1749. only change is in that greater Spirits hardly less generous, submission of the victim which cheerful, or self-supported than marks unsuccessful rebellion. He Goldsmith's, have been broken offers no resistance; makes no by them utterly. effort of any kind; sits, for the He took his degree of most part, indulging day-dreams. bachelor of arts on the t. 21. A Greek Scapula has been iden- 27th February, 1749; and, as tified which he used at this his name stood lowest in the list time, scrawled over with his writ- of sizars with whom he was ing. "Free. Oliver Goldsmith;" originally admitted, so it stands "I promise to pay, &c. Oliver also lowest in a list still existing "Goldsmith;" ;" are among the of the graduates who passed on autograph's musing shapes. Per- the same day and became therehaps one half the day he was by entitled to use the college with Steele or Addison in parlia-library.** It would yet be needment; perhaps the other half in less to recount the names that prison with Collins or with Field- appear above his, for the public ing. We should be thankful, as merits of their owners ended with I have said, that a time so dreary their college course, and oblivion and dark bore no worse fruit has received them. Nor does the than this. The shadow cast over low position of his name indicate his spirit, the uneasy sense of necessarily his place in the exdisadvantage which obscured his amination; it being then the manners in later years, affected himself singly; but how many they are whom such suffering, and such idleness, would have wholly and for ever corrupted. ** 66 please my tutor, who observed indeed "that I was a little dull; but at the same "time allowed that I seemed to be very “goodnatured, and had no harm in "me." *Percy Memoir, 17. ** Shaw Mason's Statistical Account, * Prior, 1. 94. III. 358. "Feb. 27, 1749, he was admitted **Who can possibly doubt the origi-"bachelor of arts, two years after the renal from whom the man in black's ex- gular time. In the roll of those qualiperiences were taken? Citizen of the "fied for admission to the college library, World, XXVII. "The first opportunity he "it appears that Oliver Goldsmith took "my father] had of finding his expecta-"the oaths necessary to those who desire "tions disappointed, was in the middling "that privilege. The time for this is im"figure I made at the university: he had "mediately after obtaining the degree of "flattered himself that he should soon see "bachelor of arts." Mr. Shaw Mason's "me rising into the foremost rank in reference to the date of the degree as "literary reputation, but was mortified "two years after the regular time," would "to find me utterly unnoticed and un-imply that the date 1749 was in reality "known. His disappointment might have "been partly ascribed to his having over"rated my talents, and partly to my dis"like of mathematical reasonings at a time when my imagination and memory, yet "unsatisfied, were more eager after new objects than desirous of reasoning upon "those I knew. This, however, did not (computing the opening of the year, as was usual then and for a little while longer, from the 25th of March) 1750. But as the error in the text, if it be one, involves nothing more material than a slight shortening of the interval of idleness that follows, I leave it as originally written. usage to regulate the mere col- treated Oliver to qualify himself lege standing of a student through for orders; and when they joined the whole of his course, by his uncle Contarine's request, his position obtained at start- own objection was withdrawn. But ing. But be this as it might, he is only twenty-one; he must Æt. 21. Mr. Wilder and his pupil wait two years; and they are now parted for ever: and when passed at Ballymahon. 1749. the friend of Burke, Johnson, It is the sunny time between and Reynolds heard in later years two dismal periods of his life. the name of his college tyrant, a He has escaped one scene of violent death had overtaken him misery; another is awaiting him; in a disreputable brawl. * 66 CHAPTER III. Three Years of Idleness. and what possibilities of happiness lie in the interval, it is his nature to seize and make the most of. He assists his brother Henry in the school; runs household errands for his mother, as GOLDSMITH returned to his mo- if he were still what the village ther's house. There were great gossips called him, "Master changes. She had removed, in "Noll;" brings her green tea her straitened circumstances, to a by the ounce, the half-ounce, and cottage at Ballymahon, “situated the quarter-ounce, for which the "on the entrance to Ballymahon charges respectively are seven"from the Edgeworthstown-road pence, threepence-halfpenny, and 'on the left-hand side." ** His brother Henry had gone back