No More Learning

So the foul hag, in screaming wild alarms
O'er a dead carcase muttering her charms, 410
(And with her frequent and tremendous yell
Forcing great Hecate from out of hell)
Shoots in the corpse a new fictitious soul;
With instant glare the supple eyeballs roll,
Again it moves and speaks, and life informs the whole. 415

Vulcan alone discern'd the subtle cheat;
And wisely scorning such a base deceit,
Call'd out to Phoebus. Grief and rage assail
Phoebus by turns; detected Mars turns pale.
Then awful Jove with sullen eye reproved 420
Mars, and the captives order'd to be moved
To their dark caves; bid each fictitious spear
Be straight recall'd, and all be as they were.

And now both Monarchs with redoubled rage
Led on their Queens, the mutual war to wage. 425
O'er all the field their thirsty spears they send,
Then front to front their Monarchs they defend.
But lo! the female White rush'd in unseen,
And slew with fatal haste the swarthy Queen;
Yet soon, alas! resign'd her royal spoils, 430
Snatch'd by a shaft from her successful toils.
Struck at the sight, both hosts in wild surprise
Pour'd forth their tears, and fill'd the air with cries;
They wept and sigh'd, as pass'd the fun'ral train,
As if both armies had at once been slain. 435

And now each troop surrounds its mourning chief,
To guard his person, or assuage his grief.
One is their common fear; one stormy blast
Has equally made havoc as it pass'd.
Not all, however, of their youth are slain; 440
Some champions yet the vig'rous war maintain.
Three Foot, an Archer, and a stately Tower,
For Phoebus still exert their utmost power.
Just the same number Mercury can boast,
Except the Tower, who lately in his post 445
Unarm'd inglorious fell, in peace profound,
Pierced by an Archer with a distant wound;
But his right Horse retain'd its mettled pride, --
The rest were swept away by war's strong tide.

But fretful Hermes, with despairing moan, 450
Griev'd that so many champions were o'erthrown,
Yet reassumes the fight; and summons round
The little straggling army that he found, --
All that had 'scaped from fierce Apollo's rage, --
Resolved with greater caution to engage 455
In future strife, by subtle wiles (if fate
Should give him leave) to save his sinking state.
The sable troops advance with prudence slow,
Bent on all hazards to distress the foe.
More cheerful Phoebus, with unequal pace, 460
Rallies his arms to lessen his disgrace.
But what strange havoc everywhere has been!
A straggling champion here and there is seen;
And many are the tents, yet few are left within.

Th' afflicted Kings bewail their consorts dead, 465
And loathe the thoughts of a deserted bed;
And though each monarch studies to improve
The tender mem'ry of his former love,
Their state requires a second nuptial tie.
Hence the pale ruler with a love-sick eye 470
Surveys th' attendants of his former wife,
And offers one of them a royal life.
These, when their martial mistress had been slain,
Weak and despairing tried their arms in vain;
Willing, howe'er, amidst the Black to go, 475
They thirst for speedy vengeance on the foe.
Then he resolves to see who merits best,
By strength and courage, the imperial vest;
Points out the foe, bids each with bold design
Pierce through the ranks, and reach the deepest line:
For none must hope with monarchs to repose 481
But who can first, through thick surrounding foes,
Through arms and wiles, with hazardous essay,
Safe to the farthest quarters force their way.
Fired at the thought, with sudden, joyful pace 485
They hurry on; but first of all the race
Runs the third right-hand warrior for the prize, --
The glitt'ring crown already charms her eyes.
Her dear associates cheerfully give o'er
The nuptial chase; and swift she flies before, 490
And Glory lent her wings, and the reward in store.
Nor would the sable King her hopes prevent,
For he himself was on a Queen intent,
Alternate, therefore, through the field they go.
Hermes led on, but by a step too slow, 495
His fourth left Pawn: and now th' advent'rous White
Had march'd through all, and gain'd the wish'd for site.
Then the pleased King gives orders to prepare
The crown, the sceptre, and the royal chair,
And owns her for his Queen: around exult 500
The snowy troops, and o'er the Black insult.

