Oliver Goldsmith | Page 2

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 collateral facts, would do well to refer themselves to Mr. Prior's circumstantial volumes, or to the elegant and discursive pages of Mr. Forster.
For my own part, I can only regret my shortcomings in what to me is a labor of love; for it is a tribute of gratitude to the memory of an author whose writings were the delight of my childhood, and have been a source