William H. ! American Review 256 Prior, James. The Life of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.. from a Variety of Original Sources. 2 vols. Philadelphia, 1837. "James Prior." Dictionary of National Biography. XVI, 396- 397. Quinn, Arthur Hobson. A History of the American Drama, from the Beginning to the Civil War. New York, 1923- : _____________________ , ed. The Literature of the American People: An Historical and Critical Survey. New York, ; 1951• Richardson, Charles F. American Literature. 1607-1885. 2 vols. New York, 1 8 8 7-1 8 8 8. Roberts, T. H. "The Chinese Philosopher," The Microscope. 1 April 24, 1824 to August 13, 1 8 2 5. Rush, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Rush: his "Travels Through Life*1 together with his Commonplace Book for 1 7 8 9-1 8 1 3. ed. George W. Corner. Princeton, lpST 1 : _______________. The Letters of Benjamin Rush, ed. L. H. ■ Butterfield. 2 vols. Princeton, 1951- Rusk, Ralph L. The Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson. New York, : 1949• i : . The Literature of the Middle Western Fron- ! tier. 2 vols. New York, 1925* Sanborn, F. B. The Life of Henry David Thoreau: including many essays hitherto unpublished, and some account of ' his family and friends. Boston, 1 9 1 7. SchiJnemann, Friedrich. Mark Twain als Literarische Persfln- lichkeit. Jena, 1 9 2 6. I Scott, Temple. Oliver Goldsmith: Bibliographically and Bio-: I graphically Considered . . ~ New York, 1928. j Sedgwick, Marie. Scenes and Characteristics Illustrating j ; Christian Truth, No. III.Home ♦ ♦ ♦. Boston, 1 8 3 5. Sibley, Agnes Marie. Alexander Pope's Prestige in America, • : 1725-1835. New York, 1949. Sigourney, Lydia Huntley. Poems. Philadelphia, 1 8 3 4. ! „ _ j — "257; "Silva." Monthly Anthology. 3:63, 1 8 0 6. Smallwood, Mabel, and William M. Natural History and the American Mind. New York, 1941. Smith, Elihu Hubbard. Edwin and Angelina; or The Banditti. ! i An Opera, in Three Acts. New York, 1797* Smith, Hamilton Jewett. "Goldsmith!ana," University of Cal ifornia Chronicle. 31:429-436. 1929. The Southern Review. Anon, rev., 2:3 6 9“405, November 1 8 2 9. Stedman, Edmund Clarence. Poets of America. Boston, 1 8 9 3. Stewart, Randall. Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Biography. New I Haven, 1948. Stowe, Walter Herbert, ed. The Life and Letters of Bishop William White. New York, 1937* (Church Historical So-; j ciety Publication No. 9*) "Switzerland." The Portfolio. 1:309”310, September 26, 1801. Thackeray, William Makepiece. "Nil Nisi Bonum," Harper1s ; ! Magazine. 20:542-543, March i860. i 1 : I Thomas, Augustus. Oliver Goldsmith: A Comedy in Three Acts. | Rev. ed. New York, 19l6* Thomas, E. S. Reminiscences of the Last Sixty-Five Years j . . .. 2 vols. Hartford, l84o. Tilton, Eleanor M. Amiable Aristocrat: a biography of Dr. | Oliver Holmes. New York, 1947* Towle, George M. "Oliver Goldsmith," Appleton*s Journal. I 11:459-462, April 11, 1874. ! 1 ; i ________________. "Oliver Goldsmith," Harper * s Magazine, 48: * < 1 1 . ^ in —i —n iIii— — w 1 6 8 1-6 9 2, April 1874. j ' < Traubel, Horace. With Walt Whitman in Camden: (March 29- « ' July 14. 1888T 3 vols. New York, 1913* I I Trumbull, John. Critical Reflections. Unpublished manu- | script, Cornell University Library. Tucker, Nathaniel. The Bermudian. Williamsburg, 1774. ^ I , I . The Bermudian. A Poem . . .. Williams- burg, Virginia, 1774. (Hazard Pamphlets,Vol. 32,No. Tuckerman, Henry Theodore. "Oliver Goldsmith," The Southern Literary Messenger. 