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diff --git a/old/62390-0.txt b/old/62390-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index a154a26..0000000 --- a/old/62390-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2181 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Family Letters of Oliver Goldsmith, by Ernest Clarke - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: The Family Letters of Oliver Goldsmith - A Paper Read Before the Bibliographical Society, October 15th, 1917 - -Author: Ernest Clarke - -Release Date: June 13, 2020 [EBook #62390] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FAMILY LETTERS OF OLIVER *** - - - - -Produced by Sonya Schermann, David E. Brown, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - THE FAMILY LETTERS OF - OLIVER GOLDSMITH. - - A PAPER READ BEFORE THE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, - OCTOBER 15, 1917. - - - BY - SIR ERNEST CLARKE, M.A., F.S.A. - - - LONDON: - REPRINTED BY BLADES, EAST & BLADES, FROM - THE SOCIETY’S _TRANSACTIONS_. - - 1920. - - - - -THE FAMILY LETTERS OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH. - - -BY SIR ERNEST CLARKE, M.A., F.S.A. - -_Read 15 October, 1917._ - - -In a paper which I was privileged to read before this honourable -Society three years ago as to “New Lights on Chatterton,” I mentioned -incidentally that the researches of which that paper was the outcome -had arisen out of the examination by me of a large bundle of papers -that had been collected by Bishop Percy of Dromore, the editor of -the famous _Reliques of Ancient Poetry_, and had apparently remained -unexplored since his death in 1811. The Chatterton documents were by no -means the most important and were certainly the least puzzling of the -array of miscellaneous papers included in this bundle, which contained -not only a variety of notes about Shakespeare and other subjects which -had engaged the Bishop’s attention, but chiefly and most interestingly -a large quantity of original letters written by and about Oliver -Goldsmith. - -To discuss in detail the whole of the questions arising out of these -Goldsmith papers would really amount to writing a new life of that -poet, which I have no intention of doing. There exist already many -biographies of Oliver by writers of the first rank, and no fact of -salient importance concerning himself remains to be revealed, whatever -may be said as to his writings. There are, it is true, side-lights of -some literary interest and value afforded by the papers that have come -unexpectedly my way through the kindness and generosity of the great -grand-daughter of the Bishop by whose favour you have the advantage -of personally inspecting the original letters which I shall presently -describe: but this is not the occasion for minutiæ concerning them. - -What therefore with your permission I propose now to do is to deal only -with the letters written by Oliver Goldsmith at various periods of -his life to members of his own family and old friends of his boyhood -resident in his native province, and to deduce from them some general -reflections as to the warmth of his affections and the simplicity of -his typically Irish character. - -Thomas Percy, to whom we mainly owe the preservation of these letters, -was almost an exact contemporary of Oliver Goldsmith. The latter was -born on 10 November, 1728; Percy on 13 April, 1729. They first met -on Wednesday, 21 February, 1759, as fellow-guests of Dr. Grainger, -the author of the “Sugar Cane,” at the Temple Exchange Coffee House, -Temple Bar. Percy was then a bachelor clergyman with a college living -at Easton Maudit in Northamptonshire, but with literary associations -that kept him much in London; and Goldsmith was just emerging from -the chrysalis stage of hack-work for the reviews and was lodging in a -garret at Green Arbour Court near the Old Bailey. Percy met Goldsmith -again on 26 February, at Dodsley’s, for whom Oliver was preparing his -“Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe,” and on -Saturday, 3 March, before returning to Easton Maudit, he paid a visit -to Goldsmith at Green Arbour Court with the result expressed thus in -Percy’s own words: - -“The Doctor was writing his Enquiry, etc., in a wretched dirty room in -which there was but one chair, and when he from civility offered it to -his visitant, himself was obliged to sit in the window. While they were -conversing, someone gently rapped at the door, and being desired to -come in, a poor ragged little girl of very decent behaviour, entered, -who dropping a curtsie, said ‘My mamma sends her compliments and begs -the favour of you to lend her a chamber-pot full of coal.’” (Percy -Memoir, p. 61.) - -Percy was introduced by Goldsmith to Dr. Johnson on 31 May, 1761, and -the acquaintance with the great lexicographer and his literary friends -soon ripened and grew more intimate. “The Club” founded by Johnson -and Reynolds in 1764 included Goldsmith from the first: Percy and two -others were admitted to the charmed circle rather later (15 February, -1768). When Goldsmith died in April, 1774, the general impression seems -to have been that Johnson would write a biography of him for his “Lives -of the Poets”; but difficulties of one or another sort--chiefly perhaps -Johnson’s inertia, for he was then a man of 65--intervened to prevent -this: and eleven years afterwards, when Johnson himself was dead, Percy -was stimulated by Edmond Malone to undertake the task himself. - -It is not improbable that he had in his own mind long before this -that something of the kind might have to be done by him, for there is -evidence in the papers confided to me for examination that Percy had -commissioned an inpecunious younger brother of the poet named Maurice -Goldsmith to collect for him all the procurable letters written by -Oliver to members of his family. - -The biographers and commentators on Goldsmith have made much of an -extract from a letter from Percy to Malone which is printed on page 237 -of Vol. VIII (1858) of Nichols’ _Literary Illustrations_; but they have -been unaware of the letter from Malone to which it is a reply. This -original letter of Malone is amongst those in the bundle which I have -been exploring. It is dated from London on 2 March, 1785, and gives -some interesting particulars as to Johnson’s affairs. The essential -parts as to Goldsmith are as follows: - -“Soon after the death of poor Dr. Johnson, I mentioned to one of the -executors that I had formerly given him a letter from Dr. Wilson, a -fellow of the college of Dublin, relative to Dr. Goldsmith, who was -his classfellow. I did not then know Dr. Johnson as well as I did -afterwards, and improvidently gave him the original instead of a copy. -I therefore requested, if it should be found among his papers, it might -be sent to me. I suppose Dr. Scott, to whom I talked on the subject, -did not exactly recollect what I had mentioned, for about a fortnight -ago, a parcel of papers was sent to me marked at the outside ‘Dr. -Goldsmith,’ as I imagine from the Executors (for I received no note -with them), who conceived they belonged to me. On inspecting them, I -found they consisted of some very curious materials collected by your -Lordship for the life of Goldsmith, which I shall take great care of -till I hear from you on the subject. I often pressed Dr. Johnson to -write his life, and he would have done so, had not the booksellers from -some clashing of interests in the property of his works excluded them -from their great collection of English Poetry. It is a great pity that -these materials should be lost. Why will not your lordship, who knew -Goldsmith so well, undertake the arranging of them.... Dr. J. used to -say that he never could get an accurate account of Goldsmith’s history -while he was abroad.... Goldsmith’s letters are surely characteristick -and worth preserving.” - -Percy no doubt asked for this bundle of papers to be sent to him in -Ireland; and when it was received, he wrote from Dublin on 16 June, -1785, the letter to Malone which, as stated above, is printed in Vol. -VIII of Nichols’ _Literary Illustrations_: - -“I have long owed you my very grateful acknowledgments for a most -obliging letter, which contained much interesting information, -particularly with respect to Goldsmith’s memoirs. The paper which you -have recovered in my own handwriting, giving dates and many interesting -particulars relating to his life, was dictated to me by himself one -rainy day at Northumberland House, and sent by me to Dr. Johnson, -which I had concluded to be irrevocably lost. The other memoranda on -the subject were transmitted to me by his brother and others of his -family, to afford materials for a Life of Goldsmith, which Johnson was -to write and publish for their benefit. But he utterly forgot them and -the subject.... Goldsmith has an only brother living, a cabinet maker, -who has been a decent tradesman, a very honest worthy man, but he has -been very unfortunate, and is at this time in great indigence. It has -occurred to such of us here as were acquainted with the Doctor to print -an edition of his poems, chiefly under the direction of the Bishop of -Killaloe[1] and myself, and prefix a new correct life of the author, -for the poor man’s benefit; and to get you and Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. -Steevens, etc., to recommend the same in England, especially among the -members of The Club. If we can but subsist this poor man at present, -and relieve him from immediate indigence, Mr. Orde, our Secretary of -State, has given us hope that he will procure him some little place -that will make him easy for life; and then we shall have shown our -regard for the departed Bard by relieving his only brother, and so far -as I hear, the only one of his family that wants relief.” - -A scheme for publication of Goldsmith’s _Poetical Works_ was set on -foot in Dublin about this time, as appears from the following printed -document found amongst the Bishop’s papers: - - “Dublin, June 1, 1785. - -“PROPOSALS for Printing by Subscription, The Poetical Works of Dr. -Oliver Goldsmith; For the Benefit of his only surviving Brother, Mr. -Maurice Goldsmith, to which will be prefixed, A NEW LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. -In this will be Corrected Innumerable Errors of Former Biographers, -From Original Letters of the Doctor and his Friends, but Chiefly from -An Account of Dr. Goldsmith’s Life, Dictated by Himself to A Gentleman, -who is in Possession of the Manuscript.” - -The subscription price was to be a guinea, and subscriptions would be -received by the publisher, L. White, No. 86, Dame Street. What happened -to the money received for the subscriptions is not known; probably -Maurice Goldsmith drew cash “on account” for most of it. Anyhow the -book was never published. - -If it had been set about at once, and been limited as proposed to -Goldsmith’s _Poetical Works_, and a Life of him compiled from the -original materials collected by Percy, it would doubtless have -been a success. As it was, the Bishop’s episcopal duties and other -preoccupations appear to have disinclined him to undertake the -work himself, and he therefore placed it in other hands, with very -unfortunate results to himself and to those members of the Goldsmith -family for whose benefit it was intended. Maurice Goldsmith no doubt -told his relatives of the pecuniary advantages that were in store for -him when the work came out, and appeals for help reached the Bishop -from the daughter of Henry Goldsmith, from the widow of Maurice, from -Charles Goldsmith, and from a son of Charles named John Goldsmith. -In the absence of the published work these appeals had to be met out -of the Bishop’s private purse, and involved him in much distressing -correspondence with the impoverished relatives of his dead friend. - -At what period Percy formed the idea of expanding the publication so -as to include all Goldsmith’s known works--prose as well as poetry--is -not clear. Probably he was more concerned to see the Life written or -at least in preparation. It must be remembered that he was exceedingly -badly placed for now attempting work of this kind. He was in a remote -part of Ireland where the posts were irregular and the magazines did -not reach him till months after their issue. Writing to Malone on 16 -June, 1785, he said: “I see