33 Oliver Goldsmith

Prof. Mohan G. Ramanan

 Story board

• Section 1 Introduces Goldsmith and states the aim of the lesson
• Section 2 The Life and letters of Goldsmith which throw much light on his life are considered
• Section 3 The Citizen of theWorld and the observations of the ChinesetravelerAltangi are described
• Section 4 This section deals with Goldsmith’s major poem “The Traveller”
• Section 5 This describes the nature of Goldsmith’ssatirical poem “The Deserted Village”, its themes and techniques
• Section 6 The context of GeorgianSentimentalism and the reaction to it in the Laughing Comedies of Goldsmith and Sheridan is explored
• Section 7 She Stoops to Conquer, Goldsmith’s major anti-sentimental play is analysed closely
• Section 8 The Novel,The Vicar Of Wakefield, is analysed for its themes, its characters and its technique
• Section 9 The Conclusion sums up the lesson

Lesson Plan:

In thislesson we shall first survey his life and get a sense of his opinions on art and life, consider briefly the works in chronological order. Invariably we shall attempt a summary of the work in question, a consideration of its themes and literary qualities and the reception of the work. There will be at the appropriate place, a more detailed consideration of She Stoops to Conquer—a text which is widely read because of its popularity.

Section 1: Introduction

In this lesson we shall deliberate on the life and opinions of Oliver Goldsmith. He was considered a man who had the ability to turn whatever he touched to either dross or gold.The celebrated author of the Citizen of the World, poems such as, The Travelerand The Deserted Village, Enquiry into the Present State ofPolite Learning in Europe, a novelette, The Vicar of Wakefield,essays and reviews and two well-known plays – The Critic and She Stoops to Conquer.

However, he also wrote Histories which are considered unreadable.He was part of a club which countedEdmund Burke (the statesman), Thomas Warton (the scholar), Sir JoshuaReynolds (the painter),Dr. Johnson (the greatCham of Literature)and Sir WilliamChambers (the judge), amongst its members. In this club, where learning was obviously visible, and wit freely displayed, Oliver Goldsmith was often the butt ofchafingat the hands of his compeers who made fun of his envious nature and his craving for attention.

He was capable of saying the most outrageous things only to draw attention to himselfandhisenvyofDr. Johnson led him to make unwise remarks. He would attempt to make light of this by sometimes joining in the fun and mocking himself and ‘Nolly’ as he was affectionately called, was seen as a sympathetic character. Hewas sensitive to slights and on occasion crossed swords even with his formidable friend, Dr. Johnson, who quickly made up with his younger colleague.On balance in spite of his drunkenness and foolishness, he comes through as a well-rounded author and a major figure in Eighteenth Century EnglishLiterature.

Section 2: Life and Letters of Goldsmith

Goldsmith was of Irish stock and was born on November 10, 1728, in Pallas, in the county of Longford, theson of an Anglican clergyman. He studied at the Edgeworthstown School and Trinity College, Dublin, securing a BA. in 1749. He went to study medicine in Edinburgh and thenwanderedaroundEurope, begging for bread by playing the flute or practicing medicine. He understood poverty first hand and this is visible in his literary work. Among his many writings arethefour volume History of England, his eight volume History of the Earth and Animated Nature and his two volume History of Romegenerally regarded as indifferent performances.

Even a brief consideration of the letters of Goldsmith where he is seen at his candid and intimate best, demonstrates the human side of Goldsmith which endeared him to his relatives and friends. Againstthe scanty biographical information available on Goldsmith, the letters are a revelation ofhis relationship with his family, particularly his brothers, and on the authenticity of his Fiddleback Adventures, his writing of the mediocre ThrenodiaAugustalis and of the brilliantShe Stoops to Conquer.

His letters, edited so ably by Katherine C Balderstone as early as 1928 and reprinted in 1969 by the Folcroft Press, provide a clearer picture of him. Some information on his early life is culled from his letters to his sister, Mrs. Hodgson and the prosaic side of an otherwise colourful life, comes out in his constant demand on people for monetary loans and promises of repayment, his complaints of neglect by friends and relatives and so on. We also learn, crucially, why he could not make it to India as a physician for the East India Company. The French invasion of Madras was partly responsible for his inability to set sail.