6:267-274, April 1840. Twain, Mark. Following the Equator: A Journey around the ! World. Hartford, 1 8 9 7. s . "Goldsmith's Friend Abroad Again," The Galaxy. i “ 10:5 6 9-5 7 1, October I87O; 10:727-731* November 187O; ' j 11:156-158, January 1 8 7 1. I . Mark Twain's Notebook . . . . ed. Albert Bige low__Paine. New York, 1935- Tyler, Moses Coit. The Literary History of the American 1 Revolution: 1763-1783 . . 71 2 vols. New York, 1941. 1 __________________ . Three Men of Letters. New York, 1895* The United States Postal Guide. Washington, D. C., 1953- The Valuable Library of the Hon. Samuel W. Pennypacker. j Former Governor of Pennsylvania. Auction Nov. 27-28, 1908. Catalogue No. 943. Part VII. yan Winkle, William Mitchell. Henry William Herbert: A Bib liography of his Writings. 1832-58T Portland, Maine, 193b. The Virginia Gazette. October 25* 1770* The Virginia Gazette. June 3* July 26, August 19, 26, 1773 • • \ Washington. A Guide to the Evergreen State. Writers' Pro gram, Works Progress Administration. Portland, Oregon,: j 1938. ; Waters, Willard 0. "American Imprints, 1648-1797, in the ■ Huntington Library, Supplementing Evans’ American Bib- ; ! liography." The Huntington Library Bulletin. No. 3* j February 1933* i ■ Watrous, George A., ed. Pope. Gray. Goldsmith: Select Poems . . .. The Academy Classics. Boston, 1&99* j Watterston, George. The Scenes of Youth. A'Poem. Washing- 1 I ton, D. C., 1 8 1 3. r Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary. Springfield, Massa- j J chusetts, 1 8 3 2. 259 Wendell, Barrett. A Literary History of America. 4th ed. New York, 1 9 0 7. Wiley, Lulu Rumsey. The Sources and Influence of the Novels ; of Charles Brockden Brown. New York, 1950. Williams, Iolo A. Seven XVTIIth Century Biographies . . .. London, 1924. Williams, Stanley T. The Life of Washington Irving. 2 volsi I New York, 1935- > ____________________ , and Mary Allen Edge. A Bibliography of the Writings of Washington Irving: A Check List. New Winter, William. The Life of David Belasco. 2 vols. New York, 1918. ’ . The Wallet of Time: Containing Personal. I Biographical, and Critical Reminiscences of the Ameri can Theatre. 2 vols. New York, 1913. j The World Displayed, or a Curious Collection of Voyages and I Travels. Selected and Compiled from the Writers of All ■ Nations by Smart, Goldsmith, and Johnson. First Amerl- ; can Edition. Corrected and Enlarged. 8 vols. Phila delphia, 1796. Wright, Lyle H. American Fiction: 1774-1850; a Contribution toward a Bibliography. San Marino, 1939- I j . "A Statistical Survey of American Fiction, j 1 7 7 4-1 8 5 0,1 1 The Huntington Library Quarterly. 2:311* I April 1939. Wyoming, A Guide to its History, Highways, and People. ' Writers1 Program, Works Progress Administration. New ! York, 1941. j j i \ \ AP PEN DI X I I APPENDIX CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF AMERICAN EDITIONS OF GOLDSMITH’S NON-DRAMATIC WORKS: 1768-1900 The following chronological list of American editions of Goldsmith’s works is presented here primarily to show such evidence of his popularity among readers as may be de duced from the phenomenon of repeated publication. The list Is as complete as the present conditions of research have allowed. The information has been gathered from a variety bf bibliographical sources (Including libraries and second hand bookstores) as well as the standard bibliographical references. Date 1772 (l773 i { 1780 1 1791 ] 1792 1792 City Philadel phia Philadel phia Newbury- port Philadel phia Norwich Provi- dence The Vicar of Wakefield Publisher Mentz Humphreys James Mycall William Young Ebenezer Bushnell Bennett Wheller Remarks Date 1794 1795 1795 1801 1802 1807 1809 1809 j 1812 1823 1825 1825 1830 1834 