Hermes burst into tears, -- with fretful roar
Fill'd the wide air, and his gay vesture tore.
The swarthy Foot had only to advance
One single step; but oh! malignant chance! 505
A towered Elephant, with fatal aim,
Stood ready to destroy her when she came:
He keeps a watchful eye upon the whole,
Threatens her entrance, and protects the goal.
Meanwhile the royal new-created bride, 510
Pleased with her pomp, spread death and terror wide;
Like lightning through the sable troops she flies,
Clashes her arms, and seems to threat the skies.
The sable troops are sunk in wild affright, 514
And wish th' earth op'ning snatch'd 'em from her sight.
In burst the Queen, with vast impetuous swing:
The trembling foes come swarming round the King,
Where in the midst he stood, and form a valiant ring.
So the poor cows, straggling o'er pasture land,
When they perceive the prowling wolf at hand, 520
Crowd close together in a circle full,
And beg the succour of the lordly bull;
They clash their horns, they low with dreadful sound,
And the remotest groves re-echo round.

But the bold Queen, victorious, from behind 525
Pierces the foe; yet chiefly she design'd
Against the King himself some fatal aim,
And full of war to his pavilion came.
Now here she rush'd, now there; and had she been
But duly prudent, she had slipp'd between, 530
With course oblique, into the fourth white square,
And the long toil of war had ended there,
The King had fallen, and all his sable state;
And vanquish'd Hermes cursed his partial fate.
For thence with ease the championess might go, 535
Murder the King, and none could ward the blow.

With silence, Hermes, and with panting heart,
Perceived the danger, but with subtle art,
(Lest he should see the place) spurs on the foe, 539
Confounds his thoughts, and blames his being slow.
For shame! move on; would you for ever stay?
What sloth is this, what strange perverse delay? --
How could you e'er my little pausing blame? --
What! you would wait till night shall end the game?
Phoebus, thus nettled, with imprudence slew 545
A vulgar Pawn, but lost his nobler view.
Young Hermes leap'd, with sudden joy elate;
And then, to save the monarch from his fate,
Led on his martial Knight, who stepp'd between,
Pleased that his charge was to oppose the Queen --
Then, pondering how the Indian beast to slay, 551
That stopp'd the Foot from making farther way, --
From being made a Queen; with slanting aim
An archer struck him; down the monster came,
And dying shook the earth: while Phoebus tries 555
Without success the monarch to surprise.
The Foot, then uncontroll'd with instant pride,
Seized the last spot, and moved a royal bride.
And now with equal strength both war again,
And bring their second wives upon the plain; 560
Then, though with equal views each hop'd and fear'd,
Yet, as if every doubt had disappear'd,
As if he had the palm, young Hermes flies
Into excess of joy; with deep disguise, 564
Extols his own Black troops, with frequent spite
And with invective taunts disdains the White.
Whom Phoebus thus reproved with quick return --
As yet we cannot the decision learn
Of this dispute, and do you triumph now?
Then your big words and vauntings I'll allow, 570
When you the battle shall completely gain;
At present I shall make your boasting vain.
He said, and forward led the daring Queen;
Instant the fury of the bloody scene
Rises tumultuous, swift the warriors fly 575
From either side to conquer or to die.
They front the storm of war: around 'em Fear,
Terror, and Death, perpetually appear.
All meet in arms, and man to man oppose,
Each from their camp attempts to drive their foes;
Each tries by turns to force the hostile lines; 581
Chance and impatience blast their best designs.
The sable Queen spread terror as she went
Through the mid ranks: with more reserved intent
The adverse dame declined the open fray, 585
And to the King in private stole away:
Then took the royal guard, and bursting in,
With fatal menace close besieged the King.
Alarm'd at this, the swarthy Queen, in haste,
From all her havoc and destructive waste 590
Broke off, and her contempt of death to show,
Leap'd in between the Monarch and the foe,
To save the King and state from this impending blow.
But Phoebus met a worse misfortune here:
For Hermes now led forward, void of fear, 595
His furious Horse into the open plain,
That onward chafed, and pranced, and pawed amain.
Nor ceased from his attempts until he stood
On the long-wished-for spot, from whence he could
Slay King or Queen. O'erwhelm'd with sudden fears,
Apollo saw, and could not keep from tears. 601
Now all seem'd ready to be overthrown;
His strength was wither'd, ev'ry hope was flown.
Hermes, exulting at this great surprise,
Shouted for joy, and fill'd the air with cries; 605
Instant he sent the Queen to shades below,
And of her spoils made a triumphant show.
But in return, and in his mid career,
Fell his brave Knight, beneath the Monarch's spear.