publications about as soon as they would -reach the East Indies.” (_Lit. Ill._, VIII, 237.) - -He seems to have attempted to shift the burden of compilation of the -biography on to a somewhat fulsome correspondent, Dr. Thomas Campbell, -Rector of Clones. When, after a long interval, Campbell’s efforts -proved unsatisfactory, the Bishop tried as collaborator the Rev. E. -H. Boyd, the translator of Dante, with equally disappointing results, -Boyd, like Campbell, having no personal knowledge of Goldsmith. -Eventually he had to set to work himself on a thorough revision; but -troubles arose after he had sent the manuscript to the publishers in -London (Cadell & Davies). Evidently that firm, to give local colour to -the narrative, got Samuel Rose to add some particulars about Goldsmith -(not always complimentary) from Boswell’s _Life of Johnson_. Percy, -who was not consulted, dissented from these “interpolations,”[2] and -eventually repudiated all responsibility for the work, which did not -actually see the light of day until it appeared in four volumes in -1801. Percy let his correspondents who wrote to him about Goldsmith -know how badly he was being treated, and they replied softly to him, -except George Steevens, who wrote on 9 September, 1797: - -“Thus my Lord, you are left to make the best of your bargain; for if -you cannot intimidate you must submit. It is true that the works of -Goldsmith will always be sought after; but with equal truth it may be -observed that in this kingdom you will discover little zeal to promote -the welfare of his needy relatives, hundreds of objects here having a -superior claim to publick charity.” (_Litt. Ill._, VII, 1848, pp. 30-1.) - -After Percy’s death in 1811 the major part of his voluminous -correspondence with literary and other friends appears to have -descended to his elder daughter Barbara, who had married in 1795 Mr. -Samuel Isted, of Ecton, Northamptonshire. It probably consisted not -so much of Percy’s own letters, which were doubtless retained in most -cases by their recipients, as of his correspondents’ letters to him, -with drafts of his replies to the more important of them. John Nichols, -the antiquarian printer who managed the _Gentleman’s Magazine_, was -a great friend and frequent correspondent of Percy, and the sixth -volume (1831) of the well-known _Literary Illustrations_ contained a -short memoir and portrait of Percy, with a selection of his letters -partly derived from William Upcott, Assistant Librarian of the London -Institution (p. viii of Introduction). The 856 pages of the next Volume -VII of the _Illustrations_, which was not published till seventeen -years later (1848), were practically entirely devoted to letters from -and to Percy--mostly the latter. This correspondence, according to the -“Advertisement” by J. B. Nichols, the editor, “was not in my possession -at the completion of the sixth volume, but has been acquired since by -public sale.”[3] Even this huge book did not contain all the Percy -letters, for the eighth and final volume of the _Illustrations_, not -published till 1858, was, so far as the letterpress (436 pages) is -concerned, wholly taken up with the rest of the “Percy correspondence.” -There are many references to Goldsmith and to the long-delayed “Memoir” -of 1801 in these letters, but nothing of great importance, and I -therefore have to fall back on the bundle of “Goldsmithiana” which has -happily been preserved in the other branch of the Percy family--the -Meades. - -The story of the incubation, preparation and final publication of the -Edition of 1801 is long, complicated and tedious. It does not however -particularly concern us here, except in so far as we are indebted -to Bishop Percy for having collected practically all the original -letters written by Goldsmith to members of his family, and for having -in his disappointment after they were published, put them away with -the other documents concerning the publication, in a bundle which has -been practically unexplored ever since. Setting aside therefore any -questions as to the merits or demerits of what has been consistently -labelled by subsequent commentators as the “Percy Memoir,” we are -left with the consideration of the point to which I had intended to -address myself exclusively, the epistolary style of Oliver Goldsmith -himself. Percy could not resist the temptation of editing his friend’s -letters--not much, it is true, but still enough to induce us to turn -to the originals, as we are now enabled to do through the kindness of -their present possessor, Miss Constance Meade. - -Now whilst Percy, as I have indicated, was an ardent and industrious -letter writer, Oliver Goldsmith emphatically was not. - -One of Percy’s most frequent correspondents, James Grainger, M.D. -(1724-1766), who was, as already mentioned, the first to introduce -Percy and Goldsmith to each other, wrote to the former on 24 March, -1764: “When I taxed little Goldsmith for not writing as he promised me, -his answer was that he never wrote a letter in his life, and faith, I -believe him, except to a bookseller for money.” (Nichols’ _Literary -Illustrations_, Vol. VII, 286.) The letters written by Goldsmith -to members of his family and Irish friends of his youth which were -collected from various quarters at the instance of Percy after the -poet’s death show him to have had a great power of expressing his -feelings in simple and moving language, all the more interesting as the -writer could not possibly have imagined that they would ever be seen -in the cold light of print. Such letters divide themselves naturally -into three categories, viz.: those written (1) whilst he was a student -in Scotland and abroad; (2) after he had returned to England and was -a struggling hack-writer; (3) when he had achieved success in the -literary world. It will be convenient to consider these three series of -letters separately. - - -STUDENT LETTERS. - -I omit from consideration the letter Oliver is alleged, on no evidence -at all, to have written to his mother in 1751 after his adventures in -Ireland and attempted voyage to America. This is obviously a hash-up -by some later pen of the story which was written out after the poet’s -death by his sister Mrs. Catherine Hodson for the purposes of the -“Percy Memoir,” the original of which in Mrs. Hodson’s own writing -and spelling is among the papers which I exhibit. The earliest of -Goldsmith’s own letters which is known to have survived was that -written from Edinburgh by Oliver to his benefactor Uncle Contarine on 8 -May, 1753. This was unearthed by Sir James Prior at a later period of -his investigations, having been “long though vainly sought in various -quarters,” and is published in his Vol. I, 1837, pp. 145-7. What has -happened to it since I have not been able to discover. Oliver describes -in it his progress with his medical studies, and winds up thus: “How I -enjoy the pleasing hope of returning with skill, and to find my friends -stand in no need of my assistance! How many happy years do I wish you! -and nothing but want of health can take from you happiness, since you -so well pursue the paths that conduct to virtue.” - -There is another letter of about the same period addressed by Oliver -from Edinburgh to his brother-in-law, Daniel Hodson of Lissoy, of which -only a fragment now exists. It was formerly in the Rowfant collection -of the late Mr. Locker-Lampson, but now belongs to Mr. F. R. Halsey of -New York. In it Oliver speaks of his attending the public lectures: -“I am in my lodging. I have hardly any society but a folio book, a -skeleton, my cat and my meagre landlady. I read hard, which is a thing -I never could do when the study was displeasing.” He refers to his -impecunious position and to the sacrifices his relations had made on -his behalf. He asks his dear Dan to remember him to every friend. -“There is one on whom I never think without affliction, but conceal it -from him.” (This apparently refers to Uncle Contarine). “Direct to me -at Surgeon Sinclairs in the Trunk Close, Edinburgh.” - -The next letter of this student series is to his school-friend and -companion, Robert Bryanton of Ballymahon, dated from Edinburgh “Sepr. -ye 26th 1753.” The original of this letter is the earliest in point of -date which I am able to exhibit to you this afternoon. Oliver commences -by a humorous apology for not having written before. “I might allege -that business had never given me time to finger a pen: but I suppress -those and twenty others equally plausible and as easily invented, since -they might all be attended with a slight inconvenience of being known -to be lies. Let me then speak truth: an hereditary indolence (I have it -from the mother’s side) has hitherto prevented my writing to you, and -still prevents my writing at least twenty five letters more, due to my -friends in Ireland: no turn-spit dog gets up into his wheel with more -reluctance than I sit down to write: yet no dog ever loved the roast -meat he turns better than I do him I now address.” - -This letter was a long one, with clever references to the Scottish -scenery and people, the relations of the sexes, the characteristics of -the Scotch women, and other light hearted topics. It was published by -Percy in the Edition of 1801, with a number of genteel emendations, -such as “mouth puckered up so as scarcely to admit a pea” in -replacement of “mouth puckered up to the size of an Issue,” and the -omission of the last paragraph and also the postscript: “Give my -sincere regards (not compliments do you mind) to your agreeable family, -and give my service to my mother if you see her: for as you express it -in Ireland, I have a sneaking kindness for her still. Direct to me, -Student of Physick in Edinburgh.” - -The next letter in order of date is a second one to Uncle Contarine, -not dated but ascribed to the close of 1753 or January, 1754. It was -retrieved by Prior for his Life of 1837 (I, 154), but its present -whereabouts is unknown. It announces Oliver’s intention to go to France -in the following February, to spend the spring and summer in Paris, and -go to Leyden at the beginning of the next winter. He sends his earnest -love to his cousin Jenny (Mrs. Lawder) and her husband, asks after “my -poor Jack” (doubtless his youngest brother), and describes himself as -“dear Uncle, Your most devoted Oliver Goldsmith.” - -The next letter is an important and very interesting one, and describes -Oliver’s compulsory change of plans. It was sent from Leyden some time -in the summer of 1754, and is written on three pages of a foolscap -sheet of unusually large size, 15 × 9-3/4 inches. The fourth page -has, as you will see, this address upon it: “To | the Revd. Mr. Thos. -Contarine, at Kilmore near | Carrick on Shannon in Ireland,” with the -words added “This letter is chargd. 