City Philadel phia Worcester Philadel phia Salem Philadel phia New York Philadel phia Walpole, N.H. Pittsburg Washing ton New York Boston Philadel phia New York Publisher Remarks Robert Campbell Isaiah Thomas Thomas Young Cushing & Appleton B. Davi s & J. Morgan James Oram William Duane Thomas & Thomas Cramer, Spear & Eichbaum Davis & Dorce Memoirs by Dr. John Aikin Cf. Temple Scott. A rare edition in one volume. C. S. Van Winkle Gray & Bowen J . Locken G. Dearham Spanish trans.: El Vi- cario de Wakefield . . . , M. Dominguez. French trans. "With a life of the author by Dr. Johnson." This is actually the Percy memoir. This is a condensation I included in Republic of- Letters, a Weekly Re- publication of Standard Literature I1834K I. 12-32. Date City 1842 New York l84l New York 1848 New York 1853 New York 1863 New York i i860 New York j 1 1864 Philadel- ! phia 1 8 6 5 New York -1869 Philadel- j phia Il 873 Boston Publisher Appleton Putnam Hoe Lockwood Diek and Fitz gerald Derby and John son Lippincott Dodd Lippincott Osgood Remarks "Appleton Illustrated Edition." This was a large-paper edition, claiming over 200 il lustrations. Subse quent smaller editions I were issued over a pe- ; riod of about thirty years. Cf. Austin Dobson, ed., The Vicar of Wakefield. - Facsimile Reproduction (London, 1 8 8 5), I, xxviii. A copy is in the Boston Athenaeum. French trans. Intended as a "School Reading Book." Copy in the Brooklyn Public Li brary. With Johnson1s Rassel- i as. Omits Goldsmith's I Advertisement." In troductory essay on the: "Characteristics of Goldsmith's Writings." As a French text: "ar- j ranged as a guide for construction of French j sentences." Trans. Jean B. Sue. English and French on opposite I pages. Little Classics Editiori Date City 1876 New York 1878 New York ! 1879 New York .i 1879 New York i l88l Boston 1881 Philadel- ! phia 1882 New York i 1882 New York i 1883 Boston j 1883 New York 1 8 84 Boston ! I 1884 New York I l 1 | 1888 Boston ! i I \ | I ! l888 Chicago I & New Yor Publisher Hurd & Houghton G. Munro Harpers N . L . Munro Howe Memorial Press Porter & Co. Beadle & Adams J. W. Lovell Roberts Bros. Clark & Maynard D. Lathrop Appleton Ginn Belford, Clark & Co. Remarks Riverside Classics Seaside Library; with a "Life of Goldsmith." Half Hour Series "Union Square Library, : No. 6 3"; a condensation of 28 pages. Raised type edition for the blind; 2d ed.; pub lished by the Perkins Institute and the Mas-* I sachusetts Institute for the Blind. With Mulready illustra tions . Condensed edition "for school and home use"; ed. A. F. Blaisdell. i With Mulready illustra tions . "English Classics" se- : ries; preface and notes by Austin Dobson. (This: is a reprint of the English edition.) Has introd. of 15 pages. Edited, annotated, and j slightly abridged, "to i meet the requirements j of schools." ; With Paul and Virginia.; Date City 1892 New York 1894 Boston I 1895 Boston I 1895 Boston i ! \ 1895 New York 1896 Boston b .896 New York 1898 Boston 1898 Chicago 1900 New York 1899 New York i 1899 Boston j 1900 New York Publisher T. Y. Crowell Houghton, Mifflin Houghton, Mifflin Silver, Burdett 8s Co. American Book Co. Leach, Shewell, & Sanborn Longmans, Green & Co. D. C. Heath Scott, Foresman 8c Co. Macmillan Macmillan Allyn 8c Bacon Century Remarks With introd. by Austin Dobson on the illustra tors of Goldsmith. Salem Edition; with in-; trod, of 40 pages. Riverside Literature Series; introd. and notes. Studies in English Classics; edited with notes and commentary by Homer B. Sprague. Eclectic English Clas sics. The Students' Series of English Classics; ed. by James