Section 3: Citizen of the World

Goldsmith printed in The Public Ledger in 1760 and 1761 a series of “Chinese Letters” which in 1762 were collected and published as Citizen of the World.

In this very interesting narrative, Goldsmith invents a fictional characters called Lien Chi Altangi who is purported to be a native of Hunan in China. Altangi who has met many Englishmen in Canton has learnt English and sends a series of letters from London to his friend Fum Foam, the President of the Ceremonial Academy in Peking.

These letters are descriptive of the manners and customsof the English and in writing about these,Altangi exposes the ridiculous customs and characteristics of English people. Here is a witty excerpt from Altangi in Letter ii:“I have known some provinces [in China]where there is not even a name for the ocean. What a strange people therefore am I got amongst, who have founded an empire on this unstable element, who build cities upon billows that rise higher than the mountains of Tipartala,and make the deep more formidable than the wildest tempest”. Using a foreign traveller to make fun of one’s own culture is a time honoured fictional device, tried out by Montesquieu, Horace Walpole, among others.

Goldsmith satirizes his country by using this device, and through these letters, fictionalizes his own experiences as a traveller to many parts of the world. The satire becomes even more authentic because Goldsmith takes care to portray Altangi as a reliable and authoritative observer of the English scene.

Section 4: The Traveller

The Traveller, or, a Prospect of Society was published in 1764, though he had begun writing it in 1755while he was travelling in Switzerland. From the vantage point of the Alps, the narrator speculates on happiness. It is a philosophical poem written in heroic couplets. It reflects on the causes of humanhappiness and sorrow. In this poem, as his dedication tells us, Goldsmith was attempting to show that every nationhas its own degree ofhappiness and believes they have a monopoly over happiness. Goldsmith believes that actually happiness is equally spread across the world, but manifests itself in different ways, depending on the mode of governance of a nation.

He goes on to reflect on Italy, Switzerland, France, Holland and, of course, Britain. In Britain a free constitution has led to the rich oppressing the poor, and those who fled this tyranny and went to America, have found the land dangerous and harsh. True happiness, the poem concludes is to be found within oneself:

“How small, of all that human hearts endure,

That part which laws or Kings can cause or cure.

Still to ourselves in every place consign’d,

Our own felicity we make or find.”

The poem, in a way, made Goldsmith’s reputation and it had the commendation of Johnson, the most influential critic of the age. It is, like The Deserted Village, a poem which has a conservative bias and is against speculation and crass capitalism and commerce. The poem has been praised for its sentiments, its elegant imagery and its sublimity. Goldsmith, on this basis, has been considered a great Augustan poet.

Section 5: The Deserted Village

This poem was published in 1770 and is, like The Traveller, a work of social commentary and satire. While there has been much speculation as to the original of the Village – with some identifying it with Lissoy in Ireland, others with Nuneham Courtenay – the village of the poem could actually exemplify in general, England’s rural economy shattered by depopulation, with people migrating to the urban cities or to America.

Its innocence strikes a contrast with the moral degradation of the cities. Through the lives and annals of the Village,Goldsmith criticizes consumerism, capitalism and the effects of the industrial revolution, enclosure of the common land in rural parts, the vogue for landscape gardening at the expense of original landscape,andingeneral the commercial and money mindedness of the people. It is a Tory poem and is therefore profoundly political.

The poem opens with a description of “Sweet Auburn”, the ideal Village of Goldsmith’s conception where health and plenty abound, the swains labour cheerfully and where spring brings plenitude. This is how Auburn was but now everything is ruined because of the depopulation of the village.

Then follow two beautiful and justly famous portraits (Chaucer’s influence is clearly visible) of the Village Parson and the Village School master and a poignant description of the bonhomie which existed in the ale house at one time. Goldsmith attacks the corruptions of the day, the manner in which a village girl goes to the city and loses her innocenceand how those from Auburn who have migrated to America are hardly better off in a land of blazing suns and horrid shores. His famous remark “ill fares the land which expels its peasantry, because a village community once gone can never be replaced” and “when wealth accumulates men decay”, are justly proverbial.

