Even now the devastation is begun,

And half the business of destruction done;

Even now, methinks, as pondering here I stand,
I see the rural virtues leave the land.

Down where yon anchoring vessel spreads the sail
That idly waiting flaps with every gale,
Downward they move, a melancholy band,
Pass from the shore, and darken all the strand.
Contented toil, and hospitable care,

And kind connubial tenderness are there;
And piety with wishes placed above,
And steady loyalty, and faithful love.
And thou, sweet Poetry, thou loveliest maid,
Still first to fly where sensual joys invade;
Unfit, in these degenerate times of shame,
To catch the heart, or strike for honest fame:
Dear charming nymph, neglected and decried,
My shame in crowds, my solitary pride;
Thou source of all my bliss, and all my woe,
Thou found'st me poor at first, and keep'st me so;
Thou guide, by which the nobler arts excel,
Thou nurse of every virtue, fare thee well!
Farewell; and oh! where'er thy voice be tried,
On Torno's cliffs, or Pambamarca's side,
Whether where equinoctial fervours glow,
Or winter wraps the polar world in snow,
Still let thy voice, prevailing over time,
Redress the rigours of the inclement clime;
Aid slighted truth with thy persuasive strain;
Teach erring man to spurn the rage of gain;
Teach him, that states of native strength possessed,
Though very poor, may still be very blest;
That trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay,
As ocean sweeps the laboured mole away;
While self-dependent power can time defy,
As rocks resist the billows and the sky.

NOTES

PREFACE

p. 4, l. 15. Tu se' lo mio maestro, etc. Thou art my master and my author; thou alone art he from whom I took the fair style that hath done me honor." - DANTE, Inferno, Canto I. Norton's translation.

CHAPTER I

p. 6, 1. 26. Curacy. In the Church of England a curate is an assistant to the rector. Rev. Charles Goldsmith was assistant to his wife's uncle, who lived at Kilkenny West.

p. 7, 1. 15. He succeeded to the rectory. Most of the country parishes of the Church of England, and many city parishes as well, have rented lands or other interest-bearing property. The income goes to the rector for his support and for the care of the church. In such a case the rector is said to hold a living in the church. Some of these livings formerly, and perhaps a few even yet, might be handed down by a law of inheritance.

p. 7, l. 16.

p. 7, 1. 33.

of the World.

Lissoy. Village near Kilkenny West.

Man in Black. A character in Goldsmith's Citizen

p. 9, 1. 17. Hornbook. A primer or first reading book, so called because it was bound with horn covers.

p. 9, 1. 28. Wars of Queen Anne's time. The great war of Queen Anne's time was the War of the Spanish Succession, in which England, Germany, and the protestant countries of Europe were allied against France and Spain.

p. 11, 1. 4. Sibylline leaves. The Sibylline books were documents in the time of ancient Rome written in verse and supposed to have been given by one of the Sibyls or prophetesses to the king of Rome and to contain a prophecy of the Roman Empire.

p. 12, 1. 9. Bishop Berkeley. An Irish philosopher. cf considerable reputation, born 1685, died 1753.

p. 13, l. 16. Shakspeare and his deer-stealing colleagues. A doubtful tradition relates that Shakespeare was prosecuted for stealing deer from the game preserve of Sir Thomas Lucy.

CHAPTER II

p. 16, 1. 7. June, 1745. Austin Dobson in his Life of Goldsmith shows that this date is an error. Oliver entered Trinity, June 11, 1744, when he was less than sixteen years old.