Phoebus, however, did not yet despair, 610
But still fought on with courage and with care.
He had but two poor common men to show,
And Mars's favourite with his iv'ry bow.
The thoughts of ruin made 'em dare their best
To save their King, so fatally distress'd. 615
But the sad hour required not such an aid;
And Hermes breathed revenge where'er he stray'd.
Fierce comes the sable Queen with fatal threat,
Surrounds the Monarch in his royal seat;
Rushed here and there, nor rested till she slew
The last remainder of the whiten'd crew. 621
Sole stood the King, the midst of all the plain,
Weak and defenceless, his companions slain.
As when the ruddy morn ascending high
Has chased the twinkling stars from all the sky,
Your star, fair Venus, still retains its light, 626
And, loveliest, goes the latest out of sight.
No safety's left, no gleams of hope remain;
Yet did he not as vanquish'd quit the plain,
But tried to shut himself between the foe, -- 630
Unhurt through swords and spears he hoped to go,
Until no room was left to shun the fatal blow.
For if none threaten'd his immediate fate,
And his next move must ruin all his state,
All their past toil and labour is in vain, 635
Vain all the bloody carnage of the plain, --
Neither would triumph then, the laurel neither gain.
Therefore through each void space and desert tent,
By different moves his various course he bent:
The Black King watch'd him with observant eye, 640
Follow'd him close, but left him room to fly.
Then when he saw him take the farthest line,
He sent the Queen his motions to confine,
And guard the second rank, that he could go
No farther now than to that distant row. 645
The sable monarch then with cheerful mien
Approach'd, but always with one space between.
But as the King stood o'er against him there,
Helpless, forlorn, and sunk in his despair,
The martial Queen her lucky moment knew,
Seized on the farthest seat with fatal view,
Nor left th' unhappy King a place to flee unto.
At length in vengeance her keen sword she draws,
Slew him, and ended thus the bloody cause:
And all the gods around approved it with applause.

The victor could not from his insults keep, 656
But laugh'd and sneer'd to see Apollo weep.
Jove call'd him near, and gave him in his hand
The powerful, happy, and mysterious wand
By which the Shades are call'd to purer day, 660
When penal fire has purged their sins away;
By which the guilty are condemn'd to dwell
In the dark mansions of the deepest hell;
By which he gives us sleep, or sleep denies,
And closes at the last the dying eyes. 665
Soon after this, the heavenly victor brought
The game on earth, and first th' Italians taught.

For (as they say) fair Scacchis he espied
Feeding her cygnets in the silver tide,
(Sacchis, the loveliest Seriad of the place) 670
And as she stray'd, took her to his embrace.
Then, to reward her for her virtue lost,
Gave her the men and chequer'd board, emboss'd
With gold and silver curiously inlay'd;
And taught her how the game was to be play'd. 675
Ev'n now 'tis honour'd with her happy name;
And Rome and all the world admire the game.
All which the Seriads told me heretofore,
When my boy-notes amused the Serian shore.














NOTES.

