HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
050*136

ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by

WASHINGTON IRVING,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New-York.

JOHN F. TROW, 9 Printer and Stereotyper, 49 Ann-street, New-York.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Birth and parentage.-Characteristics of the Goldsmith race.--Poetical birth-

place.-Goblin house.-Scenes of boyhood.-Lissoy.--Picture of a country

parson.-Goldsmith's schoolmistress.-Byrne, the village schoolmaster.—

Goldsmith's hornpipe and epigram.-Uncle Contarine.-School studies and

school sports.-Mistakes of a night, .

17

CHAPTER II.

Improvident marriages in the Goldsmith family.-Goldsmith at the university.-

Situation of a sizer.-Tyranny of Wilder, the tutor.-Pecuniary straits.—

Street ballads.-College riot.-Gallows Walsh.-College prize.-A dance

interrupted,

30

CHAPTER III.

Goldsmith rejected by the bishop.-Second sally to see the world.-Takes

passage for America.-Ship sails without him.-Return on Fiddle-back.-

A hospitable friend.-The counsellor,

45

CHAPTER IV.

Sallies forth as a law student.-Stumbles at the outset.--Cousin Jane and the

valentine,-A family oracle.-Sallies forth as a student of medicine.-

Hocus-pocus of a boarding-house.-Transformations of a leg of mutton.-

The mock ghost.--Sketches of Scotland.-Trials of Toryism.-A poet's

purse for a Continental tour,

53

CHAPTER V.

The agreeable fellow-passengers.-Risks from friends picked up by the way-

side.-Sketches of Holland and the Dutch. Shifts while a poor student at

Leyden. The tulip speculation.-The provident flute.--Sojourn at Paris.-

Sketch of Voltaire.--Travelling shifts of a philosophic vagabond,

66

CHAPTER VI.

Landing in England.-Shifts of a man without money.-The pestle and

mortar.-Theatricals in a barn.-Launch upon London.-A city night

scene. Struggles with penury.-- Miseries of a tutor.-A doctor in the

suburb.-Poor practice and second-hand finery.-A tragedy in embryo.-

Project of the written mountains,

CHAPTER VII.

77

Life of 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,

84

CHAPTER VIII.

Newbery, of picture-book memory.-How to keep up appearances.—Miseries

of authorship.-A poor relation.-Letter to Hodson,

89

CHAPTER IX.

Hackney authorship.-Thoughts of literary suicide.-Return to Peckham.-

Oriental projects.-Literary enterprise to raise funds.-Letter to Edward

Wells-to Robert Bryanton.-Death of uncle Contarine.-Letter to cousin

Jane,

197

Oriental appointment-and disappointment.-Examination at the College of

Surgeons. How to procure a suit of clothes.-Fresh disappointment.-A

tale of distress.-The suit of clothes in pawn.-Punishment for doing an

act of charity.—Gayeties of Green-Arbor Court.-Letter to his brother.-

Life of Voltaire.-Scroggins, an attempt at mock heroic poetry, 107

CHAPTER XI.

Publication of "The Inquiry."-Attacked by Griffiths' 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,

124

CHAPTER XII.

New lodgings.-Visits of ceremony.-Hangers-on.-Pilkington and the white

mouse.-Introduction to Dr. Johnson.-Davies and his bookshop.-Pretty

Mrs. Davies.—Foote and his projects.—Criticism of the cudgel,

132

CHAPTER XIII.

Oriental projects.-Literary jobs.-The Cherokee chiefs.-Merry Islington

and the White Conduit House.-Letters on the History of England.-

James Boswell.-Dinner of Davies.-Anecdotes of Johnson and Gold-

smith,

139

CHAPTER XIV.

Hogarth a visitor at Islington-his character.-Street studies.-Sympathies

between authors and painters.-Sir Joshua Reynolds-his character-his

dinners.-The Literary Club-its members.-Johnson's revels with Lanky

and Beau.-Goldsmith at the club,

14

CHAPTER XV.

Johnson a monitor to Goldsmith-finds him in distress with his landlady-

relieved by the Vicar of Wakefield.-The oratorio.-Poem of the Travel-

ler. The poet and his dog.-Success of the poem.-Astonishment of the

club.-Observations on the poem,

158

CHAPTER XVI.

New lodgings.-Johnson's compliment.-A titled patron. The poet at

Northumberland House.-His independence of the great.-The Countess

of Northumberland.-Edwin and Angelina.-Gosfield and Lord Clare.—

Publication of Essays. — Evils of a rising reputation. — Hangers-on.—

Job writing.-Goody Two-shoes.-A medical campaign.—Mrs. Sidebo-

tham,

---

165

CHAPTER XVII.

Publication of the Vicar of Wakefield- opinions concerning it-of Dr.

Johnson-of Rogers the poet-of Goethe-its merits.- Exquisite ex-

tract.-Attack by Kenrick.-Reply.—Book-building.—Project of a com-

edy,

174

CHAPTER XVIII.

Social condition of Goldsmith-his colloquial contests with Johnson.-Anec-

dotes and illustrations,

183

CHAPTER XIX.

Social resorts. The shilling whist club.-A practical joke.-The Wednesday

club.-The 'tun of man.'-The pig butcher.-Tom King.-Hugh Kelly.—

Glover and his characteristics,

190