Oliver Goldsmith (1730 - 1774)

Poet, dramatist, and essayist, son of an Irish clergyman, was born at Pallasmore in Co. Longford. In 1744 he went to Trinity Coll., Dublin, whence, having come into collision with one of the college tutors, he ran away in 1746. He was, however, induced to return, and grad. in 1749.<br>
The Church was chosen for him as a profession-against his will be it said in justice to him. He presented himself before the Bishop of Elphin for examination-perhaps as a type of deeper and more inward incongruencies-in scarlet breeches, and was rejected.<br>
He next figured as a tutor; but had no sooner accumulated £30 than he quitted his employment and forthwith dissipated his little savings. A long-suffering uncle named Contarine, who had already more than once interposed on his behalf, now provided means to send him to London to study law. He, however, got no farther than Dublin, where he was fleeced to his last guinea, and returned to the house of his mother, now a widow with a large family. <br>
After an interval spent in idleness, a medical career was perceived to be the likeliest opening, and in 1752 he steered for Edinburgh, where he remained on the usual happy-go-lucky terms until 1754, when he proceeded to Leyden. After a year there he started on a walking tour, which led him through France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy.<br>
How he lived it is hard to say, for he left Leyden penniless. It is said that he disputed at University, and played the flute, and thus kept himself in existence. All this time, however, he was gaining the experiences and knowledge of foreign countries which he was afterwards to turn to such excellent account. At one of the University visited at this time, he is believed to have secured the medical degree, of which he subsequently made use. Louvain and Padua have both been named as the source of it. He reached London almost literally penniless in 1756, and appears to have been occupied successively as an apothecary's journeyman, a doctor of the poor, and an usher in a school at Peckham. <br>
In 1757 he was writing for the Monthly Review. The next year he applied unsuccessfully for a medical appointment in India; and the year following, 1759, saw his first important literary venture, <i>An Enquiry into the State of Polite Learning in Europe</i>. It was published anonymously, but attracted some attention, and brought him other work. <br>
His <i>Chinese Letters</i>, afterwards republished as <i>The Citizen of the World</i>, appeared in The Public Ledger in 1762, <i>The Traveller</i>, the first of his longer poems, came out in 1764, and was followed in 1766 by <i>The Vicar of Wakefield</i>. In 1773 he produced with great success a drama, <i>She Stoops to Conquer</i>. His last works were <i>The Retaliation</i>, <i>The History of Greece</i>, and <i>Animated Nature</i>, all published in 1774. In that year, worn out with overwork and anxiety, he caught a fever, of which he died April 4.