1s. 8d.” It appears therefrom that -he embarked from Edinburgh on board a Scotch ship bound for Bordeaux -and that a storm drove them into Newcastle, where he was arrested. - -“Seven men and me were one day on shore, and the following evening, as -we were all verry merry, the room door bursts open; enters a Sergeant -and Twelve Grenadiers with their bayonets screwd, and puts us all under -the King’s arrest. It seems my Company were Scotch men in the French -service. I endeavoured all I could to prove my innocence: however, I -remained in prison with the rest a Fortnight and with difficulty got -off even then. Dr. Sr. keep this all a secret, or at least say it was -for debt: for it were once known at the university I should hardly get -a degree.” - -As to his future movements, Goldsmith says in this letter from Leyden: - -“Physic is by no means taught so well as in Edinburgh.... I am not -certain how long my stay here will be: however I expect to have the -happiness of seeing you at Kidmore, if I can, next March.” - -Oliver describes in much humorous detail the scenery of the country and -characteristics of the Dutch people. He says: - -“The downright Hollander is one of the oddest figures in Nature. Upon -a head of lank hair he wears a half-cockd narrow-leav’d hat, lacd with -black ribon: no coat but seven waistcoats and nine pairs of breeches -so that his hips reach almost up to his arm-pits. This well cloathed -vegetable is now fit to see company or make love: but what a pleasing -creature is the object of his appetite: why she wears a large friez cap -with a deal of flanders lace and for every pair of breeches he carries, -she puts on two petticoats. Is it not surprizing how things shoud ever -come close enough to make it a match?” - -Bishop Percy prints the whole of this letter, except that he delicately -bowdlerised one or two phrases in it, and from the Percy version it has -reappeared in every one of the succeeding biographies. - - -EARLY LETTERS FROM LONDON. - -The second series of letters begins after Oliver had returned to -England about a couple of years, and was “by a very little practice -as a physician and a very little reputation as a poet making a shift -to live,” as he describes it in a letter to his brother-in-law Daniel -Hodson, dated from the Temple Exchange Coffee House, on 27 December, -1757. His brother Charles Goldsmith had paid Oliver a visit in London, -and had informed him “of the fatigue you were at in soliciting a -subscription to relieve me, not only among my friends and relations, -but acquaintance in general. Tho my pride might feel some repugnance -at being thus relieved, yet my gratitude can suffer no diminution.... -Whether I eat or starve, live in a first floor or four pairs of stairs -high, I still remember them [my friends] with ardour, nay my very -country comes in for a share of my affection. Unaccountable fondness -for country, this maladie du Pays, as the french call it.” He hopes -that if he can be absent six weeks from London next summer “to spend -three of them among my friends in Ireland. My design is purely to -visit, and neither to cut a figure nor levy contributions--neither to -excite envy nor solicit favour: in fact my circumstances are adapted to -neither. I am too poor to be gazed at, and too rich to need assistance.” - -Percy here omits what he calls “some mention of private family -matters.” The letter is at this point frayed and imperfect, but these -words can be made out: - -“Charles is furnished with everything necessary, but why ... stranger -to assist him. I hope he will be improved in his ... against his return -[from Jamaica]. Poor Jenny! But it is what I expected. My mother too -has lost Pallas! My dear Sir, these things give me real uneasiness, and -I could wish to redress them. But at present there is hardly a Kingdom -in Europe in which I am not a debtor” etc. - -After an interval, Goldsmith had what was for him a real bout of -letter-writing to a number of his kinsfolk and friends, to solicit -their assistance in getting subscriptions for his “Enquiry into the -Present State of Polite Learning in Europe” on which he was engaged, -and which was about to be published. On 7 August, 1758, he wrote to his -cousin and school-fellow Edward Mills that his “Essay on the Present -State of Taste and Literature in Europe,” as it was then called, was -“now printing in London, and I have requested Mr. Radcliff, Mr. Lawder, -Mr. Bryanton, my brother Mr. Henry Goldsmith, and my brother-in-law Mr. -Hodson, to circulate my proposals among their acquaintances.” - -The letter to Dr. Radcliff is unknown: the date of that to Mrs. Lawder, -asking her husband’s help, is 15 August, 1758; that to Bryanton is -14 August, 1758; the letter to Henry Goldsmith is lost, but a second -letter to him on the same subject says “I shall the beginning of next -month send over two hundred and fifty books.” As the work was published -on 2 April, 1759, the date of this second letter to the Revd. Henry -Goldsmith was probably February, 1759. (It has been preserved, but is -not actually dated.) - -Taking these several communications in the order of their date, the -letter of 7 August, 1758, to Edward Mills, which I exhibit to-day, -is a frank appeal for help in circulating the prospectus of Oliver’s -new book, but otherwise contains nothing of importance. “Every book -published here [London] the printers in Ireland republish there, -without giving the Author the least consideration for his coppy. I -would in this respect disappoint their avarice, and have all the -additional advantages that may result from the sale of my performance -there to myself.” - -Neither Mills nor Lawder (to whom a similar request was made through -the medium of his wife on the 15th of the same month of August, 1758) -appears to have taken any notice of it, and in writing to his brother -Henry at a later date--about February, 1759--Oliver says “The behaviour -of Mr. Mills and Mr. Lawder is a little extraordinary: however, their -answering neither you nor me is a sufficient indication of their -disliking the employment which I assignd them. As their conduct is -different from what I had expected so I have made an alteration in -mine. I shall the beginning of next month send over two hundred and -fifty books, which are all that I fancy, can be well sold among you.” - -The next letter, that dated 14 August, 1758, addressed to Robert -Bryanton is only known to us through its appearance for the first time -in Prior’s _Life_ (I, 263). It complains of not having heard from -Bryanton or of his doings, gives an amusing prophecy of his own future -fame 200 years onwards as the author of the Essay on Polite Learning -“a work well worth its weight in diamonds,” and then descends suddenly -to earth with “Oh! Gods! Gods! here in a garret writing for bread and -expecting to be dunned for a milk-score! However, dear Bob, whether in -penury or affluence, serious or gay, I am ever thine. Give the most -warm and sincere wish you can conceive to your mother, Mrs. Bryanton, -to Miss Bryanton, to yourself: and if there be a favourite dog in the -family, let me be remembered to it.” - -The letter to Mrs. Lawder of 15 August, 1758, is a good deal more -guarded, as his relations with his cousin and her husband appear not -to have been at that time of a very cordial nature. The original -has passed through several hands, and has been reproduced more than -once in facsimile. I believe it is now the property of Mr. Sabin of -Bond Street. Oliver says he had written to Kilmore (Mrs. Lawder’s -address) from Leyden, from Louvain and from Rouen, but had received no -answer. “To what could I attribute this, please, but displeasure or -forgetfulness?”... “I heartily wish to be rich, if it were only for -this reason to say without a blush how much I esteem you, but alas I -have many a fatigue to encounter, before that happy time comes: when -your poor old simple friend may again give a loose to the luxuriance of -his nature, sitting by Kilmore fireside, recount the various adventures -of an hard-fought life, laugh over the follies of the day, join his -flute to your harpsicord and forget that he ever starv’d in those -streets where Butler and Otway starv’d before him.” After a pathetic -allusion to the decaying mental powers of his uncle Contarine, Oliver -then makes his appeal as to the “Polite Learning,” but “whether this -request is complied with or not, I shall not be uneasy.” - -The second letter to Daniel Hodson, which I exhibit, is provisionally -dated by the modern authorities about November, 1758. It was published -by Percy in the edition of 1801, with the family matters omitted, and -some few alterations and excisions. The letter really begins “You -can’t expect regularity in _a correspondence with_ one who is regular -in nothing.” Later, Goldsmith says: “You imagine, I suppose, that -every author by profession lives in a garret, wears shabby cloaths and -converses with the meanest company; _but I assure you such a character -is_ entirely chimerical.” The family matters omitted by Percy may as -well be restored: - -“I am very much pleasd with the accounts you send me of your little -son; if I do not mistake that was his hand which subscrib’d itself -Gilbeen Hardly. There is nothing could please me more than a letter -filld with all the news of the country, but I fear you will think that -too troublesome, you see I never cease writing till a whole sheet of -paper is wrote out. I beg you will immitate me in this particular -and give your letters good measure. You can tell me, what visits you -receive or pay, who has been married or debauch’d, since my absence, -what fine girls you have starting up and beating of the veterans of my -acquaintance from future conquest. I suppose before I return I shall -find all the blooming virgins I once left in Westmeath shrivelled -into a parcel of hags with seven children apiece tearing down their -petticoats. Most of the Bucks and Bloods whom I left hunting and -drinking and swearing and getting bastards I find are dead. Poor devils -they kick’d the world before them. I wonder what the devil they kick -now.” [End of first sheet of letter.] - -On a fresh sheet: - -“Dear Sister I wrote to Kilmore [where the Lawders lived]. I wish you -would let me know how that family stands affected with regard to me. -My Brother Charles promised to tell me all about it but his letter -gave me no satisfaction in those particulars. I beg you and Dan would -put your hands to the oar and fill me a sheet with somewhat or other, -if you can’t get quite thro your selves lend Billy or Nancy the pen -and let the dear little things give me their nonsense. Talk all about -your selves and nothing about me. You see I do so. I do not know how -my desire of seeing Ireland which had so long slept, has again revived -with so much ardour....” “I ... brother Charles is settled to business. -I see no probability of ... any other proceeding.” [Here follow sixteen -lines of writing, which have been very effectually blotted out with ink -of another tint, probably by the recipient, who sent the letter to be -read by a neighbour.] - -The letter ends thus (it is not signed): - -“Pray let me hear from my Mother since she will not gratify me herself -and tell me if in any thing I can be immediately serviceable to her. -Tell me how my Brother Goldsmith and his Bishop agree. Pray do this for -me for heaven knows I would do anything to serve you.” [ends.] - -The back page is blank, except the address in Goldsmith’s writing: -“Daniel Hodson Esq^r. at Lishoy near | Ballymahon | Ireland.” - -We come now to the one letter to his brother the Revd. Henry Goldsmith -which has been preserved. It bears no date, and was doubtless written -about February, 1759. After speaking about the “Polite Learning” book, -Oliver goes on to describe his own difficulties: - -“You scarce can conceive how much eight years of disappointment anguish -and study have worn me down. Imagine to yourself a pale melancholly -visage with two great wrinkles between the eye-brows, with an eye -disgustingly severe and a big wig, and you may have a perfect picture -of my present appearance.” - -He then discusses and approves as judicious and convincing his -brother’s proposals for “breeding up your son as a scholar.” “Preach -then my dear Sir, to your son not the excellence of human nature -nor the disrespect of riches, but endeavour to teach him thrift and -economy. Let his poor wandering uncle’s example be placed in his eyes. -I had learned from books to love virtue before I was taught from -experience the necessity of being selfish.” (The Percy Memoir of 1801 -prunes and waters down this passage.) - -After references to his mother and other members of the family, -Oliver mentions the imminent publication of his “catchpenny” life of -Voltaire, which has brought him in £20, and quotes some phrases of the -“heroicomical poem” on the design of which he had asked his brother’s -opinion in a previous letter (now lost). - -These are the well-known lines commencing - - The window, patch’d with paper lent a ray, - That feebly show’d the state in which he lay - -with the subsequent references to the “sanded floor” the “humid wall” -the game of goose, “the twelve rules the royal martyr drew,” etc. These -lines with a different setting reappeared in Letter XXX of the Citizen -of the World, which first appeared in the _Public Ledger_ for 2 May, -1760, and some of them were worked afterwards into lines 227-36 of the -Deserted Village, 1770, where they are improved by the addition of: - - “The Chest contriv’d a double debt to pay - A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day.” - -Following his usual practice when he does set to work on a letter, -Oliver writes on to the extreme bottom of the page, and finishes thus: -“I am resolved to leave no space, tho I should fill it up only by -telling you what you very well know already, I mean that I am your most -affectionate friend and