EDITED BY

PROFESSOR ERIC S. ROBERTSON, M.A.

LIFE OF GOLDSMITH.

LIFE

OF

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

BY

AUSTIN DOBSON

LONDON

WALTER SCOTT

24 WARWICK LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW

1888

(All rights reserved.)

A

HARVARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

JAN 27 1959

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

The Goldsmith family; Rev. Charles Goldsmith, of Pallas;

Oliver Goldsmith born there, November 10, 1728; removal

to Lissoy, 1730; Oliver's first teachers, Elizabeth Delap

and Thomas Byrne; childish characteristics; has the

smallpox; anecdotes connected therewith; further school-

ing at Elphin, Athlone, and Edgeworthstown ; adventure at

Ardagh; sizar at Trinity College, Dublin, June II, 1744;

his tutor Theaker Wilder; dislike to mathematics and

logic; involved in a college riot, May, 1747; gets a small

exhibition; disastrous results; runs away from college;

returns; writes songs for ballad-singers; anecdote of his

benevolence; takes his B.A. degree, February 27, 1749;

relies of college life

PAGE

II

CHAPTER II.

Waiting for orders; rejected by the Bishop of Elphin, 1751;
tutor to Mr. Flinn; sets out for America, and returns;
letter to his mother; starts again fruitlessly as a law
student; goes to Edinburgh to study medicine; becomes
a member of the Medical Society there, January 13, 1753;
life in Scotland; starts for Paris; adventures by the way;