time; and endeavouring, on her "scenery of the Deserted Village." restoration to health, to put her in a virtuous way of living.* 1770. Here, while the courtier glitters

in brocade,

Et. 42. There the pale artist plies the sickly trade;

Here, while the proud their long-drawn pomps display,

There the black gibbet glooms beside the

It is to be added that everything in it is English, the feeling, incidents, descriptions, and allusions; and that this consideration may save us needless trouble in seeking to identify sweet Auburn (a name he obtained from Langton) with Lissoy. Scenes of the poet's youth had doubtless risen in his memory as he wrote, mingling with, and taking altered hue from, later experiences; 'thoughts of those early days could scarcely have been absent from the wish for a quiet close to the struggles and toil of his mature life, and very possibly, nay almost certainly, when the dream of such a retirement haunted him, Lissoy formed part of the vision; it is even possible he may have caught the first hint of his design from a local Westmeath poet and schoolmaster, who, in his youth, had given rhymed utterance to the old tenant grievances of the Irish rural population; nor could complaints that were also loudest in those boyish days at Lissoy, of certain reckless and unsparing evictions by which one General Naper (Napper, or Napier) had persisted in improving his estate, have passed altogether from

*

Beautifully is it said by Mr. Campbell, that "fiction in poetry "is not the reverse of truth, but "her soft and enchanted resem"blance; and this ideal beauty "of nature has seldom been of dispossessed Irish tenantry. "united with so much sober

66

'fidelity, as in the groups and *Boswell, VIII. 323-4.

Lawrence Whyte: who published (1741) a poem in whose list of subscribers scribes with some pathos the sufferings appears Allan Ramsay's name, which de

"Their native soil were forc'd to quit,
So Irish landlords thought it fit.
How many villages they razed,
How many parishes laid waste!"

17.70.

Æt. 42.

Goldsmith's memory.* But there rustic life and rural scenery of was nothing local in his present England. It is quite natural that aim; or if there was, it was the Irish enthusiasts should have found out the fence, the * The earliest and most intelligent at- furze, the thorn, the detempt to identify Lissoy and Auburn was made in 1807 by Dr. Strean, Henry cent church, the neverGoldsmith's successor in the curacy of failing brook, the busy mill, even Kilkenny-west, but, at the time he wrote the Twelve Good Rules, and the this letter, perpetual curate of Athlone. I quote it as the first and best outline of all Royal Game of Goose.* that has since been very elaborately and very needlessly said on the same subject: "The poem of the Deserted Village

"the

It was

"trunks, is now reduced to one; the to time, by persons carrying pieces of "other two having been cut, from time "took its origin from the circumstance "of General Robert Napper (the grand-honour of the bard and of the celebrity "it away to be made into toys, &c. in "father of the gentleman who now lives of his poem. All these contribute to "in the house, within half a mile of Lissoy, and built by the general) having church,' which I attended for upsame proof; and the 'decent purchased an extensive tract of the wards of eighteen years, and which "country surrounding Lissoy, or Auburn; tops the neighbouring hill,' is exactly "in consequence of which many families, described as seen from Lissoy the re"here called cottiers, were removed, to "sidence of the preacher." Dr. Stream "make room for the intended improvements of what was now to become the to the Rev. Edward Mangin, writing "wide domain of a rich man, warm with from the Glebe, Athlone, on Dec. 31, "the idea of changing the face of his new 1807. Essay on Light Reading, 140-143. "acquisition; and were forced, 'with "A lady from the neighbourhood of ""fainting steps,' to go in search of "Portglenone, in the county of Antrim, "'torrid tracts and distant climes.serted Village in the summer of 1817; "This fact alone might be sufficient to and was fortunate enough to find, in a "establish the seat of the poem; but "there cannot remain a doubt in any uncottage adjoining the ale-house, an old "prejudiced mind when the following smoked print, which she was credibly are added; namely: The character of "the village-preacher, the above-named "Henry, is copied from nature. He is "described exactly as he lived; and his "modest mansion' as it existed. Burn, "the name of the village-master, and the "site of his school-house; and Catherine "Giraghty, a lonely widow,

"The wretched matron, forc'd in age for bread

To strip the brook with mantling cresses spread;'