brother, Oliver Goldsmith.” - - -LATER LETTERS. - -There is now a long gap in the letters to his family, only in fact -broken by two communications, one to his nephew Henry dated 7 June, -1768, condoling with him on the death of his father the Revd. Henry, -and the other to his own brother Maurice despatched about January, -1770, in response to the latter’s request for financial assistance. - -The first of these two letters has only just come to light, having been -recently purchased through a dealer who got it from Nova Scotia by Mr. -William Harris Arnold of Nutley, New Jersey, U.S.A., to whose kindness -I owe a transcript of it. It is a letter of deep feeling at the death -of his brother, and contains a promise to help the nephew if possible. - -The second letter to Maurice Goldsmith--the last of the series on which -I propose to comment--makes over to him a legacy of £15 which Uncle -Contarine had left to Oliver in his will, and regrets his inability to -help Maurice further. “I am not fond of thinking of the necessities of -those I love, when it is so very little in my power to help them. I am -sorry to find you are still every way unprovided for, and what adds to -my uneasiness is that I have received a letter from my sister Johnson -by which I learn that she is pretty much in the same circumstances.” It -is true that the King has made him Professor of Ancient History to the -newly established Royal Academy of Arts (1768), “but there is no salary -annexed, and I took it rather as a compliment to the institution than -any benefit to myself. Honours to one in my situation are something -like ruffles to a man that wants a shirt.” Oliver sends kind messages -to members of the family, and asks specifically for particulars about -them. “A sheet of paper occasionally filled with news of this kind -would make me very happy and would keep you nearer my mind. As it is -my dear brother believe me to be Yours most affectionately, Oliver -Goldsmith.” - -The remaining letters printed in the Percy Memoir do not concern -Goldsmith’s family, but it may be mentioned incidentally that they are -all in the bundle of Goldsmithiana left by the Bishop. They are (1) a -letter to Sir Joshua Reynolds written from France in 1770 when Oliver -acted as escort to Mrs. Horneck and her two charming daughters the -Jessamy Bride and Little Comedy. (2) A letter by Goldsmith to Bennet -Langton dated 7 September, 1771 (with, it may be added, the letter -from Langton--not printed in the Memoir--to which it is a reply). (3) -Letters to Goldsmith from General Oglethorp (no date), Thomas Paine -(21 December, 1772), John Oakman (a begging letter in verse, dated 27 -March, 1773), and other miscellanea. - - -MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. - -I should be sorry if I left you with the impression that the letters -from which I have been reading extracts were the only original -documents connected with the poet and his works included in Dr. -Percy’s manuscript bundle of “Goldsmithiana.” The contrary is the -case: but the time available to me this afternoon is too short to -enable me to discuss the various interesting points that they raise. -I feel, however, I must refer in the briefest manner possible to some -miscellaneous papers of different kinds which I found therein relating -to the preliminaries for and the production of that delightful and -ever-fresh comedy of “She Stoops to Conquer,” first given to the world -on Monday, 15 March, 1773. There are a letter from the Prompter dated -“Sunday evening” (no doubt 14 March, 1773), saying he had taken the -necessary steps for changing the name of the play from “The Mistakes -of a Night”; orders for boxes for subsequent performances; requests -for free seats; congratulations and criticism on its success; a full -account in Percy’s writing of Goldsmith’s personal chastisement of -Evans the bookseller for Kenrick’s malicious article in the _London -Packet_ of Wednesday, 24 March, 1773 (endorsed in the Bishop’s hand -“The termination of the affray with Evans, as first intended, but -afterwards altered out of tenderness to Dr. G’s Memory”); a printed -copy of the _London Packet_ of Friday, 26 March, containing its own -account of the encounter with Evans; George Coleman’s original letter -of 23 March, 1773, begging Goldsmith to “take him off the rack of the -newspapers”; manuscript copies (not in Goldsmith’s writing) of two -rejected Epilogues to the play; and other documents of great human -interest. - -As I have consistently tried in this address to avoid indulging in -theories, and to limit myself to demonstrable facts, I refrain from a -discussion as to why these documents of 1773 are in such force in the -resuscitated bundle of Percy papers, whereas there are comparatively -few and scattered documents of earlier date. I should not, however, be -surprised if Goldsmith, dreading that the commotion caused and public -comment excited by his scuffle with Evans might involve him in further -disagreeable consequences, had himself collected these papers and -consulted Percy personally thereon, with the result that they remained -in the latter’s custody. - -When nearly a quarter of a century later, Percy put his hand to the -preparation of the Memoir of his friend, he may have thought that the -discreditable incidents obscuring the memory of a great public success -were best buried in oblivion; and he therefore confined himself in the -published work to the statement that “She Stoops to Conquer” “added -very much to the author’s reputation, and brought down upon him a -torrent of congratulatory addresses and petitions from less fortunate -bards whose indigence compelled them to solicit his bounty, and of -scurrilous abuse from such of them, as being less reduced, only envied -his success.” (_Memoir_, p. 101.) - -Percy could not, it is true, resist the temptation of placing on -record in the Memoir “Tom Tickle’s” attack on Goldsmith in the _London -Packet_: but, says he, “we would not defile our page with this -scurrilous production, so shall insert it in the margin.” (pp. 103-5, -notes.) - -It seems to me not unlikely that Percy’s opinion was sought as to the -wording of the defence or disclaimer by Goldsmith “To the Public” which -appeared in the _Daily Advertiser_ of 31 March, 1773, as this also is -printed _in extenso_ in the Memoir of 1801 (pp. 107-8). Dr. Johnson -had certainly no hand in its preparation, for on Saturday, 3 April, -in response to an enquiry by the obsequious Boswell, he said: “Sir, -Dr. Goldsmith would no more have asked me to have wrote such a thing -as that for him, than he would have asked me to feed him with a spoon, -or to do anything else that denoted imbecility.... He has indeed done -it very well, but it is a foolish thing well done.” Percy says in the -Memoir (p. 107): “The subject of this dispute was long discussed in the -public papers, which discanted on the impropriety of attacking a man in -his own house: and an action was threatened for the assault: which was -at length compromised”: and here he leaves it, as we may well do. - -One other matter connected with “She Stoops to Conquer” I must ask your -permission to touch upon before I conclude. Four attempts were made -at an Epilogue for the play, and the Percy documents enable us for -the first time to understand the sequence of these. Two of them were -printed (not quite textually) in Vol. II of the Memoir of 1801, and -Percy, who set great store by them, complains to his correspondents -that enough credit was not given to him by the publishers for them. He -told Dr. Robert Anderson: - -“The Dr. had likewise given him two original Poems that had never been -printed. These are the two Epilogues printed in the second Volume, viz: -that spoken by Mrs. Bulkley and Miss Catley, and that intended for Mrs. -Bulkley. The latter [it] is said in a Note, was given in Manuscript to -Dr. Percy by the Author, but no such mention is made of the former, -tho’ it was also so given by him and delivered to the Publishers in his -own writing.” - -Percy was a little in doubt about the second of these Epilogues -(which in the edition of 1801 he cut down from 58 lines to 42), for -he invited George Steevens on 10 September, 1797, to ask Mrs. Bulkley -if she remembered for what play it was intended: “He [Goldsmith] gave -it me among a parcel of letters and papers, some written by himself, -and some addressed to him, but with not much explanation” (_Literary -Illustrations_, VII, 31). Steevens’ reply of 14 September, 1797, was in -his usual caustic vein: “The lady you would have interrogated ceased -to be at least seven years ago: and what would the public say could -it be known that your Lordship, a Protestant Bishop, was desirous to -send your sober correspondents into the other world a harlot-hunting?” -(_Ibid_, 32). - -It is a little surprising that the Bishop should not have at once -recognised its obvious associations with “She Stoops to Conquer,” in -view of the two lines at the end of the Epilogue: - - “No high-life scenes, no sentiment: the creature - “Still stoops among the low to copy nature.” - -But all these points, in their way interesting and even absorbing, are -rather beyond the object with which I embarked upon this paper, viz.: -to do justice to the affectionate side of Goldsmith’s warm Irish nature -by bringing into relief the letters which, despite his repugnance to -correspondence, he from time to time addressed to members of his own -family with ardent and even pitiful appeals for news from Ireland. -These appeals, it is to be feared, had no satisfactory response from -the recipients of the letters which after their many adventures I have -now had the privilege of exhibiting to you, and which I think serve to -illustrate the truth of Dr. Johnson’s dictum: “Goldsmith was a man of -such variety of powers and such felicity of performance, that he always -seemed to do best that which he was doing: a man who had the art of -being minute without tediousness, and general without confusion; whose -language was copious without exuberance, exact without constraint and -easy without weakness.” - - - - -APPENDIX. - -_Biographical particulars as to the members of Oliver Goldsmith’s -family, partly from unpublished sources._ - - -Oliver Goldsmith died on 4 April, 1774. Although there was some talk -of a biography of him being undertaken by Johnson, it appears to have -become a common understanding, soon after the death, amongst the -members of The Club and their associates that the work of collecting -and preparing the materials for the biography would be done by Thomas -Percy. At that time Percy had achieved a certain reputation in literary -circles, but was by no means the important person in the ecclesiastical -sense that he afterwards became. He was then mainly resident in London -as Chaplain and Secretary to the Duke of Northumberland and as one -of the Chaplains of the King. It was not until 1778 that he was made -Dean of Carlisle, from which position he was promoted in 1782 to the -Bishopric of Dromore in Ireland. - -Percy had already written out in his own hand a Memorandum dictated to -him by Goldsmith himself “one rainy day at Northumberland House” (28 -April, 1773) giving dates and many interesting particulars relating -to his life, and this Memorandum is still in existence. Too much -importance must not be attached to it. Percy no doubt regarded it as -a Memorandum only, which might prove useful under future conditions -that had not then arisen, and how much of it is Goldsmith and how much -Percy must for ever remain unknown. The Statement was communicated to -Johnson; not used by him: returned by his executors to the wrong person -(Malone), sent by him to Percy, and apparently not used textually by -him for the purpose of his Memoir of his friend. In any case, there is -not much in it about the members of Oliver’s family. - -Sir James Prior was ignorant of the existence of this Memorandum, -when preparing his _Life of Goldsmith_ (Murray, 1837): but with his -praiseworthy carefulness, he set about whilst he was in Ireland in the -early part of the nineteenth century to dig up such particulars as he -could discover about Oliver’s parentage; and what he says concerning -“the Goldsmith Family” in his first Chapter is the fullest and most -authoritative history of the poet’s forebears that was capable of -being written within half a century of Goldsmith’s