to his father's little parsonage house at Pallas; and, with his father's old pittance of forty pounds a year, was serving as curate to the living of Kilkenny-west, and was master of the village school, which after shifting about not a little had become ultimately fixed at Lissoy. His eldest sister, Mrs. Hodson, for whom the sacrifice was made that impoverished the family resources, was mistress were several shop accounts from the of the old and better Lissoy par-"in the earliest of these accounts ran year 1740 to 1756. Some of the entries sonage house in which his father "thus; Tea by Master Noll-Cash by had lived his latter life. All en- "ditto;'-from which it appears, that "the young poet was then perhaps his "mother's only messenger. One of the *Prior, 1. 67-8. * I subjoin a curious passage from Mr. Shaw Mason's volume already quoted, in of dates is either to be explained by supwhich what appears to be a misstatement posing that the entries as to "Master "Noll" refer to a period before the family had removed from Lissoy, or by the suggestion in the text that the young bachelor of arts still ran the errands of his boyhood, and retained its familiar "chased some old books a few years ago, "at an auction in Ballymahon; and among them an account-book, kept by "Shore, who lived in the next house to "a Mrs. Edwards, and a Miss Sarah "Mrs. Goldsmith. In this village record, name. 66 "The writer of this account pur ** Shaw Mason's Statistical Account," accounts, in 1756, may be considered a III. 357, "statistical curiosity, ascertaining the 1749. twopence; writes scraps of verse taking solitary walks among the to please his uncle Contarine; rocks and wooded islands of the and, to please himself, gets Inny, strolling up its banks to cousin Bryanton and Tony Lump-fish or play the flute, otterkins of the district, with wander- hunting by the course of Æt. 21. ing bear-leaders of genteeler sort, the Shannon, * learning to meet at an old inn by his French from the Irish priests, or mother's house, and be a club winning a prize for throwing the for story-telling, for an occasional sledge-hammer at the fair of game of whist, and for the sing- Ballymahon.** "A lady who ing of songs. First in these ac- "died lately in this neighbourcomplishments, great at Latin "hood, and who was well acquotations, as admirer of happy "quainted with Mrs. Goldsmith, human faces greatest of all,- "mentioned that it was one of Oliver presides. Cousin Bryan-"Oliver's habits to sit in a winton had seen his disgrace in col-"dow of his mother's lodgings, lege, and thinks this a triumph "and amuse himself by playing indeed. So seems it to the hero "the flute." *** of the triumph, on whose taste Two sunny years, with sorrowand manners, still only forming ful affection long remembered; + as yet in these sudden and odd storing up his mind with many a extremes, many an amusing shade thought and fancy turned to proof contrast must have fallen in fitable use in after-life; but after-life from the storms of Wilder's class-room and the sun-Buffon's description of the otter coupling In the Animated Nature, after giving shine of George Conway's inn. Thus the two years passed. In the day-time occupied, as I have said, in the village school; on the winter nights, at Conway's; and, in the evenings of summer, in winter and bringing forth in the be ginning of spring, he adds: "It is cer"tainly different with us, for its young "are never found till the latter end of 66 summer; and I have frequently, when a "sued them at that season." III. 240. A "boy, discovered their retreats, and purcurious account follows of his personal experience as to their being trained for hunting fish. 242-3. ** "A blacksmith, who boasted to the rev. Mr. Handcock of having taught him "the art, still survived about the year "1787." Prior, 1. 116. *** Shaw Mason, III. 358. "Those who have walked in an even"ing by the sedgy sides of unfrequented "rivers, must remember a variety of "notes from different water-fowl; the "loud scream of the wild goose, the "croaking of the mallard, the whining of "the lapwing, and the tremulous neigh"ing of the jack snipe. But of all those "sounds, there is none so dismally hollow as the booming of the bittern,,, I 1749. hardly better than his college "no! There has been more course to help him through the "money spent in the encourageworld. So much even occurred "ment of the Padareen mare to himself when eight "there one season, than given in years were gone, and, in "rewards to learned men since Et. 21. the outset of his London "the times of Usher. All their distresses, he turned back with "productions in learning amount wistful looks to Ireland. "Un-"to perhaps a translation, or a "accountable fondness for coun- "few tracts in divinity; and all "try, this