"was one of those who visited the De

informed

was the identical Twelve "Good Rules that had ornamented that

"rural tavern, with the Royal Game of "Goose, &c. &c. when Goldsmith drew "his fascinating description of it." Gent. Mag. (1818), LXXXVIII. 20. The "identi"cal" old smoked print was doubtless Mr. Hogan's. "When I settled on the "spot," said that gentleman, giving account of what he had done, to a public meeting held in Ballymahon in 1819 to set on foot a subscription for a monument to Goldsmith's memory, "I at"(and to this day the brook and ditches"tempted to replace some of the almost 66 near the spot where her cabin stood "forgotten identities that delighted me "abound with cresses); still remain in "forty years since. I rebuilt his Three "the memory of the inhabitants, and Ca-"Jolly Pigeons, restored his Twelve "therine's children live in the neigh-"Good Rules and Royal Game of Goose, "bourhood. The pool, the busy mill, the "inclosed his Hawthorn Tree, now al"house where 'nut-brown draughts in- "most cut away by the devotion of the "'spired,' are still visited as the poetic "literary pilgrims who resort to it; I 66 scene: and the 'hawthorn-bush,' grow-"also planted his favourite hill before "ing in an open space in front of the "Lissoy Gate," &c. &c. Gent. Mag. (1820), "house, which I knew to have three xc. 618-622. The proposed monument

to be expected that pilgrims and to christen his furbishedshould have borne away every up village and adjoining manvestige of the first hawthorn sion by the name of Auburn.

1770.

they could lay their hands All this, as Walter Scott has on. It was very graceful said, "is a pleasing tribute to Æt. 42. and pretty amusement for "the poet in the land of his faMr. Hogan when he settled in "thers;"* but it certainly is no the neighbourhood, to rebuild more.

the village inn, and, for security Such tribute as the poem itagainst the enthusiasm of pre-self was, its author offered to datory pilgrims, to fix in the Sir Joshua Reynolds, dedicating wall "the broken tea-cups wisely it to him in a few words that "kept for show"; to fence are very beautiful. ** "Setting round with masonry what still "interest aside," he wrote, "to remained of the hawthorn; to "which I never paid much atprop up the tottering walls of "tention, I must be indulged at what was once the parish school; "present in following my affec"tions. The only dedication I failed, notwithstanding the honourable enthusiasm of Mr. Hogan, the Rev. John "ever made was to my brother, Graham, its originator, and others. I "because I loved him better than may add that soon after Mr. Hogan be- "most other men. He is since gan his restorations, an intelligent visi"dead. Permit me to inscribe tor described them; and nothing, he said, so shook his faith in the reality of "this Poem to you." How grateAuburn as the got-up print, the fixed tea- fully this was received, and how cups, and so forth. But what had once been Charles and Henry Goldsmith's Colman the younger has recorded a parsonage at Lissoy, the lower chamber more extraordinary tribute in the land of of which he found inhabited by pigs and his adoption. "One day I met the poet sheep and the drawing-room by oats, "Harding at Oxford, a half-crazy creawas yet so placed in relation to objects "ture as poets generally are, with a described in the poem, as somewhat to huge broken brick, and some bits of restore his shaken belief. He adds, that, "thatch upon the crown of his hat. in the cabin of the quondam school-"my asking him for a solution of this master, an oak chair with a back and "Prosopopeia, 'Sir,' said he, 'to-day is seat of cane, purporting to be "the chair "the anniversary of the celebrated Dr. "of the poet," was shown him, ap-"Goldsmith's death, and I am now in parently kept "rather for the sake of "the character of his Deserted Village.' 'drawing contributions from the curious Ran. Records, 1. 307. "than from any reverence for the bard. **A resemblance has been pointed "There is," he humorously adds, "no out (Tiffin's Gossip about Portraits, 1866, "fear of its being worn out by the devout p. 87) between this touching inscription "earnestness of sitters, as the cocks and and Bacon's dedication of his Essays to "hens have usurped undisputed posses- Sir John Constable. "My last Essaies I "sion of it, and protest most clamor-"dedicated to my deare brother Master 'ously against all attempts to get it "Anthony Bacon... Missing my brother, "cleansed, or to seat oneself." Ap-"I found you next." Comparing the two pendix to vol. IV. of the Edinburgh edi- in their complete form, however, the tion of Goldsmith's Works (1836), 317-18. similarity is seen to be merely acA very careful and good little book. cidental; and in nothing, it may be reIts editor, I believe, was Mr. Hamilton marked, was Goldsmith happier than in Buchanan. all his dedications.

On

1770.

Æt.

but 42.