INTRODUCTION

P. ix, l. 6. -----
"He was born. . . at Pallas. " This is the usual
account. But it was maintained by the family of the poet's
mother, and has been contended (by Dr. Michael F. Cox in a
Lecture on 'The Country and Kindred of Oliver Goldsmith,'
published in vol. 1, pt. 2, of the 'Journal' of the 'National
Literary Society of Ireland. ' 1900) that his real birth-place
was the residence of Mrs. Goldsmith's parents, Smith-Hill House,
Elphin, Roscommon, to which she was in the habit of paying
frequent visits. Meanwhile, in 1897, a window was placed to
Goldsmith's memory in Forgney Church, Longford,--the church of
which, at the time of his birth, his father was curate.

P. x, l. 33. -----
"his academic career was not a success. " 'Oliver
Goldsmith is recorded on two occasions as being remarkably
diligent at Morning Lecture; again, as cautioned for bad
answering at Morning and Greek Lectures; and finally, as put
down into the next class for neglect of his studies' (Dr.
Stubbs's 'History of the University of Dublin', 1889, p. 201 n. )

P. xi, l. 21. -----
"a scratched signature upon a window-pane. " This,
which is now at Trinity College, Dublin, is here reproduced in
facsimile. When the garrets of No. 35, Parliament Square, were
pulled down in 1837, it was cut out of the window by the last
occupant of the rooms, who broke it in the process. (Dr. J. F.
Waller in Cassell's 'Works' of Goldsmith, [1864-5], pp. xiii-xiv
n. )

P. xiii, l. 23. -----
"a poor physician". Where he obtained his
diploma is not known. It was certainly not at Padua
('Athenaeum', July 21, 1894). At Leyden and Louvain Prior made
inquiries but, in each case, without success. The annals of the
University of Louvain were, however, destroyed in the
revolutionary wars. (Prior, 'Life', 1837, i, pp. 171, 178).

P. xv, l. 7. -----
"declared it to be by Goldsmith". Goldsmith's
authorship of this version has now been placed beyond a doubt by
the publication in facsimile of his signed receipt to Edward
Dilly for a third share of 'my translation,' such third share
amounting to 6 pounds 13s. 4d. The receipt, which belongs to Mr.
J. W. Ford of Enfield Old Park, is dated 'January 11th, 1758. '
('Memoirs of a Protestant', etc. , Dent's edition, 1895, i, pp.
xii-xviii. )

P. xvi, l. 9. -----
12, "Green Arbour Court, Old Bailey". This was a
tiny square occupying a site now absorbed by the Holborn Viaduct
and Railway Station. No. 12, where Goldsmith lived, was later
occupied by Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. as a printing office. An
engraving of the Court forms the frontispiece to the 'European
Magazine' for January, 1803.

P. xvii, l. 29. -----
"or some of his imitators". The proximate
cause of the 'Citizen of the World', as the present writer has
suggested elsewhere, 'may' have been Horace Walpole's 'Letter
from XoHo [Soho? ], a Chinese Philosopher at London, to his
friend Lien Chi, at Peking'. This was noticed as 'in
Montesquieu's manner' in the May issue of the 'Monthly Review'
for 1757, to which Goldsmith was a contributor ('Eighteenth
Century Vignettes', first series, second edition, 1897, pp.
108-9).

P. xix, l. 23. -----
"demonstrable from internal evidence".
e. g. --The references to the musical glasses (ch. ix), which were
the rage in 1761-2; and to the 'Auditor' (ch. xix) established
by Arthur Murphy in June of the latter year. The sale of the
'Vicar' is discussed at length in chapter vii of the editor's
'Life of Oliver Goldsmith' ('Great Writers' series), 1888, pp.
110-21.

