...self-perceived, his life corresponds to a perennial ideal, from Chaucer on down, of the rural parson who is "to all the country dear, / And passing rich with forty pounds a year" (Deserted Village, 11. 141-42.). Loss and death do of course occur in Selborne, but always in a context...

...resemblance to Chaucer's Parson in The Canterbury Tales. Near yonder copse, where once the garden smiled, And still where many a garden flower grows wild; There,...Remote from towns he ran his godly race, Nor e'er had changed, nor wished to change, his place; Unpractised he to fawn, or seek for power, By doctrines fashioned...

...readers will think the following extracts tedious. Near yonder copse, where once the garden smil'd, And still where many a garden flower grows wild; There,...disclose, The village preacher's modest mansion rose. This is a fine natural stroke — We see the 'copse,' the 'torn shrubs,' and the ' scatter' d flowers.'...

...Plumptre admits, "what was beauty to a man who could just but live" (1, 5). Goldsmith's nostalgic curate, "to all the country dear, / And passing rich with forty pounds a year, " retreats even farther into the mythic past as keen-eyed women writers address the matter of the competence....

...Goldsmith, "The Deserted Village," 1770, 1. 142. The poet described the "village preacher" as a man "to all the country dear, / And passing rich with forty pounds a year." See Collected Works Of Oliver Goldsmith. Vol. 4. 1966, p. 293. 200.25-29 the words of Ruth... me']...

...the whisp'ring wind, And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind. 4153 The Deserted Village A man , abide with me. 6670 'Praise, my soul, the King of...tends and spares us; Well our feeble frame he knows changed nor wished to change his place. 4 1 54 The Deserted Village He chid their wand'rings, but relieved...

...train, The sad historian of the pensive plain. 80 Near yonder copse, where once the garden smil'd. And still where many a garden flower grows wild, There,...a few torn shrubs the place disclose, The village preacher's'4 modest mansion rose. nie the loud laugh of the village simpleton. 12. In eighteenth-century...

...Somewhat later, Goldsmith describes the village preacher in The Deserted Village as follows: A man he was, to all the country dear, And passing rich with forty pounds a year. (As a comparison, note that this poem was itself published in 1770 at a cost of two shillings!) 77....

...THE VILLAGE PREACHER From the 'Deserted Village 1 NEAE yonder copse, where once the garden smil'd, And still where many a garden flower grows wild ;...Remote from towns he ran his godly race, Nor e'er had changed, nor wish'd to change, his place Unpractis'd he to fawn, or seek for power, By doctrines fashion'd...

...pensive plain. Near yonder copse, where once the garden smiled, And still where many a garden-flower grows wild; There, where a few torn shrubs the place...Remote from towns he ran his godly race, Nor e'er had changed, nor wished to change, his place; Unpractised he to fawn, or seek for power, By doctrines fashioned...