death and with the -information at that time available. - -It is not necessary for present purposes to go further back than -Oliver’s grandfather, whose name was Robert Goldsmith of Ballyoughter -(not John, as in Dr. Percy’s Statement). The following facts are known -about this ancestor of the poet. - - -1. ROBERT GOLDSMITH OF BALLYOUGHTER. - -(Oliver’s Grandfather.) - -Robert, elder of two sons of the Revd. John Goldsmith, of Newton, Co. -Meath, and Jane Madden, of Donore, Co. Dublin, does not appear to -have gone to College or to have exercised any profession. He “married -Catherine, daughter of Thomas Crofton, D.D., Dean of Elphin, and -settled down at Ballyoughter, near the residence of his father-in-law” -(Prior I, 5). By his wife, “who enjoyed a moderate fortune, he had a -family of thirteen children, nine sons and four daughters.” Several of -them died young. John, the eldest son of Robert, “who had been educated -at Trinity College preparatory to studying for the bar, settled down -on the family property at Ballyoughter” (Prior I, 5). The second son -Charles, who also went to Trinity College, was the father of the poet -(_see_ § 2). One of the daughters, Jane, married the Rev. Thomas -Contarine of Oran (_see_ § 4). - - -2. THE REVD. CHARLES GOLDSMITH. - -(Oliver’s Father.) - -Charles Goldsmith entered Trinity College as a pensioner on the 16 -June, 1707. He was described in the Register as born and educated -“prope Elphin,” as the son of Robert, and as aged 17. He was born -therefore in 1690. His earlier career is obscure, but in a family Bible -he is described as “Charles Goldsmith of Ballyoughter” (the family -residence) and as “married to Mrs. Ann Jones ye 4th of May 1718” (Prior -I, 14), when therefore he was 28 years of age. “This union was not -approved by the friends of either: he was destitute of the means of -providing for a family, and the father of his wife having a son and -three other daughters to provide for, her portion was small” (Prior I, -7). Ann Jones was daughter of the Revd. Oliver Jones of Smith Hill, -master of the diocesan school at Elphin, where Charles had received his -preliminary education, and where the attachment commenced. Her uncle, -named Green, who was rector of Kilkenny West, provided the young couple -with a house about six miles distant from himself, at a place called -Pallas, in the adjoining county of Longford. “Here they took up their -abode, and continued for a period of twelve years [1718 to 1730], Mr. -Goldsmith officiating partly in the church of his uncle, and partly -in the parish in which he resided.” At Pallas therefore five of their -eight children (including Oliver) were born: the other three were born -at Lissoy, to which the family removed in 1730, when Charles Goldsmith, -by the death of his wife’s uncle, succeeded to the Rectory of Kilkenny -West. - -The family Bible referred to by Prior (I, 14) records the names and -dates of birth of the several children as under: _Margaret_, born 22 -August, 1719 (of whom nothing seems to be known); _Catherine_, born -13 January, 1721, married to Daniel Hodson (_see_ § 5); _Jane_, born -9 February, 17[4] (_see_ § 6); _Henry_, born 9 February, 17[4] (_see_ -§ 7); _Oliver_, born 10 November, 1728; _Maurice_, born 7 July, 1736 -(_see_ § 11); _Charles_, born 16 August, 1737 (_see_ § 12); _John_, -1740 (to whom there is only the briefest reference in Oliver’s letter -to his uncle Contarine written from Edinburgh at the close of 1753 -and first printed by Prior in 1837 (I, 154): “How is my poor Jack -Goldsmith? I fear his disorder is of such a nature he won’t easily -recover.” He is said by Percy (MS. statement) to have “died young -_aet._ 12.”) - -The loveable character of the Revd. Charles Goldsmith has been depicted -for all time in incomparable language in his wayward son’s works. He -is the father of “the man in black” of “the Citizen of the World,” the -preacher in “The Deserted Village” and Dr. Primrose in “the Vicar of -Wakefield.” He died suddenly early in 1747 in the fifty-seventh year of -his age (Prior I, 73), the induction of his successor, the Revd. Mr. -Wynne, taking place in March of that year. - - “Remote from towns he ran his goodly race - Nor e’er had changed, nor wished to change, his place.” - - -3. ANN GOLDSMITH, _née_ JONES. - -(Oliver’s Mother.) - -The death of the Revd. Charles Goldsmith in 1747 made a considerable -change for the worse in the fortunes of his widow and her children. - -“The wealth of the family, never great or well husbanded, necessarily -suffered a serious diminution: the means of the widow were little -more than sufficient to provide the necessaries of life for the other -branches of the family: remittances to Oliver therefore ceased, and his -prospects became darker than ever” (Prior I, 73, 74). - -Ann Goldsmith had to remove in her straitened circumstances to a -cottage at Ballymahon, and there Oliver seems to have idled away his -time between 1749 to 1751, when he drifted off with the intention -of going to America. Probably things were not made very comfortable -for him at home. Anyhow the mother appears to have been disgusted -and disappointed at his waywardness, and spoke to him sharply when -he returned penniless. He does not seem to have again resided at -Ballymahon, but to have gone to stay with his brother Henry, and -afterwards with his constant friend and benefactor, Uncle Contarine, -before he went off to Edinburgh, never to see his mother again. When -writing from the Scottish capital on 16 September, 1753, to his boon -companion, Robert Bryanton of Ballymahon, Oliver says in a postscript: -“Give my service to my mother if you see her: for as you express it in -Ireland, I have a sneaking kindness for her still.” After his return -from his Continental wanderings, he writes twice to his brother-in-law -Daniel Hodson about his mother. On 27 December, 1757, he says: “My -mother too has lost Pallas! My dear Sir, these things give me real -uneasiness, and I should wish to redress them.” And in November, 1758, -he writes to Hodson: “Pray tell me how my mother is since she will not -gratify me herself and tell me if in anything I can be immediately -serviceable to her.” (This and other similar phrases in the letters -of 1757 and 1758 are omitted from the 1801 publication as relating to -“private family affairs.”) In Oliver’s letter to his brother Henry of -February, 1758, he says: “My mother I am informed is almost blind: even -tho I had the utmost inclination to return home, I could not behold her -in distress without a capacity of relieving her from it, it would be -too much to add to my present splenetic habit.” - -Later still in January, 1770, Oliver begs his brother Maurice to give -him particulars about the family: “Tell me about my mother, my brother -Hodson and his son, ... what is become of them, where they live and -what they do.” Mrs. Goldsmith died in Ireland later in the same year, -and in Mr. William Filby’s tailor’s bills against Goldsmith is the -entry of £5:12:0 for “a suit of mourning” (doubtless for her) dated 8 -September, 1770 (Prior I, 233). - - -4. THE CONTARINES. - -(Oliver’s Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin.) - -As already stated, one of the daughters of Robert Goldsmith named -Jane married the Revd. Thomas Contarine, Vicar of Oran. She bore him -a daughter Jane, the playmate of Oliver’s childhood, and died in her -sixty-third year on the 12 June, 1744 (Prior I, 55, note). “Uncle -Contarine” was the best, kindest and most consistent friend of Oliver -Goldsmith in his boyhood and student days; and Oliver had a deep sense -of gratitude to him. He wrote to Contarine two letters from Edinburgh -in 1753 (printed in Prior I, 145 and 154), and a third letter from -Leyden in 1754, which is fortunately preserved. - -The following incident, illustrative of Oliver’s affection for his -generous uncle, is copied into the Memoir of 1801 (page 33) from -Percy’s own manuscript. Oliver had borrowed some money from an Irish -friend at Leyden “with which he determined to quit Holland and to -visit the adjacent countries. But unfortunately his curiosity led him -to view a garden, where the choicest flowers were reared for sale. -Poor Goldsmith, recollecting that his uncle was an admirer of such -rarities, without reflecting on the reduced state of his own finances, -was tempted to purchase some of these costly flower roots to be sent as -a present to Ireland, and thereby left himself so little cash that he -is said to have set out on his travels with only one clean shirt and no -money in his pocket.” - -Later Oliver wrote to Contarine’s daughter, Mrs. Lawder, on 15 August, -1758, from the Temple Exchange Coffee House an affectionate letter -apologising for his long silence, but explaining that he wrote to -Kilmore from Leyden, Louvain and Rouen and received no answer, and -referring thus to his uncle: “he is no more that soul of fire as when -I once knew him. His mind was too active an inhabitant not to disorder -the feeble mansion of its abode, for the richest jewels soonest wear -their settings. Yet who but a fool would lament his condition, he now -forgets the calamities of life, perhaps indulgent heaven has given -him a foretaste of that tranquillity here which he so well deserves -hereafter.” - -Mr. Contarine died a few months after the date of this letter, aged -about 74, and left Oliver a legacy of £15, which he eventually made -over to his impecunious brother Maurice. In announcing this decision -(in January, 1770) Oliver says to Maurice: “The kindness of that good -couple to our poor shattered family demands our sincerest gratitude, -and though they have almost forgot me yet if good things at last -arrive, I hope one day to return, and encrease their good humour by -adding to my own. I have sent my cousin Jenny [Mrs. Lawder] a miniature -picture of myself as I believe it is the most acceptable present I can -offer.” - -Contarine’s daughter Jane married James Lawder, a well-to-do resident -of Kilmore, near Carrick on Shannon. To her Oliver addressed on 15 -August, 1758, the affectionate letter already quoted dwelling on the -past and signing himself “Your affectionate and obliged Kinsman.” It -seems to have provoked no reply. - -The end of the Lawders was tragic. The husband was treacherously -murdered by his servants and labourers, who carried off the plate in -the house and about £300 in money. For this crime no less than six of -them were executed. The wife, who narrowly escaped being murdered also, -died in Dublin about 1790 (Prior I, 130, note). - - -5. CATHERINE GOLDSMITH (MRS. DANIEL HODSON). - -(Sister of Oliver.) - -Catherine was born 13 January, 1721. It was her private marriage with -Daniel Hodson, “the son of a gentleman of good family residing at St. -John’s near Athlone,” who was at the time of the engagement a pupil -of Henry Goldsmith, that led to Oliver’s entering Trinity College as -a sizar instead of as a pensioner like Henry. Her father, the Revd. -Charles Goldsmith, was greatly indignant at this marriage, and in order -to give his daughter a marriage portion of £400, sacrificed his tithes -and rented land. - -To his brother-in-law Hodson, Oliver wrote two very cordial letters -on 27 December, 1757, and November, 1758, the second containing a -paragraph: “Dear Sister, I wrote to Kilmore (the residence of the -Lawders). I wish you would let me know how that family stands affected -with regard to me.” It is curious that in Oliver’s letter to Maurice of -January, 1770, he does not ask after his sister Catherine, though he -enquires about “my mother, my brother Hodson and his son, my brother -Harry’s son and daughter” and other members of the family. After -Oliver’s death, however, Catherine Hodson, appealed to by Maurice, -wrote out a full and very sympathetic account, running to twelve -foolscap pages, of Oliver’s youthful adventures, terminating with his -being sent to Edinburgh in 1753 “for the studdy of Physick. From this -date I am a stranger to what happened him: he wrote severall letters to -his friends from Switzerland, Germany and Italy.” - -With reference to Oliver’s enquiry quoted above as to “my Brother -Hodson and his son,” it may be mentioned that the poet befriended this -nephew in London in 1772 to the extent of allowing him to run up a bill -for £35:3:0 with his tailor William Filby. It is to be feared this bill -was still unpaid at Oliver’s