P. xxii, l. 13. -----
"started with a loss". This, which to some
critics has seemed unintelliglble, rests upon the following:
'The first three editions,. . . resulted in a loss, and the fourth,
which was not issued until eight [four? ] years after the first,
started with a balance against it of 2 pounds 16s. 6d. , and it
was not until that fourth edition had been sold that the balance
came out on the right side' ('A Bookseller of the Last Century'
[John Newbery] by Charles Welsh, 1885, p. 61). The writer based
his statement upon Collins's 'Publishing book, account of books
printed and shares therein, No. 3, 1770 to 1785. '

P. xxvii, l. 7. -----
"James's Powder". This was a famous patent
panacea, invented by Johnson's Lichfield townsman, Dr. Robert
James of the 'Medicinal Dictionary'. It was sold by John
Newbery, and had an extraordinary vogue. The King dosed Princess
Elizabeth with it; Fielding, Gray, and Cowper all swore by it,
and Horace Walpole, who wished to try it upon Mme. du Deffand
'in extremis', said he should use it if the house were on fire.
William Hawes, the Strand apothecary who attended Goldsmith,
wrote an interesting 'Account of the late Dr. Goldsmith's
Illness, so far as relates to the Exhibition of Dr. James's
Powders, etc. ', 1774, which he dedicated to Reynolds and Burke.
To Hawes once belonged the poet's worn old wooden writing-desk,
now in the South Kensington Museum, where are also his favourite
chair and cane. Another desk-chair, which had descended from his
friend, Edmund Bott, was recently for sale at Sotheby's (July,
1906).





EDITIONS OF THE POEMS.

No collected edition of Goldsmith's poetical works appeared until after
his death. But, in 1775, W. Griffin, who had published the 'Essays' of
ten years earlier, issued a volume entitled 'The Miscellaneous Works of
Oliver Goldsmith, M. B. , containing all his Essays and Poems'. The
'poems' however were confined to 'The Traveller,' 'The Deserted
Village,' 'Edwin and Angelina,' 'The Double Transformation,' 'A New
Simile,' and 'Retaliation,'--an obviously imperfect harvesting. In the
following year G. Kearsly printed an eighth edition of 'Retaliation',
with which he included 'The Hermit' ('Edwin and Angelina'), 'The Gift,'
'Madam Blaize,' and the epilogues to 'The Sister' and 'She stoops to
Conquer'*; while to an edition of 'The Haunch of Venison', also put
forth in 1776, he added the 'Epitaph on Parnell' and two songs from the
oratorio of 'The Captivity'. The next collection appeared in a volume of
'Poems and Plays' published at Dublin in 1777, where it was preceded by
a 'Life,' written by W. Glover, one of Goldsmith's 'Irish clients. '
Then, in 1780, came vol. i of T. Evans's 'Poetical and Dramatic Works
etc. , now first collected', also having a 'Memoir,' and certainly fuller
than anything which had gone before. Next followed the long-deferred
'Miscellaneous Works, etc. ', of 1801, in four volumes, vol. ii of which
comprised the plays and poems. Prefixed to this edition is the important
biographical sketch, compiled under the direction of Bishop Percy, and
usually described as the 'Percy Memoir', by which title it is referred
to in the ensuing notes. The next memorable edition was that edited for
the Aldine Series in 1831, by the Rev. John Mitford. Prior and Wright's
edition in vol. iv of the 'Miscellaneous Works, etc. ', of 1837, comes
after this; then Bolton Corney's excellent 'Poetical Works' of 1845; and
vol. i of Peter Cunningham's 'Works, etc. ' of 1854. There are other
issues of the poems, the latest of which is to be found in vol. ii
(1885) of the complete 'Works', in five volumes, edited for Messrs.
George Bell and Sons by J. W. M. Gibbs.

[footnote] *Some copies of this are dated 1777, and contain 'The Haunch
of Venison' and a few minor pieces.

