The poem of "Retaliation" was his last performance, which he did not live to finish. It was written in answer to some illiberal attacks in a club of literary friends. When he had gone as far as the character of Sir Joshua Reynolds, he read it to his associates. He however did not mean to publish this poem, but to keep it, as he expressed himself to a friend," as a rod in pickle upon a future occasion;" but this occasion never presented itself: for a more awful period was approaching, "when kings as well as poets cease from their labours." Goldsmith's generosity, not to call it profusion, was without bounds. He was so humane in his disposition, that his last guinea was the general boundary of his mu nificence. Besides two or three poor authors always as pensioners, he had several widows and poor housekeepers; and when he had no money to give, he sent the latter away with shirts or old clothes, and sometimes with the whole contents of his breakfast-table, saying, after they were gone, with a smile of satisfaction, "Now let me suppose I have ate a hearty breakfast, and am nothing out of pocket." His habit of gaming, and general carelessness with respect to money-matters, appear to have been his predominant failings. Though in the course of fourteen years, the produce of his pen is said to have amounted to more than eight thousand pounds, yet his income bore no proportion to his expenses. He became embarrassed in his circumstances, and in consequence, uneasy, fretful, and peevish. To this was added a violent strangury, with which he was some years afflicted, and which, with other misfortunes, brought on a kind of habitual despondency, wherein he used to express a great indifference to life. In this state he was attacked, March 1774, by a nervous fever, which, being improperly treated, ter minated in his dissolution the 4th of April, 1774, after an illness of ten days, in the forty-third year of his age. He was buried in the Temple Church-yard, the 9th of the same month. A pompous funeral was intended; but a slight inspection into his affairs showed the impropriety of that design, and most of his friends sent excuses. few coffee house acquaintance, rather suddenly collected, attended his remains to the grave. A A few years after his death, a monument, by Nollikens, was erected in Westminster Abbey, at the expense of the literary club to which he belonged; and upon it is inscribed the following epitaph, written by Dr. Samuel Johnson : OLIVARII GOLDSMITH, nullum quod tetigit non ornavit ; affectuum potens, at lenis dominator; sodalium amor, amicorum fides, lectorum veneratio. Natus Hibernia, Forneiæ Lonfordiensis, in loco cui nomen Pallas, Nov. 29, 1731. Eblanæ literis institutus, obiit Londini, Apr. 4, 1774. Translation This monument is raised to the memory of Poet, Natural Philosopher, and Historian, whether to move laughter, or draw tears: at once sublime, lively, and equal to every subject: in expression at once noble, pure, and delicate. will last as long as society retains affection, and reading wants not her admirers. He was born in the kingdom of Ireland, at Fernes, in the province of Leinster, where Pallas had set her name, He was educated at Dublin, and died in London, Goldsmith's Miscellaneous Essays, in prose and verse, were collected into one volume, 8vo, 1775; and again much enlarged in 3 vol. 12mo, by the late Mr. Thomas Wright, printer, and published in 1798. His poetical and dramatic works were collected, and printed in 2 vol. 8vo, 1780. An edition of his Miscellaneous Works was printed at Perth, 3 vol. 8vo, 1793. His Traveller and Deserted Village have been frequently reprinted, and with his Retaliation and other pieces, were received into the edition of the "English Poets," 1790. As a poet, Goldsmith is characterised by elegance, tenderness, and simplicity. He is of the school of Dryden and Pope, rather than that of Spencer and Milton. In sweetness and harmony, he rivals every writer of verse since the days of Pope. It is to be regreted, that his poetical performances are not more numerous. Though he wrote prose with great facility, he was rather slow in his poetry, not from the tardiness of fancy, but the time he took in pointing the sentiment, and polishing the versification. His manner of writing poetry, it is said, was this he first sketched a part of his design in prose, in which he threw out his ideas as they occurred to him; he then sat carefully down to versify them, correct them, and add such other ideas as he thought better fitted to the subject. |