The poem is 430 lines long and written in heroic-couplets, with an AABBCC rhyme scheme.  The consistent iambic pentameter lines and thecareful choice of diction andapt handling of syntax makes this a supreme example of Augustan satire. The pastoral tradition to which this poembelongs ,imitates classical writers such as Pliny and Juvenal, who bemoaned in their poems the displacement of the rural poor by the rich. In the manner of Virgil, who in his Georgics attributes the corruption of Rome and the Roman Empire to luxury and pride, Goldsmith warns Britain of the same danger to it.

The positive values of the poems are a prioritizing of nature overart, frugality over luxury, national vigour as against national corruption, and above all the country posited against the city. We have noted the Tory politics of Goldsmith and in this respect he, along with Alexander Pope, Johnson and Burke in promotes the conservative temper.

Section 6: The Anti- Sentimental Comedy or the Laughing Comedy

It is often asserted that Goldsmith, along with Sheridan, was responsible for an anti-sentimental Comic Drama, which made an effort to balance the sentimental excesses of the dramatic crafts of the Eighteenth Century. A little perspective at this stage would be useful. If Restoration Comedy of the Seventeenth century was regarded as aristocratic and courtly (Charles II had returned to the country from France and ascended the throne)and reflected the amoral and dissolute culture of the Court, Sentimental Drama was a reaction to it.

Wycherley’s The Country Wife and Etherege’s The Man of Mode are typical of Restoration Drama in their lewd dialogues and portrayal of seduced wives and cuckolded husbands. The Revolution of 1688, which brought William of Orange to the throne, also signaled the rise of the Middle Class, much of it informed by puritan values. Sentimental Drama, both in its comic and tragic dimensions gave importance to feeling, sincerity and ethical values.

Jeremy Collier’s Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness ofthe English Stage (1698) asserted of Restoration Drama that it was “nothingbut a little whoring, pimping, gaming, profaneness”. Goats and monkeys, he said “if they could speak, would express their brutality in such language as this.” Collier gave the lead for eighteenth century drama to affect a course correction. Now, drama, as practiced by Southerne, Vanbrugh, Farquahar and even Congrevefreeditselffrom the coarseness and cynicism of the Restoration wits. Congreve’s The Way of the World has characters like Mirabell who is sententious and witty in a sentimental manner. He is different from Dorimant in Etherege or Horner in Wycherley who are rakish and downright cynical in their pursuit of pleasure.

Like Mirabell, characters like Heartfree in Vanbrugh’s The Provoked Wife and Fashion in The Relapse are not rakish at all and respect true love. Drama of this kind aims at moral didacticism and effect and the comedy is suffused with sentiment, emotion and morality. We must understand that in Eighteenth century parlance, sentiment stood for refined sensibility, tender emotion and reflectiveness and meditative calm. Even such a perspicacious scholar like Dr. Johnson defined it as “quickness of perception”.

Sentiment is what informs Fiction at this time too and books like Sterne’s The Sentimental Journey and Henry Mackenzie’s Man of Feeling are good examples of this tendency. Addison and Steele in their essays advanced sentiment and morality. The philosophical basis for sentiment was given by Shaftesbury, who regarded man as inherently good, and saw malice and misanthropy as unnatural. His philosophy of benevolence was influential in the writing of poems like Akenside’s “The Pleasures of the Imagination” and Thomson’s “Seasons”. Latitudinarian philosophy informed by this Benevolence, its acceptance of man’s good nature and its approval of tender sentiment and the practice of charity, much of it exemplified in Rousseau’s Emile, was the proper background for Sentimental Comedy, With regard to Sentimental Comedy, John Loftis believes there is only sentimentalism in comedy and that there is no such thing as Sentimental Comedy. However, scholars such as Pathania feel differently. Sentimental Comedy, Pathania argues, has a pattern which is recognizable. It has pathos and an overdose of Morality. It has tearful denouements, and very little laughter. It treats serious and emotional subjects sympathetically, and enables events to end in happiness. If the premium is placed on tragic possibilities, it is not different from Sentimental Tragedy or Melodrama which isdistinguished only by itstragic endings.

The principal characters have tender minds and they do not indulge in bawdy wordplay. It is aimed at elevating human nature by depicting moral excellence. The pleasure the audience derives is from seeing Virtue, triumph over Evil. Flippancy is avoided and there is more sentiment than wit in this drama. The emphasis is on thedomestic virtues. Love, courtship and marriage are emphasized instead of seduction, adultery and sexual freedom.