decease (Forster II, 173). - - -6. JANE GOLDSMITH, AFTERWARDS JOHNSON. - -(Born 9 February, 1722. Sister of Oliver.) - -As the family Bible entries from which were copied into Prior’s _Life_ -(I, 14) gave as the date of the births of Henry and Jane Goldsmith -the same day 9 February, 17-- (leaf torn), Forster surmised and with -much plausibility that they were twins, born on the 9 February, 1722 -(I, 9). Jane married one Johnson, a farmer at Athlone, and appears to -have written to Oliver in 1769 about her impoverished condition, which -Oliver in his letter to Maurice of January, 1770, regrets his inability -to relieve. - - -7. THE REVD. HENRY GOLDSMITH. - -(Oliver’s Elder Brother.) - -Very little is known about the eldest son of the Revd. Charles -Goldsmith, Henry, who was born at Pallas on the 9 February, 1722 (Prior -I, 14). He was educated at Dr. Neligan’s school at Elphin, afterwards -matriculating at Trinity College, Dublin, on 4 May, 1741 (Prior I, 34, -note). He was elected a scholar on Trinity Monday, 1743: “but returning -home in the succeeding vacation, flushed probably with his recent -triumph, he indulged a youthful passion and married” (Prior I, 35). - -All that the Percy Memoir of 1801 (I, 3) says about Henry is: “Of his -eldest son the Revd. Henry Goldsmith, to whom his brother dedicated -_The Traveller_, their father had formed the most sanguine hopes, as -he had distinguished himself both at school and at College, but he -unfortunately married at the early age of nineteen: which confined him -to a Curacy, and prevented him rising to preferment in the Church.” -As he was born at Pallas in February, 1722, Henry must, if this -statement be accurate, have become a married man in 1741, about the -time he matriculated at Trinity College. There is evidently inaccuracy -somewhere as to Henry’s age, and it may be doubted whether his marriage -took place before or after his election as a scholar of his College on -Trinity Monday, 1743. From some guarded words used by Prior (the most -painstaking investigator into the family history) it is possible the -marriage was a secret one, as Prior suggests that when it took place -“he must have been three years older [than stated above], or have -formed this connexion previous to entering the University. To some men -this tie becomes a stimulus to exertion: to others it seems a clog upon -every effort at rising in life” (I, 35). Prior seems to decide that -in Henry’s case it was a clog. He speaks of Henry having “indulged -a youthful passion and married,” and continues shortly afterwards: -“Finding residence in College no longer eligible, the advantages of -his scholarship were sacrificed: he retired, as appears from the -college books, to the country: established a school in his father’s -neighbourhood: and in this occupation added to that of curate at ‘forty -pounds a year,’ though possessed of talents and character, he passed -the remainder of life.” (Prior I, 35.) - -It is nowhere very clearly stated, that it would seem that Henry -acted as curate to his father at Kilkenny West, and perhaps after his -father’s death in 1747 he continued in office under the new Rector, -the Revd. Mr. Wynne (Prior I, 73). John Forster says (I, 427): “In -his early life Dr. Strean succeeded Henry Goldsmith in the curacy of -Kilkenny West, which the latter occupied at the period of his death -(1768) and as he is careful to tell us, in its emoluments of £40 a -year, which was not only his salary but continued to be the same when I -[Strean] a successor, was appointed to that parish.” - -The two brothers Henry and Oliver had a strong and abiding affection -for one another. Oliver had corresponded with his brother whilst he -was abroad, though none of his letters have been preserved. Part of -_The Traveller_ had been sent to Henry from Switzerland, and when it -was completed and published at the end of 1764, the poem was dedicated -to him. The opening paragraph contained this sentence: “It will throw -a light upon many parts of it when the reader understands that it is -addressed to a man who, despising fame and fortune, has retired early -to happiness and obscurity, with an income of forty pounds a year.” And -the opening lines of the poem itself contain the familiar phrase: - - “Where’er I roam, whatever realms to see, - “My heart untravelled fondly turns to thee: - “Still to my brother turns, with ceaseless pain - “And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.” - -Later on there is the well-known description of the village preacher: - - “A man he was to all the country dear, - “And passing rich with forty pounds a year.” - -There is only one letter from Oliver to Henry known to exist: that -addressed “about 1759” to Henry at “Lowfield, near Ballymore in -Westmeath Ireland” seeking his assistance in the disposal of copies of -his book on “Polite learning” describing his own physical looks, giving -Henry advice as to the education of his son, asking about his mother -and other members of the family, and ending up: “by telling you what -you very well know already, that I am your most affectionate friend and -brother Oliver Goldsmith.” - -Henry was the subject of Oliver’s solicitude when he was granted an -interview with the Earl of Northumberland (Dr. Percy’s friend) who -was about to proceed to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant. We owe the report -of this interview to the unsympathetic pen of Sir John Hawkins in -his _Life of Johnson_ (p. 419). In answer to the Earl’s remark that -he was going to Ireland and hearing that Goldsmith was a native of -that country he would be glad to do him any kindness, Oliver is made -to reply: “I would say nothing but that I had a brother there, a -clergyman, that stood in need of help.” Hawkins’ sour comment was: -“thus did this idiot in the affairs of the world trifle with his -fortunes and put back the hand that was held out to assist him.” - -The Revd. Henry Goldsmith died at Athlone at the end of May, 1768, at -the age of forty-five. A suit of mourning for him ordered of Oliver’s -tailor William Filby cost £5:12:6 (Forster II, 113). The brother -seems to have at once written a letter of affectionate sympathy with -the family--probably to the widow, and to his nephew Henry he sent a -separate letter which has only just come to light in North America, -having doubtless been preserved till now by descendants of the original -recipient. It is now the property of Mr. William Harris Arnold of -Nutley, New Jersey, to whose kindness I owe permission for its -reproduction: - - London, June 7th, 1768. - - My dear Henry, - - Your dear father’s death has afflicted me deeply. The news of this - dreadful event only reached me yesterday and though I have already - sent my love and condolences in a letter which you will see I pen - this further line to my dear Nephew to express the hope that you and - your Brother, young as you both are, will bear yourselves as the sons - of such a man should. As to your own future I shall not rest until I - hit upon some means of serving you; and it may be that through the - influence of some of my friends here you may procure a situation - suited to your talents. - - Meanwhile attend diligently to your studies, neglect nothing that - can advance your interest when an opening occurs. Are you still - inclined towards a military career? That would necessitate, besides a - certain temper and constitution, a considerable sum of ready money. - Something, however, might be managed abroad--in the Indies or in - America. - - Let me hear from you, my dear Henry, and with much love to you both - - Believe me, - Your affectionate Uncle, - Oliver Goldsmith. - - Mr. Henry Goldsmith - In Care of Mrs. Hodson, - Athlone, - Ireland. - - -I find no mention whatever in any document (published or unpublished) -that I have come across of a second son of the Revd. Henry. Oliver at -the time of his brother’s death was at work on the _Deserted Village_ -at a summer retreat in a cottage eight miles from the Edgware Road -(Forster II, 124), was visited there in May, 1768, by Cooke, who marks -the date as exactly two years before the poem appeared in print (May, -1770), and tells us that the writing of it, and its elaborate revision, -extended over the whole interval of twenty-four months. - -Is it permissible to suggest that Oliver, with his head full of other -things, was a little dubious about the sex of the other child of his -brother, and spoke of a son where he should have said daughter? Writing -to his brother Maurice in January, 1770, with anxious enquiries about -the several members of the family, Oliver says: “Tell me about my -mother, my brother Hodson and his son: _my brother Harry’s son and -daughter_, my sister Johnson, the family of Ballyoughter, what is -become of them, where they live and how they do. You talked of being my -only brother, I don’t understand you--Where is Charles?” (_Memoir_, p. -89.) - -Here it will be observed, Oliver makes tender enquiries after Henry’s -“son and daughter.” He says nothing of the widow or of a second son. In -the only letter of Oliver’s to his brother that is now extant, ascribed -by Percy to “about 1759,” Oliver thus refers to the son: “The reasons -you have given me for breeding your son a scholar are judicious and -convincing.... Preach then my dear Sir, to your son not the excellence -of human nature nor the disrespect of riches, but endeavour to teach -him thrift and economy. Let his poor wandering Uncle’s example be -placed in his eyes. I had learned from books to love virtue, before I -was taught from experience the necessity of being selfish.” - -I quote from the original holograph letter, not from the somewhat -bowdlerised version of it that Percy printed in the _Memoir_ of 1801, -and that has since been copied in all subsequent biographies. - -It remains therefore to consider what happened to those whom Henry left -behind him in 1768 of whom there is any record. There was a widow, -of whose parentage and maiden name, or of the circumstances of her -widowhood nothing seems to be known, his son Henry, and his daughter -Catherine. - - -8. HENRY GOLDSMITH’S WIDOW. - -It was in all probability Mrs. Henry Goldsmith of whom Johnson wrote to -George Steevens on 25 February, 1777, as recorded by Boswell in Volume -III, Chapter III: - - “Mr. Steevens ... joined Dr. Johnson in Kind assistance to a female - relation of Dr. Goldsmith, and desired that on her return to Ireland - she would procure authentic particulars of the life of her relation. - Concerning her is the following letter: - - “To George Steevens Esq. - - “February 25th 1777. - - “Dear Sir, - - “You will be glad to hear that from Mrs. Goldsmith whom we lamented - as drowned, I have received a letter full of gratitude to us all, - with promises to make the enquiries which we recommended to her. You - will tell the good news, - - “I am, Sir, - “Your most etc. - “Sam Johnson.” - -Prior (II, 562) expands this incident, assigning it definitely to the -widow of the Revd. Henry, but gives no new facts, except to add that -“being but slenderly provided for, she accepted the situation of Matron -to the Meath Infirmary at Navan.” - - -9. HENRY, SON OF THE REVD. HENRY GOLDSMITH. - -(Oliver’s Nephew.) - -Henry, the son, Prior describes as “distinguished for spirit, -intelligence and personal beauty.... A commission being obtained for -him in the army, he quitted Ireland for North America about the year -1782.” A constant friend and correspondent of his, the Revd. Thomas -Handcock wrote on 7 October, 1799 (Prior II, 564) that Henry had been -a lieutenant in the 54th Regiment, and that “with an uncommon flow -of spirits (he) possesses a large portion of his uncle’s genius.” He -married an American lady from Rhode Island and “after the peace settled -with her somewhere in Nova Scotia.” - -“He plunged through unheard of distresses and difficulties until -very lately, when accident made our young Prince, the Duke of Kent, -acquainted with his person and history: and His Royal Highness lost -no time in raising him, a wife and ten children, considerably above -want, as I learn by a letter from Goldsmith within these last six -weeks. I had ... received his rent and managed his affairs, and in -his distresses he often urged me to sell his interest in the Deserted -Village [Lissoy] which I continued to avoid, to his present very great -satisfaction.” - -The