Gilbert Riggs.; Longman's English Clas sics; ed. Mary A. Jor- ; dan. j Ed. W. H. Hudson Lake English Classics; I ed. Edward P. Morton. Hugh Thompson illustra tions; pref. by Austin i Dobson. j Macmillan's Pocket Eng lish Classics; ed. with introd. and notes by Henry W. Boynton. Academy Series of Eng- | lish Classics; ed. R. ; Adelaide Witham. j i Century Classics; in- 1 trod, by Henry James. Date 1900 1900 1900 i 1 1771 1 1782 1 1783 t 17 86 1789 1791 I p-791 | 1 ; 1793 0.793 i 1793 1799 City Publisher New York Globe School Book Co. Boston University Pub, Co. Richmond, B. F. Johnson Va. Remarks English Classics: Star Series; ed. for school use by William Hand Browne. Standard English Series; introd. and notes by Edward Everett Hale, Jr. Introd. and notes by George Clifton Edwards. Philadel phia Philadel phia Spring field, Mass. The Deserted Village William & Thomas Bradford William Pritchard & William Poyntell Babcock & Haswell Philadel- Thomas Dobson phia Philadel phia Boston William Spotswood In Mrs. Burke's Ela. or the Delusions of the E. Larkin, Jim, Heart. In Mrs. Burke's Ela Philadel- Henry Taylor phia Poems by Dr. Goldsmith; ; includes also The Trav eller and Edwin and An gelina. Boston Worcester Isaiah Thomas In Beauties of the Muses. Hartford Litch field Elisha Babcock Thomas Collier Date City Publisher Remarks 1803 1809 1816 1850 1855 1866 1866 1883 1883 1892 1894 Wilmington, Del. New York Smith & Forman New York J. Desnoves New York Boston Boston J. E. Tilton J. E. Tilton 1877 New York Eugene Chevallier Philadel- Porter & Coates phia Philadel- Lippincott phia Cincinnati Phillips & Hunt Boston Boston S. E. Cassino Houghton, Mifflin In Robert Bloomfield's The Farmer's Boy. With Edwin and Angelina, The Traveller. and Par nell's The Hermit. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - i French trans. by de Russy. Harper's Magazine. 2:1- 9, Dec. 1 8 5 0; incl. al so selec. from The Traveller and the Etch ing Club Illustrations. National Magazine, 6 : 487-493, June 1855; 7: 4-9, July 1855. Illustrated. "Illus. with designs by Hammatt Billings. Le Village Abandonne. French verse trans. With Billings' illus trations and an introd. Illustrations by M. M. Taylor. In Readings from Oliver Goldsmith. i Illustrations by Wil liam Goodrich Beal. i I Riverside Literature Series; with Traveller and other poems; biog- j raphy, introd. & notes 1794 Albany The Citizen of the World Thomas Spencer . . . j “268 Date City Publisher Remarks l804 Philadel- J. Conrad phia Select British Classics 1786 New York 1795 Philadel phia Edwin and Angelina Berry 8s Rogers T. Stephens 1798 Northamp- Simeon Butler ton l800(?) Danbury 1886 1795 1808 1825 Philadel phia Philadel phia New York New York Nichols 8s Rowe Lippincott In A Father1s Legacy to His Daughter. In The Literary Miscel lany . with the Story of Father Nicholas and Holcroft's The Dying Prostitute. In The History of the Duchess of C . Illustrations by Walter Shirlaw; title given as, "The Hermit." Animated Nature Carey T. Wilson T. Kinnersley 4 vols. "A New Edition" "To which are added, the: life of the author, his Deserted Village, The Traveller. Miscellanies; etc." 1828 New York Collins 8c Hanny one vol.; illus.i Abridged for the use of schools; 12th ed., cor rected and arranged by ; an American naturalist;! appendix and questions J ■^Either as title or appearing in collections and an- , thologies not including The Deserted Village. j Date 1829 1830 1795 0L8h 1824 1825 1849 1795 1798 1808 1818 1818 City Philadel phia Publisher T. Desilver, Jr. Philadel phia J. Grigg Remarks ! Abridged for the use of: schools by Mrs. Pilk- ington; "revised