'A Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences;' for which, if he had met with encouragement, and been remunerated in the same proportion as he was for his other works, he might have expected to realize a considerable sum. He had engaged all his literary friends, particularly Burke, Johnson, and Reynolds, to assist him; but the booksellers received his proposals coldly, and he with reluctance abandoned a favorite design. He had for some time been subject to strangury; the state of his affairs affected him much, and produced an almost habitual despondency. 61 In the spring of 1774, he was attacked with a nervous fever; on Friday, the 25th March, finding himself very ill, he sent for Mr. Hawes,62 the apothecary, who found him with pain in the head, cold shivering, and other alarming symptoms of fever. Goldsmith relied too much on his own medical knowledge, or was absurdly obstinate in his opinions; for he persisted in taking James's powders, contrary to all advice. As greater danger appeared, Dr. Fordyce, and afterwards Dr. Porter attended him, but their skill and 61 His disappointments (says Mr. Evans) made him peevish and sullen, and he has often left a party of convivial friends, abruptly in the evening, in order to go home and brood over his misfortunes.' 62 For a detailed account of Goldsmith's last illness, see the Monthly Review, 1774, vol. i. p. 404. There was a pamphlet by Mr. Hawes published on the subject, from which the accounts in the different memoirs are taken. anxiety were vain, and he died on the 4th April, 1774, in the forty-fifth year of his age. Of poor Goldsmith, said Johnson, there is little to be told, more than the papers have made public. He died of a fever, made, I am afraid, more violent by uneasiness of mind. His debts began to be heavy, and all his resources were exhausted. Sir Joshua is of opinion that he owed no less than £2000. 'Was ever poet so trusted before?' To this his biographer's narrative adds that these debts 63 were chiefly to managers for comedies which he promised, or to booksellers for works, which he engaged to furnish, and that he meant to have fulfilled his engagements with the strictest honour. The disclosure of his embarrassed affairs, and the amount of his debts, were the reasons which very properly deterred his friends from honouring his remains with a public funeral in Westminster Abbey. He was, therefore, privately buried in the Temple burying ground, on Saturday, 9th April, a few friends attending the funeral.6 The Literary Club subscribed for a monument, and the chisel of Nollekens executed a cheap and simple design.65 It was erected in 63 In the course of fourteen years it is calculated that the produce of Goldsmith's pen amounted to more than £8000. 64 Mr. Hugh Kelley, Messrs. John and Robert Day, Mr. Palmer (nephew of Sir J. Reynolds), Mr. Etherington, and Mr. Hawes, were the persons who paid the last mournful tribute to his memory. 65 A large medallion, exhibiting a good likeness of the author, embellished with literary ornaments. Westminster Abbey, between the monuments of Gay, and that of the Duke of Argyll. The Latin inscription of Dr. Johnson is known to all, and admired for its clear and masterly delineation of our poet's literary character. OLIVERII GOLDSMITH Poeta. Physici. Historici. Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit Affectuum potens at lenis Dominator Amicorum Fides Lectorum Veneratio Natus in Hiberniâ Forniæ Lonfordiensis In Loco cui Nomen Pallas Obiit Londini April iv. MDCCLXXIV. In a letter 67 to Bennet Langton he also testified 66 This was a mistake, discovered after the monument was erected. Goldsmith was born in 1728. Johnson wrote, it appears, another epitaph on Goldsmith, in which the words 'Rerum Civilium, sive Naturalium,' were inserted. See his Letter to Sir J. Reynolds in Bosw. Johnson, iii. p. 447. 67 In Dr. Aikin's Life of Goldsmith, p. xliv., a sketch of the poet by way of epitaph is given, written by a friend as soon as he heard of his death: beginning Here rests from the cares of the world and his pen, his affection for his deceased friend, in some Greek verses, which do honour to his scholarship as well as his feelings; these I shall transcribe with pleasure, though perhaps the language may not be altogether free from objection. Johnson was a good judge of style in the ancient languages, and an excellent scholar, as one not professing to be what is called critical; but he did not always compose with the accuracy that might be desired. The latinity of his inscription has been objected to,68 though I consider without sufficient reason. The Literary Club was not satisfied, and expostulated with him about it; and Burke, while he acknowledged its merits, disapproved the language in which it was written, and considered the character of the poet as not delineated with sufficient fullness, or accuracy. Custom, however, has approved the propriety and convenience, I may add also the dignity of a language used as the common medium of communication among the learned, for monuments erected to the memory of men remarkable for their genius, or their situation; and perhaps the just limits to which a monumental inscription is confined, precludes the power of doing more than touching on the few prominent features of a character. Certain it is that 68 See Classical Journal, No. xxvi. p. 351; the article is signed Z, and is disgracefully flippant, pert, and irreverent :on the Round Robin,' sent by the Club, see Boswell's Johnson, ed. Croker, vol. iii. p. 448. the sepulchral inscriptions of the ancients were always brief. Τὸν τάφον εἰσοραας του Ολιβαρίοιο, κονίην It now only remains to say a few words on those more remarkable features that distinguished the person and character of this ingenious writer; and for these in some parts, even to the language, I am indebted to his biographers. The general cast of his figure and physiognomy bore no resemblance to the well known qualities of his mind. Nothing could be more amiable than the latter, the former was not so engaging, and the impression made by his writings on the mind of a stranger was not confirmed by the external graces, either of the person, or manner of their author. In stature he was under the middle size his body was strongly built, and his limbs were not cast in the most delicate of nature's moulds; they were more sturdy than elegant: 69 The etching by Bunbury is supposed to be very like. I had always been used to consider the portrait of Goldsmith in the dining room at Knowle, by Sir J. Reynolds, as the only original one known; but Mr. Newell says Oliver Goldsmith Hodson, Esq. of St. John's, Roscommon, the great nephew of the Poet, has in his possession the original portrait by Sir Joshua. 'How rarely,' says Mr. D'Israeli, are portraits to be depended upon; Goldsmith was a short thick man with wan features and a vulgar appearance.' v. Cur. of Liter. i. p. 56. |