INTRODUCTION

LIFE OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH

1728-1774

Birth

November 10, 1728, at the parsonage at Pallas, County of Longford, Ireland.

"Pallas is a mere cluster of two or three cottages, called in Ireland farmhouses, but which, to an English eye, would present only the appearance of huts. There is nothing

remarkable in the aspect of the country. It is rather flat, naked of trees, and cultivated by small tenants." - HOWITT, in Homes and Haunts of the British Poets.

Parents

Mother: Ann Jones, daughter of the Rev. Oliver Jones, master of the Diocesan school at Elphin.

Father: The Rev. Charles Goldsmith, portrayed in the village preacher of The Deserted Village, and in Dr. Primrose of The Vicar of Wakefield.

The Goldsmiths were of English origin. The Irish branch emigrated to Ireland about the sixteenth century.

"Goldsmith sprang from a respectable, but by no means thrifty stock. Some families seem to inherit kindliness and incompetency, and to hand down virtue and poverty from generation to generation. Such was the case with the Goldsmiths. 'They were always,' according to their own accounts, 'a strange family; they rarely acted like other people; their

hearts were in the right place, but their heads seemed to be doing anything but what they ought.' 'They were remarkable,' says another statement, 'for their worth, but of no cleverness in the ways of the world.' Oliver Goldsmith will be found faithfully to inherit the virtues and weaknesses of his race." - WASHINGTON IRVING, in Life of Oliver Goldsmith. The Goldsmith Family

Eight children, five boys and three girls. Oliver was the second son. The first son, Henry, a pensioner at Trinity College, Dublin, distinguished himself, and obtained a scholarship in 1743. Preferred a simple, quiet life, and settled down as curate of Kilkenny West. Beloved by Oliver, who dedicated The Traveller to him.

Removal to Lissoy

The Rev. Charles Goldsmith succeeded to the parish of Kilkenny West in 1830, on the death of his wife's uncle. The family moved to Lissoy and settled on a farm of seventy

acres.

"This was the scene of Goldsmith's boyhood, the little world whence he drew many of those pictures, rural and domestic, whimsical and touching, which abound throughout his works, and which appeal so eloquently to both the fancy and the heart.". - WASHINGTON IRVING, in Life of Oliver Goldsmith.

"Lissoy consists now of a few common cottages by the roadside, on a flat and by no means particularly interesting scene."― HowITT, in Homes and Haunts of the British

Poets.

I.

Early Education

"A dame's school," at the age of three. She considered Oliver one of the dullest boys she had ever attempted to instruct.

2. The village school at the age of six. The schoolmaster, Thomas Byrne, commonly called Paddy Byrne, was an old soldier, more fond of story-telling than of teaching. He is portrayed in the village master of The Deserted Village.

"There are certain whimsical traits in the character of Byrne, not given in the sketch of the schoolmaster in The Deserted Village. He was fond of talking of his vagabond wanderings in foreign lands, and had brought with him from the wars a world of campaigning stories, of which he was generally the hero, and which he would deal forth to his wondering scholars. These travelers' tales had a powerful effect upon the vivid imagination of Goldsmith, and awakened his unconquerable passion for wandering and seeking adven

ture.

“Byrne was, moreover, of a romantic vein, and exceedingly superstitious. He was deeply versed in the fairy superstitions which abound in Ireland, all of which he professed implicitly to believe. Under his tuition, Goldsmith soon became almost as great a proficient in fairy lore. . . .

"Another trait of Byrne was a disposition to dabble in poetry, and this likewise was caught by his pupil. Before he was eight years old, Goldsmith had contracted a habit of scribbling verses on small scraps of paper, which in a little while he would throw into the fire. A few of these sibylline leaves, however, were rescued from the flames and conveyed to his mother. The good woman read them with a mother's delight, and saw at once that her son was a genius and a poet. From that time she beset her husband with solicitations to give her boy an education suitable to his talents.". WASHINGTON IRVING, in Life of Oliver Goldsmith.

3. Prepared for college at Edgeworthstown, under the Rev. Patrick Hughes. Goldsmith was careless and indolent in his studies, but was very popular with his schoolmates.