1. 9. Pensioner. There were several classes of students at Trinity. The pensioner was in the class above the sizer and paid for his board and other expenses.

p. 16, l. 14. Window-frame. Dobson says that the windowpane with Goldsmith's name scratched upon it has been removed to the manuscript room of the college, where it may still be seen.

p. 18, 1. 3. A lad. Quoted from Inquiry into the State of

Polite Learning in Europe, Chap. IX.

p. 18, 1. 37. Edmund Burke. An Irishman, 1729-1797, who became a member of the English Parliament and a powerful advocate for America in the struggle that preceded the American | Revolution.

p. 19, 1. 15. Catch-pole (catch-poll). A bailiff's assistant.

p. 21, 1. 28. O. S. stands for old style. In 1751 the calendar was changed in England by act of Parliament so that eleven days were dropped; i.e. the 3d of September, 1752, was declared by Parliament to be the 14th.

p. 25, 1. 4. Tony Lumpkin and his associates. These are char acters in Goldsmith's play She Stoops to Conquer.

p. 25, 1. 8.

Three Jolly Pigeons. The sign of an alehouse in

She Stoops to Conquer.

p. 27, 1. 10.

p. 27, 1. 29. p. 28, 1. 32.

CHAPTER III

The hero of La Mancha. Don Quixote.

Quoted from Citizen of the World, Letter XXVII. Cerberus. The three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to the lower world. See Classical Dictionary.

CHAPTER IV

p. 32, 1. 5. The Temple. The Middle Temple and the Inner Temple belong to an organization of lawyers called The Temple, from the Knights Templars, from whom the site of the buildings has descended. They are occupied mainly by lawyers and students of law.

p. 34, 1. 13. Cawdy. Obsolete form of caddie (from old French cadet), a lad who attends for small services, as at golf links, etc.

p. 36, 1. 16. Turn-spit-dog. When meat was roasted on a turnspit before an open fire a dog was sometimes put into a wheel or treadmill to keep the meat turning.

p. 37, 1. 23. Ceres. The goddess of agriculture, in whose honor were held many religious ceremonies.

p. 38, 1. 34. Bincly. The name of this acquaintance of Goldsmith is printed Binely in Prior's Life; Binley in Irving's Life; Finecly in Forster's Life, I, 448; Bincly in Forster's Life, I, 51, and in his Index.

p. 40, 1. 18. Albinus. A famous German physician, who died in 1770.

CHAPTER V

p. 42, 1. 29. A whimsical picture. Compare Irving's satire of the Dutch in his Knickerbocker History of New York.

p. 43, 1. 8. Strephon. A shepherd lover in Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia.

U

p. 45, 1. 36. Mademoiselle Clairon. A celebrated French actress, 1723-1803, of whom Goldsmith wrote with much sympathy in The Bee.

p. 46, 1. 14. Events have testified. The French Revolution began in 1789.

p. 46, 1. 18. Voltaire. The noted French writer and free thinker, 1694-1778. There seems to be some error in the account which follows, for Voltaire was banished from Paris at this time. Perhaps Goldsmith saw him at some other place.

p. 48, l. 10. Piedmont. A district in northern Italy at the foot of the Alps, as its name signifies.

p. 48, 1. 28. He is said to have taken. There is still some doubt that Goldsmith ever took his degree. Dr. C. M. Campbell in the Athenæum for July 21, 1894 (p. 101), writes that in reply to a request from him one of the officials at Padua University has written that he is unable to find Oliver Goldsmith's name among the records.

CHAPTER VI

p. 49, 1. 35. The death of his uncle Contarine. This must be an referred to in Chapter IX as yet alive.

error, for he is

p. 50, 1. 26. Chapter XX.

Philosophic Vagabond. See Vicar of Wakefield,

p. 51, 1. 20. Quoted from Citizen of the World, Letter CXVII. p. 51, 1. 25. Sir Joshua Reynolds. Perhaps the most famous portrait painter England has ever had, 1723–1792. He was a member of the Literary Club and a warm friend of Goldsmith. See Chapter XIV.

p. 52, 1. 4. Anodyne necklace. Anodyne means relieving pain; hence it is here used humorously for a hangman's halter.

p. 52, 1. 19. p. 52, 1. 33.

Quoted from The Bee, No. VI.
Southwark. A district in London.