Intended Epilogue to She Stoops to Conquer, Another Intended Epilogue to She Stoops to Conquer, Epilogue to She Stoops to Conquer, Epilogue, Spoken by Mr. Charles Lee Lewes, in the Character of Harlequin, VIDA'S GAME OF CHESS, LIFE OF GOLDSMITH. OLIVER GOLDSMITH was born in the remote village of Pallas, in Ireland, on the 10th of November, 1728. He was the son of the Rev. Charles Goldsmith, a Protestant clergyman, whose character is supposed to be delineated in The Vicar of Wakefield and the pastor of The Deserted Village. Two years after Oliver's birth, the fortunes of his father reached their zenith in a benefice of nearly two hundred pounds a year, to which he succeeded by the death of his wife's uncle, the rector of Kilkenny West. This called for the removal of the family to the pretty village of Lissoy. The children were at that time four in number: Catherine, Henry, Jane, and Oliver, then the youngest. In the next ten years the family was increased by Maurice, Charles, and John. The first-born, Margaret, and John, the youngest, died in childhood. Henry followed the calling of his father. The other boys seem to have led wandering and shiftless lives. Of the girls, Catherine married a wealthy husband, Mr. Hodson, and Jane a poor one; and both for some years survived their celebrated brother. Oliver learned his letters from Elizabeth Delap, a dependant in his father's house, and afterwards schoolmistress of Lissoy. She lived to be ninety years old, and was fond of talking of the celebrated doctor, and telling how dull a boy he was. When six years of age, he was sent to the village school kept by Mr. Thomas Byrne, who had been a quarter-master in Marlborough's wars, and no doubt taught accordingly. Thence, he went to the Rev. Mr. Griffin's superior school of Elphin, where his school-fellows, we are told, “all consid ered him a stupid, heavy, block-head, little better than a fool, whom every one made fun of." He brightened up, however, before many years, and showed such lively talents that after some four years spent under the instruction of the Rev. Patrick Hughes at Edgeworthstown, it was resolved he should be sent to college. To Dublin college therefore he went as a sizar, or menial student, where his brother Henry had gone as a pensioner. But the poor clergyman's circumstances, humble as they were, had changed for the worse, by his effort to provide a portion for his daughter Catherine, who had privately married a young gentleman of fortune, Mr. Hodson, while pursuing his studies under the charge of her brother Henry. Oliver was a sensitive boy, reluctant to pursue liberal studies as a servant; but he was finally induced to submit to it by the kind persuasions of Thomas Contarine, a clergyman who had married the sister of Charles Goldsmith, and who alone of the poet's connections took an early and efficient interest in his education. At college he seems to have had few acquaintances and no friends. His tutor was a brute; his position was humiliating, and the studies were little to his taste. In 1747, when he had been about eighteen months at college, he lost his father, and his situation became still more distressing. He saved himself from starvation by writing streetballads, which he sold for five shillings apiece at the Reindeer Repository, and would steal out from college in the evening to hear them sung. This was the only gleam of sunshine in his college life — the consciousness of talents which could give pleasure to his fellow-men. He was engaged with some fellow-students in a riot, and was publicly admonished. Soon after, he sought to retrieve the disgrace by trying for a scholarship. This he lost; but he won a small college prize, and gave a dancing party on the strength of some thirty shillings thereby accruing. In the midst of the gayety, his tutor made his appearance, and without ceremony knocked down the hospitable sizar. Goldsmith forthwith ran away, and lived a few days on what he was able to raise by selling his books and clothes, when he turned his steps towards Lissoy. He was afterwards prevailed upon to return to college, and took his degree of bachelor of arts on the 27th of February, 1749. The two years following he passed at his mother's cottage at Ballymahon, where he assisted as usher in his |