Oliver Goldsmith | Page 2

XXIII. Burning the Candle at both Ends--Fine Apartments--Fine
Furniture--Fine Clothes--Fine Acquaintances--Shoemaker's Holiday
and Jolly Pigeon Associates--Peter Barlow, Glover, and the Hampstead
Hoax--Poor Friends among Great Acquaintances
XXIV. Reduced again to Book-building--Rural Retreat at Shoemaker's
Paradise--Death of Henry Goldsmith--Tributes to his memory in The
Deserted Village
XXV. Dinner at Bickerstaff's--Hiffernan and his

Impecuniosity--Kenrick's Epigram--Johnson's
Consolation--Goldsmith's Toilet--The bloom-colored
Coat--New Acquaintances--The Hornecks--A touch of Poetry and
Passion--The Jessamy Bride
XXVI. Goldsmith in the Temple--Judge Day and Grattan--Labor and
Dissipation--Publication of the Roman History--Opinions of it--History
of Animated Nature--Temple Rooker--Anecdotes of a Spider
XXVII. Honors at the Royal Academy--Letter to his brother
Maurice--Family Fortunes--Jane Contarine and the Miniature--Portraits
and Engravings--School Associations--Johnson and Goldsmith in
Westminster Abbey
XXVIII. Publication of the Deserted Village--Notices and Illustrations
of it
XXIX. The Poet among the Ladies--Description of his Person and
Manners-- Expedition to Paris with the Horneck Family--The Traveler
of Twenty and the Traveler of Forty--Hickey, the Special Attorney--An
Unlucky Exploit
XXX. Death of Goldsmith's Mother--Biography of Parnell--Agreement
with Davies for the History of Rome--Life of Bolingbroke--The
Haunch of Venison
XXXI. Dinner at the Royal Academy--The Rowley
Controversy--Horace Walpole's Conduct to Chatterton--Johnson at
Redcliffe Church--Goldsmith's History of England--Davies's
Criticism--Letter to Bennet Langton
XXXII. Marriage of Little Comedy--Goldsmith at Barton--Practical
Jokes at the Expense of his Toilet--Amusements at Barton--Aquatic
Misadventure
XXXIII. Dinner at General Oglethorpe's--Anecdotes of the
General--Dispute about Dueling--Ghost Stories
XXXIV. Mr. Joseph Cradock--An Author's Confidings--An
Amanuensis--Life at Edgeware--Goldsmith Conjuring--George
Colman--The Fantoccini
XXXV. Broken Health--Dissipation and Debts--The Irish
Widow--Practical Jokes--Scrub--A Misquoted
Pun--Malagrida--Goldsmith proved to be a Fool--Distressed
Ballad-Singers--The Poet at Ranelagh
XXXVI. Invitation to Christmas--The Spring-velvet Coat--The

Haymaking Wig --The Mischances of Loo--The fair Culprit--A dance
with the Jessamy Bride
XXXVII. Theatrical delays--Negotiations with Colman--Letter to
Garrick--Croaking of the Manager--Naming of the Play--She Stoops to
Conquer--Foote's Primitive Puppet Show, Piety on Pattens--First
Performance of the Comedy--Agitation of the
Author--Success--Colman Squibbed out of Town
XXXVIII. A Newspaper Attack--The Evans Affray--Johnson's
Comment
XXXIX. Boswell in Holy-Week--Dinner at Oglethorpe's--Dinner at
Paoli's--The policy of Truth--Goldsmith affects Independence of
Royalty--Paoli's Compliment--Johnson's Eulogium on the
Fiddle--Question about Suicide--Boswell's Subserviency
XL. Changes in the Literary Club--Johnson's objection to
Garrick--Election of Boswell
XLI. Dinner at Dilly's--Conversations on Natural
History--Intermeddling of Boswell--Dispute about
Toleration--Johnson's Rebuff to Goldsmith--His
Apology--Man-worship--Doctors Major and Minor--A Farewell Visit
XLII. Project of a Dictionary of Arts and
Sciences--Disappointment--Negligent Authorship--Application for a
Pension--Beattie's Essay on Truth--Public Adulation--A high-minded
Rebuke
XLIII. Toil without Hope--The Poet in the Green-room--In the Flower
Garden--At Vauxhall--Dissipation without Gayety--Cradock in
Town--Friendly Sympathy--A Parting Scene--An Invitation to Pleasure
XLIV. A return to Drudgery--Forced Gayety--Retreat to the
Country--The Poem of Retaliation--Portrait of Garrick--Of
Goldsmith--of Reynolds--Illness of the Poet--His Death--Grief of his
Friends--A last Word respecting the Jessamy Bride
XLV. The Funeral--The Monument--The Epitaph--Concluding
Reflections

PREFACE
In the course of a revised edition of my works I have come to a
biographical sketch of Goldsmith, published several years since. It was
written hastily, as introductory to a selection from his writings; and,

though the facts contained in it were collected from various sources, I
was chiefly indebted for them to the voluminous work of Mr. James
Prior, who had collected and collated the most minute particulars of the
poet's history with unwearied research and scrupulous fidelity; but had
rendered them, as I thought, in a form too cumbrous and overlaid with
details and disquisitions, and matters uninteresting to the general
reader.
When I was about of late to revise my biographical sketch, preparatory
to republication, a volume was put into my hands, recently given to the
public by Mr. John Forster, of the Inner Temple, who, likewise availing
himself of the labors of the indefatigable Prior, and of a few new lights
since evolved, has produced a biography of the poet, executed with a
spirit, a feeling, a grace and an eloquence, that leave nothing to be
desired. Indeed it would have been presumption in me to undertake the
subject after it had been thus felicitously treated, did I not stand
committed by my previous sketch. That sketch now appeared too
meager and insufficient to satisfy public demand; yet it had to take its
place in the revised series of my works unless something more
satisfactory could be substituted. Under these circumstances I have
again taken up the subject, and gone into it with more fullness than
formerly, omitting none of the facts which I considered illustrative of
the life and character of the poet, and giving them in as graphic a style
as I could command. Still the hurried manner in which I have had to do
this amid the pressure of other claims on my attention, and with the
press dogging at my heels, has prevented me from giving some parts of
the subject the thorough handling I could have wished. Those who
would like to see it treated still more at large, with the addition of
critical disquisitions and the advantage of