Most of the foregoing editions have been consulted for the following
notes; but chiefly those of Mitford, Prior, Bolton Corney, and
Cunningham. Many of the illustrations and explanations now supplied will
not, however, be found in any of the sources indicated. When an
elucidatory or parallel passage is cited, an attempt has been made, as
far as possible, to give the credit of it to the first discoverer. Thus,
some of the illustrations in Cunningham's notes are here transferred to
Prior, some of Prior's to Mitford, and so forth. As regards the notes
themselves, care has been taken to make them full enough to obviate the
necessity, except in rare instances, of further investigation. It is the
editor's experience that references to external authorities are, as a
general rule, sign-posts to routes which are seldom travelled*.

[footnote] *In this connexion may be recalled the dictum of Hume quoted
by Dr. Birkbeck Hill:--'Every book should be as complete as possible
within itself, and should never refer for anything material to other
books' ('History of England', 1802, ii. 101).





THE TRAVELLER.

It was on those continental wanderings which occupied Goldsmith between
February, 1755 and February, 1756 that he conceived his first idea of
this, the earliest of his poems to which he prefixed his name; and he
probably had in mind Addison's 'Letter from Italy to Lord Halifax', a
work in which he found 'a strain of political thinking that was, at that
time [1701]. new in our poetry. ' ('Beauties of English Poesy', 1767, i.
III). From the dedicatory letter to his brother--which says expressly,
'as a part of this Poem was formerly written to you from Switzerland,
the whole can now, with propriety, be only inscribed to you'--it is
plain that some portion of it must have been actually composed abroad.
It was not, however, actually published until the 19th of December,
1764, and the title-page bore the date of 1765*. The publisher was John
Newbery, of St. Paul's Churchyard, and the price of the book, a quarto
of 30 pages, was 1s. 6d. A second, third and fourth edition quickly
followed, and a ninth, from which it is here reprinted, was issued in
1774, the year of the author's death. Between the first and the sixth
edition of 1770 there were numerous alterations, the more important of
which are indicated in the ensuing notes.

[footnote] *This is the generally recognized first edition. But the
late Mr. Frederick Locker Lampson, the poet and collector, possessed a
quarto copy, dated 1764, which had no author's name, and in which the
dedication ran as follows:--'This poem is inscribed to the Rev. Henry
Goldsmith, M. A. By his most affectionate Brother Oliver Goldsmith. ' It
was, in all probability, unique, though it is alleged that there are
octavo copies which present similar characteristics. It has now gone to
America with the Rowfant Library.

In 1902 an interesting discovery was made by Mr. Bertram Dobell, to whom
the public are indebted for so many important literary 'finds. ' In a
parcel of pamphlets he came upon a number of loose printed leaves
entitled 'A Prospect of Society'. They obviously belonged to 'The
Traveller'; but seemed to be its 'formless unarranged material,' and
contained many variations from the text of the first edition. Mr.
Dobell's impression was that 'the author's manuscript, written on loose
leaves, had fallen into confusion, and was then printed without any
attempt at re-arrangement. ' This was near the mark; but the complete
solution of the riddle was furnished by Mr. Quiller Couch in an article
in the 'Daily News' for March 31, 1902, since recast in his charming
volume 'From a Cornish Window', 1906, pp. 86-92. He showed conclusively
that 'The Prospect' was 'merely an early draft of 'The Traveller'
printed backwards in fairly regular sections. ' What had manifestly
happened was this. Goldsmith, turning over each page as written, had
laid it on the top of the preceding page of MS. and forgotten to
rearrange them when done. Thus the series of pages were reversed; and,
so reversed, were set up in type by a matter-of-fact compositor. Mr.
Dobell at once accepted this happy explanation; which--as Mr. Quiller
Couch points out--has the advantage of being a 'blunder just so natural
to Goldsmith as to be almost postulable. ' One or two of the variations
of Mr. Dobell's 'find'--variations, it should be added, antecedent to
the first edition--are noted in their places.