strongly it cemented an already it; but this is by no means fast friendship, needs not be credible, though a good ausaid. The great painter could thority tells us it would have not rest till he had made public been “quite in characacknowledgment and return. He "ter."** Not only in itself painted his picture of Resignation, is it highly incredible, had it engraved by Thomas Wat- it is perhaps of all possible son, and inscribed upon it these speeches the very last that a words: "This attempt to express man is likely to have made, who "a character in the Deserted Vil-only a few weeks before had not "lage is dedicated to Doctor scrupled to take 500 guineas "Goldsmith, by his sincere friend from the same publisher, on the "and admirer, Joshua Reynolds." mere faith of a book which he Nor were tributes to the poet's had hardly even begun to write. growing popularity wanting from It is presumable, however, that foreign admirers. Within two the sum actually paid was small; years from its publication the and that it was not without first foreign translation appeared, reason he told Lord Lisburn, and obtained grateful recogni- on receiving complimentary intion under Goldsmith's hand.* quiries after a new poem at the What Griffin paid for the Academy dinner, "I cannot afpoem is very doubtful. Glover "ford to court the draggle-tail first tells, and Cooke repeats "muses, my Lord, they would with additions, the story which "let me starve; but by my other Walter Scott also believed and "labours I can make shift to repeated, that he had stipulated 'eat, and drink, and have good for a hundred pounds as the "clothes."*** Something to the price, and returned part of it on same effect, indeed, in the poem some one telling him that five itself, had mightily stirred the shillings a couplet was more comment and curiosity of the than any poetry ever written critics. They called them exwas worth, and could only ruin cellent but "alarming lines.” the poor bookseller who gave * Poems. Malone's Dublin Ed. (1777),

66

VI. Europ. Mag. XXIV. 172. "In truth,"

*This was not the translation men- replied Goldsmith, according to Glover's tioned by Lord Holland to Thomas version, "I think so too; it is much more Moore. Lord Holland mentioned athan the honest man can afford, or the "translation of Goldsmith's Deserted Vil-"piece is worth; I have not been easy lage by a foreigner, whom I remember since I received it; I will therefore go "in London, called the Commandeur de "back and return him his note." "Tilly, and the line 'As ocean sweeps "the labour'd mole away,' was done "Comme la mer détruit les travaux de "la taupe.'" Thomas Moore's Diary, Dec. 30, 1818. Goethe tried his hand at a translation into German, as we have seen, but did not please himself.

Oliver Goldsmith's Life and Times. II.

**Percy Memoir, 85.

*** Life prefixed to Bewick's edition of the Poems (Gloucester, 1809), 11. The incident is also related in a number of the Gentleman's Magazine of earlier date, but I have lost the reference.

II

And thou, sweet Poetry, thou loveliest | "ledge I have pretty well dipped

maid,

Still first to fly where sensual joys invade;

1770.

Et. 42.

Unfit, in these degenerate times

of shame,

To catch the heart, or strike for
honest fame;

Dear charming nymph, neglected and

decried,

"into."* Thus, in this very month of May 1770, the most eager young aspirant for literary fame that ever trod the flinty streets of London, poor Chatterton, was writing home to his country friends. But, alas! his lip was not wetted with the knowledge which he fancied he had dipped so deep into. With Goldsmith it was otherwise. He had drunk long and weary Thou nurse of every virtue, fare thee draughts, had tasted alike the sweetness and the bitterness of

My shame in crowds, my solitary pride;
Thou source of all my bliss, and all my

woe,

That found'st me poor at first, and

keep'st me so;

Thou guide by which the nobler arts excel,

well!

Apollo and the Muses forbid! the cup, and, no longer sanguine was the general cry of the re- or ambitious, had yet reason to views. What! shall the writer of confess himself not wholly dissuch a poem as this, "the sub-contented. In many cases it is "ject of a young and generous better to want than to have, and "king, who loves, cherishes and in almost all it is better to want "understands the fine arts," than to ask. At the least, he shall he be obliged to drudge for could make shift, as he said to booksellers, shall he be starved Lord Lisburn, to eat, and drink, into abandonment of poetry? *So Chatterton, in a letter to his Even so. There was no help for mother. Poor fellow! one cannot quote it; and truly it became him to be it, still vibrating in every word with its grateful that there were book-writer's irrepressible hopes, and not feel a sickness of pain at the heart! "I am sellers to drudge for. "The "settled, and in such a settlement as I "poverty of authors is a com- 'would desire. I get four guineas a "mon observation, but not al-"to write a History of England and other "month by one Magazine: shall engage 66 ways a true one. No author "pieces, which will more than double 'can be poor who understands "that sum. Occasional essays for the "the arts of booksellers. With"daily papers would more than support 66 me. What a glorious prospect! "out this necessary knowledge," am quite familiar at the Chapter coffee"the greatest genius may starve; "house, and know all the geniuses there. "and with it, the greatest dunce "author carries his character in his pen. "live in splendour. This know-"My sister will improve herself in draw"ing. My grandmother is, I hope, well.

66

66

... I

"A character is now unnecessary; an

Letter in the St. James's Chronicle, "Bristol's mercenary walls were never dated from Oxford on the 12th July, and "destined to hold me there, I was out signed J B, ending with some verses "of my element: now I am in it-LONwhich the writer calls the "overflowing "DON! Good God! - how superior is "of his mind on the occasion," so very "London to that despicable place Brisexecrable that the credit of them has "tol!" Works (Ed. Cambridge, 1842), II, been given to Boswell.

712-13.