The reconciliation of married couples (as in Sheridan’s The Rivals), reformation of erring characters, triumph of true love and ardent rejection ofvillainy, innocent virtue in distress triumphing over male libertines—this is the stuff of Sentimental Comedy. The drama has affecting scenes of pathos, tears by the gallon, and weeping is seenas a positive virtue, and a heavy tone of piety pervades the texture of these plays. The heroes are grave and moral and poetic justice is invariably served.

There is, for example, old SirOliver in The Rivals an embodiment of Benevolence, a stock character Sheridan draws from Sentimental Comedy. There are lengthy homilies on Virtue, and the general tendency is to avoid hearty comedy and laughter. Sentimental dramatists include Steele, Cibber, Shadwell, Charles Johnson and Sentimental Tragedy is practiced by Thomas Otway, SoutherneandTate.

As a reaction to this Sentimental Comedy we have the Laughing Comedy of the Eighteenth century which provides the balance to Sentimental Drama. Goldsmith and Sheridan, then form part of this natural and logical reaction to Sentimental Comedy. It was an inevitable reaction to the demise of amusement and laughter on the stage.

Section 7: She Stoops to Conquer

The play was first performed in 1773 and has an abiding value because of its humour and its representative quality of a genre of dramatic writing. The original title was Mistakes of a Nightand indeed the action of the play is the happenings of one night. To that extent it follows the Aristotelean dictum of the unity of action. The wealthy Mr. Hardcastle hopes that his daughter Kate will marry Charles Marlow, the rich heir of a Londoner. Marlow is afraid of the upper class woman and is more comfortable with the working class.

Kate pretends to be a common woman so that she can secure Marlow and that is how the play gets its title because Kate has to stoop to conquer. Marlow is taken in by Kate’s ploy. He and his friend, George Hastings, who happens to be in love with Constance Neville, a companion of Kate, set out to visit the Hardcastles. During their journey at night they get lost and are conned by Tony Lumpkin, Kate’s half – brother and Constance’s cousin, who knowing their identity, nevertheless plays a trick on them and dupes the travellers into believing that their destination is far away and that they will have to spend the night at an Inn. The inn to which he directs them is actually Hardcastle’s Manor. The Hardcastles who are expecting them give them a warm welcome but the visitors thinking that they are in an inn behave churlishly and insult Mr. Hardcastle who bears these assaults on his dignity because he is a friend of Marlow’s father, Sir Charles Marlow.

In themeanwhile, to add to the fun, Kate who has been told about their identity and about Tony’s tricks decides to play along. She pretends to be a serving maid and alters her modes of dressing and her accent. Marlow predictably falls in love with Kate partly because he believes her to be only a maid. They even plan to elope but all confusion is cleared with the appearance of Sir Charles Marlow.

This is the main plot but Goldsmith who is a consummate artist has a sub plot which is about the love affair of Constance and Hastings. Constance is under the control of Mrs. Hardcastle who wants her to marry her own son, Tony. But Tony does not want to marry Constance, preferring a barmaid in the ale house. Tony agrees to steal the jewels Mrs. Hardcastle has kept in trust for Constance so that the latter can elope with Hastings to France.

The play concludes with Kate succeeding in getting engaged to Marlow.Tony realizes that his mother has lied to him about his being of age and his inheritance.He refuses to marry Constance and the latter now in possession of her jewels gets engaged to Hastings.We may speak of She Stoops to Conquer as a Comedy of Manners. What we mean by this is that in this respect it is a play which is in the tradition of Restoration Drama where polite society and its manners are explored and the mismatch between the nature of the characters and the manners they attempt to keep up are exposed. Given the reaction to Restoration bawdiness discussed earlier, we need to see this play also in that context.

It is not Restoration bawdy nor is it Sentimental Comedy. If anything it laughs at those plays which privileged feeling and sentiment.In this respect it may be called a Laughing Comedy. Kate’s sentimental preference for commoners and Marlow’s nervousness with the upper class are instances of the humour Goldsmith is able to generate. The ludicrousness of their behavior and the implied sense of positive values and balance which Sir Charles brings to the foreground make this a good example of satirical Drama, sometimes bordering on Farce.