The didactic purpose of 'The Traveller' is defined in the concluding
paragraph of the 'Dedication'; and, like many of the thoughts which it
contains, had been anticipated in a passage of 'The Citizen of the
World', 1762, i. 185:--'Every mind seems capable of entertaining a
certain quantity of happiness, which no institutions can encrease, no
circumstances alter, and entirely independent on fortune. ' But the best
short description of the poem is Macaulay's:--'In the 'Traveller' the
execution, though deserving of much praise, is far inferior to the
design. No philosophical poem, ancient or modern, has a plan so noble,
and at the same time so simple. An English wanderer, seated on a crag
among the Alps, near the point where three great countries meet, looks
down on the boundless prospect, reviews his long pilgrimage, recalls the
varieties of scenery, of climate, of government, of religion, of
national character, which he has observed, and comes to the conclusion,
just or unjust, that our happiness depends little on political
institutions, and much on the temper and regulation of our own minds. '
('Encyclop. Britannica', Goldsmith, February, 1856. )

The only definite record of payment for 'The Traveller' is 'Copy of the
Traveller, a Poem, 21l,' in Newbery's MSS. ; but as the same sum occurs
in Memoranda of much later date than 1764, it is possible that the
success of the book may have prompted some supplementary fee.

'A Prospect', i. e. 'a view. ' 'I went to Putney, and other places on the
Thames, to take 'prospects' in crayon, to carry into France, where I
thought to have them engraved' (Evelyn, 'Diary', 20th June, 1649). And
Reynolds uses the word of Claude in his Fourth Discourse:--'His pictures
are a composition of the various draughts which he had previously made
from various beautiful scenes and prospects' ('Works', by Malone, 1798,
i. 105). The word is common on old prints, e. g. 'An Exact Prospect of
the Magnificent Stone Bridge at Westminster', etc. , 1751.

'Dedication'. The Rev. Henry Goldsmith, says the Percy 'Memoir', 1801,
p. 3, 'had distinguished himself both at school and at college, but he
unfortunately married at the early age of nineteen; which confined him
to a Curacy, and prevented his rising to preferment in the church. '

l. 14. -----
"with an income of forty pounds a year". Cf. 'The Deserted
Village', ll. 141-2:--

A man he was, to all the country dear,
And passing rich with 'forty pounds a year'.

Cf. also Parson Adams in ch. iii of 'Joseph Andrews', who has
twenty-three; and Mr. Rivers, in the 'Spiritual Quixote',
1772:--'I do not choose to go into orders to be a curate all my
life-time, and work for about fifteen-pence a day, or
twenty-five pounds a year' (bk. vi, ch. xvii). Dr. Primrose's
stipend is thirty-five in the first instance, fifteen in the
second ('Vicar of Wakefield', chapters ii and iii). But
Professor Hales ('Longer English Poems', 1885, p. 351) supplies
an exact parallel in the case of Churchill, who, he says, when
a curate at Rainham, 'prayed and starved on 'forty pounds a
year'. ' The latter words are Churchill's own, and sound like a
quotation; but he was dead long before 'The Deserted Village'
appeared in 1770. There is an interesting paper in the
'Gentleman's Magazine' for November, 1763, on the miseries and
hardships of the 'inferior clergy. '

l. 20. -----
But of all kinds of ambition", etc. In the first edition of
1765, p. ii, this passage was as follows:--'But of all kinds of
ambition, as things are now circumstanced, perhaps that which
pursues poetical fame, is the wildest. What from the encreased
refinement of the times, from the diversity of judgments
produced by opposing systems of criticism, and from the more
prevalent divisions of opinion influenced by party, the
strongest and happiest efforts can expect to please but in a
very narrow circle. Though the poet were as sure of his aim as
the imperial archer of antiquity, who boasted that he never
missed the heart; yet would many of his shafts now fly at
random, for the heart is too often in the wrong place. ' In the
second edition it was curtailed; in the sixth it took its final
form.

l. 29. -----
"they engross all that favour once shown to her". First
version--'They engross all favour to themselves. '

l. 30. -----
"the elder's birthright". Cunningham here aptly compares
Dryden's epistle 'To Sir Godfrey Kneller', II. 89-92:--