particular way in which Henry Goldsmith’s needs were brought under -the notice of the Duke of Kent is not recorded, but His Royal Highness -had been sent to Canada in 1791, and was Commander-in-Chief of the -forces in British North America in 1799-1800. What Mr. Handcock says -in his letter is confirmed by an unpublished letter written by Henry’s -sister Catherine to Bishop Percy on 6 January, 1802, apropos of her -uncle Charles’ statement to the Bishop that “the name is extinct except -in his family”: - -“He never considered,” said she, “that I had cousins in this country -that had male heirs, as also a much lov’d brother now residing at -Halifax in North America, who has ten children, and has either four or -five sons lawfully by an amiable wife. From my brother’s account, his -Children possess uncommon abilities. His eldest son Henry he intends -for the Bar: his second son is a midshipman, and his third son Oliver, -he mention’d in a letter to me he would have educated in Ireland. The -Duke of Kent, my brother’s particular Patron and Friend, has got him -the place of Assistant Engineer at Halifax, and means to provide for -him in a better way when opportunity offers.” - -A letter by Henry Goldsmith to a kinsman dated 20 March, 1808, brings -the story of this Nova Scotian family up to a somewhat later date. - -“I am fixed here in the Commissariat Department and have a family -of nine children, five sons and four daughters. The eldest Henry, -follows the profession of the law: Hugh Colvill is I hope ere this, a -lieutenant in the Navy: Oliver is with a merchant at Boston: Charles is -a midshipman on this station, and Benjamin a boy. The daughters Ann, -Catherine, Eliza and Jane are at home with me, and promise to be all I -wish them.” (Prior II, 568.) - -Hugh Colvill Goldsmith (1789-1841) referred to in his father’s letter, -merits a passing mention as being the young sailor who on 8 April, -1824, shocked Cornish susceptibilities by displacing the famous rocking -Logan Stone at the Land’s End, and had to arrange for its replacement -later in that year (29 October to 2 November) in its original position, -which as the weight of the stone is variously given as 60 to 80 tons, -was no easy matter. Doubtless because of this foolhardy exploit, he has -a niche in the _Dictionary of National Biography_, being in fact the -only member of the Goldsmith family other than the poet who is thus -honoured. He was born at St. Andrews, New Brunswick, on 2 April, 1789, -and was at the time of the Logan Rock incident a Naval Lieutenant in -command of the “Nimble” revenue cutter off the coast of Cornwall. He -was never promoted, and died at sea off St. Thomas in the West Indies -on 8 October, 1841. An incidental reference to Charles Goldsmith (also -referred to in his father’s letter of 1808 as a midshipman) shows that -he was afterwards a Commander in the Navy. His dates are 1795-1854. - - -10. CATHERINE, DAUGHTER OF THE REV. HENRY GOLDSMITH. - -(Oliver’s Niece.) - -The facts as to the daughter of Henry Goldsmith are easier to piece -together, as Bishop Percy drew up when in London in July, 1800, a -memorandum as to her case which has fortunately been preserved in -manuscript, and gives incidentally some particulars as to other members -of the Goldsmith family. - -There are a number of pitiful letters from this poor little lonely and -suffering soul addressed to the Bishop at dates ranging from 1794 to -March, 1803, with drafts of two of the Bishop’s replies, mercifully -modified before despatch, referring to his monetary advances already -made to her, and speaking of the “constant source of plague and -vexation” which the question of the publication of the _Memoir_ had -been to him. The end came in July, 1803, when one McDonnell wrote -to the Bishop’s secretary that Catherine had died “after a painful -illness to which her dependant and helpless situation must have greatly -contributed.” McDonnell had seen to her being decently buried, and -thought 8 or 9 guineas would reimburse the total cost. No doubt the -Bishop sent him this. - - -11. MAURICE GOLDSMITH. - -(Oliver’s Brother.) - -Maurice, the next child of the Revd. Charles Goldsmith after Oliver, -was born on 7 July, 1736, and was followed a year later (16 August, -1737) by Charles, and in 1740 by a fourth son John. Maurice was -not therefore, as stated erroneously in a note on page 86 of the -Percy _Memoir_ “our poet’s youngest brother.” He first emerges from -obscurity early in 1770, when he was in his thirty-fourth year, and -wrote to Oliver a letter from the Lawder’s house at Kilmore asking for -assistance. Oliver’s reply has fortunately been preserved. It bears no -date, but Percy ascribes it to “January 1770,” which is about right, as -endorsed upon it is Maurice’s receipt dated 4 February, 1770, £15, the -amount of a legacy left by Uncle Contarine to Oliver which he made over -to his brother (I, 89). - -According to Prior (II, 519), Sir Joshua Reynolds undertook after -the death of the poet on 4 April, 1774, “to superintend his affairs -until the arrival from Ireland of such of his relatives as should be -authorised to receive them.” For answer Maurice Goldsmith appeared in -London “a plain unlettered man, too homely it seems in appearance -and manners to command much consideration from his late brother’s -accomplished friends” (Prior II, 524). The still surviving Mrs. Gwyn -(the “Jessamy Bride”) told Prior long years after that: - -“Being in a small party in the house of Sir Joshua when the latter -was summoned downstairs, he returned after a considerable absence -and whispered her that he had been below with Goldsmith’s brother, -but thinking a little beer or spirits there better adapted to his -taste than tea in the drawing room, he had entertained him in what he -considered the most appropriate manner. She, with the usual kindness of -her sex, thought his behaviour scarcely becoming in the President to so -near a relative of his departed friend.” (II, 524.) - -Doubtless it was at this time that Sir Joshua gave Maurice the -subjoined (undated) note of introduction to the “Revd. Dr. Percy -Northumberland House” still preserved amongst the Percy papers: - -“Sir Joshua Reynolds’s compliments and begs leave to introduce to Dr. -Percy Mr. Goldsmith brother of his late friend Dr. Goldsmith.” - -As the next of kin, Maurice was entitled to administer his brother’s -affairs, and there is at Somerset House the formal Probate granted on -28 June, 1774, to “Maurice Goldsmith, the natural and lawful brother -and next of kin to the said deceased.” As Oliver died in debt, there -was nothing for Maurice to administer or receive, and he left London -on 10 June, 1774, writing to Mr. Hawes, the apothecary who attended -his brother, his “most sincere thanks for your kind behaviour to me -since my arrival here,” and for his “care, assiduity and diligence with -respect to my brother Doctor Goldsmith.” - -No doubt Percy improved the occasion, when Maurice came to see him -at Northumberland House with Sir Joshua’s note of introduction in -his pocket, by giving him some sound advice, with perhaps a cash -contribution on account, and certainly with an admonition to collect -all his brother’s letters to members of the family in Ireland that he -could manage to pick up. For on 15 July, 1776, Maurice wrote to Percy -as under: - - July 15, 1776. - - Revd. Sir, - - When I last had the honour of seeing you at your Chambers in - Northumberland House you most kindly told me you wod willingly serve - me, I have Sir according to your Order collected in this Country all - the Letters and a few anecdotes of my Brother, the late Dr. Goldsmith - that I cod procure which I assure you Sir are entirely Jenuine, the - Anecdotes wrote by his Sister who ware both inseperable Companions in - their youth. - - I am much concernd that two of these Letters which I send are not - entirely Legibl and that it will cost som pains to make them and the - Memoirs fitt for the press; So Dr Sir to your goodness and protection - I commit them thoroughly satisfied you will serve the Brother of a - Man who really lovd and Esteemd you. - - I can assure you Sir I have gon several Miles to collect them and as - my circumstances at present are not very affluent a small assistance - wod be gratefully accepted, shd any accrue from these papers wich - with what my good Friend Sr. Joshua Reynolds and Mr. Garrick promisd - to supply, will not be deemd I hope unworthy of yr publication which - you and Sir Joshua told me you wod get affected. - - I am Sir with the greatest respect Sir your verry Obet. Humble Servant - - Maurice Goldsmith - - I hope you will do me the honour to let me know if you receivd. these - by directing to me at Charles Town near Elphin Ireland. - -There is nothing to show that anything definite followed this appeal -for money: and perhaps on that account, Maurice next addressed himself -to Dr. Johnson, to whom he wrote at Bolt Court an undated letter -bearing the Elphin post-mark as under: - - “To Doctor Johnson at his house in Bolt Court Fleet Street London. - - “I lately had the Honour to receive a letter from my good Friend the - Revd. Docr. Percy, who from som Papers I had sent him did intend - writing the life of the Late Docr. Goldsmith: he tells me that from - the esteem you have had for the poor Docr. you have determind to - take the work under your protection and that you had also promised - to use your interest with the booksellers to let one impression be - printed of all his poetical writings.... Your taking the trouble to - write and set of(f) the life of the Docr. by your able judicious and - highly esteemed pen will be a lasting honour to his memory and to his - Family.” - -In a note to the print of Oliver’s letter to Maurice of “January 1770,” -Percy gives the following further information about Maurice (p. 86). -“Having been bred to no business, he upon some occasion complained -to our bard, that he found it difficult to live like a gentleman, on -which Oliver begged he would, without delay, quit so unprofitable a -trade and betake himself to some handycraft employment. Maurice wisely -took the hint, and bound himself apprentice to a cabinet maker. He -had a shop in Dublin, when the Duke of Rutland was Lord Lieutenant: -who at the instance of Mr. Orde, then principal secretary of state -(now Lord Bolton) out of regard to his brother’s memory, made him -an inspector of the licences in that city. He was also appointed -mace-bearer on the erection of the Royal Irish Academy: both of them -places very compatible with his business. In the former he gave proof -of great integrity by detecting a fraud committed on the revenue in his -department, by which probably he might himself have profited, if he had -not been a man of principle. He died without issue, about seven years -ago.” - -As a matter of fact, Maurice died early in the winter of 1792-3, -as appears from a letter written by Dr. Thomas Campbell, who first -attempted Oliver’s biography, to the Bishop of Dromore--then in -London--on 12 June, 1793 (Nichols’ _Literary Illustrations_, VII, 790). -Campbell says: “Alas! poor Maurice, He is to receive no comfort from -your Lordship’s labours in his behalf. He departed from a miserable -life early last winter, and luckily has left no children: but he has -left a widow, and faith a very nice one, who called on me one of the -few days I spent in Dublin after Christmas, so that you will not want -claimants.” - -The numerous letters from Maurice to the Bishop which have been -preserved appear to show that he had really made sustained efforts to -collect in Ireland such of the original letters written by Oliver to -his relatives as were procurable. One such letter, and that of the -greatest interest, viz.: the letter written to Uncle Contarine from -Leyden in 1754 was not retrieved until nine years after the letter of -15 July, 1776, already quoted, for Maurice writes to the Bishop on 9 -June, 1785, “I send your Lordship a letter from my brother to his -Uncle Contarine dated from Lydon.” - -Vol. VIII of Nichols’ _Literary Illustrations_ (published in 1858) -contains at pp. 236-240, extracts from correspondence between the -Bishop and Edmund Malone from which it appears that on 16 June, 1785, -Percy was urging that the Members of the Club (of which Oliver was -an original Member) should show “our regard for the departed Bard by -relieving his only