The classical Unities are preserved in this play and the weaving of the main plot and the sub-plot skillfully gives coherence and craft to this play. Unity of action insofar as the play is about the mistakes of one night is observed in a way but the unity of Time is clearly present while the Unity of place is achieved by having the action take place in a Manor which is mistaken for an alehouse, “The Three Pigeons”. Even though strictly speaking the action is in two places we are meant to see both places as one. Even the excursion to Crackskull Common does not take place and therefore the unity of Place is preserved.

The Characters are well delineated. Marlow is the central male character and is in love with Kate. He is a scholar but that does not prevent him from being crass in his behavior with Hardcastle whom he mistakes for an ale house owner. Does one feel offended with Marlow’s behavior? Perhaps not, if we realize that his rudeness is not deliberate and that it is actually funny and finally we always forgive a lover, particularly a lover who is nervous in front of his peers.Hastings, the admirer of Constance, wants to elope with her to France.But Constance cannot leave her jewels behind and Tony helps in retrieving them from Mrs. Hardcastle. Tony Lumpkin is a loveable character, son of Mrs. Hardcastle and step son to Mr. Hardcastle. He is a mischievous figure. His lack of control and Mrs. Hardcastle’s helplessness in the face of his defiance is a contrast to the way Mr. Hardcastle controls Kate, and his efforts to get out of the possible entanglement with Constance draw a lot of laughs.

His ploy and deception of Marlow and Hastings sets up and initiates the plot of the play. Mr. Hardcastle is a conservative countryman and is against the licentious ways of the city. He is an authoritarian father, insisting even on the manner of Kate’s dress. He shows great restraint in the face of provocation from Marlow and Hastings who mistake him for an inn keeper. He plays a statesmanlike role in bringing the young couples together by his gracious forgiveness of all the mistakes committed by them.

Mrs. Hardcastle is a corrupt and hypocritical character. Her love of Tony blinds her to the need of others including Tony. Her punishment is that she is left unhappy at the end of the play unlike all the others who are happy. Kate, the heroine of the Play, dresses plainly to please her father.She is actually fond of the City, enjoys French frippery and schemes to get her way, stooping to win Marlow. Constance, is a contrast to Kate and despises Tony.

Marriage to him would enable Mrs. Hardcastle to retain her jewels but she, like Kate, schemes to elope with Hastings and uses Tony to steal the jewels. Sir Charles Marlow, who is not tricked by Tony, is the clearest thinking individual in the play. He settles things for Marlow though he is shocked by his son’s treatment of Kate. He is the kind Elder who brings sanity and sense to the plot.

Section 8:The Vicar of Wakefield

We may report what Dr. Johnson had to say about thisexample of Eighteenth century Fiction. Johnson has immortalized the making of The Vicar of Wakefield in the following words:

I received one morning a message from poor Goldsmith that he was in great distress, and, as it was not in his power to come to me, begging that I would come to him as soon as possible. I sent him a guinea, and promised to come to him directly. I accordingly went as soon as I was dressed, and found that his landlady had arrested him for his rent, at which he was in a violent passion: I perceived that he had already changed my guinea, and had a bottle of madeira and a glass before him. I put the cork into the bottle, desired he would be calm, and began to talk to him of the means by which he might be extricated.He then told me he had a novel ready for the press, which he produced to me. I looked into it and saw its merit; I told the landlady I should soon return;and, having gone to a bookseller, sold it for sixty pounds.I brought Goldsmith the money, and he discharged his rent, not without rating his landlady in a high tone for having used him ill.

This novel was The Vicar of Wakefield and Francis Newberry who had purchased the novel did not publish it for two more years but when it came out it was rightly praised for its moral worth and its defence of traditional Christian virtues.

The story is as follows. Dr. Primrose and his wife Deborah live in a pastoral community with their six children. The Vicar is wealthy and he is generous in philanthropic activities. On the eve of his son, George’s marriage to Arabella Wilmot, the Vicar receives news that he has lost all his money through the bankruptcy of his merchant investor who has fled with the money. The wedding is called off by Arabella’s father. George, an Oxford scholar, is sent off to find his fortune and the family move to a humble parish owned by Squire Thornhill, a womanizer. While the Squire is a beau the uncle is known as worthy and generous.

