NOTES.

A. S., Anglo-Saxon.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.

A. V., the Authorized Version of the Bible.

Adv. of L., Bacon's Advancement of Learning.

An. Nat., Goldsmith's Animated Nature.

Arc., Milton's Arcades.

C., Craik's English of Shakespeare (Rolfe's edition).

C. T., Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

Cf. (confer), compare.

D. V., Goldsmith's Deserted Village.

Foll., following.

F. Q., Spenser's Faërie Queene.

Fr., French.

H., Haven's Rhetoric (Harper's edition).

Hales, Longer English Poems, edited by Rev. J. W. Hales (London).

P. L., Milton's Paradise Lost.

Shakes. Gr., Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar (the references are to sections, not pages).

Shep. Kal., Spenser's Shepherd's Kalendar.

Trav., Goldsmith's Traveller.

V. of W., Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield.

Wb., Webster's Dictionary (last revised quarto edition).

Wh., Whately's Rhetoric (Harper's edition).

Worc., Worcester's Dictionary (quarto edition).

Other abbreviations (names of books in the Bible, plays of Shakespeare, etc.), need no explanation.

NOTES.

THE TRAVELLER.

THIS poem, as we learn from the Dedication, was begun in Switzerland in 1755, but it was not completed until 1764. It was published in December of that year, and was the earliest production to which Goldsmith prefixed his name.* Johnson introduced it to the good opinion of the public by a notice in the Critical Review (December, 1764). The article, which is largely made up of quotations from the poem, ends thus: "Such is the poem on which we now congratulate the public, as on a production to which, since the death of Pope, it will not be easy to find anything equal." Its success was immediate ;† four editions being called for within eight months, and five more during the author's lifetime,

"The nominal object of the poem," says Mr. Hales, "is to show that, as far as happiness is concerned, one form of government is as good as another. This was a favourite paradox with Dr. Johnson. Whether he or Goldsmith really believed it, may be reasonably doubted. Of course it is true that no political arrangements, however excellent, can secure for any individual citizen immunity from misery; it is true also that different political systems may suit different peoples, and, further, that every political system has its special dangers; and it is true, again, that what constitution may be adapted for what people is often a question of the profoundest difficulty; it is true, lastly, that no civil constitution relieves any one enjoying the benefit of it from his own proper duties and re

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*The title-page of the first edition reads thus: "The Traveller, or a Prospect of Society. A Poem. Inscribed to the Rev. Mr. Henry Goldsmith. By Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. London: Printed for J. Newbery, in St. Paul's Church-yard, MDCCLXV." †The appearance of "The Traveller' at once altered Goldsmith's intellectual standing in the estimation of society; but its effect upon the Club, if we may judge from the account given by Hawkins, was almost ludicrous. They were lost in astonishment that a newspaper essayist" and "bookseller's drudge" should have written such a poem. On the evening of its announcement to them Goldsmith had gone away early, after 66 rattling away as usual," and they knew not how to reconcile his heedless garrulity with the serene beauty, the easy grace, the sound good-sense, and the occasional elevation of his poetry. They could scarcely believe that such magic numbers had flowed from a man to whom in general, says Johnson, "it was with difficulty they could give a hearing.' "Well," exclaimed Chamier," I do believe he wrote this poem himself, and, let me tell you, that is believing a great deal."-IRVING.

sponsibilities; but it is assuredly not true that there is no relation whatever between the government of a country and the happiness of its inhabitants. A government can, as it pleases, or according to its enlightenment, make circumstances favourable or unfavourable to individual development and happiness.. Fortunately one's enjoyment of the poem does not depend on the accuracy of the creed it professes."

THE DEDICATION.-In the first edition the second paragraph is as follows:

"I now perceive, my dear brother, the wisdom of your humble choice. You have entered upon a sacred office, while you have left the field of ambition, where the labourers are many, and the harvest not worth carrying away. But of all kinds of ambition, as things are now circumstanced, perhaps that which pursues poetical fame is the wildest. What from the increased refinement of the times, from the diversity of judgments produced by opposing systems of criticism, and from the more prevalent divisions of opinion influenced by party, the strongest and happiest efforts can expect to please but in a very narrow circle. Though the poet were as sure of his aim as the imperial archer of antiquity, who boasted that he never missed the heart, yet would many of his shafts now fly at random, for the heart is too often in the wrong place."

There are a few verbal variations in other parts of the Dedication, but none worth mentioning, except, perhaps, one in the last paragraph—“that every state has a peculiar principle of happiness; and that this principle in each, and in our own in particular, may be carried to a mischievous

excess.

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1. Slow. At the first meeting of the Literary Club after the publication of the poem, Chamier said to Goldsmith: "What do you mean by the last word in the first line of your 'Traveller,' ' remote, unfriended, solitary, slow? do you mean tardiness of locomotion?"—"Yes," replied Goldsmith, inconsiderately, being probably flurried at the moment. "No, sir," interposed his protecting friend, Johnson, you did not mean tardiness of locomotion; you meant that sluggishness of mind which comes upon a man in solitude."-"Ah," exclaimed Goldsmith, "that was what I meant." Chamier immediately believed that Johnson himself had written the line, and a rumour became prevalent that he was the author of many of the finest passages. This was ultimately set at rest by Johnson himself, who marked with a pencil all the verses he had contributed, nine in number-the 420th, and the last ten lines, except the 435th and the 436th. 3. Carinthia is a province of Austria, east of the Tyrol. Goldsmith visited it in 1755.

8. Untravell'd. That has not travelled. In "an untravelled path," etc., the word is used in its ordinary passive sense. Cf. learned in "a learned man," well-behaved (in Othello, iv. 2, we find "How have I been behaved ?"), well-spoken (" For Clarence is well-spoken," Richard III. i. 3), well-read ("a well-read man"), etc. It seems to us that mistaken in "You are mistaken," which is condemned by some of the grammarmakers, is another example of the same kind.