brother, and so far as I hear, the only one of his -family that wants relief.” (This was by no means the case, as Percy was -afterwards to learn by bitter experience.) He wrote again to Malone -on 17 October, 1786, “I must entreat you to exert all your influence -among the gentlemen of The Club, and particularly urge it on Sir Joshua -Reynolds, to procure subscriptions for the relief of poor Maurice -Goldsmith, who is suffering great penury and distress being not only -poor but very unhealthy.... A guinea a piece from the members of the -Club would be a great relief to him.” - -Maurice’s subsequent appointment in 1787 as the Mace-bearer to the -Royal Irish Academy and his place in the Licence Office appears to have -eased somewhat the final years of his chequered life, but when he died -in 1792, a new appeal for the Bishop’s help came from his widow, Esther -Goldsmith. - - -11_a_. ESTHER GOLDSMITH, WIDOW OF MAURICE. - -All that is known about her is that she is described in a Petition to -the Lord Lieutenant (the draft of which in Percy’s writing was left -amongst his papers) as “the daughter of a respectable clergyman,” -and as “left wholly destitute” by the death of her husband Maurice -Goldsmith. She got various grants from a fund in the gift of the Lord -Lieutenant known as the Concordatum, and on the last page of Prior’s -_Life_ (Vol. II, 576) is a letter from her dated Rushport, Elphin, 19 -June, 1793, to Mr. J. C. Walker asking his influence in favour of her -appointment as housekeeper to the Royal Irish Academy. - -There are two unpublished later letters (1794) from Rushport to Bishop -Percy, in one of which Esther wants to know about the subscription to -the _Memoir_, and in the other she thanks the Bishop for £15 which -she had received from the Concordatum Fund. A later letter dated 17 -October, 1801, from Catherine, daughter of the Revd. Henry Goldsmith, -to the Bishop seems to show that Esther had remarried. “She thinks she -is as well entitled to the money arising from the publication of my -Uncle’s works as I am, but there I must beg leave to differ in opinion -with her.” Catherine gives some more particulars which she thinks the -Bishop ought to know, but “if Mrs. Goldsmith knew the information came -to your Lordship through me, ’twou’d bring her tongue upon me, which -she can use well.” - - -12. CHARLES GOLDSMITH. - -(Oliver’s Brother.) - -Charles Goldsmith (born 1717, died 1805) the youngest but one of the -Revd. Charles Goldsmith’s children, comes on the scene earlier than -the others. Encouraged by the accounts which had reached Ireland of -his brother Oliver’s arrival in England and growing literary fame, he -ventured to the Metropolis in the year 1757, and as Northcote says in -his _Life of Reynolds_ (I, 332-3): “Having heard of his brother Noll -mixing in the first society in London, he took it for granted that his -fortune was made, and that he could soon make a brother’s also: he -therefore left home without notice: but soon found, on his arrival in -London, that the picture he had formed of his brother’s situation was -too highly coloured, that Noll could not introduce him to his great -friends, and in fact that, although out of a jail, he was often out of -a lodging.” - -The garret where Goldsmith then wrote and slept is supposed to have -been one of the courts near Salisbury Square. His letters were -addressed from the neighbouring Temple-exchange coffee-house near -Temple Bar, and the secret of the lodging is said to have been won from -the coffee-house waiter “George” to whom Charles Goldsmith confided his -relationship. (Forster I, 124.) - -Thus disappointed, Charles quitted London in a few days, suddenly and -secretly as he had entered it, “in a humble capacity it is said, for -Jamaica”: whence says Forster (I, 125) “he did not return till after -four-and-thirty years to tell this anecdote, and to be described by -Malone as not a little like his celebrated brother in person, speech -and manner.” - -When Charles came back to this country in 1791 it was to arrange for -his ultimate settlement with his family in England: but after the peace -of Amiens (1802), he sold his house, and with his wife (a Creole), a -daughter and a son named Oliver (born in England), migrated to the -South of France. In consequence of Buonaparte’s order for detaining -British subjects, he again returned to England in 1803 by way of -Holland, much reduced in circumstances, and died about 1805 at humble -lodgings in Ossulston Street, Somers Town. - -In an original letter of Charles himself, dated 2 September, 1795, in -the Percy bundle of Goldsmithiana, he says specifically: “I paid in -1791 a visit to my native country: on my arrival I found the greatest -part of my relations and old friends had paid the debt of Nature: my -brother Maurice remained: he gave me a pleasing account of the great -benefits you had been pleased to bestow on him.” As Maurice had died, -Charles put in a plea for help for himself in view of the necessity -of supporting “a wife and five children.” These were of course the -offspring of his Jamaica marriage with a Creole, and Charles said -nothing about any former marriage. Percy is not known to have answered -the letter: but on 8 December, 1801, Charles made another appeal. -Before answering this the Bishop made some cautious enquiries of -another member of the family, Catherine, daughter of the Revd. Henry, -who was already (since 1794) a candidate for his charity. She replied -on 28 December, 1801, that “there are some parts of his [Charles’] -letter true, and many others not so. He is indeed a most delightful -companion, abounds with wit and humour, and is perfectly the gentleman, -but he does not possess the steadiness or benevolent heart that my -much respected father or Uncle Oliver did. At the same time I think -he has a much better claim than my Uncle Maurice’s widow, for she was -left a very handsome fortune of near two hundred a year, and more than -a thousand pounds in ready money. I think she has no title at all to -receive anything from the sale of the Poems.” Later, Catherine wrote -again to the Bishop on 6 January, 1802, saying she had information that -her Uncle (Charles) “had a great deal of money in the Funds, that he -had some children and the most of them natural children. I assure you, -my Lord, he has a great deal of art and duplicity.” Percy wrote Charles -in 1802 some sort of letter, which the latter says he never received. -This was very possibly the case, in view of his migration to France -after the peace of Amiens. - -Through the exertions of Edmund Malone, Charles was discovered to be -back in London, and he wrote to the Bishop in 1803 some details of his -experiences in France, following this up later in 1804 with a fuller -statement which is very readable and quite interesting. - -The last letter preserved from Charles Goldsmith is dated 24 March, -1805, and is in a shaky hand, saying he is afraid “my poor little son -Oliver will soon be left fatherless and without a friend.” Probably -Charles died soon after, and according to the letter of a neighbour, -Mr. R. C. Roffe, dated 12 February, 1821, “almost in a state of second -childhood. His wife, with a son (Oliver) he had by her in England, -went to the West Indies”: and according to a quotation given by Prior -(II, 574) from a Jamaica newspaper, this Oliver died at Belmont on 21 -October, 1828, in the thirty-second year of his age. - -It must be added to the above that before Percy had heard from Charles, -he had in 1794 received a letter from one John Goldsmith, a sergeant of -the South Cork Militia, claiming to be Charles’s son. At first Percy -evidently thought the man an impostor. On one of John’s letters the -Bishop had pencilled “natural son of Charles Goldsmith,” and has marked -as “not true” a story of the marriage of his parents by “my uncle Henry -Goldsmith, who was then Rector of the Parish they lived in,” and -the reception of such parents by the grandmother Ann Goldsmith and -Catherine Hodson his aunt. John told the Bishop on 2 October, 1808, “I -did not imagine my father Charles Goldsmith was in existence, as I did -not either see or hear from him since I saw your Lordship in Dublin in -the year 1793, nor did I ever hear of his being married a second time.” -As there are amongst the Percy papers receipts dated in October, 1808, -May, 1809, and September, 1810, for a total of £35 in all for money -disbursed by the Bishop for the benefit of this John Goldsmith, Percy -may have considered there was something in his story after all. - -As to what subsequently happened to this John Goldsmith and the eight -children on whose behalf he appealed to the generosity of Dr. Percy, -there seems to be no information available, but Prior (II, 574) -mentions that “a person named Goldsmith, and claiming to be a nephew -of the poet, died in the Cholera Hospital in Bristol in 1833: he was -in a state of destitution and may have had no just right to the honour -he assumed.” He may have been this John Goldsmith, son (legitimate or -otherwise) of Charles Goldsmith. - - -THE PROFITS OF THE PERCY MEMOIR. - -The original design of Bishop Percy in undertaking the _Memoir_ of his -friend Goldsmith was to benefit Maurice. Then Catherine, daughter of -Henry, was added as a participant in the assumed profits: afterwards -(when Maurice died and Charles revealed himself) Charles Goldsmith, -the sole then remaining brother of Oliver. Percy’s ultimate decision, -when the work took shape and he had made his agreement with Cadell -and Davies in 1797, was for 125 of the 250 free copies of the work -given to him by Cadell and Davies for disposal to be sold through -White the bookseller of Fleet Street for the benefit of Charles, and -the remaining 125 copies to be sold through Archer the bookseller of -Dublin for the benefit of Catherine, daughter of the Revd. Henry. The -London copies seem to have gone off fairly well. Percy in a Memorandum -dated Dromore, 24 May, 1808, explaining the affair long after the -event to Dr. R. Anderson (_Literary Illustrations_, VII, 189-192), -says that from Charles “the Bishop frequently heard, informing him -that the payments were duly made, and whatever copies he desired were -delivered to him to dispose of among his friends for his own benefit. -He believes Mr. Charles Goldsmith is since dead, but the account is -still open with his family, to whom Mr. White must account for any that -may have remained of the 125 copies delivered to him.” The case of the -125 Irish copies was less satisfactory. “It was principally on account -of Catherine Goldsmith, who had been reduced to indigence, that the -Bishop had applied in 1800 to Messrs. Cadell and Davies to afford some -present relief, to alleviate the distress occasioned by the delay of -the publication: which being refused by them, the Bishop had supplied -the same himself, and continued to do so till her death, which took -place before Mr. Archer had come to a settlement for the 125 copies -transmitted to him. Part of these are still unsold.... Whatever arises -from this sale, or remains of Mr. Archer’s balance that was unpaid to -or for the niece, shall be delivered to any relative of Dr. Goldsmith -who shall be found a proper object of the same.” (Nichols’ _Literary -Illustrations_, VII, 191.) - -[Illustration] - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - - -[1] Dr. Thomas Bernard (1728-1806), who was also--like Percy--a member -of The Club. - -[2] _See_ letter from Malone to Percy, 28 Sept., 1807, in _Litt. Ill._, -VIII, 240. - -[3] I have ascertained that it is not now in the possession of the -Nichols family. E. C. - -[4] The last two figures are torn away. - - - - -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: - - - Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. - - Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - - Superscript characters are preceded by a carat character: Esq^r. - - Archaic or alternate spelling has been retained from the original. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Family Letters of Oliver Goldsmith, by -Ernest Clarke - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FAMILY LETTERS OF OLIVER *** - -***** This file should be named 62390-0.txt or 62390-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/3/9/62390/ - -Produced by Sonya Schermann, David E. 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