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Oliver Goldsmith A Biography



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PREFACE

I. Birth and Parentage—Characteristics of the Goldsmith Race—PoeticalBirthplace—Goblin House—Scenes of Boyhood—Lissoy—Picture of a CountryParson—Goldsmith's Schoolmistress—Byrne, the Village Schoolmaster—Goldsmith's Hornpipe and Epigram—Uncle Contarine—School Studies andSchool Sports—Mistakes of a Night

II. Improvident Marriages in the Goldsmith Family—Goldsmith at theUniversity—Situation of a Sizer—Tyranny of Wilder, the Tutor—PecuniaryStraits—Street Ballads—College Riot—Gallows Walsh—College Prize—ADance Interrupted

III. Goldsmith rejected by the Bishop—Second Sally to see the World—TakesPassage for America—Ship sails without him—Return on Fiddleback—AHospitable Friend—The Counselor

IV. Sallies forth as a Law Student—Stumbles at the Outset—Cousin Jane andthe Valentine—A Family Oracle—Sallies forth as a Student ofMedicine—Hocus-pocus of a Boarding-house—Transformations of a Leg ofMutton—The Mock Ghost—Sketches of Scotland—Trials of Toryism—A Poet'sPurse for a Continental Tour

V. The agreeable Fellow-passengers—Risks from Friends picked up by theWayside—Sketches of Holland and the Dutch—Shifts while a Poor Student atLeyden—The Tulip Speculation—The Provident Flute—Sojourn at Paris—Sketch of Voltaire—Traveling Shifts of a Philosophic Vagabond

VI. Landing In England—Shifts of a Man without Money—The Pestle andMortar—Theatricals in a Barn—Launch upon London—A City NightScene—Struggles with Penury—Miseries of a Tutor—A Doctor in theSuburb—Poor Practice and Second-hand Finery—A Tragedy in Embryo—Projectof the Written Mountains

VII. Life as a Pedagogue—Kindness to Schoolboys—Pertness In Return—Expensive Charities—The Griffiths and the "Monthly Review"—Toils of a Literary Hack—Rupture with the Griffiths

VIII. Newbery, of Picture-book Memory—How to keep up Appearances—Miseries of Authorship—A Poor Relation—Letter to Hodson

IX. Hackney Authorship—Thoughts of Literary Suicide—Return to Peckham—Oriental Projects—Literary Enterprise to raise Funds—Letter to EdwardWells—To Robert Bryanton—Death of Uncle Contarine—Letter to Cousin Jane

X. Oriental Appointment, and Disappointment—Examination at the College ofSurgeons—How to procure a Suit of Clothes—Fresh Disappointment—A Tale ofDistress—The Suit of Clothes in Pawn—Punishment for doing an act ofCharity—Gayeties of Green-Arbor Court—Letter to his Brother—Life ofVoltaire—Scroggins, an attempt at Hock Heroic Poetry

XI. Publication of "The Inquiry"—Attacked by Griffith's "Review"—Kenrick, the Literary Ishmaelite—Periodical Literature—Goldsmith's Essays—Garrick as a Manager—Smollett and his Schemes—Change of Lodgings—The Robin Hood Club

XII. New Lodgings—Visits of Ceremony—Hangers-on—Pilkington and the WhiteMouse—Introduction to Dr. Johnson—Davies and his Bookshop—Pretty Mrs.Davies—Foote and his Projects—Criticism of the Cudgel

XIII....