OLIVER GOLDSMITH

A Biography

by

Washington Irving







PREFACE

I. Birth and Parentage--Characteristics of the Goldsmith Race--Poetical
Birthplace--Goblin House--Scenes of Boyhood--Lissoy--Picture of a Country
Parson--Goldsmith's Schoolmistress--Byrne, the Village Schoolmaster--
Goldsmith's Hornpipe and Epigram--Uncle Contarine--School Studies and
School Sports--Mistakes of a Night

II. Improvident Marriages in the Goldsmith Family--Goldsmith at the
University--Situation of a Sizer--Tyranny of Wilder, the Tutor--Pecuniary
Straits--Street Ballads--College Riot--Gallows Walsh--College Prize--A
Dance Interrupted

III. Goldsmith rejected by the Bishop--Second Sally to see the World--Takes
Passage for America--Ship sails without him--Return on Fiddleback--A
Hospitable Friend--The Counselor