Значение слова GOLDSMITH в Литературной энциклопедии

GOLDSMITH

OLIVER (1728-1774).-Poet, dramatist, and essayist, _s._ of an Irish clergyman, was _b._ at Pallasmore in Co. Longford. His early education was received at various schools at Elphin, Athlone, and Edgeworthstown. At the age of 8 he had a severe attack of smallpox which disfigured him for life. In 1744 he went to Trinity Coll., Dublin, whence, having come into collision with one of the coll. tutors, he ran away in 1746. He was, however, induced to return, and _grad._ in 1749. The Church was chosen for him as a profession-against his will be it said in justice to him. He presented himself before the Bishop of Elphin for examination-perhaps as a type of deeper and more inward incongruencies-in scarlet breeches, and was rejected. He next figured as a tutor; but had no sooner accumulated L30 than he quitted his employment and forthwith dissipated his little savings. A long-suffering uncle named Contarine, who had already more than once interposed on his behalf, now provided means to send him to London to study law. He, however, got no farther than Dublin, where he was fleeced to his last guinea, and returned to the house of his mother, now a widow with a large family. After an interval spent in idleness, a medical career was perceived to be the likeliest opening, and in 1752 he steered for Edin., where he remained on the usual happy-go-lucky terms until 1754, when he proceeded to Leyden. After a year there he started on a walking tour, which led him through France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. How he lived it is hard to say, for he left Leyden penniless. It is said that he disputed at Univ., and played the flute, and thus kept himself in existence. All this time, however, he was gaining the experiences and knowledge of foreign countries which he was afterwards to turn to such excellent account. At one of the Univ. visited at this time, he is believed to have secured the medical degree, of which he subsequently made use. Louvain and Padua have both been named as the source of it. He reached London almost literally penniless in 1756, and appears to have been occupied successively as an apothecary's journeyman, a doctor of the poor, and an usher in a school at Peckham. In 1757 he was writing for the _Monthly Review_. The next year he applied unsuccessfully for a medical appointment in India; and the year following, 1759, saw his first important literary venture, _An Enquiry into the State of Polite Learning in Europe_. It was _pub._ anonymously, but attracted some attention, and brought him other work. At the same time he became known to Bishop Percy, the collector of the _Reliques of Ancient Poetry_, and he had written _The Bee_, a collection of essays, and was employed upon various periodicals. In 1761 began his friendship with Johnson, which led to that of the other great men of that circle. His _Chinese Letters_, afterwards republished as _The Citizen of the World_, appeared in _The Public Ledger_ in 1762. _The Traveller_, the first of his longer poems, came out in 1764, and was followed in 1766 by _The Vicar of Wakefield_. In 1768 he essayed the drama, with _The Good-natured Man_, which had considerable success. The next few years saw him busily occupied with work for the publishers, including _The History of Rome_ (1769), Lives of Parnell the poet, and Lord Bolingbroke (1770), and in the same year _The Deserted Village_ appeared; _The History of England_ was _pub._ in 1771. In 1773 he produced with great success his other drama, _She Stoops to Conquer_. His last works were _The Retaliation_, _The History of Greece_, and _Animated Nature_, all _pub._ in 1774. In that year, worn out with overwork and anxiety, he caught a fever, of which he _d._ April 4. With all his serious and very obvious faults-his reckless improvidence, his vanity, and, in his earlier years at any rate, his dissipated habits-G. is one of the most lovable characters in English literature, and one whose writings show most of himself-his humanity, his bright and spontaneous humour, and "the kindest heart in the world." His friends included some of the best and greatest men in England, among them Johnson, Burke, and Reynolds. They all, doubtless, laughed at and made a butt of him, but they all admired and loved him. At the news of his death Burke burst into tears, Reynolds laid down his brush and painted no more that day, and Johnson wrote an imperishable epitaph on him. The poor, the old, and the outcast crowded the stair leading to his lodgings, and wept for the benefactor who had never refused to share what he had (often little enough) with them. Much of his work-written at high pressure for the means of existence, or to satisfy the urgency of duns-his histories, his _Animated Nature_, and such like, have, apart from a certain charm of style which no work of his could be without, little permanent value; but _The Traveller_ and _The Deserted Village_, _She Stoops to Conquer_, and, above all, _The Vicar of Wakefield_, will keep his memory dear to all future readers of English. SUMMARY.-_B._ 1728, _ed._ Trinity Coll., Dublin, went to Edin. 1752, and to Leyden 1754, travelled on foot over large part of Continent, reached London 1756, and wrote for magazines, etc., and after publishing various other works produced _The Citizen of the World_ in 1762, _pub._ _Vicar of Wakefield_ 1766, _Deserted Village_ 1770, and _She Stoops to Conquer_ 1773, _d._ 1774. There are many ed. of G.'s works by Prior, 1837, Cunningham, 1854, Prof. Masson (Globe), 1869, Gibb (Bohn's Standard Library), 1885. Biographies by Prior, 1837, Foster, 1848-71, Washington Irving, and others. _See_ also Boswell's _Johnson_, and Thackeray's _English Humorists_.

Литературная энциклопедия.