and corrected by a teacher j of Philadelphia"; 12th ed. Illus. with 85 copper plates; new edition, with corrections and alterations; 4 vols. Philadel phia Alexan dria Philadel phia The History of England R. Campbell Abridgement Cotton & Stewart S. Roberts New York Hammond Wallis Philadel phia Thomas & Cowper- thwait Abridgement; illus trated heads by Folwelll. i Abridgement j Abridgement "Pictorial History of England . . . Continued to the Present time by John Frost." Philadel phia Philadel phia Otsego, N.Y. The Roman History Robert Campbell Abridgement Thomas Dobson H. & S. Finney, Jr. "4th American Edition." Poughkeep- Paraclete Potter sie, N.Y. Philadel- S. Potter phia Date 1818 1820 \ 1826 1830 1830 i ! | i 1840 I 1840 1 I 1 I 1800 j 1817 i 1818 1 1842 i I 1843 City Publisher Alexandria, John A. Stewart Va. Conan- J. D. Bemis daigua, N.Y. Philadel- J. Grigg phia Sandborn- Charles Lane ton, N.H. Philadel- J. Grigg phia New York Harper & Bros. Ithaca Mack, Andrus, & Woodruff .. 270 Remarks Abridgement "Improved by W. Grim- shaw." "Revised and corrected,, and a vocabulary of proper names appended; ; with prosodial marks, to assist in their pro-, nunciation. By W. Grim- shaw." Ed. H. W. Herbert, for "The District School | Library." A later edi- ; tion appeared in 1859• 1 "First edition"; "di- ! vided into sections for a class book." The Grecian History Philadel phia Carey Philadel- A. Small phia Philadel phia Ithaca, N.Y. Ithaca, N.Y. A. Small Mack, Andrus & Woodruff Andrus, Woodruff, & Gauntlett. Two volumes in one; "A New Edition, Improved and Corrected." First American edition. "Fifth American Edi tion"; 2 volumes in 1. "Sixth American Edi tion." Added title page en graved with vignette. ” 2711 Date City 1793 Boston 1795 Worcester 1803 Philadel phia 1819- 23 1834 1 i 1835 1836 Publisher Miscellaneous Collections' Remarks Thomas & Andrews Thomas & Andrews Robert Johnson 1809 Baltimore Coale & Thomas l8l4 Baltimore F. Lucas, Jr., & Joseph Cushing Philadel' phia Philadel- J. Crissy phia New York George Dearbourn Philadel phia Crissy, Desilver, Thomas & Co. cl845 New York Harper & Bros. 1850 New York Putnam Miscellaneous Works. Miscellaneous Works. Poetical Works. "With an account of his life and writings." Miscellaneous Works; 5 vols. with portrait; Aikin's essay on his poetry. Poetical Works. Vol. 30 of Campbell’s Works of the British Poets. Ed. Washington Irving, "With an Account of His Life and Writings." The Bee Same as 1834. Poetical Works; ed. Bolton Corney; with Etching Club Illust. Prior’s edition of Mis cellaneous Writings; 4 ; vols. 1853 Boston Phillips, Sampson, Poems, Plays. and Es- | & Co. says; with the Aikin ; essays. Because of their varied nature, these works are grouped together. The general contents of each volume will be given under "Remarks.” Date City 1854 Boston 1875 New York I 188- Boston 1886 Boston I 1884 New York i i 1890 New York j 1903 New York Publisher Phillips, Samp son, & Co. Harper & Bros. Houghton, Mifflin Chautauqua T. Y. Crowell T. Y. Crowell American Book Co. Remarks Poems, Plays, and Es says ; with the essays of Tuckerman. Select poems; "edited with notes by William J. Rolfe"; with Macau- ; lay's Essay, and selec tions from other mem oirs of Goldsmith; notes and index. Poetical works, with Gray; memoirs; Macau lay's Essay and T. Mil ford' s essay on Gray. Selections; ed. Edward > Everett Hale. Poems, Plays, and Es says ; illustrated. | Poems. Plays, and Es says . ! Select poems (same as ! 1875 edition by Harper ) < Oo l v e r r i t v o f S o u t h e r n Ca l i f a r f t Sl ! . j

Abstract (if available)

Linked assets