An indigent friend called Mr. Burchell rescues Sophia from drowning and the two fall in love though Mrs. Primrose, who has ambitions for her daughters, is not happy with this.The other visitor is Squire Thornhill whose attentions to Olivia, Mrs. Primrose encourages. Olivia falls for the Squire and one day disappears. People say that Burchell has abducted her but it is actually the Squire who has done so with nefarious plans to marry her and desert her as he has done with other women.

Mr. Primrose returns with Olivia only to find his cottage in flames and the vengeful Squire demanding his rent and the Vicar unable to pay being sent tojail. In the meanwhile we are given to understand that Olivia is dead.Sophia is abducted and the family is in real trouble with George being sent to prison after he has fought Thornhill in a duel on learning of histreachery. Burchell arrives and it turns out that he is the senior Thornhill. He sorts out the troubles.George marries Arabella and William Thornhill marries Sophia and Primrose, the Vicar, gets back his fortune and all is well.

The element of sentimentalism in the novel is the first point to remember. It is in keeping with the preferences of the Age for Sentiment.Goldsmith taps into that tradition and balances sentiment with reason. In this he is consistent because in She Stoops to Conquer which is considered an anti-Sentimental Comedy, there is no dearth of sentiment. However, Goldsmith does not allow sentiment to degenerate into sentimentality and balances it with reason. The 32 chapters of this novel are divided into three parts with Chapters 1-3 being the beginning, Chapters 4-29the main part and Chapters29-32 the ending or denouement.

The turning point in the novel is in Chapter 17, where Olivia is reported to have fled because from this chapter onwards the comic spirit is replaced by sentimentality and melodrama. The novel is strewn with poems, histories, sermons and didactic fables and expands the otherwise first person narrative of the novel. The Vicar tells us the story retrospectively and it has elements of a fictitious memoir.

The Vicar is well delineated.He is simple, unsophisticated and domesticated, a good husband and a loving father but he is obsessed with the Church doctrine of strict monogamy, so much so thathe almost becomes a Type rather than a flesh and blood rounded figure. He is content to sacrifice his son’s happiness at the altar of his doctrine.

He is a poor judge of character but he is also finally triumphant because of his virtue. Deborah Primrose, his wife, is independent minded but her ambition brings misery to the family and she is deceived. Olivia and Sophia are well delineated and are contrasted with one another and Squire Thornhill is the typical villain while Mr. Burchell is the typical benevolent elder statesman.

The novel had a great vogue and in India spawned many imitations in the various languages. Pratapa MudaliarCharitram in Tamil is a version of Goldsmith’s fable. The Vicar is a novel of sentiment and the parallels with the Biblical Job who suffers patiently are strong. It is an important contribution to Eighteenth century Fiction and along with Johnson’s Rasselas,provides the great wisdom of the Age in quintessential form.

Section 9: Conclusion

In reading Goldsmith we gain much insight into human nature.Goldsmith is a humorist and his works can be seen as a contribution to the humorous literature of the Age. He is a satirist as well and whatever mode of writing he adopted, as we have seen, he wrote brilliantly and well. Goldsmith was a wayward spirit and would have been at home with the better Romantic writers but he did not have their Dionysiac quality. As JH Plumb puts it “Even though he looked like Caliban, his spirit was all Ariel.”

Points to ponder

• Did you know that Dr. Johnson saved Goldsmith from jail for falling back on his rentby reading andapprovingThe Vicar of Wakefield for publication?
• Goldsmith would have come to India as a Physician if political events in India had not made it impossible for him to travel.
• Goldsmith comes through in his work as a sympathetic character but in real life he was difficult to get on with, easily hurt by what he thought were other people’s slurs on him and envious of Johnson’s reputation.
•  Dr. Primrose of the Novel is a thinly veiled attempt at self projection.
• Goldsmith wrote engaging letters to his relatives but most of them were about money and his own poverty.

Reference

• Balderstone, Katherine, Goldsmith’s Letters,( Oxford : OUP, 1934).
• Clifford, J. L. ,Ed. Eighteenth century English literature : Modern EssaysIn criticism( New York, 1959).
• Ford, BorisEd. From Dryden to Johnson (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1957).
• Loftis, John, Sheridan and the Drama of Georgian England (Oxford: Blackwell,1976).
• Pathania, B. S. ,Goldsmith and Sentimental Comedy (NewDelhi: Prestige, 1988).