Maladie du Pais, as the "their productions in wit, to just "French call it!" he exclaimed, "nothing at all. Why the plague writing to his brother-in-law Hod- "then so fond of Ireland? ˆ Then "Unaccountable that he "all at once, because you, my "should still have an affection "dear friend, and a few more, "for a place who never received "who are exceptions to the "when in it above common civi-"general picture, have a re"lity; who never brought any-"sidence there. This it is that "thing out of it except his brogue “gives me all the pangs I feel in "and his blunders. Surely my "separation. I confess I carry "affection is equally ridiculous "this spirit sometimes to the "with the Scotchman's, who re-"souring the pleasures I at pre"fused to be cured of the itch "sent possess." "* son. 66 66 "because it made him unco' But perhaps the secret escaped 'thoughtful of his wife and bonny without his knowledge, when, in "Inverary. But to be serious, that same year, he was writing "let me ask myself what gives to a more intimate friend. "I "me a wish to see Ireland again? "have disappointed your neg"The country is a fine one per-"lect," he said to Bryanton, "by "haps? No. There are good "frequently thinking of you. "company in Ireland? No. The "Every day do I remember the "conversation there is generally "calm anecdotes of your life, "made up of a smutty toast or a "from the fireside to the easy "bawdy song; the vivacity sup-"chair; recal the various adven"ported by some humble cousin, "tures that first cemented our "who has just folly enough to "friendship, the school, the colearn his dinner. Then perhaps "lege, or the tavern; pre"there's more wit and learning "side in fancy over your "among the Irish? Oh, lord! "cards, and am displeased "remember in the place where I was a "rubber goes against you, though bad play when the "boy, with what terror this bird's note "affected the whole village." Animated "not with all that agony of soul when I once was your Nature, (Ed. 1816) Iv. 316-18. "Among thy glades, a solitary guest, "its nest." "at your 66 as 1750. Æt. 22. *Percy Memoir, 42, 43. The rest of the letter is printed post, Book II. Chap. II, 1750. Æt. 22. "partner." Let the truth then and if these irregular early years be confessed: and that it was the unsettled him for the pursuits his careless idleness of fireside and friends would have had him foleasy chair, that it was the tavern low, and sent him wanderexcitement of the game at cards, ing, with no pursuit, to mix to which Goldsmith so wistfully among the poor and happy looked back from those first hard of other lands, it is very certain London struggles. that he brought back some seIt is not an example I would crets both of poverty and happiwish to inculcate; nor is this ness which were worth the findnarrative written with that pur-ing, and, having paid for his pose. To try such a process for errors by infinite personal privathe chance of another Goldsmith tion, turned all the rest to the would be a dangerous attempt. comfort and instruction of the The truth is always to be kept world. There is a providence in view, that genius, represent- that shapes our ends, rough-hew ing the health as well as victory them how we will; and to charmof the mind, is in no respect ing issues did the providence of allied to these weaknesses, al- Goldsmith's genius shape these though, when unhappily con-rough-hewn times. What it renected with them, it is itself a ceived in mortification or grief, means to avert their most evil it gave back in cheerful humour consequence. Of the associates or whimsical warning. It was of Goldsmith in these happy, not alone that it made him wise careless years, perhaps not one enough to know what infirmities emerged to better fortune, and he had, but it gave him the rarer many sank to infinitely worse. wisdom of turning them to enter"Pray give my love to Bob tainment and to profit. Through "Bryanton, and entreat him from the pains and obstructions of his "me not to drink," is a passage childhood, through the uneasy from one of his later letters to failures of his youth, through the his brother Henry.** The habit desperate struggles of his manof drinking he never suffered to hood, it lighted him to those last overmaster himself; if the love uses of experience and suffering of gaming to some extent con- which have given him an imtinued, it led at least to many mortal name. thoughts that may have saved others from like temptation; *** Let it be observed, too, that this Ballymahon idleness could lay claim to a certain activity in one "evil that he works to others lies rather "in the sentiments he can diffuse. His "acts are limited and momentary; his "sentiments may pervade the universe, "and inspire generations till the day of "doom." Lord Lytton's Zanoni, |