Our arts are sisters, though not twins in birth;
For hymns were sung in Eden's happy earth:
But oh, the painter muse, though last in place,
Has seized the blessing first, like Jacob's race.

l. 42. -----
"Party"=faction. Cf. lines 31-2 on Edmund Burke in
'Retaliation':--

Who, born for the Universe, narrow'd his mind,
And to 'party' gave up what was meant for mankind.

l. 50. -----
"Such readers generally admire", etc. 'I suppose this paragraph
to be directed against Paul Whitehead, or Churchill,' writes
Mitford. It was clearly aimed at Churchill, since Prior ('Life',
1837, ii. 54) quotes a portion of a contemporary article in the
'St. James's Chronicle' for February 7-9, 1765, attributed to
Bonnell Thornton, which leaves little room for doubt upon the
question. 'The latter part of this paragraph,' says the writer,
referring to the passage now annotated, 'we cannot help
considering as a reflection on the memory of the late Mr.
Churchill, whose talents as a poet were so greatly and so
deservedly admired, that during his short reign, his merit in
great measure eclipsed that of others; and we think it no mean
acknowledgment of the excellencies of this poem ['The
Traveller'] to say that, like the stars, they appear the more
brilliant now that the sun of our poetry is gone down. '
Churchill died on the 4th of November, 1764, some weeks before
the publication of 'The Traveller'. His powers, it may be, were
misdirected and misapplied; but his rough vigour and his manly
verse deserved a better fate at Goldsmith's hands.

l. 53. -----
"tawdry" was added in the sixth edition of 1770.

l. 56. -----
"blank verse". Cf. 'The Present State of Polite
Learning', 1759, p. 150--'From a desire in the critic of
grafting the spirit of ancient languages upon the English, has
proceeded of late several disagreeable instances of pedantry.
Among the number, I think we may reckon 'blank verse'. Nothing
but the greatest sublimity of subject can render such a measure
pleasing; however, we now see it used on the most trivial
occasions'--by which last remark Goldsmith probably, as
Cunningham thinks, intended to refer to the efforts of Akenside,
Dyer, and Armstrong. His views upon blank verse were shared by
Johnson and Gray. At the date of the present dedication, the
latest offender in this way had been Goldsmith's old colleague
on 'The Monthly Review', Dr. James Grainger, author of 'The
Sugar Cane', which was published in June, 1764. (Cf. also 'The
Bee' for 24th November, 1759, 'An account of the Augustan Age of
England. ')

l. 62. -----
"and that this principle", etc. In the first edition
this read--'and that this principle in each state, and in our
own in particular, may be carried to a mischievous excess. '

l. 1. -----
"Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow". Mitford (Aldine
edition, 1831, p. 7) compares the following lines from Ovid:--

Solus, inops, exspes, leto poenaeque relictus.
'Metamorphoses', xiv. 217.
Exsul, inops erres, alienaque limina lustres, etc.
'Ibis'. 113.

"slow". A well-known passage from Boswell must here be
reproduced:--'Chamier once asked him [Goldsmith], what he meant
by 'slow', the last word in the first line of 'The Traveller',

Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow.

Did he mean tardiness of locomotion? Goldsmith, who would say
something without consideration, answered "yes. " I [Johnson] was
sitting by, and said, "No, Sir, you do not mean tardiness of
locomotion; you mean, that sluggishness of mind which comes upon
a man in solitude. " Chamier believed then that I had written the
line as much as if he had seen me write it. ' [Birkbeck Hill's
'Boswell', 1887, iii. 252-3. ) It is quite possible, however,
that Goldsmith meant no more than he said.

l. 3. -----
"the rude Carinthian boor". 'Carinthia,' says Cunningham, 'was
visited by Goldsmith in 1755, and still (1853) retains its
character for inhospitality. '

l.